| Now in its fifth year, the Global Contest for the Best China-Focused Cases was again organised by the Steering Committee of the Shanghai MBA Case Development and Sharing Platform in 2019. The contest is open to case developers both inside and outside China and serves to further promote teaching and research on relevant management issues and practices in a Chinese business context from a global perspective. |
| The 2019 contest welcomed a total of 254 cases by 467 authors from 85 colleges and institutions in China and around the world. A rigorous screening process was then carried out, including initial reviews, blind reviews, area editor & chief editor’s reviews, the Nominated Case Award selection, and the Best Case Award selection. Amongst the outstanding cases, one case won the Best Case Award, nine won the Nominated Case Award and another two won the newly added Special Recognition Award. |
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Chasm Security (A/B/C): Facing the Technology Startup’s Dilemmas |
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| Our original intention in developing the Chasm Security case back in 2015 was to focus on disruptive innovation brought about by internet security / artificial intelligence technology. However, after teaching the case two or three times, we found that there was more demand from students for equity-related issues. Responding to the needs of our students, we shifted the decision points of the case to focus on the numerous dilemmas and conflicts the company encountered with its partners during the three rounds of financing it received beginning with its establishment in 2012. |
| Following five years of continuous tracking, combined with teaching and gathering feedback about the case 20 times, it was revised to highlight some of the important dilemmas many enterprises now face – such as equity concentration vs. equity dispersion, instinct vs. rational decision making, dollar financing vs. RMB financing, and global breadth vs. China focus – many of which carry even more weight given the political and economic context of the China-U.S. trade war. Through the vivid description of the case series, students feel like they are experiencing Chasm Security’s ups and downs first hand, and it is easy for teachers to use the case to create an intense yet inspiring learning atmosphere. |
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| International Judge Comments |
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| The Chasm Security case series focuses on a disguised information security start-up company. This interview-based entrepreneurship content examines a number of classic problems in such organizations. Not least among the challenges they face are finding agreement among the founders regarding the appropriate equity ownership split, and internal debate about market positioning. There are two short supplementary (B)(C) cases included for in-class reading. The series has already been classroom-tested. There is a strong Teaching Note accompanying the case series. It can be used in a single 90-minute class or spread across two full class sessions. The Judges were uniformly impressed with the quality of this case. |
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—— P.W.(Paul) Beamish
Ivey Business School |
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| This excellent case addresses fundamental topics that are important in today’s China, but not only, meaning that instructors will be able to use it for longer than cases that are just descriptive. These topics include (1) how to determine the best equity split among founders, (2) choosing between international and China-based funding, and (3) how successful start-ups should select the right type of leaders given their desired growth path. The case was written in collaboration with the company, which provides a wealth of insider’s knowledge that is unavailable in cases relying only on publicly available information. Finally, the case is well written and short (especially the B and C parts). The teaching note is also excellent, with good use of theories to illuminate each topic. |
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| We are honoured to be considered as one of the winners in your esteemed global competition. According to Japanese scholar Okakura Kakuzō, “The art of life is the constant readjustment of our surroundings.” In the same way, any company that adapts itself and takes advantage of new opportunities can survive and grow. Our case about Chow Tai Fook’s 90-year journey in the jewellery industry demonstrates the same philosophy. We expect students using the case to grasp the nuances of the concepts of long-term strategic direction and strategy formulation. We believe that, by providing a platform for China cases, the CEIBS Case Center is fuelling interest in the minds of global faculty to explore Chinese business culture and develop cases that can serve as effective teaching tools in today’s business school curriculum. |
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| In business education, there are thousands of cases about how multinational companies can succeed in different markets, yet very few cases on the dark side of international business, especially in emerging markets. In today's business context, sound corporate governance is central to all companies; however, many companies struggle to implement effective corporate governance practices. Our primary purpose in developing this case is to fill these gaps by illustrating the internal corporate governance challenges of developed-market firms operating in fast-growing emerging markets such as China. We were fortunate that a multinational company was willing to share with us their corporate governance failures and continuing challenges so that business students could better learn about the challenges of operating in today's global business environment and their responsibility to manage businesses. We hope that our case will help business educators in China and other countries teach the importance of corporate governance and help students become better business leaders in the future. We are honoured to have our case recognized by the judges of the 2019 Global Contest for the Best China-Focused Cases. |
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| Following the trend of digitalisation, enterprises in various industries are exploring how to survive and thrive. Having worked on traffic data of brick-and-mortar retailers for fifteen years, how should Winner Technology take advantage of this trend to lead this transformation? This case not only imparts knowledge about business models and customer relationship management, but also inspires students to think about the industry. To enrich the teaching content, we have also produced video interviews with the company's chairman. The case has been used in the CEIBS classes and was widely welcomed by students. In the face of technological disruption and its related challenges, enterprises need to think rationally, rather than follow blindly. We hope this case will play a role in attracting new ideas. |
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| We thank the nomination committee for recognising our case. The essence of financial analysis is not about computations, but rather about the ability to see through operations via financial figures. Understanding business is the very first step in effective financial statement analysis. Our case holistically integrates strategy, business models, and the financial statements to illustrate the business logic behind the numbers and help students to appreciate the intricacy of the financial data. The case has been successfully used in EMBA classes for a number of years and has received positive praise from our students. |
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| Digitalization is a hot topic these days. However, in my teaching of digital marketing, finding cases that nicely integrate theories and practices, and can stand the test of time is quite challenging. A chat with Joey Wat, CEO of Yum! China, inspired me to look at how a traditional quick service restaurant (QSR) successfully reconstructed its competitive advantage through digitalization. KFC China’s unique concept and model for consumer insight, technology application, data sovereignty, and service innovation were worth studying. Digital transformation is a systematic process that starts with identifying touch points along the consumer journey, developing IT system, changing SOPs, adjusting organizational structures and finally fostering the right HR management and leadership, not the other way around (which is a commonly seen mis-practice). Offering both China depth and global breadth, this case is representative of the digital transformation of traditional industries, and is widely recognized by students for its relevance and engaging discussion. |
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| Distinguished committee, please allow me to extend the sincere gratitude to your approval of this case and for giving us the opportunity to share the story of the Qingdao Jiaozhou pepper industry with you. Knowledge comes from life and can help explain life as well! The dilemma of Jiaozhou pepper industry’s development was discovered by accident. On the one hand, people share a common aspiration for Jiaozhou to achieve a healthy, rapid and smooth development. On the other hand, we realise that the difficulties it faces may also be the common problems for many small and medium-sized enterprises rooted in rural areas, which play considerably significant roles in China. With the help of Mr. Zhao, we got in touch with the Jiaozhou Pepper Association and Qingdao Qiangda Food Co., Ltd. to conduct an in-depth investigation for this case. We are looking forward to sharing the history of Qiangda Food’s development, and providing a reference for the development of other small and medium-sized enterprises while understanding the theory of competition and co-operation. At the same time, we also expect to generate ideas in class to make better suggestions for the future development of the Jiaozhou pepper industry! |
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| This case draws inspiration from a big data start-up with the potential to create value for many stakeholders, but which has failed to make money for a long time. This is a dilemma which many big data companies are caught in. This case aims to help students understand the value chain of big data companies along with the pain points and needs of each participant, and then design a commercialization scheme. We hope that big data companies can develop revenue models to sustain themselves in the long run, while creating value for society. |
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| Many thanks to the review team for the recognition of our case. In 2018, I was fortunate to participate in the Case Master Development Camp at CEIBS. One student in the class mentioned that a disease she had had been cured via WeDoctor. I was touched by her story. Health is a basic human need, and the difficulty of getting good and cost-effective treatment is a societal problem. In order to solve this problem, practitioners have made efforts to empower healthcare with internet technologies. The “internet plus healthcare” field has drawn great attention and support from the Chinese government, but companies in this field are still finding their way. The purpose of this case is to help students understand how WeDoctor strategically positioned and differentiated itself in this field, implemented ecological strategies, and eventually reengineered healthcare processes. We hope that this case can inspire researchers and practitioners to explore and analyse the challenges in the development of internet healthcare companies, and jointly promote the development of this emerging field. |
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| Baman Tech is a small business which was founded six years ago. We developed this case because Baman’s growth story has many useful management implications applicable to Chinese SMEs. An innovative business model can help you get ahead, but to gain a sustainable competitive advantage, you need a supply chain strategy and supply chain capabilities that can support your business model innovation. We would also like to ask more of our colleagues to develop teaching cases with a focus on supply chain management issues faced by Chinese SMEs. In teaching the Baman cases, we found that students were more understanding, more engaged, and learned a lot from it. |
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| With its origins in India, Capillary Technologies made for an interesting case about a new venture which was “born global” and was bravely tackling the Chinese market. From this case we can see the importance of adopting a learning orientation while internationalising. Three key lessons are: (1) Take advantage of existing customer relationships – but don’t stop there. (2) Localise in terms of technology and talent. (3) Leverage a wide range of network relationships. We thank Capillary’s CEO, Aneesh Reddy and Amit Haralalka (China GM at the time of writing the case) for co-operating with CEIBS on this case study. It was especially wonderful that the protagonist of the case, Amit, was a guest speaker when the case was taught for the first time at CEIBS. |
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| I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Global Platform of China Cases for awarding this case with the Special Recognition Award in the 2019 Global Contest for the Best China-Focused Cases. We also thank the judges for their constructive comments. We participated in this competition in line with the principle of “strengthening the understanding of corporate reality”. To our surprise, participating in this case competition not only deepened our understanding of corporate reality, but also improved our ability to summarise, classify, refine, speculate and innovate our learning ability. |
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| Submissions |
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254, up 22%
from the previous year |
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| Authors |
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467, up 20%
from the previous year |
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| Organizations |
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85, up15%
from the previous year |
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| Disciplines |
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Phase
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Oct. 2019 – Jan. 2020 |
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| The Case Review Committee of the Shanghai MBA Case Development and Sharing Platform organized an initial review, a blind review and an area-editor review to decide whether a submitted case could be accepted by the Global Platform of China Cases (ChinaCases.Org). |
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| The discipline-based editorial board of ChinaCases.Org shortlisted 10 cases as the Nominated Case Award and two as the Special Recognition Award. |
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| An international expert panel selected the Best Case Award from the nominated cases. |
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| Finance and Accounting |
Organizational Behavior
and Human Resource Management |
Marketing |
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PAN Lixin
Beihang University |
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WANG Junqiu
East China University of Science and Technology |
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CHEN Hao
Tsinghua University |
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XU Hui
Nankai University |
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Operations and
Information Science |
Strategy and Entrepreneurship |
Chief Editor |
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LAO Guoling
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics |
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LI Zhen
East China Normal
University |
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Shameen Prashantham
CEIBS |
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CHEN Shimin
CEIBS |
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| P.W. (Paul) Beamish |
Professor of International Business & General Management;
Canada Research Chair in International Business
Ivey Business School |
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| Pierre Chandon |
The L'OrÉal Chaired Professor of Marketing - Innovation and Creativity
INSEAD |
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| Richard McCracken |
Director
The Case Centre |
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| YOU Jianxin |
Professor of Management
Tongji University |
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| CHEN Shimin |
Professor of Accounting
Zhu Xiaoming Chair in Accounting
Director of Case Center
CEIBS |
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| More details about the review process can be found at ChinaCases.Org. Over 100 cases that met the acceptance criteria of ChinaCases.Org 2019 contest will be published by June 30, 2020 to be made accessible to users of the Global Platform of China Cases (www.chinacases.org). |
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