Organisational Behaviour

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...

December 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

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...

May 2019

The Maestro Marin Alsop – Leading “Under a Huge Magnifying Glass”

By Randall Peterson, Vyla Rollins, Carrie J. Fletcher

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...

February 2019

Jack Ma at Alibaba: Building a Learning Organisation

By Herminia Ibarra, Jessica Spungin

In September 2018 Alibaba’s 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 Alibaba’s corporate strategy from Chinese e-commerce pioneer to a compl...

April 2019

Clarasys: Born Agile by Taking Groups Seriously

By Randall Peterson

In March 2015, London-based management consultancy Clarasys found itself in crisis. Established in 2011, the company had experienced consistent growth since foundation and had expanded staffing levels to service new business accordingly. But it was still in start-up phase and a perfect storm of even...

August 2018

Paul McGinley – Leading a Multinational Team of Individuals

By Lisa Duke, Randall Peterson

In January 2013, Irish Tour Professional Golfer, Paul McGinley was named as Captain of Team Europe for the 2014 Ryder Cup in Gleneagles, Scotland. Across his career, McGinley had both played himself in the Ryder Cup as well as acted as Vice Captain in two successful tournaments for the Team Europe. ...