Governance in Family Enterprises

Set in 2024, the case describes the trajectory of Nike's success and how it had recently lost its way. The company was experiencing its worst slump in more than 10 years. Since 2020, CEO Donahoe oversaw a significant shift away from wholesale, with a focus on direct channels and a suite of apps. However, direct-to-consumer DTC sales failed to make up for the losses from previous wholesale partners. At the same time, competition from a new breed of smaller players increased. Critics claimed that the sportswear giant's product innovations had lagged, allowing nimble competitors to chisel away at its market share. Sales were flat or down in all geographies. In response, Donahoe announced a three-year, 2 billion cost cutting plan that involved laying off 2 of workers, which in turn created a sense of crisis at Nike. Investors also suffered as the stock performed worse than the broader market in the last three years. To make matters worse, a class action suit was filed against Donahoe and CFO Matthew Friend for misleading the market about the company's underperformance. How could Nike's top management team execute a strategic turnaround by building upon the company's core strengths of brand equity, product innovation and sports marketing? They had to reevaluate past strategies, rethink their assumptions and chart a comeback to restore the company to its former growth trajectory and market dominance.

Corporate leaders must stop being passive spectators and actively shape geopolitical outcomes to drive global competitiveness and collaboration.

The Carvajal family on why the family’s foundation is the largest shareholder of their 121-year-old family business and how it’s the key to sustaining social, human, and reputational capital.

This brief case exercise presents an increasingly common business scenario: An established player acquires a small, agile start-up to re-energize its value proposition. In this case, established global beauty giant UrbanLuxe acquires beauty start-up KYX. UrbanLuxe represents an old-school company selling a classic portfolio mainly via traditional distribution channels of luxury and travel retail, whereas KYX is exclusively an e-commerce brand. UrbanLuxe has a stable – perhaps stale – product line while KYX is in constant experimental churn, with an influencer-based media strategy that brings inherent demand volatility. The supply chain director is tasked with identifying the supply chain risks and opportunities associated with the acquisition. The two companies are different from both an operations perspective and a marketing perspective. UrbanLuxe has five factories servicing a global demand. KYX relies on one co-manufacturer focused on the US market. UrbanLuxe distributes to classic retailers from its own warehouses, KYX uses a third-party logistics provider for its exclusively e-commerce business. Further complicating matters, UrbanLuxe’s CEO has ambitious growth plans to make KYX a global brand. The supply chain director must not only consider integrating the acquisition but also supporting the growth strategy, for which they are asked to find cost savings to provide funding. The case provides a vehicle for students to consider the supply chain challenges a company might face in successfully integrating a starkly different acquisition. This case anchored in the real world will elicit universal challenges in companies today.

The traditional e-commerce model is on its last legs. In a disrupted luxury landscape, brand leaders are shifting focus to unified commerce, hyper-personalization, and deeper digital storytelling to completely reinvent the customer experience of a...

Donald Trump’s tariff tactics offer a bold case study in game theory in negotiations. By setting the rules early, limiting options, and projecting power through credible threats, his approach shows how negotiations can be shaped long before the fi...

Understanding conflict in family businesses is a complex but essential study area for practitioners and academics. To enhance theoretical precision and provide practical insights, this article presents a comprehensive framework of family business ...

In an age that prizes agility, breaking up is a strategy rather than a surrender, argues IMD’s Salvatore Cantale, as CFOs step forward as architects of value in the de-conglomeration era.

With solar power flooding grids, the duck curve creates both challenges and opportunities for businesses. Learn how smart companies can harness this shift to cut costs and boost efficiency.

Digital transformation introduces a new set of parameters for firm innovation. Existing literature has found that family firms vary on their willingness to innovate. However, explanations of the factors that lead to a family firm’s (un)willingness...