IMD professors have written some of the bestselling cases of 2021, exploring subjects including how Adidas CEO Kasper Rorstad kept the sportswear giant on a growth trajectory despite the challenges of COVID-19, and how ECOALF built a sustainable fashion company.
“Case studies are valuable teaching tools,” noted Anand Narasimhan, Dean of Research at IMD and Shell Professor of Global Leadership. “When faculty and researchers are working on a case, they are in direct, in-depth contact with the relevant companies. This gives them insights about business and particular companies that is not available from public sources.”
Nine current faculty members and two former IMD experts were named by The Case Center (TCC) in its 2021 bestselling and classic cases lists, underlining the Institute’s global reputation for excellence in case writing.
The most sold cases from TCC in 2021 include:
- ECOALF: Because There Is No Planet B by Benoit Leleux
- Value Selling at SKF Service (A): Tough Buyer Confronts Strategy by Kamran Kashani
- Reinventing Nespresso? The Challenges of a Market Leader Under Attack by Kamran Kashani, Dominique Turpin and Fang Liu
- Unilever Tea (A): Revitalizing Lipton’s Supply Chain by Ralf Seifert
- Adidas: How to Keep Running Fast in a Post-COVID-19 World by Niccolò Pisani
- Michelin Fleet Solutions: From Selling Tires to Selling Kilometers by Fréderic Dalsace
- Patagonia’s Sustainability Strategy: Don’t Buy Our Products by Francisco Szekely
- Colgate-Palmolive: Cleopatra by Sandra Vandermerwe
Three of Kamran Kashani’s cases exploring issues in Marketing were cited as classics:
- Innovation and Renovation: The Nespresso Story by Kamran Kashani and Joyce Miller
- Value Selling at SKF Service (A): Tough Buyer Confronts Strategy by Kamran Kashani and Aimee DuBrule
- Xiameter: The Past and Future of a “Disruptive Innovation” by Kamran Kashani and Inna Francis
Among the classics were:
- Lego: Consolidating Distribution (A) by Carlos Cordon, Ralf W. Seifert and Edwin Wellian
- Nestle’s Globe Program (A): The Early Months by Peter J. Killing
- The Enron Collapse by Stewart Hamilton and Inna Francis
The annual charts give details of the top 15 most popular cases across 10 subject categories, from entrepreneurship and strategy to marketing and ethics, based on the number of individual organizations ordering and teaching the case over the last five years.
This year’s lists cover the work of 305 authors from 41 institutions in 14 countries.
IMD’s faculty members have developed case studies for more than 50 years. There is more information on the latest cases published, award-winning cases and collections by subject here.
