INSEAD Case Book: 13 Cases and Worked Example

See all 13 cases in the packaged 2021 INSEAD Consulting Club case book and work the Seachange resort-entry math with a corrected source calculation.

Updated Jul 19, 2026. Reviewed by Ned.

The packaged 2021 INSEAD Consulting Club case book contains 13 cases across interviewer-led, candidate-led, and mixed formats. Its strongest use is international range. The verified PDF moves through public-sector museums and health systems, Southeast Asian consumer and tourism businesses, Australian manufacturing, US banking and insurance, global industrial equipment, robotics, chemicals, and asset management. Use the book to test whether your core case skills survive changes in geography, industry, and interviewer control. Run the case cold, preserve local units and assumptions, and debrief the exact transition that failed. Source: packaged INSEAD/INSEAD_2021.pdf, inspected 2026-07-19.

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What is the INSEAD case book best for?

The 2021 INSEAD Consulting Club case book contains 13 cases across interviewer-led, candidate-led, and mixed formats. Its strongest use is international practice across public, consumer, industrial, health, technology, tourism, insurance, manufacturing, and financial decisions. Source: packaged INSEAD PDF, inspected 2026-07-19.

The casebook plan supplies the realism rating. The packaged PDF supplies the edition, inventory, formats, industries, and worked-case facts. Those sources stay labeled separately.

What cases are in the INSEAD case book?

The table follows the PDF contents. Each description condenses the printed case type, industry, or prompt into a selection cue. Source for every row: packaged INSEAD PDF contents and case prompts, inspected 2026-07-19.

Size a market, INSEAD-style from the CoachNed drill engine. Answer a real prompt and get AI-scored feedback. Free accounts include daily drills.

This is a varied set, but it does not serve as a current-firm process guide. The cases teach analytical behavior. Current interview mechanics still need current employer evidence.

How should you choose an INSEAD case?

Choose by two variables: who controls the case and which skill you need to expose.

Avoid selecting by an interesting title alone. A useful case is the one that pressures the behavior you need next.

Worked INSEAD mini-case: Seachange

Prompt: You are considering leaving a post-MBA job to open a resort in Southeast Asia. The resort should generate at least as much cash flow as the current job. The case asks whether to proceed and where to locate it. The candidate supplies the personal salary hurdle. Source: Seachange, PDF slides 101 to 107, inspected 2026-07-19.

The exhibit compares Bali, Penang, Boracay, and Phuket. Phuket has 39 million international arrivals, $65.2 billion in tourist receipts, and 200 resorts. Boracay has 7 million arrivals, $9.7 billion in receipts, 20 resorts, and the fastest listed GDP-per-capita growth at 7 percent. The PDF notes that Phuket has the largest market and highest saturation, while Boracay is smaller, faster growing, and less crowded.

Use the named method International case debrief:

• Clarify the hurdle. Set the annual cash flow the resort must beat.

• Separate market scale from attainable economics. Visitor volume alone does not establish owner profit.

• Preserve source units. Keep receipts, arrivals, days, rooms, occupancy, and resorts visible.

• Recalculate before recommending. Check the printed example for consistency.

• Add operating risk. Include wages, land, property and equipment, local capability, and lifestyle constraints.

The PDF illustrates Phuket. It assumes half of $65.2 billion in tourist receipts goes to accommodation. That gives $32.6 billion. Dividing by 39 million international arrivals gives about $836 per visitor, which the PDF rounds to $800. Dividing the rounded value by a seven-day country stay gives about $114 per person per day, shown as $115.

For a 100-room resort with two guests per room, 365 days, and 80 percent occupancy:

100 rooms x 2 guests x 365 days x 80% x $115 = about $6.7 million annual accommodation revenue

The PDF reports about $6.6 million, which is consistent with rounding. Its next line uses $3.3 million per resort and states that 200 resorts produce a $1.32 billion market. Those values conflict. Two hundred times $3.3 million equals $660 million. Two hundred times $6.6 million equals $1.32 billion. A strong candidate should flag the inconsistency and ask which occupancy or revenue-sharing assumption the interviewer intends.

Recommendation: keep Phuket on the shortlist for scale, but withhold the investment decision until wages, land, property and equipment, owner salary hurdle, and attainable occupancy are modeled consistently. Compare that result with Boracay's lower saturation and faster listed growth. The next step is a destination-level profit model, not a market-size-only choice.

The arithmetic correction matters more than choosing a favorite island. It demonstrates the skill the case tests: connect market size with personal economics and qualitative fit, while checking the source math.

What is INSEAD strong and weak at?

The verified strengths are international range, three interviewer-control formats, cross-industry variety, and a mix of analytical and stakeholder decisions. The 8 out of 10 realism score comes from the casebook plan.

The limitations are also visible. The 2021 edition does not establish current firm formats. Some cases use period-specific market facts. Seachange contains an internally inconsistent multiplication that a candidate needs to catch. Those weaknesses make source checking and live debrief more important, not less.

How should INSEAD pair with CoachNed?

Use the PDF for a partner-led source case. Then use a CoachNed case for one transfer rep. The current free tier includes 1 full case plus 3 drills per day for a 3-day window. That free case credit works in Voice Mode too, so your first voice case costs nothing; beyond it, Voice Mode needs Pro, club access, or more credits. Source: CoachNed plan pricing, inspected 2026-07-19.

For Seachange, the closest current catalog match is Regional Cinema Location Selection. An international cinema chain must choose among five towns in regional Australia, which tests location choice, market evidence, and recommendation logic without reusing the resort facts. Source: the CoachNed case catalog, inspected 2026-07-19.

BainProfitability · hard

StyleCraft European Profitability Reset

Consumer Goods / Stationery

Practice this case free Transfer the location-choice logic to a new market

Run Regional Cinema Location Selection and prove that your market comparison, assumptions, and recommendation survive a different industry.

Run the cinema location case

When should you run another INSEAD case?

INSEAD fits international candidates, candidates who want cross-border practice, and readers who need to switch among interviewer-led, candidate-led, and mixed formats. A beginner can use the book, but the case list is broad enough that selection should follow a diagnosed skill rather than page order.

The INSEAD consulting pipeline behind this casebook

No top program sends a larger share of its class into consulting than INSEAD, which is exactly why this casebook is built around international range. Per the school's employment report (via ClearAdmit), half of the combined December 2024 and July 2025 class joined management consulting, 23 percent as new hires and 27 percent returning to a pre-MBA employer, at a EUR 107,200 mean salary. A cohort that recruits across Europe, Asia, the Gulf, and the Americas needs cases that switch geography, industry, and interviewer control, which is the precise variety the 13 cases above deliver. The best MBA programs for consulting ranking shows how that 50 percent compares with the US programs.

The 2021 edition worked above is maintained by INSEAD's own students. The INSEAD Consulting Club is the official home of the casebook, and current INSEAD students should pull the latest edition through the club rather than an outside mirror, since editions and case mixes shift between years.

Sources

• Packaged INSEAD/INSEAD_2021.pdf inside coachned-insead-case-book.zip, inspected 2026-07-19.

• INSEAD Consulting Club, the official student club and casebook home (checked July 19, 2026).

• INSEAD MBA Employment Report 2025 (via ClearAdmit), for the 50% consulting placement and EUR 107,200 mean (checked July 19, 2026).

• INSEAD case book depth-upgrade brief, dated 2026-07-17.

• Casebook universe plan, dated 2026-07-16, for the 8 out of 10 realism rating.

• CoachNed pricing configuration and case catalog, inspected 2026-07-19.