Kamran Kashani

Professor Emeritus of Marketing and Global Strategy

Kamran Kashani is Professor Emeritus of Marketing and Global Strategy. He teaches topics in marketing, brand building, global strategy, and international management. His special interests span industrial, business-to-business, and consumer marketing.

He has worked as a consultant and management educator with a large number of international companies including ABB, Avon, Ciba-Geigy, Citibank, Coopers & Lybrand, Electrolux, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, Merck, Medtronic, Nestlé, Orkla, Philip Morris, Reuters, Richardson Vicks, Sandoz, Sulzer, Uponor, and Tetra Pak.

Kashani graduated from the University of California, UCLA, and gained his Doctorate in Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

He has written extensively on the subject of marketing and global strategy, and his publications have been translated into more than a dozen languages around the world. He is the winner of several awards for best paper and case writing. He is ranked second in the Case Center’s top 40 best-selling case authors (among more than 8,000) for the last two years.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities at IMD, he is currently researching the topics of marketing innovation and brand building in a cross-national business.

Academic publications
Case Study
GMC managing through the Covid-19 pandemic: Shooting for the moon or set up to fail
Organizational BehaviorLeadershipDiversity and Equity and InclusionSustainability
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 ...
15 December 2021
Case Study
Jan van Hasenbroek (A): A “red-pencil” leader at a crossroads
Organizational Behavior
Jan Van Hasenbroek, an entrepreneur founder and managing partner of IG&H consulting firm, is in trouble. He is known in his company as the “red pencil” manager for his micromanagement of consultant...
25 June 2020
Case Study
Jan van Hasenbroek (B): Going back to school
Organizational Behavior
This 2-page case describes the decision Jan took to try to change the way he led IG&H, having been made aware of the harm his leadership was inflicting on the people he managed. He described this r...
25 June 2020
Case Study
Value selling at SKF Service (C): Meeting John Elliot
MarketingBusiness to Business
The case is the final instalment in the SKF series describing the meeting between Steelcorp and SKF representatives and the ensuing price negotiation. The case describes how two opposing initial po...
12 March 2010
Case Study
Value selling at SKF Service (A): Tough buyer confronts strategy
MarketingBusiness to Business
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 ben...
11 November 2009
Case Study
Value selling at SKF Service (B): Facing a tough buyer
MarketingBusiness to Business
This case is the follow up to Value Selling at SKF (A) and updates the students on important decisions and events. The President of the Service division has decided not to participate in Steelcorp’...
11 November 2009
Case Study
Xiameter: The past and future of a “disruptive innovation”
Marketing
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: ...
1 December 2006
Case Study
Tetra Pak (D): Results achieved (and the remaining issues)
Marketing
The D-case describes some of the results achieved within the first two years following the implementation of customer satisfaction initiative. Some of the results are impressive, others not. The ca...
20 June 2003
Case Study
Tetra Pak (A): The challenge of intimacy with a key customer
Marketing
The A-case of this series describes a failed attempt to sell new packaging machinery to a key Italian customer facing declining sales and profits in its milk business. Tetra Pak's analysis leads th...
13 June 2003
Case Study
Tetra Pak (B): The customer satisfaction initiative
Marketing
The B-case describes Tetra Pak's second proposal to its key Italian customer, a strategy that is finally accepted. At the same time an international customer satisfaction survey shows that Tetra Pa...
13 June 2003
Case Study
Tetra Pak (C): Implementing new initiatives
Marketing
The C-case describes Tetra Pak's decision to implement the customer satisfaction survey among all its local operations worldwide. The case also lists a number of other initiatives to re-orient the ...
13 June 2003
Case Study
Innovation and renovation: The Nespresso story (Revised)
Marketing
The case traces the development of the Nespresso System in a 100%-owned affiliate deliberately placed outside of Nestlé's main organisational structure. It highlights the team's successes and chall...
11 February 2000
Case Study
Mediquip S.A. (R)
Marketing
The case describes the selling activities of a sales engineer with respect to a key account. The loss of the order for a CT-Scanner provides the background for analyzing the dynamics of the buying ...
1 October 1991
Article
Nokia Data: A case study on European expansion
StrategyMarketingTalent ManagementGrowth
In this case study of Nokia Data Corporation, Kamran Kashani and Robert Howard examine the company's European growth strategy for the 90s that it was busy discussing in the late 80s. In contrast to...
1 March 1991
Insight for Executives
Article
Marketers as innovators - anticipate needs
StrategyMarketing
Is your marketing innovative enough to anticipate the needs of your customers tomorrow and drive your market growth?¦The author shares his findings about the barriers preventing innovation in large...
30 March 2009
Fighting commoditization
Article
Fighting commoditization
Marketing Strategy Value Creation
If the role of marketing was ever to bring about a balanced relationship between sellers and buyers, then in many industrial sectors it has failed to live up to that promise. Consider the following...
1 October 2008
Article
The essence of building an effective brand
Brand ManagementCustomer CentricityMarketing
Turning a name into a unique consumer experience requires a determined strategy over time. Kamran Kashani proposes a framework to follow.
18 December 2000
Article
A new future for brands
MarketingBrand ManagementCompetitivenessInvestment
Brands have been under unrelenting attack from low-priced alternatives as companies from IBM in personal computers to Procter & Gamble in personal care products will readily testify. This turnaroun...
10 November 1995