The Catalyst Co. Conundrum: A Case Study in Navigating Organizational Equity
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The Catalyst Co. Conundrum: A Case Study in Navigating Organizational Equity

by queen jaks


In early 2025, Catalyst Co., a fast-growing sustainable logistics software firm, faced a reputational crisis. A young engineer’s viral open letter accused the company of age bias and quoted a manager who called younger employees “kids who need to grow up before leading projects.” Former employees soon added that older workers were seen as “too slow to adapt.” Founder and CEO Anya Sharma built Catalyst on a meritocratic ideal and approached EquiConsulting to find the root causes. Students act as the consultants. They choose five of ten quantitative and qualitative data sets, work with a CEO who wants numbers rather than feelings, and have to adapt when leadership quietly withdraws a data set over legal concerns. When can a meritocratic culture hide bias, and how can consultants build credible recommendations from incomplete data?

Learning Objectives

1. Diagnose how informal networks, managerial discretion, and subjective criteria can produce age and gender inequities in an organization that sees itself as a meritocracy.

2. Triangulate quantitative and qualitative data to surface contradictions between formal metrics and employees’ lived experience.

3. Develop defensible, evidence-based recommendations from incomplete or restricted data, clearly documenting assumptions and limitations.

4. Respond to skeptical leadership professionally and communicate findings in a form suited to senior stakeholders.

Details

Pub Date: October 1, 2026

Discipline: Diversity

Keywords: Consulting, Data analysis, Organizational culture, Age discrimination, Gender discrimination, Workforce diversity, Employee promotions, Generational issues

Product #: B6100-PDF-ENG

Industry: Software publishing, Technology

Geography: United States

Length: 7 page(s)

Berkeley Haas Case Series
Berkeley Haas Case Series The Berkeley Haas Case Series is a collection of business case studies written by faculty members at the Haas School of Business. Cases are conceived, developed, written, and published throughout the year, on subjects ranging from entrepreneurship and strategy to finance and marketing. Each case includes a teaching note for use in the classroom.
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