IMD business school for management and leadership courses

In late 2023, when the management team at the consumer packaged goods company Reckitt considered adopting gen AI, potential use cases spanned the business—from drafting presentations to delivering customer support to optimizing procurement contracts. Many of the use cases guaranteed time savings and an immediate return on investment, but they ap…

This book is a vindication of Europe. It challenges the view of Europe as a tired, overregulated continent, arguing instead that Europe has emerged from decades of crisis—financial turmoil, Brexit, COVID-19, war in Ukraine—as a resilient, reformed, and quietly successful model of governance and society. While the world often focuses on the rival…

The explosion of generative AI has sparked a wave of case studies showing how quickly and profoundly it is transforming businesses. Yet most of these use cases still apply the technology to enhancing existing systems. This book makes the case for why business leaders must revisit the fundamentals of generative AI and look beyond short-term, tact…

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 …

Set in 2024, the case describes the trajectory of Nike’s success and how it had recently lost its way. The company was experiencing its worst slump in more than 10 years. Since 2020, CEO Donahoe oversaw a significant shift away from wholesale, with a focus on direct channels and a suite of apps. However, direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales failed to …

In 2022, Apple lost US$1.5 billion in Black Friday sales due to iPhone supply constraints. One in three retail stores across the US and Europe experienced stockouts of the new iPhone 14 Pro. China sales were down more than 30% year on year. Apple’s stock had dropped 29% in 2022. China’s zero-Covid policy resulted in massive lockdowns that made f…

The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) had long recognized that the game of basketball was evolving beyond physical participation. That shift became impossible to ignore in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic shut down live events and left fans stuck at home. With no traditional products to deliver, FIBA saw esports as a timely strategic ex…

Nespresso, the global leading brand in portioned coffee, is facing an existential threat. The company’s current market base, which consists primarily of aging consumers, is likely to decline in the medium to long term. To compensate for the certain shortfall, the company needs to attract young coffee drinkers among Millennials and Generation Z, …

Faced with growing competition and commoditization of its core aftermarket business for industrial bearings, SKF develops a sales tool to document, measure and guarantee its customers financial benefits from the use of its replacement products and related services. The strategy is based on justifying premium unit prices that lead to a lower tota…

In 2005, Patagonia launched the Common Threads Recycling Program. The goal was to reduce the number of products Patagonia customers purchased through a two-fold effort. The first part was to encourage customers to fix damaged clothing. Patagonia began publishing do-it-yourself repair guides to assist customers in repairing their clothing. To pro…

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional social network on the internet with more than 400 million members in over 200 countries. The company is publicly held and has a diversified business model with revenues coming from talent solutions (62%), marketing solutions (20%) and premium subscription products (18%). Headquartered in Mountain View…

The case study is about a successful strategy formulated at Dow Corning for marketing commodity silicones, a chemical used in diverse applications. It deals with important issues in B2B marketing: refocusing on user needs and developing a “needs-based” segmentation of industrial customers; bundling and de-bundling of technical services; branding…

This case demonstrates: a) the dangers in assuming that a product successful in one market will do well in another; b) poor global marketing implementation; c) poor marketing strategy and implementation in general where research was used to back decisions on how to proceed; d) the need for an integrated marketing strategy to launch a new brand; …

Many companies overestimate customers’ appetite for sustainable products, flooding the market with offerings that don’t sell. The reality is, social and environmental benefits have less impact on purchasing decisions than basic product attributes do. Consumers buy products to get specific jobs done, and only after they find something that will d…

The AI boom — and the growth of gen AI in particular — has introduced new points of conflict between employees and companies. Some of these have already started to play out, such as in the Writers Guild of America strike over how AI can and can’t be used in the entertainment industry. But others are still on the horizon. As AI becomes more integ…