• ToTrade: Optimizing Performance through the Supply Chain Finance Network

    By early 2022, Zhongguang Yiyun Supply Chain Management Co. Ltd. had spent six years developing its supply chain management (SCM) and supply chain finance (SCF) platform, ToTrade. The platform collaborated with multiple banks and focal companies to provide integrated SCF services to over 1,000 upstream and downstream small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in China's Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai Provinces. But the site of competition in the Chinese SCF market had shifted from a single company's SCF capability to its integrated SCF network. Therefore, it was crucial for ToTrade to establish a robust financial supply network in order to enhance the implementation and development of its SCF services. As the volume of ToTrade's SCF service increased, the company faced key questions: How could ToTrade develop its network to further support its SCF development? And how could the platform effectively evaluate its SCF service performance to better guide this development?
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  • ToTrade: Optimizing Performance through the Supply Chain Finance Network

    <p align="justify">By early 2022, Zhongguang Yiyun Supply Chain Management Co. Ltd. had spent six years developing its supply chain management (SCM) and supply chain finance (SCF) platform, ToTrade. The platform collaborated with multiple banks and focal companies to provide integrated SCF services to over 1,000 upstream and downstream small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in China’s Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai Provinces. But the site of competition in the Chinese SCF market had shifted from a single company’s SCF capability to its integrated SCF network. Therefore, it was crucial for ToTrade to establish a robust financial supply network in order to enhance the implementation and development of its SCF services. As the volume of ToTrade’s SCF service increased, the company faced key questions: How could ToTrade develop its network to further support its SCF development? And how could the platform effectively evaluate its SCF service performance to better guide this development?
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  • How A Hidden Champion Defended its Title: The Strategic Choice of Juhui Food

    This case study revolves around China's rapidly evolving catering industry, specifically focusing on the compound seasoning sector. It details the business practices of Chongqing Juhui Food Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ""Juhui""), which adopts a customized approach to provide reliable and personalized compound seasoning products to chain restaurant clients. Juhui operates a business model of customized solutions for B2B hot pot base ingredients nationwide. As the number of customized clients and products grows, the case explores how Juhui adjusts its business model to strike a balance among large, medium, and small B2B clients and implement a differentiated development strategy. After a decade of rapid growth and accumulation, Juhui faces challenges related to production efficiency, capacity improvement, resource utilization, and internal management due to the substantial demand for a wide range of product categories. The case poses the question of how Juhui can sustain its growth amidst these challenges.
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  • Quicktron: Evolving into a Global AMR Unicorn

    This case describes how Shanghai Quicktron Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. ("Quicktron"), a tech startup with a vision of establishing itself as China's Kiva, broke into mobile robotics at a time when the business had not garnered much attention from investors; went through strategic transformations to overcome the lack of systematic knowledge, workforce, and material and financial resources; and finally evolved into a leading mobile robotics provider in China, under the leadership of the founder Yang Wei. Against the backdrop of the rise of industrial artificial intelligence (AI) and rising labor costs worldwide, more and more factories and warehouses began to use robots to carry loads and pick and sort parcels. Quicktron was among the first Chinese companies to venture into mobile robotics, profiting from the first-mover advantage. Also, it innovated its technology and products constantly, as evidenced by its first-generation product, automated guided vehicles (AGVs), and third-generation product, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). But as competition got more intense, how could Quicktron meet the needs of customers from different industries and of different sizes to sustain its rapid growth and market leadership?
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  • TIDIY Ceramics: Transforming a Traditional Manufacturing Business

    This case examines how a traditional manufacturing company can be challenged by a new market environment and its strategic options. The company in this discussion, TIDIY, is a middle-sized ceramic tile company based in Foshan. In 2014, TIDIY split from Oceano, a sibling brand under parent company Teda, and became an independently managed entity. TIDIY's restructuring coincided with major changes in the construction ceramics market in China. As such, TIDIY faced a market that was fundamentally different to the one in 2004 when it was founded. Once rapid growth had slowed, overcapacity and product similarity created fierce competition, and the industry was fragmented. The preferred sales model also changed from selling via distributors, to strategic partnerships with large real estate developers. Newly independent TIDIY had to find its own path. Compared with better-established competitors, TIDIY's brand awareness and access to capital were limited. What should TIDIY do to achieve differentiation? This case explains how TIDIY leveraged anion technology and "charted itself a new path". Company chairman Feng Hongjian and Managing Director Li Qiang renamed the brand "TIDIY Ceramic Tiles", upgraded stores into anion experience centers and sciences museums, trained distributors' salespersons, engaged designers, improved customer satisfaction to create positive word-of-mouth, iterated products. He implemented various policies to provide strong organizational support. These strategies enabled TIDIY to grow by 37% during the first year after independence. TIDIY then set itself a goal to double its revenue in three years. To this end, TIDIY identified three possible strategies: investing in R&D and inventing tiles with new functions, applying anion technology to products other than tiles, or expanding its business scope to the health industry. What might be the right strategy for TIDIY? This case will help students understand the challenges and strategies of transforming a
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  • Accounting for Bitcoin at Tesla

    On February 8, 2021, Tesla revealed, through its 10-K filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that it had purchased $1.5 billion of Bitcoin, totaling 7.5% of the company's cash, and that it planned to accept payments in the cryptocurrency soon. These announcements came at the heel of the sixth straight quarter of positive GAAP profit and the first profitable fiscal year in the company's history. The revelation about Tesla's Bitcoin purchases were met with mixed reactions by stock investors and market participants. This case centers around the accounting treatment of Bitcoin at Tesla: what does the accounting treatment say about Bitcoin as an asset, and what are its implications for Tesla's profitability under the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or Elon Musk's compensation incentives? The case also raises questions about whether investing in Bitcoin is consistent with the company's strategy or could be deemed a form of speculation, and whether Musk's public communications about cryptocurrencies (e.g., his cryptocurrency-related "Tweets") constitute a form of market manipulation.
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  • Huaqiangbei: The Epitome of Industry Development and Transformation in Shenzhen

    Since China's reform and opening up, in merely four decades, the GDP of the city of Shenzhen has grown more than 10,000-fold. The city's development in the past 40 years has been underpinned by industry transformation and innovation, and the Huaqiangbei area in the city epitomizes this development process. Forty years ago, Huaqiangbei was a completely inconspicuous street in Shenzhen, but riding the wave of China's reform and opening up, Huaqiangbei has emerged and gradually grown to be widely known around the world as "China's No. 1 Electronics Street." How should we assess Huaqiangbei's journey of exploration and development? How many rounds of industrial upgrading and market transformation has Huaqiangbei experienced in the course of its development? Also, as the saying goes, nothing lasts forever. After its explosive growth propelled by the knockoff cellphone business, Huaqiangbei soon found itself cornered by the rapid development of e-commerce and mobile Internet technologies. How should it stand up to new challenges and identify new growth opportunities?
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