IMD returns to the top 10 in The Case Centre’s list of bestselling authors
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IMD once more in the top 10 in The Case Centre’s list of bestselling authors

Six faculty members have made the list of the Top 50 Bestselling Case Authors 2021/2022, with IMD Emeritus Professor Kamran Kashani back in the top 10 of authors who sold the most copies during the previous academic year.
October 2022

Three current faculty members, and three former IMD experts, have been named among the Case Centre’s top 50 best-selling authors in 2021/2022.

“Case studies are a staple of business school education,” said Anand Narasimhan, Dean of Research at IMD and Shell Professor of Global Leadership. “The fact that six faculty are on this year’s bestselling list is a testament to the in-depth insights they obtain from working closely with companies.”

Professor Emeritus of Marketing and Global Strategy Kamran Kashani, one of the most successful case writers in his field, was back in the top 10 in eighth place.

Professor Emeritus of Strategy Peter Killing came in 28th, closely followed by Carlos Cordon, Professor of Strategy and Supply Chain Management at 29th. On the list for a second year was Professor of Strategy and Marketing Stefan Michel at 36th, while Emeritus Professor of Marketing Strategy Dominique Turpin was back on the list at 41st. Completing the sextet was Benoît Leleux, the Stephan Schmidheiny Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance, at 45th.

Kashani’s best-selling case this year was Innovation and Renovation: The Nespresso Story which traces the development of the Nespresso system and examines how to innovate within a large, highly structured organization.

To become a bestseller, Kashani believes, a case must excite the reader-student by examining a compelling challenge facing a real-world company.

“A good case must raise tough questions that can be, and should be, examined and debated from multiple angles in class discussion. Case questions that are fairly simple and meant to lead to a single answer rarely lead to lasting student learning,” he said.

The third element is ensuring that a case is short, easy to read and accompanied by a teacher’s note that helps the teacher bring about a high-energy class discussion, he added.

While business education may have evolved over the years to become more experiential, with discovery expeditions to Dubai and Buenos Aires and a staged COP simulation of the UN’s climate conference part being part of the curricula for the IMD MBA Class of 2022, case studies still remain a valuable teaching tool.

Kashani believes this is because case studies in themselves are a “vehicle for experiential learning” that provide, for example, an “Aha” moment about a challenging management problem in the course of discussion among classmates.

“These often emotionally laden new insights and learnings are those that remain with our students for years, even decades,” he said.

The Case Centre is the world’s largest and most diverse collection of management cases, articles, book chapters and teaching materials, making a top 50 spot a special achievement.

Case studies, which posit real-life business situations, are popular tools in management education to help hone learners’ ability to understand the minutiae and to analyze effectively. For more than 50 years, IMD’s faculty has developed case studies that have proven to be a timeless tool for developing the leadership capabilities of executives.

Find more of IMD’s cases.