November 2023

Heineken’s International Expansion

Asserting his lifelong motto “I don’t sell beer, I sell warmth”, Alfred ‘Freddy’ Heineken passed away on 3 January 2002, aged 78. Known for his flamboyant lifestyle and fiery personality, Freddy was also the driving force in growing Heineken into an international brand. Heineken had the la...

November 2023

Royal Ahold: International growth and acquisitions

By Freek Vermeulen

On October 13 2004, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed fraud and other charges in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against Royal Ahold and three former top executives, including CEO and Chairman Cees van der Hoeven, thus terminating the career of the once-power...

September 2023

Desso (B): Going Forward (Portuguese language)

By Ioannis Ioannou, Amandine Ody-Brasier

This is part of a case series. This case describes the strategic transformation of DESSO, a Dutch manufacturer of carpet tiles and flooring solutions. The first part of the case describes the difficult situation in which the company found itself in the early 2000s, following a series of changes in o...

September 2023

Desso (A): Taking on the Sustainability Challenge (Portuguese language)

By Ioannis Ioannou, Amandine Ody-Brasier

This is part of a case series. This case describes the strategic transformation of DESSO, a Dutch manufacturer of carpet tiles and flooring solutions. The first part of the case describes the difficult situation in which the company found itself in the early 2000s, following a series of changes in o...

October 2022

The Strategic Transformation of Royal Philips

By Freek Vermeulen, Ronald de Jong

In April 2011, Dutch multinational Royal Philips, one of the most iconic companies in the country, decided to disrupt itself and transform from a diversified industrial conglomerate to a focused player in Health Technology. The case describes the first decade (2011-2021) of the strategic transformat...

January 2021

Building an Agile Organisation at ING Bank Netherlands – Compact Case

By Julian Birkinshaw, Ken Mark

ING Group was established through a merger of three Dutch financial services firms in 1991. It expanded internationally into Europe and the Americas, and created a no-frills savings account business called ING Direct in the late 1990s. In 2007 it merged its two main subsidiary banks, Postbank with ...

September 2016

ING Bank: Creating an Agile Organisation

By Julian Birkinshaw, Scott Duncan

Set in 2016, this case describes ING Bank’s implementation of a radical new way of working using agile principles. ING’s agile way of working has been written up in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review and McKinsey Quarterly. This case provides a detailed account of how the new struc...

September 2011

Desso (B): Going Forward

By Ioannis Ioannou, Amandine Ody-Brasier

This is part of a case series. This case describes the strategic transformation of DESSO, a Dutch manufacturer of carpet tiles and flooring solutions. The first part of the case describes the difficult situation in which the company found itself in the early 2000s, following a series of changes in o...

September 2011

Desso (A): Taking on the Sustainability Challenge

By Ioannis Ioannou, Amandine Ody-Brasier

This is part of a case series. This case describes the strategic transformation of DESSO, a Dutch manufacturer of carpet tiles and flooring solutions. The first part of the case describes the difficult situation in which the company found itself in the early 2000s, following a series of changes in o...