Founded in 1998, Tencent Holdings Ltd. (Tencent) is a pioneer in value-added internet services in China and was listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in June 2004. Tencent's messaging and social networking platforms, WeChat and QQ, are leaders in internet instant messaging. Its business also includes the cloud, industrial internet, and interactive entertainment. The number of employees increased from a few dozen to over 40,000 in 2019, more than half of whom are technicians. They have an average age of 31 years, and 39% of them have a master's degree or above. To facilitate the reasonable and efficient internal talent flow, Tencent established an internal talent flow mechanism called the Huoshui Program (HSP) in 2011. Over the years, many employees and departments have benefited from this program. However, some employees still worry that they will receive an unfair performance rating from their current department before they transfer despite Tencent's continual efforts to improve the job transfer rules. Therefore, many employees choose to apply for the HSP after the annual or semi-annual performance review period. The key questions of this case are: Will this challenge somewhat suppress the vitality of the HSP? What other challenges does Tencent face in implementing the HSP? What efforts are needed in the future to make the HSP more effective?

Wahl Clipper Ningbo Ltd. is a wholly owned company of Wahl Group, a century-old American enterprise, in China. Owing to a crisis in 2008, Wahl (Ningbo) was on the verge of bankruptcy. Qian Moxing was appointed as a general manager at the time of the crisis. In line with the proverbial saying 'new broom sweeps clean', 'A new person makes many changes'. Qian was enlightened with traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, he motivated employees to learn traditional Chinese culture. In addition, the introduction of management reforms to encourage 'working and living happily for common development' resulted in tremendous changes within a few years. This reform led the US-based headquarters to adjust the strategic positioning of Wahl (Ningbo): from a manufacturer to an enterprise integrating independent R&D, production, and sales and from a producer of middle and low-end products for overseas households to a manufacturer of high-end products for Chinese hair salons. Strategic transformation meant opportunities as well as challenges. Though the company's current corporate culture and human resource management aligned with the goals of a happy enterprise, it failed to meet the goals of sales and R&D. Accordingly, this article highlights ways through which Wahl (Ningbo) can enhance the current corporate culture and human resource management to adapt to the new strategic positioning.