個案總覽

「在欉紅果醬公司的瓶頸」是一個短篇行銷管理綜合個案，說明一家極有特色與理念的小微企業，在因產品受歡迎而擴大產能後，所面對的團隊組織問題與行銷困難，以致銷售量不如預期，無法達到原產能規劃所期。

In September 2017, the managing director of Summit Maritime Pvt. Limited, a marine consulting firm and luxury boat manufacturer in Kochi, India, faced a dilemma. He needed to relocate a production facility and set up a service factory, where boats would be both manufactured and displayed. The managing director needed to decide on the optimal location for the new facility by considering multiple factors. He also needed to design a preliminary layout for the new facility. How should he decide on the optimal facility location and layout to restructure his growing business operations and ensure the company’s future?

SKM Egg Products Export (India) Limited (SKM) manufactured processed egg products, including egg powder and liquid egg, which it exported to advanced international markets. The company had gone through phases of turnaround, countering challenges and a severe debt overload. In 2016, it had overseas subsidiaries in Japan, the Netherlands, and Russia. The chief executive officer had promoted SKM’s use of technology, quality processes, and accreditations to move up the value chain. India was the third-largest egg producer in the world, and he saw India’s specific advantages of scale and a mature eco-system in egg production, collection, feed, and poultry as logical elements for selecting an export-led growth strategy. He was planning another turnaround to counter a 20 per cent revenue hit that his top line had suffered in 2016–17 because of the impact of the 2015 avian flu epidemic in the United States and the resulting drop in global egg-product consumption and prices. His mission was to make SKM a ₹7.5 billion company by 2022. What actions should the company take regarding genetically modified crops? How should it approach opportunities to import feed material ingredients, eggs, and egg products from other source countries? Should it consolidate its overseas operations and leverage the domestic market? If so, how?

本個案討論從強調顧客服務而成功的富國銀行，在企業成長的過程中，強調業績成長反而成了富國銀行的第一要務。在過分強調KPIs的環境之下，竟然出現員工盜開顧客帳戶這類違法行為，此行為對富國銀行與其利害關係人都帶來了嚴重的負向結果。本個案從利害關係人與工作動機的角度，來探討員工採取此類違法不當行為之可能原因。

在科技蓬勃發展的時代，很多人透過一個發想就可以創業，利用軟體，甚至不一定要生產出有形的商品即可創業，像 OX APP 所屬的 APP 產業，因進入門檻低，現今為幾乎飽和的一個市場。本教學個案希望以 OX APP作為案例，透過課堂教學與問題討論的過程，期盼學生能將商業模式以及產業創新相關理論基礎與企業實務結合，也讓學生能更清楚創業的實際運作。 本教學個案中說明了創業者在 APP 產業中的創業過程，將使同學了解 APP 產業概況，若欲在 APP 產業中創業與他人競爭，應注意哪些地方，以及創業者常遇到的困境，例如：資金不足、找不到適當的商業模式、無法持續獲利等等。再來，也會讓同學了解該如何解決創業所遇到的困境，例如：企業轉型、開發新客源、創新等等。

In Canada, the Budweiser brand of beer was managed by Anheuser-Busch InBev N.V.'s Labatt Breweries subsidiary in Toronto, Canada. In 2016, a senior manager noticed that fewer younger consumers—those aged 19 to 24—were drinking Budweiser beer. In response, the brand increased its investment in television advertising and initiated price incentives, but the sales volumes did not respond accordingly. The senior manager’s brand and research teams were tasked with determining which key messages to emphasize and which advertising vehicles to use to gain market share for this segment of the beer market. They started their work by reviewing consumer research on Budweiser's television advertisements. What could the teams do to increase Budweiser’s engagement with this young demographic?

Eneco Group, the second largest utility company in the Netherlands, launched a smart thermostat, Toon, that served as a platform for energy management services. Toon quickly became the gold standard for smart homes in the Netherlands. In January 2017, top management needed to discuss the strategic priorities to keep Toon’s lead and hold off the competition.

Intelligent Avionics (IA) was an entrepreneurial company launching three inflight entertainment (IFE) systems. In April 2012, with a small development team working on the IFE system designs simultaneously, the time had come to meet with IA’s leaders to determine where the company should focus its efforts. The company’s vice-president of marketing contemplated which lines the company should bring to market and wondered how IA should market and launch its offerings. In addition, organizational and locational issues gnawed at him. He struggled with the company’s virtual structure, given that IA was composed of fewer than 15 staff members living in five different countries. As he contemplated how the structure was affecting IA’s effectiveness, he asked himself who IA’s target market should be.

Ganzeb Microfinance Institution (Ganzeb) was formed as an extension of an indigenous non-governmental organization, and provides loans to rural Ethiopians to fund their business ventures. The microfinance industry is heavily regulated by the Ethiopian government, and the political landscape is not very stable. Since its inception in 2000, Ganzeb has been run by the same chief executive officer. The company flourished until 2006, when its financial performance declined as a result of an increasing number of defaulting loans from clients. Many other organizational problems have also emerged, which are quickly degrading the institution’s work. Now, in late 2008, the chair of the board of directors is faced with threats from the National Bank of Ethiopia: he must fix the problems or lose Ganzeb’s licence to operate. The board chair is being asked to meet with the bank to talk about the situation and the proposed solutions. He must figure out how to fix the problems of high turnover among staff, poor financial performance, and a lack of communication between the different levels of the organization.

Hosoo was a kimono and textile company, established in 1688 as a traditional Nishijin weaving company. The 11th generation president of the company, Masao Hosoo, had transformed the business from a producer of premium kimono fabrics and kimonos for the luxury market in Japan to a globally respected textile producer for some of the world’s top brands. A great deal of the company’s success in the global market could be attributed to the master craftspeople of Japan. This innovative spirit guided endless improvements to weaving and textile development, allowing the highly specialized Nishijin textiles to be woven for use beyond the kimono market. Inspired by the results of their innovation and their global success, and driven by the collapsing kimono market in Japan, Masao and his son, Masataka, set a goal in 2018 to establish Hosoo as an iconic, international house of kimono, relying on innovation to reinterpret what a kimono was, how it was used, and what it meant within a global fashion market.

Handu Group was an online fast fashion apparel brand established in 2006 with headquarters in Jinan, China. The company had successfully adjusted its business models since 2006, transitioning from an unknown seller on the shopping website Taobao into a leading enterprise that owned over 20 subsidiary brands. However, in 2015, fierce competition in the fast fashion apparel market had intensified, with an increasing number of traditional garment companies establishing online channels. Online brands without physical stores, such as Handu Group, lost their primary competitive advantage. Faced with a bottleneck in development, the founder of Handu Group had to consider another innovation in the corporate business model. Zhao was considering three options: continuing multi-brand expansion, building brick-and-mortar shops to open offline channels, or opening operating platforms to serve other brands.

In October 2017, the co-founder of Australian social enterprise Illumination Solar was rethinking his company’s Give Power campaign. After five marginally profitable years designing and supplying portable solar lanterns to some of the world’s most energy impoverished communities, including refugee camps, the co-founder had decided to market his products to Australian customers for outdoor uses such as camping and hiking. Under the Give Power campaign, Illumination Solar donated one solar lantern to a community in need for every solar product purchased by Australian customers. However, this strategy was not successful. The co-founder’s main goal for his company was to sustainably provide good quality solar lanterns to impoverished people in developing countries. To reach that goal, he wondered which strategy to follow; should he return to the original business model, re-structure the Give Power campaign, or come up with something entirely new to generate higher profits?

In 2013, a high-school graduate began work as a construction labourer. His upbringing included experience driving and fixing various machines, which, combined with his hard work, led to a job operating a small loader. After working with three different construction companies on big equipment, he was considering whether or not to buy his own backhoe and start his own excavation business. He had investigated the cost of buying a backhoe, operating costs, financing, and the potential demand. In late 2014, he needed to decide whether or not to proceed with his own business.

The chief executive officer of Scotbar Proprietary Limited (Scotbar) in Queensland, Australia, decided to develop a process to convert sandstone to sand, a technique that large multinational mining companies failed to perfect. The stakes could not have been higher, with global environmental disaster looming and the world quickly depleting its reserves of construction sand, severely affecting coastal communities and destroying marine ecosystems in the process. After spending years and millions of dollars on research, Scotbar appeared to have developed a process to produce construction sand, although more expensive than natural sand. Scotbar decided not to patent its process in hopes that more companies would adopt it and thereby reduce the harmful impact of mining on the environment. Was Scotbar’s approach to sustainability through innovation an effective response to the environmental legacy of more traditional mining processes? Was the company’s approach to intellectual property appropriate in this context?

In late 2016, an analyst at Oliver Wyman (OW), was contemplating the high stakes of her new project. European riverboat company Temarca Group (Temarca) had just approached Duke Royalty (Duke) seeking €9.0 million to expand its riverboat fleet at the time. The analyst had to consider the first potential investment for the newly-formed partnership. If a financing decision was made, Temarca would be one of the first investments in Duke’s portfolio. The analyst had to ensure this investment was aligned with Duke’s investment mandate, met the financial criteria, and delivered the targeted returns essential to please keystone investors. Similarly, she knew this deal would be highly scrutinized by the OW partners because Temarca would be OW’s first fully-financed deal with Duke. With all this in mind, the analyst's task was to make a preliminary recommendation to the chief executive officer of Duke and a founding partner of OW about the soundness of the opportunity. She had to decide whether Duke should invest in Temarca or pass on this opportunity.

The founder of Cisca Engineering Limited (CEL), a Canadian engineering consulting firm, announced in 2017 that she would be retiring in the following year. The company's president was considering how to leverage his soon-to-be-expanded authority to ensure that the company's vision and core values would effectively drive the organization's culture. He wanted to avoid vision and mission statements that were simply posted on the company's website and had little resulting impact on employee behaviour. How could he lead the organization beyond defining core values and vision to infuse these principles throughout the organization and to mindfully build a strong organizational culture?

Ziwo Agricultural Service Co. Ltd. (Ziwo), located in the city of Shenyang in Liaoning Province in northeastern China, was a market leader in sales of agricultural materials. In 2006, China began changing how cropland was distributed and used. Over the next few years, decentralized, small farm households gave way to larger, more centralized, family farms. The change undermined Ziwo’s business, driving it into a sharp decline in market share and income from 2008 to 2011.<br><br>In December 2011, the company considered integrating the supply chain vertically to survive the decline. Was this move necessary, and if so, which direction should the vertical integration strategy take—forward or backward? How could Ziwo even achieve vertical integration under its current circumstances? Finally, would vertical integration help Ziwo deal with an emerging threat from Chinese Internet retailers that were entering the agricultural supply chain?

Clubb International Private Limited (Clubb) was a 26-year-old travel goods and accessories firm based in Kolkata, India. The owner believed in a complete ownership model. The firm had come a long way since its beginning and now had close to 200 product offerings. In March 2017, the owner’s son (the second-generation director of Clubb) felt it was time to scale up the business and acquire a leadership position in the market. Clubb had at its core a legacy of innovation, quality, and a bootstrapping philosophy, but it might not be conducive to the new strategic vision. For the road ahead, the company needed a professional and streamlined product and retail strategy. Could the desired scale of operations be achieved with the complete ownership model and mantra of no advertising?

Debito Technologies s.r.o. was started in December 2014 to help creditors better manage their issued debt. The company provided a complete beginning-to-end service using a debt management application (app) that traced debtors by following their digital footprint. The whole process was managed with just the mobile app and had no upfront fees. In 2017, with success in the Czech market, the company was considering expanding its operations abroad. The company needed to first select a country that provided excellent market potential and product fit, and then develop an ideal market entry.

Lost Creek Angling Co. (LCA), a fly-fishing operation accessible by helicopter, operated off the grid in a remote location on the Wigwam River, in southeastern British Columbia, Canada. LCA’s clients were mainly middle-aged to retired businessmen from the United States. The company’s season consisted mainly of weekends in the summer months, from mid-July to mid-September. The owner, an eco-centred leader who allowed the river to rest between visits and provided nature education to his clients, had a strong reputation within the local community and was closely tied to the business’s brand. At age 70, however, he was considering a slow exit from his business. In the middle of 2015, he was approached by an angel investor but was concerned about losing control and abandoning the environmental mission of the business. In the meantime, LCA had the option of buying more permits to increase the number of guided fishing days (known as rod days) and grow the business in the near term. What was the best path forward for this unique organization and its laudable leader?