Organisational Behaviour
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...
March 2022
Marin Alsop: Dream job or nightmare – Compact Case
By Carrie J. Fletcher, Randall Peterson, Vyla Rollins
This case study follows the career of world-renowned orchestra conductor Marin Alsop. As a gay woman in a blatantly male-dominated (and often sexist) field, Alsop faced significant challenges in her rise to the top of the profession. At virtually every turning point on her unconventional path, Alsop...
March 2022
Marin Alsop: Showing them success – Compact Case
By Carrie J. Fletcher, Randall Peterson, Vyla Rollins
This case study follows the career of world-renowned orchestra conductor Marin Alsop. As a gay woman in a blatantly male-dominated (and often sexist) field, Alsop faced significant challenges in her rise to the top of the profession. At virtually every turning point on her unconventional path, Alsop...
March 2022
Marin Alsop: A study in inclusive leadership – Compact Case
By Carrie J. Fletcher, Randall Peterson, Aneeta Rattan
This case study follows the career of world-renowned orchestra conductor Marin Alsop. As a gay woman in a blatantly male-dominated (and often sexist) field, Alsop faced significant challenges in her rise to the top of the profession. At virtually every turning point on her unconventional path, Alsop...
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...
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...
August 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 ...