• HKTVmall: Responding to Shortages during the COVID-19 Pandemic

    As the leading e-commerce platform in Hong Kong, Hong Kong TV Shopping Network Company Limited (HKTVmall) faced an important challenge in early 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic had severely disrupted the global supply chain for personal protective equipment (PPE), and prices for masks and other products on its website had skyrocketed. While management had little knowledge or experience in sourcing or producing such products, they wondered whether they had a responsibility to act on this matter. Despite its meteoric growth, the company had yet to turn a profit, so the executives were unsure as to whether they should let the invisible hand of the market restore the equilibrium between supply and demand or take an extra step to guarantee a stable supply of PPE. If the platform intervened, was contracting with new local suppliers the right way to go, or should HKTVmall itself start producing PPE?
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  • Glenwood Laboratories Canada Ltd.: Coping with Tariff war

    In August 2018, Glenwood Laboratories Canada Ltd. (Glenwood), an importer of medical devices from the United States, is caught in the crossfire of public policy. In June 2018, the United States imposed a 10 per cent tariff on the import of raw aluminum from Canada; in July 2018, Canada imposed a retaliatory tariff of 10 per cent on the import of processed aluminum from the United States. As an importer of aluminum oxygen cylinders from the United States for distribution to its Canadian customers, Glenwood is in the middle of a trade war between the two countries, whose aluminum supply chains have been integrated for over two decades. Glenwood’s president and chief executive officer (CEO) must examine the options before him and find a way forward.
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