Founded in 2000, with its headquarters in Singapore, BreadTalk Group Limited used a creative lifestyle concept to attract consumers who were accustomed to viewing bread as inexpensive, basic food. In 2003, the company founder and chairman achieved his goal of listing the company on the Singapore stock exchange to raise capital for scaling up operations. By mid-2018, the company had grown to become a regional, multi-brand food and beverages enterprise with 11 brands, almost 1,000 outlets across 18 territories, and a staff of over 7,500 people. In 2018, BreadTalk Group Limited opened a new restaurant in London, United Kingdom, representing its first entry into the Western market. However, the executive team had to engage the company’s employees across continents and inspire them to innovate, especially through the use of technology. The first step was to choose the right management team for the new business unit in London and build a new talent pool in Europe.
In 2018, the chairman and managing director of Teckwah Industrial Corporation Ltd. (Teckwah), sat in his office, looking back on the company's journey. Starting in Singapore as a humble producer of plain packaging boxes, Teckwah had evolved to become a multinational company providing a full suite of supply chain management solutions for international clients. As the second-generation custodian, the chairman and managing director first joined in 1979 and had been steering the company through various stages of development, including diversifying its business offerings, undertaking an initial public offering, and eventually expanding overseas. However, Teckwah still faced growth challenges. The chairman and managing director was considering his retirement and the possibility of taking a lesser role in the company’s daily operations. With Teckwah's 50th anniversary near at hand, he pondered the dual challenges of business transformation and leadership succession.
In 2012, JD.com had emerged as the biggest business-to-consumer e-commerce retailer in China. The company’s founder and chief executive officer, Qiangdong Liu, realized that he had to strengthen the company’s internal management in order to sustain rapid growth. In 2011 and 2012, he recruited several chief officers, including Yu Long, who became JD.com’s chief human resources officer and general counsel. Case A describes the challenges Long faced when joining the company in August 2012 and invites students to think about what her priorities should be when tackling these challenges.
Case B describes what Long decided to do and how, in the first year, she executed her priorities, which primarily consisted of two improvement projects: culture consolidation and talent review. Case B asks students to set priorities on tackling the remaining HR problems in the coming few years.
Between 1998 and 2018, JD.com Inc. (JD.com) transformed from a compact disc (CD)-burner shop into a technology-driven group of service companies (JD Group) and China’s largest retailer by revenue. Yu Long joined the Group in August 2012 as chief human resources (HR) officer and general counsel. Over the years, Long launched various initiatives to strengthen the HR team and improve its practices to support the Group’s rapid growth and transformation. This case describes the new challenges that faced the Group’s HR management committee headed by Long.