In January 2024, Mei Lin was appointed as Chief Sustainability Officer of Bamboo Bridge Logistics (BB), a mid-sized logistics operator based in Singapore. Her key task over the next three years is to support the newly-formed sustainability committee that would report to the Board of Directors (BOD). Mei faced significant challenges in weaving environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles into BB's fabric. She not only had to put in place measures for ESG goals on climate change, but also to link these goals to executive remuneration. She was also aware that the company harboured ambition to become publicly listed on Singapore's stock exchange, the SGX, likely not long after implementing its sustainability initiatives. How could Mei help BB's sustainability committee in selecting the appropriate indicators that reflect the company's commitment addressing climate change challenges, while mitigating the potential negative financial impact? What roles should BB's BOD play to ensure the effective implementation of ESG metrics in executive remuneration, bearing in mind the balance between short-term financial profitability and long-term environmental sustainability?

Set in 2023, this case describes the digitalisation and sustainability journey of Blue Bird, an Indonesia-based taxi business established in 1965. By 2014, when the company was publicly listed, it had become the country's largest taxi provider. In 2023, it had expanded its business to include car rental, car auction, as well as shuttle and chartered bus services. In 2022, Blue Bird announced its "multiproduct, multichannel, multi-payment" or 3M strategy to achieve its Mobility as a Service (MaaS) vision of a more efficient, sustainable, and digitally advanced company. Blue Bird had pressed on with its digitalisation efforts, despite its setbacks during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same year, it won the Top UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Award. This achievement followed the company's announcement of its sustainability vision to halve its waste and emissions by 2030, and establish "3-Blues" - BlueSky, BlueLife, and BlueCorps - for driving its environment, social, and corporate governance goals. In 2023, Indonesia, along with the rest of the world, was still nursing the trauma of the pandemic. How should Blue Bird better drive its 'twin' and intertwined transformations of sustainable growth and digitalisation? What could be the trade-offs, particularly if the emphasis tips towards digital transformation? At the same time, what can we learn from Blue Bird's experience in terms of corporate governance as a family business in Indonesia which practices a two-tier board structure?

By December 2018, Evie the digital personal assistant (PA) had gained quite a following from prominent clients such as Unilever and Airbus. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), Evie was so good that clients believed 'she' was human, expecting to greet 'her' in the flesh at meetings. Jin Hian Lee, Evie.ai's co-founder, understood that gaining such high praise from clients was not enough. More needed to be done to jumpstart the fledgling start-up's growth to the next level. But where should his focus be? There were signs that Evie could perhaps benefit from specialising in specific domains or be bolder and venture beyond the shores of Singapore, where the start-up was based since it began in 2014. How should Lee chart the 'career path' of Evie? What should he do? Unbeknownst to him, Lee would face a similar dilemma in 2020 when the global COVID-19 pandemic plagued the world. How could he cope with the challenges awaiting Evie.ai?

In 2017, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, realized that the company needed a new talent development strategy to prepare its employees for the future of work, particularly a learning ecosystem that could support an enterprise-wide digital and talent transformation. The following year, Thirumala Arohi, Infosys's Senior Vice President and Head of Education, Training and Assessment, and his team developed Wingspan: a first-of-its-kind digital learning environment with internally developed content as well as content from Infosys's external alliance partners. Wingspan was initially tightly integrated with other Infosys systems, but eventually it became a full-fledged product offered to Infosys's corporate clients. In 2020, Wingspan's adoption got an unexpected boost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the Infosys staff migrated to online learning, by the end of the year nearly 220,000 employees had collectively chalked up over three million hours of learning time on Wingspan. By March 2021, more than one million client users relied on Wingspan through their own organisational learning platforms. The case study shows how Wingspan had managed to achieve scale while embodying Arohi's opinion that Infosys was a company where, "lifelong learning is the North Star for organisational progress and talent development." In early 2022, Arohi wondered what was next for Wingspan.

Set in 2021, the case highlights how S4Capital, a digital-first advertising and marketing services company, develops a disruptive and innovative business model to meet the industry's growing demand for agility, digital prowess, flexibility, and efficiency, better than the traditional, analogue, holding company model of existing advertising networks. The company's practice of a 'zero earn-out' approach in its mergers and acquisitions, along with an upfront cash payment, share in its equity to the entrepreneur-founders, and incentives to retain the senior management of the acquired firms, also made it a favourite potential partner for like-minded technologically savvy companies in the domain. By September 2021, the S4Capital group comprised more than 26 companies, had a market capitalisation of around US$6.5 billion, and its revenues had grown by 49%. However, it faced many challenges as well. While S4Capital's adoption of unitary branding provided a platform for seamless integration of talent and capabilities across its offices globally, it required constituent agencies to give up their individual, and often highly iconic identities, and build a collaborative mindset for the collective good. In 2021, the group's merger with Zemoga, a digital transformation company, enabled S4Capital to plug a crucial gap in its menu and offer tech services besides content and media solutions. However, the inclusion and integration of a new practice area as the third pillar would entail having a more complex and unwieldy structure. In immediate terms, S4Capital faced an uphill task in acquiring and retaining talent in some of its markets. In Asia Pacific, where it was focusing on growth, the availability of suitably qualified tech-savvy manpower was inadequate. While in the US, its largest market, the pandemic had unleashed a wave of 'Great Resignation' in the corporate world, resulting in high staff turnover as people increasingly opted out of their current jobs.

On September 24, 2021, the Singapore Multi-Ministry Task Force (MTF) that spearheaded the national COVID-19 pandemic response decided to act more decisively to ensure that its endemic strategy would not be derailed by the infections which had been escalating since late August. In the weeks that followed, the MTF tightened measures on social interaction, encouraged work-from-home as the default mode of working and simplified its testing and isolation protocols. The third vaccination (booster shot) programme was also quickly rolled out. The public had become discontented due to the rising infections and deaths of the elderly, as well as the ever-changing restrictions, protocols, and proclaimed phases that had been introduced since April 2021. There also existed an issue of perceived discrimination that arose from the segmented access according to vaccination status. As a public health analyst, David Chong had been assessing Singapore's COVID-19 endemic strategy - to ascertain the areas that Singapore had done well, as well as those they could do better. How should Chong advise other countries to plan an endemic strategy?

At 824 million, Pinduoduo had the most customers in global e-commerce as of March 2021. It had also expanded aggressively into grocery shopping with Duo Duo Grocery, riding on the demands that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, and set its sights on becoming the world's grocer. Despite its formidable progress, the e-commerce platform remained in the red, recording a loss of more than US$443 million in the first quarter of 2021. Its closest rivals, Alibaba and JD, remained hot on its heels, matching its forays into its stronghold of the lower-tier cities in the country. The year 2021 also marked a year of leadership renewal for Pinduoduo. Colin Zheng Huang, its founding CEO and Chairman, had passed the baton of leadership to Lei Chen, a fellow co-founder. Huang's decision to step aside was to focus on figuring out the future of Pinduoduo. He believed research on food and life sciences would remake agriculture in China. How should investors see these moves and achievements by Pinduoduo? Are farming and smart logistics its 'end game'?

Set in early 2021, this case is about Kino Biotech, a Singapore-based company producing health and beauty products, most notably its flagship brand, Kinohimitsu. Its operations and distribution have expanded globally, especially to Malaysia, Indonesia, and China. In April 2018, Kino Biotech launched a spin-off company called Kinofy to leverage its cross-border commerce license and digital business experience of operating in China. Kinofy provides consulting solutions to Singapore and international companies that want to enter China. Kinofy is also pivotal in building a cross-border e-commerce platform where the collective intelligence can be accumulated when more Singapore and international firms enrol. By following the journey of Kino Biotech and Kinofy from their start and through several critical transformations across three decades, this case enables a rich discussion on how firms manage strategic change, internationalisation, and digital transformation.

This case describes the trials and tribulations that tested Yung Kee Restaurant, a Chinese roast goose restaurant in Hong Kong. The former Michelin-star eatery, founded by Kam Shui-fai, received several other accolades, including recognition by Fortune magazine as one of the world's best restaurants. Unfortunately, with the passing on of Kam Senior in 2004, a bitter feud over the ownership and management of Yung Kee erupted among his children; the public dispute tore the family apart. At one point, Kam family members refused to even acknowledge one another in social settings. In July 2010, the elder Kam brother, Kinsen, applied to the Hong Kong High Court to liquidate Yung Kee Holdings, if his younger brother, Ronald, refused to buy out his stake. In 2015, the court instructed Yung Kee Holdings to close its business, which could spell the end of the restaurant, which was its crown jewel and a culinary institution in the city. Fast forward to 2020, Yung Kee has survived the ordeal. A third-generation member of the Kam family became Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the restaurant and helms the family business. What could have been done better in terms of corporate governance? In what other ways could the family business be organised?

Set in April 2020, the case talks about TAIGER, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company providing natural language processing (NLP) solutions in a rapidly growing market where demand and competition for such solutions are high. TAIGER solutions could process and digitise large amounts of physical data, perform search and extract functions on data, and make appropriate recommendations. The algorithms and tools were bundled under three packages, and were customised for every client. Client companies were mainly large organisations and government entities. Despite a growing customer base, Arroyo and his team found it increasingly difficult to service new clients, who demanded more customisation and services. TAIGER's solution packages were bundled together with customisation and post-implementation support services based on contract licenses. The downside of this model was that it used many resources and limited the delivery of the products to a per project basis. The monetisation of the model was also complicated and project costs were difficult to control. Administering customised solutions was time consuming and expensive for both TAIGER and its clients; it also lacked flexibility and quick scalability for large-scale implementation. Arroyo realised that he needed more than just efficient solutions, given the expanding opportunities for NLP in the market and the constraints of TAIGER's existing solution packaging. He wondered if designing a new business model was the right way forward. Would he also need to devise a new pricing strategy and rebundle solution offerings? How could he unbundle the business value of TAIGER's NLP solutions?

This case describes Thailand's response to the global Covid-19 pandemic from when it started in January 2020, until early August 2020 when it was considered to be under control. While the Thai government managed to keep the coronavirus at bay, the pandemic nevertheless had exacted a heavy toll on the country. Businesses, small and large, were floundering - particularly those in tourism, a sector that had been the lifeblood of the kingdom's economy. Many Thais also had to adjust to working from home (WFH). This new normal would likely remain as the business-as-usual scenario for many months ahead. As a consultant to the Thai government, David Chong, had been brought in to review the country's Covid-19 crisis response, particularly on the performance of its reopening strategy, with an eye to preserving tourism and mitigating the impact on families and firms due to WFH arrangements. The critical questions that David needed to address were as follows: How could the economy be reopened safely and sustainably? How would the Thai society work, live, and play at home when so many were telecommuting? What are the critical decisions that the country should focus on?

Joyous Group Holdings, a small and medium enterprise, provides photography, portraiture services and regalia rental for graduation events in Singapore. It competes against more established players in a market that appears to have limited growth. While competition in this market appears stable, headwinds are brewing in the horizon on multiple fronts. How can Joyous Group Holdings navigate an increasingly digital environment and grow its business in the age of wefies, selfies, and instant mementos? This case challenges readers to assess the external environment and capabilities of Joyous Group Holdings so as to recommend strategic actions to achieve growth.

This case describes the genesis and development of a Chinese data analytics startup, TalkingData, from 2012 to 2017. It highlights the strategies pursued and capabilities that the company had built over time in order to secure its position as one of the top data analytics providers in the country. This case also identifies the main challenges that TalkingData needs to address as it continues to grow and expand its businesses and operations. This case is suitable as a standalone in digital innovation and strategy classes to illustrate an emerging breed of firms that rode the waves of Big Data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), which swept through the technology world in the early 2010s. It highlights these new firms' growth strategies and markets, both new and old. This case can also be employed in business analytics courses to illustrate how companies can build their data analytics and technology infrastructure as a business offering or strategic support for decision-making.

This case examines gender challenges confronting women leaders, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-related sectors through the lens of Wendy Chan, a data science team leader in Europa a multinational insurance company, and the challenges she encountered in her role, as well as the steps she took to address her situation. It highlights issues concerning bias against women leaders, gender differences toward work issues, and work-life balance. This case caters to undergraduates and graduate courses on management and/or entrepreneurship that focus on diversity and leadership issues, especially those covering the topic of gender. It is also suitable for gender studies and women's studies courses with a focus on diversity and leadership issues.

This case recounts the journey of Evie.ai, a Singapore-based tech startup. Specifically, the case examines how founder Lee Jin Hian and his team developed and implemented Evie, an artificial intelligence (AI) personal assistant. There are very few teaching cases on AI and its impact on work and employment. Commercial applications of AI may promise substantial potential gains to individual and organizational productivity, but we need to be aware of their limits as well. This case introduces students to AI and how this technology can be informed by data analytics and applied to various tasks. It also offers lessons on the realities of running a startup: students will gain a deeper understanding of tech entrepreneurship (or "technopreneurship") from analysing the challenges and opportunities that confronted Evie.ai, and in navigating the decisions the startup needed to make in the face of mounting competition and rapid technological shifts.

Industry note for case NTU226

This case covers the ten-year development of Shenzhen's innovation landscape from 2008 when China hosted the Summer Olympics and launched its nationwide 3G mobile network to 2018, which marks the 40th anniversary of the nation's economic reform. Specifically, it identifies the confluence of global and China-specific factors that transformed Shenzhen from a shanzhai (copycat) hub to startup haven, such as the rise of mobile internet and the adoption of automation in Shenzhen factories, as well as the "Made in China 2025" and "Chinese Dream" visions promoted by the government. The case discusses how the decades-old practice of shanzhai may not be a flaw but a feature crucial to Shenzhen's innovative vitality. It returns to the idea of innovation as a web to be woven, "layer by layer, with every business deal brokered among its firms, and with every inventive idea sketched out by its army of makers". It poses several questions revolving around the idea of shanzhai. Is it something so undesirable that it has to be exorcised from Shenzhen? Or is it the basis of which innovation, Shenzhen style, flourishes and spreads?

This case examines the development of Shenzhen through three key phases of its economic journey that span almost 40 years, starting with its humble beginnings as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). We analyse the city's evolution and push towards innovation via Porter's Diamond Theory and its four interrelated factors of national comparative economic advantage: firm strategy, structure and rivalry; related supporting industries; demand conditions; and factor conditions. In understanding Shenzhen's economic transformation, we should, in particular, appreciate the important role and commitment of the Chinese government in driving economic development and innovation through setting and articulating economic direction; attracting talent; providing physical infrastructure; making policy adjustments; and building a presence on the global platform. We end by projecting the threats that Shenzhen may face in sustaining its future growth.

Over 26 consecutive days from September to October, the transboundary haze of 2015 lingered in Southeast Asia. For Singapore, this episode was one of the city-state's worst and most protracted pollution. The fires originating mostly from Sumatra and Kalimantan in Indonesia, produced more greenhouse gases each day than the emissions by the entire U.S. economy. They rendered two million hectares of land barren, incinerating forests, oil palm and pulpwood plantations alike. This was a repeat of the haze pollution two years earlier. How did Singapore, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia as a whole respond to the haze pollution of 2013 and 2015? What did different segments of society do to cope with the pollution? What could companies like Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) that had sizeable stakes in plantations across Indonesia do to improve their operations and public reputation? This case highlights the multifaceted sustainability challenges encountered in the quest for environmental protection and the resolution of transboundary haze in Southeast Asia. The haze is an annual phenomenon; its effects are exacerbated by destructive agricultural practices, climate conditions, inadequate legislation, weak environmental activism and intergovernmental cooperation, and a lack of consumer action. To date, it remains an intractable problem.

This case presents the ascent of SenseTime, a Chinese company powered by facial recognition technology and became the world's most valuable artificial intelligence (AI) startup. Based in Shenzhen, SenseTime aspired to lead AI innovation to power the future. It offered a variety of business solutions across industries that went beyond facial recognition. Enabled by its high-performance deep learning supercomputing system, it deployed and developed solutions quickly to more than 400 partners and clients. Moving forward, SenseTime planned to expand to more vertical industries and go abroad. How could this young company deepen its technological edge, broaden its industry applications, and sustain fast growth for the long term?