個案總覽

Between 1999 and 2017, the Roaring Dragon Hotel (RDH) evolved from a state-owned enterprise (SOE) into a modern, market-driven 5-star accommodation provider, experiencing a combination of market economy and privatization forces. Its initial operations under the new status progressed from the poor performance and management practices of China’s planned economy to a portfolio of operational and strategic reforms that saw it become semi-privatized in 2005, and a fully privatized 5-star accommodation provider by 2017. On the surface, this model of evolution would make any Chinese national proud. However, what was perceived from the outside did not necessarily reflect what was occurring within. Market evolution had produced complex challenges related to employee loyalty, competition, internal resistance to change, promotion prospects, management, and the continuation of questionable practices. What changes should management make in the second half of 2017 to continue the hotel’s transition to a modern global hotel, turn around its declining revenue, and improve its competitive outcomes?

In late 2014, the deputy minister of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence joined the public service, six months after Ukraine’s revolution and change of government. He joined the ministry as part of the new government’s attempt to reform a bureaucracy crippled by corruption, inefficiencies, and dysfunction. In six months, he had already made notable changes. However, by March 2015, the changes were not resulting in better outcomes where they were urgently needed—in the eastern regions, supporting a tactically and logistically crippled military that was resisting Russian attempts at incursion. What more could the deputy minister do to initiate and lead change?

In March 2017, Ajay Maharaj Bachulal was starting his new position as plant manager at SABMiller plc’s (SABMiller's) plant in Polokwane, South Africa. Bachulal had successfully led change at the company's brewery in another province, and he hoped to be as successful at the new plant. His dilemma was how to approach the workforce in Polokwane, and how to adapt to and make changes within the culture specific to that plant. While both plants adhered to SABMiller’s system, policies, and procedures, Bachulal sensed that the approach of each plant to work and life was different. How would Bachulal's own leadership development process and his efforts to change culture by empowering lower level employees in Polokwane help him in a different province with distinct ethnic compositions, languages, and cultures?

Sumith Dutta was the founder of Emerald Trail (ET), a resort near a well-known tourist destination in the Himalayas, which treated resort guests’ pets as no less important than their owners. Dutta’s passion for pets inspired him to offer this experience, which was different from what was offered at other resorts. The case details the decisions Dutta made in executing his strategy and invites students to consider how Dutta could have scaled up his business in 2017: Should he have invested in upgrades at the existing location or should he have opened a new resort in another location in India? If he opened in a new location, could he replicate his existing model? In either case, is he financially prepared for the growth?

In December 2016, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Château Ksara, the largest and most renowned wine producer in Lebanon, was analyzing the company’s sales volume and product availability around Lebanon. To the CEO’s surprise, a popular fine dining establishment in the city did not include any of Château Ksara’s wines. Frustrated, he started wondering what could have been the reasons for the omission. Was the quality of wine giving competitors an edge in selling their brands? What position did Château Ksara currently hold within the wine brand landscape in its own country? How could Château Ksara add value to, and maintain profitable relationships with, its distribution channel partners?

The founder and chief executive officer of Twenty One Toys Inc., a Canadian designer and manufacturer of educational toy sets, was considering her firm’s future in 2017. The company had doubled its revenues each year for the past two years with its first toy—and, thus far, its only product—the Empathy Toy. The entrepreneurial founder had defied the odds, gaining recognition for her product and securing funds from socially focused awards and firms. She had built up a supply chain, starting with ethically manufactured toys, and had sold her products both directly to schools and through distributors to the wider retail market. The biggest current challenge for the firm was determining its growth strategy for the Empathy Toy and for its second product, the Failure Toy.

In September 2015, Groupe Fnac (Fnac), a large French retail chain, announced it had acquired long-time competitor Darty Limited (Darty) in an effort to counter competition from online retailers, particularly American e-commerce giant Amazon.com, Inc. Fnac’s first offer had been declined, but Fnac and Darty negotiated and agreed on a new offer in November 2015. Unexpectedly, in March 2016, a South African-based retail holding company, Steinhoff International Holdings N.V., made a bigger offer. After an intense bidding war, Fnac successfully acquired Darty in April 2016 for 60 per cent over its first offer. The new company, Groupe Fnac Darty, faced several challenges. It needed to convince its stakeholders that the two emblematic competitors could create better value for them, despite their different identities and corporate cultures. How should the combined entity achieve the announced €130 million in annual synergies by 2019? And would the new entity survive the aggressive competition of e-commerce?

Diagnostics services in India were growing at 20% annually with billing of USD 3.4 billion. With WTO's GATS, foreign competition was arising. Dr. Lal PathLabs had formidable brand recognition and Dr. Arvind Lal was wondering whether to accept private equity and induct management professionals to keep pace with competitors through acquisitions or greenfield or sell out. He worried over loss of proprietary control. The industry practice of incentivizing doctors for referrals meant that acquisitions brought perverse incentive systems. The choice of compromising ethics or inventing another business model had to be made alongside whether to expand in India or abroad.

India's diagnostics business valued at USD 10 billion was growing at 20% annually. Several players with different business models competed. Dr. Lal PathLabs, the world's largest histopathology centre led with a menu of 3,500 tests, 1,600 collection centres and 7,000 pick-up points. Its Initial Public Offer had been oversubscribed 33.41 times and the team at Dr. Lal PathLabs was excited about expanding its international footprint. Two overseas companies were incorporated in Netherlands and Nepal. Yet, there were enormous unmet needs in India alongside potential for public-private partnerships. Trade-offs over portfolio choice and regional versus international footprint needed thinking through.

In 2016, the managing director of Wingreens Farms, a social enterprise based in India, was considering the company’s future. Wingreens Farms partnered with rural Indian farmers living in poverty to produce and sell homemade processed foods, including salsas, dipping sauces, hummus, garlic butter, breads, teas, organic fresh pickled sprouts, microgreens, and wheatgrass. This small company had a unique, sustainable, and profitable business model with a managed sales turnover worth R160 million (US$2.4 million) in 2016. However, the managing director wondered whether Wingreens Farms could eventually transition from a small, personalized, family-owned company to a large systems- and process-driven organization. Could the company retain its commitment to ethical values and its handmade, labour-intensive production methods if it began competing against factory-produced, cheaper products from large, organized companies?

In September 2011, the chief risk officer of Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Berhad (CGC) was mulling over a pressing problem. CGC was looking to expand its business in Malaysia from just giving guarantees to small and medium enterprises to also providing direct loans (direct-lending products). The change required a major overhaul in business strategy and an increase in eligibility criteria. Previously, most criteria were checked manually by CGC for each of its clients—a slow and unreliable process. Given the recent developments, how could CGC revise its business rules in order to accommodate its expansion strategy?

In 2003, a garment factory in Pakistan burned down, leaving the owner with over US$1 million in debt and no way to fulfill his orders. In the wake of the fire, the owner needed to determine how to use the resources he still had to meet his delivery obligations and pay the raw materials suppliers—as well as what to do next with his company.

In September 2016, German-based Bayer AG (Bayer) and U.S.-based Monsanto Company (Monsanto) agreed to merge entities to create a global leader in agriculture. The combined entity would benefit from Monsanto’s expertise in seeds and traits, and from Bayer’s wide range of crop protection products. Bayer would acquire Monsanto for $128 per share, a high 44 per cent premium in an all-cash transaction. There were issues with the deal, which included antitrust concerns, which could require subsequent divestments, and Monsanto’s brand image, owing to its involvement in controversial business operations. Given these issues, would Bayer’s diversification into agrochemicals by merging with Monsanto be able to create sufficient synergies and deliver economic benefits to shareholders, while meeting expectations from other stakeholders at different levels?

QualityKiosk Technologies Private Limited (QualityKiosk) was an information technology company providing software application testing and quality assurance services to banks and insurance companies in India. In 2015, QualityKiosk had over 70 per cent penetration in the insurance sector in terms of numbers of customers, and only 30 per cent penetration in the banking sector. Anuroop Krishna, head of QualityKiosk's banking vertical, must put together a coherent sales strategy for 2016-17, and present his recommendations to QualityKiosk's chief executive officer.

Supplement to case W17762. This technical note covers statistical models such as scorecards, decision trees, random forest models, and neural networks for decision making. The Basel II framework and Rete algorithm are also expressed. This technical note is best used with product 9B17M177.

In September 2011, the chief risk officer of Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Berhad (CGC) was mulling over a pressing problem. CGC was looking to expand its business in Malaysia from just giving guarantees to small and medium enterprises to also providing direct loans (direct-lending products). The change required a major overhaul in business strategy and an increase in eligibility criteria. Previously, most criteria were checked manually by CGC for each of its clients-a slow and unreliable process. Given the recent developments, how could CGC revise its business rules in order to accommodate its expansion strategy?

On January 16, 2015, the director of the public affairs division of Uni-President Enterprises Corp. (Uni-President) reflected on growing safety concerns in the food industry. At the time, organizations operated in an uncertain environment, marked by varied suppliers of raw materials, changing government policies and regulations, and shifting consumption choices. As business environments grew ever more uncertain, the likelihood of a product crisis increased. The food industry was especially vulnerable, and large food manufacturers confronted difficult situations in which their hard-won reputations could be destroyed by a single crisis. Even with its strong track record and reputation, Uni-President could not have avoided the consequences of a 2014 food scandal. Although Uni-President had survived the recent spate of food safety crises, more would be likely to come. Was Uni-President’s crisis management approach sufficient, appropriate, and effective? What should Uni-President do going forward?

In 2016, the supply chain director of B-Kay Tech, a multinational company headquartered in Belgium, had devised a logistics innovation project based on collaborative shipping, through which partner companies’ shipments could be proactively bundled in the same transport—without traditional, reactive third-party groups. With this system, any available space in one company’s transport facility could be utilized to transport shipments for the other company, reducing the overall number of trucks used and positively impacting greenhouse gas emissions. For this collaboration, the director had identified a potential partner in WARE-TOUCH, a U.K.-based multinational company that produced and distributed everyday consumer goods throughout Europe and the Middle East. The supply chain director at B-Kay Tech had to propose a gainsharing mechanism to convince WARE-TOUCH that a collaboration between the two companies would have been beneficial.

BRAC was the largest non-governmental organization in the world, reaching out to 138 million people. It made a significant contribution to reducing poverty in Bangladesh by employing more than 117,000 community workers (Shasthya Shebikas) to improve the health and nutrition of the rural poor. The manager of BRAC's Health, Nutrition and Population program was faced with two significant challenges. First, she had to find a way to encourage more people to use BRAC's services; more than 60 per cent of the population sought the services of unqualified health care service providers, despite the significant contribution made by Shasthya Shebikas. Second, she had to bring down the 10 to 20 per cent turnover rate of the Shasthya Shebikas.

At the beginning of 2017, India was among the top 10 markets for Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India Limited, accounting for around 10 per cent of its revenue. The company was trying to increase its room air conditioner (RAC) market from 11 per cent to 20 per cent by 2020. It was positioned in the premium segment of the RAC market but wanted to enter the popular segment, which was crowded with established players. The company’s focus had been on the inverter air conditioner (AC) segment, which accounted for 40 per cent of its RAC revenue; however, because of this segment’s market potential and growth, competition from key competitors was stiff. Under these circumstances, the company faced the dual challenge of finding the right strategy to establish itself in the popular RAC market and deciding how to defend its position in the inverter AC segment.