個案總覽

In 2016, the managing director of innogy Consulting GmbH (iCon), an international strategic consulting firm based in Germany, had many reasons to be delighted. The company had risen to second place in an annual ranking of internal consultancies after successfully expanding into four new countries. He now pondered new challenges and directions for iCon, after having led RWE Consulting—the predecessor to iCon—since 2007. As an internal consulting department within the RWE Group (RWE) in Germany, the consulting unit mainly conducted information technology implementation and project management within RWE. Although the managing director had led the consultancy unit into new geographic markets and toward new external clients, iCon faced many challenges, including tough competition in the external management-consultancy market. How could iCon take steps to compete away from home?

Jugnoo started its journey in 2014 as an autorickshaw aggregator providing ride-hailing services in India. Since then, the brand had grown and expanded to include hyperlocal services and business solutions. By May 2018, Jugnoo had five services under its umbrella that were offered primarily through applications and covered both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets. Jugnoo found itself in a very different market space from where it had started. A company co-founder wondered how Jugnoo would continue to sustain its strategy of disrupting traditional markets, given the fast-paced growth it was experiencing. How would it manage to build consumers' trust with such diverse business verticals and so much reliance on technology? With the company's growing numbers and opportunities, the co-founder wondered whether Jugnoo's use of word-of-mouth communication would continue to be possible, especially considering the aggressive communication tactics adopted by other players in the market.

In March 2018, Cricket Australia (formerly the Australian Cricket Board) banned the Australian cricket captain from the sport for a year due to his involvement in a premeditated attempt at ball tampering in a test match against South Africa. He was also banned from any leadership positions in the sport for at least a year thereafter and faced financial losses on account of these bans. Australian fans and political leaders were outraged at the ball-tampering scandal and the captain's involvement. Other cricketers felt that the penalties were severe and disproportionate. What led the captain to engage in “premeditated” foul play? Could he have played the game differently? Will he be able to lead the Australian cricket team again?

In January 2018, the Philippine cement industry changed forever with the entry of the 100-per-cent Filipino-owned cement manufacturing company Big Boss Cement Inc. (BBCI). When the company decided to set up shop with a cheaper, eco-friendly manufacturing process that promised less carbon emission, competition became fierce. BBCI planned to expand its capacity to take advantage of a growth in both infrastructure projects and local demand for cement, but it had to analyze the macro-environmental and competitive forces relevant in the context of its entry in the cement industry. It had to ascertain whether it could differentiate its product based solely on ecological appeal. BBCI also had to ensure that its environmentally-friendly brand promise would work, and anticipate potential obstacles to its success and determine how to counter these hurdles.

The owner of Leisure Gardens, a restaurant and accommodation business in a small town in Ghana, faced problems with his business. Approximately 40 per cent of his restaurant customers were paying on credit and not paying on time, causing cash flow problems. His sole employee was unreliable, often absent when the restaurant was busy. This two-part problem hindered the restaurant's success and owner’s ability to expand the business. Moreover, the owner faced external pressures from competitors in the restaurant market. The owner was considering three options to sustainably reduce bad-debt accounts and ensure profitability in the future: implementing an employee contract, changing the payment options, and expanding the business to generate more revenue. Which option would be the best course of action for the future of Leisure Gardens?

This case describes the process of Austrian chocolate producer Zotter Chocolate entering the Chinese market. There are several things that make this company stand out: it is a small, family-run entrepreneurial firm from Austria that makes a wide range of unconventional flavors of chocolate. It prides itself on being organic and fair trade, and has attracted many loyal customers and visitors to its "chocolate factory" in its headquarters in Bergl, Austria. After successfully entering the German market-an "obvious" target for a firm from Austria-the founder, Josef Zotter, and his family considered where to go next, in 2010. After comparing the U.S. and Chinese chocolate markets, Zotter Chocolate selected China as its first major non-European market. The case introduces how Zotter sought out a local partner in Shanghai and decided to enter the market with an "experience-based" offering in its first chocolate factory outside its home market, overseen by the founder's daughter Julia. Their innovations and learning process are also presented in the case. The case ends with Julia's key concerns about Zotter China's next step when she has to leave China for Zotter Chocolate's Austrian headquarters in August 2017.

In June 2017, a bancassurance director at South Africa’s Liberty Group Limited (Liberty) was making his way to a public school in Soweto, south of Johannesburg. Liberty was an insurance company in South Africa, part of Liberty Holdings, a leading financial-services group with representation in 24 countries across the African continent. As he drove along the highway he wondered how he could encourage more business leaders at Liberty to get involved and ultimately contribute to improving the country’s public-education system. He recognized that there were ethical implications in using the school in Liberty’s marketing campaign—a campaign that would eventually contribute to a goal of sustainability. Various issues had to be considered that related to conducting business with people at the bottom of the pyramid and a decision had to be made.

In December 2016, the founder and chief executive officer of R3 was preparing for an offsite meeting, where his management team would debate what business model to pursue to extract the most value from the company’s new distributed ledger product called Corda. Founded in 2014, R3 was a blockchain technology company with headquarters in New York. R3 was leading a consortium of over 100 banks, financial institutions, and technology companies to develop a distributed ledger technology that could meet the needs of the financial services industry. R3 had run a number of proof of concept tests of existing distributed ledger technologies with its bank members before deciding to develop an enterprise-grade distributed ledger from scratch. R3 was still privately-owned and controlled by the founder, but had financed its research and development by selling memberships in a joint venture to a consortium of over 40 banks. With Corda operational by mid-2016, the founder had to decide what business model to follow to monetize the investment in Corda. A second question was how to finance R3’s future growth.

As one of its first international projects, the China Guangxi Corporation for International Techno-Economic Cooperation (GCITEC) began a joint venture initiative with a local Pakistani firm in September 2015. The joint venture centred around constructing a canal in the Khus area of northern Pakistan. The Chinese firm brought funding and technical experience; the Pakistani partner brought local experience and local construction staff. After working together for several months, significant problems began to emerge between the two sides. These tensions resulted from differing management cultures and institutional differences between the Pakistani and the Chinese business environments. The president of GCITEC's Pakistani branch was faced with a choice: find a way to renew the partnership and fix both the immediate personnel conflict and its underlying factors, or, if the conflict was beyond reconciliation, dissolve the joint partnership and bear the cost of this choice.

In 2016, Fair and Handsome, a skin-whitening cream produced by Emami Limited, led the men's fairness skin cream category in India, with a market share of 60 per cent. In late 2017, however, the company faced both a public backlash and an adverse court decision about its marketing of the product. A growing movement called Dark is Beautiful was galvanizing support against companies that portrayed fairer skin colour as a means for both personal and professional fulfillment. The company had also appealed a lower court's decision to ban the company's use of skin whitening in its advertisements. Since the product was earmarked for significant growth in the next five years, the company needed to develop an immediate response. What should it do?

In January 2018, the governor of the Bank of Japan (BoJ), was preparing for a meeting of the policy board of the BoJ. While the broad macroeconomic indicators hinted at a Japanese recovery, Japan still continued to have an inflation rate well below its target of 2 per cent. The accommodative, unconventional monetary policy of quantitative and qualitative easing engineered by the governor in 2013 had resulted in a bloated balance sheet for the BoJ, with little success in overcoming deflation. Was it time to wind up Japan’s monetary stimulus? What would be the results of continued monetary stimulus, especially for businesses? Would the Japanese economy be able to recover from deflation without such monetary stimulus?

As one of its first international projects, the China Guangxi Corporation for International Techno-Economic Cooperation (GCITEC) began a joint venture initiative with a local Pakistani firm in September 2015. The joint venture centred around constructing a canal in the Khus area of northern Pakistan. The Chinese firm brought funding and technical experience; the Pakistani partner brought local experience and local construction staff. After working together for several months, significant problems began to emerge between the two sides. These tensions resulted from differing management cultures and institutional differences between the Pakistani and the Chinese business environments. The president of GCITEC's Pakistani branch was faced with a choice: find a way to renew the partnership and fix both the immediate personnel conflict and its underlying factors, or, if the conflict was beyond reconciliation, dissolve the joint partnership and bear the cost of this choice.

Despite fast advancements in technology and production capacity, China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) faced a variety of challenges and risks on its path to build profitability in the global high-speed rail (HSR) market. Some of these challenges arose from competition between CRCC and nations with competing HSR technology and international expansion plans. Other challenges were related to the country of origin and its effects on perceptions about the product and brand positioning. In 2018, CRCC was facing intensive competition and complicated international environments, and it needed to develop an effective risk prevention and management scheme in order to compete and succeed through global expansion.

The Cattier family had been active in the Champagne region of France for over 250 years. Starting out as growers of grapes, they moved into champagne production, initially for local consumption. By 2017, the Cattier company, which had reached 35 full-time employees, engaged in related diversification activities on multiple fronts and internationalized its market. Cattier was selling its champagne to markets such as the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The company also created new product formats, developing signature branding and packaging. Cattier also partnered with fashion houses, bistros, and an international distributor owned by the American rap artist Jay-Z. However, Cattier faced a multitude of challenges in 2017. There was fierce competition in the home market, while sparkling wine consumption was down in all key European markets. Rising protectionism and the possibility of raising trade barriers in key export markets also created new risks. These challenges were compounded by the fact that harvest conditions for producing vintage wines were unpredictable. Cattier was considering using further diversification to manage these threats. However, how would diversification address Cattier’s problems?

In August 2016, China’s home-grown ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing Technology Co., Ltd. (Didi) acquired the Chinese assets of Uber Technologies Inc. (Uber), including Uber China’s brand, business, and data. Didi had previously ventured into Uber’s territory by investing and collaborating with Lyft Inc., Uber’s main competitor in the United States. Didi’s transformation from its beginning as a humble mobile application into a technology giant that was re-shaping transportation both within and beyond China was related to significant transformations in its social and business context. These transformations included the rapid growth of China’s cities and China’s status as one of the first countries to formally recognize the legality of Internet-based private car services. Looking to the future, Didi faced questions about its development in a rapidly changing global digital economy: How could it expand its products and services to the international market? Could Didi achieve the same impressive market record abroad? How could Didi continue to innovate? What was a truly sustainable business model for an online ride-hailing firm? How could it maintain its current leading position in the market?

In early 2017, the chief executive officer of Empowerment through Integration, a not-for-profit organization based in the United States and also operating in Lebanon, wanted to scale up the organization’s social impacts and improve its financial sustainability. Empowerment through Integration was committed to breaking social stigmas against people with visual impairments and empowering them to reach their full potential; however, it faced financial, legal, and social struggles in Lebanon, which limited its abilities to reach its goals. What tactics should the chief executive officer pursue to achieve the dual goals of scaling up the organization’s social impacts and enhancing its financial sustainability?

On April 20, 2016, printer and ink maker Lexmark International, Inc. (Lexmark) announced that it was being acquired and taken private by a consortium comprising China-based computer hardware company Apex Technology Co., Ltd. (Apex), as well as private equity firms PAG Asia Capital (PAG) and Legend Capital (Legend). On the same day, Apex formally announced its acquisition of Lexmark for the Chinese capital market. The announcement caused a huge sensation because Apex was a small company compared to Lexmark; Lexmark completed 2015 with US$3.6 billion in revenue—approximately 10 times the revenue of Apex. To raise enough money to pay for the acquisition, Apex had established the consortium with PAG and Legend, and borrowed a large sum of money from its controlling shareholder and banks. Although Apex had ultimately raised enough money to complete the acquisition, its satisfaction over this success soon gave way to pressing questions about financing. In order to dispel the doubts of regulators and the market, Apex needed to decide whether it should adjust its financing plan for the acquisition, and if so, how.

Ebony Jones manages asset allocation for Colorado's Public Employee Retirement Association (PERA). She is worried that some asset price measures are approaching levels observed prior to the Great Recession, and she is pondering whether she should shift PERA's asset allocation toward cash and fixed-income investments as a precaution. To put the current market situation in perspective, she looks back at the causes and consequences of the Great Recession. Were there clear warning signs of asset bubbles and impending recession prior to 2008? To what extent does today's economy resemble the pre-2008 economy, and what are the implications for Colorado's retirees and the broader economy if stocks and real estate are due for a correction? The case was written for use in Darden's Global Economies and Markets (GEM) core course during a class on the causes of the Great Recession. Each class in the course focuses on a different subset of exogenous variables in the IS/LM AD/AS model that underpins the course. This class focuses on shocks to wealth, consumer confidence, and credit supply, each of which was increasing during the run-up to the crisis and subsequently plummeted.

The MSK Group Oy was a third-generation family-owned business located in Ylihärmä, Finland. One of its subsidiaries, Junkkari Oy (Junkkari), manufactured agricultural and forestry equipment, including a range of mid-sized disk wood chippers used in small-scale farming and forestry applications; most of these were exported to markets in Europe and South Africa. Junkkari was not the only Finnish firm manufacturing wood chippers, and there was little to differentiate Junkkari’s machines from those of its competitors. Like many small firms that exported to foreign markets, Junkkari used partner distributors to sell its equipment internationally. In early 2017, Junkkari’s export manager was reviewing the wood-chipper orders. He knew the firm could double its annual production, but without firm orders, growth was stalled. He wondered how to grow the company’s business with a very limited budget.

In 2017, the president of Fujitsu Asia Pte. Ltd. in Singapore, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Fujitsu Limited (Fujitsu) needed to decide between two project options that represented growth in different industries in Asia. Both projects represented Fujitsu's vision of connected services and could potentially be much-needed engines of new growth for Fujitsu Singapore over the next 5 to 10 years. The first option was to offer its Japanese-engineered cloud-computing platform to engage small and medium enterprises in the manufacturing industry. Given the high costs of customizing the existing platform for local use, the president wondered whether small and medium manufacturers would generate sufficient demand to justify such a costly investment. The second option was to leverage the success of Fujitsu’s intelligent agricultural cloud-computing project with the Japanese government to offer vertical farming to Singapore and other Asian cities that faced similar space constraints but valued food resilience. But was it the right time to enter the agricultural industry? The president had limited time and resources, and needed to make a decision very soon.