Business Models
Case studies on business models.
The Coca-Cola Company: Re-Architecting the Global Beverage Giant
Explore Coca-Cola’s asset-light business model, beverage portfolio, pricing strategy and acquisition decisions. Includes financial exhibits and six discussion questions on corporate strategy, operations and risk. Read case
Costco — The Price of Membership
Should Costco raise its U.S. membership fees? Evaluate customer value, competing warehouse-club offers and Executive rewards using information available on 9 July 2024. Includes five discussion questions and an optional quantitative exercise. Read case
1stDibs — The Price of a Place on the Marketplace
On 3 March 2025, 1stDibs filed its annual report for 2024. The company said it had shifted seller acquisition and monetization toward “fewer, but more highly engaged sellers.” During the year, it discontinued a pricing option with no monthly subscription fee and higher commissions, which it said contributed to seller churn. Read case
8x8 Inc.: Scale Usage-Based AI or Defend Recurring Revenue?
At the close of 5 August 2026, 8x8 had reported a quarter in which platform-usage revenue grew quickly while subscription revenue declined and company-wide gross margin fell. The company was also describing higher adoption of AI products, but it did not disclose AI-specific paid revenue or product-level margins. Read case
Adobe Inc.: Choosing an Emphasis for the Next AI Cycle
On 22 September 2026, Adobe had just filed its third-quarter Form 10-Q, following its 10 September results announcement. Anil Chakravarthy, appointed president and chief executive officer effective 1 December, was preparing to take the role. Read case
Autodesk: the last perpetual license?
On 23 March 2016, Autodesk filed its annual report for the fiscal year ended 31 January. Most new perpetual licenses for individual software products had stopped selling on 1 February. A second milestone was four months away: on 1 August, Autodesk planned to stop selling new perpetual licenses for its Design & Creation Suites and affected products. Read case
Broadcom and VMware: How Far Should the Bundle Go?
On December 20, 2024, Broadcom filed its fiscal 2024 annual report. It was the first full fiscal year in which Broadcom’s results included VMware, acquired in November 2023. VMware brought a large infrastructure software business into a company whose other major business was semiconductors. Read case
CrowdStrike — How Far Should Falcon Flex Go?
CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform brought together cloud-delivered cybersecurity and IT modules through a single lightweight agent and cloud console. The company said its architecture allowed customers to begin with selected modules and later add modules or endpoints. CrowdStrike sold subscriptions through a direct sales organization working with channel and technology partners. Read case
Domino’s Pizza — Should It Open a New Ordering Channel?
Imagine you are advising Domino’s Pizza, Inc. on 11 July 2023. The company has built a large digital-ordering business and a delivery-and-carryout system operated mostly by franchisees. A third-party marketplace could offer another way for customers to find and order Domino’s. Read case
Electronic Arts: Where should it focus live-service attention?
Electronic Arts entered FY2025 with a strong reported booking trend in global football and a different signal from Apex Legends. In FY2024, global football franchise net bookings grew at a high-teens rate, while EA said Apex declines partly offset football strength. Read case
Gartner, Inc. — Where to Focus Research Attention?
Gartner sells research and advisory subscriptions, hosts conferences, and provides consulting. Its Research segment supports technology users and providers through Global Technology Sales (GTS), and other business functions through Global Business Sales (GBS). Read case
Hasbro: Turning a Crossover into a Community
In July, Wizards of the Coast announced that Magic: The Gathering’s 2027 schedule would alternate three Magic Multiverse sets with three Universes Beyond sets. The slate and its release windows were public. The open management question for this case is what go-to-market support should surround those releases—and what evidence should guide additional spending and attention. Read case
Hilton — Scaling Undergraduate by Hilton
On June 1, 2026, Hilton launched Undergraduate by Hilton, an upper-midscale brand intended to expand its presence in college and university markets. Hilton described it as a complement to Graduate by Hilton, with a flexible model for new builds and conversions. It said the concept could have long-term potential for 400–500 hotels and anticipated the first opening in 2027. Read case
Jersey Mike’s Subs: Where Should the Next Growth Wave Go?
You are part of a hypothetical strategy team asked to recommend how Jersey Mike’s should sequence growth over the next three to five years. Should it put most development effort into U.S. penetration, build international markets in stages, or set market-readiness gates that determine where capacity goes next? Read case
JFrog — How Fast Should Cloud Grow?
JFrog’s software-supply-chain platform was growing, and its hosted cloud business was growing faster by the company’s reported cloud metric. The company also continued to offer self-managed software for customers running workloads in public cloud, private cloud, on-premise, or hybrid environments. Read case
McDonald’s: Making value visible across a franchised system
McDonald’s had a value question to answer. On April 30, the company reported U.S. comparable sales growth of 2.5% for the first quarter, down from 12.6% in the year-earlier quarter. Results remained positive, but the growth rate had slowed. Read case
News Corp: Streaming Growth, Sports Rights, and a New Hub
In November 2024, News Corporation was reporting growth in its Australian streaming services even as its residential broadcast base continued to decline. Kayo and BINGE were adding subscribers and revenue. At the same time, the company reported higher sports-rights and production costs, and Hubbl—a recently launched content aggregation product—was adding expense. Read case
PTC: Where to Place the Next Dollar of Growth?
At 4:59 p.m. on May 1, 2024, PTC's executive team had a new target to work with. The industrial software company had just reported 12% constant-currency growth in annual run rate (ARR) for its second fiscal quarter. It had also lowered its mid-term ARR growth target from the mid-teens to the low double digits. Its free-cash-flow targets for the next two years remained intact. Read case
Regeneron: where should the next commercial push go?
On August 3, 2026, Biocon announced that Yesafili, a biosimilar to Regeneron’s EYLEA 2 mg, was commercially available in the United States. The launch followed several years of patent litigation and other biosimilar approvals. Regeneron had already reported that Amgen’s Pavblu had launched and expected additional 2 mg competitors. Read case
Robinhood Markets — Paying for the Long-Term Customer
Robinhood Markets had built a large mobile brokerage by making investing easy to start and inexpensive to use. By mid-2024, the company was extending its proposition beyond active trading. Its self-directed retirement accounts were growing quickly, and a series of matching offers had brought billions of dollars of assets onto the platform. Read case
Snap-on — Building the Independent-Shop Diagnostics Proposition
On February 12, 2026, Snap-on filed its FY2025 Form 10-K. A hypothetical executive team is deciding how to prioritize the next two to three years of product, software, support, and channel resources for professional diagnostics used by U.S. independent repair shops. Read case
Sonic Automotive: How Fast Should EchoPark Grow?
On September 9, Sonic Automotive announced a record sales result at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Sonic Powersports said it sold 1,135 motorcycles during the event, including 511 new Harley-Davidsons, across five Black Hills locations. More than 550 teammates had been deployed, and the company assembled over 1,200 motorcycles for the rally. Read case
Take-Two and Zynga: Vote for Mobile Scale?
Take-Two Interactive Software has signed an agreement to acquire mobile-game publisher Zynga. The board recommends that Take-Two stockholders approve the share issuance and a charter amendment that increases the company's authorized share capital. The proposals are separate, but both relate to completing the transaction. Read case
Tyler Technologies and NIC — Integrate the Platform or Coordinate Around Local Contracts?
Tyler Technologies announced on 21 April 2021 that it had completed its acquisition of NIC Inc. The companies served different parts of the government market: Tyler emphasized local-government software, while NIC had a substantial state-enterprise digital-services business. Read case
Workday — How Far Should AI Agents Go?
Workday had made its Sana Self-Service Agent available to customers through Flex Credits and announced a partnership that would put Workday agents into Google’s Gemini Enterprise environment. These moves offered routes to broader access. Read case
Yum! Brands — Who Should Operate KFC U.K. & Ireland?
On April 29, 2024, Yum! Brands acquired all shares of two entities operating 216 KFC restaurants in the U.K. and Ireland. Nearly ten months later, its strategy team must decide what operating model should follow. Should Yum retain the restaurants as a company-operated platform, begin returning them to franchise ownership in stages, or test both models for a defined period? Read case
Zoetis — Scaling Librela with Evidence and Discipline
On February 13, 2024, Zoetis reported full-year 2023 results and filed its annual report. The company had launched Librela in the United States in 2023 after FDA approval of bedinvetmab for control of pain associated with osteoarthritis in dogs. Librela was the first monoclonal antibody FDA approved for dogs. Its administration is prescription-only and monthly. Read case