Many companies today face the need to embark on a dual transformation: Reinventing and sustaining their core business while concurrently creating new, future businesses. This case about Globe Telecom, Inc., in the Philippines presents the s.tory of just such a transformation The case is bookended by the CEO's 14-year tenure and describes successive waves of reviving and retooling the once-flagging telecom business. It is situated in a transient, highly competitive B2C landscape, continually susceptible to the forces of saturation and commodification. The thread connecting Globe's successive reinventions is the CEO's belief in the company's "unfair advantage" when building new businesses in telco space adjacencies. The project of building this advantage - and the attendant pursuit of new opportunities, sectors and partnerships - has had to be constantly balanced with the ongoing task of growing market share in the core mobile business. Underlying both sets of activities is the rediscovery, at regular intervals, of Globe's purpose as a corporation, a consumer player, an employer and an important stakeholder in the emerging and fast-growing domestic economy, as well a broader sense of being an agent of development for the nation. Managing these intricate processes requires not only foresight from the company's top leadership but also the presence of ambidextrous talent - a workforce that is up to the task of optimizing for today while transforming for tomorrow. Historically, organizations have separated these two tasks in terms of talent, budgets and reporting lines. The case showcases flesh-and-blood individual managers and their observations on the dual challenge of running this business at the same time as building the next businesses.

China's companies have long been acclaimed for their manufacturing prowess and, more recently, for their pragmatic approach to innovation. Now it's time to recognize how they are reinventing the role of management through an approach the authors call "digitally enhanced directed autonomy," or DEDA. These companies use digital platforms to give frontline employees direct access to shared corporate resources and capabilities, making it possible for them to organize themselves around specific business opportunities. Autonomy is not complete, nor is it given to everyone. It is directed exactly where it is needed, and what employees do with their autonomy is carefully tracked. The approach contrasts with the Western model of empowerment, which gives employees broad autonomy through reduced supervision. This article describes the three core features of the DEDA approach: granting employees autonomy at scale, supporting them with digital platforms, and setting clear, bounded business objectives. It offers examples of how companies are using those features and draws lessons for Western companies.

Over the past decade, Asian companies have been launching accelerated and wide-ranging digital transformation initiatives. This has enabled some of them to become leading national and even international players, as well as digital pioneers in their respective industries. This case examines the successful digital transformation undertaken by the Chinese company Midea, one of the world's leading home appliance manufacturers. By digitally transforming the company, Midea improved its financial performance and reshaped its business on a wider scale. While many cases that address digital transformation focus on the early phases of the process, Midea's case illustrates a successfully completed digital business transformation. This allows participants to have an overview of the entire digital transformation journey and see what the potential outcomes might be.

Most large companies take a similar approach to corporate innovation, running it out of centralized innovation groups. But companies in China, both domestic and foreign, are much more likely to turn to market-facing sources of innovation, including customers, competitors, and front-line employees. China's fast growth is producing a disproportionately large share of new customers for many industries, which demands an orientation toward generating ideas closer to customers to drive more market-led innovation.

The case is about the continuous entrepreneurial transformation, over two decades, of a company in terms of increasingly advanced technologies and international product markets. It describes how Geely, a leading player in the global automotive industry, started in the 1980s with its founder capitalizing on a series of opportunities during the time of China's high growth. It illustrates how Geely has evolved its technological competence from low-end refrigerators to high-end electric vehicles and mobility systems by deploying growth strategies as diverse as organic growth, acquisition, and integration of businesses across countries. In the process, Geely has turned itself from a late mover and imitator to a strategic innovator and pacesetter in an industry that faces disruption in terms of technology and customer behavior. The case details the phases of Geely's development (from fridges to motorcycles, from motorcycles to cars, and from cars to EVs and mobility solutions). It tracks how Geely's founder, Li Shufu, created a highly successful enterprise in a rapidly growing home market and realigning global economy. The case recounts episodes characterized by continuous improvement and by radical departures from standard practices. Li's entrepreneurial attitude to leveraging available resources step-by-step toward successful deployment is important in turning an affinity for innovation into a competitive advantage and to benefit from China's large market, powerful stakeholders and growing income. At the end of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, several large and outsized companies that dominated the headlines about Chinese technology giants had become targets of increasing scrutiny by stakeholders in Chinese society. At the end of the case, students are asked to make a choice: Maintain the status quo of high growth; focus on incrementally increasing the quality of growth; or go for a major change?

The Economist opened 2021 with a cover story headlined "Why Retailers Everywhere Should Look to China." It's not hard to see why. China is both a large and a fast-growing retail market--worth about $5 trillion in 2020--and highly digitized. And the pandemic has made digital every retailer's strategic priority. The authors draw from their research on Chinese retailers to explain five lessons that Western companies can learn from China as they develop their own digital market offerings: 1) Create single entry points where customers can access all their potential purchases. 2) Embed digital evaluation in the customer journey. 3) Don't think of sales as isolated events. 4) Rethink the logistical fundamentals. 5) Always stay close to the customer.

This case was written in 2019, 10 years after Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co. Ltd. (XCMG) initiated its SAP ERP project in 2009. The digital transformation of XCMG has been so fast, that within less than 10 years, it developed from this internal IT project to a digital platform that provides services to many external enterprises. This case is to discover the factors that enabled this rapid digital business transformation. The case study shows the digital transformation of XCMG, the leading construction equipment manufacturing company in China. Established in 1943, before the establishment of the People's Republic of China, for past over 66 years, XCMG was a traditional manufacturing company, and enjoyed the dividends of the China's economic development. XCMG was so successful in its manufacture b2b business not only domestically, but also internationally, by learning from oversee companies and continuous innovating. Until recently, China's economic development slowed down, and the China-US trade friction emerged, however, XCMG had already prepared for this situation, and started its digital transformation 10 years ago.

By 2018 it was the largest insurance company in China. The case charts the development of the company and how it diversified across financial services. In particular, it talks about its strategic transformation, which included attracting foreign employees and encouraging diversity. A key pillar in the strategic transformation was Ping An Technology, a division of the Group created in 2008 that would develop its technology capabilities. This division was critical to later enabling Ping An to develop into an ecosystem player across five segments. Ping An Technology had three core functions - including data, incubating new businesses and new products. Its immediate goal was to align the Group's different IT systems, reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency. Harnessing the latest technologies, Ping An would operate as a 'human being' with a brain formed of AI, its body of cloud computing, and a nerve, arterial and vein network of blockchain. The case then charts the rise of the Technology division and its ambition to become a global technology ecosystem player. It looks at the core technologies that the division developed including facial and voiceprint recognition and medical imaging and their applications to different parts of the ecosystem. The final part of the case looks at the five ecosytems - finance, healthcare, automobile, real estate, and smart city and Ping An's collaborations and offerings. The case closes with Ma reflecting on the 15 years of the transformation but questioning whether Ping An's technology leadership can continue given the challenges of competitors Alibaba and Tencent in financial services and Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent in smart city solutions. Ping An was also mainly a domestic player but served other parts of Asia, Ma questions what it will take for the Gorup to become a global player.