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Hwa Gung Tea (HGT), a premium tea brand founded in Taiwan, has a rich history dating back to 1918. For many decades, the family business has been producing and distributing alpine Oolong tea cultivated at above 2,000 metres on the famous tea-producing Lishan mountains. Having transitioned through four generations, HGT's unique value proposition was an end-to-end value chain integrator from tea cultivation, harvesting, production, and wholesale distribution to retail, including branding and marketing. Few tea companies in Taiwan managed the entire process chain as HGT did. Johnny Tu, the fifth-generation CEO, led HGT to become ISO 20000 and HACCP-certified, winning several domestic and international awards. Collaborations with prestigious names like China Airlines, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, and Michelin-starred restaurants also enhanced the brand's visibility. Besides his efforts to grow HGT as a premium brand, Johnny also believed that HGT can lead in creating social impact. He worked assiduously with the indigenous people living in the Lishan mountains and offered them job opportunities, fostered their skill development, and encouraged them to take pride in their vocations. By doing so, he wished to keep the indigenous community together with economic activities and preserve the artisanship of tea cultivation in Taiwan. In 2024, after nearly 20 years of managing the family business, Johnny faced the challenge of expanding globally while preserving HGT's legacy. Balancing tradition and innovation, he experimented and created new flavours while engaging the younger generation through his lectures about tea. Confronted by regulatory hurdles, food safety scandals, counterfeit teas, and skills crunch in tea-making, he contemplated the future of the family business. How can Johnny navigate these complexities while leveraging his inherited intangible assets as a family business successor, tea-making master, and educator?

The case is set in April 2023, five years since Leow Ban Tat, CEO of Aquaculture Centre of Excellence Pte Ltd (ACE), founded the Singapore-based seafood start-up with the objective to rear healthy fish sustainably and help Singapore improve its food security and self-sufficiency. ACE's fish farm 'Eco-Ark' was an innovative floating closed container system. It was based on Leow's patented technologies - a combination of offshore, marine, and recirculating aquaculture technologies - which helped keep its fish safe from pollutants, pathogens and variations in oxygen and temperature in the sea water, besides minimising the fish farm's carbon footprint. With a hatchery and a processing facility added on board within a year of Eco-Ark starting its operations, ACE offered a fully traceable and integrated value chain from locally sourced eggs to ready-to-use products and one of the shortest fish food production miles in aquaculture. Going forward, Leow planned to undertake egg production as well, to have full control over ACE's supply chain. He also planned to increase ACE's footprint by launching more Eco-Arks in Singapore and internationally, and licensing Eco-Ark's innovative and unique technology to other farms. However, despite healthier and sustainable offerings, the market demand for ACE's products had remained lower than hoped for, largely because of its price premium over cheaper fish imports. Although supported by the Singapore government in its endeavours, the company struggled to cover its expenses and keep afloat. Fully committed to the sustainability vision, Leow believed that his breakthrough design and process would be transformational in the future. However, he wondered how long the company would be able to sustain its operations given the sluggish sales and aggressive competition. What could be done?

Leaders often resist engaging employees in strategic planning because they fear losing control or speed. A participative approach takes more time and is more complicated. However, if you exclude employees from strategic planning, you may hinder strategy adoption and leave valuable input behind. We need a new strategic planning playbook that actively loops in employees. This article examines four keys to doing this well, using real-world examples.

Cofounders of the Berlin-based startup Bone Brox developed a traditional bone broth made from organic, pasture-fed cattle and free-range chickens. Although they had a polarizing product, the founders tapped into the health and awareness trend and managed to gain market attention and secure government funding. The startup defined itself with a flat hierarchy, open communication, and shared decision-making. However, the company faced challenges, such as the impact of a flat hierarchy on business success and efficient decision-making, a highly competitive market, and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

Set in 2015, this case study is about how Singapore Airlines (SIA) and the Middle Eastern behemoths - Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad Airways - adopt differentiation strategies to compete in the full-service passenger air travel industry. It highlights the multifaceted nature of an airline's differentiation strategies, noting that various levels of differentiation correspond to different pricing tiers. Each airline offers a range of products such as cabins or 'classes', enabling them to vary their degree of differentiation across their offerings. The case identifies factors that the airlines can leverage to enhance their competitiveness and those that are immutable. In addition, this case includes detailed pricing and product information that students can use to distil important insights for strategic analysis. Since the 2000s, Emirates and other Middle Eastern airlines have undergone substantial growth over the years, creating challenges for their competitors, especially along the Kangaroo Route (a popular air travel route that connects the continents of Europe and Australasia). Consequently, Australia-based Qantas opted for a strategic shift and "threw in the towel", replacing its traditional Sydney-Melbourne-Singapore-London flights with a new route through Sydney-Melbourne-Dubai-London. This change allowed Qantas to integrate with Emirates' network, streamlining connectivity. On the other hand, SIA competed head-to-head with Emirates. Due to its highly differentiated products and services, SIA commanded a price premium over Emirates. However, Emirates offered more flight connection choices than SIA, translating to a higher demand for air travel. To remain competitive, what strategy should SIA adopt? Should SIA match its airfare pricing with Emirates to attract more passengers?

The case focuses on the growth of electric vehicle (EV) market in China and the emergence of BYD as a major player aspiring to gain a significant foothold in global EV markets. The case traces the growth of the industry in China, identifying factors that have contributed to the rise of Chinese companies in this industry. In doing so, it offers a rich portrait of the industry landscape encompassing contextual factors, including the role of government and governmental subsidies to the industry, the intensity of competitive rivalry shaping the race for Chinese market share, and the nature of buyers and how their demands have forced Chinese companies to hone their skills in design and value engineering, which can be used to mount an assault in global markets. After providing a broad discussion of the industry, the case delves deeper into the strategic choices made by BYD as it rose to the top ranks of global players in units produced. The case closes with broad questions about the directions that BYD could pursue as it seeks to conquer advanced country markets from its China homebase. In doing so, the case sets the stage for debate on issues relating to transferability of home-grown advantages, the entry barriers that they will confront in markets such as the United States, and ways in which the barriers can be overcome.

This case asks how startup founders make scaling decisions in light of their priorities for their business and for themselves. Otto was a technology company that applied artificial intelligence technology to sales. It deployed natural language processing to find sales targets for companies, write messages for those targets, and send them over email, social media, and other means. Otto's automated sales outreach was personalized at scale and improved results for its clients. Early in 2024, its founders had to decide how to scale their business. They had three options: they could focus on business-to-business sales for individual clients, which posed the specific challenge of growing while working with large customer organizations; they could concentrate on the financial services field, in which they sourced deals for private equity companies and investment banks; or they could sell Otto to a larger sales firm.

The case traces the 25-year-long journey of SELCO (Solar Electric Light Company) from its inception in 1995 to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. SELCO's aim was initially to provide solar home lighting systems for India's impoverished rural communities. After the success of this phase, SELCO's first phase (SELCO 1.0),the organization, under founder Harish Hande's leadership, began to explore how it could better serve the communities it was helping. This led to SELCO 2.0, which focused on creating livelihood opportunities through solar-powered appliances. SELCO realized that it had the potential to do more. It evolved further, progressing to SELCO 3.0, which strove to deepen its social impact with SELCO Foundation and the development of a unique SELCO ecosystem. The case explores how for-profit social enterprises such as SELCO evolve with time, how the landscape of the field they work in changes, and how their success is often determined by multiple factors: a unique organizational culture, exceptional leadership, and an on-ground understanding of real issues. The case questions how an organization like SELCO should proceed as it tries to apply the SELCO model in new locations, and how the SELCO culture can be preserved as the leadership changes.

Companies that can move quickly to capture new opportunities don't have greater foresight than the rest. What they do have, increasingly, is modularity: They have broken apart and exposed their core capabilities via digital technologies in such a way that partners can leverage them. That is key to expanding into new markets and creating a wider range of options for growth.

When companies consider the entire life cycle of their products, they can get more value from materials and resources and do better on sustainability measures. The authors describe four types of circular business models: extending product lifetimes; tapping idle or wasted capacity; reclaiming material resources; and using resources more frugally. The article discusses the capabilities required to execute each type of model.

This case study explores how the VINCI Group, a French multinational operating in concessions, energy, and construction, bolstered awareness and adoption rates of new technologies within the organization. Through its separate innovation hub, Leonard, VINCI aimed to foster learning, creation, and experimentation to improve the group's day-to-day activities. However, while the company's highly decentralized structure encouraged entrepreneurial innovation, some argued it hindered collaboration by fostering internal competition instead. Were there opportunities being overlooked because of this structure? And how could Leonard continue to promote innovation in such a large group?

At the height of the COVID-19 crisis, Terence Hon, cofounder of Hong Kong's first sustainable supermarket, GreenPrice, had the option of selling pandemic necessities that were in high demand in addition to his core business of selling short-dated products. Having founded the venture several years ago with teammates Allison Chan, Ben So, and Cherissa Hung when they were still university students, Terence and his cofounders pondered whether they should accept an offer that was tempting for its high margins, even as they needed to determine whether it contributed to their business objectives and their social mission as the first supermarket chain in Hong Kong that sold short-dated products that otherwise ended up in landfills. In addition, while GreenPrice had faced the challenge of high rents in the expensive, real estate-driven city, the ongoing health crisis caused vacancies in shopping malls to go up, resulting in a significant decrease in shop rental fees. Terence and his cofounders needed to make strategic choices on whether to enter the market for pandemic products while determining the optimal locations for expanding their retail network and the customer segments that they should target.

Sincerity International Group is a Chinese company set up in 2003 by Dr. Zhang Lian, an alumnus of The University of Hong Kong (HKU), to tap Africa's demand for two-wheelers. The case provides an overview of the motorcycle market in Africa, its features and characteristics, and the threats and opportunities the region presented. It explains how Dr. Zhang Lian, the founder, crafts an uncontested market space by leveraging China's mature supply chain to create a branded line of motorcycles, accessories, and service, integrating product design, manufacturing, sales and marketing, distribution and logistics, aftersales service, and maintenance. It aims to (1) understand how Sincerity uses "blue ocean" strategy for growth and achieves phenomenal success; (2) identify the key reasons for Sincerity's rapid development; (3) identify the major challenges thereafter, and (4) evaluate strategies for Sincerity to sustain growth.

Napoleon was a blue ocean strategist ahead of his time. With his innovative approach to military warfare, he reshaped conventional war strategies. But despite his outstanding and innovative war strategies, success eluded him in the end. His rise through victories at the battles of Lodi, Marengo, and Austerlitz contrasts with his downfall from the Russian invasion and the defeat at the Waterloo battle. This leads us to wonder, what went wrong? What factors can cause a good overall strategy to fail? Delving into the reasons behind Napoleon's rise and fall, this case suggests that the decline in the quality of his interactions with his marshals and staff in the latter part of his career led to inferior battle strategies that finally led to his downfall. The case underscores the importance of practicing fair process at the strategy formulation stage to ensure a strategy's effectiveness in terms of both content and execution, thereby achieving successful performance outcomes.

Tony Clark, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), is engaged in high-stakes negotiation with Major League Baseball (MLB) over the possible creation of a first-ever international draft to regulate how MLB teams select international baseball players to join their organizations. Currently, players from outside North America are treated as free agents who can sign with any team once they reach 16 years of age, a system that has worked well for some MLB teams and prospects but also created the potential for scandal, corruption, and abuse. A few months earlier, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred submitted a proposal to the MLBPA describing an international draft format acceptable to team owners and the league office. In response, Clark and his staff formulated a counterproposal that they have just submitted to Manfred. Now, Clark needs to formulate a negotiation strategy that will determine whether the MLBPA can reach an agreement with MLB on an international draft once and for all. This case, which is paired with "Fair Play at Home Plate: Negotiating the Creation of an International Draft-Rob Manfred" (UVA-S-0447), allows instructors to set up a negotiation exercise between groups of students, some of whom receive Clark's version and some of whom receive Manfred's. Each case consists of a common general overview of MLB's history and its current environment as well as differing professional and personal details and negotiation priorities for each party. Students can apply their understanding of their version of the case to a live negotiation and use a provided worksheet to record the outcome.

Rob Manfred, commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB), is engaged in high-stakes negotiation with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) over the possible creation of a first-ever international draft to regulate how MLB teams select international baseball players to join their organizations. Currently, players from outside North America are treated as free agents who can sign with any team once they reach 16 years of age, a system that has worked well for some MLB teams and prospects but also created the potential for scandal, corruption, and abuse. A few months earlier, Manfred submitted a proposal to the MLBPA describing an international draft format acceptable to team owners and the league office. In response, MLBPA Executive Director Tony Clark and his staff formulated a counterproposal that they have just submitted to Manfred. Manfred needs to figure out what aspects of the counterproposal, if any, are acceptable to MLB and to develop a negotiating strategy that will allow him to reach an agreement with the MLBPA on an international draft once and for all. This case, which is paired with "Fair Play at Home Plate: Negotiating the Creation of an International Draft-Tony Clark" (UVA-S-0448), allows instructors to set up a negotiation exercise between groups of students, some of whom receive Manfred's version and some of whom receive Clark's. Each case consists of a common general overview of MLB's history and its current environment as well as differing professional and personal details and negotiation priorities for each party. Students can apply their understanding of their version of the case to a live negotiation and use a provided worksheet to record the outcome.

Launched in January 2020, under its parent company Avalon Biomedical Management, Avalon SteriTech was the brainchild of former Intellectual Property (IP) lawyer Lewis Ho. Ho aimed to combine his legal knowledge with biotechnology, to be part of a company that brought positive impact to society. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic provided Ho with exactly such an opportunity. By early 2020, the pandemic brought an unprecedented level of global uncertainty. Due to its proximity to mainland China, Hong Kong was among the first cities that was severely impacted by the coronavirus. Quick solutions were needed to improve public hygiene while keeping cleaning workers safe. Avalon SteriTech solved these problems by implementing automated daily disinfection in public places with high-touch surface areas. As the CEO of a new start-up, in a field he was unfamiliar with, Ho faced obstacles that included fundraising, finding new clients, and bridging knowledge gaps. Despite the obstacles, by January 2024, the start-up had several prominent clients, and an employee base of 30. It had been a steep learning curve for Ho. Looking ahead, he wondered how he could sharpen his focus as the CEO, and take the company forward.

In 1998, after closely monitoring the development of the Chinese agricultural machinery market, Kubota Corporation established Kubota Agricultural Machinery Suzhou Co. Ltd. (Kubota) as its first wholly-owned subsidiary, in Jiangsu, China. Kubota’s market entry process began with semi-feed rice harvesters. It was followed by the gradual introduction and development of various other models of agricultural machines. The business grew continuously along with the development of the Chinese market economy, earning it a place among China’s leading companies in the paddy field market. Kubota then took steps to enter the dry field farming industry and become a comprehensive agricultural machinery enterprise. However, the results fell far short of expectations. The rise of domestic competitors continued to erode Kubota’s share of the paddy field machinery market. The company then faced more challenges related to intense competition, technological innovation, and the Chinese government’s introduction of the National IV environmental policy. Could Kubota regain its competitive advantage in China’s agricultural machinery market?

This case details the journey of Chengdu Zhiyuanhui Information Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Zhiyuanhui") in pioneering digital innovations within public transport since its inception in 2010. From the start, Zhiyuanhui resolutely adopted a strategy combining digital technology innovation with scenario-based applications. By continually refining these integrations, Zhiyuanhui introduced first-of-their-kind products to the world. These included the "Smart Screen," "QR Code Riding," "Facial Recognition Riding," and "Masked Facial Recognition Riding," providing an ever-evolving comprehensive smart transit management service system in settings such as subways. In 2020, Zhiyuanhui ventured into smart city construction, bringing achievements as well as new competitive challenges and market conditions. By February 2022, it had become imperative for Deng Bo to reevaluate Zhiyuanhui's long-held development strategies. How could they refine their smart city model of "digital technology + scenario operations" within the smart transportation domain? Moreover, what strategic priority should have been assigned to digital technology versus scenario operations?

At the end of March 2023, Gagan Kanwar, the owner of 39 Bakers, a bakery based in Jammu, India, called a meeting with his store managers to discuss expanding the business by moving online. The bakery had multiple outlets in Jammu, but rival bakeries in the area had successfully transitioned to the online space and experienced notable growth. Customers everywhere were clearly embracing online shopping. Kanwar understood that online was the way forward, as it could be used not only for fulfilling his expansion strategy but also for boosting revenue and improving customer relationships. But he also knew that developing digital infrastructure, such as a website, mobile app, and social media presence, and working with online food delivery platforms would require significant investments of time, money, and labour. Expanding through franchises, on the other hand, could be more cost-effective. Was it the right time to go online? Would the online channel strategy help 39 Bakers strengthen its customer base? How could an offline-dominant retail outlet transition from brick to click?