ON THE CASE

A company with an innovative HR solution finds it difficult to get past the gatekeepers to sell its product.

THE SITUATION: ENTREPRENEURS FACE ALL KINDS OF ROADBLOCKS WHEN LAUNCHING AN INNOVATIVE PRODUCT OR PROCESS, MANY OF THEM PRESENTED

BY FINANCING FIRMS, SUPPLIERS AND POTENTIAL BUYERS. WITH THE LATTER GROUP, IT’S SOMETIMES A CHALLENGE TO EVEN GET IN FRONT OF A POSSIBLE

CUSTOMER BECAUSE ONE DEPARTMENT OR ANOTHER FEELS NOT BEING A PART OF THE DECISION MAY TAKE AWAY SOME OF THEIR CONTROL OR POWER.

RICHARD TUCK, CEO OF B.C.-BASED RIIPEN.COM, AN ONLINE PLATFORM THAT CONNECTS STUDENTS AND COMPANIES VIA SHORT-TERM, FLEXIBLE, SKILL-SPECIFIC PROJECTS, WAS RUNNING INTO THAT ISSUE WITH THE HUMAN

RESOURCE DEPARTMENTS AT LARGE ORGANIZATIONS.

“We’ve spent the past two weeks trying to satisfy the concerns from firms’ HR departments, but we’re not making much progress convincing them to include us as part of their recruiting toolkit,” Tuck said to Dave Savory, Riipen.com’s chief operating officer and head of business development. “Let’s rethink our approach. Is there a better way for us to get HRto greenlight our innovative solution?”

Riipen.com’s recruitment product allows companies to post miniprojects and assess prospective employees on how they perform in real time, instead of downloading and sifting through hundreds of résumés. It had some success with early adopters, especially startups and non-profits, but it was finding that the HR departments of large organizations were hesitant to change their current recruitment processes, even if it saved time and money.

“One option is to shift our focus to developing internal champions at our target firms,” Tuck said. “We would seek managers looking to

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