Discussion Questions What was the public issue facing Robinhood in this case? Describe the "performance-expectations gap" found in the case. What were the stakeholders' (consumers, employees, legislators) expectations, and how did they differ from Robinhood's performance? If you applied the strategic radar screens model to this case, which of the eight environments would be most significant, and why? Apply the issue management life cycle process model to this case. Which stages of the process can you identify? In your opinion, did Robinhood respond appropriately to this issue? Why or why not? If you were a member of Robinhood's leadership team, what would you have decided to do (or not to do) in the face of emerging concerns about online investing apps? Discussion Case: Robinhood: The Challenges of Keeping Pace with Innovation "If you are reading this then I am dead. See the image 'Suicide 2' for why, I suppose. [Image of screenshot of an account statement with a negative balance of $730,165.] How was a 20-year-old with no income able to get assigned almost a million dollars' worth of leverage?" Moments after leaving this message on his computer, a college sophomore whom we will call Nick took his life in his childhood home, where he was staying with his parents during the pandemic. Like many people during quarantine, Nick had taken up a hobby. He was interested in investing and was drawn to the popular investment app Robinhood. With the tagline "Investing for Everyone," Robinhood marketed itself as providing user-friendly tools that would allow the Average Joe investor to buy stocks without having to employ a financial professional and pay the commission fees associated with these transactions. Robinhood initiated a trend among brokerage firms by offering commission-free trading with zero minimum balances to attract young, aspiring, and inexperienced investors like Nick Nick opened an account with Robinhood and began investing. He began to experiment with trading options. Options are contracts giving the buyer the right without an obligation to buy or sell a stock at a specific price on or before a certain date. They are risky transactions, because it is possible for investors to end up owing more their initial investment, and so are typically used by sophisticated, professional investors. Things went wrong on June 12, 2020, when Nick was shocked to see that his account showed a negative balance of $730,165. In his suicide letter, he explained that he had never intended to risk any more money than he began with. Nick had tried unsuccessfully to contact Robinhood several times. His calls to the helpline and e-mail requests for clarification went unanswered. Slow and unresponsive customer service were not new issues for Robinhood. On August 4, 2018, almost two years before Nick would take his life, a customer had complained about Robinhood's customer service on Reddit: "Customer Support?? I have had $45,000 locked up in your system for a week. How is it possible that you have no phone staff page 46to speak with? How is it possible that I (sic) takes a week to get a response to an e-mail and still get zero information? Do you have a customer support staff at all? What is the deal?" Vladimir Tenev, Robinhood's co-founder and CEO, promised to improve customer support. Employees, however, reported that Tenev did not dedicate time and resources to improving customer support but prioritized other projects instead. In addition to customer support issues, Robinhood also faced technical problems with their app. The app would frequently crash. On one occasion, the app erroneously reversed the direction of customer trades, such that a trade instructed to go through when prices went up would instead be executed when prices went down. In another incident, the app allowed customers to borrow much more money they would normally qualify for. One time, the app froze for two days, causing customers to lose millions of dollars. The unreliable performance of the app combined with poor customer service foreshadowed tragic consequences. Nick's family believed that Robinhood's slow and inadequate communication prompted the young man's suicide. "He was in a complete panic. His panic and desperation grew as he was unable to communicate over a number of hours with anyone at Robinhood," one said. Another relative, who happened to be a financial industry professional, criticized Robinhood for failing to provide nave investors with the information they needed to make reasonable decisions. He noted that the app's interface resembled a video game with "Confetti popping everywhere" when a transaction was made, adding, "They try to gamify trading and couch it as an investment. That they didn't have enough foresight to think this might happen is offensive to me." Upon learning of Nick's death, Robinhood CEOs Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt released a statement stating, "We were devasted by [the young man's] death. We remain committed to making Robinhood a place to learn and invest responsibly." The statement continued to outline improvements to the app, including more guidance to help customers, updates on how it displayed buying power, and live voice support for customers with open options positions. These improvements were not implemented in enough time for Nick. As it turned out, after all of Nick's transactions were completed, his account no longer showed a negative balance. Ironically, Nick received an e-mail response explaining that he did not owe any money after he had died by suicide. Legislators, observing the unfolding events, initiated an investigation. In December 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Robinhood with misleading customers and failing to satisfy what was known as the "duty of best execution." Robinhood paid $64 million in fines. A couple of months later, in February 2021, the House Financial Services Committee convened virtually to hear testimony from Robinhood CEO Tenev. Democratic Representative Sean Casten of Illinois, Nick's home state, questioned Tenev. In his remarks, Casten recounted the events leading up to the suicide. As he ended his remarks, Representative Casten took out his cellphone and called the Robinhood helpline. Putting his phone on speaker he held it up to the screen as it went directly to voicemail, greeting customers with a recorded message: "Thanks for calling Robinhood! Please visit us at Robinhood.com or on our app for support. If you have an urgent (trading) need please make sure to include details of your order when reaching out. Thanks, and have a great day