The case focuses on Haier Europe, a branch of Haier Smart Home and part of the Chinese Haier Group, and how it applies RenDanHeYi, a unique management model that explains the group's extraordinary rate of growth amidst fierce competition, with an intense focus on the local customer and keeping costs low. The challenge is to implement the system in Europe following the acquisition of Candy, in a post-Covid environment marked by soaring inflation, conflict in Ukraine, and mounting pressure on the home appliances industry to become more environmentally sustainable.

Case Supplement for Case IN1847

The brief case 'Donna Wilde and the Weathermen' sets the stage for a discussion of how to lead teams in an environment undergoing exponential change. The team has spent years working on a project about which they are passionate, but the CEO is skeptical and it gets put on ice. Wilde is left pondering if and how they can exert the leadership needed to bring the project back to life. The case is based on the experiences of a real team and company (whose identities are disguised).

The case describes how FC Barcelona's Innovation Hub (BIH) helped the club generate revenues through digital means when Covid 19 struck, causing football stadiums and their merchandise outlets to close for months, with damaging financial consequences. Launched in 2017, the BIH allowed pitch performance to be combined with long-term strategic initiatives. By March 2020 (when Covid hit) it had created an end-to-end ecosystem that engaged with external partners through open innovation. Having tried to negotiate lower salaries with players but failed, the club was forced to find other solutions to fund its activities - through the BIH. In May 2022, FC Barcelona was voted the most innovative football team worldwide by the Sports Innovation Lab. That same year, the club announced a partnership with Spotify, the popular audio subscription streaming service, renaming its stadium Spotify Camp Nou - a first in bringing music and football together, giving players and artists a global stage and opportunities to connect with fans worldwide. https://publishing.insead.edu/case/barca-innovation-hub

This short case describes how Ana L. Mamede, Hellmann's brand manager at Unilever Portugal, responds to an aggressive campaign by rival Kraft Heinz by developing a brand "purpose" for Hellman's mayonnaise focused on reducing food waste. When Heinz, the ketchup king, sought to increase its market share by offering high discounts and enhanced distribution, it threatened Hellmann's lead in Portugal and throughout Europe. Ana pushes promotional activities in the short term, which yield good results, but realises a new plan is needed for Hellman's in the long term. She considers three options: (i) further promotional activities, (ii) innovation - developing the product line by launching new products and flavours), (iii) branding and communication - enhancing the brand's identity by developing a purpose - to inspire consumers to waste less food.

The case describes the Brazilian company, VTEX's journey from its founding in 2000 as a textile software company to its unicorn status in 2021 and listing on NYSE. It traces the company's transformation to a global player in digital commerce as a provider of a software-as-a-service (SaaS) digital commerce platform for enterprise brands and retailers selling direct-to-consumer (D2C). Its platform is the operating system for the e-commerce ecosystem, that enables its customers to execute their commerce strategy by catering to complex networks of consumers, business partners, suppliers and fulfilment providers at different stages of the purchase journey across a variety of sales channels. The Brazilian company has built a strong, well-established and unique ecosystem, over its 20-year operating history which made it tricky for new players to enter Latin America. By 2021, the company's clients included major brands such as Sony, Walmart, Whirlpool, Coca-Cola, Stanley Black & Decker, AB InBev, Motorola, Carrefour and Nestlé, with 2,500 active online stores, the company was present in 32 countries.

Tom Hermans, CEO of EMMA Safety Footwear, is excited about the idea of developing the world's first circular safety shoe - one that adheres to the cradle-to-cradle design principles. This could be a transformational strategy, differentiating EMMA from the crowded safety shoe market in Europe and extending a long tradition of social responsibility since its establishment in 1931. Careful consideration and research are required because this would impact almost every aspect of EMMA's operation - the business model, internal operations, the global supply chain, and the company culture. Questions remain about whether this is the best way to differentiate EMMA. What kind of change management would EMMA and its suppliers need to deploy the circular initiative? How could the business model be reinvented to capture the economic benefits of circular shoes? Can Tom and his team push through this drastic change in a conservative company in a conservative market?

The case describes the creation and evolution of Brazil's first low-cost airline - GOL. From the outset GOL was driven by innovation and within a few years of operating had become the country's leading airline. Although initially a low-cost carrier, over the years it became increasingly customer-centric, striving to improve the customer experience by removing the pain points of air travel. As competition from new low-cost entrants intensified, could GOL maintain its lead in the domestic market? Was it destined to become the Uber of the airways, in a segment between low-cost and full-service offerings, relying on innovation to keep costs down? The case discusses GOL's options for growth, specifically its potential for international expansion.

The case study traces the development of FC Barcelona's Innovation Hub (BIH) and its plans to go global. It describes how factors on and off the pitch led to the launch and how the BIH is preparing the club for the future at the centre of an ecosystem that includes prestigious brands, universities, start-ups, and athletes worldwide, all linked by a culture of excellence. The case considers FC Barcelona's competitive environment and its approach to digital disruption (of broadcasting, player performance, fan engagement), the professionalization of football, and the "ambidexterity" of club strategy.

With the globalization of wine, the wine industry in Portugal has experienced a major shift from a local to a global focus over the last 30 years. Quinta do Vallado, one of the major players in that process, has seen exports double (to account for 40% of revenues) and a 10-fold increase in foreign markets (from 5 in 2000 to 48 in 2020). The case sets out the different choices facing the estate in 2020 as it looks to achieve further growth while staying loyal to the vineyard's heritage in a volatile world.

The case describes how a loss-making ferry company was brought back to financial health, modernised and recapitalised in less than two years, amidst a context of political pressure, stakeholder hostility and a €600 million fine from the European Union. The Société Nationale Maritime Corse Méditerranée (SNCM) was sinking under the weight of French blockades and belligerent unions. Ferries were hijacked and a million people took to the streets to protest against potential job losses, disrupting passenger services to/from Corsica at the peak of the summer season. In May 2014, Guillaume de Feydeau was appointed CEO to devise a turnaround plan to save the former state-owned company from bankruptcy. The new management team not only had to master the political and social intricacies of the situation, but time was of the essence: the majority shareholder wanted out and cash was running dangerously low.

INSEAD alumnus Martin Murray is the inventor of waterdropâ„¢, a cube made up of natural aromas, superfood extracts and vitamins that encourages people to drink more water by adding flavour. Although he initially builds a business on a lean budget, he knows that creating a unique brand is key for the success of his innovation. Not only is waterdrop in a category of its own - 'a microdrink' - but, unlike most drinks, the cubes can be sold online. With a product positioning 'drink more water', he tests the brand on his native Austrian market. The case follows Martin from the initial idea (prompted by the limited drinks range on-board a flight to Singapore) to recruiting a small team to launch what he believes will be a game-changer in the non-alcoholic beverage industry.

The case provides a strategic overview of one of the UK's fastest-growing household goods companies, Dyson Ltd. Starting out in the early 1990s as sole vendor of bagless vacuum cleaners in the UK market, Dyson would ultimately become the market leader before its competitors finally woke up. The case tracks founder James Dyson's global ambitions over an 18-year period until his entry into the electric vehicle market, and a move of corporate headquarters to Singapore (2019), with Asia now accounting for the majority of revenues. It offers insights into the multi-faceted vision of the founder, who combines inventiveness and a love of engineering and design with a rigid respect for lawful business practice.

The case discusses supply chain risk management: how to leverage the structure of a supply network to assess its resilience, focusing on the consequences of disruption rather than the causes, as is traditionally done. The proposed framework, presented in a 2014 HBR paper by Simchi-Levi, Schmidt and Wei, describes how a consultant, Ann Van Delft, applies this framework when assessing the supply chain risk for her client a large telco internet service provider. Telco had recently experienced several outages due to equipment malfunctioning and a shortage of spare parts, resulting in the loss of some customers to its competitors. Ann was hired to deal with these issues as senior management felt the outages were damaging Telco's brand, and would deter new customers.

Spreadsheet supplement for case IN1636.

At the end of 2017, Disney announced it would acquire the majority of 21st Century Fox's assets including its movie studio, TV production company, cable channels and regional sports networks. If approved, the deal would give Disney the scale and content to develop its own streaming service by 2019, when its contract with Netflix expired. The rise of streaming had contributed to the steady decline of cable-TV, DVD sales and cinema attendance in the US. The case discusses the transformation of the media landscape with the growth of digital. Was Disney's apparent move away from "content is king" - its strategy since 1923 - recognition of the importance of distribution channels in the digital age?

The case explores the possible acquisition by McKinsey &Company of design company LUNAR in response to the new directions management consulting is taking. As of 2014, a new internal unit included 'McKinsey implementation' and 'digital labs', which explored new opportunities for the Firm and soon became major growth vectors for the consultancy. Targeting new capabilities and expertise, senior leadership asks the heads of the Product Development Practice (PDP) to "shoot big" if an opportunity arises. Design is one such capability, but how should they bring it on board: A partnership with an existing design company? An outright acquisition? Or by developing organically, hiring designers to work within the company? Ultimately, the acquisition option is chosen as a way to secure proven design talent, a brand, a portfolio, infrastructure and culture. A team within the PDP pitch a proposal to acquire a design company to the McKinsey advisory board, which gives the green light for a pilot test. McKinsey&Company asks LUNAR to host a workshop (for the redesign of a storage cabinet for laptop computers) and is more than impressed with the result. Discussions to acquire the design firm begin, but strategic, organizational and operational issues must be ironed out first. Students are required to assess whether the acquisition option will succeed, whether there is a better route (with respective advantages and disadvantages), and what organizational levers can be used to optimize LUNAR's integration.

The case presents the "leapfrogging" opportunities for Latin America brought by the digital revolution and innovation. It examines the region's economic and commercial achievements made possible by the huge penetration of mobile vs fixed broadband. In addition, digital transformation is helping to address social issues such as financial exclusion, unemployment and healthcare. Also, by improving transparency in the system, digital has the potential to reduce corruption, one of the biggest obstacles to doing business in Latin America.

This is a condensed version of the cases EBX Group (A): Eike Batista and the X-Factor/EBX Group (B): Autopsy of a failure. It describes the boom and bust of the EBX Group and its founder, Eike Batista. The first part traces the history of the Brazilian conglomerate from its origins as a small gold-mining operation in the early 1980s to 2012 when it has become a diversified national and global player in multiple industries. It examines Batista's personal drive, motivations and choices, and how these influenced the strategy deployed by the company. Known for his huge 'risk appetite', Batista had an extraordinary ability to exploit gaps in the market when starting new businesses. The second part of the case recounts the "historic" downfall of the 'X Empire' which was of a magnitude and speed never seen before in the history. Batista's personal net worth of US$30 billion - making him the seventh wealthiest person in the world and the richest in Brazil - had plummeted to US$200 million as debts piled up and the stock price went into freefall. In January 2014, Bloomberg reported that Batista had "a negative net worth".

On 15 May 2001, the first Apple retail store was opened to the public at Tysons Corner, Virginia, and the same day a second store was opened in Glendale, California. With retail branded experiences virtually unknown in the industry at the time, the decision to launch the Apple retail programme was greeted with scepticism. However, within the first week they welcomed 7,700 visitors, with sales of almost $600,000 - testimony to its undoubtable success - and went on to roll out another 24 stores. Fifteen years on, there are over 450 Apple stores globally, with higher sales per square foot - $5009 - than any other retail location in the United States. Even today, people still wonder what made them so successful and how it can be replicated. Having successfully designed a brand-defining experience for Apple retail that created immense value, Eight Inc. had to decide how this level of success could be replicated for other potential clients. The case describes the relationship between Apple and Eight Inc., who were initially hired by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs to work on first the MacWorld tradeshows. It traces the steps in the process, from establishing the case to each minute detail in the design process. The case describes how the team built not just a store but a breakthrough branded customer experience.