IMD business school for management and leadership courses

This note highlights the pivotal role of psychological safety in fostering a culture of flexibility and innovation within organizations, especially in a rapidly changing business environment. Drawing from Amy Edmondson’s seminal research, psychological safety is defined as the collective assurance felt by team members that they can openly expres…

Birth registration – considered a basic human right provided by government services – was still not working in many countries. One in four children worldwide is not registered. Yet, Zainab Siddiqui, head of sustainability at Telenor Pakistan, had a different idea. In 2013, she initiated the Digital Birth Registration Project in Pakistan in two p…

As circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic continued to shift and evolve, J.M. Huber Corporation (Huber) remained focused on protecting its employees, maintaining business continuity, and on advancing its multi-year sustainability strategy. The efforts of Mike Marberry, the President & CEO, the Huber Management Council (HMC), the family sharehold…

This case presents the unique approach to philanthropy of the Ahlström family. A group of 25 fifth-generation female Ahlström family members founded the Eva Ahlström foundation in 2010, in the name of the family matriarch Eva Ahlström (1848–1920), who was a big contributor to society in her time. This led to the establishment of the Ahlström Co…

The case focuses on the transformation of OCP, a state-owned monopoly that mined and exploited Morocco’s phosphate reserves. By 2021 it had become an organization with a mission to contribute to the sustainability of food security as the custodians of 70% of the world’s phosphate reserves. Phosphate is one of three vital ingredients in fertilize…

Formatted like a comic-strip, this case showcases how Firmenich achieved resilience and strong sustainability commitments thanks to its family ownership. The case investigates how family ownership spanning across four generations and 125 years, has influenced the company’s core values and brought a long-term perspective to its strategy, which al…

Lionheart Agrotech Limited, the holding company of Lionheart Farms is developing a large-scale sustainable hybrid coconut plantation with integrated processing and manufacturing capacities in the Philippines. The case describes the idea of the founders, their journey, the challenges they met and how they solved them. The case explores the key c…

Lionheart Agrotech Limited, the holding company of Lionheart Farms is developing a large-scale sustainable hybrid coconut plantation with integrated processing and manufacturing capacities in the Philippines. The case describes the idea of the founders, their journey, the challenges they met and how they solved them. The case explores the key c…

Kineer Services Limited (Kineer) was a social marketing startup set up in 2018 by Lakshmi Narayan Tripathi, a prominent Indian transgender, and Manish Jain, an ex-hospitality industry veteran. Their objective in setting up Kineer was to provide a life of dignity to the socially stigmatized third gender community in India. As a startup, Kineer fa…

London, UK, July 2020. G. Garvin Brown IV, the chairman of Brown-Forman Corporation and 5th generation family shareholder, was preparing to celebrate the firm’s 150th anniversary. Despite its current global footprint, a turnover in excess of $3.3 billion and over 4,800 employees worldwide, Brown-Forman had remained in Louisville, Kentucky, close…

In March 2019, Kais Marzouki, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé Philippines Inc. (NPI), wanted his company to reach plastic neutrality at the earliest possible time. Globally, including in the Philippines, more and more consumers, governments, NGOs and media were concerned by plastic waste and pollution. Mark Schneider, Nestlé’s global CEO, had recentl…

In March 2019, Kais Marzouki, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé Philippines Inc. (NPI), wanted his company to reach plastic neutrality at the earliest possible time. Globally, including in the Philippines, more and more consumers, governments, NGOs and media were concerned by plastic waste and pollution. Mark Schneider, Nestlé’s global CEO, had recentl…

At Essilor, Jayanth Bhuvaraghan, recently retired Chief Mission Officer (CMO), had launched and then promoted an original base-of-pyramid (BOP) operation in India, which recruited, trained and set up some 8,000 Eye Mitras to operate in remote rural communities. These primary vision care providers were able to run vision tests and produce correct…

The case is about a sustainable investor firm, Nia Impact Capital (Nia) (Oakland, California), and its founder and CEO, Kristin Hull. Hull aims to invest in gender and racial justice and to make money with meaning and purpose. She brings the logic of impact investing to public markets, exercising active ownership, and engaging with portfolio com…

Case B describes Tatulova’s actions in response to the crisis. This included a meeting with President Putin to discuss the situation of small businesses. Tatulova’s speech, in which she pleaded with him to support Russian entrepreneurs, made her very visible in Russia and propelled her into a nationwide role as the ombudsman for small businesses…

Case A focuses on how entrepreneurs and leaders deal with sudden unexpected events and crises. It describes the tensions that Russian female entrepreneur and CEO Anastasia Tatulova had to deal with in response to the coronavirus pandemic that wrought wide-scale disruption on society and businesses across the world. Tatulova founded the AnderSon …

In a short span of five or six years, CHANEL embraced CSR (corporate social responsibility) and ESG (environmental, social, governance) initiatives that stretched far beyond its established comfort zone of artistic direction and creative output. The progression of these initiatives culminated in March 2020, when the company launched CHANEL Missi…

At luxury fashion house Maison Chloé, minds were focused on the first collection of new Creative Director, Gabriela Hearst, which was just hitting the stores. Chloé’s CEO, Riccardo Bellini, had recruited Gabriela, known for her commitment to sustainability through her own brand, to epitomize the Maison’s new responsible purpose. Riccardo, along …

The case describes the challenges faced by a young and ambitious woman taking on a high-risk project during the unusual environment of the Pandemic. Her new innovative ideas are flatly rejected by her senior colleagues, mostly men but also a powerful woman Partner. While failure is not an option for the young consultant, it is not excluded eithe…

This case provides the opportunity to perform a real, but simplified, ESG research analysis and portfolio investment decision from the perspective of an impact investor. It was designed using Triodos Investment Management (Triodos) and three well-known (possibly controversial) companies, Yamaha Corporation, Tesla and Philip Morris International …

In 2020, Triodos Investment Management had approximately EUR 4.9 billion in assets under its management (impact investment). Triodos motto was “Financing for change. Change Finance” and understood sustainable finance as a driving force in the transition to a more inclusive and sustainable world. Triodos took a comprehensive view of the companies…

The OCP Africa case illustrates the challenges of entering a market challenged by unfavorable conditions for the target customer – be it infrastructure, access to market, access to finance, education, etc. while at the same time acknowledging the need to respect the environmental mistakes made in other parts of the world – namely unsustainable f…

Case B focuses on the year of transformation. In January 2018 Anna disrupted ths narrative of success and told RDB it needed to transform. The case outlines the critical decisions and actions Anna initiated to steer the transformation, engage customers and staff and address concerns in the leadership team. Focusing on cultural transformation was…

The Roche Diagnostics Belgium (RDB) case study consists of two parts: Part (A): “Changing a Winning Formula?” and Part (B): Cultural and Digital transformation. The cases focus on the transformation which Anna-Maria Heuchel-Reinig initiated to turn the company into a more successful business. RDB had a strong track-record within Roche for high-…

The case traces the development of Ping An Company of China Ltd from its launch in 1988 to 2018. The company, founded by Ma Mingzhe in Schenzhen, started in insurance and became the first Chinese insurer to adopt a shareholding structure. By 2018 it was the largest insurance company in China. The case charts the development of the company and ho…

This case highlights the differences in the business models of Amazon and Alibaba, respectively. Readers need to analyze the characteristics of India with respect to culture, wealth and income distribution, demographics, economy, infrastructure, digital potential, diversity, and foreign direct investment policy. Based on their assessment, they n…

The headline “Quinoa Genome Sequenced” caught the eye of Diego Pelaez, CFO of Coronilla S.A., a gluten-free pasta producer. Scientists had successfully sequenced the genome of the quinoa plant, hailed as a superfood because of its outstanding nutritional value. Quinoa, originally cultivated by the Inca Empire in the Andes, had become hugely popu…

The case is set at a time when Bandhan, the largest microfinance institution (MFI) in India and the largest non-deposit taking MFI in the world, was about to embark on an organizational transformation that would convert it into a mainstream bank. In July 2013, supported by a Geneva-based investor, Bandhan had applied for a banking license to exp…

The case is set at a time when Bandhan, the largest microfinance institution (MFI) in India and the largest non-deposit taking MFI in the world, was about to embark on an organizational transformation that would convert it into a mainstream bank. In July 2013, supported by a Geneva-based investor, Bandhan had applied for a banking license to exp…

MAY 21, 2014, MANILA. For the first time, the World Economic Forum (WEF) had come to the Philippines. Ayala Corporation, one of the nation’s oldest and most successful conglomerates, hosted an evening reception that brought together the “Who’s Who” of the Philippines. Jaime Augusto and Fernando Zobel de Ayala, the seventh generation chairman and…

Although most cases on the sustainability of supply chains focus on environmental impacts, this case assesses the role of producers and the social impact of value chains by focusing on the argan oil sector. As scientific processes proved the significant health and beauty benefits of argan oil in the 1990s, demand stirred in European and North Am…

Düsseldorf, 18 September 2009. Henkel had a new face. Surprisingly, the nomination of Germany’s first female Chairwoman of a DAX-quoted company was at one of the old family-controlled industrial corporations, often considered as conservative and traditional. The nomination of Simone Bagel-Trah (5th generation, 1969) represented a cultural change…

Almost ten years after launching its radical change program, Coronilla was finally reaping the rewards of the ambitious and creative re-orientation. In that period, the family pasta business, based in the fertile plains of Cochabamba, Bolivia, had transformed itself from a traditional wheat pasta producer to an exporter of specialized gluten-fre…

In the colonial-style house built by the Wille family on the edge of the factory lands, Marta Wille sat facing her fellow shareholders in the family business. It was a warm Sunday afternoon in December 2000, and the pasta plant was silent. After an hour of intense and, at times, acrimonious deliberations, which had been preceded by months of inf…

Julie Gilbert, senior vice president and founder of the Women’s Leadership Forum (WOLF) movement at Best Buy was ready to leave the company to take the movement to the outside world. Over a period of four and a half years, WOLF@Best Buy became a vast network of thousands of employees and consumers who worked with individuals, brands, partners, s…

The Benka Babyfood case study is about an expatriate woman candidate being considered by a western company entering India with a joint venture partner. The case discussion follows with an exercise in selecting the most appropriate candidate to lead the venture based on several criteria like the candidate’s personality traits, family support, pos…

Dr. William Novick, the founder of the “International Children’s Heart Foundation” (ICHF) must decide on a marketing strategy for this non-profit charitable organization based in memphis, Tennessee (USA). ICHF’s mission is to provide developing countries throughout the world with the skills, technology and knowledge to cure and care for children…