This listing contains abstracts and ordering information for case studies written and published by faculty at Stanford GSB.
Publicly available cases in this collection are distributed by Harvard Business Publishing and The Case Centre.
Stanford case studies with diverse protagonists, along with case studies that build “equity fluency” by focusing on DEI-related issues and opportunities are listed in the Case Compendium developed by the Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership at the Berkeley Haas School of Business.
Humanity in the Age of AI
Star Wars for Contingent Workers: Wolfgang Hammer and the Array Corporation
Humor at Scale: Shifting Global Culture at McKinsey & Co.
How do you bring humor to one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious management firms? Is humor professional? Can humor become a company’s strength? As McKinsey & Company found out, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’.
This case explores how a comedy…
Byron Allen’s Unfiltered Truth
Terry Crews: Becoming Unembarrassable
Putting Humor to Work: Using Humor to Find Work, Love Work, Leave Work
Building Compassionate AI: Why Compassion Matters for Artificial Intelligence Design and Deployment
Zoom: Cultivating Human Connection in a Digital World
In the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people turned to the Zoom digital communication platform each day to connect with colleagues, friends, and family. Collaboration has always been key to human survival, and Zoom offered a digitized human…
The Customer in the Story: Every Mother Counts
Every Mother Counts, a nonprofit set up to help more mothers around the world survive childbirth, was looking for a way to reignite the discussion of maternal mortality, and help activate more Americans to get involved in supporting maternal health…
Wildflower Schools: Enabling Connectedness
In the process of searching for a preschool for his son, Sepandar “Sep” Kamvar realized the ideal school he was envisioning did not yet exist. He decided to start a school that would serve to connect those involved in the school both to themselves and…
Stephen Curry and SC30: Aligned Purpose, Amplified Impact
This case provides a study of Stephen Curry’s journey as a model for how to “Ruin the Game” in your own life. It doesn’t require that you lead a championship basketball player as one of the best players in history to have massive impact, you only need to…
Play, Where the Real Work Happens: Virgin Unite
You Get the Leadership You Inspire: Humor at Google with Eric Schmidt
Institutionalizing Levity at Coursera
The Power of Humor in the Olympic Journey
Mary Roach: Finding Levity in Heavy Subjects
Mike Nemeth: Niche Humor and Six-Word Stories
Leading with Humor: Leslie Blodgett (BareMinerals), David Hornik (August Capital), Anne Libera and Kelly Leonard (The Second City)
“Leading with Humor” explores two major themes: 1) Why businesses should embrace and foster humor in the workplace, and 2) how individuals can bring humor and levity into their own organizations. The first section details the research on the benefits of…
Humor Saves America: Jenn Bane (Cards Against Humanity)
This set of Humor: Serious Business “Caselet Studies” follows three visionaries (Dick Costolo – Partner at Index Ventures and Former CEO of Twitter, Gregg Spiridellis – CEO and co-founder of JibJab, and Jenn Bane - mastermind behind the Cards Against…
Designing Physical Space to Activate a Mindset of Levity: Gregg Spiridellis (JibJab)
This set of Humor: Serious Business “Caselet Studies” follows three visionaries (Dick Costolo – Partner at Index Ventures and Former CEO of Twitter, Gregg Spiridellis – CEO and co-founder of JibJab, and Jenn Bane - mastermind behind the Cards Against…
Using Humor to Break the Status Barrier with Dick Costolo
This set of Humor: Serious Business “Caselet Studies” follows three visionaries (Dick Costolo – Partner at Index Ventures and Former CEO of Twitter, Gregg Spiridellis – CEO and co-founder of JibJab, and Jenn Bane - mastermind behind the Cards Against…
On Humor and Honey Badgers: Steve Reardon (Bill4Time)
Steve Reardon, CEO of Bill4Time, loved a good practical joke. But humor was more than just a side passion—it helped shape how Reardon operated as a CEO, and helped define the office culture he hoped to build. While most people might assume that…