China
April 2024
The Transformation of Digital China: Harnessing the Potential of Data, Cloud and AI
By Julian Birkinshaw, Dickie Liang-Hong Ke
In early 2024 Guo Wei reflected on another successful year for Digital China group of companies (DC), the group he had led for more than 20 years. As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, he had overseen the transformation of DC from an IT distributor to an IT services market leader, and now leading...
November 2023
AntChainâs Blockchain as a Service: Digitising Industry Collaboration
By S. Alex Yang, Nitish Jain
The case describes how AntChainâs parent, Ant Group, started to invest in blockchain in 2015 as it believed the technology would build trust between different actors in a system. The earliest use case was a cross-border remittance service. The team continued to build and develop its blockchain tec...
April 2024
Building an organisation for the ecosystem era: Weighing up the Recipe of Haierâs Internet of Food
By Michael Jacobides, Tom Albrighton, Monwei Chou, Lisa Duke, Dalbert Ma, Aryan Mittal
Ecosystems offer a new way to bring multiple firms together in order to deliver new value propositions. By working together, the hub firm and its complementors can create innovative âproduct plus serviceâ bundles that span traditionally separate industries to offer an experience that simply wasn...
April 2024
From Products to Experience Ecosystems: Haierâs Internet of Food
By Michael Jacobides, Lisa Duke, Dalbert Ma, Aryan Mittal
Haier had come a long way since Zhang Ruimin took it over as a failing Chinese Collective-Owned Enterprise in 1984. Since then, heâd been able to transform it into one of the worldâs leading appliance manufacturers, known for quality and innovation. Haier was also noted for its bold geographical...
November 2020
Protean Electric: Innovation upon innovation
By David Arnold
The case is intended as a vehicle for analysis of the challenges involved in launching an innovative product. It is set against the background of the wave of innovation in the vehicle market, as manufacturers race to replace internal combustion engines (ICEs) with electric power. Protean Electric, a...
July 2020
Haierâs (2019) ecosystem revolution: From Rendanheyi 2.0 to Rendanheyi 3.0
By Michael Jacobides, Lisa Duke
2019 was an important year for Haier. Its new version of its radically decentralised structure, dubbed Rendanheyi 2.0, based on many independent âEcosystem Micro-enterprise Communitiesâ (EMCs) had been devised to help it respond to the shifting ways of adding value in the digital, internet-based...
July 2020
Haierâs Rendanheyi 2.0: An ecosystem revolution
By Michael Jacobides, Lisa Duke
Haier in 1984 was a small, local firm on the verge of collapse, with poor-quality products and low morale. Within 30 years, it was transformed by Zhang Ruimin, who took over as CEO, into one of the worldsâ leading white-goods manufacturers, with a reputation for quality and innovation and an incre...
July 2020
Haier in 2014: An entrepreneurial juggernaut facing a world of platforms and ecosystems
By Michael Jacobides, Lisa Duke
Until the 2010s, China had been known for inexpensive products and efficient, low-cost production and for copycat or OEM products rather than for leading-edge innovation. Yet, in a few short years, Chinese firms turned to quality and innovation, drastically increasing their market share. A shining e...
August 2019
Innovation and Agility at Tencentâs WeChat
By Julian Birkinshaw, Enrique de Diego, Dickie Liang-Hong Ke
This case analyses the evolution of Tencent, now (in early 2019) one of the top 10 listed companies in the world. The case focuses on WeChat, the social networking and lifestyle app created in 2010 and now (in 2019) with more than one billion users. It describes the emergence and growth of WeChat an...
February 2019
Jack Ma at Alibaba: Building a Learning Organisation
By Herminia Ibarra, Jessica Spungin
In September 2018 Alibabaâs co-founder and executive chairman, Jack Ma, announced his plans to step down from the $420 billion Chinese internet company to pursue philanthropy in education. The case describes the evolution of Alibabaâs corporate strategy from Chinese e-commerce pioneer to a compl...