Browse abstracts and ordering information for case studies written and published by faculty at Stanford GSB.
For publicly available cases in this collection, Harvard Business Impact and Ivey Publishing distribute in North America, and The Case Centre and IESE Publishing in Europe.
Search the database of case studies or narrow your results by keyword, academic area, center, or initiative. Many of our cases are available to download at no charge.
Transitioning from your search into being a CEO can be an overwhelming experience. You have just spent months in due diligence, learning everything you can about the business you just acquired, and imagining all the ways you can improve and grow the…
Founded by John Warnock and Charles (Chuck) Geschke in 1982, Adobe saw its first success with PostScript, a computer language that translated digital text and images from the computer screen onto a printed page. In the following decades, Adobe reinvented…
In your first year as chief executive officer (CEO), you will encounter a host of management challenges and opportunities—all of which can be navigated more skillfully if you can tap into the insights and perspectives of a handful of seasoned operators…
The Invoice2Go case follows CEO Greg Waldorf as he scales the company from small, Australian-based startup into a Venture-backed, global company. Particular issues explored include hiring new talent & building out the business organization, managing a…
The LiveRamp case follows the story of Anneka Gupta, Chief Product Officer of LiveRamp, from her early days with the company as a spinoff from Rapleaf, to the present day, where she manages a large product management team responsible for developing…
The LiveRamp case follows the story of Anneka Gupta, Chief Product Officer of LiveRamp, from her early days with the company as a spinoff from Rapleaf, to the present day, where she manages a large product management team responsible for developing…
The Human Genome project, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health, was launched in 1990 to identify all the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA. The project subsequently opened the door for the personal…
In 2010, only 16 percent of Americans were streaming movies and television shows online. By the end of 2011 that number would almost double, and the entertainment industry began barreling towards a digital future. This case follows Netflix, Hulu, Amazon…
In 1997 Reed Hastings founded Netflix on the heels of a $750 million exit of his first venture—a software company. The premise was simple: Hastings believed that he could leverage the high-performance culture and data-drivenness embodied by tech companies…
Maria Almaden was considering the launch of a new business that would use traditional cheesemaking techniques to produce high-quality vegan cheese. Eager though she was to embark on her new endeavor, she first had to solidify her market entry strategy and…
Daniel Lurie headed down Highway 101 in June 2009 to investigate a potential grantee in East Palo Alto, California. As he drove, he reflected on the progress that the nonprofit organization he founded, Tipping Point Community (Tipping Point), had made in…
The Evergreen Solutions case profiles the journey of Drew Lincoln, the CEO of Evergreen Solutions, an environmental remediation company which Lincoln acquired with his partner, Craig Bristol, in November 2011. Over the course of three detailed vignettes…
Hank, the acting CEO of Informagic, had a critical decision to make about the start-up’s next steps. The company had launched in a new niche, seeking to be a leading provider of e-commerce market research. The market research industry around in-store…
Etsy was an online craft bazaar founded in 2005 in a loft in Brooklyn, New York. The company was known for its emphasis on social responsibility, transparency, authenticity, and its somewhat nontraditional approach to business. In January 2015, Etsy conv…
An increasing number of global corporations have experienced negative publicity over complicated tax structures established to minimize their tax burdens. In the case of U.S. companies, there has been a growing outcry over “inversions,” a means of…
Despite the existence of large social networks, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, co-founders Jeff Tangney and Dr. Nate Gross believed there was a unique opportunity to create a social network specifically targeted at physicians. The two envisioned a social…
Near the end of 2014, Derek Belch decided to turn his master’s thesis into a virtual reality athletic training company called STRIVR Labs [Sports Training in Virtual Reality]. Born out of Stanford University’s famed Virtual Human Interaction Lab, STRIVR…
Skybox Imaging was hanging by a thread. The venture-backed company was founded with the goal to develop a constellation of imaging microsatellites to deliver high-resolution imagery of any spot on Earth multiple times per day. The company had raised $21…
The Joffrey Ballet is a landmark Chicago nonprofit performing arts organization that helped shape the landscape of American ballet. In 2016, the Joffrey was at a point of transformation after a period of financial crisis and artistic decline. It had…
Rosanne Haggerty remembered looking over the table at Becky Margiotta, both with their mouths hanging open. The two had just learned about the 100,000 Lives Campaign, an initiative by Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) that resulted in an…
Daiso Industries Co., Ltd. was the largest 100-yen (or one dollar) shop operator in Japan, with nearly 2,900 stores in Japan and 1,400 stores in 26 other countries. The privately owned company featured nearly 50,000 products, ranging from office supplies…
