In September 2024, Dr. Mark van Buchem, head of the radiology department at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in the Netherlands, was tasked with presenting at LUMC’s strategic meeting. The focus was on his department’s pioneering efforts in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into the clinical workflow, a project that had begun in 2018. Over six years, various AI initiatives were launched, many of which had been successfully integrated .....more

This case follows the evolution of Tony’s Chocolonely (Tony’s)—a Dutch chocolate brand dedicated to eradicating child and forced labour in the chocolate industry supply chain—focusing specifically on the tensions inherent in any sustainable entrepreneurship. From its humble origins as a journalist’s protest over the use of child and forced labour, Tony’s grew into a globally recognized, sustainable brand with a mission to change the chocolate industry .....more

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. had been, up until 2024, growing at an accelerated pace while achieving industry-leading profit margins and related cash flow in the fuel convenience store industry globally. Its growth had been fuelled by acquisition, which in its case meant paying a premium to purchase large groups of stations in current and new markets, primarily in Europe, the United States, and Canada—a global success story. However, the company's .....more

The mission of Fairphone, an Amsterdam, Netherlands-based social enterprise company, was to design, produce, and sell smartphones that had a more positive impact on the environment and society. Fairphone was rated as the most sustainable smartphone in 2021 and was considered as a champion for the circular economy in the smartphone industry. Since 2018, Fairphone had been headed by Eva Gouwens. Under Gouwens’s leadership, Fairphone had more than doubled .....more

On February 16, 2021, Slave Free Chocolate removed Tony’s Chocolonely (Tony’s), a chocolate company based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from its “Ethical Chocolate Companies” list due to Tony’s association with Barry Callebaut, a cocoa processor associated with child slavery in West Africa. Tony’s, a B Corp-certified company whose founding mission was to eradicate child slavery from the cocoa supply chain, had to address its public removal from the .....more

In March 2020, the chief innovation and strategy officer (CISO) of Amsterdam-based Koninklijke Philips NV (Philips), a global leader in health technology, was surveying the distance that Philips had traversed in its transition from products to platforms. The CISO faced three managerial dilemmas: How could he transform the long-standing functional orientation at Philips into a multidisciplinary alignment? How could he ensure that Philips’s customer-facing .....more

Group Business Services (GBS), a shared services organization predominantly based in India, provided support services to Koninklijke DSM NV (Royal DSM), a multinational corporation headquartered in the Netherlands, which produced nutrition- and health-related products. When the COVID-19 pandemic created a set of “new normal” circumstances for business organizations, GBS India, like many businesses, introduced remote working for all of its employees .....more

Eneco Group, the second largest utility company in the Netherlands, launched a smart thermostat, Toon, that served as a platform for energy management services. Toon quickly became the gold standard for smart homes in the Netherlands. In January 2017, top management needed to discuss the strategic priorities to keep Toon’s lead and hold off the competition.

In late 2016, an analyst at Oliver Wyman (OW), was contemplating the high stakes of her new project. European riverboat company Temarca Group (Temarca) had just approached Duke Royalty (Duke) seeking €9.0 million to expand its riverboat fleet at the time. The analyst had to consider the first potential investment for the newly-formed partnership. If a financing decision was made, Temarca would be one of the first investments in Duke’s portfolio. The .....more

ING Groep NV, a successful Dutch-based bank with operations in over 40 countries, had a very successful year in 2016. The bank had achieved strong growth in customer numbers, savings, and lending. However, digitization was disrupting the banking industry. ING Groep NV had successfully taken multiple initiatives to tackle the fundamental changes driven by the digital disruption, but its future, like that of all the other major traditional banks, remained .....more