News & Highlights

  • March 2025
  • Cold Call Podcast

Inside Porsche’s Push to Evolve: New HBS Case Featured on Cold Call

What does it take for a legendary brand like Porsche to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving auto industry? In this Cold Call episode, Harvard Business School Professor Stefan Thomke dives into the strategy and innovation behind the iconic automaker—drawing from the case study he co-authored with Daniela Beyersdorfer, Director of Research & Administration at the Europe Research Center (ERC). From electric sports cars to digital customer experiences like “Track Your Dream,” the case—based on deep field research in Germany—reveals how Porsche is reimagining what performance and luxury mean in a changing world.
  • December 2024
  • Harvard Gazette

Learning from Notre-Dame: A Case on Leadership and Preventable Failure

What can one of the world’s most iconic landmarks teach us about leadership and operational discipline? In a new Harvard Business School case study, Professor Amy Edmondson examines the 2019 Notre-Dame Cathedral fire as a powerful example of complex failure. The case explores how a cascade of small oversights led to catastrophe—and what leaders must do to build cultures of vigilance and accountability.
  • October 2024
  • HBS Institute for Business in Global Society

Europe’s Green Transition

In October 2024, Harvard Business School’s Institute for Business in Global Society (BiGS), in partnership with the Europe Research Center (ERC), brought together corporate leaders, sustainability officers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers in Paris for a high-level roundtable on Europe’s role in the global green transition. Against the backdrop of mounting climate urgency, the event sparked rich dialogue on how European businesses are turning environmental challenges into strategic advantage.

New Research on the Region

  • June 2025
  • Teaching Material

SWEN Blue Ocean: Impact Investing Goes to Sea

By: Vikram S Gandhi and David Allen

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 325-013

  • June 2025
  • Case

(Family) Size Matters: Nico Oprée and the Decreasing Power of Family Unity over Time

By: Lauren Cohen, Octavian Graf Pilati, Dominik V. Eynern and Sophia Pan

Nico Oprée, a fourth-generation (G4) member of his family’s heavy manufacturing business, found himself reflecting on how the firm would navigate a deepening shareholder conflict. While the second generation (G2) had managed the business in harmony, dynamics shifted dramatically by the third generation (G3). Beginning in 2019, sentiments toward the sitting CEO became increasingly divided, eventually culminating in a rift: four G3 shareholders backed replacing the CEO with Nico’s father, while two opposed the change and supported the incumbent. Though Nico’s father ultimately took over as CEO, the underlying family tensions remained unresolved—prompting the involvement of lawyers. The family now faced a critical decision: Should they hire an external CEO, sell the business entirely, or continue operating as they were? At stake was not only the future of the business but also the integrity of family relationships. Did the expansion of the family branches in G3—where cousins and siblings might find themselves at odds—further complicate the path forward?

  • June 2025
  • Case

Transforming a Titan (A)

By: George Serafeim and Lena Duchene

Dimitri Papalexopoulos, fourth-generation CEO of TITAN Cement, must decide whether to keep leading the 120-year-old, family-controlled firm or hand the reins to new management. Over 26 years he has turned TITAN from a domestic player into an internationally diversified group and championed an AI-driven productivity leap, even while steering the company through multiple economic crises. As TITAN prepared for its next phase of growth, Papalexopoulos faced the most consequential decision of his tenure: should he continue at the helm, promote a trusted insider, or become the first in the company’s history to recommend to the board appoint a non-family CEO?

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Paris Staff

Vincent Dessain
Executive Director
Filomena Berreby
Office Coordinator
Daniela Beyersdorfer
Director, Research and Administration
Emilie Billaud
Associate Director
Elena Corsi
Associate Director
Lena Duchene
Research Associate
Nikolina Jonsson
Research Associate
Tonia Labruyere
Senior Researcher
Emer Moloney
Senior Researcher
Carlota Moniz
Research Associate
Jan Pianca
Director, Educational Programs