How Covid-19 tests entrepreneurs’ agility (B): Mobilizing through the crisis

Holcim is a Swiss multinational company that manufactures cement and building materials. Excluding China, it is the top cement producer in the world. Holcim is also a top 50 CO2 emissions emitter. And it decisively put sustainability efforts front and center in its overall strategy. The case describes the integration of different sustainability initiatives into Holcim's overall strategy over more than a decade, a period during which the firm underwent massive transformations, including a merger with Lafarge, a major pivot from cement to construction materials, the sale of assets in key countries and a spin off of its North-American operations. The case pivots the discussion from the traditional question: 'What does Holcim do for sustainability?' to a more interesting one: 'What does sustainability do for Holcim?' It brings clarity to the different ways through which sustainability contributes to the firm's strategy: compliance, resilience and market advantage. Focusing on market advantage, it shows the vast repertoire of sustainability actions that can impact a firm's strategy and how sustainability can be leveraged to create value. It also reveals that not all sustainability actions are designed to have a sustainability impact.

André Hoffmann explores how leaders can build resilient businesses by putting nature, purpose, and long-term value at the heart of their decisions.

Caroline Schmidt, 55, chief strategy officer of Edelweiss Corporation, has just led her company through a remarkable turnaround. When Henri Vonlanthen, CEO of Léman Corporation – a company twice Edelweiss's size – invites her to join Léman's board, Caroline sees a genuine opportunity: a bigger stage on which to apply the strategic and financial expertise that turned Edelweiss around, and a chance to help a storied family enterprise chart its next chapter. Léman, built over three generations by the Keller family and taken public in 2010, is a company with real assets and real needs: a strong balance sheet but a flat top line, two fast-growing subsidiaries alongside stagnant ones, and no clear long-term strategy. Its aging patriarch, Samuel Keller, remains chairman, and the board might need refreshment. Could Caroline, working alongside her ally Henri and maybe other board members, build the coalition needed to drive the strategic change Léman requires? Or would she find herself without the influence to move a set board, exposed instead to legacy issues and a possible conflict of interest with her own company? As Caroline's first appointment to a major board, her decision also carries a signaling dimension; the boards that a rising executive chooses to join, and how visibly she vets them, shape how the market will read her judgment for years to come. The case gives students a realistic, decision-forcing vehicle for weighing a directorship's opportunities against its risks: What due diligence a prospective director should conduct, how to assess whether one can genuinely influence and ally with fellow directors, and how a first major board appointment signals character and judgment to the market.

This paper reframes the concept of bricolage by returning to its foundational roots in Claude Lévi-Strauss's seminal 1962 work, The Savage Mind. By conducting a systematic review of entrepreneurial bricolage, which represents more than two thirds ...

Why long-term policy stability and infrastructure investments are essential for a secure, resilient power supply.

Pia Heidenmark Cook and Julia Binder discuss Embedding Sustainability, IKEA, ESG strategy, corporate sustainability, leadership and business transformation.

Based on 41 interviews across three UK-based commons enterprises, this study addresses one of the most pressing challenges of our time: encouraging local actors to contribute to the sustainable governance of supra-local common-pool resources (CPRs...

Learn how Windworks aims to close energy gaps with onsite, smart wind turbines and the funding-time equation shaping its path to viability.

Explore why climate-linked executive pay cannot close the commitment gap alone and what boards must do to turn climate ambition into credible action.

Prepare your luxury brand for the sustainability transformation ahead. In Purposeful Luxury: The Strategic Playbook for Sustainability in Luxury Industries, Stephane Girod delivers a strategic roadmap for luxury executives facing an existential ch...