Strategy
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
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...
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...
October 2020
Takeda: The governance of strategic transformation (B) (Japanese)
By Harry Korine, Kazuhiro Asakawa
The case series describes strategic transformation at Takeda, the largest Japanese pharmaceutical company, with a special focus on the R&D function. Since 2015, the 237-year-old industry doyen has narrowed its strategic focus from six to three therapeutic areas, reorganised its global R&D fo...
October 2020
Takeda: The Governance of Strategic Transformation (A) (Japanese)
By Harry Korine, Kazuhiro Asakawa
The case series describes strategic transformation at Takeda, the largest Japanese pharmaceutical company, with a special focus on the R&D function. Since 2015, the 237-year-old industry doyen has narrowed its strategic focus from six to three therapeutic areas, reorganised its global R&D fo...