Benoît Leleux

Stephan Schmidheiny Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance

Benoît Leleux is Stephan Schmidheiny Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance. He is recognized as a leading specialist in entrepreneurship, venture capital, private equity, and corporate venturing, particularly in emerging markets, and is the winner of numerous case writing awards in categories relating to these topics.

His recent research and case writing activities have focused on sustainability as a source of entrepreneurial opportunities and how entrepreneurs incorporate values into their projects for greater impact as well as novel forms of financing for early and late-stage opportunities. These range from search funds to affinity financing, and innovative business models for corporate venturing such as open accelerators, venture clienting, and corporate VC partnering.

The sustainability trend is increasingly driving new value propositions from entrepreneurs. Rather than regarding it as something to tackle for defensive reasons such as compliance, threats to their brand, or risk avoidance, they now see it as an opportunity to create new offerings for customers.

Leleux is the author of Winning Sustainability Strategies: Finding Purpose, Driving Innovation and Executing Change (2019), which serves as the conceptual framework for a five-week IMD online course, Winning Sustainability Strategies (WSS), which he directs. The program targets general managers and executives in charge of sustainability efforts, equipping them with the tools required to analyze their firms’ sustainability footprint, investigate their materiality matrix, design an impactful transformation gameplan, and follow it through with proper metrics and communication strategy. The program highlights how to build solid business cases for sustainability strategies as a prerequisite to gain traction and ultimately achieve impact. He is also Co-Director of the Foundations for Business Leadership (FBL) program.

He has published several other books including Private Equity 4.0: Reinventing Value Creation, Nurturing Science-Based Startups: An International Case PerspectiveFrom Microfinance to Small Business Finance and A European Casebook on Entrepreneurship and New Ventures.

In addition, Leleux is a world-leading case writer and has consistently been ranked among The Case Centre’s best-selling case authors in the world. He has authored more than 30 award-winning cases at the crossroads of entrepreneurship, venture financing, emerging markets, and family business, most recently Lionheart Farms (Philippines) and the tree of life, winner of the 2022 HEC Montreal CSR Challenge Case Writing Competition, Brown-Forman: Nothing better in the market, which won the 2021 EFMD Case Writing Award in the Family Business category, and EcoAlf: Because there is no planet B, winner of the 2020 John Molson MBA International Case Writing Competition.

He is also actively involved in numerous startups and venture capital and private equity funds as a board member, advisor or in other capacities.

Leleux has been at IMD since 1999, serving as Director of the MBA program from 2006 to 2008, and Director of Research and Development from 2004 to 2008. He was previously Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at INSEAD and Zubillaga Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at Babson College, Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Prior to his academic career, he was the head of corporate venturing for a leading agribusiness conglomerate in Southeast Asia.

Selected publications
Lionheart Farms (Philippines) and the tree of life
Case Study
Lionheart Farms (Philippines) and the tree of life
SustainabilityEntrepreneurshipStrategySupply ChainDiversity and Equity and Inclusion
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 ...
19 April 2022
Brown-Forman: Nothing better in the market
Case Study
Brown-Forman: Nothing better in the market
Family BusinessDiversity and Equity and InclusionStrategySustainabilityValue Creation
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 curre...
31 December 2021
Case Study
ECOALF: Because there is no Planet B
EntrepreneurshipSustainabilityMarketing
MADRID, MARCH 2019. ECOALF was born from the belief of Javier Goyeneche that something had to be done to ensure the sustainability of the planet. How was it possible that in 2019 airlines still gav...
17 September 2020
Winning sustainability strategies: Finding purpose, driving innovation and executing change
Book
Winning sustainability strategies: Finding purpose, driving innovation and executing change
Organizational TransformationSustainability
Contrary to popular belief and the optimism generated by the ambitious global targets set in the Paris Agreement and the UNs Sustainable Development Goals, the implementation of corporate sustainab...
15 November 2018
Private equity 4.0: Reinventing value creation
Book
Private equity 4.0: Reinventing value creation
Private EquityChange ManagementInvestment
Private Equity 4.0 provides an insider perspective on the private equity industry, and analyzes the fundamental evolution of the private equity asset class over the past 30 years, from alternative...
25 February 2015
Book
Nurturing science-based ventures: An international case perspective
Technology ManagementLeadershipStart-upEntrepreneurship
The number of students who wish to learn about entrepreneurship and actively engage in entrepreneurial activities - either by creating their own companies or by spurring innovation within a large o...
19 February 2008
Book
From microfinance to small business finance: The business case for private capital investments
FinanceEmerging MarketEntrepreneurshipInvestment
Based on the proceedings of one of the most talked about events of the Year of Microfinance, this book makes a compelling business case for private capital investments in microfinance in developing...
26 November 2007
Academic publications
Case Study
Israel Secondary Fund (ISF): Completing venture capital in the start-up nation
EntrepreneurshipVenture CapitalFinanceStrategyPrivate Equity
The case documents the genesis and development of Israel Secondary Fund (ISF), an innovative venture capital secondary fund operating in Israel, a country dubbed “the start-up nation” for its very ...
13 December 2022
Case Study
Values-based entrepreneurship: Opaline's bubbles
SustainabilityEntrepreneurship
Orsières (Valais, Switzerland) April 2020. Opaline, an original juice production company with high social and environmental standards had begun in 2010. It took founder Sofia de Meyer over 10 years...
28 November 2022
Values-based entrepreneurship: Opaline's bubbles (Abridged)
Case Study
Values-based entrepreneurship: Opaline's bubbles (Abridged)
SustainabilityEntrepreneurship
Orsières (Valais, Switzerland) April 2020. Opaline, an original juice production company with high social and environmental standards had begun in 2010. It took founder Sofia de Meyer over 10 years...
28 November 2022
Celonis: Building a lean digital ecosystem
Case Study
Celonis: Building a lean digital ecosystem
DigitalDisruptionEntrepreneurship
To maintain its position as the category leader in process mining and execution management, Celonis needed to be able to facilitate – or even automate – corrective measures on these processes to ed...
24 August 2022
Lionheart Farms (Philippines) and the tree of life (Abridged)
Case Study
Lionheart Farms (Philippines) and the tree of life (Abridged)
SustainabilityEntrepreneurshipStrategySupply ChainDiversity and Equity and Inclusion
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 ...
19 April 2022
Lionheart Farms (Philippines) and the tree of life
Case Study
Lionheart Farms (Philippines) and the tree of life
SustainabilityEntrepreneurshipStrategySupply ChainDiversity and Equity and Inclusion
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 ...
19 April 2022
Case Study
Cyna Pharma: Reaping the rewards of perseverance (B)
EntrepreneurshipLeadershipFinance
The B case describes the events – including the offers and the negotiation – leading up to Sundown’s acquisition of Cyna for US$40.50 per share in cash or US$624 million (approximately C$841 millio...
28 January 2022
Case Study
Dachser (B): Putting intelligent logistics to the test
Family BusinessSustainabilitySupply ChainStrategyOperations
This brief B case dives into how the governance model withstood the COVID-19 crisis.
26 January 2022
Case Study
Cyna Pharma: Reaping the rewards of perseverance (A)
EntrepreneurshipLeadershipFinance
The A case tells the story of Anthony Giovinazzo’s entrepreneurial journey with Cyna Pharma, which he built from the ground up. Cyna Pharma was a Canada-based specialty pharmaceutical company that ...
26 January 2022
Dachser (A): Intelligent logistics
Case Study
Dachser (A): Intelligent logistics
Family BusinessSustainabilitySupply ChainStrategyOperations
The case, based on extensive interviews with top executives and two generations of Dachser family owners, documents the genesis and spectacular growth of the global logistics specialist, a group th...
26 January 2022
Case Study
Jupiter Bach: Committing to sustainability (Abridged)
SustainabilityEthics
The case documents the efforts by Lone Stubberup, Global Director of Quality, Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE), to convert her employer to the highest sustainability standards through all its ...
31 December 2021
Case Study
Essilor’s Eye Mitra program: Serving BOP markets through inclusive business models
SustainabilityEntrepreneurshipDiversity and Equity and Inclusion
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 ...
31 December 2021
Case Study
Plastecowood: A future for plastic trash
SustainabilityStrategyEntrepreneurshipGrowth
The case is about Plastecowood, a company that turns plastic packaging waste into assembly products and sustainable lumber. It was founded by John Northcott in 2012 with the vision of taking a glob...
31 December 2021
Case Study
Elite: Affinity financing and smart leases
FinanceEntrepreneurshipSustainabilityGrowthDigital
The case documents the original mattress leasing program initiated by François Pugliese, the owner of premium mattress firm Elite in Etoy (Switzerland). Since the beds he sold targeted the higher e...
31 December 2021
Brown-Forman: Nothing better in the market
Case Study
Brown-Forman: Nothing better in the market
Family BusinessDiversity and Equity and InclusionStrategySustainabilityValue Creation
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 curre...
31 December 2021
Case Study
Celonis: The process mining unicorn
Big DataProcess ManagementTechnology ManagementStart-upGrowth
MUNICH, GERMANY, JANUARY 2019. Bastian Nominacher pondered how much Celonis had changed from its start in 2011, when he and his two co-founders were coding in a crammed 15-square-meter room in his ...
15 December 2021
Case Study
Jupiter Bach: Committing to sustainability
SustainabilityEthics
The case documents the efforts by Lone Stubberup, Global Director of Quality, Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE), to convert her employer to the highest sustainability standards through all its ...
14 October 2021
Article
Sheltering-in-privilege: Silicon Valley
EntrepreneurshipOrganizational TransformationTechnology Management
We suggest that one source of understanding entrepreneurial resilience and regional culture is through the denizens of Silicon Valley, and how they are handling crisis situations. We surveyed 119 e...
10 June 2021
Case Study
Alfa Bank (Kazakhstan): Digitalizing through agile teams
Strategy
Alfa Group for a long time was named as one of the leading private banking groups in Russia and CIS countries with successful and continuous business growth. Alfa-Bank (Kazakhstan), a subsidiary of...
7 May 2021
Case Study
Zenith watches: Ticking to a new beat
EntrepreneurshipStrategyAgility
The case highlights the dilemma of Zenith watches, a company that got stuck in its own tradition and lost its drive to innovate, relying too long on technical inventions of the past. Julien Tornare...
31 December 2020
Insight for Executives
Winning sustainability strategies
Report
Winning sustainability strategies
SustainabilityStrategy
As the expectations on corporate responsibility increase, and as transparency becomes more prevalent, companies are recognizing the need to act on sustainability. Professional communications and go...
9 December 2022
How oil independent survived threat to its ethical values
Article
How oil independent survived threat to its ethical values
SustainabilityEthics
Lundin Energy’s longstanding commitment to sustainability was challenged by an oil price war and the slump caused by the pandemic. Here’s how the company rose to the challenge.
16 September 2021
Small is beautiful: how to nurture niche entrepreneurship
Article
Small is beautiful: how to nurture niche entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship Finance Strategy
Entrepreneurship in Switzerland seems to be the exact opposite of that in Silicon Valley and can be described as low-impact entrepreneurship, or niche-centric entrepreneurship. We used an online su...
22 June 2020
Article
Family businesses in the times of crisis and global recession: A story of resilience and sustainability
Family BusinessSustainability
In its long history, Firmenich has successfully navigated numerous crises (such as previous pandemics, economic depressions, and world wars). That history has taught Firmenich that resilience (e.g....
22 April 2020
How a chocolate company cleaned up its supply chain and started the transformation of an industry
Article
How a chocolate company cleaned up its supply chain and started the transformation of an industry
Growth Social Innovation Supply Chain Sustainability Value Creation
What gives a brand the ability to stand head and shoulders above a saturated marketplace? What enables it to win loyalty and enthusiasm from its employees and its audience? What gives it staying po...
10 September 2019
Article
Formula One motor firms are becoming textbook cases in how to successfully branch into other sectors
DigitalGrowth
Formula One race cars are the most technologically advanced cars in existence. Every car is equipped with 120 sensors which generate over a million pieces of information every second. This torrent ...
15 March 2019
Article
From single business to portfolio of businesses: When does the family business become a business family?
Family Business
Everything flows and evolves. And family businesses are no exception. From the first-generation founder firm to a real family firm in later generations, and from a single business firm to a complex...
13 March 2019
Article
Comment les entreprises peuvent à la fois être climatiques et rentables
SustainabilityInvestmentStrategy
According to the World Meteorological Organization, CO2 levels have peaked over the last 650'000 years, as have average temperatures, since the world has had its nine warmest years since 2005. The ...
23 November 2018
Sustainability and the art of doing less
Article
Sustainability and the art of doing less
Sustainability
Companies and executives must develop a new sense of urgency, moving their sustainability programs from the realm of compliance to that of a key driver of performance and innovation, which requires...
22 November 2018
De Agostini: Transforming the business and the family
Article
De Agostini: Transforming the business and the family
Agility Entrepreneurship Family Business Growth Organizational Transformation
IMD recognized De Agostini Group, a third- to fifth-generation family enterprise, for its ability to evolve from a traditional publishing house to a global investment holding in just two decades. T...
12 October 2018
Pentland Group: A family of brands
Article
Pentland Group: A family of brands
Brand Management Entrepreneurship Family Business Sustainability
Receiving one of the most prestigious accolades for "excellence in family business" was a memorable moment for Andy Rubin, third generation family shareholder and chairman of Pentland Brands – the ...
8 December 2017
Article
Bavaria: Collaboration for the Common Good
Family Business
Bavaria N.V. is the second largest brewery and one of the top ten oldest family businesses in the Netherlands. Headquartered in Lieshout, North Brabant, the company is fully owned by the Swinkels f...
1 November 2017
Article
Pentland Group: Building a family brands, for the world to love, generation after generation
Family BusinessBrand ManagementEntrepreneurship
Pentland Group plc is a family-owned global company operating in the areas of sports, fashion and outdoors clothing and footwear via its three divisions. Its brand management business, Pentland Bra...
1 November 2017
Article
Adidas Russia/CIS and the Russian Crisis: Retrentch or double down
Supply ChainDistribution Channel
This case is based on extensive semi-structured interviews with key adidas Russia/CIS executives who were in charge of implementing the radical IT, supply chain and omnichannel initiatives that tra...
8 September 2017
The rise of Runtastic
Article
The rise of Runtastic
Agility Entrepreneurship Organizational Design Strategy
In 2006, three young Austrian had a brilliant idea: a tracking system for amateur runners to record runs and improve their times. They knew that more people were taking up running. They had the tec...
26 July 2017
Jebsen and Jessen Family Enterprise: Masters of entrepreneurial partnerships
Article
Jebsen and Jessen Family Enterprise: Masters of entrepreneurial partnerships
Corporate Governance Entrepreneurship
Receiving one of the most prestigious accolades for "excellence in family business" was a memorable moment for Hans Michael Jebsen and Heinrich Jessen – the two principal shareholders of Jebsen & J...
20 January 2017
Article
Portraits croisés sur l'innovation
Strategy
Panorama succinct de qulques classements et indicateurs mesurant l'innovation en Belgique, au Luxembourg et en Suisse.
1 September 2016
Article
Featured case: JM Huber: A family of solutions
Family Business
The company in this case places equal importance on family and business. As can be imagined, both positives and negatives result from this. The positives are very clear, including fast decision-mak...
19 November 2015
Article
Values affinity and beyond (part 2): Managing the partnership between HNWI and family business
Family BusinessInvestment
In this article we review some important elements of the mutual attractions and the consequential key issues in managing the relationship over time. How do you keep the emotional flame alive over t...
6 October 2015
Are family businesses soft and fuzzy or just better at handling paradoxes?
Article
Are family businesses soft and fuzzy or just better at handling paradoxes?
Family Business
It's often intriguing how family businesses are able to mesh emotional with pure business considerations to generate original and exceptional performance. One of the first academics to highlight th...
5 August 2015
Finding purpose, driving innovation and executing change