1. Review the development of web-based social networking industry. What are the key characteristics of the industry as it is currently structured?

2. How did Mark Zuckerberg ensure that Facebook was on sound trajectory for growth?

3. Place Facebook’s strategy in terms of Mintzberg’s model of strategy development, and evaluate its suitability.

4. Evaluate the competition in the social networking industry.

5. What are Facebook’s biggest strategic challenges?

6. What are the social and ethical challenges that Facebook has to wrestle with as it expands its user base?

The case traces the founding and rapid growth of Facebook, a company hosting social networking by the same name. Founded by Mark Zuckerberg to offer an online portal for his fellow students at Harvard, its popularity was infectious and it rapidly expanded to other campuses and high schools in a very short time. While focusing on the technical aspects of running and improving the networking site, Zuckerberg had to learn to manage its rapid growth. Some of the issues that he had to deal with were developing an organization structure, constructing a management team, developing the core values of the company, addressing privacy concerns, and finally, keeping ahead of the many emerging competitors in the nascent industry. One of the biggest decisions had been to raise finances without giving up too much ownership to early stage investors.