Focuses on a Hong Kong-based, globally-established textile and apparel manufacturer and its experience in navigating turbulent geopolitical environments. Identifies ways the company has pursued business priorities while upholding its sustainability values.
The general purpose of this case is to explore the evolving nature of business relations across the Taiwan strait, focusing on the prominence of Taiwan's high-tech industry. After the legendary founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) retired, the new chairman grappled with fresh challenges related to its market in China and growing competition. One of TSMC's major Chinese customers faced sanctions by the U.S. government; China invested billions of dollars in building its own powerhouse to compete in semiconductor production. A slowing of innovation in fabrication processes and rising U.S.-China geopolitical tension also added to the uncertainties facing TSMC. What had changed in the competitive landscape for TSMC, and how should it respond to the changes? Was TSMC positioned to be a truly global company? Students should understand how TSMC protects its competitive technology advantage, navigates geopolitical risks in the region, and blunts hungry competitors' efforts to gain market share.
China's peer-to-peer (P2P) lending industry had over 3,000 platforms at its height in 2015. China Risk Finance (CRF) was one of the country's P2P success stories. With over 1 million borrowers using CRF's platform, it raised $60 million in its 2016 IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. Yet the pace of P2P's rise spooked financial regulators, sparking a crackdown on the industry that would lead to its demise in China. This B case tracks CRF's tumultuous attempts to salvage its business in the face of sudden and sweeping changes to the rules governing its industry as well as the lengths to which the Chinese government went to ensure the stability of its financial system, even at the expense of its development.
July 2017 was supposed to be a triumphant month for HNA Group. The latest Fortune Global 500 list showed the company had again skyrocketed in its ranking to no. 170, an improvement of over 200 positions from the year prior. Yet earlier that same July, the mysterious death of Co-Chairman Wang Jian portended a darker outlook. Over the next three years, HNA would fall as fast as it has risen. A liquidity crunch forced HNA to sell many of the assets it had purchased. The Chinese government, once a core supporter, also lost patience with HNA, fearing that the sprawling and deeply indebted conglomerate could threaten China's financial system. Chairman Chen Feng forged ahead with attempts to deleverage, but the COVID-19 crisis, which decimated HNA's core travel business, proved to be the last straw. A task force of officials, reported in the media as a "takeover" by China's Hainan provincial government, entered HNA to assess the situation. By 2021, it was clear that HNA Group would not just be humbled, it would also be broken up. Hundreds of HNA affiliates were to enter bankruptcy, the umbrella group would be restructured, and Chen Feng was legally barred from the luxuries leading HNA had afforded him. How could HNA, with its flight routes and reputation for good service, recover as an airline? Or were its founders' sky-high ambitions to see an Icarus-like end?
In 2020, TikTok became the most valuable start-up ever. The short-form, video-sharing social media platform emerged as the crown jewel of the Chinese technology firm ByteDance, realizing 850 million monthly users and an estimated worth of $180 billion. However, a crusade against Chinese technology companies launched by the United States' Trump administration threatened to jeopardize ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming's creation. How could Zhang assuage foreign government's concerns about TikTok's data security practices without also running afoul of the Chinese government's desire to keep China's most successful technologies under wraps? This case follows Zhang's entrepreneurial journey, from creative ambition to being caught up in the U.S.-China tech war.
Taikang Insurance Group was a leading Chinese insurance and financial services institution. It operated in the insurance, asset management, and health and senior care industries. Due to China's underdeveloped social welfare state, Taikang saw an opportunity for the private sector to offer a suite of lifelong services that would care for clients "From Cradle to Heaven." However, as Taikang broadened its brand from life insurance to lifestyle, the potential pitfalls facing the firm would proliferate, too. How could Taikang leverage its scale to ward off competitors? And, crucially, how could Taikang sustain strong relations with the state and regulatory bodies as the company moved into markets with great political sensitivities, such as health services and senior care?
By 2020, Ren Zhengfei, CEO of Huawei, had transformed the small telephone switch manufacturer he founded in 1987 into a $120 billion telecommunications company poised to lead the lucrative rollout of fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks. However, an emerging U.S.-China tech war has jeopardized Huawei's prospects. The Trump administration is waging a global campaign to blacklist doing business with Huawei due to concerns in Washington about the company's relationship with the Chinese government and the security of its products. As Huawei attempts to answer the litany of questions being asked about its business, the company's corporate communications and government relations strategies are thrust onto center stage. How can a company so successful technologically-it is a global leader in 5G technology-struggle so mightily in telling its story? What would it take for Huawei to repair its relationship with Washington? Can Huawei protect itself from the crossfire of a growing digital cold war between the U.S. and China?