Case Studies Collection - IMD business school for management and leadership courses

Case Study

DNB Bank: Embracing startups as a growth strategy

The case examines how DNB Bank, Norway’s largest financial services company, reshaped its growth strategy by focusing on startups and SMEs, a segment traditionally considered unprofitable. In 2013, DNB launched a bold SME strategy, deliberately choosing a gross approach to win new startups early in their life cycle rather than a net approach foc…

Strategy Customer Centricity Business to Business

By Goutam Challagalla, Francis D. Kim and Philip Charles Zerrillo

DNB Bank: Embracing startups as a growth strategy

By Goutam Challagalla Francis D. Kim and Philip Charles Zerrillo
Case reference: IMD-2706 ©2025

Summary

The case examines how DNB Bank, Norway’s largest financial services company, reshaped its growth strategy by focusing on startups and SMEs, a segment traditionally considered unprofitable. In 2013, DNB launched a bold SME strategy, deliberately choosing a gross approach to win new startups early in their life cycle rather than a net approach focused on the profitability of existing accounts. This strategy, enabled by a significant investment in digitalization and a cultural shift toward customer lifecycle engagement, generated exceptional results and by 2025, the SME segment delivered the highest return on allocated capital. The journey, however, was not linear. A European regulatory crackdown in 2019, following the Danske Bank money laundering scandal, forced DNB to shift its focus from growth to compliance. The bank reallocated 1,000 employees to KYC units, dismantling its startup-friendly onboarding process and causing customer acquisition to stall. As competitors advanced, DNB had to orchestrate a strategic Restart effort to rebuild its SME leadership. This involved launching superior digital tools, providing automated lending decisions within a minute, and renewing its customer-centric focus. By 2025, the recovery was well underway, with one in three Norwegian SMEs banking with DNB. The case challenges students to evaluate DNB’s past choices, the critical balance between growth and compliance, and the future of SME banking as AI and digital agents transform customer interactions.

Reference IMD-2706

Copyright owner IMD Copyright

Organization DNB Bank

Industry Finance and Insurance, Banking

Available Languages English

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Related topics

Strategy

Customer Centricity

Business to Business

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Case Study

MedTech Diagnostics’ transformation crossroads

The case study examines the organizational transformation challenges faced by MedTech Diagnostics, an $850 million medical diagnostics company attempting to balance innovation speed with regulatory compliance and quality standards. CEO Patricia Chen must navigate the tension between traditional, reliability-focused operations and agile innovatio…

Organizational Change Agility Business Transformation Leadership

By Michael D. Watkins

MedTech Diagnostics’ transformation crossroads

By Michael D. Watkins
Case reference: IMD-2726 ©2025

Summary

The case study examines the organizational transformation challenges faced by MedTech Diagnostics, an $850 million medical diagnostics company attempting to balance innovation speed with regulatory compliance and quality standards. CEO Patricia Chen must navigate the tension between traditional, reliability-focused operations and agile innovation pods, while facing a critical contract renewal worth $187 million that represents 22% of the company’s revenue. The case illustrates the complexities of dual operating models in regulated industries. MedTech’s traditional divisions generate $120M in EBITDA and are FDA-compliant but are declining at 8% annually. Innovation pods achieve 120% growth and high customer satisfaction but face higher post-market issues and lower FDA approval rates. Hybrid teams – intended as a compromise – satisfy neither approach, demonstrating the difficulties of organizational ambidexterity. Chen faces three strategic options: controlled evolution over 24 months, creating a separate subsidiary for innovation, or transforming into a platform company. Each option carries significant costs, risks, and uncertain outcomes. The case explores critical organizational design questions, including culture change, stakeholder management, resource allocation, regulatory navigation, and leadership alignment in transformation contexts. Key themes include managing organizational culture during transformation, balancing innovation with quality in regulated environments, addressing internal resistance and political dynamics, developing effective dual operating systems, and making high-stakes strategic decisions under uncertainty. The case is designed for classroom discussion on organizational change, innovation management, and strategic decision-making in complex operating environments.

Reference IMD-2726

Copyright owner IMD Copyright

Organization MedTech Diagnostics (Fictionalized)

Available Languages English

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Related topics

Organizational Change

Agility

Business Transformation

Leadership

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Case Study

Confronting Elon Musk? Nia vs. Tesla

The case follows Kristin Hull, founder and CIO of Nia Impact Capital, a mission-driven investment firm in California, as she faces a pivotal decision in July 2025: Should she file a shareholder resolution against Tesla, Inc.? Hull and Nia have engaged Tesla for over five years on issues of human capital management, workplace equity and board ove…

Sustainability Corporate Governance Diversity and Equity and Inclusion Decision Making

By Vanina Farber and María Helena Jaén

Case Study

Thermax: Four paths to succession in a family business

From its origins as a manufacturer of hospital equipment for the Indian market, Thermax has grown into a multinational corporation operating in 90 countries, offering integrated solutions in heating, cooling, power generation, water treatment and recycling, air pollution control, and chemicals with a focus on ensuring clean air, clean energy and…

Family Business

By Peter Vogel and Anouk Lavoie Orlick

Case Study

Kontor: When VR faces reality. An internal innovator’s dilemma

The case looks at the fundamental challenges, tensions and opportunities associated with an internally run venture as opposed to an externally funded startup or spin-off company. It discusses the genesis and context of Kontor, an internal venture funded by Resmed Inc. Resmed is an S&P 500 MedTech company. At the time of the case, May 2024, Konto…

Innovation Strategy

By Jim Pulcrano, Greg Knight, Liming Chen and Michael Pinczuk

Case Study

The Lifeline Exercise: A reflective tool for leadership and career development

This exercise provides a structured reflection tool designed to help individuals explore the significant events, emotional highs and lows, and patterns that have shaped their personal and professional journeys. Commonly used in executive education, leadership development programs and coaching contexts, the Lifeline Exercise enables participants …

Leadership Coaching Purpose

By Michael D. Watkins

Case Study

The power of brand-led differentiation: What Vanzetti Engineering learned from luxury brands (B) (Video case)

This case series explores what companies can learn from luxury brands without becoming luxury brands themselves. The video B case features interviews with three Vanzetti Engineering executives: the marketing director, the CEO and owner and the chief commercial officer. With the shrinking of the automobile industry, the company has had to reposit…

Luxury Marketing Strategy

By Stéphane J. G. Girod and Martin Králik

The power of brand-led differentiation: What Vanzetti Engineering learned from luxury brands (B) (Video case)

By Stéphane J. G. Girod and Martin Králik
Case reference: IMD-2696 ©2025

Summary

This case series explores what companies can learn from luxury brands without becoming luxury brands themselves. The video B case features interviews with three Vanzetti Engineering executives: the marketing director, the CEO and owner and the chief commercial officer. With the shrinking of the automobile industry, the company has had to reposition itself in other industrial sectors where it is significantly smaller than the customers. Vanzetti Engineering embraced some of the codes of luxury branding according to what suited it and ignored others. The company discovered that although it was focused mostly on creating functional value, it had to dwell much more on emotional and societal value creation. The process of brand elevation required a complete cultural transformation, and one of the lessons from the case is that a brand is not a slogan but a way of being and of delivering value.

Reference IMD-2696

Copyright owner IMD Copyright

Organization Vanzetti Engineering

Industry Construction and Engineering;Manufacturing

Available Languages English

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Related topics

Luxury

Marketing

Strategy

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Case Study

The power of brand-led differentiation: What Vanzetti Engineering learned from luxury brands (A)

Survey after survey shows that executives think their business is in danger of being commoditized. This means their company is not able to differentiate sufficiently to command higher market prices and profits. Luxury brands, by contrast, are the opposite of commodity. Their whole approach to branding is based on desirability. This case series e…

Luxury Marketing Strategy

By Stéphane J. G. Girod and Martin Králik

The power of brand-led differentiation: What Vanzetti Engineering learned from luxury brands (A)

By Stéphane J. G. Girod and Martin Králik
Case reference: IMD-2688 ©2025

Summary

Survey after survey shows that executives think their business is in danger of being commoditized. This means their company is not able to differentiate sufficiently to command higher market prices and profits. Luxury brands, by contrast, are the opposite of commodity. Their whole approach to branding is based on desirability. This case series explores what companies can learn from luxury brands without becoming luxury brands themselves. The written A case gives a short background on Vanzetti Engineering, which is facing intensifying competition in an evolving marketplace, and launches the first question for discussion.

Reference IMD-2688

Copyright owner IMD Copyright

Organization Vanzetti Engineering

Industry Construction and Engineering;Manufacturing

Available Languages English

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Related topics

Luxury

Marketing

Strategy

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Case Study

Evoco AG: Unlocking private equity potential

Michel Galeazzi and Felix Ackermann, founding partners of the private equity firm Evoco, sat with the rest of the team pondering the latest strategic issues. Evoco had evolved significantly as a fund manager since its creation in 2012, taking advantage of newly identified opportunities and developing novel competencies. Its first three funds ha…

Entrepreneurship Finance Venture Capital

By Benoit F. Leleux and Ricardo Rodriguez Plazas

Evoco AG: Unlocking private equity potential

By Benoit F. Leleux and Ricardo Rodriguez Plazas
Case reference: IMD-2689 ©2025

Summary

Michel Galeazzi and Felix Ackermann, founding partners of the private equity firm Evoco, sat with the rest of the team pondering the latest strategic issues. Evoco had evolved significantly as a fund manager since its creation in 2012, taking advantage of newly identified opportunities and developing novel competencies. Its first three funds had an excellent track record, which provided a strong platform to continue learning and to evolve the business models of its funds. Evoco’s founding premise was to develop business solutions for governance and liquidity issues that emerged in private equity, creating investment opportunities for its investors in the process. The first two funds, Evoco TSE I and II, focused primarily on developing secondary solutions for liquidity and governance issues in private equity, i.e. acquiring portfolios of positions in late-stage or undermanaged buyout funds, and creating value by accelerating exits and engineering a palette of value-creating, hands-on strategic initiatives. The sellers typically required liquidity for some reason, e.g. new investment paradigms, better allocation opportunities or team reorganization. With Evoco TSE III, the strategy was refined, opening the door to single-asset deals and ever more original value creation interventions facilitated by majority ownership positions. When US President Donald Trump announced a tsunami of new tariffs on ‘Liberation Day’ 2 April 2025, the world of trade and industry was thrown into disarray, and private equity with it. Would it make sense to capitalize on the upheaval by tweaking the firm’s strategy again to fine-tune an even more compelling investment proposition? Which direction should that take?

Reference IMD-2689

Copyright owner IMD Copyright

Organization Evoco

Industry Finance and Insurance, Private Equity

Available Languages English

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Related topics

Entrepreneurship

Finance

Venture Capital

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Case Study

From complexity to clarity: How ABB transformed its operating model (B)

The case study explores the second phase of ABB’s 2018 to 2024 transformation journey to restore confidence in the underperforming conglomerate through a simplification of its structure and a focus on accelerating decision making. Under interim CEO Peter Voser and later Björn Rosengren (2020–2024), ABB decentralized operations, optimized headcou…

Business Transformation Organizational Change

By Heather Cairns-Lee, Anand Narasimhan and Valerie Keller-Birrer

Case Study

Sandoz (B): The art of staying true to your mission

This case series explores Sandoz’s spin off from Novartis, which was finalized on 4 October 2023. Case B looks at Sandoz once it has become independent. The hard work of figuring out the best way to spin off is done, a new strategy created, and some difficult choices made. But now how will CEO Richard Saynor and his leadership team ensure that S…

Strategy Leadership Global Business

By Jim Pulcrano, Charan Singh, Zita Falk, Franciska Darmer and Barbara Schmidt-Ley

Case Study

Green or greenwashing? A 95 million dollar sustainability paradox for Michelin and BNP Paribas

The Tropical Landscapes Finance Facility Sustainability Bond (TLFF I) was initially celebrated as a best-in-class example of sustainable finance. Issued in 2018, this $95 million financial instrument aimed to create a promising future: sustainable natural rubber plantations in Indonesia that balanced ecological preservation, local livelihoods an…

Sustainability Stakeholder Management Crisis Management Social Innovation

By Vanina Farber and Shih-Han Huang

Case Study

Sandoz China: Do we stay or do we go?

The Sandoz leadership team faced an important decision as it broke away from Novartis and became a public company. Should Sandoz retain the global geographical coverage it had had in its many years as part of Novartis? Or should it focus on fewer geographies and a simplification of the business models it was using? Since Sandoz was in a lower ma…

Strategy China Leadership

By Mark J. Greeven and Jim Pulcrano

Case Study

Sandoz (A): Breaking free to stand alone

This case series explores Sandoz’s spin off from Novartis, which was finalized on 4 October 2023. Case A follows Richard Saynor’s (CEO, Sandoz) ruminations as he builds the company strategy in preparation for the board’s approval of Sandoz as a standalone company. The narrative outlines the key strategic areas that Richard, along with his senior…

Strategy Leadership Global Business

By Jim Pulcrano, Charan Singh, Zita Falk, Franciska Darmer and Barbara Schmidt-Ley

Case Study

From complexity to clarity: How ABB transformed its operating model (A)

The case study explores the first phase of ABB’s 2018 to 2024 transformation journey as it tackled longstanding challenges: financial underperformance, declining market confidence and inefficiencies in its complex matrix structure. To streamline operations, CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer initiated a restructuring of its main business areas in 2018, incl…

Business Transformation Organizational Change

By Heather Cairns-Lee, Anand Narasimhan and Valerie Keller-Birrer