In 2008, a team of students from Harvard, MIT, and Wellesley College in the US and Qinghai Normal University in China worked together as One Earth Designs (“OED”) to create technologies to help off-grid communities in western China. These communities often have no access to readily available energy sources, nor clean air and safe water. The initial success of OED’s first product in China — SolSource, a solar concentrator for clean cooking —encouraged the organization to build a global business to bring efficient and affordable solar energy to the world. OED has a unique business model for a social business: while many businesses with social goals cooperate with charitable foundations at arm’s length and through partnerships, few have set up a non-profit and for-profit integrated group structure with technology licensing business relationships between the two distinct arms. Scot Frank and Catlin Powers, the co-founders of OED wondered how they could scale their business model and keep their vision.
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The protagonist Robert Warren knew what was expected of him when he was appointed as the CEO of Langham Hospitality Group LHG in March 2014 LHG was a direct subsidiary of Great Eagle Holdings Limited a Hong Kong Chinese property conglomerate controlled by Dr KS Lo and his family board members Great Eagle was looking for robust growth in its global hotel business and it expected Warren and LHG to deliver that growth via multibranding and brand differentiation strategies
This case deals with the CEO selection at Hong Kongbased Global Brokerage Group GBG a mediumsized financial brokerage house dealing in securities futures foreign exchange wealth management and precious metals Since its inception in 2001 the company led by founder Anson Chan and his close knit cohort of family and friends achieved steady growth and a solid presence in the local brokerage industry In 2013 Anson believed it was time to prepare the company for its next phase of growth via listing on the stock exchange of Hong Kong To transition GBG from a privatelyheld business to a publiclylisted entity his priority was to professionalize the company with clear segregation of roles and responsibilities at the top management level In view of the upcoming IPO Ansons first task was to appoint a strong CEO The case sets out the industry context the importance of regulations administered by the Securities and Futures Commission and GBGs organizational and operational structure Students take on the role of Anson who is reviewing the profiles of six potential candidates and weighing their pros and cons Who should he choose
The case is based on Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN), the second-largest broadband service provider in the territory in 2012. The young and dynamic company is growing at a faster pace than its competitors, and attributes this success to its innovative approach to Talent management, which involves attracting, developing, retaining, and rewarding its 3,080-strong Talent base. HKBN’s Talent enhancement programs are designed to drive strong individual, team, and organizational performance, inspiring a highly engaged workforce and a high-performance work culture across the organization.
In mid-2012, when HKBN’s parent company, City Telecom, sold HKBN and all related telecom businesses to a global private equity firm―CVC Capital Partners—it created a new challenge for NiQ Lai, head of Talent engagement and CFO. The new directive for NiQ was to lead HKBN to an initial public offering (IPO) in three to five years’ time. To do so, the key question was, how should the management team leverage its Talent base to maximize the value of the company?
CITIC Pacific Limited was a “red-chip” conglomerate based in Hong Kong, with businesses spanning across aviation, power generation, civil infrastructure, telecommunication and special steels manufacturing. Its special steels business was the largest in China. In 2006, it acquired iron ore mining rights in Australia in order to secure the sourcing of iron ore. The iron ore project required capital outlay in Australia Dollars over the next few years. To manage the Australia currency exchange rate risk, CITIC Pacific entered into various structured hedging transactions. On 20 October 2008, CITIC announced it had incurred over HKD15.5billion loss on its leveraged foreign exchange contracts, with total notional exposure of AUD9.5billion. The company stock price dropped 55% on the next day.
The case is based on an actual challenge faced by Christie’s Hong Kong, the Hong Kong subsidiary of the renowned auction house. For its biannual auctions, the company needs to hire 200 to 300 temporary sales assistants and assign them to different positions on different days. The human resources team believes that the current manual process of hiring and assignment is labor intensive and is unable to cope with sudden changes. They are looking to streamline the process and use decision tools.
By 2011, Changjiang & Jinggong Steel Building Group Co. Ltd. (Jinggong Steel) had been the number one in China’s structural steel industry for five consecutive years. The company had successfully grown from a small machine manufacturer into the leading steel structure company through a series of core competency acquisition in the fields of structural steel manufacturing and high-grade frame construction.
As the company started its strategic repositioning in 2011, Management decided that it was time to review the company’s growth-through-acquisition strategy. Relying on the company’s core competence in supplying systematic and professional solutions for commercial and industrial buildings, the company had initiated a transformation from a steel structure manufacturer to a fully integrated general contractor in 2007.
The ultimate decision management faced was whether Jinggong Steel should transform into an all-around general contractor through mergers and acquisitions to meet existing market demand, or whether Jinggong Steel should become a specialized general contractor by leveraging on its core competences to provide new products and services.
Cathay Capital Private Equity (Cathay) was started by Mingpo Cai and Edouard Moinet in 2007, at the brink of the global financial crisis. The firm initially opened offices in Shanghai and Paris, aiming to invest in fast-growing small and medium enterprises, either French companies looking to expand in China or Chinese companies seeking to move up the global supply chain in France.
By the end of 2012, Cathay closed a EUR350 million second fund, and, planned to move beyond France and China, by looking at other European countries and the United States for potential deals. With the growing competition of local private equity (PE) firms in China and the ongoing European debt crises, was the firm ready to replicate its business model in other geographical markets in the near future? What did the firm have to do to ensure success in the long run?
iLinko is a small-to-medium enterprise (SME) based in Hong Kong. It has two major lines of business: providing business-to-business sourcing and procurement services for its customers (mainly medium-size companies located in the United States and Europe), and distributing babies and children products under the brand name Bloom. Simon May, the protagonist of the case, is the founder and CEO of iLinko. Given the rapid growth of the company, the existing ERP system can no longer satisfy the operational needs and requirements at iLinko. Simon has to choose whether to upgrade the existing ERP system or replace it with a brand-new system altogether.
Dun’an Holding Group is a major Chinese conglomerate, employing more than 19,000 people in 90 companies. Its main business is in the heavily regulated civil explosives industry. Chinese government policies encourage both mergers between the various chemical companies producing explosives and companies along the industry value chain. By 2012, Dun’an had grown to a leading industry player through a series of mergers and acquisitions including a successful reverse merger with Anhui Jiangnan Chemical Industry Co. Ltd.
In the near future, the company wanted to build market share in West China, improve safety management and product mix, and strengthen the co-ordination of research, production, marketing and explosive service provision. The company also wanted to develop and strengthen strategic partnerships with large companies in the fields of mining and infrastructure development to create new profit growth through business model innovations. Top management had to decide how to make tradeoffs on decision making when taking into account geographical location, vertical integration, and product portfolio.