Happiness Capital is a global venture capital firm within the hundred-year-old Lee Kum Kee Group with a mission to bring happiness to the community and the world through venture investments. As the founding Lee family progressed into the fifth generation, it wanted to diversify into a business that would also benefit the society, and impact investing emerged as an answer as it was a cause that resonated across different generations of the family. Happiness Capital undertook the pioneering initiative to co-create the “Happiness Return Framework” together with industry experts, addressing the issue of impact measurements often encountered in impact investing. The case examines how Happiness Capital defines and measures happiness with its proprietary “Happiness Return Framework,” as well as examining its investment strategies, process, performance, risk management, organization and governance.
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The helpdesk function is essential to any organisation, as it delivers customer support, provides valuable insights, enhances internal efficiency, and improves customer satisfaction. However, it also faces considerable challenges, such as maintaining high service levels, ensuring customer satisfaction, and sustaining staff morale.
This case study focuses on the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC), a leading banking and financial services provider. Specifically, it examines the HSBCnet Helpdesk, which provides technical support to corporate customers using HSBCnet, an online business tool. Through various channels, including phone calls, emails, and Live Chat, the Helpdesk assists customers with managing payments and accounts. The case highlights the challenges the HSBCnet Helpdesk encounters in improving customer service quality while managing a high and increasing volume of daily customer queries.
Using this case, students can gain a deeper understanding of helpdesk operations, including their critical role within an organisation and common performance metrics used to evaluate them. Students will learn about the complexities involved in improving business operations and customer services while maintaining high employee morale. Furthermore, this provides an opportunity for students to explore and discuss potential solutions using digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to address common challenges faced by helpdesks.
After studying this case, students will acquire knowledge of helpdesk operations, particularly within the banking industry. They will understand the root causes of high staff turnover rates and identify the challenges associated with improving business operations while maintaining high service levels. Additionally, they will develop critical thinking skills, enabling them to analyse complex problems and propose innovative solutions.
Trade Without Borders (TWB) is a global, hybrid social enterprise comprising a nonprofit organization (NPO) based in Texas, U.S.A. and a legally separate for-profit company in Hong Kong. TWB was founded by Joseph Fernandez and its mission reflected Joseph’s passion: sustainable development through inclusive trade.
Initially, Joseph wished to leverage his knowledge of global trade in order to assist NPOs globally to procure the essential supplies they needed in order to effectively operate their organizations. However, after initially experimenting with a nonprofit model, Joseph concluded that it would not be possible to attain TWB’s mission exclusively as a nonprofit entity and subsequently established the Hong Kong entity. The updated plan was for the Hong Kong entity to manage the commercial trading activities such as procuring products directly from manufacturers in China, ensuring the quality of the products procured, and managing the global logistics in delivering the goods to organizations around the world.
As a social enterprise, understanding the impact of the products supplied was also essential for TWB, so the US nonprofit entity would focus on impact measurement, monitoring, and management. With respect to the impact it created, there were several questions TWB needed to address. What impact did TWB have? Was this impact quantifiable and measurable? Was the impact created in alignment with TWB’s mission of sustainable development through inclusive trade? Also, how might the impact created then be communicated to TWB’s stakeholders, including, importantly, funders or impact investors?
The helpdesk function plays a vital role in any organisation, providing customer support, offering valuable customer insights, enhancing internal efficiency, and boosting external customer satisfaction. However, talent retention remains a critical challenge for helpdesks.
Focusing on the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC), a leading banking and financial services provider, this case examines the HSBCnet Helpdesk, which provides technical support to corporate customers using HSBCnet, an online business tool. Through various channels, including phone calls, emails, and Live Chat, the Helpdesk assists customers with managing payments and accounts.
This case examines the challenges of talent retention. By analysing this case, students can gain insights into the factors contributing to high turnover rates among agents and managers. These factors include the repetitive nature of the job, the prolonged high-pressure working environment, the challenges of managing difficult customers, and the rising volume of daily customer queries.
Students will learn about the complexities of improving customer services while sustaining high employee morale. The case offers an opportunity for students to explore and discuss potential solutions using digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), to tackle common challenges faced by helpdesks.
After studying this case, students will acquire knowledge of helpdesk operations, particularly within the banking industry. They will be able to identify the root causes of high staff turnover rates in helpdesks and propose innovative solutions to address these issues.
LeadNitro is an AI sales automation startup founded in 2023 that aimed to automate a large portion of what business development representatives (BDRs) do so they could complete more sales work with less time and effort. Matthew Lau, the protagonist of this case, first conceived of this idea during his time as a software sales BDR. Having worked first as a BDR, Matthew understood how time consuming and repetitive the job could be. To this end, he developed different scripts, automations, and custom integration tools to help get the job done, which was the barebones foundation for what LeadNitro would eventually become.
This case shows the journey that Matthew has taken to turn a problem or pain point into a business idea and how that idea evolved into a business startup. The case ends when Matthew is pondering the next move to scale the business with additional funding and resources. This case offers a great lesson for those who are inspired to be entrepreneurs and prepares them for what to expect beyond having just a business startup idea, such as issues related to marketing, finance, and operations, in order to scale the business.
Students will have an opportunity to apply many relevant business concepts and techniques from the perspective of the founder of a startup company: how an idea can turn into a startup business and how it can grow to achieve its potential value. In the process of studying this case, the students can also learn many relevant and important business issues that startup business owners face; e.g., how to properly price a new product or service and determine the valuation of a business when inviting prospective investors to meet additional funding needs.
This case examines Deepal’s strategic choices of new energy vehicle (NEV) technology (as opposed to gasoline-powered, internal combustion engine, ICE) and how they impact the company’s positioning strategy in a highly competitive market. The case provides an opportunity to discuss how and why Deepal may be able to achieve business success when many prominent automakers and consumer electronic companies have scaled back or even abandoned their NEV manufacturing plans. The case will also lead to a discussion on how Deepal should align their product design and development, marketing, and operations management to maximize customer value for business success, at the time the market begins to experience slower growth and possibly further industry consolidation.
DPC Dash Ltd. (DPC Dash) (达势股份有限公司) (SEHK: 1405) was the exclusive master franchisee for Domino’s Pizza in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. In 2010, Frank Krasovec cofounded DPC Dash and secured multiple rounds of funding from private equities and investors, including Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) in the US. Krasovec, an experienced entrepreneur, served as the chairman, non-executive director, and member of different committees of the company. The daily management of the company, also known as Domino’s Pizza China, was led by the company’s sole executive director and CEO, Aileen Wang.
In 2017, DPC Dash quickly expanded from 100 stores, which included delivery stores and dine-in restaurants, after recruiting a new team of management, including Wang. It emphasized food quality, a creative menu, reliable delivery, and value for money, by using technology, a centralized kitchen, and a streamlined supply chain to improve efficiency. On 28 March 2023, it went public by listing on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. DPC Dash was the fastest growing among China’s top-five pizza brands and also the third-largest in terms of revenue in FY2022, according to a report by Frost & Sullivan in March 2023. By 31 January 2024, DPC Dash operated 800 stores across 29 cities in China.
While the palates of mainland Chinese were adjusting to Western cuisine, American fast-food chains needed to localize and adapt their menus creatively. In the mainland Chinese market, a few US fast-food chains dominated, including McDonald's, Starbucks, and Yum China Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: YUMC) (SEHK: 9987), a spinoff of the Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) in the US, which owned Pizza Hut, KFC, and other franchises. How could Krasovec, Wang, and their team successfully position Domino’s Pizza China as a strong competitor to Pizza Hut, mirroring the accomplishments of other franchisees in China?
Taylor Swift was a singer-songwriter, pop music icon, and entrepreneur who used her music and values to influence her fans, the pop music industry, and society. She was also an advocate for music artists’ rights, women’s empowerment and equal rights. In March 2023, Swift started The Eras Tour concerts in the US and would end in Canada in December 2024, including 151 shows across five continents. The concert tour shattered records, sparked ticket frenzies, and became the highest-grossing tour of all time with ticket sales of over USD2.2bn, only in North America. However, the organizer selected only Singapore and Japan in Asia to hold the concerts. The Singapore Government reportedly subsidized around USD3m per concert for six concerts to gain exclusivity in Southeast Asian (ASEAN) countries, disappointing tens of millions of fans in other countries.
Swift engaged a massive fan base called “Swifties” globally by interacting with them through social media, her performances and also through meetings in person. Since 2005, she created her music from country to pop and also explored different music genres through experimentation and innovation. As one of the best-selling music artists in history, her music, performances, merchandises sold under her name, and business collaborations, had made the pop icon entrepreneur’s net worth over USD1.1bn according to Forbes’ estimates in October 2023.
Swift was named Times Person of the Year in both 2017 and 2023 as a music artist who won this title instead of typically a politician, businessperson or community contributor. How could other business leaders learn from Swift in creating sustainable success using passion in their own industry, experimenting with innovative products, building a devoted group of customers, as well as having a positive impact on their communities?
The supply chain management dynamics involved in British international home furnishings retail company, from the perspective of a regional general manager based in Hong Kong, given the fast-paced business climate and coping in a post-covid environment
How would you cope if given the task of regional general manager in British international home furnishings retail company? Given that you are based in Hong Kong, and have been asked deal with a multitude of issues including downsizing the headcount, rationalizing the supply base, and improving margins and sales.