The case explores how Hung Fook Tong Group Holdings Limited (1446.HK) a Hong Kong company engaged in the production and sales of a variety of herbal and non-herbal products under its "Hung Fook Tong (é´»ç¦å ‚)" brand, accounts for its various membership programmes and promotional packages. Founded in 1986 by Mr. Wong Jing Fat, the Company has grown from a single herbal tea shop into a chain of 115 retail stores. The case is set in the first quarter of 2019 before the release of 2018 annual results. Students take on the role of Colin Lo, the Financial Controller of the Company. Mr. Lo is preparing for the upcoming board meeting. He expects a detailed discussion on the impact of changes in accounting policies, in particular, HKFRS 15 "Revenue from Contracts with Customers".
This is the course overview note for "The Entrepreneurial Manager," taught in the first year at Harvard Business School. Students will learn how to be opportunity-driven managers and how to lead under uncertainty. They'll learn how to identify opportunities, how to design and develop integrated operating models to pursue those opportunities, how to resource those activities amidst uncertainty, and, ultimately, how (and if) to scale them. The note covers the motivation for the course, historical and contemporary, and the course structure.
Among the many competing definitions of entrepreneurship, the one adopted in The Entrepreneurial Manager at HBS was authored by Howard Stevenson in the 1980s and elaborated on in the decades since. Stevenson provided a managerial take on the term; he described entrepreneurship as a distinct approach to management. That approach is the subject of this brief note. The note provides his definition of entrepreneurship ("the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled") and six domains that differentiate entrepreneurial managers from administrative managers.
This case traces the journey of 759 Store, a chain store selling groceries and snacks in Hong Kong, from its inception in 2010 to 2019. After many years of rapid expansion, it began to experience difficulties amid a deteriorating retail business environment in Hong Kong. Management would need to rethink its business strategy and make major changes to turn the business around.
The first (or "Great") Industrial Revolution occurred in Europe from roughly 1760 to 1860, and marked the end of the centuries-long feudal era and the rise of modern capitalism. To understand the modern industrial economy, it is necessary to consider the profound structural changes that produced it in the 18th and 19th centuries. New industries replaced old systems or businesses with new technologies, products, markets, and business practices, resulting in dramatic changes in economic growth (a measure of material well-being), politics (new institutions, interests, and ideologies), and society (such as urbanization, changes in social mobility, and immigration). Anchored to the rationalist principles of the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution emphasized increased productivity across sectors, from agricultural labor to factory production. The Industrial Revolution encompassed and relied on dramatic changes to organizational management, capital structures, resource procurement, and political institutions, marking a culmination of societal transformation that manifested in an explosion of economic development. The word "revolution" suggests a period of radical change, a shift from an old order to a completely new one: the Industrial Revolution was such a shift. This note offers a historical overview of this hugely consequential period in economic history.
In early 2019, Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. (AGC), a diversified Japanese company, was at a critical juncture in its evolution. Three years earlier, AGC had released its Vision 2025, which set a goal for the company to continue as a leading global provider of materials and solutions that improved the daily lives of people around the world. Its financial performance had improved significantly over the previous five years, but profitability remained modest, with operating profit margins slightly above 8 per cent. The modest profitability of the company belied a strong base of technologies in glass, chemicals, electronics, and ceramics. AGC could potentially use these strengths to develop and market high value-added products in varied sectors such as mobility, construction, new energy, and life sciences. To effectively exploit future opportunities, however, the company needed to devise and implement novel strategies, overcome competitive challenges, and align its internal organization. Specifically, it would need to extend or modify its globalization strategy by developing a differentiated strategy for combinations of products and countries, develop new competencies in areas such as biologics, and choose the appropriate entry modes to balance financial and strategic implications. How should AGC proceed toward achieving its Vision 2025 goals?
In October 2014, Carestream Health Inc. (Xiamen) (CHX) was faced with a supply chain disruption caused by a labour dispute involving most of the ports on the west coast of the United States. The work-to-rule strike was having a considerable impact on the operations of the ports and was putting pressure on CHX's lean supply chain. In particular, the supply of wide rolls of films, the key material to CHX operations, was compromised. In an emergency meeting, CHX's management team discussed using other shipping options. One of these options, (airfreighting) appeared to be feasible but costly. The meeting's leader who was the director of the Asia Pacific Lean Six Sigma asked the management team to determine when CHX should use airfreight for its supply of wide rolls, how many rolls should be airfreighted each time, and what the best mechanism would be to govern the use of airfreight.
A newly appointed hospital CEO must decide how aggressively she should pursue a sexual harassment accusation against a long-time senior hospital executive, who was also a rival for the CEO position.
For the board of The We Company-better known as WeWork-August 14, 2019 promised to be a pivotal day. It was then that WeWork's IPO prospectus, known as an S-1 filing, would be made public, giving potential investors, the media, and the general public a window into the company's inner workings. Under U.S. securities laws, a company planning to offer new securities for sale to the public was required to file a Form S-1, or registration statement, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), whose mandate was to evaluate companies' compliance with SEC disclosure rules, not the quality of the investment. In anticipation of that day, WeWork's directors had an opportunity to review the S-1-as presented in a series of some two dozen excerpts from the S-1 in the exhibits to the case-and offer the management team any final comments and suggestions for changes.
In June 2017, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Kindred Home Care, a home care company in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, bordering the United States, was grappling with three options for scaling up operations-take the familiar acquisition route, move toward the untested franchising route, or cross the border to the larger US market. The company has limited physical assets, and therefore the CEO cannot tap external capital to finance growth; however, he could access internally accrued funds of CA$2 million.
By 2018 it was the largest insurance company in China. The case charts the development of the company and how it diversified across financial services. In particular, it talks about its strategic transformation, which included attracting foreign employees and encouraging diversity. A key pillar in the strategic transformation was Ping An Technology, a division of the Group created in 2008 that would develop its technology capabilities. This division was critical to later enabling Ping An to develop into an ecosystem player across five segments. Ping An Technology had three core functions - including data, incubating new businesses and new products. Its immediate goal was to align the Group's different IT systems, reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency. Harnessing the latest technologies, Ping An would operate as a 'human being' with a brain formed of AI, its body of cloud computing, and a nerve, arterial and vein network of blockchain. The case then charts the rise of the Technology division and its ambition to become a global technology ecosystem player. It looks at the core technologies that the division developed including facial and voiceprint recognition and medical imaging and their applications to different parts of the ecosystem. The final part of the case looks at the five ecosytems - finance, healthcare, automobile, real estate, and smart city and Ping An's collaborations and offerings. The case closes with Ma reflecting on the 15 years of the transformation but questioning whether Ping An's technology leadership can continue given the challenges of competitors Alibaba and Tencent in financial services and Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent in smart city solutions. Ping An was also mainly a domestic player but served other parts of Asia, Ma questions what it will take for the Gorup to become a global player.
This case is set in 2018. The Institute of Service Excellence (ISE) at Singapore Management University conducted surveys in Singapore to measure customer satisfaction across 20 industries comprising more than 100 companies, and released the results as Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) every quarter. In the latest CSISG report of the e-commerce sub-sector, Amazon was ranked last in terms of customer satisfaction in Singapore. The results were surprising as Amazon, the global leader in online retail, usually topped the customer satisfaction surveys conducted in the US. Puzzled by its lacklustre performance, James Mckally, senior partner at a Singapore-based marketing consultancy on e-retail, had requested ISE for a detailed analysis. John Lim, as the lead analyst at ISE, was in the process of reviewing the data collected and the analysis that had been generated, in order to derive some useful insights before the proposed meeting. In the latest CSISG report of the e-commerce sub-sector, Amazon was ranked last in terms of customer satisfaction in Singapore. The results were surprising as Amazon, the global leader in online retail, usually topped the customer satisfaction surveys conducted in the US. Puzzled by its lacklustre performance, James Mckally, senior partner at a Singapore-based marketing consultancy on e-retail, had requested ISE for a detailed analysis. John Lim, as the lead analyst at ISE, was in the process of reviewing the data collected and the analysis that had been generated, in order to derive some useful insights before the proposed meeting.