Disruptive innovation

October 2023

De Beers: Reverse-disrupting the Diamond Industry

By Stefano Turconi, Thomas Horton, Minerva Rojanapenkul

Set in September 2018, the case describes De Beers’ attempt to halt the escalating disruption to its core business posed by diamonds grown in laboratories. Since its inception over a century ago, De Beers had created and nurtured the perception of diamonds as rare objects and exclusive symbols of ...

May 2023

Tata Sky: Experimentation and adoption (B)

By Jessica Spungin, Julian Birkinshaw, Harit Nagpal

Harit Nagpal, Managing Director and CEO of Tata Sky Ltd, the largest satellite TV distribution platform in India, was returning from the Consumer Electronics Show 2017 in Las Vegas. What he had seen there was enough to make him question the viability of the business he headed. He did not want to thi...

May 2023

Tata Sky: Responding to a disruptive technology (A)

By Jessica Spungin, Julian Birkinshaw, Harit Nagpal

Harit Nagpal, Managing Director and CEO of Tata Sky Ltd, the largest satellite TV distribution platform in India, was returning from the Consumer Electronics Show 2017 in Las Vegas. What he had seen there was enough to make him question the viability of the business he headed. He did not want to thi...

April 2024

Red Bull Spreads its Wiiings (Russian language)

By Nader Tavassoli

Thirty-five years after its founding, the Red Bull energy drinks business continued to show strong growth globally. Over the years, the company had expanded its product line with different variants, such as sugar-free and flavoured Editions. More recently, the company had launched a sub-branded The ...

September 2022

Red Bull Spreads its Wiiings

By Nader Tavassoli

Thirty-five years after its founding, the Red Bull energy drinks business continued to show strong growth globally. Over the years, the company had expanded its product line with different variants, such as sugar-free and flavoured Editions. More recently, the company had launched a sub-branded The ...

February 2022

TrueLayer: Innovation, regulation and the future of financial services

By Julian Birkinshaw, Ken Mark, Farhan Lalji

In April 2021, having just raised $70 million in a Series D funding, Francesco Simoneschi, Co-Founder and CEO of TrueLayer, was thinking about expansion plans. Should the company focus on product innovation, broadening its line-up within the 13 countries in which it operated, or should it look to gr...

April 2009

Multi Media Mapping Ltd Case (B)

By John Bates, Cosette Reczek, Sean Phelan

It was early October 2007 as Sean Phelan, founder of Multi Media Mapping Ltd, reviewed the previous 12 months. It had been a year of highs and lows that now set the scene for the most important decision in the company’s 12-year history. At least he now had some options to consider – unlike this ...

April 2009

Multi Media Mapping Ltd Case (A)

By John Bates, Cosette Reczek, Sean Phelan

It was nearly 10 years since Multi Media Mapping Ltd had gone live with the launch of the Multimap.com website and Sean Phelan, founder and majority shareholder, was facing the classic entrepreneur’s dilemma. The company had a successful platform and business model that had made it the market lead...

November 2021

MOVE Guides (C)

By John Mullins, Tiffany Putimahtama

Having decided to go where her customers wanted to take her, CEO Brynne Kennedy had led MOVE Guides into the managed-moves market segment, in addition to the lump-sum moves segment that had given her company its start. By any measure, the company had grown: in top-line revenue, in head count, and (t...

November 2021

MOVE Guides (B)

By John Mullins, Tiffany Putimahtama

It was August 2014. The MOVE Guides team had successfully converted two of their initial pilot clients into paying customers whose employees were delighted with the company’s support of their moves.  Brynne Kennedy and her team were successfully closing a couple of additional lump-sum clients reg...