Founded in 1995, Goelia, a Chinese fashion brand, grew into a national leader with over 600 stores and a strong omnichannel marketing network. After an initial unsuccessful attempt to expand internationally through franchising, the company reentered the global market in 2022 by opening flagship stores in key locations like Sydney and Singapore, alongside launching its online platform. Despite these efforts, Goelia faced challenges in increasing global brand awareness and navigating the competitive international fashion landscape. By late 2023, Goelia had successfully established a global presence, but founder Gordon Woo and his team faced critical decisions on how to balance global aspirations with local relevance. As the brand expanded into new markets, Goelia needed to adapt its strategies to account for diverse cultural preferences, marketing approaches, and operational models. With significant investments already made in flagship stores, e-commerce platforms, and logistics, Goelia’s path forward requires strategic clarity to ensure continued growth while maintaining its unique identity in a fiercely competitive industry.
<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Emerging Chinese Global Competitors Category at European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>7 Days Inn, a leading hotel group in China, was established in 2005 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2009. It now operates more than 1,000 hotels in 168 major Chinese cities and has enrolled more than 30 million customers in its membership club. Its success is largely due to its innovative business model and operations strategy, which includes designing product services with the vertical cutting approach, enhancing customer loyalty through a membership system and direct sales, managing a hotel chain with different governance structures and expanding a hotel chain with an innovative franchised-and-managed model. In particular, the case introduces the company’s shepherd management philosophy. However, as the company expands, it has become difficult for headquarters to manage and supervise all the hotels. In addition, the resignation rate of hotel managers has gone up to 30 per cent in the past few years. What should 7 Days Inn do to deal with these challenges? Does the company need to break the rules again and innovate its business model, operations strategy or operating model — or all of them?