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.

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.

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.

Konica Minolta Business Solutions (HK) Ltd. was likely the first multinational corporation in Hong Kong to put the ideas of corporate social enterprising into practice. Its new service business that was launched in 2014 (the i-Transform Station) employed so-called “hidden youths”—disadvantaged individuals who refrained from joining mainstream society—empowering them to reconnect with society. While the initiative drew the attention of the company's headquarters in Japan, the company experienced difficulties attracting enough hidden youths for its growing i-Transform Station, despite actively seeking the help of social workers in identifying potential employees. The managing director who initiated the program wanted to increase the engagement of hidden youth and, more importantly, to inject the ideas of social enterprise and the creation of shared value into Hong Kong society. In 2018, having received some suggestions from social workers and others, the managing director reflected on alternative options for the program's future.

Konica Minolta Business Solutions (HK) Ltd. was likely the first multinational corporation in Hong Kong to put the ideas of corporate social enterprising into practice. Its new service business that was launched in 2014 (the i-Transform Station) employed so-called "hidden youths"-disadvantaged individuals who refrained from joining mainstream society-empowering them to reconnect with society. While the initiative drew the attention of the company's headquarters in Japan, the company experienced difficulties attracting enough hidden youths for its growing i-Transform Station, despite actively seeking the help of social workers in identifying potential employees. The managing director who initiated the program wanted to increase the engagement of hidden youth and, more importantly, to inject the ideas of social enterprise and the creation of shared value into Hong Kong society. In 2018, having received some suggestions from social workers and others, the managing director reflected on alternative options for the program's future.

Wanda Cultural was one of the four pillars of the Dalian Wanda Group ("Wanda Group"), which had been China's giant of commercial properties. From 2005 to 2018, Wanda Cultural had gone through a number of strategic transformations and developed four major business sectors: films, sports, travel innovation, as well as children's entertainment & education. Through domestic and cross-border acquisitions and diversifications, Wanda Cultural had emerged from a domestic Chinese family-owned enterprise to become a world-class multinational corporation ("MNC"). As a pioneer in film industry investment in China, Wanda Cultural had succeeded in building a vertically integrated business model that spanned across different developed countries and secured leading market position in the world. When Wanda Cultural entered into other foreign developed markets and diversified into different industry sectors, both opportunities and threats for competing in the global environment exemplified. This case explores opportunities facing firms as they seek to develop and exploit core competencies by diversifying into global markets. In addition, it explores different problems, complexities and threats that might affect a MNC's international strategy and rationale for retrenchment. The case also explores business innovation strategies and its impact on global competitiveness and growth.

This article investigates responses of the international and domestic (South Korean) publics to one of the most hotly debated corporate scandals in recent years: Korean Air's so-called nut rage incident. By analyzing both international and domestic media coverage of the occurrence, we reveal contrasting interpretations between the two. Whereas the South Korean public tends to generate intense debates addressing a lack of ethics in Korean Air's public communication following the incident, international public criticism is dominated by questions regarding South Korea's chronic chaebol system and its negative image in relation to South Korea's unique institutional context. Korean Air's incongruent notice of the employee as a key stakeholder is also discussed in the international media. Our research findings indicate how, rather than focusing on legal responsibility, the normative attitude of businesses toward stakeholder pressures is crucial as a means of escaping legitimacy-threatening events. The results of this study demonstrate how public responses to a single incident are diverse in global society and offer new insights regarding the importance of ethics in management leadership and public communication after a crisis incident.

In 2011, China-based Wensli Group’s newly appointed chairwoman was preparing to transform the company’s silk business into a global luxury brand. It was a lofty goal for a company that started out as a township silk factory before growing into the largest silk-producing company in China. Tapping into the luxury market, however, presented a challenge because Chinese companies were better known for producing cost-conscious products. That meant Wensli, a family-owned business, was facing a huge hurdle in building a brand in a marketplace where it simply had no experience. What steps are needed for the company to gain a foothold in the high-end luxury segment currently dominated by European players? Should the company seek talent expertise from beyond its borders to build an international luxury brand?

In 2008, the chairwoman of the Neoglory Holdings Group (Group) convinced her 23-year-old son to join the Group’s fashion jewelry business. By 2014, she was determined to quadruple the Group’s assets to RMB 100 billion in 10 years. While she had just appointed her son as the vice-president of the Group in order to help her achieve such an ambition, she pondered when she should let him fully take over the Group; whether she should hire non-family executives (following disappointing results from them in the past); and how she should draw in her other family members. How could her son nurture the career development of his extended family members and set up a family council? With his goal to make the Group the most harmonious family business in China and a role model throughout the world, he would have to establish effective family governance.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER -Bringing Technology to Market Award, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>This case describes how General Electric has developed its China Technology Center over the past decade. The case also elaborates on the changing role of the China Technology Center in General Electric’s global research and development strategy. In 2000, General Electric set up its China Technology Center in Shanghai after bringing its technologies and products to China. In the first few years, the focus of the China Technology Center was to build local engineering teams, learn about customer needs, determine successful marketing strategies, and to develop relationships with local suppliers in order to reduce costs. Over time, the China Technology Center developed its “In China for China” strategy by adjusting its own products and designs to adapt to the local market, while still developing innovative technologies and products to address China’s toughest challenges — such as those encountered in the healthcare industry. This strategy was very successful; some innovations from the China Technology Center were used in other emerging markets as well as in U.S. and European markets — a process that is known as reverse innovation.

A merchant fraud scandal threatened Chinese e-commerce group, Alibaba Group, endangering its positioning, corporate values, reputation, brand strength, share price value and performance. It compromised Alibaba’s leaders’ credibility and the public’s perception of the trustworthiness of Internet-based trading. In the fallout of the scandal, two talented executives were accused of negligence. The board of directors had to decide how to respond to this crisis and to prevent future fraud on Alibaba’s diversified web-based trading platform. Was dismissing the executives the most effective way to achieve these goals?

The three cases in this series focus on two Chinese families’ experiences with entrepreneurship and succession. Because most family businesses in China are relatively young, these first-generation entrepreneurs use their own approach to identify and develop their successors, and to pass their “wealth” to their offspring in a context shaped by unique Chinese cultural elements. The role-play exercise that relates to the (C) case illustrates the current Chinese cultural characteristics that influence leadership succession and highlights the case issues to be explored in the case discussion. See also 9B15C021 and 9B15C022.

This is the second case in a three-case series. See also 9B15C020 and 9B15C022.

This is the third case in a three-case series. The role-play exercise that relates to the (C) case illustrates the current Chinese cultural characteristics that influence leadership succession and highlights the case issues to be explored in the case discussion. See also 9B15C020 and 9B15C021.

This is a supplement to 9B14C012.

Case A describes the difficult situation facing the recently appointed plant manager of Shanghai Michelin Warrior Tire, a joint venture between a poorly performing Chinese state-owned enterprise and a France-based private company, Michelin Corporation. Michelin headquarters was pressing the plant manager to implement the Management System of Daily Production to improve the factory’s performance, but the plant manager sensed that the plant’s employees were not yet ready. He contemplates what changes to make in this factory and how best to do so. Case B, 9B14C013, reports on the plant manager’s actions to improve the joint venture’s performance.

Tetra Pak, the world's largest manufacturer of aseptic packaging materials, is a typical market leader that faces growing challengers around the world and runs the risk of becoming embroiled in antitrust cases. Greatview Aseptic Packaging Company Limited ("Greatview") is an exemplary Chinese national champion that penetrates into developed markets, which are usually saturated with only a few key players. The case describes how Greatview emerged and challenged Tetra Pak, which set industry standards largely by using the tying and bundling strategy and the innovation and patent strategy. Since 2003, Greatview has actively influenced the Chinese government to establish and enforce an antitrust law, which supports the company as it positions itself as the best alternative to Tetra Pak for reducing customers' single-supplier risks and costs. In 2011, Greatview announced the building of its first overseas plant, in Germany, to penetrate into Tetra Pak's home market of Western Europe-the world's largest market for aseptic packaging. In 2013, although Greatview announced ambitious factory expansion plans, its challenges overseas are huge. Meanwhile, Tetra Pak realized that its European patent was not able to protect its historic innovation, aseptic technology, from being imitated. Even more complicated, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, China's market regulator, launched a national investigation against Tetra Pak, accusing it of misusing its dominant position to limit competition. Both companies need to devise their next competitive moves.

This opening note is part of the suite of teaching materials which employs China as an illustration of the managerial implications resulted from the so-called War for Talent, and is intended to generate insights into "how to best play the talent game" in China, or elsewhere. We aim to generate an interactive and rich class discussion of the issues raised among seasoned business practitioners, by adopting a variety of interesting teaching formats: an opening note, four cases, an "appraisal exercise" and a video. In particular, this note presents the major talent-related issues that both local and foreign business leaders in China are facing today. Being deliberately brief, the note is designed to provide quick familiarity with the "big-picture" issues relating to talent in China today. Learning objectives: Among the critical issues in talent management to be addressed in this suite of teaching materials, the following are the most central for the learning of class participants: 1) Since sizing up potential candidates is the first and most fundamental step of talent management, what characteristics should a business leader look for to meet the competency requirements today and to prepare for the future? 2) What would be some creative and feasible practices to source, attract, develop and retain management talent?

This case is part of the suite of teaching materials which employs China as an illustration of the managerial implications resulted from the so-called War for Talent, and is intended to generate insights into "how to best play the talent game" in China, or elsewhere. We aim to generate an interactive and rich class discussion of the issues raised among seasoned business practitioners, by adopting a variety of interesting teaching formats: an opening note, four cases, an "appraisal exercise" and a video. In particular, this case features a state-controlled listed company which is a horizontally-diversified national champion involved in such business categories as tires, batteries, soap, printing ink and real estate, with export sales accounting for 45% of its total sales. The company aspires to increase its international presence and, in particular, to turn its tire operations into "global factories," while building its "Double Coin" domestic brand into a global one. The enterprise's board chairman, Dr Fan Xian, needs experienced managers for its domestic and overseas operations, especially in the areas of general management, finance, and marketing and sales. To him, loyalty is the most important criteria when appraising job candidates. His challenge is to find loyal and competent managers and match them with the right positions in China and overseas. Learning objectives: Among the critical issues in talent management to be addressed in this suite of teaching materials, the following are the most central for the learning of class participants: Since sizing up potential candidates is the first and most fundamental step of talent management, what characteristics should a business leader look for to meet the competency requirements today and to prepare for the future? What would be some creative and feasible practices to source, attract, develop and retain management talent?

This case is part of the suite of teaching materials which employs China as an illustration of the managerial implications resulted from the so-called War for Talent, and is intended to generate insights into "how to best play the talent game" in China, or elsewhere. We aim to generate an interactive and rich class discussion of the issues raised among seasoned business practitioners, by adopting a variety of interesting teaching formats: an opening note, four cases, an "appraisal exercise" and a video. In particular, this case is about a franchise formed in 2006 by SPSS, a NASDAQ-listed software provider with worldwide leadership. This foreign-invested company uses a channel partner network to sell its technology and to serve its clients. Tomas Casas, the Spanish-born CEO, aims to increase its contribution to SPSS's global revenue to 4% within five years of the company's establishment. To do so, he has to find qualified managers to support and develop the company's channel partner network. Because social skills - including the understanding of local dialects and rituals - are very important for building rapport with partners in different regions, Casas realizes that he needs to particularly careful when appraising candidates. However, such talent is in short supply and expensive in China. He needs to figure out the best ways to fill the positions. Learning objectives: Among the critical issues in talent management to be addressed in this suite of teaching materials, the following are the most central for the learning of class participants: Since sizing up potential candidates is the first and most fundamental step of talent management, what characteristics should a business leader look for to meet the competency requirements today and to prepare for the future? What would be some creative and feasible practices to source, attract, develop and retain management talent?