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In early 2019, Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. (AGC), a diversified Japanese company, was at a critical juncture in its evolution. Three years earlier, AGC had released its Vision 2025, which set a goal for the company to continue as a leading global provider of materials and solutions that improved the daily lives of people around the world. Its financial performance had improved significantly over the previous five years, but profitability remained modest, with operating profit margins slightly above 8 per cent. The modest profitability of the company belied a strong base of technologies in glass, chemicals, electronics, and ceramics. AGC could potentially use these strengths to develop and market high value-added products in varied sectors such as mobility, construction, new energy, and life sciences. To effectively exploit future opportunities, however, the company needed to devise and implement novel strategies, overcome competitive challenges, and align its internal organization. Specifically, it would need to extend or modify its globalization strategy by developing a differentiated strategy for combinations of products and countries, develop new competencies in areas such as biologics, and choose the appropriate entry modes to balance financial and strategic implications. How should AGC proceed toward achieving its Vision 2025 goals?

In October 2014, Carestream Health Inc. (Xiamen) (CHX) was faced with a supply chain disruption caused by a labour dispute involving most of the ports on the west coast of the United States. The work-to-rule strike was having a considerable impact on the operations of the ports and was putting pressure on CHX's lean supply chain. In particular, the supply of wide rolls of films, the key material to CHX operations, was compromised. In an emergency meeting, CHX's management team discussed using other shipping options. One of these options, (airfreighting) appeared to be feasible but costly. The meeting's leader who was the director of the Asia Pacific Lean Six Sigma asked the management team to determine when CHX should use airfreight for its supply of wide rolls, how many rolls should be airfreighted each time, and what the best mechanism would be to govern the use of airfreight.

This case traces the journey of 759 Store, a chain store selling groceries and snacks in Hong Kong, from its inception in 2010 to 2019. After many years of rapid expansion, it began to experience difficulties amid a deteriorating retail business environment in Hong Kong. Management would need to rethink its business strategy and make major changes to turn the business around.

This case is set in 2018. The Institute of Service Excellence (ISE) at Singapore Management University conducted surveys in Singapore to measure customer satisfaction across 20 industries comprising more than 100 companies, and released the results as Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) every quarter. In the latest CSISG report of the e-commerce sub-sector, Amazon was ranked last in terms of customer satisfaction in Singapore. The results were surprising as Amazon, the global leader in online retail, usually topped the customer satisfaction surveys conducted in the US. Puzzled by its lacklustre performance, James Mckally, senior partner at a Singapore-based marketing consultancy on e-retail, had requested ISE for a detailed analysis. John Lim, as the lead analyst at ISE, was in the process of reviewing the data collected and the analysis that had been generated, in order to derive some useful insights before the proposed meeting. In the latest CSISG report of the e-commerce sub-sector, Amazon was ranked last in terms of customer satisfaction in Singapore. The results were surprising as Amazon, the global leader in online retail, usually topped the customer satisfaction surveys conducted in the US. Puzzled by its lacklustre performance, James Mckally, senior partner at a Singapore-based marketing consultancy on e-retail, had requested ISE for a detailed analysis. John Lim, as the lead analyst at ISE, was in the process of reviewing the data collected and the analysis that had been generated, in order to derive some useful insights before the proposed meeting.

By 2018 it was the largest insurance company in China. The case charts the development of the company and how it diversified across financial services. In particular, it talks about its strategic transformation, which included attracting foreign employees and encouraging diversity. A key pillar in the strategic transformation was Ping An Technology, a division of the Group created in 2008 that would develop its technology capabilities. This division was critical to later enabling Ping An to develop into an ecosystem player across five segments. Ping An Technology had three core functions - including data, incubating new businesses and new products. Its immediate goal was to align the Group's different IT systems, reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency. Harnessing the latest technologies, Ping An would operate as a 'human being' with a brain formed of AI, its body of cloud computing, and a nerve, arterial and vein network of blockchain. The case then charts the rise of the Technology division and its ambition to become a global technology ecosystem player. It looks at the core technologies that the division developed including facial and voiceprint recognition and medical imaging and their applications to different parts of the ecosystem. The final part of the case looks at the five ecosytems - finance, healthcare, automobile, real estate, and smart city and Ping An's collaborations and offerings. The case closes with Ma reflecting on the 15 years of the transformation but questioning whether Ping An's technology leadership can continue given the challenges of competitors Alibaba and Tencent in financial services and Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent in smart city solutions. Ping An was also mainly a domestic player but served other parts of Asia, Ma questions what it will take for the Gorup to become a global player.

Alvéole was an urban beekeeping start-up in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 2012, Alvéole offered beekeeping services and products in support of its social mission of educational outreach surrounding issues related to the natural environment, food security, and ecological concerns facing society. The company had successfully launched in the Montreal region and was now considering how to grow the firm. At the same time, Alvéole wanted to address some existing challenges such as seasonal labour and cash flow management.

In June 2017, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Kindred Home Care, a home care company in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, bordering the United States, was grappling with three options for scaling up operations-take the familiar acquisition route, move toward the untested franchising route, or cross the border to the larger US market. The company has limited physical assets, and therefore the CEO cannot tap external capital to finance growth; however, he could access internally accrued funds of CA$2 million.

For the board of The We Company-better known as WeWork-August 14, 2019 promised to be a pivotal day. It was then that WeWork's IPO prospectus, known as an S-1 filing, would be made public, giving potential investors, the media, and the general public a window into the company's inner workings. Under U.S. securities laws, a company planning to offer new securities for sale to the public was required to file a Form S-1, or registration statement, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), whose mandate was to evaluate companies' compliance with SEC disclosure rules, not the quality of the investment. In anticipation of that day, WeWork's directors had an opportunity to review the S-1-as presented in a series of some two dozen excerpts from the S-1 in the exhibits to the case-and offer the management team any final comments and suggestions for changes.

As one of China's top three major state-owned air transportation companies, China Eastern Airlines Corporation Limited (China Eastern) had built an international brand image with a global influence. With the airline's unique Shanghai-based globalization, China Eastern's strategy remained focused on expanding its global footprint. In the face of growing competition from domestic and international rivals, China Eastern strove to carry out cross-border business, strengthen its co-operation with partners in the aviation industry, and accelerate its globalization process. Over the past three years, China Eastern had introduced its "Pacific Plan" and made concerted efforts in expanding its route network and optimizing transit opportunities in the North American market. With the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (a global development strategy adopted by the Chinese government), what strategy should China Eastern use to continue to expand its Shanghai-based globalization?

A medium-sized Canadian provider of specialized educational products and services, Canada Specialization Providers, had a subsidiary, CS Publishing Inc. (CSPub), which sold specialty learning materials around the world. Although the company's costs and revenues were almost exclusively in Canadian dollars and its subsidiary, CSPub, had most of its costs in Canadian dollars, this subsidiary also had a large and growing revenue base in other currencies. Upon consolidation, the parent company was exposed to different currencies through CSPub. The foreign currency values were currently relatively minor, but in March 2019, CSPub was in the process of a large global expansion that would expose both the subsidiary and the parent to new sources of currency risk. The director of CSPub needed to clarify the company's current and expected future exposures to currency risk and determine how these exposures might affect the parent company. She also needed to identify the processes that could help manage these future risks and decide which of these processes to implement, if any.

This case is designed to support a lively discussion about the relative merits of shareholder vs. stakeholder perspectives in the context of a company that provides a vital public service that has important environmental implications. The 2007 purchase of TXU, the largest utility in Texas, was the largest leveraged buyout in history. Yet, within seven years TXU was bankrupt. TXU (A) examines the spectacular turnaround of TXU from 2004 through 2007, in which shareholders received a tenfold increase in the share price and the CEO was rewarded with nearly $280 million in compensation in four years. But other stakeholders objected to the company's strategy of aggressive price increases and building new coal-fired power plants. Amidst growing pressure from regulators, elected officials, and consumer groups the board decided to sell the company to the private equity firms KKR and TPG. TXU (B) covers the period after the transaction and the reasons for the buy out's failure, including its enormous financial leverage and a "one-way bet" on natural gas prices that exceeded the exposure of any of the world's largest integrated energy companies.

In 2019, 15 years after entering the Canadian wine industry, Diamond Estate Wines & Spirits Inc. (Diamond), located in the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario, was poised for growth. In a fragmented industry with local, national, and international competition from well-established and new players, Diamond had decent positions in many industry subsegments. One aspect of Diamond that set it apart from other small wineries was its distribution business, allowing access to valuable channels in the Canadian market. The company had proven itself capable of most aspects of the value chain in the wine industry and was poised for growth. The question was, which of the many attractive options should Diamond pursue?

At the end of 2017, the director of HY Capital, was facing an investment decision. Two years earlier, HY Capital had invested in Dalian New Vision Media Co. Ltd. (New Vision), a company working on augmented reality products for early childhood education. The investment provided New Vision with sufficient funds to enter the market. However, after a quick success, New Vision had saturated the market and could not make further significant progress. Thus, New Vision's management team proposed to alter the company's strategy to move into kindergarten to grade 12 after-school education. The strategic shift could be lucrative, but it was risky and would require more funds to support product development. The director was now wondering, should HY Capital support New Vision with further investments or just exit the investment?

The financially savvy (fictional) protagonist in this case is an independent artist, intrigued with the possibility of becoming a seller on the Etsy, Inc., marketplace. As such, she is seeking to learn about the company-that is, its culture, recent history, and incentive compensation philosophy and practices for top executives. The case provides pertinent, publicly sourced information for exploring and discussing such issues. This case is suitable for an undergraduate, graduate, or non-degree executive education course where the focal topic is, in general, performance management, and more specifically, the use and design of executive incentive compensation plans. A valuable secondary objective is to introduce students to some of the company information disclosed in a publicly available corporate proxy statement. That document, filed with the SEC as Form DEF 14A, is filed in preparation for a public company's annual shareholder meeting.

This case recounts the implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) system in what is considered a non-traditional use case for this category of enterprise system. In the early 2010s, HEC Montréal, a leading Canadian business school in Montreal, Quebec, had to devise new strategies to respond to profound changes taking place in the labour market as well as within the higher education sector. To that end, the school embarked on a project to implement a CRM system to build and maintain strong bonds with its prospective, current, and past students. This three-part case study covers (1) the inception of the CRM project as one of strategic relevance to HEC Montréal, (2) the decisions that had to be made with regard to the implementation strategy - namely whether to adopt a plan-driven or an agile approach and whether to deploy the CRM on-premises or through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider - and (3) the unfolding of the first phases of the implementation.

This case follows a senior loan officer who is reviewing requests from two customers of the bank to raise their credit limits. The two businesses are alike in many ways, but the loan officer believes one represents a greater problem. The students must use a ratio and financial analysis (all ratios are provided, as the challenge is not calculating ratios but interpreting them) to identify which of the two is worthy of concern. The emphasis in this case is on interpretation rather than calculation, though an instructor can explore definitions and calculations as desired. By hinting that there is a conclusion that can be reached, students are motivated to view their analyses as supporting a judgement. Just as ratios essentially link line items to provide insight, judgement links ratios to tell a story. An intentional feature of this case is that the judgement is relatively clear, and students will finish with a sense of success.

A new approach to e-commerce, one that blends the best of different online models, is emerging in China under the description "New Retail." Hema, a subsidiary of Alibaba, was founded in 2015 and is growing rapidly, demonstrating the power of an omnichannel strategy of merging online and offline grocery shopping experiences that integrates supply chain considerations into the business design. Overall, Hema represents a fusion of the centralised distribution model and store fulfilment model in the typical online grocery distribution. Each Hema store doubles as a distribution centre through an overhead conveyor system, which enables a 30-minute delivery time for customers within 3km of the nearest store. Hema's approach to transform online grocery demonstrates new possibilities in the future of grocery retail.

Mattelsa was an urban fashion manufacturer and retailer based in Medellín, Colombia. With a disruptive business model - a warehouse with locked doors, no sign, no shop window, no mannequins, and no traditional advertising - Mattelsa had achieved remarkable results in terms of growth and profitability compared to others in the fashion industry. The company's purpose ("We are a community devoted to enjoying and respecting life; our hobby is to make the best clothes in the world") and philosophy (as expressed in the five pillars: food, sports, leisure, socializing, and knowledge) reflected Mattelsa's commitment to personal well-being and environmental responsibility. The case shows how Mattelsa's values, philosophy, and pillars influenced its business decisions and day-to-day activities, while its management practices challenged industry paradigms and best practices. Students will analyze an unconventional business model, evaluating its sustainability and estimating how transferable it would be to other organizations or even industries. The case also enables students to explore the concept of corporate social responsibility, to identify the key elements of conscious capitalism, and to consider the challenges associated with its implementation. Although the company discussed is Colombian, the themes and issues are universal.

This fictional, international case explores online delivery models through the voices of two female protagonists: Melis Aydin, COO, who is from Turkey; and Athena Galini, CEO, who is from Greece. They have recently begun an online grocery-delivery (OGD) service called GidaExpress (i.e., Express Food) by closing on a TRY300,000 low-interest loan and entering a start-up incubator in Istanbul, Turkey. Aydin and Galani are evaluating three models for hiring drivers-all full-time employees who can be trained (and perhaps provide more consistent and higher-quality customer service); all independent workers who are paid a wage rate that escalates in order to meet demand; or a hybrid of the two. This story allows for a discussion of the strategic trade-offs between investing in a full-time workforce and sourcing independent workers of unknown quality using a fluctuating wage rate, and how these decisions impact the ability of the business to deliver on the value proposition.