This case depicts the critical decisions Xingli Dong (Shirley) made during her career transition from a female Ph. D. in engineering to Energy Automation R&D VP of Schneider Electric and sparks a discussion on her next key decision for a career change. In this male-dominated field, she met a barrage of suspicion and setbacks during her growth from a female Ph. D. in engineering to the head of the R&D Center, especially in carrying out an eight-year-long project. Shirley insisted on leading the team with open-mindedness and inclusiveness, making rapid and incremental iterations through trial and error. The successful project delivery earned her the trust of the headquarters and an opportunity to lead the company's global R&D business. The new position, however, required her to balance work and family and manage a global R&D team while working in China. With authentic leadership, she won the trust and recognition of her 300-strong cross-cultural R&D team; with empathy, she managed to close down a site in Poland. Inspired by other excellent female leaders, she continuously reflected on female executives' unique strengths. In October 2021, Schneider Electric organized a 360 Leadership Assessment for senior executives, during which Shirley realized her weaknesses in strategic thinking would put her in a weaker position to exercise leadership in the long run. Shirley began to consider whether she should leverage her existing strengths in her existing role or venture out of her comfort zone to seek new opportunities. However, she had doubts about whether Schneider Electric would support her pivot into an innovation-related role, where she had no particular advantage.

The case illustrates Zhu Jing's entrepreneurial story from three stages: aspiration, action, and determination. The case presents the challenges that Zhu Jing faces as a female entrepreneur in the real estate industry and how she addressed them. At the beginning of 2022, Zhu convened key executives to recap on business operations of the past year. They needed to discuss and decide the rewards and punishment for executives. Zhu gave up a comfortable life out of a love for architecture and art and founded Sunkwan Group in Shanghai in 2010. The real estate industry is male-dominated. Resource acquisition is a huge challenge for female entrepreneurs as the sector is typically resource-driven. Enthusiasm and passion are the genuine motivation for Zhu to persist in the industry. With her keen business sense, she quickly identified business opportunities and made Yueshan project a successful case. The case laid an essential foundation for the expansion of the company nationwide. She always focuses on improving product capabilities to win fair returns from the market and simultaneously makes up for weak resources and capabilities with cooperation. Empathy, trust, empowerment, and other features of Zhu's leadership and the company's business philosophy give birth to a united executive team. China's real estate industry has experienced dramatic changes since June 2021. With shrinking market demand, increasingly stringent regulatory policies, blocked financing channels and sluggish property sales, and frequent outbreaks of epidemics across the country, many real estate companies spiraled into a crisis. In June 2021, Sunkwan re-designed a reward and punishment system for all executive members to overcome these challenges and motivate the team for better performance. The 2021 performance, however, fell short of expectations and Zhu hesitated on whether to punish executives according to the rules or administer a light punishment. The decision mirrors Zhu's traits and leadership