W Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne and Michael Olenick
Chan, Renée and Michael discuss students’ love of Marvel, gaining key access to their executives and their case writing tips.
Turning Marvel around
The authors said: “It is rewarding and an honor to learn our Marvel case has been so well received by professors, students, and executives. It’s thrilling to see the strong response to the theme of the case – how a company’s strategy can turnaround even the most challenged business.
“Marvel was tied up in a long and contested bankruptcy. They emerged deep in a red ocean of debt, dissatisfied employees, and a customer boycott. Their blue ocean strategic move reversed this, creating a new type of movie studio that offered higher value movies produced at substantially lower cost that made competition irrelevant.”
Making the case fun
The authors commented: “This case is fun to read, combining deep pedagogical value and strong narrative. It illustrates how a business students know and love, Marvel, used differentiation and low-cost in real life. Plus, it’s a fun and interesting story: the fight for Marvel, complete with heroes and villains.
“There are first-hand interviews with Marvel executives. Enticing students to do their homework can be challenging but professors tell us students consistently read this case and many even circulate it to friends and roommates for pleasure reading.”
Contacts
The trio added: “Gaining access to the Marvel executives was challenging but working with them to understand how they turned around the business and created Marvel Studios was a highlight.
“Covering Marvel’s 80-year history was a challenge. Reviewing their business strategy then seeing their work at the local cinema, with the excited audiences, was great.
“Marvel executives were incredibly gracious with their time, especially former CEO Peter Cuneo and the original head of Marvel Studios, David Maisel. We’d like to give a shout-out of thanks to both Peter and David for their time. We were thrilled when they told us this case is the most accurate narrative related to Marvel’s turnaround and the establishment of Marvel Studios.”
Keep writing
The authors concluded: “A tip for writing a good case is write lots of drafts! And write a good teaching note. Weave pedagogical material together with a strong narrative, which makes the case theoretically and strategically insightful for students and executives but also fun.”
About the authors
W Chan Kim is The Boston Consulting Group Bruce D. Henderson Chair Professor of Strategy and International Management at INSEAD, and Co-Director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute.
e
chan.kim@insead.edu
tw @BlueOceanStrtgy
Renée Mauborgne is The INSEAD Distinguished Fellow and a professor of strategy at INSEAD, and Co-Director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute.
e
renee.mauborgne@insead.edu
tw
@BlueOceanStrtgy
Michael Olenick is an Institute Executive Fellow at the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute.
e
Michael.olenick@insead.edu
tw
@michael_olenick
Where?
“It’s extremely rare for a company to find a new strategy that could add multiples to the valuation of the business. That was the fortunate situation where we found ourselves in 2004. After five years of hard work and careful execution it was extremely satisfying to see the success of the strategy with the well-received launched of Iron Man in 2008.” – David Maisel.
