個案總覽

On June 22, 2018, Stephanie Wilkinson, co-founder of the Red Hen, a small farm-to-table restaurant in rural Virginia, was caught off guard when a frantic call from her chef told her that the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, had just sat down to eat at Wilkinson's restaurant. Staff at the Red Hen were tense because they fundamentally disagreed with Sanders's support of the Trump administration on issues such as immigration and transgender rights. Wilkinson was equally concerned because she had kept politics off the menu at the Red Hen for over 10 years in a politically charged city. Now, Wilkinson had to decide whether to side with her employees and her own moral values and ask Sanders to leave, or permit Sanders to stay at the restaurant. Either way, Wilkinson knew that there would be consequences and that the media would be knocking at her door.

Ace Company (Ace) was a Chinese start-up developing software for the Internet of Things (IoT). The company was founded in February 2015 by three colleagues for the initial purpose of providing an unprecedented universal IoT operating system, the absence of which was severely crippling developing development in IoT. By mid-2017, having proven the technical viability and market acceptability of its offering, the company was ready to scale up. However, the co-founders disagreed on the choice of growth strategy. One founder advocated extending Ace’s business to as many industrial scenarios and companies as possible, while the other founder was in favour of Ace focusing on and penetrating deeply into a few industries. The third founder was stuck in the middle and wanted to know which path they should choose.

The chief executive officer (CEO) of the government-owned Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) is setting the marketing policy for the incubation program at HKSTP, Hong Kong’s leading incubator of high-technology companies. Seeing marketing as a driving force to convey the strategy of HKSTP, the CEO must analyze the key services through which HKSTP can increase an incubatee’s chances of success; analyze the advantages and disadvantages that HKSTP presents for a start-up’s location; analyze how HKSTP positions itself in the competitive market for incubation services; discern how successful it is; and determine what marketing ideas HKSTP should use to convey its competitive advantages. The task is complicated by the global nature of the incubatee servicing market, the position of Hong Kong within the Greater Bay Area of the People’s Republic of China, and the CEO’s belief that a company has to be on its own, not relying on government programs. Not only did the CEO have to give HKSTP’s incubatees the resources to help them survive and prosper, but he also had to attract the best tech start-ups to join the program.

Between 2010 and 2015, Opera Philadelphia experienced a steep decline in household subscribers and single-ticket buyers, coupled with severe revenue fluctuations. At that time, market behaviours had changed along with growth in more sophisticated use of digital media for entertainment and social interaction.<br><br>The general director’s critical objective for the Opera was to develop a fresh strategy that specifically targeted evolving tastes for opera performance in Philadelphia and the surrounding area. The Opera had to determine whether it needed to revise its segmentation and positioning strategy, as well as make adjustments to its product. This new strategy also had to provide protection for and prevent further loss of the Opera’s existing subscription audience, many of whom were loyal donors.

Spreadsheet to accompany product 9B19A039.

In 2013, Bikes & Co. Ltd., a business unit belonging to a multi-divisional organization in Nagpur, India, was rooted in the past and out of touch with the contemporary environment. A new chief executive officer had been charged with implementing strategic changes that would turn the unit around across the organization, in every function and department. These changes aimed to align the company with consumer expectations and behaviour, which was reflected in retail outlets or points of purchase. The organization had to avoid concentrating only on the consumer’s end decision point and focus instead on the entire consumer decision journey. The new chief executive officer had been given 12 months to accomplish a business transformation that would address issues related to human resources, the supply chain, marketing and branding, vendor management, sourcing, sales, customer service, enterprise resource management, product design, engineering, and retail outlets.

In early 2019, arc Thrift Stores was supporting 14 Colorado chapters of the Arc, an organization that advocated for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) in schools, helped individuals with I/DD live more independently, and supported legislation regarding their rights all across the state. The chief executive officer and marketing director of arc Thrift Stores were reviewing a survey they hoped would help them understand arc Thrift Stores’ customers and broaden the interest in arc Thrift Stores among younger generations. By all measures, arc Thrift Stores was very profitable, but its core audience was aging, and the team wanted to ensure that it continued the successes of its past 50 years into the next 50 years. The company wanted people to understand the value of shopping their stores and the quality of items they could expect to find there. How could the company make inroads with a younger demographic? Should it focus more on sustainability? Should it consider moving into the e-commerce space?

This case focuses on the supply chain strategy of Walmart. Set in 2019, it provides a detailed description of the company’s supply chain network and capabilities. Data in the case allows students to compare Walmart’s source of competitiveness with those of other retailers—both online including Amazon.com and traditional brick–and-mortar retailers, such as Target—to develop insights into the management of a large, complex, global supply chain network. As competition between Walmart and its online and offline competitors heated up, a key challenge for the company’s president and chief executive officer was deciding what changes made to Walmart’s expanding supply chain would best support its strategic objectives. What supply chain capabilities would Walmart need as its business model continued to evolve?

In 2008, Roshan, Afghanistan’s leading telecommunications provider, launched M-Paisa, its mobile money transfer service, which allowed Afghans to use their mobile phones to transfer funds, receive and repay microfinance loans, make purchases, and disburse and receive salaries. The company was committed to building a financial ecosystem for transparent, safe, convenient, and secure services, which would also contribute to the long-term development of Afghanistan’s society. Utilizing technology from Vodafone Group Plc, which had been successful in Kenya, Roshan enjoyed several successful pilots, but it still faced a myriad of issues as it sought to scale the service amid a challenging operational environment. In 2011, three years after its launch, the M-Paisa service had yet to make a profit. Roshan’s chief executive officer and chief operating officer wondered what more they could do to turn M-Paisa around and, ideally, make an even more significant social impact.

In the summer of 2016, the unprecedented growth of Pokémon GO introduced augmented reality into mainstream gaming. Pokémon GO was developed by San Francisco-based Niantic, Inc. (Niantic), a highly successful spinoff from Google Inc., which partnered with the Japanese video game company Nintendo Co., Ltd. to bring the popular video game franchise into the mobile gaming sphere. Niantic's version included the innovative use of augmented reality, a technology that merged artificial reality with the real world. Although this strategy was a fresh approach, it also presented risks. Niantic was determined to shut down cheating apps and websites that were overloading the company's servers and giving some players unfair advantages. Some players were dismayed by Niantic’s actions and by the apps and websites themselves, while others predicted that the game's popularity would disappear as quickly as it had grown. By late 2016, Niantic needed to decide how to move forward. Should Pokémon GO continue to evolve as an augmented-reality game, with teams and live events, or should Niantic create a new gaming experience focused on features from the original Pokémon games? Alternatively, should the company partner with third-party developers, including those that had developed popular cheating apps and websites? Finally, how should Niantic fund its unexpected growth?

In September 2018, the leadership team of Agarwal Packers and Movers Limited (APML) gathered for a meeting at the company’s headquarters, located in the heart of New Delhi, India. The founder was considering whether the company should go public by the end of 2019. Since APML’s inception in 1987, the team had worked hard to create a healthy brand recall, establish customer loyalty, and build a robust financial base. However, in the 18 months leading up to the intended initial public offering, the founder needed to consider two key questions: How could the company create and maintain service differentiation in an industry characterized by low entry barriers and limited pricing flexibility? How could it deliver quality service to retain customer loyalty?

The director of World Tailors, a small Canadian manufacturer that employed immigrant and refugee women to sew high-quality aprons, napkins, and market bags, wondered how all of the needed products would be completed for the 2017 December holiday season. During the past seven years, demand for World Tailor products had steadily increased from craft markets, online orders, and retail stores. How could the capacity of its current operations be better managed and expanded? World Tailors was more than a local manufacturer: it supported courageous women, who had recently arrived in Canada as refugees and immigrants, to integrate into the community. Would reorganizing as a business co-operative better balance the unique social mission of the organization?

Excel spreadsheet for product 8B18D020.

Excel spreadsheet for students.

In 2017, the owner of Toboggan Brewing Company (Toboggan) needed to increase production capacity for his craft beer without making a capital investment. Toboggan was a very small player in the Ontario market; however, its craft beer had significant opportunity for growth due to the owner’s strong business acumen and a proven consumer demand for the product. The owner had four options for potential contracting partners. The trade-offs between his contract partners were price, experience, location, and distribution.

In its first four years, Fancam Pty Ltd. (Fancam), a high-definition, 360-degree crowd-imaging business based in Cape Town, South Africa, had enjoyed considerable growth that was driven in part by its network of resellers around the world. However, the structure and incentives of the reseller channel were becoming too difficult for the business to manage. By February 2015, Fancam's chief executive officer was considering how to fix the firm's channel management strategy. He was considering the use of reseller exclusivity agreements and wondered how to manage such agreements. He also wondered how to improve the company's multi-faceted sales incentive structure, whether to replace resellers with an in-house sales force, and what role these decisions would have on the brand positioning of his company’s product.

US-based Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI), founded in 1992, was the world's largest agency dedicated to providing adoption services to abandoned children living in Chinese social welfare institutions. By 2017, CCAI had found permanent homes in the United States for more than 12,000 orphaned children and children with disabilities. However, the economic, social, legal, and political environments in China were changing. The number of abandoned children in the Chinese mainland was gradually decreasing, while the number of children with disabilities seeking a foreign adoption was constantly increasing. The founders were determined to apply their experiences, resources, and influence to charitable work, while continuing to pursue the cause of international adoptions. What should they do to help maintain CCAI’s sustainable development?

In 2018, President of the United States, Donald Trump, criticized the company Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer) for increasing drug prices—which had been a strategic move by Pfizer in response to industry-wide challenges. This announcement highlighted the complex dynamics of the pharmaceutical industry and the big challenges that innovative research and development (R&D)–intensive pharmaceutical companies faced. The entire pharmaceutical industry was being challenged by issues such as decreasing global average returns on investment and increased R&D costs. In addition, the company faced increased competition from companies from other industries and from emerging-market companies. Pfizer’s chief executive officer needed to determine whether or not these changes marked a turning point for the whole industry.

Case B complements Case A, describing pharmaceutical companies’ strategic responses—such as mega-mergers and acquisitions and specialization—to industry-wide global challenges and highlights strategic decisions by Pfizer’s chief executive officers between 2007 and 2018.

In January 2018, Fotile Kitchenware Co. Ltd.'s (Fotile's) sales for 2017 were announced at over ¥10 billion. Fotile had become the first kitchen appliance manufacturer in China to reach this significant milestone, despite its relatively short operational history. For years, Fotile had also been considered China’s most prominent brand in the kitchenware industry, beating several internationally-reputed brands. Since the company’s founding, the founder had set a differentiation strategy for this new venture to compete in the kitchen appliance industry. He had also made numerous tough decisions along the way to ensure that this strategy was persistently followed through. However, could his strategy continue to sustain Fotile’s growth for the future?