個案總覽

In 2014, IMAX is a Canadian-based company synonymous with large-format, high-quality cinematic experiences. Following four decades of innovation, the bulk of its revenue now comes from providing technology to mainstream movie studios and multiplex exhibitors. IMAX has more than 900 cinema screens in 58 countries, with nearly half of them located in North America. Its chief executive officer believes that the route to becoming a billion-dollar company involves adding 1,100 screens in growth markets outside of North America. If about 400 of the new worldwide screens are designated for Brazil, Russia, China and India—the BRIC economies—how should IMAX allocate these new screens by country and by city?

Situated in Beijing, Tenglong Ltd. is a typical non-state-owned listed firm in China. After its initial public offering, the founder has retained majority ownership and operation control by serving as both chairman and chief executive officer. An independent director of the company is worried about its corporate governance practice. What puzzles him most is the fact that, despite the apparent weaknesses of the board, the company itself is doing very well in the market. As he reflects on his experience, he cannot help wondering whether there is anything wrong with the board and what an effective board should and should not do.

In 2010, the assistant general manager and head of strategic development at Lebanon’s BLC Bank attended the annual summit of the Global Banking Alliance for Women, a leading organization of financial institutions that drove the creation of women’s wealth worldwide. On her return to Beirut, she encouraged her bank to capitalize on the inclusion of women as a relevant differentiator from both a business and societal perspective. The result of research into the economic, demographic and social needs of the country was the launch in 2012 of the "We Initiative", a unique and comprehensive program dedicated to the economic empowerment of women in the Middle East and North Africa region. By 2015, the program’s success not only served the bank’s economic bottom line but also benefited the Lebanese economy and community as a whole and exemplified the bank’s sense of responsibility to its society.

A joint venture company that started its operations in 2004 in India was in the business of growing, processing and marketing fresh fruits and vegetables, both in India and abroad. As new market opportunities emerged in response to the growing demand for frozen products in the domestic market, the company launched frozen vegetables in the Indian market in 2011 and successfully established the supply chain covering contract farming, processing and distributing the product. The following year, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the company was reviewing the first year’s performance of frozen vegetable business as part of the annual business plan process. The business was still small and not profitable. The CEO had to decide how to scale up and make the business profitable.

A chief human resource executive of an automotive company in India, faced with exits of promising employees, was reviewing the efficacy and relevance of the company’s 20-year-old high-potential talent identification program in place since 1991. The chief executive was particularly concerned about how well the program met the company’s changing leadership needs within the context of a rapidly evolving automotive industry in India in recent years owing to open economy and influx of foreign players in the automotive segment. The challenge facing the executive was how to align the program with the company’s organizational strategy to establish a pipeline of successors ready for critical senior roles in a changing business landscape by fostering loyalty and leadership capability of employees. See the supplements to this case, 9B15C027 and 9B15C028.

Supplement to 9B15C026.

Supplement to 9B15C026.

In recent years, the critical function of expanding GCS Consulting’s information technology consulting business had lost priority as the managing director of the firm was increasingly preoccupied with World Bank engagements as an IT consultant. He was aware of the immense potential in new areas of consulting and changing business models. However, he was also conscious of the investment of time, effort and finances that would be required on his part to strengthen GCS’s marketing activities and build up a team of professionals well versed in newly emerging consulting areas such as social media, mobile, analytics and cloud computing. Should he promote GCS or move ahead as an individual IT consultant?

This case focuses on Pfizer, the largest research-based pharmaceutical company globally with sales of over $51 billion and operations in 175 countries in 2013. It introduces students to the field of green chemistry and discusses the business and environmental effects of such a strategy. While Pfizer has measured the benefits of green chemistry, communicating these externally has been challenging. In addition, manufacturers of generic drugs largely have not embraced green chemistry. As the first lead of Pfizer’s Green Chemistry team, the first of its kind in the industry, how will you prepare for a meeting with your team’s steering team to address progress and new initiatives? You will have to understand the complex market by, for example, identifying key drivers for other pharmaceutical companies, including generics, for adopting green chemistry. How should Pfizer communicate the impact of its sustainability efforts, including “greener” drugs, to the public?

The merger of Momentum and Metropolitan into MMI Holdings Limited, one of South Africa’s largest insurers, played out against the setting of South Africa’s volatile currency and post-apartheid environment, with sensitive employees and a Competition Tribunal that prohibited the retrenchment of around 2,000 employees. The two companies with very different cultures were merged, with only one of the CEOs attaining the Group CEO position. The leaders’ clear vision and focus on change management enabled a successful merger process. How can the Group CEO derive synergies and grow capital from the integration’s next phase to prevent MMI from becoming another merger that fails to provide returns for shareholders?

In 2012, an Indian multinational, Bharat Forge Ltd. (BFL) achieved world-leader status in forgings by a series of acquisitions in Europe and the United States. The need to participate in growth markets and to be close to global auto majors led BFL to a joint venture with the China-based FAW Corporation. However, while moving towards growth and a strategy for international scope expansion, shifts in the environment took BFL on a path towards a more de-risked portfolio. Following the divestment of its holding in the United States, BFL needed to reexamine the continuance of its stake in the joint venture.

As the co-founder of a software platform called Ushahidi, Ory Orykolloh watched the unfolding catastrophic earthquake crisis in Haiti and had to decide how her company’s crisis-mapping software could assist international authorities as they moved into Haiti to provide help and relief. Ushahidi was developed as an open-sourced mash-up platform combining Google Maps with publicly reported (text-based) incidents of election violence during the Kenya 2007 elections; thus, the system effectively managed to bypass government censorship. Expansion into other uses during both political crises and a variety of national/international events provided opportunities for growth. With Haiti, Ushahidi’s management team had to consider how its software could be used to provide assistance during a catastrophe like an earthquake.

The director of A & S Software Group was recalling his entrepreneurial journey. It was in August 2013, and over the past 16 years he had seen the evolution of the company’s flagship product — enterprise resource planning software for educational institutes — and a variety of business models associated with it. While the product strategy evolved through various stages, he had conceptualized Blue Print software as a tool to enable the rapid development of software applications. As he aspired to take his business to the next level, he was searching for answers to the following questions: What are the possible options for improving the flagship product in the coming years? Could it be offered as a service? Does it make sense to take Blue Print software to the market?

Juchheim Co. Ltd. was a confectionery family firm located in Japan. The chief executive officer and owner faced two important issues related to the future success of the firm: managing succession into the next generation and determining the company’s expansion strategy in the overseas market. Under the Japanese tradition of patriarchal primogeniture, the owner’s eldest son was the heir apparent and would take over the company. However, the market scenario had changed; new demographic and economic conditions had brought challenges that the company had never faced before.

The general manager of GlaxoSmithKline India has been tasked to increase annual sales of the health food drink Boost to upwards of 18 per cent, without any significant change in contribution margins.<br><br>Repositioning the brand could increase the size of the target market, but may also jeopardize the brand’s sharply defined positioning. Attempting expansion of the distribution network, where the competition is strong and deeply entrenched, might strain company resources and may even be counterproductive. Executing the two strategies will require entirely different skills and the deployment of diverse resources. The general manager needs to make a firm and calculated choice.

As a newcomer in the automobile industry, Tesla Motors had distinguished itself by redefining automobiles and rewriting some of the rules of the automobile industry. Ten years after its founding, it had begun to make inroads into China — a totally different market from Europe and the United States — and commenced its globalization efforts. China had set “new energy” as its major strategy for sustainable development and national security. Which path should Tesla follow to make China its second-largest market? How can Tesla’s director for China overcome the company’s strategic challenges in innovating in the Chinese market?

The entrepreneur and founder of Sonnentor, an organic food production company, has grown his business by focusing on unusual strategic and operative choices. Sonnentor emphasizes socially and environmentally responsible behaviour in all its actions and has built its business on fair partnerships with employees, suppliers and other partners. The case highlights the role of “embedded sustainability” in the success of the business and presents the challenge of transferring the founder’s unique business philosophy, both to other domains and to a new managerial generation.

In 2012, Abu Dhabi National Hotels had been struggling and the performance of the company had significantly declined, especially that of its main hotel business. Net profit had been decreasing since 2009 and, with this shrinking profitability, shareholders were losing confidence in the company. The share price of the company had also deteriorated and was expected to decline further. With the drop in net profit year after year, investors were very concerned about the company’s performance and the direction of its future growth. The company had five business segments — hotels, retail services, catering, transportation and holding — and a deep analysis of the company’s performance areas and plan to improve these were needed.

This case centers around Vodafone Egypt and its role in the political instability of Egypt in 2011. The then-president of Egypt asked telecommunication providers to terminate operations to help mitigate the abilities of citizens to rally rapport with the global media and organize local demonstrations. The core dilemma surrounds the idea of how much influence corporations should have on public policy and what a corporation's role is in relation to politics and/or the government, specifically in areas with political instability and conflict.

On December 28, 2014, contact with Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501, carrying 162 people, was lost after it left Surabaya, Indonesia bound for Singapore. All passengers were believed dead. Until this horrific incident, AirAsia and its various affiliated airlines, which included AirAsia X and Indonesia AirAsia, along with several other airlines organized in joint ventures throughout Southeast Asia, had recorded rising profits, rapid expansion and, until this incident, a solid safety record. The company was buoyed by a savvy marketing strategy and the leadership of its flamboyant founder. He was concerned now about how this tragedy would affect AirAsia’s business in the short and long term. Should he delay or even stop some of his aggressive growth initiatives? Supplement to 9B12M013.