IMD business school for management and leadership courses

In 2022, Novo Nordisk was transitioning from its longstanding focus on diabetes treatments to multiple therapeutic areas while navigating other important challenges: • Changing market, competitive and regulatory environments • Dramatic growth due to blockbuster medications for diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular health • Increasing complexity b…

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…

The case describes Legendary Foods Africa, a food-tech company founded in 2020 in Ghana by Canadian entrepreneur Shobhita Soor. Legendary Foods Africa is focused on farming, processing and selling palm weevil larvae products for human consumption. Palm weevil larvae, a traditional local food, are rich in protein, healthy fats and essential nutri…

This book is a vindication of Europe. It challenges the view of Europe as a tired, overregulated continent, arguing instead that Europe has emerged from decades of crisis—financial turmoil, Brexit, COVID-19, war in Ukraine—as a resilient, reformed, and quietly successful model of governance and society. While the world often focuses on the rival…

The case places participants in the role of Helge Lund, chair of BP, on 4 October 2023. Only weeks earlier, BP’s chief executive officer Bernard Looney had resigned over undisclosed relationships with colleagues. Looney had been the principal architect and public face of BP’s 2020 strategy to transform BP from an international oil company into a…

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 …

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…

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…

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…

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…

Young people are losing faith in the future. IMD’s Vanina Farber explains why business leaders must rethink their role—and act before it’s too late

David Bach discusses how Chinese automotive companies compete through speed, innovation, collaboration, and industrial policy, with insights from VOYISL CEO Brian YinJen Chen.

Outpace rivals with four essential data-strategy steps: assemble proprietary knowledge, expand data partnerships, automate governance, and harness model errors.

Explore why AI governance and accountability require separating decision-making powers, strengthening oversight, and protecting corporate checks and balances.

Knowing when and how to adapt your operating mode as a leader is critical to sustained success in volatile and changing times.

Successful companies realize that financial performance and long-term impact are not competing priorities, writes Shelley Zalis.