Corporate culture
June 2022
Anne Boden at Starling Bank: Disrupting an industry
By Herminia Ibarra, Luisa Alemany, Nick Mickshik, Ken Mark
The case describes the start-up and evolution of UK-based digital bank Starling. Founded in 2014, Starling offered personal and business accounts, and lending products, promising a better customer-service experience, faster approvals and a more digital-friendly approach than traditional banks. By 20...
June 2021
Satya Nadella at Microsoft: Instilling a Growth Mindset (Chinese language)
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...
June 2023
Jean-Philippe Courtois at Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing and Operations: Empowering Digital Success
By Herminia Ibarra, Adam Jones
When Jean-Philippe Courtois took control of Microsoft’s global sales, marketing and operations in 2016, reporting directly to CEO Satya Nadella, he realised that he needed to lead the organisation away from an "inspection culture" towards a culture of learning and coaching. After a first phase of ...
August 2020
Jean-Philippe Courtois at Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing and Operations: Empowering Digital Success (Spanish language)
By Herminia Ibarra
When Jean-Philippe Courtois took control of Microsoft’s global sales, marketing and operations in 2016, reporting directly to CEO Satya Nadella, he realised that he needed to lead the organisation away from an "inspection culture" towards a culture of learning and coaching. After a first phase of ...
July 2020
Haier in 2014: An entrepreneurial juggernaut facing a world of platforms and ecosystems
By Michael Jacobides, Lisa Duke
Until the 2010s, China had been known for inexpensive products and efficient, low-cost production and for copycat or OEM products rather than for leading-edge innovation. Yet, in a few short years, Chinese firms turned to quality and innovation, drastically increasing their market share. A shining e...
June 2016
Satya Nadella at Microsoft: Instilling a Growth Mindset (Spanish language)
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...
March 2020
Ros Atkins and the 50:50 Project at the BBC (B)
By Aneeta Rattan, Oriane Georgeac, Siri Chilazi
Ros Atkins, the presenter of the BBC’s nightly primetime news programme Outside Source, had a distinguished and successful career at the BBC. Despite his successes as a journalist and presenter, however, he knew he was not living up to his own and the BBC’s values and mission when it came to gen...
March 2020
Ros Atkins and the 50:50 Project at the BBC (A)
By Aneeta Rattan, Oriane Georgeac, Siri Chilazi
Outstanding Case Writer Award Finalist (The Case Centre) Ros Atkins, the presenter of the BBC’s nightly primetime news programme Outside Source, had a distinguished and successful career at the BBC. Despite his successes as a journalist and presenter, however, he knew he was not living up to hi...
January 2014
Kweku Adoboli at UBS
By S. Wiley Wakeman, Celia Moore
The UBS case outlines how individual ambition and lax organisational standards and oversight can lead to consistent unethical behaviour resulting in a crippling loss at a large investment bank. Even though the industry had as recently as 2007 been subject to the ramifications of similar behaviour wi...
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...