Tongwei Co. Ltd., founded in 1995, initially focused on producing and selling aquaculture and livestock feed. In 2006, the company entered the photovoltaic (PV) new energy industry. Since then, it has consistently maintained leading production volumes in high-purity silicon and solar cell modules. Tongwei adopted a specialized, decentralized, and differentiated development model, concentrating on three key segments of the PV industry chain. In early 2023, facing increasing competition and a growing trend towards industry integration, Tongwei considered whether to fully integrate its industry chain, pursue partial integration, or continue with its specialization strategy.
Hefu Catering Management Co. Ltd. (Hefu) was founded in 2012 as a high-end Chinese noodle chain brand. Its mission was to promote Chinese culture through Chinese fast food on a global scale. In 2018, Hefu experienced significant demand growth. To ensure a steady supply of safe, fresh, and organic foods, Hefu established a centralized kitchen in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, serving 300 restaurants in nearby cities. As Hefu expanded into North and Central China, it faced challenges in delivering fresh food from the centralized kitchen to meet the demands of all its restaurants.
This case study focuses on the digital transformation strategy of Tsingtao Brewery in the Chinese beer market. Tsingtao Brewery is one of the oldest and most famous beer brands in China. However, this legacy brewery company also faces challenges, such as fierce competition, slow market growth, and consumption upgrading. To respond to the changes of consumer demand and industry competition, Tsingtao Brewery accelerates its digital end-to-end supply chain in various aspects, such as procurement, production, logistics, and marketing. During its digital transformation, did Tsingtao Brewery choose outsourcing digital technologies, applying the Blue Ocean Strategy, or centralizing its organization? These dilemmas were awaiting answers.
Shen Peng founded Beijing Zongqing Forward Technology Co (Waterdrop) in Beijing, China, in 2016. After more than three years of development, Waterdrop began to provide health-care funding solutions and insurance services to the public through three business subsidiaries: Waterdrop Mutual Aid, Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding, and Waterdrop Insurance. Waterdrop had become a leading domestic insurance and health-care service platform in China. However, a potential business risk emerged for Waterdrop Mutual Aid. The increasingly stringent regulatory policies of the mutual aid sector in China could impact profits. At the same time, Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding was unable to generate revenue, and profits from Waterdrop Insurance were struggling to support the Waterdrop parent company. The profitability of Waterdrop’s three subsidiaries was weak and the company found itself in a challenging financial position on December 31, 2020. The company reported a net loss of US$90 million for the year, reflecting its ongoing financial difficulties. In the face of this combined crisis, Shen considered closing Waterdrop Mutual Aid and expanding into the clinical trial patient recruitment industry. The idea had received mixed reactions from the company’s executives. Given Waterdrop’s financial difficulties, should Shen proceed with closing Waterdrop Mutual Aid and venture into clinical trial patient recruitment?
Despite Tims China already operating more than 800 stores, the coffee company was still at a disadvantage in terms of store numbers. An urgent issue that the chief executive officer and his management team needed to resolve was how to rapidly expand to achieve economies of scale: Should they stick to company-owned stores to maintain absolute control over quality, or open up to franchising to rapidly expand their footprint?
As one of the world’s largest fried chicken chains, Popeyes had failed twice to enter the Chinese market over a twenty-year span. In March 2023, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), the owner of Popeyes, attempted a third strike by bringing the fried chicken brand under its local joint venture, Tim Hortons International Limited China (Tims China). The responsibility of making this third attempt successful rested with Yongchen Lu, the chief executive officer of Tims China. To cultivate another world-class, fast-service brand in China, Lu faced the imperative of delineating synergy between the two distinctive brands (one in coffee and the other in fried chicken). Could he make Popeyes a success in China?
This case details the journey of Chengdu Zhiyuanhui Information Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Zhiyuanhui") in pioneering digital innovations within public transport since its inception in 2010. From the start, Zhiyuanhui resolutely adopted a strategy combining digital technology innovation with scenario-based applications. By continually refining these integrations, Zhiyuanhui introduced first-of-their-kind products to the world. These included the "Smart Screen," "QR Code Riding," "Facial Recognition Riding," and "Masked Facial Recognition Riding," providing an ever-evolving comprehensive smart transit management service system in settings such as subways. In 2020, Zhiyuanhui ventured into smart city construction, bringing achievements as well as new competitive challenges and market conditions. By February 2022, it had become imperative for Deng Bo to reevaluate Zhiyuanhui's long-held development strategies. How could they refine their smart city model of "digital technology + scenario operations" within the smart transportation domain? Moreover, what strategic priority should have been assigned to digital technology versus scenario operations?
As one of the world's largest fried chicken chains, Popeyes had failed twice to enter the Chinese market over a twenty-year span. In March 2023, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), the owner of Popeyes, attempted a third strike by bringing the fried chicken brand under its local joint venture, Tim Hortons International Limited China (Tims China). The responsibility of making this third attempt successful rested with Yongchen Lu, the chief executive officer of Tims China. To cultivate another world-class, fast-service brand in China, Lu faced the imperative of delineating synergy between the two distinctive brands (one in coffee and the other in fried chicken). Could he make Popeyes a success in China?
Founded in 2006, Shanghai Action Education Technology Co., Ltd. (Action Education), a provider of management training services for small and medium-sized private enterprises, was the first listed management education company in China. In 2014, due to the fierceness of the market competition and the splitting of the top management team, Action Education changed their strategy from a product-oriented one to customer-oriented one and repositioned themselves as a “world-class practical business school.” This strategic change not only helped Action Education win the recognition and loyalty of their customers but enhanced the company’s profitability and management ability. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and rising consumer demand, Action Education faced increasing pressure. Li Jian, the chair of Action Education, is considering two paths with different customer value focuses: should he add a consulting business unit and provide one-stop services for customers or standardize the company’s management training services and improve their quality and delivery?
Focusing on the field of intelligent projection, Xgimi built a strategic development model with the whole machine, algorithm, and software system at the core. It creatively integrated projection, audio, and an intelligent system, thus becoming a leading enterprise in the domestic projection devices industry. In the development process, Xgimi faced the challenge of deciding whether to switch from cost-effective competition to differentiation competition. This necessitated a comprehensive analysis, considering factors such as the target customers, the company's ability to meet customer needs, competitive products or substitutes, competitors, differences between them, competitors' reactions, Xgimi's core competencies, and whether it had sufficient resources to drive the switch in the strategic direction (including price adjustment). This case provides an example of a transition from low-end to high-end product competition for a firm in an emerging market or a developing country. It also exemplifies a firm's commitment to technology and innovation-driven growth.
ZOLOZ, a biometrics platform within the Chinese technology provider Ant Group, served more than one hundred million overseas users with its advanced biometrics identification technology. In 2018, ZOLOZ’s general manager was appointed to promote the company’s facial recognition technology overseas, extending the company’s global ambitions. ZOLOZ aimed to not only increase its user base but also promote the growth of electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) processes. The company successfully expanded to the Philippines and planned to enter other Southeast Asian countries, helping users open accounts remotely. ZOLOZ’s general manager needed to decide how it could continue to expand the use of facial recognition technology to the rest of Southeast Asia.
ZOLOZ, a biometrics platform within the Chinese technology provider Ant Group, served more than one hundred million overseas users with its advanced biometrics identification technology. In 2018, ZOLOZ's general manager was appointed to promote the company's facial recognition technology overseas, extending the company's global ambitions. ZOLOZ aimed to not only increase its user base but also promote the growth of electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) processes. The company successfully expanded to the Philippines and planned to enter other Southeast Asian countries, helping users open accounts remotely. ZOLOZ's general manager needed to decide how it could continue to expand the use of facial recognition technology to the rest of Southeast Asia.
Most CEOs take a narrow, tactical view of pricing and delegate pricing to lower levels of the organization. This myopic approach is costly, as it prevents companies from realizing their potential. In the hands of the best-run companies, pricing is not a battlefield tactic to win a particular competitive skirmish but a transformative long-term strategy for sustained competitive advantage. We present an agenda of six specific action items that defines how to unlock the power of pricing. CEOs and senior executives, our research suggests, should not set prices, but instead, they should create the context, the capabilities, the behaviors, the infrastructure, and the aspirations that enable their organization to excel in pricing.
Makena Wanjiru, chair of Kiri Mount Kenya Conservation Network and Resource Centre (Kiri), wondered whether turning Kiri’s loans business into a co-operative bank would be in the group’s best interest. The challenge was to convince the rest of the board members of the idea. The board of directors would meet on July 18, 2019. Wanjiru had to draft a report before then explaining how the idea was consistent with the group’s current strategy and would benefit Kiri for years to come. Wanjiru also needed to consider strategies to grow Kiri’s agribusiness beyond the Mount Kenya community.
Makena Wanjiru, chair of Kiri Mount Kenya Conservation Network and Resource Centre (Kiri), wondered whether turning Kiri's loans business into a co-operative bank would be in the group's best interest. The challenge was to convince the rest of the board members of the idea. The board of directors would meet on July 18, 2019. Wanjiru had to draft a report before then explaining how the idea was consistent with the group's current strategy and would benefit Kiri for years to come. Wanjiru also needed to consider strategies to grow Kiri's agribusiness beyond the Mount Kenya community.
Sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020 caught small- and medium-sized Chinese enterprises off guard, such as Ciyang Garment Factory (CY) in Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province. Many migrant workers could not come for work on time because of the outbreak, and Li Qiang-the founder and general manager of CY-felt uneasy about defaulting on orders and worried about future lawsuits. The experienced garment maker Liu Ning, who had been working in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, was also stranded at home in Zaozhuang because of the epidemic. After meeting with Li, the two reached a cooperation agreement. Liu Ning's arrival temporarily solved the urgent labour shortage of CY; however, the pay difference between the veteran senior workers in the factory and those who had worked in the south, such as Liu Ning, became the catalyst of the 'absenteeism incident'. Because of the human resource management problems caused by this incident, Li was once again caught in a dilemma. Will the absent workers be back in 3 days? How should Li solve the human resource crisis caused by absenteeism? To help the development of CY, does Li need to reform the human resource management system? How can he change it? This case examines Li, the director of the factory, and Liu Ning, a skilled technician, to demonstrate the difficulties faced by small- and medium-sized private manufacturing enterprises in China under the impact of COVID-19. With the conflict between the two salary systems as the background, this case discusses how Li deals with the crisis and the future development plan of CY.
Ucommune was the first co-working space operator in China to submit a prospectus to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. As its basic business, Ucommune provided co-working spaces for members and customers, and gradually formed two specific space operation models: the self-operated model and the asset-light model. Ucommune also offered members comprehensive value-added services and promoted the development of a service business by establishing a service ecosystem. Constant exploration of the co-working space industry had enabled Ucommune to create a unique business model and, through its creation, positively change the industry's old model. Although it had reached certain goals, Ucommune still faced challenges, including problems with achieving profitability, fierce competition, and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. To transcend the current obstacles, In early 2020, Ucommune had to consider how to further adjust and optimize the business model.