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The case is set in Hong Kong, with a third generation leader of a successful newspaper facing market challenges as the newspaper's niche role of providing Chinese news has been eroded by the age of the Internet. Part A of the case provides the context and the current challenges: high production costs, mixed results with a new magazine business, financial pressures due to lower print sales, a strong culture of success, and start-up online business. Four potential strategies are suggested as the CEO goes to the board for a decision. Part B1 and Part B2 contain different decisions from the board (one for making an acquisition and one for driving organic growth). This allows participants to work in small groups on different change agendas and plans.

Supplement to case SMU409. The case is set in Hong Kong, with a third generation leader of a successful newspaper facing market challenges as the newspaper's niche role of providing Chinese news has been eroded by the age of the Internet. Part A of the case provides the context and the current challenges: high production costs, mixed results with a new magazine business, financial pressures due to lower print sales, a strong culture of success, and start-up online business. Four potential strategies are suggested as the CEO goes to the board for a decision. Part B1 and Part B2 contain different decisions from the board (one for making an acquisition and one for driving organic growth). This allows participants to work in small groups on different change agendas and plans.

Supplement to case SMU409. The case is set in Hong Kong, with a third generation leader of a successful newspaper facing market challenges as the newspaper's niche role of providing Chinese news has been eroded by the age of the Internet. Part A of the case provides the context and the current challenges: high production costs, mixed results with a new magazine business, financial pressures due to lower print sales, a strong culture of success, and start-up online business. Four potential strategies are suggested as the CEO goes to the board for a decision. Part B1 and Part B2 contain different decisions from the board (one for making an acquisition and one for driving organic growth). This allows participants to work in small groups on different change agendas and plans.

Business leaders are continually faced with complex change, and consistent performance is not enough to keep their companies relevant. They must be prepared to adapt to a shifting environment and continually reinvent themselves. The author has been the chairman and CEO of Abbott Laboratories since 1999. He describes how Abbott's reinvention has led to success.

India might appear to be the last place on earth where you would find health care innovation. Although government programs have finally brought some infectious diseases under control, the nation's ability to meet the basic medical needs of its citizens remains abysmal. However, necessity spawns innovation. Despite the pressing demand and constrained supply, a few relatively new Indian hospitals have devised ways of providing world-class health care affordably--and to scale. The authors identified more than 40 hospitals in India with innovative strategies and selected nine that were consistently providing high-quality care at ultralow prices. To deliver on those dual commitments, the Indian exemplars developed three powerful organizational advantages: a hub-and-spoke configuration of assets, an innovative way of determining who should do what, and a focus on cost-effectiveness rather than just cost cutting. Those moves don't require changes in legislation; only a commitment to reverse the inexorable rise in costs. Indian hospitals, doctors, and administrators have traditionally looked to the West for advances in medical knowledge, but it's time the West looked to India for innovations in health care delivery.

A unique probiotic formulation, L-39, has great promise as a pharmaceutical treatment for a common illness. When it hits a stumbling block in its latest clinical trial, Hilde Dach, the scientist leading the research at German drug maker Caliska, faces the prospect that the company may want to reimagine her product as a nutraceutical, because the regulatory hurdles would be easier to clear. Is the company merely hedging its bets to avoid big losses, or is it abandoning the possibility of achieving loftier aims and potentially bigger profits? Expert commentary comes from Jonathan Lewis, CEO of Ziopharm Oncology, and Colin Hill, president of the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics.

A unique probiotic formulation, L-39, has great promise as a pharmaceutical treatment for a common illness. When it hits a stumbling block in its latest clinical trial, Hilde Dach, the scientist leading the research at German drug maker Caliska, faces the prospect that the company may want to reimagine her product as a nutraceutical, because the regulatory hurdles would be easier to clear. Is the company merely hedging its bets to avoid big losses, or is it abandoning the possibility of achieving loftier aims and potentially bigger profits? Expert commentary comes from Jonathan Lewis, CEO of Ziopharm Oncology, and Colin Hill, president of the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics.

A unique probiotic formulation, L-39, has great promise as a pharmaceutical treatment for a common illness. When it hits a stumbling block in its latest clinical trial, Hilde Dach, the scientist leading the research at German drug maker Caliska, faces the prospect that the company may want to reimagine her product as a nutraceutical, because the regulatory hurdles would be easier to clear. Is the company merely hedging its bets to avoid big losses, or is it abandoning the possibility of achieving loftier aims and potentially bigger profits? Expert commentary comes from Jonathan Lewis, CEO of Ziopharm Oncology, and Colin Hill, president of the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics.

China Machine Press (CMP), founded in 1952, is a leading multi-field, multi-discipline and multimedia publishing group in China with large scale, comprehensive and specialized business that integrates paper media, audiovisual media and online media, and combines research, publishing, training, printing, issuing and distribution. Currently, CMP publishes more than 3,700 new books and imports over 400 foreign books each year. In 2010, its sales volume of books and periodicals reached RMB one billion. CMP's core competitive advantage lies in its innovative business strategy and management concepts, rigorous publishing standards and high product quality. In 2007, CMP was ranked among the Top 500 Most Valuable Chinese Brands by the World Brand Lab with an estimated brand value of RMB 787 million. From 2008 to 2010, CMP had been on the list for three years in a row, and with brand value rising beyond RMB 1.66 billion in 2010. CMP started as a state-owned institution, and as part of China's publishing industry that is highly regulated by the government, it was also subject to strict government supervision. Therefore, the focus of this case study is to understand how Wang Wenbin, President of CMP, devises new business strategies to gain a competitive advantage in a regulated industry and leads the company to carry forward marketization reform.

This note offers an analysis of four fundamental strategic decisions and associated tradeoffs that set MSPs apart from other types of businesses (e.g. product firms) and that every MSP entrepreneur and investor should carefully consider. In the last section I also discuss an important boundary condition: when is the MSP business model dominated by related - but distinct - business models?

Southwire, a leading maker of cable based in rural Georgia, has partnered with the local school system to staff a factory with at-risk high school students. The positive impact on student outcomes has been remarkable, and the factory makes a profit for the company. Now leaders of the effort wonder how they can encourage other businesses to launch similar win-win partnerships with educators.

Southwire, a leading maker of cable based in rural Georgia, has partnered with the local school system to staff a factory with at-risk high school students. The positive impact on student outcomes has been remarkable, and the factory makes a profit for the company. Now leaders of the effort wonder how they can encourage other businesses to launch similar win-win partnerships with educators.

JetBlue Airways is only five days away from entering the Boston market by establishing a presence at Logan International Airport. The VP of strategy for JetBlue considers the range of potential competitive responses that he might expect from such established airlines as American Airlines, so he can anticipate and prepare. As the largest major carrier operating out of Logan, American had more at risk than the other major carriers and had not yet decided how best to compete with the LCCs. How would American respond?

Amazon.com had purchased Zappos in 2009 and was making significant investments in warehouse infrastructure. By early summer 2012, Zappos, a dominant player in the crowded online retail apparel and footwear arena must decide whether to retain its warehouse complex in Kentucky, which it had maintained since 2002, or turn over the operations to Amazon. Should Zappos continue to operate as an entity external to its parent company? Or would advancements and changes in the market be disruptive enough to force Zappos to change in order to remain competitive?

This case focuses on the challenges and opportunities faced by a successful incumbent organization attempting to transform a large portion of its business from a traditionally product-centric operating mode to a platform-based one that leverages network effects to create durable competitive advantage. Strategic questions include the extent to which the organization should invest in platform initiatives, the appropriate resource allocation among various product and platform offerings, and the most beneficial business model for each of a few candidate multi-sided platform initiatives.

After reaching the limits of its successful expansion in the United States in the early 1990s, Walmart sought growth opportunities in markets abroad. This case describes Walmart's attempts to replicate its successful U.S. business model in Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Central America, China, South Korea, Japan, Germany, the U.K., and Africa. Students reflect on the mixed results of these ventures and identify elements in the company's location choices, times of entry, and modes of entry that may explain the outcomes observed. They then formulate a set of recommendations for Walmart to maximize its chances of success when the company expands into India in 2013.

The (A) case describes the launch of a new passenger vehicle in China, produced jointly by Nissan of Japan and by Chinese automaker Dongfeng. Early sales results following the April 2012 launch were disappointing and the joint venture's managers had to decide how to respond. The case includes information on the structure of the industry, on government regulation, and on the preferences of Chinese purchasers of automobiles, including information about environmental considerations. The short (B) case, designed for distribution in class, describes further complications, as an international dispute between the Japanese and Chinese governments created further uncertainties for Chinese consumers and hence for the carmakers. The (C) case concludes the story; it too can be distributed in class.

The (A) case describes the launch of a new passenger vehicle in China, produced jointly by Nissan of Japan and by Chinese automaker Dongfeng. Early sales results following the April 2012 launch were disappointing and the joint venture's managers had to decide how to respond. The case includes information on the structure of the industry, on government regulation, and on the preferences of Chinese purchasers of automobiles, including information about environmental considerations. The short (B) case, designed for distribution in class, describes further complications, as an international dispute between the Japanese and Chinese governments created further uncertainties for Chinese consumers and hence for the carmakers. The (C) case concludes the story; it too can be distributed in class.

The (A) case describes the launch of a new passenger vehicle in China, produced jointly by Nissan of Japan and by Chinese automaker Dongfeng. Early sales results following the April 2012 launch were disappointing and the joint venture's managers had to decide how to respond. The case includes information on the structure of the industry, on government regulation, and on the preferences of Chinese purchasers of automobiles, including information about environmental considerations. The short (B) case, designed for distribution in class, describes further complications, as an international dispute between the Japanese and Chinese governmenbs created further uncertainties for Chinese consumers and hence for the carmakers. The (C) case concludes the story; it too can be distributed in class.