Latest cases

November 2019

Christian Lacroix: A King Without a Kingdom

By Stefano Turconi

Set in 2009, this case chronicles the key stages in the development of the Christian Lacroix Company, the fashion house founded by the eponymous designer with the financial backing of Bernard Arnault (LVMH). Lacroix’s opulent creations wowed fashion editors and wealthy fashionistas the world over ...

January 2012

Nespresso: What Next?

By Nader Tavassoli

In 2011 Nespresso, the premium single-serve coffee brand of the multinational Swiss company Nestle, found itself at a crossroads. Between 2006 and 2010 Nespresso had managed to nearly triple sales - from CHF1.16 billion to well over CHF3 billion. But despite its meteoric growth in recent years, comp...

June 2016

Satya Nadella at Microsoft: Instilling a Growth Mindset

By Herminia Ibarra, Aneeta Rattan

When Satya Nadella took over as CEO of Microsoft in 2014, he inherited a firm fading toward irrelevance, plagued by internal fights and inertia. Earlier that year his wife, Anu, had given him a best-selling book by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck entitled Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, su...

July 2015

citizenM: Radical innovation in the hotel industry

By Freek Vermeulen

In 2008, a group of five entrepreneurs and executives teamed up to launch an innovative hotel chain into what seemed like a highly competitive industry. Rattan Chadha, the founder of fashion company MEXX and Michael Levie, a hotel industry veteran, teamed up with Hans Meyer, a hotel development spec...

November 2010

Changing the Fortunes of E.ON’s Corporate Customer Business (D)

By Michael Jacobides, Adrian Merrick

This case details UK energy supplier E.ON’s business turnaround from 2008. The company operated generation, distribution and retail businesses, with separately run sales and customer service operations. Following the departure of the heads of the sales and the customer service divisions, Adrian Me...