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In July 2015, Tassal Group Limited (Tassal) announced the acquisition of De Costi Seafoods Company (De Costi) in a combination deal of cash and shares. The acquisition would allow Tassal to address a A$4.3 billion Australian seafood market that was much larger than the previously addressable salmon market of $700 million. Tassal had previous experience in species diversification. However, the environmental impacts of its major operations in Macquarie Harbour had been under the scrutiny of the Australian authority. Given the critical harbour issues, should Tassal continue to expand overseas? What were the motives to acquire De Costi? Did Tassal have sufficient capabilities and resources to cope with the high demand for Tasmanian salmon, particularly in the Asian market?

On April 14, 2014, CapitaLand Limited, a Singapore-based real estate company, launched a voluntary conditional cash offer of SG$2.22 for each share (SG$3.06 billion in total) of its subsidiary commercial property development and management company, CapitaMalls Asia Limited (CMA). CMA’s principal business strategy was to invest in, develop, and manage a diversified portfolio of real estate used primarily for retail purposes in Asia. CapitaLand’s offer represented a 22.3 per cent premium over CMA’s closing price of SG$1.815 on April 11, 2014. The intention was to delist CMA and fully integrate it into CapitaLand.<br><br>As an investor in CMA, you are seeking a reasonable valuation of CMA based on its past financial performance and other relevant market information. You also need to compute the premium, net present value (NPV), and synergy of the acquisition.

In late 2012, Shanghai Euclid Printing Machine Co. (Shanghai Euclid), a joint venture between a Chinese state-owned enterprise and an American multinational enterprise, was in the process of closing down. Established in December 1993, the joint venture had experienced successive rounds of downsizing over the past 18 years, dropping from an original high of 1,800 employees to a workforce size of 668 in 2012. In its place, a 100-per-cent state-owned enterprise would now be founded, and any employees and business activities that would be retained needed to be moved to this new enterprise, Shanghai Gutenberg Printing Machine Co. (Shanghai Gutenberg). The general manager at Shanghai Euclid had to make some difficult decisions about the strategic orientation of Shanghai Gutenberg. He also needed to come up with a plan regarding the remaining 668 employees, deciding whom he could retain and who would need to be laid off. Considering the importance of social harmony in the Chinese context, he also needed to determine how to conduct the workforce change process in order to cause the least possible disruption to employees and other stakeholders.

In August 2016, Foxconn Technology Group (Foxconn) acquired a majority stake for US$3.8 billion in Sharp Corporation (Sharp), which was on the verge of bankruptcy. In addition to gaining more liquid crystal display (LCD) capacity, Foxconn was combining Sharp’s advanced technology and marketing resources with its own to expand and move up the value chain in both research and development and brand building. However, the post-acquisition integration to realize such value-creation potentials faced several challenges, including the probability that Sharp’s Japanese style of management might not assimilate well within Foxconn’s organization. Now in 2018, what should Foxconn do to seamlessly integrate the two entities? How could Foxconn achieve its efficiency, cost, and innovation goals while moving toward becoming the technology leader and successfully creating its own global brand?

By the end of 2018, a recent business program graduate had found that his first social enterprise had been a success, and he wanted to start his next venture in the Kenyan agricultural market. He identified three challenges in this area—climate change, lack of market access, and ineffective education systems—and he wanted to try to address one of these with a new business. Case A explores how he needed to perform a market assessment to understand the opportunities and constraints of the Kenyan market, identify the resources and processes that would be available to him when starting the business, and form strategies for performing customer research.

With his primary research on the Kenyan agricultural market completed, the entrepreneur needed to analyze the new data using design-thinking frameworks, and then formulate a value proposition that used his resources and processes to address the large-scale improvements identified in Case A.

PowerChina was an integrated construction group that provided investment and financing, planning design, engineering construction, equipment manufacturing and operations management for hydraulic and hydropower projects and infrastructure. According to the company’s data, PowerChina had over 50 per cent of the medium- and large-sized flood mitigation and water supply reservoir construction market worldwide. The aim of the company was to build a world-class comprehensive construction investment group that was globally competitive and of high quality and efficiency. However, the integration of international business and localization in certain markets combined with international and domestic development meant that PowerChina needed to remain cautious and vigilant. PowerChina’s managers were confident with the prospect of its international expansion to accelerate the company’s growth rate, but it was still necessary for them to seriously consider the strategy they should choose in the next phase of their internationalization, and how to upgrade their risk management system in these changing times.

The chairman of Fuyao Glass Industry Group Co. Ltd. was pleased with his company’s financial results for the first half of 2018. Two years earlier, the organization’s subsidiary, Fuyao Glass America Inc., had completed the construction of the largest auto glass manufacturing facility in the world, which was located in Moraine, Ohio. Its revenues in the first half of 2018 had surged 27 per cent compared with the previous year, while groupwide revenues of the organization had grown 16 per cent. Fuyao Glass America Inc. had converted its loss of ¥65 million into a profit of ¥48 million. With deteriorating relations between the governments of China and the United States (U.S.) indicating an uncertain future, some social pundits were criticizing the organization for deserting China by investing overseas. The chairman remained defiant and confident in his strategy, but how would the company’s U.S. expansion and global strategy be affected by recent developments in the relationship between China and the United States?

In 2012, Griffiths Energy International Inc. had secured the land leases needed to begin drilling for oil in Chad and was preparing for an IPO. During the due diligence, the company’s lawyers found consulting contracts that appeared to be payments to a public official to gain a business advantage. While bribing officials was not uncommon in Chad, it was a criminal offence in Canada. The company’s senior executive team was new, and the founder and former chairman, who might have been able to explain the contracts, had died in a boating accident. The directors needed to decide what to do: continue with the IPO and deal with disclosure if the matter did surface at some point later or report the findings to the authorities now and bear the consequences.

Supplement for product 9B18C031.

In 2017, the German grocery chain Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG (Lidl) opened its first 20 U.S. stores in the southern states of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Key target segments of Lidl were budget-conscious customers, middle-class families with children, and elderly customers on a fixed income. Lidl offered lower prices than its competitors and quickly gained a strong advantage in the marketplace. Despite high early consumer demand, however, Lidl struggled to hit the correct target market for each of its different locations in terms of tastes and demographics. With plans for 100 U.S.-based locations by the summer of 2018, Lidl had set its sights high. What could Lidl do to meet its U.S. market goals and expand into the future?

In June 2018, the executive vice-president of Networks and Information Technology of KPN BV (KPN), Bouke Hoving, was evaluating the digital transformation of KPN, the leading telecommunications company in the Netherlands. Hoving had been an initiator of a turnaround that had started at KPN in 2014, after a financially and operationally hectic year. The entry into the market of over-the-top digital services, which used the Internet to bypass platforms the traditional telecommunications companies had once used to control access to customers, had forced KPN to act swiftly, fundamentally revisiting its strategy. By 2018, KPN was in much better shape. By working in agile ways, it had been able to respond more quickly to market and technological developments. Short-term survival seemed to have been secured. The question still to be addressed was how to accelerate KPN’s transformation with the aim of making KPN a winner in a world where digital dominated.

In 2015, in Aalborg, Denmark, the two co-founders of Better World Fashion formed their company as a social enterprise, aiming to highlight all that was wrong with the fashion industry and offer a cleaner and more ethical solution. The business was designed to focus not only on profit but also on minimizing the environmental impact of the supply chain. The founders chose to specialize in garments made from re-purposed leather, as leather had a long lifespan, and could be reused repeatedly without its qualities diminishing. Leather was also the most resource-consuming garment material to produce, and therefore was both the most environmentally damaging material and the material that was most in need of recycling. The company’s business model aimed to gain a competitive advantage through its image as a sustainable brand and its premium-quality products, which incorporated an emotional connection through the use of unique serial numbers and storytelling. However, in 2018, the co-founders wondered whether the company should continue as it had been originally positioned or whether it should change its strategies for growth and competitive advantage in international marketing.

On a late evening in December 2014, three co-founders of Unicommerce eSolutions Pvt. Ltd. (Unicommerce) assembled for a meeting. A couple of months earlier, Unicommerce, an India-based software-as-a-service solution provider for order- and warehouse-management activities in the e-commerce industry, had received an offer of US$10 million in series-B funding from Tiger Global Management to fund their business growth. The offer seemed fair, and the three co-founders were inclined to pursue a deal with them. However, just a few days before, they had received an unexpected offer from Snapdeal, a leading e-commerce firm in India, to buy out Unicommerce. Over the past week, the co-founders had discussed and debated their options several times without converging. However, the time for deliberations was over. By 9:00 a.m. the next day, the Unicommerce team would have to call up Snapdeal to confirm their decision.

Chunyu Yisheng (Chunyu) was the largest mobile health (m-health) application in China. Since its creation in July 2011, the application had focused on providing online medical information and consultations with professional doctors. Chunyu's business model was based on free and premium online health care services. In the first three years, Chunyu gained more experience than profits. The primary concern for the founder and chief executive officer of Chunyu was to find a profitable and value-creating business model. Two potential solutions for Chunyu were to rebuild the current online consultancy-based model or move to an alternative profitable and long-term value-creation model. How should the founder and chief executive officer choose which option to pursue?

The founders of Strider Miles (Striders), a running club headquartered in Mumbai, India, faced a dilemma. Over 14 years, they had built a business based on their love for sport and their own entrepreneurial inclination. The growth of Striders was an outcome of both a growing interest in running for fitness as well as the promoters’ efforts. The founders had, thus far, made minimal investments in fixed assets and marketing and promotion. Going forward, however, they were not sure about how to grow the business nor the implications of their current business model.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Company Private Limited (TKM) was a leading car manufacturer in India, one engaged in a significant level of corporate social responsibility activities. TKM focused on health and hygiene issues in rural and semi-urban districts in India, as sanitation was a significant concern there. TKM's efforts to facilitate the improvement of health and hygiene among its program beneficiaries had met with considerable success. The company was now looking to expand the project to increase its coverage. The ambitious multi-year program plan raised several questions: Could the number of targeted beneficiaries be achieved? What challenges were likely to arise? How should the company select an implementation partner?

In late 2015, the government of Delhi, India, took a radical step to curb traffic congestion and pollution, by restricting the use of private automobile vehicles in Delhi’s National Capital Region. Drivers of vehicles whose licence plate numbers ended in odd numbers would be able to drive only on odd-numbered days, and drivers of vehicles whose licence plate numbers ended in even numbers would be able to drive only on even-numbered days. All restrictions would be lifted on Sundays. The management of Indraprastha Gas Limited, Delhi’s sole supplier of compressed natural gas, a safe, economical, and clean-burning fuel, needed to communicate the benefits of clean fuels, in an attempt to gain an exemption for vehicles using its compressed natural gas. The company also needed to address the concerns of both its internal stakeholders—shareholders and employees—and its external stakeholders—customers, suppliers, and policy-makers.

In July 2018, the general manager of the Banff Aspen Lodge in Alberta, Canada, needed to fill two vacancies at the Front Desk. He faced several challenges because of a tight labour market and the never-ending cycle of staff turnover in the hospitality sector, especially in a resort town. Although the general manager was confident that the hotel had many good human resource management practices, he wondered whether he could apply a more systematic long-term approach to human resource planning, recruitment, and selection. Was it time to review the company’s overall approach to human resource management?

Striving for Great Place to Work (GPTW) culture enabled Hella India Lighting Limited (HIL), a company that manufactured automotive lighting, to recover from huge losses and become profitable. Although the company’s German management had decided to stop further investment in India after the setback of the 2008 recession, in 2018 HIL became the number one Hella location worldwide. It was also recognized as one of the best places to work at the national level in the automotive industry and ranked 20th in the 2018 GPTW Great Mid-Size Workplaces category. To achieve these milestones, HIL focused on effectively implementing existing policies and periodically upgrading and focusing policies around employee welfare; thus making way for strategic human resources (HR) management. Valuing its employees as equal to its customers, HIL’s main focus was employee engagement. The transformation led to successful GPTW survey results, which encouraged HIL management to revise the HR team’s 2020 target: their new task was to secure a position among the top 10 companies of the GPTW survey by 2020.