Leadership
August 2021
Fatima Akilu: Staying true to her values (B)
By Randall Peterson
In 2016, four years into her role as Director for Behavioural Analysis and Strategy at Nigeria’s Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Fatima Akilu was summarily dismissed from her position, amid accusations of corruption at the organisation, and subsequently charged with fraud. Nigeriaâ€...
August 2021
Fatima Akilu: The rise of a quiet leader (A)
By Randall Peterson
In 2015, Fatima Akilu found herself sitting at the kitchen table with her sister, shocked and saddened by what has just happened to her, wondering what to do next. Should she fight to defend her reputation? Or return to a quiet life away from the big government role she has just been fired from? Fa...
August 2021
Quiet Charisma: Fatima Akilu at the Neem Foundation
By Randall Peterson
When Fati Ibrahim lost her husband and eldest son after Boko Haram insurgents attacked their town of Gwoza in north-eastern Nigeria, she wasn’t alone. She was one of dozens of women who lost family members, homes and livelihoods. Three years later, she found herself queueing outside a tent near Ma...
June 2021
Satya Nadella at Microsoft: Instilling a Growth Mindset (Chinese)
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...
January 2021
Costa Coffee: Project Marlow – Compact Case
By Julian Birkinshaw, Ken Mark
For Jim Slater, head of Costa Express in 2014, the biggest new growth opportunity was to roll out the company’s third-generation vending machine, called Marlow. The product had been developed in record time, but Slater faced several strategic and operational challenges in launching it....
October 2020
Reinventing performance management at Allen & Overy
By Herminia Ibarra, Carrie J. Fletcher
By early 2019, Magic Circle law firm Allen & Overy (A&O) had replaced its longstanding, traditional annual review system with Compass, a state-of-the-art performance management process based on real-time feedback and planful career development discussions. As Managing Partner Andrew Ballheimer put i...
September 2018
David Pyott: The Battle for Allergan (B)
By Randall Peterson, Lisa Duke
This case series charts the evolution of the hostile battle for Allergan and its ultimate sale to a white knight, Actavis. David Pyott had been the CEO of Allergan since January 1998; only the third CEO in the company’s 60-year-plus history. Allergan was primarily known for Botox, the aesthetic an...
January 2022
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)
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 ...
June 2016
Satya Nadella at Microsoft: Instilling a Growth Mindset (Spanish)
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...