A Review on Elizabeth Holmes and her Sinking Ship’s Backstory

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34190/ecie.19.1.2661

Keywords:

Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos, fraud, strategy

Abstract

The scandalous fraud of the Theranos company and every step taken by its founder, Elizabeth Holmes, is well known in the media. In order to learn more about this topic and identify areas in which the company's management has fallen short, a variety of articles, newsletters, and papers were examined. The whole story of this enterprise was told by carefully putting in context what happened to Holmes in the workplace and in her personal life. In college, when she met Balwani, a romantic partner and important member of Theranos' management, the Stanford dropout began working on her company idea. Both were convicted of offenses connected to this type of business management. Five essential questions, as outlined by Lafley & Martin (2023), encapsulate the decision cascade that should be incorporated into any business plan. This essay attempts to explain Theranos' decision-making process in light of these considerations, complementing it with the strategic view defined by Porter’s five forces. The facade of success that made it possible for investment to keep coming in while the technology did not make any progress was analysed too, divided into two parts: red flags and Elizabeth’s crafted discourse about the company. Through this article, it is easy to conclude that Theranos’ mismanagement was responsible for its collapse. With all that said, the following questions remain: Is there a bright future after a huge mistake? Perhaps a second attempt to help people with no ulterior motives? What will happen next? What can be expected?

Author Biographies

Inês Martins, Physics Department, University of Aveiro

Inês Sousa Martins is currently completing her master's degree in biomedical engineering, focusing her research on the development of biomaterials for recovering from spinal cord injury, striving to make a difference in the field of medical science. In addition to her academic pursuits, Inês is a very dedicated person, who loves to socialize and has also done some volunteering throughout the years.

Ana Poças, Physics Department, University of Aveiro,

Ana Poças has a research fellowship at CICECO (Aveiro Institute of Materials) - linked to the University of Aveiro - where she is a Master's student in Biomedical Engineering. 

Artur Freitas, Physics Department, University of Aveiro

Artur was born in June of 2001, in Vila Real, a quiet and peaceful city in the interior of Portugal located at the bottom of a valley. At 18 years old, he moved to Aveiro to study Biomedical Engineering and has just finished his master's degree. 

Manuel Au-Yong-Oliveira, GOVCOPP, University of Aveiro

Manuel is an Associate Professor with Habilitation (in Management - Marketing - April 2022) at the University of Aveiro (DEGEIT) where he has lectured at the undergraduate, master's and doctoral levels on marketing, innovation, strategy and research methods. Before lecturing full-time at the University of Aveiro Manuel also lectured for a number of years at the University of Porto - FEUP (Business Construction Project, on the Master's in Innovation and Technological Entrepreneurship), where he has also supervised a number of master's dissertations.

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Published

2024-09-20