個案總覽

Hop Compost (Hop) was a Canadian start-up that took food scraps destined for landfill and converted them to an organic, highly nutrient compost using novel, licensed technology. The company was approaching the end of its first year and facing two decisions. First, it had to decide whether to pursue third-party accreditation for its environmental and social impact. The accreditation would demand time and money but could help Hop with its growth plans. Second, the company’s founder wondered how to position Hop’s environmental and social impact to appeal to potential investors, who would be primarily interested in financial returns.

兆豐銀行紐約分行因違反美國銀行保密法以及反洗錢法，被美國紐約金融署裁罰1.8億美元（折合約新台幣57億元），此罰款為台灣的銀行在海外被罰最高金額。隨後兆豐銀案被民代與媒體質疑涉及洗錢，案情向上延燒，最終此案一共有六位兆豐高層被解職，六位相關部會首長被移送監察院，一位首長辭職。本個案探討數個與兆豐案相關的公司治理問題，包括：風險管理的重要性、公司治理的文化與制度、及國營企業與台灣獨特的代理問題。

Xbed Technology Group (Xbed), a start-up that branded itself as an online hotel platform, was founded in 2015 with the aim of addressing the changing landscape of China’s hospitality industry while coping with issues related to a customer-to-customer sharing economy model. By employing a dual-sharing model and utilizing state-of-the-art digital technologies, the company emerged as a disruptor in the market and expanded to 44 cities in China in just two years of development. As Xbed grew, it faced many challenges, including intense competition from both sharing economy players and traditional hotels. In 2017, as the company looked toward the future, its founder wondered about the future of hospitality services in China and what the company’s strategic focus should be as it pursued its next phase of growth.

The Kanaka Bar Indian Band, a First Nations community in British Columbia, Canada, had realized impressive economic development in the decades since the 1970s. This progress included development of a profitable hydroelectric system backed by strong community governance and the introduction of a five-year community economic development plan. In 2017, the community was executing the plan with some successes and some challenges. As the band council and community members looked to the coming years of the plan and beyond, they wished to continue making progress towards their community vision of self-sufficiency, vibrancy, and sustainability. As they reflected on their successes, took stock of the community’s resources, and assessed its challenges, they asked themselves whether the plan needed to evolve. Which of the community’s resources could it use to achieve its vision in a way that addressed the challenges at the time and remained consistent with the traditional community values?

In August 2015, a law student in Singapore came up with the idea for his first scooter when he needed a simple and economical mode of transport to get from his apartment to university. The student, who was Norwegian, and his Singaporean partner registered and incorporated Skutis Corporation Pte Ltd (Skutis) within only five days. The Skutis e-scooter emitted no fumes or noise and featured a quick folding design for easy storage. As new entrants in the industry, they felt confident that their combined study skills (law and business) would help them design and produce a more durable and dynamic scooter than those currently available. However, by April 2017, Skutis had already encountered major difficulties dealing with a Chinese manufacturer of its products. After 20 months of experience in the market, the two entrepreneurs were planning their company’s strategy for the future. Having experienced the lows and highs of the Chinese production market, they were searching for ways to make their business more profitable and develop a long-term trustworthy relationship with a reliable manufacturer who would produce their designs.

In 2013, two entrepreneurs launched the Virtual Market in Mexico City with a mission to transform small traditional retailers (the so-called “mom-and-pop” shops) into competitive market players. The family-owned shops were strongly embedded in the society, culture, and economy of Mexico and Latin America, producing 50 per cent of the region’s retail sales and 15 per cent of Mexico’s true gross domestic product. However, economic growth had increased consumers’ earnings, leading to previously low-income consumers gaining financial status. The traditional shops were unable to compete with the new demands for cashless payment methods, wider ranges of products and services, and lower prices. To remedy the situation, the Virtual Market gained the trust of the shop owners and worked to improve their financial, technological, and business literacy. By 2017, the Virtual Market had successfully worked with 10,000 shops but had still not attained break-even. Was its business model sustainable in the long term? Could it be replicated in other countries and with other cultures? How could it scale up and secure profits?

In late 2012, an executive vice-president faced a dilemma at Industrias Metalúrgicas Pescarmona S.A. (IMPSA), an Argentine multinational company that designed and produced cranes, dams, and components for power plants, and had recently begun building hydroelectric and wind power projects. The company’s chief executive officer had tasked the executive vice-president with recommending how IMPSA could be radically restructured to adapt to changes in the world marketplace for renewable energy. However, IMPSA was at the top of its game, and the company had a backlog of orders valued at US$3.3 billion. The executive vice-president knew that the chief executive officer would not accept a minor reorganization but would demand a major restructuring based on the firm’s existing resources, which was a strategy that, in the past, had proven to be successful for the company, particularly in emerging markets. The executive vice-president wondered how IMPSA could build on its existing wind power and hydroelectric dam business without abandoning the resources the firm had developed over the years.

In August 2016, the global procurement manager at Hu-Friedy Mfg. Co., LLC, a large U.S. dental equipment manufacturer, realized that materials were being transported between suppliers and production facilities without a consistent strategy—potentially costing the company thousands of dollars each year. To evaluate the company's transportation needs, the manager considered a range of alternatives, including buying or leasing a truck or hiring a third-party logistics (3PL) provider to manage the transportation. To complete his analysis, the manager needed to develop a new set of routes for pickups and deliveries, evaluate the costs associated with owning or leasing a truck, determine the costs of a 3PL provider, and ultimately determine the course of action that would have the most impact on transportation costs with the least impact on daily operations.

In April 2016, the chairman of the partnership charged with building the $1 billion Highway 407 East Extension Phase 2 in Ontario was reviewing an e-mail from the procurement team that recommended allocation of more than $45 million in contracts for the purchase of granular base material for the highway construction. He knew that the procurement team had worked for several weeks to negotiate and analyze the supplier’s quotes, but after reviewing the recommendation, the chairman wondered whether the team’s recommendation captured the optimal supplier mix and the most cost-effective selection of suppliers. It was certainly a good solution, but was it the optimal solution? Even with an experienced team, this was a difficult optimization problem to solve.

Between 1999 and 2017, the Roaring Dragon Hotel (RDH) evolved from a state-owned enterprise (SOE) into a modern, market-driven 5-star accommodation provider, experiencing a combination of market economy and privatization forces. Its initial operations under the new status progressed from the poor performance and management practices of China’s planned economy to a portfolio of operational and strategic reforms that saw it become semi-privatized in 2005, and a fully privatized 5-star accommodation provider by 2017. On the surface, this model of evolution would make any Chinese national proud. However, what was perceived from the outside did not necessarily reflect what was occurring within. Market evolution had produced complex challenges related to employee loyalty, competition, internal resistance to change, promotion prospects, management, and the continuation of questionable practices. What changes should management make in the second half of 2017 to continue the hotel’s transition to a modern global hotel, turn around its declining revenue, and improve its competitive outcomes?

It was September 2009 when 21-year-old entrepreneur Lu Chengdui first considered entering the partnership that led to his becoming the chairman and general manager of Wenzhou Cijueshi Science and Technology Co. Ltd. (Cijueshi) in Zhejiang Province, China. Lu started his entrepreneurial efforts when he was in college; he became a serial entrepreneur and achieved great performance. His story drew the attention of both the media and the public. Lu was known for his perseverance and his courage in overcoming difficulties and pursuing his dreams for success. He was a role model for college students who wanted to be entrepreneurs. As he considered a possible involvement in Cijueshi, a company that specialized in developing, selling, and repairing pottery and porcelain, Lu wondered about entering a business in a field where he had no practical experience. What had made him so confident in his previous entrepreneurial success? How had he motivated himself to realize his entrepreneurial targets? He looked back at his entrepreneurial experiences to date to find answers to these questions and motivation for this new endeavour.

Santé Au Naturel was a natural health boutique in Montreal’s downtown core. The company was off to a strong start in a growing market, but as its best-selling products became more mainstream, large retailers were entering the market, stealing customers, and driving down margins. In early 2017, Santé Au Naturel's owner reflected on further differentiation of her offering and targeted marketing; she wanted to improve her marketing mix to grow sales and protect margins.

In late 2014, the deputy minister of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence joined the public service, six months after Ukraine’s revolution and change of government. He joined the ministry as part of the new government’s attempt to reform a bureaucracy crippled by corruption, inefficiencies, and dysfunction. In six months, he had already made notable changes. However, by March 2015, the changes were not resulting in better outcomes where they were urgently needed—in the eastern regions, supporting a tactically and logistically crippled military that was resisting Russian attempts at incursion. What more could the deputy minister do to initiate and lead change?

In March 2017, Ajay Maharaj Bachulal was starting his new position as plant manager at SABMiller plc’s (SABMiller's) plant in Polokwane, South Africa. Bachulal had successfully led change at the company's brewery in another province, and he hoped to be as successful at the new plant. His dilemma was how to approach the workforce in Polokwane, and how to adapt to and make changes within the culture specific to that plant. While both plants adhered to SABMiller’s system, policies, and procedures, Bachulal sensed that the approach of each plant to work and life was different. How would Bachulal's own leadership development process and his efforts to change culture by empowering lower level employees in Polokwane help him in a different province with distinct ethnic compositions, languages, and cultures?

Sumith Dutta was the founder of Emerald Trail (ET), a resort near a well-known tourist destination in the Himalayas, which treated resort guests’ pets as no less important than their owners. Dutta’s passion for pets inspired him to offer this experience, which was different from what was offered at other resorts. The case details the decisions Dutta made in executing his strategy and invites students to consider how Dutta could have scaled up his business in 2017: Should he have invested in upgrades at the existing location or should he have opened a new resort in another location in India? If he opened in a new location, could he replicate his existing model? In either case, is he financially prepared for the growth?

In December 2016, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Château Ksara, the largest and most renowned wine producer in Lebanon, was analyzing the company’s sales volume and product availability around Lebanon. To the CEO’s surprise, a popular fine dining establishment in the city did not include any of Château Ksara’s wines. Frustrated, he started wondering what could have been the reasons for the omission. Was the quality of wine giving competitors an edge in selling their brands? What position did Château Ksara currently hold within the wine brand landscape in its own country? How could Château Ksara add value to, and maintain profitable relationships with, its distribution channel partners?

The founder and chief executive officer of Twenty One Toys Inc., a Canadian designer and manufacturer of educational toy sets, was considering her firm’s future in 2017. The company had doubled its revenues each year for the past two years with its first toy—and, thus far, its only product—the Empathy Toy. The entrepreneurial founder had defied the odds, gaining recognition for her product and securing funds from socially focused awards and firms. She had built up a supply chain, starting with ethically manufactured toys, and had sold her products both directly to schools and through distributors to the wider retail market. The biggest current challenge for the firm was determining its growth strategy for the Empathy Toy and for its second product, the Failure Toy.

In January 2016, the executive director of Canada's Stratford Festival, one of North America's largest repertory theatre companies, was considering the festival's long-term outlook and the role the organization played in the community. The 2015 season had been successful, and she would be able to report a small surplus to the board at the upcoming annual general meeting. But the long-term outlook wasn't as secure. Annual attendance had dropped below previous levels of more than 500,000, which was the attendance needed to ensure long-term operational sustainability. The festival had returned to its creative roots during a period when the Canadian dollar had been in decline, but it had not been enough to ensure that the organization would survive its next economic tempest. The festival needed a long-term, innovative strategy to generate sustainable growth and strengthen it sufficiently to weather future economic downturns and exchange rate fluctuations.

In 2016, the managing director of Wingreens Farms, a social enterprise based in India, was considering the company’s future. Wingreens Farms partnered with rural Indian farmers living in poverty to produce and sell homemade processed foods, including salsas, dipping sauces, hummus, garlic butter, breads, teas, organic fresh pickled sprouts, microgreens, and wheatgrass. This small company had a unique, sustainable, and profitable business model with a managed sales turnover worth R160 million (US$2.4 million) in 2016. However, the managing director wondered whether Wingreens Farms could eventually transition from a small, personalized, family-owned company to a large systems- and process-driven organization. Could the company retain its commitment to ethical values and its handmade, labour-intensive production methods if it began competing against factory-produced, cheaper products from large, organized companies?

In September 2011, the chief risk officer of Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Berhad (CGC) was mulling over a pressing problem. CGC was looking to expand its business in Malaysia from just giving guarantees to small and medium enterprises to also providing direct loans (direct-lending products). The change required a major overhaul in business strategy and an increase in eligibility criteria. Previously, most criteria were checked manually by CGC for each of its clients—a slow and unreliable process. Given the recent developments, how could CGC revise its business rules in order to accommodate its expansion strategy?