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This case describes a user-centred approach to public services and is a result after a pioneering collaboration between Hongkong Post and Hong Kong Design Centre. Since operating as a Trading Fund in 1995, Hongkong Post has managed to reinvent itself as a dynamic, customer-focused and market-oriented service organisation. Leveraging its extensive retail and distribution networks and a strong brand, Hongkong Post has grown beyond the traditional postal service to providing a wide and comprehensive range of services in the logistics supply chain, at the same time diversifying into new markets. Hongkong Post recognizes that the current design of the post offices at the retail level may not be able to meet the growing needs and changing patterns of its users. The collaboration between Hongkong Post and Hong Kong Design Centre is an attempt to adopt the user-centered design research approach to public services and to apply the concept at the Mongkok Post Office with a view to understanding users' needs, providing a better user experience and improving operationally efficiency of the Mongkok Post Office. Users in this context, include both customers and post office staff. Case (A) focuses on the internal design, while Case (B) focuses on the external design.

This case describes a user-centred approach to public services and is a result after a pioneering collaboration between Hongkong Post and Hong Kong Design Centre. Since operating as a Trading Fund in 1995, Hongkong Post has managed to reinvent itself as a dynamic, customer-focused and market-oriented service organisation. Leveraging its extensive retail and distribution networks and a strong brand, Hongkong Post has grown beyond the traditional postal service to providing a wide and comprehensive range of services in the logistics supply chain, at the same time diversifying into new markets. Hongkong Post recognizes that the current design of the post offices at the retail level may not be able to meet the growing needs and changing patterns of its users. The collaboration between Hongkong Post and Hong Kong Design Centre is an attempt to adopt the user-centered design research approach to public services and to apply the concept at the Mongkok Post Office with a view to understanding users' needs, providing a better user experience and improving operationally efficiency of the Mongkok Post Office. Users in this context, include both customers and post office staff. Case (A) focuses on the internal design, while Case (B) focuses on the external design.

Likened in his native China to a rock star of entrepreneurship, Ma had risen from humble beginnings to the pinnacle of modern Chinese business in less than 20 years. How did a former English teacher who had not even been exposed to the internet until the end of the 1990s become iconic among internet multimillionaires? Was there something special about Ma that helped him stand out among an increasingly well educated class of Chinese entrepreneurs?

Founded in 1965 by Jim Thompson, the Crown Worldwide Group ("Crown") began as a small moving company in Japan, shifting its headquarters to Hong Kong in the mid-1970s. Within 30 years, Crown had became the world's largest privately held relocation and logistics enterprise, a success that was attributed primarily to the founder's insistence on high service quality and unwavering commitment to community development. With growing concern among customers about CSR, the company recognized that CSR must be integrated into its corporate strategy and day-to-day business operations to achieve sustainability for both the company and society. In 2008, Crown appointed its first CSR director, whose primary task was to develop and implement a standardized global CSR strategy that would support Crown's environmental and community development initiatives. Various CSR integration steps were taken, such as developing global environmental standards, stimulating employee volunteerism, building CSR communication channels, developing a supplier management system and conducting CSR measurement. In line with the goals of the UN Global Compact-a leadership initiative that guided participants in practicing responsible business-Crown would also publish sustainability reports yearly. Although employees were supportive of the company's CSR efforts, the journey of becoming a well rounded corporate citizen is full of complexities and involves a wide range of stakeholders and multi-dimensional issues. Without a roadmap or framework, CSR integration efforts could be daunting, but inaction is no longer an option in light of increasing CSR expectations. What would be the key success factors for Crown's CSR integration?

On 28 July 2009, the board of directors of Geox approved the footwear and apparel company's half-year results, which showed consolidated sales of US$653 million. This was a remarkable achievement and recognition for a company that had only been in the business since 1995. In the early 1990s, inventor, entrepreneur and erstwhile winemaker Mario Moretti Polegato, suffering from hot and sweaty feet, used a pocketknife to cut holes in the soles of his sneakers, thereby creating the first pair of "shoes that breathe". Convinced that his creative solution could be transformed into a commercially successful product, Polegato spent several years developing a breathable membrane for shoes that allow the feet to breathe while remaining watertight. When he succeeded in producing the prototype of such a technology in the laboratory, he immediately patented it and began marketing it to existing shoe manufacturers. However, none showed any interest in his product. He thus decided to embark on his own, and commenced manufacturing these "breathing" shoes under the Geox brand name. Since then, Geox's innovative products have continued to carve out a niche for themselves in the global footwear market. By 2002, the company had extended its "breathability" technology to fabric and entered the apparel market. By 2009, after a mere 14 years, Geox had become a global name and was ranked the world's second-largest casual lifestyle footwear sector operator. The company conducted its business in 68 countries around the world through over 10,000 multi-brand points of sale and 997 single-brand Geox shops. By introducing yet another product to the established and intensely competitive shoe industry, Geox had successfully demonstrated the power of innovation. But like any other innovative company, Geox has to fret about sustainability of its competitive advantage.

Chinese home electronics manufacturer TCL has identified the need to internationalize. However, because the global home electronics industry is a rapidly changing industry and the key to success lies in product innovation, TCL must now evaluate its innovation strategies to remain competitive. Traditionally, TCL's product development strategy has focused on modular innovation. By looking at the different product innovation strategies pursued by such global market leaders as Samsung and Sony, TCL has an opportunity to evaluate the differences between modular innovation and architectural innovation strategies and assess the risks involved.

Innovation is the key to success in the history of Honda Motor Group (Honda). In July 2007, Guangzhou Honda's Research and Development Co. Ltd. (GHRD) was established. It was the first multinational auto company to develop a R&D facilities with the technological capabilities to produce a completely new car from the ground up. While Honda Motor in Japan would provide technological support, the core technologies would be owned solely by Guangzhou Honda. This arrangement differed from the traditional R&D management in Honda, which, despite the existence of R&D centers around the globe, used to retain its core technologies at its R&D center in Japan. This case shows the motives, new opportunities and challenges behind business model innovation.

Hong Kong Disneyland has been struggling with lower-than-expected attendance rates for almost three years since its opening. Factors such as small size, inconvenient location, lack of unique features, insufficient appeal to adults and missing Chinese elements have been cited as possible causes. The Walt Disney Company and its joint-venture partner, the Hong Kong government, are negotiating about injecting extra capital to expand the park in order to attract more visitors. For a successful turnaround, the management has to figure out what went wrong in the first place. This case explores the possible reasons for the park's lackluster performance. It also covers the park's positioning and product offerings, the remedial actions taken by the company, an analysis of the market dynamics for both local and overseas visitors, and the competition faced by the park. The launch strategies and performance of Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Park in Paris are included in the case for comparison. This case was used in the 2nd McKinsey/HSBC Business Case Competition.

In January 2008, Samsung Electronics won 32 innovation and design engineering awards at the Consumer Electronics Show, the largest show of its kind in the world. Samsung Electronics' management believed that the awards were an endorsement (or "vindication") of the company's investment in product design and innovation. However, the company found its competitive advantage diminishing quickly due to commoditization of research and development ("R&D"), product design and innovation processes. This is a management strategy case that explores product design, innovation strategies and strategic planning in a changing competitive landscape. While investment in R&D and product design has rewarded Samsung Electronics with its dominant market position and premium brand perception, such dominance may not be sustainable in the long run, especially now that competitors are achieving higher profitability with lower investments in R&D per product. The case also discusses such issues as product design philosophies, innovation strategies, localization of products, product design outsourcing for consumer electronics products.

In April 2008, Nintendo was ranked seventh in the annual BusinessWeek-Boston Consulting Group ranking of the world's most innovative companies. The award recognized the company as an innovative design powerhouse that had challenged the prevailing business model of the video game industry with its new video game console, the Wii. The video game console industry traditionally went into a new cycle every five to six years. In 2006, when the newest generation of video game consoles was introduced, Microsoft and Sony had continued with their previous strategies of increasing the computing power of their latest products, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. This time, however, Nintendo had planned something different. The company believed that the video game industry had been focusing far too much on existing gamers and completely neglecting non-gamers who could well be the source for future growth. Armed with this insight, Nintendo had developed a radically different strategy by producing the Wii, whose processing power was dwarfed by that of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Nevertheless, it soon became evident that Nintendo's Wii was a runaway success. How has Nintendo achieved this success? Has the company really disrupted the video game industry? What course of action is available to Nintendo's competitors?

This case examines the challenges Citibank is facing in implementing e-business strategies. The focus is on how Citibank has developed an e-business strategy that fits with its corporate business strategy. Citibank not only needs to use information technology to improve internal operations and provide more efficient customer services at lower costs, but it also needs to ensure that its single, global online platform can serve the highly segmented market. At one end of the spectrum of the market are multinationals and top-level domestic corporations that operate sophisticated treasuries, and at the other end are companies and small- and medium-sized businesses that are not yet ready to upgrade or transform their systems.

Set against the backdrop of under-served, over-exploited rural India, this case highlights how the use of technology by the Indian conglomerate ITC transformed the lives of many rural Indians at the same time that it was benefiting the company. Continually plagued by an inefficient supply chain in rural agriculture, ITC implemented the e-Choupal initiative in 2000. Under the initiative, ITC set up small Internet kiosks in villages that allowed farmers access to an efficient and transparent alternative to the traditional mandi for marketing their produce. By establishing a direct channel between the farmer and ITC, e-Choupal significantly marginalized the role of middlemen, thereby ensuring farmers more money for their produce. In doing so, e-Choupal not only mitigated ITC's agrarian supply chain concerns but also achieved a greater good-the economic uplift and empowerment of the Indian farmer. Although e-Choupal was conceived as ITC's answer to their supply chain woes, ITC was quick to realize that they had discovered the delicate balance between achieving corporate profitability and making a social contribution. Aware of the multitude of challenges faced by impoverished rural Indians, ITC extended its e-Choupal framework to deliver core services, such as access to health care, education and information. They even liaised with other companies, including fast-moving consumer goods companies and finance companies, to deliver products and services to rural Indians that had previously commanded huge premiums or were simply unavailable. Evolving into a platform for community development, e-Choupal was both eradicating poverty and chipping away at rural isolation, even while ITC continued to enjoy the benefits of functional procurement and distribution value chains.

On 6 November 2007, Alibaba.com debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising US$1.5 billion to become the world's biggest internet offering since Google's initial public offering in 2004. A frenzied purchase of the stock pushed prices up by 193% on the first trading day, making it the fourth-largest first-day gain in Hong Kong's stock exchange in three years. The closing price of US$5.09 per share valued Alibaba.com at about US$25.6 billion and made it the fifth-largest among global internet companies and the largest in Asia outside Japan. It also made the company one of the most expensive stocks in Hong Kong, trading at 306 times the company's projected 2007 earnings. In contrast, globally recognized brand names such as Yahoo and Japan's Softbank, both major stockholders of Alibaba.com, were trading at only 60 times their projected earnings. Shareholders were therefore displaying extreme optimism towards Alibaba.com's earning prospect by paying a significant premium to own the company's shares. As observers and venture capitalists have remarked, China is becoming a center of technology and a major pole for innovation. Many successful dot com strategies in the West have been copied and refined by Chinese technological gurus who have honed their technical and entrepreneurial skills in the West. These "sea turtles" are beating international giants likes Google and eBay in the burgeoning Chinese market and have their sights set on global domination. Armed with proceeds from a record-breaking IPO, Alibaba.com is poised to stay ahead in the increasingly-competitive online B2B market in China. What strategies can the company pursue and what pitfalls must it avoid?

The story of Daksh, one of India's leading BPO companies that was bought out by IBM in April 2004 at an estimated amount of US$170 million, had all the elements of the great Indian IT dream: entrepreneurship, innovation, venture capital, wealth creation and a quick exit. Elaborating the post buy-out scenario the case highlights various issues arising from mergers and acquisitions and throws throws open for discussion different aspects of the dynamics of acquisition integration. The case also addresses the question as to why the soon-to-go-public Daksh had agreed to a sell-out and, more importantly, what had prompted IBM to acquire Daksh. Students are challenged to evaluate whether or not the takeover was the right decision, and how it fit into IBM's overall strategy. The case can either be used independently or in conjunction with Daksh and IBM: Business Process Outsourcing in India - Part 1. The Formative Years, which looks at Daksh as a fast growth entrepreneurial venture.

Following a successful IPO in June 2006, Banyan Tree Holdings Limited planned to use parts of the proceeds to finance an ambitious expansion plan. At the core of this business development plan was an ambitious proposal to open 28 new resorts over four years which would span non-Asian territories from Greece to Mexico. The Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, the SARS crisis of 2003 and the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 had taken their toll on the travel and tourism industry in the region where Banyan Tree's resorts and spas were concentrated. Although recovery was on the horizon, those events left haunting memories and CEO Ho Kwon Ping understood the need to diversify risks across geographic regions. This case considers how a company with an experiential brand should manage its global expansion without losing the core values associated with its brand.

Interlaken Village in Shenzhen, China, is an exact replica of the Swiss village of Interlaken, which is part of OCT East, a US$450 million investment in the thriving Pearl River Delta. This is a management strategy case for students to think outside the box about business strategies. In standard competitive strategy literature, firms should avoid being imitated or imitating others in order to gain unique competitive advantages. This case, however, examines whether copying can be a sustainable source of competitive advantage.

The IT productivity paradox debate has been going on for more than two decades, but the controversy has been exacerbated by a 2003 Harvard Business Review article by Nicolas Carr, who argues that IT doesn't matter. This case sheds light on the major drivers of IT investment: those investments targeted at improving operational efficiencies and those focused on entrenching a firm's strategic position. It does this by looking at the IT investment strategies of two of the world's largest financial institutions, HSBC and Citigroup. Of particular interest are how HSBC and Citigroup spend on IT projects, what drives their investments and the viability of measuring the efficacy of their investments in terms of improving operational efficiency or strategic position. By comparing the IT investments strategies of both banks, students will learn about the IT valuation process, the role of IT as a strategic necessity and IT's potential role in sustaining a firm's competitive advantage. Nominee for best paper award, International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS2007)

Founded in 1988 and chaired by Lawrence Fung, the Hong Kong Economic Times Group ("HKET Group") started off as a publisher of Hong Kong Economics Times (HKET)-the first Chinese-language financial newspaper in Hong Kong. Launched when the city's economy was booming, the newspaper set out to be the Chinese-language equivalent of the Financial Times and to become one of the pre-eminent financial and business information and service providers in Greater China. Widely recognized for its quality content and leading market status, Hong Kong Economic Times has evolved closely with the economic and business environment of the city, catering to the changing needs of the local business community, such as the addition of a property section during the rise of the property market in the early 1990s and an IT section during the dotcom bubble in the mid- to late 1990s. In the face of new challenges to traditional newspaper industry like the proliferation of the Internet, the HKET Group responds by focusing on two fundamental driving forces that have become the pillars to its success: diversification and differentiation. With a vision to becoming a diversified media group, HKET has branched out to book publishing, multimedia services, electronic information services, recruitment advertising and training. Set in 2006, this case addresses the changes faced by the print newspaper industry and HKET's market positioning amid such changes. The case explores the role of creativity, especially in the context of Blue Ocean Strategy. It can also be used to teach differentiation strategy and entrepreneurship. All of these concepts can be discussed within the context of a corporate culture that creates a healthy environment for business growth.

In 1908 Henry Ford revolutionized the car industry by drastically cutting production costs using assembly lines. A century later, on the other side of the world, an unknown Chinese car manufacturer, Chery, was partaking in an ostensibly similar revolution: producing inexpensive cars, priced around US$5,000, for the masses of the Chinese middle class. To achieve its objective, Chery originally adopted a cost strategy based on imitation. In December 2004 GM Daewoo filed suit against Chery for design piracy. The success of the QQ model and the possibility of greater future success nonetheless led Chery's management to dream of evolving Chery into a more mature auto-maker. In December 2006, two years after GM launched its lawsuit, Chery was the top candidate on Chrysler's list to produce a small car for sale in the United States. The question remained whether Chery could transform itself from a local manufacturer to a truly global player in the crowded and largely unprofitable car industry

"We don't need more production capability. What we need is a higher design level and a bigger sales network", said the CEO of Haier, China's largest white goods manufacturer and one of the world's fastest growing white goods companies. Haier began its efforts to go global in 1999 by tapping into the US market with niche products. In 2006, Haier announced that it planned to launch a new global development strategy to bolster its global brand awareness. It hoped to sell bigger and technologically-rich white goods in the overseas markets and differentiate itself from other Chinese commodity players. This case study explores Haier's roadmap in transforming itself from a Chinese household name to a global brand, and examines the effectiveness of its product diversification and design strategy in its global expansion.