News & Highlights

  • November 2024
  • Cold Call Podcast

How Pernod Ricard Is Integrating AI into Its Workforce

Discover how Pernod Ricard, a global leader in premium spirits, is harnessing data and artificial intelligence to reimagine operations and expand into new markets. In this Cold Call Podcast episode, HBS Professors Iavor Bojinov and Edward McFowland III discuss their case “Pernod Ricard: Uncorking Digital Transformation,” supported by Nikolina Jönsson and Emer Moloney of the Europe Research Center. The case dives into the challenges of aligning digital initiatives with strategic goals, overcoming internal resistance, and fostering adoption across the organization.
  • October 2024
  • Event

Pioneering Europe’s Green Transition: A BiGS & ERC Paris Conference

On October 23-24, 2024, the Institute for Business in Global Society (BiGS) and the Europe Research Center hosted a landmark conference in Paris titled “Europe’s Green Transition: A New World of Risks & Opportunities.” Led by HBS Professor Debora Spar, the event brought together 70 C-suite executives, entrepreneurs, NGO leaders, public officials, and HBS faculty members. Panels, case studies, and breakout sessions explored topics from climate risk and financing strategies to innovative collaborations, creating a dynamic space for idea-sharing and networking.
  • HBS Business & Environment Blog
  • October 2024

Exploring High-Tech Greenhouse Innovations in the Netherlands

Explore how HBS MBA students immersed themselves in cutting-edge sustainable production practices during their January 2024 journey through Denmark and the Netherlands. Led by HBS Professors Willy Shih and Mike Toffel as part of the Decarbonization & Sustainable Production Immersive Field Course (IFC), students visited innovative greenhouses, including Syngenta Tomato Vision, leveraging AI and DNA sequencing for advanced tomato breeding; Van den Ende Rozen, employing sensors and automation for sustainable rose cultivation; and Koppert Cress, pioneering geothermal energy and drone-based pest control for microgreens and edible flowers. Discover what the students learned about the future of agriculture driven by innovation and sustainability.

New Research on the Region

  • December 2024
  • Article
  • Energy Policy

Coordinating the Energy Transition: Electrifying Transportation in California and Germany

By: Nicholas Goedeking and Jonas Meckling

California and Germany share ambitious emission reduction targets. Yet California is ahead of Germany in electrifying transportation by several metrics, including the number of public charging stations. We show that variation in the politics of coordination in California and Germany explains the different outcomes. Transforming energy systems requires coordination across various complementary technologies and infrastructures—here between the supply of electric vehicles and the buildout of charging stations. In California, a strong electrification coalition emerged across automakers selling electric vehicles as well as utilities and third-party firms providing charging infrastructure. Power market rules made capital investments for charging infrastructure instantly profitable for California monopoly utilities. By contrast, in Germany's liberalized power market, investing in capital-intensive charging infrastructure was not profitable for electric utilities. As a result, utilities did not emerge as a political force in the electrification coalition. Instead, utilities and automakers were in gridlock, failing to coordinate electric vehicle rollout and public charging station buildout. Our findings highlight the limits of business-led coordination, raising the question which institutions help address coordination failures in clean energy transitions.

  • November 2024
  • Case

Fire at Notre Dame de Paris

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Jerome Barthelemy

In early 2019, the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral was severely damaged by a fire. Though many people still believe that the fire was due to errors made at the “sharp end”, the case suggests that it resulted from the combination of various types of errors that could have been avoided.

  • October 2024 (Revised October 2024)
  • Case

Kering Eyewear

By: Rohit Deshpandé, Dante Roscini and Elena Corsi

In June 2024, Roberto Vedovotto, CEO of Kering Eyewear, prepared to discuss the future of the recently acquired brands LINDBERG, a Danish optical eyewear brand, and Maui Jim, an American sunglasses brand. Vedovotto founded Kering Eyewear in 2014, convincing François-Henri Pinault to internalize eyewear production for Kering’s luxury brands like Gucci and Saint Laurent. Kering could in this way control design, quality, and distribution of its eyewear products. In the following years, following an agreement with the luxury group Richemont, which became a co-owner, Kering Eyewear also included four Richemont eyewear brands, among which the high-end one Cartier. By 2024, Kering Eyewear was the second-largest eyewear manufacturer, generating 1.5 billion in revenue. However, slowing growth in China’s luxury market was expected to impact sunglasses sales, which accounted for 70% of its business. Vedovotto now faced the challenge of managing and growing a portfolio of brands, which included house brands and eyewear-only brands.

See more research

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 Assistant
Hugo Etchegoyhen
Research Assistant
Nikolina Jonsson
Research Assistant
Tonia Labruyere
Senior Researcher
Emer Moloney
Senior Researcher
Carlota Moniz
Research Assistant
Jan Pianca
Director, Educational Programs