In 2013, Trumpf, a global market leader machine tools from Germany, acquired the majority shares in JFY, a smaller machine tool manufacturer from China. With this acquisition, Trumpf wanted to enter the fast-growing low-cost segment of the market. Until then, JFY had performed very well on the Chinese market, but the company's success increasingly waned after the acquistion. Other Chinese competitors performed significantly better. After JFY even had to report losses for the first time in 2019, Trumpf changed the management at JFY. Under the new management, initial successes were achieved, but even two and a half years later, JFY still did not reach the profit targets which all business units at Trumpf had to meet. In a Trumpf management meeting in October 2022, a decision was therefore to be made as to whether JFY should remain part of Trumpf or be sold off again.

Basler is one of those lesser-known midsize companies (the so-called hidden champions), which, despite their moderate scale of operation, enjoy worldwide leadership in several niche markets. Basler primarily comprises two business segments: one, quality control systems for industrial goods production; and, two, cameras for diverse industries. The 2008/2009 global financial crisis, however, spelled trouble for Basler. With the company's very survival at stake, Basler's CEO had to make a strategic decision, namely, cut back on critical resources (human, financial, and material); this would include slashing as many as 50 jobs, which represented a fifth of its workforce. While so doing, some key questions remained unanswered in his mind: • In which of the company's two business segments should he reduce resources and cut those 50 jobs? • At the same time, regardless of the financial crisis, in which area, if any, should he consider investing resources in order to drive the company's growth in the next 5- 10 years? The case study provides the student with the crucial inputs required to answer the above questions convincingly. To arrive at an optimal solution, the student would need to think through the various options before the CEO during one of the worst financial crises in global history and weigh up their pros and cons.