Latest cases
November 2018
Patch: Financing the Entrepreneurial Business
By Gary Dushnitsky
Heading into Old Street Tube station in London on a chilly January day, Freddie’s mind was racing with ideas. He had just come out from another meeting with Forward Partners, a well-known, London-based venture capital firm, and it was clear the conversation had gone well. The team at Forward Partn...
May 2019
The Maestro Marin Alsop – Leading “Under a Huge Magnifying Glass”
By Randall Peterson, Vyla Rollins, Carrie J. Fletcher
This case study follows the career of world-renowned orchestra conductor Marin Alsop. As a gay woman in a blatantly male-dominated (and often sexist) field, Alsop faced significant challenges in her rise to the top of the profession. At virtually every turning point on her unconventional path, Alsop...
February 2019
Jack Ma at Alibaba: Building a Learning Organisation
By Herminia Ibarra, Jessica Spungin
In September 2018 Alibaba’s co-founder and executive chairman, Jack Ma, announced his plans to step down from the $420 billion Chinese internet company to pursue philanthropy in education. The case describes the evolution of Alibaba’s corporate strategy from Chinese e-commerce pioneer to a compl...
April 2024
Dollar Shave Club: Disrupting the Shaving Industry (Spanish language)
By Nader Tavassoli, Karin Kollenz-Quétard, Jamie Anderson
The case describes how Dollar Shave Club proved to be a disruptive force in the shaving industry, one dominated by Gillette for over a Century. It did so without a single patent to its name, and with a direct-to-consumer subscription and a content-based customer engagement model that was new to the ...
April 2019
Clarasys: Born Agile by Taking Groups Seriously
By Randall Peterson
In March 2015, London-based management consultancy Clarasys found itself in crisis. Established in 2011, the company had experienced consistent growth since foundation and had expanded staffing levels to service new business accordingly. But it was still in start-up phase and a perfect storm of even...