Winners announced – The Case Centre’s 35th global Awards and Competitions
The 2025 awards celebrate sustainability and the case method’s role in shaping future leaders
The Case Centre Awards and Competitions 2025 highlight the rising significance of sustainability in business education and its growing integration into classrooms worldwide. The awards also showcase exceptional achievements in case teaching and writing, recognising the ongoing influence of the case method on global business education.
Sustainability continues to be a central theme, with seven of the 15 winning cases exploring sustainability-related topics. This aligns with the increasing demand from employers, students, rankings, and accreditation bodies for business schools to embed sustainability in the curriculum.
The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) takes the spotlight, winning four awards – Overall Award, Strategy and General Management, Outstanding Case Writer, and Outstanding Compact Case – and bringing its total award count to 47.
The late Debapratim Purkayastha earns his 13th award, joining the late Sumantra Ghoshal as the joint most awarded author.
Vicky Lester, Chief Executive Officer of The Case Centre and chair of the judging panel, said:
“As businesses face increasing pressure to integrate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations, this year’s award-winning cases equip the next generation of leaders with the knowledge and skills to navigate complex sustainability challenges.
“By highlighting key topics like sustainability, the awards underscore the crucial role business education plays in preparing students to address global challenges. As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to evolve, the case method remains an invaluable tool for developing students’ critical thinking, decision-making, and ethical judgment – skills that AI cannot replicate.”
Flagship results
The Overall Winning Case award went to Nespresso: Strategy Reset for Growth: The Youth Market, by Kamran Kashani and Goutam Challagalla (International Institute for Management Development (IMD)). The winners will be leading a webinar about writing and teaching the winning case on 3 April 2025.
Outstanding Contribution to the Case Method was awarded to Martin Kupp (ESCP Business School) and Urs Mueller (SDA Bocconi School of Management) in recognition of their exceptional dedication to training and developing case teachers and writers worldwide. Through their workshops, they have trained thousands of educators, and their expertise is further shared in their book on the topic, which is available digitally for free.
The Outstanding Case Teacher competition was won by Joerg Niessing (INSEAD), recognising his excellence in case method teaching, which incorporates virtual reality cases and AI-aided strategy platforms.
School highlights
International Institute for Management Development (IMD) won four awards: Overall Award for the sixth time, Strategy and General Management category for the seventh time, Outstanding Case Writer for the second time, and Outstanding Compact Case for the first time.
ICFAI Business School (IBS) secured two category awards: Human Resource Management / Organisational Behaviour for the sixth time, and Production and Operations Management for the second time.
IESE Business School also won two category awards: Entrepreneurship and Finance, Accounting and Control, both for the first time.
China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) won the Outstanding Case Writer: Hot Topic (this year: Generative AI, business and society) category for the second time, Harvard Business School won the Economics, Politics and Business Environment category for the sixth time, London Business School the Marketing category for the second time, and Rotterdam School of Management the Free Case category for the first time.
For five winning institutions, it was their first success in these awards and competitions: Conestoga College, Hamburg University of Technology, Jönköping University, Leuphana University of Lüneberg, Sasin School of Management.
Author highlights
Hadiya Faheem secured wins in two categories in 2025 (Human Resource Management / Organisational Behaviour and Production and Operations Management). Three authors won their categories for a second time: Kamran Kashani (Overall Award: 2025, 2014), Debapratim Purkayastha (Production and Operations Management category: 2025, 2020), and Nader Tavassoli (Marketing: 2025, 2009).
Results in full:
Awards
Overall winner
Nespresso: Strategy Reset for Growth: The Youth Market
Kamran Kashani and Goutam Challagalla, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
Economics, Politics and Business Environment
Singapore: ‘Facing Challenges Together’
Richard HK Vietor, Harvard Business School
Entrepreneurship
Nordic Technologies AB
Rob Johnson, IESE Business School
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Social Justice versus Environmental Sustainability? Facing and Handling Paradoxes in the Procurement and Production of Electric Vehicles
Christine Hinz, Carolin Rüdiger, Henriette Siemens and Mats Schaper, Leuphana University of Lüneburg
Julia Grimm, Jönköping University
Stephanie Schrage, Hamburg University of Technology
Finance, Accounting and Control
Schneider Electric: Linking Pay to ESG
Gaizka Ormazabal, IESE Business School
Human Resource Management / Organisational Behaviour
Netflix’s Organizational Culture
Sanjib Dutta and Hadiya Faheem, ICFAI Business School (IBS)
Knowledge, Information and Communication Systems Management
Broadband-X: Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation
An Ivey Publishing case by
Fatih Yegul, Conestoga College
Marketing
Red Bull Spreads Its Wiiings
Nader Tavassoli, London Business School
Production and Operations Management
Li & Fung: Battling the Global Supply Chain Challenge
Hadiya Faheem and Debapratim Purkayastha, ICFAI Business School (IBS)
Strategy and General Management
Future-proofing HEINEKEN: The EverGreen Strategy
Niccolò Pisani and Inès Augier, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
Free case
The Coffee of Andradas: A Community Branding Project
Stefano Puntoni and Carla Gatt, Rotterdam School of Management
Competitions
Outstanding Contribution to the Case Method
Martin Kupp, ESCP Business School and Urs Mueller, SDA Bocconi School of Management
Outstanding Case Teacher
Joerg Niessing, INSEAD
Outstanding Case Writer
AMAG: Creating Its Own Future in a Disrupted Automotive Industry
Stefan Michel, Daniel Gerber, Esther Lind, Vikas Munjal, David Rivière and Stephan Thalmann, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
Outstanding Case Writer: Hot Topic ‘Generative AI, business and society’
POOK Technology: How AI Drives Business Value and Productivity Enhancement
Yinliang (Ricky) Tan and Geng Liu, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS)
Outstanding Compact Case
Not So Black and White: Grupo Inca’s Black Alpaca Dilemma
Vanina Farber, Carolina Duran Silva, Baris Silahcioglu, Hugo ten Zijthoff and Shih-Han Huang, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
Outstanding New Case Writer
Driving Sustainable Transformation: Michelin’s Road to Natural Rubber Sustainability and Meeting the EU Deforestation Regulation
Rozanne Henzen, Sasin School of Management
The Case Centre is the independent home of the case method and is dedicated to advancing the case method worldwide, sharing knowledge, wisdom and experience to inspire and transform business education across the globe. It is a not-for-profit organisation and registered charity.
Now in their 35th year, the Awards have been global since 2011 (European Case Awards until 2010).
For additional insights, trends and perspectives about the Case Method, visit the conversation here.
