25 February 2025 #CaseAwards2025
Winners announced - The Case Centre’s 35th global Awards and Competitions
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.
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, Erasmus University 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).
For more information please contact:
Antoinette Mills, 44 (0)1234 756416, antoinette@thecasecentre.org
Notes for Editors
- Meet the winners
- Awards and Competitions: criteria and judges:
- About The Case Centre
1. Meet the winners
1.1 Outstanding Contribution to the Case Method - Martin Kupp and Urs Mueller
Martin is an Associate Professor for Entrepreneurship at ESCP Business School; and a visiting professor at ESMT Berlin.
Urs is an Associate Professor of Practice at SDA Bocconi School of Management. He is an experienced executive education educator and author in the areas of Business Ethics, Change Management and Strategy.
Martin has been teaching with cases since 2001 and writing cases since 2004. A champion of the case method, Martin has always been keen to share his knowledge with colleagues by holding case writing and teaching workshops at ESCP Business School. Alongside developing live cases with companies and start-ups, Martin often matches students with industry scientists working on Deep Tech ideas to help them identify material for cases. He is keen on developing new case formats and integrating new technology, including AI, into his teaching and writing. Martin became a case workshop tutor for The Case Centre in 2009 and a Board member in 2012. He has been a scholarship mentor for first time writers since 2014, and a judge in The Case Centre and EFMD case writing competitions. Martin has 18 cases published with The Case Centre and was no. 40 in The Case Centre Top 50 Bestselling Case Authors 2023/24.
An ardent advocate of the case method, Urs has been leading case workshops with The Case Centre since 2013 and currently has 17 cases published in their collection. He has been a Top 50 Bestselling Case Author since 2019 and is currently ranked at no. 25. This will be Urs’ sixth award with The Case Centre after winning the Human Resource Management / Organisational Behaviour category award in 2013 and 2014; Outstanding Case Writer Hot Topic Competition in 2013 and 2014; and Outstanding Case Teacher in 2020.
Together, Martin and Urs have delivered 83 case writing and case teaching workshops with The Case Centre to over 1,300 participants. They’ve led workshops in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, the UK, and the US. They’ve also been delivering an annual online case writing programme together since 2020.
As a result of their workshops and an ongoing desire to support the case community, Martin and Urs collaborated to write The Ultimate Case Guide, published in 2024 through Ubiquity Press Ltd.
The book explores the historical roots and modern applications of the case method. Offering a multitude of tools to help create engaging learning environments, it also provides practical guidance to support readers to craft their own cases, while connecting theory with practice. Two accompanying workbooks provide a practical template and framework for the reader’s case writing and teaching endeavours. The book is an excellent companion to their case teaching and writing workshops and is available for free digitally from The Case Centre.
Find out more about Martin and Urs' win
1.2 Outstanding Case Teacher - Joerg Niessing
Joerg Niessing is a Senior Affiliate Professor of Marketing at INSEAD, and the co-director of INSEAD’s flagship programmes Leading Digital Marketing Strategy, B2B Marketing Strategies and Driving Digital Marketing Strategy (OOPS).
Fresh off the back of his marketing category awards of 2018 and 2022, Joerg has cemented his place as a trailblazer for the case method with this award for Outstanding Case Teacher 2025.
Having also spent over a decade in management consulting, Joerg now brings his extensive business expertise to the academic world; teaching digital transformation, customer experience strategies, marketing, branding, and data analytics.
Cases are central to Joerg’s teaching and he has published over 25 academic cases and over 50 'mini-cases'. This has earnt him recognition with The Case Centre as the no. 6 bestselling case author in 2020/21, and the highest new entry in 2019/2020 at no. 16.
Joerg teaches around 100 case sessions annually to executives, MBA students, and undergraduates, while adapting cases to suit different cultural contexts and learning needs, which has secured him nine consecutive INSEAD Awards for Teaching Excellence.
For over 12 years at INSEAD, Joerg has been bringing real-world insights into his cases. Through direct interviews with C-level executives, enriching cases with supplementary videos, and guest appearances by case protagonists; Joerg facilitates a deeper exploration and connection with case material.
Going further, in 2024 Joerg published his first virtual reality case, allowing for realistic role-play that would otherwise be more difficult to replicate in a traditional classroom.
Joerg is also leveraging AI-aided strategy platforms that provide students with live insights in the classroom. These platforms enable students to apply frameworks in real time and e.g. create customer experiences on-the-spot during case discussions.
This experience has been described by students as "groundbreaking". By providing opportunities for students to share first-hand insights, classroom discussions are more dynamic and authentic, ultimately supporting students to go deeper in their learning.
Beyond the classroom, Joerg has been a leading advocate for expanding case-based learning across INSEAD’s executive education programmes. Through mentoring new educators, leading faculty workshops, and sharing best practices in case teaching, Joerg is advancing the case method and enhancing students’ learning experiences.
Find out more about Joerg's win
2. Awards and Competitions: criteria and judges
The Case Centre Awards and Competitions recognise outstanding case writers and teachers from across the globe and celebrate worldwide excellence in case writing and teaching. The Awards are in their 35th year. They have been awarded on a global basis since 2011 (previously European Awards).
2.1 Awards
Each year, 11 Awards for cases are presented for nine management categories, a ‘free’ case (no fees to be paid for use), plus an Overall Winner Award. Cases that have been added to The Case Centre’s collection in the past five years are eligible.
Judging of Awards
Management categories, the ‘free case’ and the Overall Winner are presented to those cases that have been used in the largest number of organisations across the globe in the past year. The Overall Award goes to the most popular case across all categories. Cases are assessed based on anonymised data.
2.2 Competitions
Each year six competitions take place comprising two which recognise an individual’s achievement and four which recognise case writing excellence across any management discipline. Expert panels judge the entries anonymously to ensure complete impartiality.
- Outstanding Contribution to the Case Method (for unique and sustained commitment, furthering and engagement with the case method of learning)
- Outstanding Case Teacher (for excellence as a practitioner in the case classroom)
- Outstanding Case Writer
- Outstanding Case Writer ‘Hot Topic’ (this year’s topic: ‘Generative AI, business and society’)
- Outstanding Compact Case (fewer than five pages)
- Outstanding New Case Writer (for a first case written by an author)
Judges of 2025 Competitions
Outstanding Contribution to the Case Method: The Case Centre’s Board of Trustees.
Outstanding Case Teacher: Euvin Naidoo, Thunderbird School of Global Management; Kakoli Sen, Solbridge International School of Business; Sandra Pereira, Warwick Business School; and Vicky Lester, The Case Centre.
Outstanding Case Writer: Geoff Bick, University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business; Harris Kyriakou, ESSEC Business School; Ana Roncha, ESCP Business School; and Vicky Lester, The Case Centre.
Outstanding Case Writer ‘Hot Topic’: David Dubois, INSEAD; John Mullins, London Business School; and Vicky Lester, The Case Centre.
Outstanding Compact Case: Harm-Jan Steenhuis, A&M-Texarkana; Subhadip Roy, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad; Imane El Ghazali, ESCA Ecole de Management; and Vicky Lester, The Case Centre.
New Case Writer: Jim Lecinski, Kellogg School of Management; Asha Bhatia, Universal AI University; Engy Magdy, El-Khazindar Business Research and Case Center (KCC); and Vicky Lester, The Case Centre.
3. The Case Centre
The Case Centre is the independent home of the case method. We are dedicated to advancing the case method worldwide, sharing knowledge, wisdom and experience to inspire and transform business education across the globe. We are a not-for-profit organisation and registered charity.
We:
- distribute the world’s largest collection of management case studies, articles and books
- provide training in case method teaching, writing and learning led by globally renowned experts
- offer authors an efficient worldwide case distribution service
- publish The Case Centre Impact Index, an annual ranking of organisations based on the global reach and impact of their case writing
- run international case competitions and awards
- offer scholarships to unpublished case writers and new case teachers
- distribute books and articles by eminent case method specialists
- curate the annual #WorldCaseTeachingDay.
We are a membership organisation and our growing case method community of over 400 member organisations worldwide is at the heart of everything we do.
Governance
We are governed by our Memorandum and Articles of Association. Our Board of Trustees, comprising up to 14 annually elected academic representatives from member organisations, meets three times a year to establish our policy and oversee our progress.