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  • September 2017
  • Case
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Christine Lagarde

By: Julie Battilana, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Vanessa Ampelas and Noemie Assenat
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:8
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Abstract

The case covers the youth and career trajectory of Christine Lagarde across her time at Baker & McKenzie, as a minister in the government of France and as the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The case highlights the challenges and opportunities she faced during each phase of her career and how she managed them. Lagarde started her career in 1981 as a lawyer at the global law firm Baker & McKenzie, which employed approximately 2,500 lawyers across 35 countries by 1999, when she became the firm’s first non-American and female chairman. In 2005, she became France’s Minister for Foreign Trade in President Jacques Chirac’s administration and was the EU’s de facto finance minister when the financial crisis was most acute. In 2011, she was selected to head the IMF. Since 2011, Lagarde built the foundation for the IMF’s adaptation to the realities of the 21st century. By 2017, shortly after Lagarde began her second term as the managing director of the IMF, the world faced pressing issues as a result of the rapidly evolving, hyper-connected global economy—ongoing recovery from the global financial crisis, the rise of emerging economies, deeper cross-border integration, technological change, and growing wealth and income inequality within countries. These interrelated dynamics were playing out alongside heightened anxiety within the populations of some major advanced economies about what these changes meant for them. The concerns manifested themselves in an inward focus, rumblings of protectionism, and questions about the worth of international cooperation and the multilateral system itself. Lagarde believed that the challenges facing the world economy warranted not less but more global cooperation. In this context, she had to determine how the IMF—as the leading advocate of global economic cooperation since its creation—could better demonstrate its effectiveness. She knew that it was a critical moment.

Keywords

Change; Personal Development and Career; Power and Influence; Leadership; Gender; Leading Change

Citation

Battilana, Julie, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Vanessa Ampelas, and Noemie Assenat. "Christine Lagarde." Harvard Business School Case 418-007, September 2017.
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About The Author

Julie Battilana

Organizational Behavior
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Related Work

    • August 2018
    • Faculty Research

    Christine Lagarde (A): A French Prime Minister Calls

    By: Julie Battilana and Carin-Isabel Knoop
    • August 2018
    • Faculty Research

    Christine Lagarde (B): Being a Public Servant

    By: Julie Battilana and Carin-Isabel Knoop
    • August 2018
    • Faculty Research

    Christine Lagarde (C): Managing the IMF

    By: Julie Battilana and Carin-Isabel Knoop
    • March 2019
    • Faculty Research

    Christine Lagarde (Abridged)

    By: Julie Battilana, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Julia Kelley
Related Work
  • Christine Lagarde (A): A French Prime Minister Calls By: Julie Battilana and Carin-Isabel Knoop
  • Christine Lagarde (B): Being a Public Servant By: Julie Battilana and Carin-Isabel Knoop
  • Christine Lagarde (C): Managing the IMF By: Julie Battilana and Carin-Isabel Knoop
  • Christine Lagarde (Abridged) By: Julie Battilana, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Julia Kelley
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