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

Case Study

Entrepreneurship through acquisition: NCA’s operator-led search fund approach

The case investigates the supported search fund model pioneered by Novastone Capital Advisors (NCA) through which mid-career executives can achieve their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs though the acquisition of an SME. NCA provides support through the various phases of the program, from talent selection, training, target searches, due diligenc…

Entrepreneurship Strategy Finance

By Benoit F. Leleux

Entrepreneurship through acquisition: NCA’s operator-led search fund approach

By Benoit F. Leleux
Case reference: IMD-7-2513 ©2026

Summary

The case investigates the supported search fund model pioneered by Novastone Capital Advisors (NCA) through which mid-career executives can achieve their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs though the acquisition of an SME. NCA provides support through the various phases of the program, from talent selection, training, target searches, due diligence, M&A, value creation and exit engineering.

Reference IMD-7-2513

Copyright owner IMD Copyright

Organization Novastone Capital Advisors

Industry Finance and Insurance, Private Equity

Available Languages English

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Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Related topics

Entrepreneurship

Strategy

Finance

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Case Study

Understanding and influencing stakeholders

Senior leaders rarely get their most important work done by issuing orders. A CTO cannot compel a partner firm, a dean cannot order a faculty to embrace a curriculum, a ministry cannot be forced to share data. On the questions that matter, outcomes depend on people with agendas and loyalties of their own. This note details a two-part discipline …

Stakeholder Management Organizational Change Change Management Negotiation

By Michael D. Watkins

Understanding and influencing stakeholders

By Michael D. Watkins
Case reference: IMD-2789 ©2026

Summary

Senior leaders rarely get their most important work done by issuing orders. A CTO cannot compel a partner firm, a dean cannot order a faculty to embrace a curriculum, a ministry cannot be forced to share data. On the questions that matter, outcomes depend on people with agendas and loyalties of their own. This note details a two-part discipline for understanding and influencing stakeholders. The diagnostic section asks who can affect the outcome, where their influence comes from and how things look from their side. It challenges common intuitions: coalitions beat individuals, intensity beats headcount, friendships are not alliances, and the fiercest resistance defends identity and legacy, so no concession will buy it off. Tools include the influence-alignment matrix, network mapping, listening tours, decision archaeology and force-field analysis. The strategic section converts diagnosis into movement, i.e. how to: frame each ask in the currency the audience values, sequence conversations so support accumulates before the decisive meeting, secure small commitments and avoid reactive coalition building, where a leader’s own defensiveness unites opponents who agree on nothing else. Written for leaders in business, universities, government and non-profits, the note compares stakeholder management challenges across sectors and closes with a transparency test separating influence from manipulation. A companion exercise (IMD-2789-E) turns the frameworks into a plan for a live challenge.

Reference IMD-2789

Copyright owner IMD Copyright

Available Languages English

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Related topics

Stakeholder Management

Organizational Change

Change Management

Negotiation

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Case Study

A thread of hope: Gender lens due diligence on Bankamoda

The Bankamoda case looks at due diligence in the impact investing context. The protagonist, Estefanía Abello, is a Colombia-based senior associate at the Swiss AlphaMundi Group (AMG), an impact first but very commercially minded impact investor that invests in Africa and Latin America. Since 2017, AMG had been integrating gender analysis through…

Diversity and Equity and Inclusion Entrepreneurship Finance Social Innovation Sustainability

By Vanina Farber and Shih-Han Huang

A thread of hope: Gender lens due diligence on Bankamoda

By Vanina Farber and Shih-Han Huang
Case reference: IMD-7-2516 ©2026

Summary

The Bankamoda case looks at due diligence in the impact investing context. The protagonist, Estefanía Abello, is a Colombia-based senior associate at the Swiss AlphaMundi Group (AMG), an impact first but very commercially minded impact investor that invests in Africa and Latin America. Since 2017, AMG had been integrating gender analysis throughout its investment process. The case opens with Abello having completed the due diligence and considering her recommendation to the AMG Investment Committee on whether to invest in Bankamoda, a women-founded, women-led fintech offering loans to the underbanked micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the apparel and textile industry in Columbia. While this startup fit the profile gender lens investing perspective, the investment also carried significant risks. Students assume the role of Abello and need to balance impact and financial considerations and consider risk mitigation strategies as they make a recommendation. Through this case, students can experience a real impact investing due diligence, understand gender lens investing, explore the layers of considerations needed to build a compelling investment case and simulate how best to present proposals to an investment committee.

Reference IMD-7-2516

Copyright owner IMD Copyright

Organization Bankamoda

Industry Finance and Insurance, Investment Management;Finance and Insurance, Financial Services

Available Languages English

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Related topics

Diversity and Equity and Inclusion

Entrepreneurship

Finance

Social Innovation

Sustainability

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Case Study

Zamil Group: Growing a family business into a diversified holding

Founded in 1920 as a modest trading house in the Arabian Gulf, Zamil Group has grown into one of the Middle East’s most diversified business groups, with activities spanning manufacturing, petrochemicals, real estate and investments. As the portfolio expanded and some operating companies were listed or divested, the family gradually shifted from…

Family Business Corporate Governance Business Transformation Leadership

By Peter Vogel and Anouk Lavoie

Zamil Group: Growing a family business into a diversified holding

By Peter Vogel and Anouk Lavoie
Case reference: IMD-2751 ©2026

Summary

Founded in 1920 as a modest trading house in the Arabian Gulf, Zamil Group has grown into one of the Middle East’s most diversified business groups, with activities spanning manufacturing, petrochemicals, real estate and investments. As the portfolio expanded and some operating companies were listed or divested, the family gradually shifted from a family‑managed operating conglomerate toward a financial holding model. This strategic transition fundamentally reshaped the family’s role – from hands‑on operators to long‑term owners and stewards of a diversified portfolio. At the heart of the case is the question of how enterprising families define success. Rather than equating success solely with financial performance or the preservation of specific legacy assets, the AlZamil family articulates a broader, multi‑dimensional conception of success that includes long‑term continuity, professionalization, societal contribution and the preparation of future generations. The case explores how this definition of success informs key governance choices, such as stricter family employment policies, the increasing reliance on non‑family executives, and the creation of a family office dedicated to wealth management and next generation development. The case also surfaces an important tension faced by many long‑lived family firms: whether selling a founding or symbolic business should be viewed as a failure or a responsible act of stewardship. By presenting the sale of the AlZamils’ legacy business, the case invites participants to contrast a heritage‑preservation logic with a stewardship‑and‑portfolio logic and to reflect on how different families reconcile emotional attachment with long‑term adaptability. The case is based on interviews with four family members holding leading roles in the AlZamil family enterprise system.

Reference IMD-2751

Copyright owner IMD Copyright

Organization Zamil Group

Industry Manufacturing

Available Languages English

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Related topics

Family Business

Corporate Governance

Business Transformation

Leadership

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Case Study

Slow Forest Coffee: Can a regenerative model scale?

The case tracks the development of Slow Forest Coffee, a company launched in 2017 on the belief that when producing food in a regenerative way, everyone benefits. Farmers flourish, nature thrives and the economy prospers. By 2025 Slow had converted almost 600 hectares of degraded monoculture coffee plantations in Laos into booming agroforestry f…

Sustainability Supply Chain Entrepreneurship Purpose

By Benoit F. Leleux, Julia K. Binder and Rina Raikamo

Slow Forest Coffee: Can a regenerative model scale?

By Benoit F. Leleux Julia K. Binder and Rina Raikamo
Case reference: IMD-2736 ©2026

Summary

The case tracks the development of Slow Forest Coffee, a company launched in 2017 on the belief that when producing food in a regenerative way, everyone benefits. Farmers flourish, nature thrives and the economy prospers. By 2025 Slow had converted almost 600 hectares of degraded monoculture coffee plantations in Laos into booming agroforestry farms, ensuring the preservation of an additional 1,000+ hectares by working with local smallholders. The coffee was roasted, packed and delivered by Slow to offices, hotels and coffee chains across Northern Europe. Thanks to vertical integration and investing in soil health and the whole ecosystem, unlike its competitors, Slow was not impacted by volatile and rapidly increasing coffee prices. The Slow model seemed to be working, both in environmental and financial terms, regenerating nature while yielding healthy, stable returns. A host of ongoing initiatives and matters needed to be discussed at the forthcoming board meeting, including which new customer segments the company should enter, how to adapt and scale marketing communications to support growth, the integration of the newly acquired coffee roaster in Kenya and the expansion of the supply base in the region, not to mention evolving resource needs as the company prepared to enter a bigger league. Slow was indeed buzzing with positive energy.

Reference IMD-2736

Copyright owner IMD Copyright

Organization Slow Forest

Industry Food Production, Agriculture;Consumer Goods, Coffee

Available Languages English

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Related topics

Sustainability

Supply Chain

Entrepreneurship

Purpose

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Case Study

The Final Whistle: Leadership, authority and moral choice at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations

The case chronicles the acute leadership crisis that erupted during the final minutes of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final match. It presents a real-world dilemma in which formal authority clashes with informal influence, and deeply held values are pitted against team solidarity. The central conflict revolves around Sadio Mané, a globally res…

Leadership Negotiation Decision Making Crisis Management

By Sarah Dagher Al Feghali, Sïmon Saneback and Tawfik M. Jelassi

Case Study

“Disrupting the perfect” – A leader’s quest to future-proof Novo Nordisk

In the years before its dramatic rise on the back of GLP-1 therapies, Novo Nordisk was best known for disciplined execution, a strong focus on diabetes and a long record of home-grown innovation. It met its targets with near predictable consistency, supported by stable structures and deeply embedded ways of working. Yet technological change, sci…

Leadership Strategy Change Management Innovation

By Zhike Lei, Salvatore Cantale and Shih-Han Huang

“Disrupting the perfect” – A leader’s quest to future-proof Novo Nordisk

By Zhike Lei Salvatore Cantale and Shih-Han Huang
Case reference: IMD-2766 ©2026

Summary

In the years before its dramatic rise on the back of GLP-1 therapies, Novo Nordisk was best known for disciplined execution, a strong focus on diabetes and a long record of home-grown innovation. It met its targets with near predictable consistency, supported by stable structures and deeply embedded ways of working. Yet technological change, scientific uncertainty and increasing market pressures challenged whether a model built on reliability and internal self-sufficiency could keep pace. This case examines how Marcus Schindler, an externally hired leader who would later become the company’s Chief Scientific Officer, attempted to future-proof Novo Nordisk’s research and development organization. Rather than relying on incremental improvements, he introduced ambitious aspirations, pushed teams to experiment beyond their comfort zones, normalized failure as a source of learning and tested new organizational structures alongside the existing core. As students follow these choices, the case exposes a set of concrete leadership dilemmas: How fast should a leader push change in a stable, successful organization? How do you gain credibility as an outsider without full consensus? How do you balance accountability and psychological safety? And how do you allocate attention between short-term execution and long-term renewal? The dilemma becomes sharper as Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 therapies deliver extraordinary commercial success, shifting focus toward operational execution and raising questions about whether exploration risks being crowded out by exploitation. A deeper leadership question also emerges: How does a leader stay true to a long-term vision when runaway success pulls attention toward the here and now? This case challenges readers to think critically about leading change in high-performing organizations, driving transformational innovation, managing competing time horizons, and making leadership choices when success itself becomes the biggest constraint.

Reference IMD-2766

Copyright owner IMD Copyright

Organization Novo Nordisk

Industry Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals

Available Languages English

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Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Related topics

Leadership

Strategy

Change Management

Innovation

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Case Study

UrbanLuxe: Supply chain product recall readiness

This short case exercise presents a rare but critical real-world business scenario: A large, multi-country, multi-site beauty company wishes to evaluate its capability to execute a major product recall. The need for a recall may be due to an internal quality issue or one caused by quality defects from a supplier. The CEO has seen a competitor st…

Operations Supply Chain Strategy Crisis Management

By Ralf W. Seifert, Richard Markoff and Olivier André Gléron

Case Study

The Mulliez Family Business: Unlocking the secrets of entrepreneurial DNA (A)

Though little-known outside of its home country of France, the Mulliez family enterprise is one of the largest privately held business networks in the world. The Association Familiale Mulliez (AFM) unites over 1,000 family shareholders and oversees a portfolio of more than 90 companies operating across retail, services and other sectors. Its fla…

Family Business

By Peter Vogel and Anouk Lavoie

Case Study

The Mulliez Family Business: Unlocking the secrets of entrepreneurial DNA (B)

Case B of the Mulliez Family Business case series examines the family’s entrepreneurial ‘DNA’: the unique set of characteristics that have enabled the Association Familiale Mulliez (AFM) to successfully nurture the ventures of the next generations. Case B picks up in the 1990s, as the Mulliez family renews its focus on entrepreneurship. It first…

Family Business

By Peter Vogel and Anouk Lavoie

Case Study

Northmen vs. pirates: Norsk Hydro says ‘no’ to hackers

In March 2019, Norsk Hydro (a Norwegian aluminum manufacturer and renewable energy company operating across 40 countries) suffered a large-scale ransomware attack that brought its global IT network to a complete standstill. Faced with encrypted systems across 160 sites and a ransom demand payable in bitcoin, the company’s leadership made a cruci…

Cybersecurity

By Öykü Işık and Lisa Simone Duke

Case Study

Daniela Studer and the board of Flosser (Mini case)

Daniela Studer, a highly accomplished executive with a background in engineering and global leadership, now serves as the only woman on the board of Flosser, a niche construction materials company recently acquired by a larger public firm. Despite her expertise and a mandate to professionalize the board, Daniela finds herself struggling to influ…

Organizational Change Board Diversity and Equity and Inclusion

By Jennifer Jordan and Ruth V. Aguilera

Daniela Studer and the board of Flosser (Mini case)

By Jennifer Jordan and Ruth V. Aguilera
Case reference: IMD-2719 ©2026

Summary

Daniela Studer, a highly accomplished executive with a background in engineering and global leadership, now serves as the only woman on the board of Flosser, a niche construction materials company recently acquired by a larger public firm. Despite her expertise and a mandate to professionalize the board, Daniela finds herself struggling to influence the top management team. Dysfunctional dynamics that range from a lack of trust in the CTO to an exclusive relationship between the CEO and CFO threaten Flosser’s performance and culture. Daniela’s attempts to address these issues are met with resistance; her direct style, celebrated in her previous executive roles, is now seen as abrasive, and she is advised to be “gentler” in her board interactions. This case invites readers to reflect on the challenges of transitioning from an executive to a non-executive director role, a situation in which authority is more about influence than direct control. Daniela’s dilemma – whether to confront the CEO directly, adapt her approach, or remain silent – raises critical questions: Is her struggle rooted in the inherent limitations of non-executive power, related to the entrenched culture of a family business or is there an element of unconscious gender bias? Does her experience as a minority on the board shape how her contributions are received, or is the resistance she faces more about her methods? Ultimately, the case challenges readers to consider what it truly means to lead from the boardroom, how to navigate complex interpersonal and organizational dynamics, and how gender and role expectations intersect to shape the effectiveness and credibility of board members.

Reference IMD-2719

Copyright owner IMD Copyright

Available Languages English

Contact

Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Related topics

Organizational Change

Board

Diversity and Equity and Inclusion

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Case Study

Pang Dong Lai: Scaling the unscalable

Pang Dong Lai (PDL) is a regional Chinese supermarket chain that generated an astonishing $3.27 billion in revenue in 2025 with only 14 stores, vastly outperforming national and global giants in per-store efficiency. In a retail landscape defined by fierce competition and razor-thin margins, PDL’s success stems from a radical, people-first opera…

Strategy Value Creation Competitiveness Organizational Behavior

By Goutam N. Challagalla, Winter Nie and Yunfei Feng

Case Study

CDL’s boardroom battles: Succession in the Kwek family empire

City Developments Limited (CDL), one of Singapore’s largest listed property developers, had been a cornerstone of the Kwek family business empire in Singapore since 1972. With an enterprise value of S$19.5 billion (US$15.1 billion) in January 2026, CDL operated across 168 locations in 29 countries. The company’s success was rooted in the vision …

Corporate Governance Family Business Strategy

By Marleen Dieleman and Thi Phuong Thao Pham

Case Study

‘Big Fix’ at Starbucks: Will customers come back? The new CEO’s first year

In September 2024, Starbucks’ then-CEO was abruptly fired after 17 months in the role; the decision followed three quarterly drops in consumer traffic and declining operating revenues. The board then turned to Brian Niccol, a veteran fast-food company executive. Niccol was deemed highly qualified due to his turnaround of two fast-food chains, Ch…

Strategy Marketing Leadership

By Kamran Kashani and Nancy Lane