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Top Cloud-Agri Technology Co., Ltd. (TPYN) was a Chinese high-tech company serving the agricultural industry. By implementing a digital business model, TPYN transformed from a traditional business model to a digital leader in the industry. To achieve further growth and develop an innovative digital business model, the chairman of the company put forward the new concept of “open, share, integrate, and win-win.” This concept presented not only a rare opportunity for enterprise development but also a considerable challenge, as the required cross-industry, cross-domain integration meant an increased consumption of resources. Should the company look for collaborators within the government or with other larger platforms, or could TPYN continue implementing the new model alone?

PharmaCo was a large, multinational, integrated pharmaceutical company. Its board of directors was meeting to discuss a possible friendly merger with a complementary competitor and to review a quarterly cybersecurity report. However, before either of these discussions could begin, PharmaCo’s chief financial officer interrupted with news that the company’s customer database had been encrypted by hackers in a ransomware attack and a ransom of $25,000 in Bitcoin had been demanded. Unfortunately, this was the first in a series of cyber attacks affecting the organization. The board of directors must increasingly deal with a number of issues brought by management and make some critical decisions in overseeing this crisis.

Additional Supplement to accompany 9B20M053.

Additional Supplement to accompany 9B20M053.

Additional Supplement to accompany product 9B20M053.

Additional Supplement to accompany 9B20M057.

Additional Supplement to accompany 9B20M058.

In December 2017, Ali Asher, the second-eldest child of Aziz Asher, was conducting research for his father on the best way to restructure the family business to prepare for succession. Asher’s parents and siblings all lived in Canada, while Ali had been running a start-up in India for nearly two years. The family had a real estate and construction business in Vancouver, British Columbia. Ali’s older sister had special needs and lived with her parents, so any family estate plan would need to consider her ongoing care and well-being. His brother, who lived in a suite in the family residence, had a close bond with this sister, worked closely with their father, and had personally invested in one of the family’s main real estate assets. The second sister lived in an apartment in Toronto, which the family had helped her purchase, and had little interest in the family business, though she wished to receive an equitable share of the overall estate. Ali believed that the family business and estate were highly vulnerable to both internal and external forces; he needed to recommend a suitable option for safeguarding the family’s estate and transitioning the family business to the children in a manner that would satisfy both his father’s conditions and the wishes of the other family members.

Presentation for product 8B20M053.

Founded in 1899 by Shinjiro Torii in Osaka, Japan, Suntory Holdings (Suntory) boasted a rich history in Japan’s alcoholic beverage industry. It purchased US-based Beam in 2014 for $16 billion, renamed itself as Beam Suntory, and transformed into one of the world’s largest alcoholic beverage makers, reaching total global revenues of more than 2.5 trillion yen ($23 billion) by the end of fiscal year 2018. Now, in 2020, could the Suntory team pull off a third miracle and successfully bring Japan’s highball culture to the extremely competitive global marketplace?

In 2018, the owner of Blue Sky Ranch, a heritage pig farm in British Columbia, Canada, was reviewing her business options. She had been producing premium-priced, high-quality pork for two years; however, despite growing demand from restaurants, grocers, and consumers for high-end, sustainably raised, free-range meat, Blue Sky Ranch was not yet profitable. The owner faced several challenges in processing and delivering her product to clients, and faced competition from large meat producers who had stronger relationships within the food supply chain. The business was operating at a loss and was continually constrained by federal and provincial regulations. What options were available to ensure the future of her business?

What should businesses be doing during the coronavirus pandemic? That’s a tough question, and few of us imagined the challenges we face while being isolated from friends, family, and colleagues. Any crisis will serve up some market opportunities to help consumers adjust, and business leaders should seize them. While doing this, it is important to note that the role of corporations was already under pressure to change prior to the pandemic. Ensuring your business does its part as a good corporate citizen isn’t just the right thing to do. When the dust settles, consumers will remember how organizations acted. Former Ivey Professor Christine Pearson recommends executives focus on the following actions: hope for the best, prepare for the worst; make your role model proud; create a superb crisis management team; treat your employees right; and model healthy self-care. Ivey Professor Andreas Schotter advises multinationals to ensure they keep track of all vulnerabilities as they scramble to maintain operations because retreating from globalization is not a viable long-term strategy. Ivey instructor Eric Janssen recommends that early-stage ventures try to increase revenue; move to collect receivables; delay payables; cut non-essential spending; and consider temporary layoffs. To maintain morale, Ivey faculty member David Wood suggests end-of-week team parties on Zoom or similar platforms to give employees a virtual meeting that they can enjoy. Finally, Ivey Professor Paul Beamish notes that everyone in business should maintain perspective—the type of setback they experience as a hassle of doing business often manifests in poor countries as a life-or-death situation.

Jingdong (JD), the leading innovation-driven e-commerce company and retail infrastructure service provider in China, had rapidly expanded its enterprise procurement market. In the process, however, it faced major issues related to poor customer experience, the high cost of risk control for the value-added tax (VAT), and inefficient invoice management. In early 2018, JD (the supplier of invoices) collaborated with the China Pacific Insurance (Group) Company Ltd. (the receiver of invoices) to launch China’s first electronic VAT special invoice, using blockchain technology to resolve traditional issues associated with paper invoices in the reconciliation of accounts and payments. In the process of developing the electronic VAT special invoice, the president of JD’s enterprise business department, considered how to meet the demands of companies and taxation agencies in a safe, confidential, convenient, easy-to-use, and low-cost manner. What potential challenges might JD face in promoting of its electronic VAT special invoices?

The chairman and managing director of Power Finance Corporation Limited (PFC) acquired REC Limited (REC), which was also engaged in the business of financing power sector projects. Both companies were in the public sector, with the Government of India holding the majority stake. The chairman and managing director must determine the next course of action for the two firms in order to achieve the maximum level of synergy.

DailyFish was an emerging e-commerce enterprise that was started in 2016 by Baby Marine Ventures, one of the largest exporters of frozen seafood from India. Subramanian Sankaran, Head of Loyalties and customer service management (CSM) was facing challenges related to increased missed calls in the call center that eventually led to a loss of sales opportunities. The chief executive officer of the company instructed Sankaran to reduce the waiting time per call by one third, thereby minimizing the missed calls. Sankaran had to find out how to minimize the waiting time without compromising the call quality. He was looking forward to hiring a couple of executives to tackle the issue. He planned to find the best fit using fractional factorial experiment using Taguchi orthogonal arrays.

Spreadsheet to accompany product 8B20E007.

Student Spreadsheet to accompany product 9B20E007.

This case describes the immense success of Chick-fil-A in the United States and its first major international expansion efforts in Toronto, Canada, and Reading, England amid increased competition in the United States. Although Chick-fil-A had become the third-largest fast-food chain in the United States in 2018, a public relations controversy that had simmered since 2012 over the company’s conservative Christian values still dogged the company’s expansion attempts in 2019. How should the company address the backlash from supporters of LGBTQ rights and ensure the success of Chick-fil-A outside the United States?

The director of sales for the detergents arm of LDFL India Limited (LDFL) had to develop a 2019 sales strategy with the objective of reducing the inter-channel conflict that had resulted in the general trade (GT) channel’s destocking of LDFL products and a loss of market share in 2018. The cash and carry format was the biggest challenge for the GT business, as it provided a cheaper, on-demand supply source alternative to the GT retailers that dominated the total detergent sales in the industry. The sales strategy options were to demarcate specific channels for sales of specific stock-keeping units; focus on stricter price control across channels, which could ensure a level playing field for GT; customize market offerings for targeted customer segments; or make changes pertaining to organizational structure and performance metrics. Every option had benefits, pitfalls, and implementation challenges.

YFY Inc., a Taiwan-based global multinational firm with its origins in agriculture and paper products, had recently become an innovator in environmentally-friendly packaging material—producing nPulp, paper pulp made from straw. The company’s visionary leadership choices had shaped its technological choices through various institutional changes and helped it overcome a number of technical and organizational obstacles in order to commercialize this innovation. However, like all green innovations, nPulp still faced serious challenges, such as unsupported policies and regulations, and unstable supply. In 2017, the company’s leadership needed to find other applications for this product to increase its market adoption rate and maintain and expand its operation. At the same time, they wondered if the previous generation’s vision of creating a business ecosystem including organic farming, proper waste treatment, non-chemical paper manufacturing, energy and resource recycling, and new materials was even feasible.