Case Studies

Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

Google's Project Oxygen started with a fundamental question raised by executives in the early 2000s: do managers matter? The topic generated a multi-year research project that ultimately led to a comprehensive program, built around eight key management...

Big Hit Entertainment and Blockbuster Band BTS: K-Pop Goes Global

Bang Si-Hyuk ('Hitman Bang') is the founder and co-chief executive officer of Big Hit Entertainment, the company behind BTS, a 'K-pop' band that has found unparalleled success around the globe-a remarkable feat given that most of their songs are in...

Cirque du Soleil

Retaining talent is an issue for any company whose success relies on the creativity and excellence of its employees. This is especially true for Cirque du Soleil, the spectacularly successful "circus without animals," whose 2,100 employees include 500...

GE's Two-Decade Transformation: Jack Welch's Leadership

GE is faced with Jack Welch's impending retirement and whether anyone can sustain the blistering pace of change and growth characteristic of the Welch era. After briefly describing GE's heritage and Welch's transformation of the company's business...

Pinckney Street

Although inexperienced in real estate, Edward Alexander hopes in June 2013 that youthful enthusiasm and an $240,000 in savings and inheritance will help him enter the real estate business. His experience chronicles the process of finding, evaluating, and...

Army Crew Team

The coach of the varsity Army crew team at West Point assembled his top eight rowers into the first crew team and the second tier of rowers into the second team using objective data on individual performance. As the second boat continually beat the first...

Chase Sapphire: Creating a Millennial Cult Brand

The Inside the Case video that accompanies this case includes teaching tips and insight from the author (available to registered educators only). The launch of the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card was enthusiastically received by millennial consumers,...

Trader Joe's

The Inside the Case video that accompanies this case includes teaching tips and insight from the author (available to registered educators only). Based on a variety of metrics, Trader Joe's ranked as one of the most successful grocers in the United...

Amazon.com, 2021

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit...

Leadership in Crisis: Ernest Shackleton and the Epic Voyage of the Endurance

Provides an opportunity to examine leadership and entrepreneurship in the context of Ernest Shackleton's 1914 Antarctic expedition, a compelling story of crisis, survival, and triumph. Summarizes Shackleton's career as an officer in the British Merchant...

The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations

The Inside the Case video that accompanies this case includes teaching tips and insight from the author (available to registered educators only). How should historic social injustices be addressed? Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their...

Optimax: Ownership, Management, and Culture in Precision Optics Manufacturing

Following the retirement of the company's long-time owners, Pete Kupinski became the president of Optimax, an innovative precision optics manufacturer with an innovative perpetual purpose trust (PPT) ownership model. Despite the company's leading...

Managing Tail Risk for Investors

Gamma: Slides in the Blink of AI

In September 2025, Gamma's co-founders drove past their company's new billboard on San Francisco's I‑80-one of many AI slide‑generator ads competing for attention. Founded in 2020, Gamma offered a prosumer‑focused, AI‑powered platform that...

LePrix: Reinventing How Businesses Source Pre-Loved Luxury

This case examines LePrix, a B2B platform for authenticated pre-owned luxury goods, at a pivotal strategic inflection point. Founded by sisters Elise Whang and Emily Erkel, LePrix evolved from a consumer-facing resale marketplace into a B2B procurement,...

Takeda's Digital Transformation: The AI Revolution

Building an Industry Thesis for Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA)

Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA)-where aspiring entrepreneurs search for, acquire, and scale established small-to-medium-sized businesses rather than launching start-ups-can benefit from a clear, robust industry thesis when entrepreneurs are...

Headphone Zone: Building A Premium Online Retail Brand In India Through Relationship Marketing

Set in 2025, this case traces how Headphone Zone, an India-based start-up, evolved into a leading online destination for premium headphones, earphones, and audio gear. Founded in 2011 as a brick-and-mortar retailer with stores in high-footfall malls...

Taiwan's Fwusow Industry Co., Ltd: Pioneering the Circular Economy in Agribusiness from Farm to Table

In June 2025, Fwusow Industry Company Limited, led by Hung Yau-Kuen, became the first Taiwanese food manufacturer to have its products' carbon footprint certified by the IECQ ISO 14067 international standard for greenhouse gas verification. Founded in...

Fairphone: Change is in Your Hands (Part V)

Fairphone, a pioneer in ethical consumer electronics, built its reputation on transparency, sustainability, and responsible sourcing. However, the company faced a major test when a corruption scandal emerged: two buyers in Taipei had accepted kickbacks...

Eu Yan Sang: Institutionalisation of a Century-Old Heritage Company

Richard Eu Yee Ming was the CEO of Eu Yan Sang International, a leading health and wellness company in Singapore. Founded in 1879 by Eu's great-grandfather, the company had evolved from a traditional Chinese medical hall into an accessible modern brand...

Chugai (B): Alliance with Roche to be among the best

Chugai B examines the pivotal strategic alliance formed in October 2002 between Chugai Pharmaceutical and Swiss giant Roche. Facing constraints in RD funding and global reach, Chugai's President Osamu Nagayama sought a partnership to achieve the firm's...

Chugai (A): Overcoming adversity with a transformative leap

Chugai A traces the transformative journey of a leading Japanese biopharmaceutical firm from its founding in 1925 to the early 2000s. Starting with founder Jz Ueno's vision to 'create medicines that benefit society,' the case details the company's...

Building an IT ecosystem at Intertech

In April 2021, Sava oban, the newly appointed EVP of Intertech, faces a perfect storm of Turkey's economic crisis and the global scramble for tech talent. This forces him to confront an operational meltdown at Intertech, the IT subsidiary of DenizBank...

Lemonade: Is its "AI everywhere" strategy a competitive advantage?

The case examines how a New York-based 10-year-old start-up, Lemonade Inc., successfully disrupted the insurance industry. Powered by artificial intelligence, Lemonade's mobile app replaced brokers and bureaucracy with bots and machine learning. The...

The Lifeline Exercise: A reflective tool for leadership and career development

This exercise provides a structured reflection tool designed to help individuals explore the significant events, emotional highs and lows, and patterns that have shaped their personal and professional journeys. Commonly used in executive education,...

dss+: Carving out a sustainability consulting leader

The case examines the entrepreneur-led carve out and buyout of dss+, DuPont's safety and sustainability consulting division, by Gyrus Capital and dss+ management team. dss+ (formerly "DuPont Sustainable Solutions") played a pivotal role in high-risk...

How Boeing lost altitude

The case study examines recent aviation safety concerns at Boeing, focusing on manufacturing issues, leadership decisions and regulatory oversight. It traces Boeing's trajectory since the McDonnell Douglas merger in 1997, highlighting the changes in the...

Electrification at Volkswagen: Fold or Call?

Volkswagen Group is the world's second-largest car manufacturer, with China being its largest market. Its portfolio includes Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Skoda, Seat, Cupra, Lamborghini, and Bentley. Oliver Blume, chairman of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG...

Hamilton Lane: Democratizing Private Equity

To Hartley Rogers and Mario Giannini, then Chairman and CEO of Hamilton Lane, the retail opportunity looked enormous. Analysts had estimated that individual, or retail, investors held approximately half of the $275 trillion to $295 trillion in global...

[NAV]igating PE Performance

This case explores E&R Advisors Inc. (E&R Advisors), a multifamily investment-management company, as its chief investment officer contemplates general partners' (GPs') increasing use of net asset value (NAV) credit facilities to generate distributions to...

Atlas Air: Shipping at Preferred Cost

The case is centered on a July 2022 bid from a private equity consortium led by Apollo Global Management (Apollo) to acquire Atlas Air, a major transportation company whose services spanned commercial cargo, passenger charters, and aircraft leasing. The...

Fairphone: Change is in Your Hands (Part I)

Fairphone, a pioneer in ethical consumer electronics, built its reputation on transparency, sustainability, and responsible sourcing. However, the company faced a major test when a corruption scandal emerged: two buyers in Taipei had accepted kickbacks...

Weaver Network Technology: From Domestic Leader to Global Challenger

Weaver Network Technology is a major player in Chinas enterprise software and digital collaboration industry. Its flagship platform, e-cology, dominates the domestic market with clients ranging from government agencies to large corporations. Over two...

Competing Priorities Among Team Members

"Competing Priorities Among Team Members" is an exercise designed to help a (learning) team or working group (e.g., committee, service group, task force, or volunteer group) foresee, discuss, and work through potential conflicts surrounding competing...

China's 40 Years of Economic Reforms and Growth

China's growth from 1978 to 2018 shifted China's population from extreme poverty to the engine driving the world's second-largest economy and largest exporter. Could economic theories help explain China's phenomenal growth, given its complex cultural,...

The Federal Reserve's Evolution in Managing Financial Uncertainty: From Crisis Management to Proactive Policy

This case explores how the US Federal Reserve (Fed) continuously designed its approach to financial stability policy in response to pervasive uncertainty in modern financial markets. Following the 2008 crisis, the Fed developed new institutional...

Fairphone: Change is in Your Hands (Part IV)

Fairphone, a pioneer in ethical consumer electronics, built its reputation on transparency, sustainability, and responsible sourcing. However, the company faced a major test when a corruption scandal emerged: two buyers in Taipei had accepted kickbacks...

Making it to the Top: Lessons of Organizational Transformation from Future Generali India Life (Abridged)

Set in Mumbai, India, during 2020, the case explores how Munish Sharda, the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Future Generali India Life Insurance Company Limited (FGILI), turned around the firms key business metrics. FGILI was...

Fairphone: Change is in Your Hands (Part III)

Fairphone, a pioneer in ethical consumer electronics, built its reputation on transparency, sustainability, and responsible sourcing. However, the company faced a major test when a corruption scandal emerged: two buyers in Taipei had accepted kickbacks...

Fairphone: Change is in Your Hands (Part II)

Fairphone, a pioneer in ethical consumer electronics, built its reputation on transparency, sustainability, and responsible sourcing. However, the company faced a major test when a corruption scandal emerged: two buyers in Taipei had accepted kickbacks...

Innovating for Inclusion: The Case of R2D2 and its Cutting-Edge Assistive Technology Solutions

This case, set in 2022, describes the journey of the Rehabilitation Research and Device Development (R2D2) Center established in 2015 at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) under the leadership of Prof. Sujatha Srinivasan. R2D2 develops...

Chugai (C): Navigating the next century of global innovation

Chugai C focuses on the company's future as it celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2025. In 2021, Chugai launched its ambitious 'TOP I 2030' growth strategy, aiming to transition from Japan's top innovator to a global leader. The strategy sets two...

Wicked Policy Problems: Price Interventions in Agriculture

The case highlights the wicked problem of policy interventions in agriculture. A contentious issue here is the legalization of Minimum Support Price for certain Agricultural crops. The views of both, the central government, and farmers are presented to...

Elliott Management and Arconic Inc. (A)

Uncornered (A): Learning to End Violence

Uncornered, a Boston-based nonprofit that pays and mentors gang-involved "Core Influencers" to reduce violence, must decide in 2025 whether to focus on proving impact in Boston or expand nationally despite high costs, funding risks, and questions of...

Golden Goose: Reshaping Luxury

In 2025, Golden Goose, an Italian luxury brand renowned for its handcrafted, intentionally distressed sneakers, is at a pivotal crossroads. Under the leadership of CEO Silvio Campara, the brand has evolved from a niche footwear label into a global...

Walmart Goes Global (B)

Browser Wars Continue: From Netscape to ChatGPT Atlas, 1994-2026

This case examines the evolution of competition in the web browser industry, from the early battles between Netscape and Microsoft to Google Chromes rise as the dominant platform. In 2025, advances in generative and agentic AI began to transform the...

Uncornered (B): Bernard Franklin's Path to Purpose

In 2025, Dr. Bernard Franklin, managing director at Uncornered, weighed his next chapter. A veteran leader in higher education, philanthropy, and consulting, Franklin had joined the Boston-based nonprofit in 2023 to strengthen its trauma-informed systems...

Walmart Goes Global (A)