KOODESIGN was founded in Hong Kong by Larry Koo and Natalie Chan in 2017. From its base in Hong Kong, KOODESIGN has managed global design projects for clients around the world, such as Philips, Whirlpool, and Softbank. All of those product designs then needed to be manufactured and brought to market. Accordingly, KOODESIGN also developed its Go-to-Market strategy to facilitate the process of moving a product from a design concept to a finished product ready to be launched in the market. KOODESIGN's latest project was the design of an Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) for a major, new client, Eaton, a global conglomerate with US$20 billion in annual sales. The product called the ATS MATSN was to be manufactured in China and was intended for the mainland China market. As the product design lead for KOODESIGN, Larry interacted extensively with Studio Blue, Eaton's human-centric design team, and studied the Eaton Designer's Guide to Visual Brand Language (VBL) that Studio Blue had shared with KOODESIGN. Natalie, on the other hand, had been in close communication with the ATS MATSN project team in China, which included product development, as well as sales and marketing. They also provided input on product design. Over the course of the interactions that Larry and Natalie had with the respective parties, it became apparent that the priorities of the design team in the USA and the product development and manufacturing teams in China were not necessarily aligned. While KOODESIGN had an established Go-to-Market strategy, implementing that strategy varied across projects depending on the stakeholders involved in each project and their respective priorities. It was necessary, therefore, for Larry and Natalie to further vet the priorities of the parties involved with the ATS MATSN project and ensure that key elements of Eaton's VBL were not compromised while also ensuring that the product could be manufactured and assembled in a cost-effective manner so as to be competitive in

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Larry Koo, the co-founder and creative lead of KOODESIGN, needed to come up with a plan to complete a client's project from design all the way to market within six months for a robotic device equipped with disinfectants. Given such a tight project schedule and the high client's expectations of quality, Larry realized that he was indeed in a race against time and would need to think differently to fast track this project to meet the client's deadline. Larry decided to fast track this project by adjusting some of the initial task duration and start time as well as the sequence specifications. By concurrently completing tasks that would normally be completed sequentially, Larry hoped to compress the project duration just enough time to meet the client's launch date. However, fast tracking a project would also create a higher chance of resource overloading problems that Larry needed to address since his design studio's resources were limited.

Through the example of Lenovo Group Limited, this case provides students an opportunity to learn about emerging and advanced digital technologies for supply chain management and operations, and the critical issues that are targeted by these technologies. It can help students learn about technology aspects of 21st century strategies for small and large companies. This case also serves as part of a broader discussion on strategic management and digital transformation of business and supply chain models. Given Lenovo's remarkable rise in the PC business over a relatively short span of three decades, this case is an evolving example of how a company can grow and compete in a mature industry.

This case study applies data envelopment analysis (DEA), a well-known performance measurement methodology, to assess and compare individual store's efficiency of Saint Honore Cake Shop. Students will learn the major concepts of benchmarking store-level performance and how to proceed with DEA to identify the most efficient retail stores (benchmarks) and less efficient ones. For the less efficient stores, students will also have the opportunity to perform sensitivity analysis to explore different ways to improve their performance.

This case provides students an opportunity to learn how to assess the competitiveness and profitability of the global computer industry through the SWOT analysis framework. By analyzing the effectiveness of Lenovo's business growth strategy, enabled by a dual supply chain approach for achieving both responsive and efficient objectives, students will also understand how Chinese companies can successfully transform themselves from operating merely as an OEM to OBM with a recognized global brand.

This case is based on the situation that Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) had been facing in 2021 as the world economy attempted to return to normal in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. To get a better sense of crisis that the company was facing, a year earlier SMIC had received tremendous scrutiny from the US government due to concerns that the company's increasing dominance in this industry threatened US interests. Through the discussions of the SMIC case, students will learn how to analyze the competitive situation of a company given the prevailing geopolitical factors as well as how to determine a company's strategic positioning in its respective industry and then use this analysis to evaluate future strategic moves.

This case provides students an opportunity to learn about major concepts of statistical process control, particularly the process control charts, process capability index, and six sigma quality. The protagonist of the case is a third-year business student majoring in operations management, who was working as an intern at Germagic Biochemical Technology (GBT) during the summer of 2021. The intern was tasked with assessing the quality performance of the production process of Germagic 4H Hand Sanitizer, as measured by the actual filled volume within the specifications of 500 ± 10 ml. By using this case study, students can easily relate to the intern's experience as he goes through the entire process of designing the control charts, collecting the data, ensuring the process is in statistical control and stable, and eventually computing the process capability index to determine how much improvement should be made in order to achieve the six sigma quality. This case will cover many technical issues in developing process control charts and the process capability index. Students should be able to complete the necessary calculations to develop the X-bar and R charts to monitor the process mean and range. After the process is found to be in control and stable, students can move on to compute the process capability index with reference to the design specifications and then make conclusions about how capable is the current production process to produce quality products. More importantly, students should be ready to discuss many managerial issues that the intern would face, including how to communicate complicated statistical concepts and the implications of six sigma quality for both manufacturing and service businesses to his supervisor, who is interested in expanding the scope of six sigma quality to the company's other business areas.

The key objective of this case is to review an innovative product's supply chain, so as to identify its supply risks and to improve its supply chain resilience. When COVID-19 caught the world off guard in early 2020, Germagic Biochemical Technology (HK) Ltd. (GBT) was ready to introduce its disinfectant products that demonstrated long-lasting properties to eliminate more than 99% of infectious viruses and bacteria. Through testing and certification from different government authorities and health bureaus, the protagonist of this case, Hamilton Hung, co-founder of GBT has been working with partnering firms to build international recognition while exploring the export market. As a family run industrial business, Chiaphua Industries Ltd. faces many challenges in promoting Germagic products. Without global uniform standards and protocols in long-lasting disinfectant products, some customers are skeptical about their effectiveness. Exploiting the market need, different suppliers have flooded the market with certain products that are less effective than what they claim, while COVID-19 continues its devastation for the foreseeable future. On the flip side, it is also possible that COVID-19 may just disappear like many previous pandemics in human history, and that will cause a big drop in demand of such products. Facing all these challenges and market uncertainties, how could GBT expand into the local and regional markets by creating a more forward-looking, resilient supply chain that allows the company to stay ahead of its competitors? And how can it improve the distribution channels to promote customer products?

The case, set in January 2019, deals with how KTZ Express (KTZE), wholly owned subsidiary of National Company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy Joint-Stock Company (NC KTZ JSC or "KTZ") which is the national railway company of Kazakhstan, handles its dry port operation. KTZE provides logistics services and multimodal transport using its network of warehouses, terminals and airport infrastructure and operates the largest dry port in Khorgos, Kazakhstan. The dry port was designed to serve as a logistics hub between China and Europe that allowed sorting cargo coming from different origins to its destinations by trains. Following the introduction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) since 2013, there has been significant increase in KTZE's business in Khorgos. Despite a general increase in business since the announcement of BRI in 2013, the dry port is only operating at 25% of its designed capacity of 540,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units of standard size containers) in 2018, and the momentum of traffic growth has been slowing down from the previous years. Students take on the role of Ms. Gaukhar Akasheva, Managing managing Director director of KTZE, to explore how the dry port could possibly impact supply chain management in the region, the possibility to change the pattern of logistic flows between China and Europe for some industries, and too firmly establish Khorgos as the major logistics hub in the region. Students are required to devise an action plan on how to attract new traffic and business, and to develop an operating model for optimizing the utilization of the facility in the next four to five years.

As the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world, Huawei has been building telecommunications networks and services since its inception in 1987. Leveraging its close relationship with other telecommunications service providers, Huawei entered the consumer mobile devices market, supplying mobile phones and other white-label products for telecom service providers in the mid-2000s. In 2010, Huawei also began designing, manufacturing, and selling the first smartphones under its own brand, targeting middle-to-high-end consumer segments. By 2015, Huawei ranked first in China and third in the world in the smartphone market. By the first quarter of 2020, Huawei also became the largest smartphone vendor of the world, overtaking the title from Samsung for the first time. This case study explores the strategies that have resulted in Huawei's fast to rise to the top in the consumer business even as many of its competitors scaled back their footprint. In parallel, however, this remarkable success has been tinged with the challenges and headwinds faced by its telecom equipment business. In recent years, the company has been subject to increasing sanctions led by the US government related to some of its 5G telecom equipment business practices. In May 2020, the Trump Administration announced a new direct product rule (DPR) that effectively blocks Huawei's access to advanced semiconductors for all its products. Sanctions of this magnitude have put the company into crisis mode and has caused a rethinking of its supply and value chain strategies. This case highlights some lessons for Chinese companies as they attempt to globalize their brands and operations in a world that still perceives them as a threat. The case also highlights the need to evaluate supply and value chain risks from the strategic standpoint and not just an operational view.

This case deals with the planned market expansion of Metagenom Bio Inc. (MBI), a Canadian microbiome company that specializes in designing and structuring novel environmental monitoring and remediation technology and processes. The case revolves around the situation in 2019 facing Patrick Ang, the CEO of MBI, who has to take strategic decisions at a crucial point of MBI's development of a potential entry to China while keeping confidential the details of the IP of MBI.

This case traces the journey of 759 Store, a chain store selling groceries and snacks in Hong Kong, from its inception in 2010 to 2019. After many years of rapid expansion, it began to experience difficulties amid a deteriorating retail business environment in Hong Kong. Management would need to rethink its business strategy and make major changes to turn the business around.

The Esquel, one of the world's largest cotton-based textile and apparel manufacturing companies, produces shirts for from scratch through a vertically integrated supply chain for many major brands, including Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, and Nike, and department stores around the world. Its leadership, comprising Chairman Marjorie Yang, Vice Chairman Teresa Yang, and CEO John Cheh, had made significant strides over the past two decades, fostering and developing sustainability practices throughout their manufacturing network. Set during the summer of 2017, this case tracks their decision-making process during the development of a greenfield site in the city of Guilin in Guangxi Province, China. They named this greenfield site "Integral", following the Buddhist concept of harmony between the natural and surrounding environment, the workplace and the workforce culture, and the pursuit of innovation, community, and excellence. The case explores the leadership and managerial crisis precipitated by technical problems discovered in the construction of the greenfield site. The company's high standards and commitment to its 5E-Culture had clearly not translated to the ground operations at the project site, and Vice Chairman, Teresa Yang was tasked with guiding the project development through the crisis, and examining why the problems occurred in the first place.

The Esquel, one of the world's largest cotton-based textile and apparel manufacturing companies, produces shirts for from scratch through a vertically integrated supply chain for many major brands, including Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, and Nike, and department stores around the world. Its leadership, comprising Chairman Marjorie Yang, Vice Chairman Teresa Yang, and CEO John Cheh, had made significant strides over the past two decades, fostering and developing sustainability practices across their supply chain. Set in the early part of 2012, this case tracks their decision-making process as they saw an opportunity to develop a greenfield site in the city of Guilin in Guangxi Province, China. They named this new development project "Integral", following the Buddhist concept of harmony between the natural and surrounding environment, the workplace and the workforce culture, and the pursuit of innovation, community, and excellence. The main issues the Esquel leadership faced were to define the vision and mission for Integral around the short and long-term value proposition of the Integral site. What could be the contribution of the Integral site to the Esquel network, and in what ways could they make the Integral site a showcase for the sustainability focus of the organization?

Realizing the missing link between traditional veterinary services and modern-day technology, Dicky Lau created a solution of his own-a telemedicine platform for pets. He founded VetNX in 2016 in Hong Kong after working in his family's pet food business for six years. As with many other early-stage companies, the two-year-old venture had gone through a few changes in its business model and seemed to have found the right niche to tackle the large potential market in China. The company had expanded rapidly in terms of geographic coverage and product offerings, and was at the stage of final testing on when it would be ready for commercial launch imminently. Dicky was also concerned about the future of his venture: the competitive landscape of the pet industry, the regulatory environment in the e-commerce sector in China, the efforts involved to secure venture funding, and above all, the kind of operating model he would use in his company.

Founder of Trade Without Borders (TWB), Joseph Fernandez, set up the organization purely for charitable purposes. TWB's mission is to extend trading services to non-government organizations (NGOs) in developing regions of the world. To execute the mission in a financially viable and sustainable manner, Joseph was thinking to establish a base of operations in Hong Kong, which was close to Chinese manufacturers of the products that were traded. A lot of questions came to Joseph's mind: what type of organization would TWB incorporate? And prior to this, what would be the strategy and daily operations of the proposed Hong Kong entity? How could TWB ensure the proposed operations would contribute to instead of hindering the primary social mission of the organization?

This case traces the sustainable development (SD) journey undertaken by Hong Kong's flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways, to bring environmental issues from the periphery to the core of the organization. In 2012, the airline set 20 SD targets to be achieved by 2020. It soon realized that integrating sustainable practices into the overall strategy was vital for the long-term viability of the business. The key challenge for the airline's Environmental Affairs Department was twofold-to embed sustainability into the mainstream thinking of the organization, and to align environmental and social initiatives that cut across all departments with the overall business goals of the airline.

Chinese Pharmaceuticals (HK) Limited, a private, family-owned business in Hong Kong that supplies Chinese medicine products to retailers in Hong Kong and Macau, faces a situation where additional cash is needed for additional inventory. Jason Kwok, the General Manager is challenged to maintain adequate inventory levels of Noto37, a Chinese herbal medicine used to control cholesterol and blood pressure levels. Without compromising the company's cash flow needs, Jason has to implement better systems internally, by improving sales forecasting and prudent inventory management, to avoid shortages of the product.

Bloom & Grow is a regional distributor in Asia of maternity, baby, and children's products. The company was founded in 2004 by a mother who was having problems finding reliable, high-quality products for herself and her first baby. The company grew from a one-person venture into a pan-Asian enterprise with five warehouses.

Bloom & Grow is a regional distributor in Asia of maternity, baby, and children's products. The company was founded in 2004 by a mother who was having problems finding reliable, high-quality products for herself and her first baby. The company grew from a one-person venture into a pan-Asian enterprise with five warehouses.