Corporate strategy
January 2021
Building an Agile Organisation at ING Bank Netherlands – Compact Case
By Julian Birkinshaw, Ken Mark
ING Group was established through a merger of three Dutch financial services firms in 1991. It expanded internationally into Europe and the Americas, and created a no-frills savings account business called ING Direct in the late 1990s. In 2007 it merged its two main subsidiary banks, Postbank with ...
October 2020
COVID-19: Pret a Mangerâs Fight for Survival
By Nader Tavassoli, Jessica Spungin
The case describes how Pret a Mangerâa London casual-dining institutionâwas significantly adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they tried to pivot by launching several business experiments in fast succession. The long-term outcome of these experiments was far from certain, but th...
July 2020
Haierâs (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 âEcosystem Micro-enterprise Communitiesâ (EMCs) had been devised to help it respond to the shifting ways of adding value in the digital, internet-based...
April 2015
Thomson Reuters: Building a Risk-Management Business
By Julian Birkinshaw, Stefano Turconi
The case tells the story of the evolution of Thomson Reutersâ risk business, from its creation in 2010 as Thomson Reuters GRC (governance, risk and compliance) to its position as a $700 million revenue business unit within the Finance and Risk (F&R) division of Thomson Reuters in 2016. The cas...
February 2019
Jack Ma at Alibaba: Building a Learning Organisation
By Herminia Ibarra, Jessica Spungin
In September 2018 Alibabaâs 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 Alibabaâs corporate strategy from Chinese e-commerce pioneer to a compl...
January 2016
Unilever Foundry
By Julian Birkinshaw, Shahnoor Meghani
This case focuses on the Unilever Foundry, a platform for Unilever to engage with start-ups and entrepreneurs, providing them with access to Unileverâs brands as a means of enabling their growth while bringing innovative technology back to the company. The case provides a brief description of Unil...
September 2011
The Rise and Fall of Nokia
By Julian Birkinshaw, Lisa Duke
The case describes Nokiaâs spectacular rise and fall, shedding light on the combination of external factors and internal decisions that resulted in the companyâs handset business being sold to Microsoft in 2010.During the successful period of growth (roughly 1990 through to 2006), Nokiaâs focu...
March 2017
Raising capital for Financial Butler (C)
By Bryan Stroube, Michael Bikard, Ken Mark
This case focuses on Nick Hungerfordâs attempt to raise capital for his FinTech start-up, Financial Butler, (later renamed Nutmeg). The concept is a digital platform offering a revolutionary, transparent and fair service to an âuntappedâ market segment currently not served by wealth managers, ...
March 2017
Raising capital for Financial Butler (B)
By Bryan Stroube, Michael Bikard, Ken Mark
This case focuses on Nick Hungerfordâs attempt to raise capital for his FinTech start-up, Financial Butler, (later renamed Nutmeg). The concept is a digital platform offering a revolutionary, transparent and fair service to an âuntappedâ market segment currently not served by wealth managers, ...
March 2017
Raising capital for Financial Butler (A)
By Bryan Stroube, Michael Bikard, Ken Mark
This case focuses on Nick Hungerfordâs attempt to raise capital for his FinTech start-up, Financial Butler, (later renamed Nutmeg). The concept is a digital platform offering a revolutionary, transparent and fair service to an âuntappedâ market segment currently not served by wealth managers, ...