The case describes the impact of the US-China trade war on Apple Inc.’s operations in China. Apple’s bet on the “cheap China” sourcing model means that 90% of the assembly happens in China. In 2018, President Trump began to introduce step-by-step duties on Chinese imports ending up with tariffs of 7.5% and 25% covering about $360 billion worth of imports. Apple managed to get exemptions for iPhone imports from China so far but not for component imports. As President Trump was advancing the decoupling of the US and Chinese economies, Apple had to prepare for mounting difficulties. What are the risks of a supply chain relocation out of China? What are Apple’s options in adjusting its China-centered global supply chain?

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The case describes the strategic and organizational challenges that the Romanian travel-tech company dcs plus (just “dcs” in the following) faces while establishing its first operations abroad after a pure export strategy for many years. The case focuses on CEO and founder Cristian Dinca and the firm’s first international office – the one-year old subsidiary in Dubai, which is responsible for marketing, sales, and customer support in the Middle Eastern region. Furthermore, the case describes the situation in the new market, reports on performance problems and managerial issues, and, as a consequence, changes in local management. As additional subsidiaries in Sao Paulo and Singapore are planned, Dinca fears they could run into similar problems. He flies to Dubai and reflects upon dcs’ approach to internationalization, the overall organization, and how subsidiaries should be run.

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The case study deals with strategy workshops and decision making at Elyssija Bank. It describes team dynamics when senior managers of the bank discuss important factors that influence the bank and its retail business model such as fintech competition and cooperation, Covid-19, and the digitalization of the bank’s offerings. The case text is divided into three short sections (Case A to C). Cases B and C can easily be distributed live in a (digital) classroom setting providing great dynamic learning.

If you are interested in teaching with this case, please contact the Competence Center for EMCEE (emcee@wu.ac.at) or Prof. Phillip Nell (phillip.nell@wu.ac.at) directly.

Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) and UNIQA are two universal insurance companies headquartered in Vienna, Austria, offering a full range of insurance products and services to individuals and businesses. Both insurers jumped at the enormous growth opportunity that the opening of the neighboring markets of Central and Eastern Europe offered to them in the early 1990s. In 2018, they occupied leading market positions in the region. While similar in their internationalization motives and "going east" strategy, they followed different brand strategies.

The VIG group bet on a multi-brand strategy by retaining most of the brands of the acquired local insurance companies. Klaus Muehleder, Head of Group Development and Strategy at VIG, emphasized the multi-brand strategy and local entrepreneurship as core management principles that connect the business firmly with the local markets. “How comes that Vienna tells the management in Serbia how to grow their insurance business? That would be presumptuous”, so Muehleder. He saw no reason to change VIG’s successful multi-brand strategy just because “single-brand strategies are in fashion now”.

By contrast, the Austrian competitor UNIQA followed a one-brand strategy. Until 1998, the UNIQA predecessors operated under different brands. In 1999, the new UNIQA “millennium” brand was introduced with the goal to transmit the image of a modern, European insurance company. Wolfgang Kindl, CEO of UNIQA International, commented this major change as follows: “It would have been irresponsible not to use UNIQA internationally from then on. After 1999, all newly acquired companies had been changed to the new brand”. Kindl could not imagine returning to a multi-brand strategy. What were the reasons for choosing the respective brand strategy? What challenges had they faced in managing their brands? How will the increasing digitalization affect the brand strategies?

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In early 2015, the newly appointed country head of PharmaCorp’s operating unit in Ukraine faced internal and external challenges in managing the global pharmaceutical company’s operations in the crisis-ridden country. Since November 2013, Ukraine had undergone massive disruptions, including riots in Kiev, the annexation of Crimea by Russia, and a war in its easternmost region. Amid these economic and political turbulences, PharmaCorp Ukraine experienced plummeting sales, increased workload, amplified human resources issues, and decreased market share. Furthermore, the multinational corporation’s internal routines became less effective in the context of the crisis. Although the regional headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, offered guidance and resources, inefficiencies in responding to local issues emerged during the crisis. Should PharmaCorp exit the market? Or should it stay in Ukraine and revise its local marketing strategy by offering more innovative products? Should it implement cost-saving measures? Should the business model be revised to gain more autonomy for its operations? The country head was scheduled to meet with representatives from the regional headquarters and needed to prepare a comprehensive strategy for improving the local situation.

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ESET, spol. s.r.o. is a global vendor of security software for companies of all sizes and households.1 Its software solutions deliver instant, comprehensive protection against evolving computer security threats. The company pioneered and continues to lead the industry in proactive threat detection. Founded by six Slovak IT engineers in the Slovakian capital Bratislava in 1992, ESET has grown into one of the top five global players in the antivirus software market. How did it accomplish such amazing growth? How did it successfully market around the world mission-critical software that was originally developed in Slovakia?

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In 2015, DeliverMeal was a Norwegian online food delivery firm, mostly present in what could be considered emerging markets such as those in Africa. Founded in 2010, the company had experienced extremely rapid international expansion. DeliverMeal followed a global strategy, and standardized processes and turnkey solutions were provided from the headquarters to the subsidiaries.

The local business development manager at DeliverMeal’s Ivory Coast subsidiary needed to make some decisions on how to react to three demands that had recently been passed down from corporate headquarters, all of which were at odds with the West African environment. How could the Ivory Coast manager meet her headquarters’ corporate expectations and still conduct successful business operations within the local cultural context?

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Linda, a management consultant, had to solve a tricky problem regarding difficulties with the 'Baltic region subsidiary' of a global pharmaceutical company. She was hired by their Regional Headquarters (RHQ) for Central and Eastern Europe to disentangle this multifaceted challenge (eg sales down, employees unhappy, subsidiary manager overworked). Once Linda started with the project, she got overwhelmed by all different kinds of opinions on the issue. While one manager blamed the subsidiary manager to mishandle everything, another manager wanted the RHQ to go back to the old structure. Other opinions on the topic were the cultural misunderstandings between the employees of the various countries, or the company’s outdated products. Linda was challenged to, first, get a clear and comprehensive picture of the situation, and, second, propose a well-conceived solution to the RHQ. This case is written as a two-part series to emphasize on the importance of extensive information, data, and collection of opinions to fully grasp the situation. We suggest four questions for this Teaching Case Study. Question 1 revolves around defining the case study challenges. In order to archive this, we first propose to identify the occurring symptoms of the described problem. Second, we propose to identify the underlying causes. Based on the analysis students are asked to formulate the key challenges. Subsequently, Question 2 asks for the development of solutions. Students shall develop a solution tree, naming all possible solutions (we suggest referring to the MECE principle). Question 3 requires students to examine the complex role of a subsidiary manager. Finally, referring to Question 4, students need to prepare a well-conceived solution, which Linda should suggest to the RHQ.

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The Croatian government introduces a new tax law which restrains pharmaceutical companies’ marketing & sales activities. The focus of this case is on a local subsidiary of a global pharmaceutical company dealing with this challenging problem. At first sight the problem looks like a local issue, though, scratching the surface, it represents a global issue in pharmaceutical marketing, but only on a small scale. Globally, pharmaceutical companies deal with lots of strategic challenges, for instance: to make their marketing strategy fit for the future, to revitalize their business model, and to adapt to changes in local regulations as well as patients’ and Health Care Professionals’ (for example doctors) behaviors. In sum, this case is written to encourage students to (1) advance their analytical skills when identifying the substantial drivers of a problem (what is beyond the surface), (2) to be creative (think out of the box) to find possible solutions, and (3) understand problem solving in global corporations. The case is structured as a two-part series and provides an engaging context to understand the essence of analyzing the underlying causes of a complex problem, before rushing into solution search. In addition, it highlights the potential of problems when turned into opportunities. This case takes students through a sequence of demanding tasks: identify symptoms and causes of a firm’s particular problem, find creative solutions, reformulate the problem and explore the opportunities it offers, detect global trends as well as challenges the pharmaceutical industry is facing.

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Als im Jahr 2012 die Gratis-Zeitung Metro in Stockholm mit „Ikea raderar kvinnorna“ (schwedisch, Ikea löscht Frauen) titelte, sah sich das globale Möbelunternehmen mit schwedischen Wurzeln mit massiver Medienkritik konfrontiert. Ebenso haben schwedische Politiker/innen den Schritt, alle Frauen aus der saudi-arabischen Version des Ikea-Kataloges systematisch zu entfernen, klar verurteilt. Ikea selbst hat sich öffentlich entschuldigt und auf die eigenen Unternehmenswerte verwiesen, gegen die das Unternehmen mit dem Entfernen aller Frauen aus seinem Katalog in Saudi Arabien verstoßen hatte. Die Fallstudie beschreibt, wie in Emerging Economies das Anpassen an lokale Gegebenheiten, die vermeintlich vorteilhaft und sinnvoll erscheinen, falsch sein kann, weil es nicht nur gegen Unternehmenswerte, sondern klar gegen grundsätzliche Menschenrechte verstößt. Dieser Fall ist dementsprechend ein gutes Beispiel dafür, dass sich global tätige Unternehmen ihrer grundsätzlichen Verantwortung und den entsprechenden Werten, die sie repräsentierten, bewusst werden müssen. Demnach ist es für diese Unternehmen nicht ausreichend, die Werte, für die sie offenkundig stehen, zu definieren – diese müssen auch glaubhaft gelebt und umgesetzt werden. Zudem unterstreicht die Fallstudie, dass nicht nur die Unternehmen selbst, sondern auch ihre Heimatländer, welche sie repräsentieren, ein Interesse an verantwortungsvollem, nachhaltigem und ethischem Verhalten in Emerging Economies haben.

Miska, C., Pleskova, M., 2016. IKEA’s ethical controversies in Saudi Arabia, in: Barmeyer, C., Franklin, P. (Eds.), Intercultural Management : A Case-Based Approach to Achieving Complementarity and Synergy. Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 120–133