個案總覽

In 2017, the general manager of Rajarambapu Patil Co-operative Sugar Factory, a 50-year-old sugar plant in India, needed to recommend a strategy for the factory's upcoming production cycle. For the aggregate production plan, he was considering three options: a chase strategy, a level strategy, and a subcontracting strategy. The company faced multiple challenges, including a limited pool of skilled labourers, employee poaching by competitors and allied manufacturers, the wide availability of job options in metro cities, and pressure from the labour union. Company management wanted to optimize profits, while reducing risks and incurring no extra costs. How should the general manager decide which strategy would best meet all the criteria?

In 2020, the global fashion industry was faced with substantial disruptions. The COVID-19 pandemic had had disruptive consequences, both on the demand and supply sides. But the fashion industry was in distress long before the pandemic struck. In the last decade, the industry had come under intensifying scrutiny for being exploitative, environmentally damaging, and unsustainable. Numerous stakeholders were increasingly concerned about environmental issues, such as the impact of textile production and waste on climate change, as well as social issues, such as exploitative labor conditions for low-wage workers at the bottom of the value chain, especially in developing countries. Emilie had been asked to prepare a proposal on the future of the fashion industry in the post-pandemic era. She was due to present her proposal to the board the following Monday.

After breaking into China's smartphone market, where it becomes a leading brand, Xiaomi sees sales stagnate and then decline as the disruption strategy that empowered its rise loses momentum. As competitors counter every move, targeting its core consumer segment, the company urgently needs to reignite growth and develop a sustainable competitive advantage. The case describes the changing market landscape, Xiaomi's product portfolio, distribution systems, partnerships, brand management, promotion and pricing. The question is whether to remain focused on smartphones-on which Xiaomi's reputation has been built-or transform into an IoT 'ecosystem' encompassing a wider range of product categories. The challenge is to understand the respective pros and cons and formulate a detailed implementation plan for the chosen strategy.

This case describes how the Chinese internet healthcare company Ping An Good Doctor created a nondisruptive solution for addressing a key challenge in China's healthcare industry: Seeking healthcare was difficult for many Chinese people due to the relative scarcity and uneven distribution of high-quality healthcare services. While the government and some internet healthcare market pioneers tried to increase the supply of medical resources in various ways based on the existing hospital-centered system, Ping An Good Doctor aimed to remove the part of unwarranted demand from over-crowded large hospitals by launching an internet healthcare platform to provide primary care services. The company recruited a full-time inhouse doctors' team of high qualifications to provide 24x7 online consultations, and partnered with other healthcare players to build a "closed-loop" system of healthcare services with fast delivery of medicine to patients' doorsteps and convenient access to partnered clinics and labs. Ping An Good Doctor has been addressing the needs of a vast population of Chinese people who are looking for high-quality basic care and health management services while creating a win-win between the company and other players such as hospitals, grassroots healthcare institutions, pharmacies, and independent clinics and labs. Instead of causing displacement and disruption in the existing industry, Ping An Good Doctor's has allowed medical resources to address market demand more effectively while lowering social costs, thereby achieving nondisruptive creation, a concept coined by Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne in their international bestseller Blue Ocean Shift.

Following problems during the 2016 Iowa caucus, the Democratic National Committee mandated the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) to publish raw vote totals for the upcoming 2020 Iowa caucus. This mandate coincided with the IDP's shift for the 2020 caucus from a partnership with Microsoft, Inc. to one with a political consultancy, Shadow Inc., for developing a vote-recording application (app)---a partnership choice believed by many to have been politically motivated. Shadow developers were given much less time and resources than Microsoft had been afforded for the previous caucus. When the time came for the app to be used on February 3, eligible users could not download the app, which led to several problems. The consequences of the problematic app led to embarrassment for the Democratic Party, political ridicule by the Republican Party, distrust among democrat voters, and ambiguity and a delay in election results.

Both founded in the mid-2000s as two of China's earliest online video platforms and both emphasizing creative, original content, Youku and Tudou enjoyed popularity among China's young netizens, while constantly battling each other for market leadership. Both firms went public, on the NYSE and Nasdaq respectively. Facing China's hyper-competitive online video market, the twin firms decided to engage in a series of transactions, including a merger of the two, the delisting of Tudou, a major investment from and eventually the acquisition by Alibaba, and the delisting of Youku Tudou and transformation into part of Alibaba. Together with Baidu's iQIYI and Tencent Video, Youku Tudou will continue to shape China's entertainment and media landscape.

The case, set in January 2019, deals with how KTZ Express (KTZE), wholly owned subsidiary of National Company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy Joint-Stock Company (NC KTZ JSC or "KTZ") which is the national railway company of Kazakhstan, handles its dry port operation. KTZE provides logistics services and multimodal transport using its network of warehouses, terminals and airport infrastructure and operates the largest dry port in Khorgos, Kazakhstan. The dry port was designed to serve as a logistics hub between China and Europe that allowed sorting cargo coming from different origins to its destinations by trains. Following the introduction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) since 2013, there has been significant increase in KTZE's business in Khorgos. Despite a general increase in business since the announcement of BRI in 2013, the dry port is only operating at 25% of its designed capacity of 540,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units of standard size containers) in 2018, and the momentum of traffic growth has been slowing down from the previous years. Students take on the role of Ms. Gaukhar Akasheva, Managing managing Director director of KTZE, to explore how the dry port could possibly impact supply chain management in the region, the possibility to change the pattern of logistic flows between China and Europe for some industries, and too firmly establish Khorgos as the major logistics hub in the region. Students are required to devise an action plan on how to attract new traffic and business, and to develop an operating model for optimizing the utilization of the facility in the next four to five years.

Founded in 2020 by Jewel Burks Solomon and her partners, Barry Givens and Justin Dawkins, Collab Capital was a new investment firm built on two pillars: first, it would identify and support ventures founded by Black entrepreneurs, a group underrepresented in venture-financed entrepreneurship. Second, Solomon and her partners had developed a novel financial instrument that incorporated both profit-sharing and equity to offer an alternative to traditional venture capital (VC) for startups. They believed their approach offered venture-level returns for investors while also closing a critical funding gap for Black entrepreneurs. But Limited Partners (LPs) were not yet convinced.

By the end of 2019, two brands accounted for 84% of hard seltzer sales, a segment that had recently taken the U.S. beer market by storm, growing from $3 million in 2015 to over $2.7 billion by the start of the summer of 2020. White Claw was the dominant market leader with a 58% market share. Analysts were worried about fragmentation and commoditization in the category, which had grown from 10 brands in 2018 to more than 65 by 2020. This made competition in the segment increasingly fierce. How could White Claw best drive the category's transition from niche to mainstream and how could it hold onto and/or expand its market share as the category exponentially grew? White Claw was quickly becoming the "Kleenex" of hard seltzer, so the team need to further differentiate itself from encroaching competitors. Should the team narrow the currently broad target market as competitors launched increasingly microtargeted offerings? Should they lower price as generic hard seltzers hit the market? And, how could the team best manage the White Claw brand to mitigate their chances of riding a boom-to-bust lifecycle of a fad product?

Threadless, an online apparel company and artist community which Jake Nickell founded in 2000, continued to maintain its status as a top company in the online apparel industry during its second decade. From 2010 to 2020, Threadless continued to operated its crowd-sourcing platform, while it transitioned away from traditional screen printing to a digital print-on-demand model. Concurrently, the company jettisoned its warehouse and built a worldwide network of manufacturers that could print and ship Threadless orders on demand. Threadless also launched a new platform called Artist Shops that allowed graphic artists to sell apparel in uniquely branded online stores, with the option of having Threadless manage their pricing and promotional events. The software Threadless developed to facilitate its manufacturing network and Artist Shops platform also led Threadless to increasingly view itself as a technology company performing intermediary services, rather than merely an online apparel company. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 accelerated the company's transition, triggering the sale of Threadless's office and a move to working from home. Nickell wondered what the next steps for the company should be.

It was April 6th, 2020, and the management team at Drizly-an online alcohol marketplace where consumers could browse and purchase alcohol from local liquor retail stores via Drizly's app for immediate home delivery-were thrilled to see record-breaking sales from the demand surge brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. For the 10th straight day, gross merchandise value (GMV) sold through Drizly's online alcohol marketplace had surpassed Drizly's GMV on New Year's Eve-typically Drizly's busiest day of the year. But their excitement didn't come without serious concerns. The average delivery time well-exceeded the 60-minute customer promise, the void rate-the percent of orders that were subsequently canceled by either the consumer or retailer prior to delivery-was experiencing a five-fold increase over pre-COVID-19 levels, and the number of customer complaints were on the rise and not being answered in a timely manner. What should Drizly do to ensure the long-term success of the company?

This case focuses on a board director of a diversified holding company. The firm's longtime CEO had always exhibited a cautious, methodical approach to growth. Now, the CEO is raising the idea of joining with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to spin off part of the business as a separate company. This strategy shift-a spinoff, use of a SPAC, and accumulation of cash for larger acquisitions-was a dramatic shift for the company, and the board director must consider how to respond.

This case focuses on a junior partner at a private equity (PE) firm who sits on the board of one of the firm's portfolio companies. In the case, the board member asks the CEO to accelerate a cost-cutting initiative and looks to a seasoned industry veteran who is also a PE-appointed director for reinforcement. When the second board member sides with the CEO instead, the young director must consider how to respond.

In 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook debuted the iPhone 6S with enhanced security measures that enflamed a debate on privacy and public safety around the world. The iPhone 6S, amid a heightened concern for privacy following the 2013 revelation of clandestine U.S. surveillance programs, employed a default encryption system that prevented both Apple and government authorities from accessing data stored on the device. Law enforcement officials warned that the encryption hindered investigations for criminal cases and international terrorism and called on Apple to build a backdoor, a way to bypass the encryption. But Cook maintained that any backdoor would compromise customers' privacy and security. In 2016, a federal judge ordered Apple to provide technical assistance to unlock the iPhone used by one of the two mass shooters who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California. Apple refused to comply with the order and asked the government to withdraw its demand. This refusal highlighted Apple's stated policy of supporting consumer privacy. Meanwhile, in China, Apple removed various VPN apps from Apple's Chinese App Store. This action elicited strong negative responses from civil rights activists and members of the U.S. government. In 2019, Apple again faced criticism for removing the HKmap.live app from the App Store, which had been used by protestors in Hong Kong. As these situations unfolded, Cook considered his responsibilities to global governments as well as to Apple's customers, employees, and shareholders.

More than one third of Americans were said to suffer some type of behavioral health ailment at some point in their lifetime, with many people requiring chronic therapy or intervention. Despite significant clinical needs, access to reliable treatment has been difficult due to shortage of providers, stigma, and poor reimbursement. Marvin's primary offering was online teletherapy via video chat. They hoped to bring Marvin's solution to a wider audience and thought that the race belonged to the swift. As they considered the market opportunity and the complex landscape of digital mental health, they wondered what to do?

During the 1980s, leveraged buyouts (LBOs) and the private equity (PE) firms responsible for carrying them out revolutionized both investment and management in the U.S. Between 1980 and 1989, buyout activity in the U.S. surged from $1 billion per year to $60 billion. There was widespread agreement that the PE industry created enormous value, but who exactly was it creating that value for? PE firms claimed that LBOs not only benefitted investors, but also the target companies, which became leaner and more focused as PE firms turned them around. But critics argued that on balance, the PE industry left target companies foundering under mountains of debt as investors realized huge returns. In this case study, students will grapple with PE's complex legacy while learning its history. The case will trace PE's two main ingredients (the limited partnership and the LBO), examine the auspicious conditions of the 1980s that brought them together, and discuss the experiences of two very different early players in the PE field-KKR and Bain Capital.

Set in January 2021, the CEO of SafeGraph, a four-year-old startup that sold Data as a Service, looked to the future. His aim was to become the most trusted source for data about a physical place. The company provided points of interest (POI) and foot traffic data on nearly 7 million businesses in the U.S. and Canada from a variety of providers, then labelled attributes of the data such as the brand affiliation and how long consumers remained at the site. The company sold this data to nearly one hundred customers in advertising tech, retail, and financial services. Clients such as Verizon, Sysco, and Goldman Sachs used it to better understand rapidly changing patterns of consumer behavior. At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company offered free access to its data through the COVID-19 Data Consortium to government agencies to help them understand pandemic behavior and make policy decisions. Nearly a year into the health crisis and with a vaccine rolling out, SafeGraph needed to decide how to evolve the COVID-19 Data Consortium. Perhaps the data offered for free should soon be converted to a paid model, albeit on a subsidized basis? More broadly, how should the team prioritize the government sector into its enterprise customer segment mix and how would this impact the business model and pricing?

Tayo Oviosu founded Paga in 2009 to make life possible for the millions of Nigerians who operated in a cash-first environment. Paga helped users send money through peer-to-peer transactions, pay utility bills, and store money in a digital wallet. Paga launched a valuable human agent network throughout Nigeria, which enabled the company to build trust with customers and grow its user base significantly. By November 2020, Paga had over 26,000 agents in its network. Oviosu hoped to build on Paga's success by scaling to other countries with similar regulatory and cultural environments to Nigeria, beginning with Ethiopia and Mexico. To do so, Oviosu understood that he would have to be intentional about building a team that both understood Paga's culture but was also authentic to the new market the company was trying to enter. Paga's goal of reaching one billion users globally loomed in the distance, and Oviosu was keen to do his part to help end cash's reign in emerging markets.

PUB, Singapore's National Water Agency, is one of the heaviest users of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model in the public sector. As of 2020, it had awarded seven PPP contracts for a total of five desalination and three NEWater plants. Among the key features of PUB's PPP projects were the adoption of the Design, Build, Own and Operate (DBOO) project structure; a 25-year concession period; and small-sized project teams. The main benefits which arose from these PPP projects were value for money, the introduction of new technologies and knowledge transfers, the expansion of Singapore's private water industry, and the blossoming of Singapore into a hydro hub. However, despite letting the private sector have a hand in running the water plants, PUB was of the view that its own officers had to obtain these companies' expertise, so that it could evaluate whether they were technically competent, and, in the event of a default, step in to manage the plants. To further mitigate against risks to Singapore's water supply, PUB also carried out regular operations audits, and engaged the plants' senior management regularly.