Note to Instructors for Dealer Trade Group: High–Tech Venturing in a Low–Tech Industry
本案例通过一家高技术公司（DTG）试图颠覆传统汽车批发行业的经历，探讨了创业者何时应交接领导权、如何平衡投资者与员工利益，以及高技术商业模式与低技术行业之间的适配问题。
This case provides a rare insider’s perspective on the situation of a high-tech company (Dealer Trade Group: DTG) attempting to upset the existing institutions, prac-tices, and norms of the traditional auto wholesaling industry. Because DTG’s business model is built upon online marketplace technology, many of its operations are foreign to established industry processes. As DTG potentially stands to revolutionize the vehicle wholesaling industry, the case illustrates challenges facing Carter Crockett as he attempted to balance the divergent interests of investors, employees, and dealers. Key Decision and Major Issues for Discussion With a view toward what is best for Crockett and DTG itself, the case engages issues of: (1) who would be the best leader for a company like DTG and (2) when entrepreneurs should “pass the baton. ” This key decision as it stands in the case is complex because of mixed messages from the board and investors, who may not entirely trust Crockett but show no interest in finding a replacement for him. Todd Greenway, the vice president of sales, complicates matters further. Whereas Greenway and Crockett were initially con-vinced of the crucial need to work together to reconcile their backgrounds, later events indicated that Greenway’s relative importance had grown while Crockett’s had dimin-ished. Confronting Greenway for his disrespectful and manipulative behavior is problem-atic because he is largely responsible for DTG’s sales performance. How to deal with DTG’s board, investors, and Greenway are important issues in the case; discussion around them can constitute arguments for or against Crockett’s possible resignation. The case also shows how a venture with a novel business model entering an estab-lished industry can meet with inertia, ineradicable social practices, networks, and insti-tutions, all of which may frustrate strategies for the venture to achieve its objectives. Thus, from a strategic management perspective, fit between a high-tech business model and a low-tech industry is a second issue for discussion.