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Case Study

BP's transformation strategy under pressure: A pivotal moment for the board's chair

By Hans-Christoph Hirt

23 pages

August 2026

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Reference: IMD-2774

The case places participants in the role of Helge Lund, chair of BP, on 4 October 2023. Only weeks earlier, BP’s chief executive officer Bernard Looney had resigned over undisclosed relationships with colleagues. Looney had been the principal architect and public face of BP’s 2020 strategy to transform BP from an international oil company into an “integrated energy company” aligned with a net-zero ambition by 2050. On the same day, activist investor Bluebell Capital Partners wrote to BP arguing that the strategy was “irrational” and had materially depressed the company’s valuation. The challenge came amid conflicting signals: Shareholders had overwhelmingly backed BP’s net-zero direction in 2022, but its share price had lagged key peers, raising questions about the economics, timing and execution of the transition. The case presents a board-level dilemma: How should Lund lead the board now, what strategic direction should it support and what CEO mandate should follow? Should BP defend the 2020 strategy, recalibrate it or pursue a more fundamental reset? The case concerns strategic governance and board oversight of transformation under pressure, rather than sustainability alone. It asks how boards should engage in strategy, interpret shifting stakeholder signals, assess investor fit and build support for a strategic pivot, and test organizational readiness for transformation. BP’s 2020 strategy was bold and adapted to real external pressures, including climate policy, investor expectations and changing assumptions about the future of oil and gas. It also placed major demands on capital allocation, organizational capability, competitive advantage, stakeholder credibility and investor patience. By autumn 2023, the board had to ask not only whether the strategy remained directionally appropriate, but whether it had been sufficiently owned, explained, sequenced and governed.

Learning Objective

Understand the board’s role and engagement modes in strategy development and oversight, CEO succession and strategic recalibration.
Apply dynamic stakeholder salience to interpret shifting signals from policymakers, investors, employees and society.
Assess investor fit, interpret shareholder signals and design targeted engagement.
Evaluate strategic options and transformation readiness, with particular attention to competitive advantage and organizational capability.
Explore organizational structures for transition businesses (optional extension).

Keywords

Board, Stakeholder Management, Business Transformation, Finance, Governance, Leadership, Succession, Strategy, Sustainability, Competitiveness, Investment, Organizational Design

Settings

World/global, United Kingdom
BP, Materials, Oil and Gas
2018-2023

Type

Published Sources

Available Languages

English

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Case Study

BP’s transformation strategy under pressure: A pivotal moment for the board’s chair

The case places participants in the role of Helge Lund, chair of BP, on 4 October 2023. Only weeks earlier, BP's chief executive officer Bernard Looney had resigned over undisclosed relationships with colleagues. Looney had been the principal arch...

Board Stakeholder Management Business Transformation Finance

By Hans-Christoph Hirt

Caroline Schmidt: Invitation to the board of directors

By Ruth V. Aguilera and Jennifer Jordan
Case reference: IMD-2720 ©2026

Summary

Caroline Schmidt, 55, chief strategy officer of Edelweiss Corporation, has just led her company through a remarkable turnaround. When Henri Vonlanthen, CEO of Léman Corporation – a company twice Edelweiss's size – invites her to join Léman's board, Caroline sees a genuine opportunity: a bigger stage on which to apply the strategic and financial expertise that turned Edelweiss around, and a chance to help a storied family enterprise chart its next chapter. Léman, built over three generations by the Keller family and taken public in 2010, is a company with real assets and real needs: a strong balance sheet but a flat top line, two fast-growing subsidiaries alongside stagnant ones, and no clear long-term strategy. Its aging patriarch, Samuel Keller, remains chairman, and the board might need refreshment. Could Caroline, working alongside her ally Henri and maybe other board members, build the coalition needed to drive the strategic change Léman requires? Or would she find herself without the influence to move a set board, exposed instead to legacy issues and a possible conflict of interest with her own company? As Caroline's first appointment to a major board, her decision also carries a signaling dimension; the boards that a rising executive chooses to join, and how visibly she vets them, shape how the market will read her judgment for years to come. The case gives students a realistic, decision-forcing vehicle for weighing a directorship's opportunities against its risks: What due diligence a prospective director should conduct, how to assess whether one can genuinely influence and ally with fellow directors, and how a first major board appointment signals character and judgment to the market.

Reference IMD-2720

Available Languages English

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