Niccolò Pisani is Professor of Strategy and International Business. His areas of expertise include strategy design and execution as well as international business.
His teaching helps leaders to identify the strategic choices with the greatest impact and to develop the capabilities needed to excel in their execution. Leveraging his research on global business, decision-makers can better appreciate the nuances of doing business across borders and formulate real impact strategies to compete in today’s increasingly multifaceted international landscape.
Today, more than ever, companies need to be aware of the critical role they play in our society, and actively contribute to resolving some of the enduring global issues of our times – not only because consumers are increasingly attracted to ‘good’ companies, but because society at large needs more socially responsible businesses that create economic prosperity in a sustainable manner.
Pisani’s empirical research work has been published in top-tier academic journals such as Strategic Management Journal, the Journal of International Business Studies, the Journal of Management, and the Journal of Management Studies. His article on international sustainability research in the Journal of World Business won the 2017 International Association for Business and Society (IABS) Best Published Paper Award. His work has also been featured by the World Economic Forum and extensively covered in the media across continents, e.g., in The New York Times, the Financial Times, CNBC, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, South China Morning Post, Forbes, Nikkei, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Le Monde, Valor Econômico, El País, Expansión, and la Repubblica.
Meanwhile, his practitioner-oriented work has been featured in both Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. He has also produced several popular case studies and won The Case Centre’s Overall Award in 2022 for “adidas: How to keep running fast in a post-COVID-19 world?”, which was the best-selling case out of the over 60,000 held by The Case Centre, one of the world’s leading case distributors. In 2025, five of his case studies ranked as bestsellers amongst the over 30,000 cases globally distributed by Harvard Publishing, and he won both the EFMD Global Case Writing Competition Award and The Case Centre Strategy and General Management Award for his case “Future-proofing HEINEKEN: The EverGreen strategy.”
He is also a member of the editorial review boards of the Journal of International Business Studies and Journal of International Business Policy.
At IMD, Pisani teaches on both the MBA and EMBA degree programs and several open programs, including IMD’s flagship Orchestrating Winning Performance. He has also directed or taught in several custom programs for more than 30 organizations, including OCBC, ACWA Power, HEINEKEN, Sandvik, Siam Cement Group, Ipsen, Mondelez, Jerónimo Martins, Tetra Pak, Telenor, Coca-Cola, Midea, Bank Mandiri, Velux, ASM, Valmet, BMW, Red Sea Gateway Terminal, and Richemont.
He has more than 10 years of teaching experience at different program levels, including master’s degrees, executive education, and custom programs, and was a tenured associate professor at the University of Amsterdam before joining IMD in 2020.
In addition to his experience in academia, Pisani brings four years of industry experience gained at Sanlorenzo, a global leader in high-end luxury yachting, where he was responsible for international sales of tailor-made motor yachts up to 36 meters.
Early in his career, he worked as a researcher in finance and investments for Merrill Lynch in its San Francisco office. He speaks five languages – Italian, English, French, Spanish, and German.
