Business Case Studies

M&A: A DIAMOND DEAL

LVMH Acquires Tiffany & Co.

In the luxury market, LVMH is the global leader. Bernard Arnault controls the bulk of the group's capital. Tiffany & Co. is among the most recent jewels that LVMH has acquired. The $15.8 billion merger with LVMH, a record transaction in the luxury market, was authorized by Tiffany shareholders on December 30, 2020. In less than a year following its acquisition by the top luxury brand, Tiffany & Co. demonstrated its strategic value to LVMH. In comparison to its pre-transaction state, has the LVMH Group further solidified its economic model and positioning?

REBEL TALENT

Massimo Bottura's Disruptive Vision

World-renowned chef Massimo Bottura challenges conventional notions of disruption. This case study invites business leaders to assess whether their innovations are truly transformative. Are your products and services genuinely innovative? Does your corporate culture nurture rebel talents? Have you reimagined your business model? Are environmental and social responsibility embedded in your strategy? Bottura's journey from controversial outsider to three-Michelin-star icon reveals that authentic disruption requires courage across all organizational layers, not just product development.

RESEARCHING THE CITY

Mapping Imaginaries Of World Opera Houses

City marketing is the process of changing how the outside world views a city in order to promote tourism, draw in newcomers, or facilitate corporate relocation. The construction of new landmark, or "flagship," buildings and structures is a key component of city marketing. Cities are competing with one another for foreign direct investment and government support as a result of their growth as a marketable commodity. Cities' attempts to draw major international events, sporting, cultural, are frequently how it shows up. This is a comparative study of city opera houses around the world.

SALES ACTION PLAN

Steering Retail Strategy & Category Decisions

Michel et Augustin is an iconic brand celebrated for its artisanal craftsmanship and irreverent marketing flair. But since Ferrero acquired the brand in 2023, a critical question looms: can Michel et Augustin's portfolio - from "Vache à boire" drinks to cookies, desserts, and hazelnut spread - coexist with Ferrero's powerhouse products like Nutella, or will cannibalization erode sales ? Meanwhile, French market panel data exposes tough choices about which retail channels deliver the strongest performance and whether the current category management is working.

SKILLS (MANAGERIAL)

The Learnable Craft Of Management

Master the 20 essential technical skills that distinguish exceptional business managers. Unlike intrinsic motivations, technical skills are acquired through deliberate practice and continuous learning. From Strategic Thinking and Game Changing to Data Mining and Process Management, these cultivated competencies span strategic vision, operational excellence, analytical rigor, and interpersonal effectiveness. Whether you're honing your Emotional Intelligence, sharpening your Tactical Play, or developing Radical Curiosity, these capabilities form the professional toolkit every manager needs.

SKILLS (MOTIVATIONAL)

Unleashing Your Inner Drivers

Discover the intrinsic motivations that fuel exceptional leadership. Are you driven by competitive excellence, inclusive collaboration, innovative thinking, charismatic leadership, managerial precision, philosophical wisdom, strategic vision, or supportive service ? Advances in neuroscience now enable precise diagnosis of these core motivations. Equally important, we can identify the specific values that act as powerful brakes, inhibiting your natural drivers. Understanding both your motivations and their constraints unlocks authentic leadership potential. Begin your self-discovery journey.

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Healing The Eyes Of The World

Entrepreneurial initiatives - like India’s Aravind Eye Care System - in less developed countries and in favor of the poor could be inspiring for more developed ones. Analyze the mission and business model of Aravind ! Do you think that the whole model can be implemented in other socio-cultural contexts ? Dr V, the founder of Aravind, once asked HBS Professor Kasturi Rangan whether the mass marketing model of McDonald’s, Dunkin’ and Pizza Hut could be implemented at Aravind. Do you think that Aravind’s expansion could be based on such a model ?

STRATEGIC MARKETING

Brewing A Guerilla Brand

What’s the competitive strength of Swinkels Family Brewers compared to major industrial players like Heineken, Carlsberg, Diageo, Anheuser-Busch and SAB Miller ? What’s the degree of attractiveness of the French market for beers, compared to all other European countries ? How would you manage strategies of four product ranges, namely Bavaria Pils, Special and Alcohol-Free beers, and the Trappist beer La Trappe ? Decide whether new products need to be launched, suggest retail prices to commercial partners, and craft the business plan of Swinkels Family Brewers in France.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Achieving The Right Global Balance

Analyze the corporate brand system of PepsiCo. What are the strategic benefits and drawbacks of being a stakeholder of PepsiCo compared to other FMCG corporations like Campbell’s, The Coca-Cola Company, Kellanova, Mondelez International ? PepsiCo has diversified its activities and planned to achieve higher UN Sustainable Development Goals. At the core of this strategy is resource reallocation. Has PepsiCo’s business model become more vulnerable or robust as a result of this strategy ? How does the company’s sustainable development plan confer a competitive edge ?

WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Indra Nooyi: Redefining Leadership

Indra Nooyi transformed PepsiCo into a global powerhouse through bold strategic vision and relentless operational excellence. This case study dissects her leadership DNA - where long-term thinking meets daily execution, where empathy fuses with decisive action. How did she navigate entrenched corporate resistance while revolutionizing an industry ? What made her "Performance with Purpose" philosophy so transformative ? How did she balance stakeholder demands with sustainable growth ? Her journey reveals how authentic leadership transcends gender, culture, and convention.

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