Technology
April 2024
The Transformation of Digital China: Harnessing the Potential of Data, Cloud and AI
By Julian Birkinshaw, Dickie Liang-Hong Ke
In early 2024 Guo Wei reflected on another successful year for Digital China group of companies (DC), the group he had led for more than 20 years. As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, he had overseen the transformation of DC from an IT distributor to an IT services market leader, and now leading...
April 2024
From hype to disillusionment: Metaverse’s rise, apparent fall and green shoots
By Michael Jacobides, Katie Round, Francois Candelon
This case study critically examines the evolution of the metaverse, interrogating its ascendancy, its perceived decline and the nascent indicators of its resurgence. Beginning with the concept’s origins in science fiction, it tracks the metaverse’s evolution through advancements in gaming and th...
February 2024
Digital Dubai: Making Dubai the Digital Capital of the World
By Julian Birkinshaw, Neil King
When the Dubai Government announced in 2021 that it had processed its last-ever paper transaction, becoming the first government in the world to go paperless, it completed a 20-year journey of digital transformation that changed people’s lives across the emirate fundamentally. Since launching i...
November 2023
AntChain’s Blockchain as a Service: Digitising Industry Collaboration
By S. Alex Yang, Nitish Jain
The case describes how AntChain’s parent, Ant Group, started to invest in blockchain in 2015 as it believed the technology would build trust between different actors in a system. The earliest use case was a cross-border remittance service. The team continued to build and develop its blockchain tec...
March 2022
Refinitiv: A private equity-led transformation
By Julian Birkinshaw, David Craig
In August 2019 CEO David Craig was considering the likely benefits and challenges of merging his company, financial-markets data and infrastructure provider Refinitiv, with the London Stock Exchange Group. Craig had led a turnaround of Thomson Reuters’ Financial & Risk division (F&R), then...
April 2009
Multi Media Mapping Ltd Case (B)
By John Bates, Cosette Reczek, Sean Phelan
It was early October 2007 as Sean Phelan, founder of Multi Media Mapping Ltd, reviewed the previous 12 months. It had been a year of highs and lows that now set the scene for the most important decision in the company’s 12-year history. At least he now had some options to consider – unlike this ...
April 2009
Multi Media Mapping Ltd Case (A)
By John Bates, Cosette Reczek, Sean Phelan
It was nearly 10 years since Multi Media Mapping Ltd had gone live with the launch of the Multimap.com website and Sean Phelan, founder and majority shareholder, was facing the classic entrepreneur’s dilemma. The company had a successful platform and business model that had made it the market lead...
July 2020
Haier’s (2019) ecosystem revolution: From Rendanheyi 2.0 to Rendanheyi 3.0
By Michael Jacobides, Lisa Duke
2019 was an important year for Haier. Its new version of its radically decentralised structure, dubbed Rendanheyi 2.0, based on many independent ‘Ecosystem Micro-enterprise Communities’ (EMCs) had been devised to help it respond to the shifting ways of adding value in the digital, internet-based...
June 2020
Enel S.p.A.: A Traditional Utility Embraces the Digital Revolution
By Julian Birkinshaw, Ken Mark
The case study describes the digital transformation of Enel under the leadership of Francesco Starace from 2014 to 2019. Enel is one of Europe’s largest utilities, providing electricity to 71 million customers across Europe and South America. It is also an impressive success story. At the time the...
August 2016
ONk: Dining at the Funding Buffet
By Gary Dushnitsky
The idea for ONk originated in 2012 when six-year-old Mike asked his father, Sam Ke, one night, “Can we make a computer that is simple and fun?” Soon afterwards, a team of three – Alex Bell, Joe Costa and Sam Ke – came together to answer the call. The mission: to give young people – and th...