17 Global Goals
November 2023
Hornby plc: Strategic Transformation (B)
By Freek Vermeulen
In 2005 Frank Martin, CEO of Hornby, was feeling proud. Since joining in 2000, he had seen the company's share price rise from 35 to more than 250 and his strategic transformation of the firm from a toy company into a hobby company had been a resounding success. The company dominated the UK market a...
November 2023
Hornby plc: Building Communities (A)
By Freek Vermeulen
In 2005 Frank Martin, CEO of Hornby, was feeling proud. Since joining in 2000, he had seen the company's share price rise from 35 to more than 250 and his strategic transformation of the firm from a toy company into a hobby company had been a resounding success. The company dominated the UK market a...
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...
November 2023
Lark & Berry: The diamond disruptors
By Ioannis Ioannou, Nick Mickshik
Laura Chavez was delighted beyond words when the Atelier Asymmetric Bow suite, designed by her luxury jewellery company Lark & Berry, won the 2019 Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Graff jewellery award. The Graff Award was the jewellery industry’s equivalent of the Oscars award for Best ...
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...
August 2023
Stepping out of lockdown: Launching a footwear brand during a pandemic
By Claudia Yoshinaga, Elisa Larroudé, John Mullins
Marina Larroudé stared glumly at all the crossings out on the proposed boots order for the autumn collection. Her husband Ricardo wanted to cut her suggestions by nearly half – in models, colours and quantities. Their fledgling shoe business had begun to a promising buzz a few months ago, but las...
July 2023
Alessandro Riccombeni Case A: Lessons in leadership
By Randall Peterson, Nick Mickshik
This case is aimed at helping executives understand the reasons why they may ‘derail’ when promoted to a new position or when they secure a new job that does not accord with their expectations of it. Case A describes the situation Alessandro Riccombeni found himself in when, having seemingly se...
July 2023
Alessandro Riccombeni Case B: Resolving the impasse
By Randall Peterson, Nick Mickshik
This case is aimed at helping executives understand the reasons why they may ‘derail’ when promoted to a new position or when they secure a new job that does not accord with their expectations of it. Case A describes the situation Alessandro Riccombeni found himself in when, having seemingly se...
February 2023
Cree (C)
By John Mullins, Elizabeth Philp
Another four years had passed, and it was now April 2018. After two attempts to shut down the venture totally, Hubert Rhomberg’s father Walter-Heinz presented Hubert with an opportunity to buy their cash-burning company, CREE, for €1. CREE had been “his baby” for the better part of a decade,...