Strategy

March 2023

Building an organisation for the ecosystem era: Weighing up the Recipe of Haier’s Internet of Food

By Michael Jacobides, Tom Albrighton, Monwei Chou, Lisa Duke, Dalbert Ma, Aryan Mittal

Ecosystems offer a new way to bring multiple firms together in order to deliver new value propositions. By working together, the hub firm and its complementors can create innovative ‘product plus service’ bundles that span traditionally separate industries to offer an experience that simply wasn...

March 2023

From Products to Experience Ecosystems: Haier’s Internet of Food

By Michael Jacobides, Lisa Duke, Dalbert Ma, Aryan Mittal

Haier had come a long way since Zhang Ruimin took it over as a failing Chinese Collective-Owned Enterprise in 1984. Since then, he’d been able to transform it into one of the world’s leading appliance manufacturers, known for quality and innovation. Haier was also noted for its bold geographical...

March 2012

Carnival Corporation: The P&O Princess Acquisition (A)

By Donald Sull, Stefano Turconi, Barbara Muckermann

Set in January 2002, this case examines the three-way takeover battle for cruise industry dominance involving Carnival, P&O Princess and Royal Caribbean. It also documents the evolution of the modern cruise industry and the competitive dynamics that led to momentous consolidation. After secret m...

March 2012

Carnival Corporation: The P&O Princess Acquisition (B)

By Donald Sull, Stefano Turconi, Barbara Muckermann

August 2021

Natura &Co: Sustainability at Scale

By Stefano Turconi, Pranjal Singh, Rui Wang

Established in 1969 as a cosmetics lab in the city of São Paulo, Natura grew briskly over the ensuing decades and by 2004 it had become Brazil’s largest beauty company. Unlike its competitors, Natura was built on the principle of reconciling socioecological sustainability with value creation. Dur...

October 2021

The European Super League

By Chris Voss, Fabio Puntillo

This case study describes the situation three days after the ill-fated launch of the European Super League (ESL). It can be used in a number of ways. This includes exploring the differences between US sports business models and those of European football; the strategy of the ESL and the possible mis...

January 2021

Pharma UK: The Transdermal Technology – Compact Case

By Julian Birkinshaw

Pharma UK was the UK subsidiary of Pharma, a major international pharmaceuticals company with expertise in oncology, hormone replacement drugs and fertility. Pharma UK was responsible for selling drugs in the local marketplace. However, it also had 50 people in R&D, doing local development work ...

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 ...

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

COVID-19: Pret a Manger’s Fight for Survival

By Nader Tavassoli, Jessica Spungin

The case describes how Pret a Manger—a London casual-dining institution—was 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...