Thomas Malnight

The case focuses on the challenges of achieving scale and profitability for an entrepreneurial business operating as a subsidiary of a large multinational company. Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. is the...

The case focuses on the business and leadership challenges at the intersection of corporate ownership and entrepreneurship. Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. is the leading utility vehicle manufacturer in...

By 2016, the executive team at &samhoud Group were at a turning point concerning the future of their small conglomerate. The team of three: Ingrid, managing partner of the consultancy, currently re...

Case A (IMD-7-1701) describes the growth trajectory of Mahindra Finance until 2009 when it stumbles with its new product – home loans for the rural market. Case B outlines the steps taken by Mahind...

Case A (IMD-7-1701) describes the growth trajectory of Mahindra Finance until 2009 when it stumbles with its new product – home loans for the rural market. Case B outlines the steps taken by Mahind...

The case traces the journey of Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd (Mahindra Finance), a pioneer and leader in catering to the financing needs of rural and semi-urban India – typically under...

Recruit Holdings, Japan’s largest staffing firm and a leading marketing media company started out in the early 1960s as an advertising company publishing magazines for jobseekers. It scaled up over...

Recruit Holdings, Japan’s largest staffing firm and a leading marketing media company started out in the early 1960s as an advertising company publishing magazines for jobseekers. It scaled up over...

In 2011, more than 30 years after Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield founded the super premium ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s, the strong personality and personal values of the founders were still ver...

Unilever is among the world's largest users of agricultural raw materials and a major buyer on world agriculture markets. Unilever's work on sustainable agriculture has been focused on five key cro...

Unilever’s mission is to “add vitality to life.” As one of the world’s largest food companies, it believed that this mission clearly extended to the 850 million people around the world suffering fr...

In 2001 the profitability and market share of the Unilever Ice Cream Europe (ICE) business were under pressure. ICE was the leader in its industry, with twice the market share of its nearest compet...

This case and video is an interview with Kees van der Graaf. He speaks about the start of the journey when he first became head of Unilever ICE and the complex challenges he saw lying ahead.

The B-case and video picks up the story of how Kees van der Graaf’s team started coming together to identify and tackle the key challenges ahead. The market dive for all the key decision-makers in ...

The C-case and video is an interview with Kees van der Graaf. He speaks about the team’s return to the office following the market dive and how a radical change plan was decided and implemented.

The concluding case summarizes the key learning points from the journey, which can lead to discussions around how these lessons and the approaches used by Unilever can be applied to diagnosing the ...

Irena Eris and Henryk Orfinger established their cosmetics company in 1983 in Poland, then still a communist country. Just 19 years later, in 2002, their business had grown from one employee and on...

The B-case describes how Eris arrived at a new strategy, focused on raising their brand to a premium level and creating a new brand for the mass market. It also shows how the company professionaliz...

Is it possible to implement corporate purpose in such a way that it achieves multi-stakeholder impact and high financial growth? To answer this question, the authors studied 12 companies that were ...

For most of the 20th century, size, longevity, and a large market share were seen as assets in business. Then they began to be viewed as vulnerabilities, putting many companies in a defensive stanc...

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted different responses from company CEOs seeking to ensure their businesses survive. Keeping their employees safe has been the first priority, but beyond that, their...

Eight years ago, Malnight, Buche, and Dhanaraj launched a study of high growth in companies, looking at three strategies known to drive it: creating new markets, serving broader stakeholder needs, ...

AlphaGo may have been about games. But the broader implications are clear: We can expect imminent advances in commercial applications of many kinds. Demis Hassabis, who heads Google’s machine-learn...

The fundamental advantage of large companies is in their ability to integrate and reconfigure offerings and services based on their prior capabilities. Startups may move fast, but they lack experie...

CASSANDRA has decided to revisit her fellow forecasters Thomas Malnight and Tracey Keys to find out what their predictions are for 2014. Once again they have produced a collection of trends for the...

We live in a rapidly changing world. The economic centre of gravity is shifting from West to East. The generational centre of gravity is shifting from baby boomers to Gen X, Gen Y and beyond. Compe...

The great global redistribution of economic and social power will continue over the next 12 months. Power will flow away from traditional institutions that have failed to deliver progress – especia...

South Africa. The land of apartheid and Nelson Mandela. In many ways a first world player among third world neighbors. A land of mineral wealth, and a land of poverty. A land of hope and opportunit...