James E. Thompson, known as Jim, was the non-executive chairman of Crown Worldwide Group. He founded a small logistics company in Yokohama, Japan, in 1965. By 1970, the business had expanded to Hong Kong and other Asian countries. Jim relocated with his family to Hong Kong in 1978, where the company’s headquarters remained.

Over six decades, Crown provided a range of services, including local and international relocation for individuals and businesses, information and records management, and other related services. Under Jim’s leadership and entrepreneurial skills, the company expanded into more than 44 countries by the end of 2024. Since 1980, Jim had maintained Crown as a closely held family business. Following the passing of CEO Ken Madrid in July 2023, Jim selected his daughter, Jennifer Harvey, as his successor, taking family dynamics into account.

Despite being in his 80s, Jim remained sharp and engaged, continuing to mentor Jennifer to ensure a smooth leadership transition. His guidance focused on preserving the family’s values, harmony, wealth, and business. As the next-generation leader, what challenges did Jennifer have to navigate to successfully uphold and advance her father’s global business legacy?

This case examines Derek Chim’s efforts to transform the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) from a largely administrative, program-driven organization into a proactive, founder-centric startup ecosystem operator. Drawing on his background in consulting, corporate innovation, and multiple entrepreneurial ventures—both successful and failed—Chim recognized that traditional, passive support models were insufficient in a fast-evolving global technology landscape. By 2024, Hong Kong’s startup ecosystem had expanded rapidly, supported by increased government investment and a growing number of ventures, yet it continued to face structural weaknesses, including fragmented support, talent constraints, geopolitical uncertainty, and intense regional competition.

Upon joining HKSTP, Chim identified that its rigid separation of ideation, incubation, and acceleration programs encouraged compliance-driven behavior rather than genuine startup development. To address this, he introduced a comprehensive organizational redesign anchored in the FUEL framework—Follow, Upskill, Expose, and Linkage. This approach restructured leadership roles around functional responsibilities, realigned staff incentives with startup outcomes, and emphasized milestone-based tracking, capability building, global exposure, and ecosystem connectivity. Initiatives such as structured biannual reviews, founder and staff upskilling, international booster programs, curated investor platforms, and strengthened corporate and peer linkages aimed to position HKSTP as an active partner in startup validation, scaling, and globalization.

The case highlights both the opportunities and challenges of ecosystem-level transformation, including sustaining cultural change, ensuring financial sustainability, and differentiating Hong Kong amid global innovation hubs. It invites readers to consider how entrepreneurial leadership, organizational design, and incentive alignment can shape the effectiveness of public-sector innovation intermediaries, and whether such founder-first transformations can endure beyond individual leadership and early successes.

Quano Technologies Limited (Quano) was a newcomer in the niche market of nanopositioning stages—a vital component of high-tech microscopy with applications in the semiconductor, manufacturing, medical, aerospace, and scientific sectors. Yet, despite the founders’ belief that Quano’s products excelled in the field by virtue of being operable even in extreme environments, it was relatively unknown to the market while the clientele was narrow with highly different economic realities.

This case describes the pricing dilemma that Quano faced when a potential customer from Germany inquired and subsequently obtained a product sample in early 2025. For Quano, that commercial interest presented the biggest potential sale to date and an avenue to muscle into a niche market that previously had only one supplier. If the pricing was too high, Quano could risk detracting early adopters including this German potential customer. If the pricing was too low, Quano’s perceived value and long-term profitability could be detrimentally affected. So how should Quano go about pricing a niche product in a niche market? What tools and datasets would be helpful toward Quano’s analysis and decision? What strategic directions should Quano take to get the most out of the clientele?

As a global leader in the power battery industry, CATL specializes in the R&D, manufacturing, and distribution of power battery systems. Against the intensified geopolitical rivalries and rising trade protectionism, accelerating its global expansion effort has become CATL’s core strategic challenge. This case provides a panoramic depiction of CATL’s global expansion journey, systematically presenting its three-stage growth path, from “product export” to “capacity export” and finally “technology export” while detailing the key risks and challenges faced in different markets.

The case also explores how CATL leverages its technological leadership to sustain its global dominance while navigating local challenges. Through an in-depth analysis of critical decisions, risks, and counter-strategies at each stage, the case aims to help students understand the motivations, strategies, and mode selection for new energy enterprises operating in dynamic and complex environments. It seeks to enhance students’ strategic decision-making abilities in many global issues under intricate business scenarios while fostering a global perspective. By examining CATL’s experience, the case also aims to encourages students to embrace a win-win mindset in global competition.