Metamorph Business School Case Study Archive

The Challenge

The case is simple to state and hard to answer: you have the tech—natural language text retrieval that makes huge piles of documents usable— and you have early traction. Now you need a strategy that survives real-world constraints: distribution, pricing, partners, telecom, and the politics of “who controls the rails.”

Reader challenge: If you were dropped into the early 1990s with Metamorph in your hands, what would you do—and what would you refuse to do?

Write it like a one-page CEO memo: the plan, the trade-offs, and the risks you accept.

Decision Memo (copy/paste template)

Use this structure to “play” the case.

1) Objective (1–2 sentences) - What do we want to be true in 18 months? 2) Product thesis - What exactly is Metamorph/Metabook in one line? - Who is the first buyer with budget authority? 3) Go-to-market (pick ONE as primary) A) Enterprise intelligence system (high price, low volume) B) Publisher distribution (low price, high volume) C) Online service / subscription (recurring revenue) D) OEM / “inside” model (bundled with hardware/software) 4) Pricing & unit economics - What is sold? What repeats? What scales? 5) Distribution - Who already has a channel we can ride? 6) Risks (the honest list) - Technical risk - Partner risk - Telecom/infrastructure risk - Gatekeeper risk - Cash-flow risk 7) The one bet - What single thing must work for the whole plan to work? 8) What we will NOT do - The temptations you refuse.

Case Context (quick read)

The case is anchored in an era when storage was physical, networks were expensive, and “search” was not yet a consumer expectation.

Why it matters

Search becomes a product before search becomes a habit.
Distribution is destiny (publishers, hardware makers, telecom, clubs, enterprise buyers).
Text doesn’t fit rows & columns—and that creates internal resistance.
Early wins can mislead: you can be “right” and still get crushed by timing and gatekeepers.

Artifacts you can cite on Japan.co.jp

This archive page is designed to sit alongside scanned clippings and screenshots (ads, magazine coverage, early product visuals, “how it worked” diagrams).

Case study excerpt pages (from the book)
Metabook concept: “1,000 pages on a floppy” (explained)
Press coverage timeline
Early Internet Japan: the constraints list (modems, phone bills, hubs, PPP)

Teaching note (for instructors)

If you want, we can generate a companion “Instructor Notes” page: learning objectives, cold-call plan, board-style discussion flow, and grading rubric for memos.

Discussion Questions (the real fight)

These are written to force trade-offs—no “do everything” answers allowed.

What is Metamorph? Is it a product, an engine, a platform, a feature, or an “inside” ingredient? Pick one, and defend it.
Who pays first? Presidents (enterprise), publishers (distribution), or consumers (subscription)? Which buyer has the shortest path to budget authority?
What do you sell? Software license, service, content bundle, authoring tool, or outcomes?
What’s the wedge? One niche where text retrieval is obviously valuable and urgent. (Legal, finance, intelligence, competitive analysis, press, trading, compliance…)
How do you price without killing adoption? High price funds growth; low price wins mindshare. Which is survivable with the infrastructure of the time?
How do you distribute? Ride a publisher’s channel, bundle with hardware, or build direct sales? What’s your fastest credible channel?
How do you handle gatekeepers? Telecom, registries, standards bodies, big agencies, and “industry gravity.” What is your mitigation plan?
What do you cut? Name the one path you will NOT pursue—even if it’s exciting—because it dilutes focus.
What would you do with Metamorph… today? Which modern analog (LLMs, RAG, enterprise search, compliance AI) maps closest to the original problem?

Hardhat line for this page: “Others need a hardhat. I have a hard head.”

Dedicated to Japanese consumers, entrepreneurs, and engineers who continue to build. Never stop. Keep going. Ganbatte!

Archive Notes

This page is intentionally “evergreen.” As we add more scanned artifacts, we’ll link them here: coverage, ads, screenshots, and key documents that show how early search, publishing, and connectivity actually worked in Japan.

Next add: a one-page “Metamorph explained” diagram (inputs → indexing → retrieval → output).
Next add: a “Metabook economics” explainer: cost per disk, royalties, distribution, margins.
Next add: a “timeline of constraints” page: modem speeds, phone tariffs, hubs, early PPP realities.

Contact

Want to contribute a memory, artifact, or correction? Or teach the case? Contact Japan.co.jp:

Email: info@japan.co.jp Phone: +1-310-373-3169

If you’re a Japanese reader: this project is for you. Come back any time—new pages will keep appearing.