Davis Bookhart, the founding director of Sustainability/Net Zero office, at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, has an HKD 50 million problem. Four years ago, a fund was created to build a position of institutional leadership in sustainability from the largesse of the university's then president. Intended to pair students with research faculty and the university's operations staff in the development of sustainable, smart solutions to campus problems, the resultant program transformed the university's campus works into a living lab, offering an exploration of frontier problems in sustainability and an alternate pedagogical model to classroom teaching. Four years on, over 30 projects have been funded, with outcomes ranging from digitalizing the school's registrar to using artificial intelligence to build a smart monitoring system for the campus' bird population. Now, under new leadership and with its funding set to soon expire, Bookhart must reevaluate the living lab's impact and address how the case for a living lab might be institutionalized. He must also grapple with a broader question of what the role of the university will be in supporting early-stage innovation in China's now emerging Greater Bay Area?
Lumière Project, a Hong Kong-based company, uses blockchain technology and smart contracts to offer finance solutions to the filmmaking industry. Founded by Patrice Poujol, Lumière relies on Elemis, its ERP platform prototype using blockchain technology, to help finance media projects and increase capital flow transparency and control for movie investors, cast, and crews. With the initial success of its B2B business and from the end of 2020, Lumière has designed and started developing NFT and Lumiverse solutions in the hope of opening the gates to the wider B2C arena for film financing, production, and distribution. But developing B2C business is considered as a bold move for Poujol and his team. To make the expansion into B2C a success, they need to raise additional capital and cope with a range of technical, regulatory, and market risks and challenges. This case describes B2B and B2C use cases of blockchain technologies and smart contracts in the filmmaking industry. By illustrating how Lumière works, this case shows how blockchain technologies and smart contracts improve transparency and accountability in the film payment process, bringing digital transformation in to the filmmaking industry. It provides a good opportunity for students to assess the benefits and challenges of using blockchain and smart technologies. Students will also learn not only how NFTs can create business value but also how to cope with the challenges associated with the use of NFTs, such as legal and regulatory concerns, the valuation difficulties and the efforts to attract the interest of the target audience. Moreover, this case provides an opportunity for students to learn different ways that start-ups can raise capital to run businesses. Besides traditional funding options, Lumière provides an opportunity to consider tokenization-related alternatives. Students can compare pros and cons of each funding option based on a real-world case. After studying this case, students will
Impact Kommons was initiated by New World Development (NWD) as the first start-up accelerator in Hong Kong targeted at achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). As one of the leading property developers in Hong Kong, NWD has developed its connected business ecosystem, covering property development and investment, retailing, transportation, infrastructure development, health care, insurance, and logistics. With "creating shared value" as its corporate vision, NWD wants to achieve business sustainability by both bringing significant returns to shareholders and responding to the community and stakeholders' different needs. Impact Kommons was designed to facilitate business integration between the start-ups and NWD's business units with the aim of developing innovative solutions to solve NWD's clearly defined problems and achieve the relevant sustainable development goals of the UNSDGs. Impact Kommons can not only accelerate the business growth of start-ups but also raise their awareness of sustainability issues in the early stages of business development. This case describes how NWD initiated and developed Impact Kommons to pursue its sustainability goals, what the program achieved in cohorts one and two, and what problems it faced during the implementation process. The case shows the value and challenges of using accelerator programs to help start-ups to grow while enabling well-established companies to address sustainability issues. The case enables students to realize the importance of corporate social responsibility to companies and raises their awareness of the UNSDGs. After studying this case, students will become familiar with developing and implementing accelerator programs. This case also encourages students to seek innovative solutions to address sustainability issues.
New World Development (NWD) is a leading property developer in Hong Kong seeking innovative ways to solve Hong Kong's deep-rooted housing problems. NWD has gotten involved in several social housing projects to create shared value with the community, but NWD considers that these projects are not groundbreaking and innovative enough. To better tackle the housing problems, NWD has developed a not-for-profit organization, New World Build for Good, to bring in experts from different industries and policy areas to find more innovative solutions to solve Hong Kong's housing crisis. To facilitate students' discussions on possible innovative solutions, this case gives a comprehensive background of the housing industry in Hong Kong, such as its terrain restrictions and history. The case illustrates how the private and public housing markets work in Hong Kong, showing the housing challenges that young people, the "sandwich" class, and the elderly face. To give students a full picture of the housing challenges in Hong Kong, the case also reviews the government measures to tackle the housing issues over the past two decades. Moreover, the case also outlines the new proposals considered by New World Build for Good, which will inspire students to think of more innovative solutions. This case provides an opportunity for students to learn about the concept and process of social innovation, especially to understand the complications of social problems, identify the sources of innovation, and formulate innovative solutions. The case helps to raise students' awareness of ESG issues, especially in improving people's living conditions and quality of life. After studying this case, students will learn to identify potential areas for improvement, make innovative suggestions, and evaluate projects' feasibility.
The case is based on WeLab Bank (WLB), a virtual bank in Hong Kong, and can be assumed to be set at the time of its writing in mid-2021. WLB has launched its operations in Hong Kong and introduced its initial retail banking products, with additional products to be launched soon or in the pipeline. As one of eight virtual banks in Hong Kong, a market with a very mature banking sector and extensive financial service offerings, WLB is focused on democratizing financial services in Hong Kong. For many people in Hong Kong, managing their personal finances can be a daunting task. In addition to managing their daily expenses, it can be a challenge to sort through various savings and investment products and identify the ones that can best help them reach their long-term financial goals. Hong Kong also has the most expensive property market in the world, so making a wise property investment, either as a primary residence or as a rental property also requires considerable due diligence. Yet many Hong Kong people feel they do not have access to sufficient financial advice to be able to make informed decisions, whether investing in property, selecting savings or investment products or managing their daily finances. For high net-worth individuals in Hong Kong, however, the situation is different as large deposit holdings at a local bank, for example, provides one with access to professional financial advice. Recognizing this discrepancy in financial services locally, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the defacto central bank in Hong Kong, was hopeful that the virtual banks could leverage their technology resources to provide Hong Kong people of all income brackets with improved access to financial tools to more effectively manage their personal finances. For Ms. Janice Chung, WeLab Bank's Manager for Growth Operations and Strategy, the key challenge was identifying the products and services delivered via digital channels that would best meet the needs of Hong Kong
The case, based on WeLab Bank (WLB), is set in February 2021, following the Chinese New Year holidays in Hong Kong. WLB, one of eight new virtual banks in Hong Kong, began operations in July 2020 amid a global pandemic. The de facto central bank in Hong Kong is the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), which has been gradually implementing measures to support the development of digital banking in Hong Kong, including the introduction of Open Application Programming Interfaces (Open APIs), which, in principle, would allow Third Party Service Providers (TSP), including fintechs, to gain access to banking customers' data and utilize that data to provide more targeted and innovative services to those customers. Traditionally, banks extended their services to customers at their brick-and-mortar outlets, taking in deposits for which they provided interest earnings and generating income on a variety of loan products for which they charged higher interest than on its deposits. Virtual banks, by contrast, extended their services exclusively via digital channels, including mobile banking. With lower overheads, they could provide some services for free or with minimal charges, while offering financial products with higher earnings for customers. With a growing base of customers accessing financial services remotely, the opportunity existed to find new and innovative ways to serve customers through digital-only channels. The challenge facing WLB and its manager for growth operations and strategy, Ms. Janice Chung, was how to firmly establish itself in a nascent virtual banking market in Hong Kong, while competing with strong traditional banks that were also moving to digitize their banking services. In assessing its strategic options, it could leverage its strong technology infrastructure, open APIs, and the examples of predecessor virtual banks and fintechs in other markets, such as Starling Bank in the UK, Tinkoff Bank in Russia, and Grab in Singapore.
Neat, a fintech company based in Hong Kong, launched its first account in 2016 and has grown up over the years. The company now mainly serves startups and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) by offering credit cards, payment collection, remittance services and startup-tailored solutions. After the outbreak of COVID-19, many countries introduced travel restrictions, lock-down and social distancing measures which gave online businesses including Neat significant growth opportunities. Having successfully secured a US$11 million Series A funding in April and a further US$4 million in August 2020, David Rosa, CEO and co-founder of Neat, is contemplating the next stage of expansion. Should Neat focus on developing new products and services or on expanding the market reach and target developing countries or developed countries? The case describes the business details of Neat, including company background, its products and services on offer and the different options available for its future development. The case helps students understand the different stages of corporate growth and the status quo of fintech companies in Asia. It provides a learning opportunity for students to analyze and discuss different growth strategies, and they will learn the different business environments fintech companies are facing in developing countries and developed countries.
As a young fintech company in Hong Kong offering individuals, startups, and SMEs an alternative to a bank account, Neat has struggled to address a number of challenging issues since its inception in 2015. Set in 2019, as the company was entering the next stage of growth, co-founder and CEO, David Rosa had to decide what the next steps are for the company. In order to do so, he had to redesign the brand, recalibrate the risk-reward ratio, target a more lucrative audience, and navigate a complex regulatory environment as well as secure a new round of funding.
300cubits is a blockchain application that aims to solve the no-show problem in the cargo shipping industry. Its founders, Johnson Leung and Jonathan Lee, are two HKUST alumni with experience in banking and shipping. They have identified a pain point, in the cargo shipping industry which does not require a pre-shipping cash deposit, results in no-show and cargo roll-over problems. They developed a new Ethereum based cryptocurrency, TEU, to serve as such collateral. They then conducted an initial coin offering (ICO) pre-sale in September 2017, and an official ICO in April 2018. However, the ICO failed to raise a lot of capital. However, the uptake of TEU tokens was very slow in the industry. They are now pondering the next steps forward.
Initiated in 2001, 100 Women in Finance (100WF) has evolved over the years from a small, informal networking group of women working in hedge funds in New York City into an international, non-profit networking organization with more than 15,000 members in 23 locations in 2018 with a broadened focus on the entire finance industry. In June 2018, CEO Amanda Pullinger visited Hong Kong to deepen her understanding of issues in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, particularly the organization's reliance on volunteers in Asian cities which lacked a culture of volunteerism. Some APAC members also felt disconnected from the organization's New York and London centers because of the geographical distance. The APAC head, Sarah Dyer, needed to ensure that APAC members' needs were met. She wanted to decide about the organization's future strategy for the region which might differ from the strategies for other regions.
The case describes how Roman Khan and Jennifer Chen founded Linjer, a start-up with a limited budget, which successfully generated cashflows via crowdfunding. Linjer is a boutique design house in Hong Kong which offers minimally-designed leather bags and watches, which it sells online globally. Passionate about style and quality, the two founders started the venture in 2014 with a budget of US$20,000. Like most start-ups, Linjer faced limitations on access to traditional funding from financial institutions. As a result, the founders spent half the budget on their first crowdfunding campaign, creating video and photographs establishing Linjer as a classy, high-end brand, and more importantly, one whose products could initially only be procured through online crowdfunding. The rest of the money went to the production of prototypes of their first product, the Soft Briefcase. The case is set in September 2018, when Linjer's management is deciding on next steps the company will take: (1) to continue the business as is; (2) to take funding from venture-capital investors; and/or (3) other alternatives including, but not limited to, selling the company.
In 2012, Strategic Global Capital ("SGC") was founded by Bryan Kuhn, his wife Cathy and his mother Dorothy as a secondary debt market for micro finance notes. Using the founders' money, SGC launched a pilot program in Ecuador that proved their concept worked. Leveraging on their success, Bryan and his family wanted to further expand the business. In order to grow SGC with the most optimal capital structure Bryan and his family would need to consider all the existing financial conditions and potential risks. What would be the best overall capital structure in terms of the proportion and type(s) of debt and equity that should be utilized by the company? How (or should) the company raise equity based capital? How (or should) the company raise debt based capital?
Neat is a financial technology (fintech) startup in Hong Kong that offers a basic alternative to those who had previously found it difficult to open bank accounts and access credit in Hong Kong. Having successfully launched a personal account in 2015, the company is facing the classic question of how to expand in a fast-growing and constantly evolving new industry, challenging established incumbents that have strong brands and image recognition. In the Fall of 2017, Neat evolved from its introduction of personal accounts to the launch of business accounts. Neat management was deciding how to take the business forward and, most importantly, how to develop profits. The students are asked to take the viewpoint of David Rosa and the Neat management and decide how to move forward in this environment.