International Journal of Instructional Cases (IJIC)

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Strategic Leadership in the Entrepreneurial Firm – the Challenges of the Lululemon group

Arthur Kearney & Denis Harrington
Waterford Institute of Technology

Abstract

The Lululemon Group has been a lead innovator in the athleisure business. The company successfully managed the transition from an entrepreneurial growth company through to large corporate by anticipating market trends and retaining a sense of deep relationships with existing customers, primarily athletic focused women. In 2013, the company reached a transition point. The challenges emerged from how the strategic leadership of the firm could continue to encourage growth, manifest necessary organisational controls adequate to a stock exchange funded business, and yet simultaneously develop the business further, especially in the international context. Over the period of the case the company underwent three leadership changes, with notable contrast in the strategic leadership of the original owner and CEO, Chip Wilson and the present CEO Laurent Potdevin. The case will be used to enable students to understand the nature of industry change and strategic leadership in an entrepreneurial growth company. The case provides students with an opportunity to critically examine the importance of change in organisations. Within the case, students will then critically examine the role and importance of strategic leadership.

Keywords:Strategic leadership; industry change; athleisure industry; culture