Case Studies

In 2015, Yara International faced simultaneous financial, legal, and reputational pressures as industry conditions deteriorated. Newly appointed CEO Svein Tore Holsether concluded that restoring performance required more than cost cutting and reputation repair, and instead moved to futureproof the firm by embedding sustainability into Yara’s purpose, strategy, and operating model. This case examines the rationale, execution, and outcomes of Yara’s purpose-led transformation amid evolving market and societal constraints.

Over the first two decades of the 21st century, Rio Tinto, a 150-year-old global mining leader, faced significant volatility as it navigated an increasingly globalized and financialized economy. Mining companies, heavily reliant on commodity prices, struggled after the 2008 Great Recession, leading to cost-cutting measures and changes in how they managed their global operations.

In May 2020, Rio Tinto legally blasted two sacred, 46,000-year-old caves at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia to access $135 million worth of iron ore. The decision deeply distressed the Traditional Owners, who had long opposed the action, and sparked widespread criticism from the government, investors and communities. The fallout led to the resignation of Rio Tinto’s CEO, two senior executives, and the board chair. Jakob Stausholm, formerly CFO, became CEO in January 2021. This case provides background and traces the events that precipitated Rio Tinto’s decision to blow the Juukan Gorge caves—and the ensuing stakeholder backlash.

Founded in 2007, Vital Farms built a network of small family farms producing ethically sourced eggs, guided by Conscious Capitalism and serving diverse stakeholders. Certified as a B Corp and Public Benefit Corporation, it grew quickly thanks to quality products and strong marketing. By 2020, CEO Russell Diez-Conseco had to decide how to secure significant new capital while staying true to the company’s stakeholder-focused mission.

Nike describes its purpose with reference to three “Purpose Pillars”: People, Planet, and Play. Each pillar sets targets, tracks progress, and assesses outcomes tied to compensation. This approach helps Nike navigate complex social issues and stakeholder relationships, often translating corporate principles into actionable strategies.

Stakeholders expect corporate leaders to act on a range of social issues. But addressing controversial social issues can be risky, especially when the public is deeply divided on the issues. To navigate these challenges, Nike relies on a team from its executive leadership and its brand and communications teams. The team is guided by assessments of an issue’s impact on key stakeholders—and how well they align with Nike's purpose. The case highlights the importance of a structured approach to societal issues that aligns with company values and stakeholder expectations.

As part of its commitment to the "Planet" pillar of its corporate strategy, Nike made sustainability a core focus across its operations. To pursue this, Nike set out to create the world’s lowest-carbon shoe, the "Space Hippie." The project required significant changes to design, manufacturing, and supply chain practices, engaging stakeholders to ensure the product met performance and production imperatives. This initiative challenged conventional methods and required greater collaboration, iterative design processes, and direct sourcing of materials. Despite initial modest production, the Space Hippie project drove widespread adoption of sustainable practices across Nike's product lines.

By 2020, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty (ASPCA), like many organizations at the time, faced mounting pressure to engage with a growing stream of societal matters far afield from its core purpose. The case explores the CEO’s initiative to develop a clear, strategic framework for considering which societal issues to address.

When Kinya Seto became CEO of LIXIL in 2016, he faced two major challenges: integrating a workforce spread across several acquired brands and differentiating LIXIL in a housing and water technology industry where products were seen as commodities. This case explores how LIXIL developed and activated its corporate purpose—"To Make Better Homes a Reality for Everyone, Everywhere"—as a unifying and strategic force. The purpose became a guiding “North Star,” brought to life through an ambitious new business unit focused on delivering low-cost, eco-friendly toilets to underserved communities around the world. This purpose-driven approach also helped unite employees, spark innovation, and address the challenge of product commoditization.

The founders of Warby Parker had a clear vision of the kind of company they wanted to build: a holistic business model that aligned and integrated a corporate purpose, a social impact mission, a values-based culture, and the business strategy. The case explores the actions taken by leadership to preserve this multi-stakeholder commitment as the company scaled, adapted and, ultimately, became a public corporation.

How do shareholders and managers align on financial and non-financial results? The Mars case highlights how a company can embed societal and environmental measures into performance targets that drive long-term business performance.

Royal Canin, a leader in the premium pet food category, mapped their ecosystem of stakeholders. Would the analysis yield profitable new ways the company could help their partners?

Equinor, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, is undertaking a major strategic shift as it diversifies into renewables. This transition requires navigating complex relationships with longstanding stakeholders, including the government of Norway (Equinor was formally state-owned under the name Statoil) and, as they expand into off-shore wind and other renewables, building relationships with new stakeholders. The case features interviews with current and past executive management.

Enel is one of the largest electric utilities in the world, headquartered in Rome. When Francesco Starace became CEO in 2014, he faced a confluence of stakeholder challenges. Enel was one of the most heavily indebted utilities in Europe; new power plant projects were chronically delayed by activists and protests from communities; and EU regulations demanded lower emissions from power generation. Starace did not see these as separate challenges. Instead, he issued two dictums: 1) No new power plants in communities that didn’t want Enel there. 2) Investments only in power plants that could be online within three years. The case explores how these constraints set into motion a dramatic company-wide transformation that resulted in unleashing innovation in Enel’s culture, a business model shift to renewables, new ways to engage communities, and a significant increase in the company’s market value.

How could The Hartford meet its net-zero emissions goal, while simultaneously serving the interests of investors, customers, agents and regulators? Yale’s inaugural Stakeholder Design Lab helped the insurance company explore a range of possibilities.

The case explores the CEO’s response to an existential threat to Nielsen’s core business coupled with a challenge to the company’s core values. Nielsen’s highly profitable TV audience measurement and customer confidence in Nielsen’s main offering – trusted, accurate data - is threatened by shifting consumer viewing habits and emerging competitors using disruptive technology. The TV panel homes, Nielsen’s long-standing differentiator for audience measurement, are appearing to lose relevance to customers; at the same time, household recruiting challenges are contributing to salesforce income disparity, impacting morale and testing the company’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The company announced a radical new product, Nielsen ONE, powered by data and machine learning, but it would be differentiated, the company insisted, by the venerable Nielsen panel – households across America. At the same time, COVID, George Floyd’s murder, and the Black Lives Matter movement tested Nielsen’s operations and the authenticity of its purpose and values. Can the CEO and his senior leaders use a multistakeholder lens to simultaneously address the compensation inequity issue, as well as re-frame its customer value proposition and the role of the household panel to compete effectively against the new disruptors?