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Describes the winning formula at Neiman Marcus that has made it the No. 1 luxury retailer in the United States in terms of sales per square foot and profitability. Highlights Neiman Marcus' efforts to define who its customers are and are not and to achieve superior focus on its customers by aligning location, price, service, and merchandise to fulfill these customers' every need. Describes ways in which Neiman Marcus prevents typical silo behavior between merchandising and selling and how it ensures that the right merchandise gets to the right customer, despite the challenge of doing this in 36 micromarkets.

To show how a company integrates two strong high-performance functions—merchandising and sales—to get the right merchandise to each customer in more than 30 diverse selling locations while consistently providing exceptional customer service.

Business contracts are done on General Conditions of Contracts (GCC). The GCCs have detailed terms to displace general principles of contract law and bring certainty in commercial dealings. Bunge SA v Nidera BV, is a judgment of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, on damages terms in GCCs. A term on damages may not be a comprehensive code, answering all questions on damages. In this case, the general principles will survive and interact and interface with the contract terms to settle the rights and obligations of the parties.

International marketing/export marketing.

This case is appropriate for discussion in courses such as international marketing and export marketing of post graduate studies in management. The case can also be used for management development programmes concerning practising managers.

The case is based on export marketing strategy with special focus on developing strong buyer (customer) relationships and the associated challenges of a trading company, The Handicrafts and Handlooms Exports Corporation of India Ltd (HHEC). The corporation primarily engages in export of handlooms and handicraft products from India. Since 2005-06 the corporation has been incurring losses and it was only in 2010-11 that the corporation has registered a positive net profit.

To understand the appropriate strategies for buyer retention; to understand appropriate promotion strategies of non-essential items like handicraft, handloom and carpets; and to help students in making decisions for export marketing like understanding product characteristic, development of samples, procurement of products, vendor management, and pricing decisions.

Teaching notes.

In January 2012, Ellen Kullman, CEO and chairman of DuPont, must decide whether to retain or sell the company's Performance Coatings (DPC) division. This is an introductory case on valuing a leveraged buyout. The case focuses on a publicly listed corporation's decision to divest a large division and asks students to compare the division's value if it remains under DuPont's control or is sold to an outside party. The transaction size of approximately $4 billion is too large for potential strategic buyers in the industry, making private equity (PE) firms the most likely bidders. The case provides a base-case adjusted present value (APV) model of DPC as a stand-alone company and gives students specific assignments to adjust it to reflect the division's potential value under PE ownership (e.g., EBITDA growth, multiple arbitrage, and increased leverage).

The case is designed to illustrate and discuss the differences between a public company's valuation based on unlevered free cash flows and a PE sponsor's valuation based on residual (levered) cash flows.

This case has been successfully taught in a second-year elective course covering entrepreneurial finance and private equity and in an advanced undergraduate course on corporate finance. It is appropriate for use in classes on private equity, advanced corporate finance, or deal valuation.

This paper aims to first, identify the external and internal factors that a company needs to analyze when formulating its digital platform strategy. Based on the framework of PESTNPG (political economic social and culture technological population and globalization) and internal analysis a company should analyze both internal and external factors to formulate its digital platform strategy. For companies from emerging markets the institutional-based market created by national or local governments is important for digital platform strategy. Second dynamic capability theory and its linkages to digital platform strategy. The dynamic capabilities view is considered as a primary theoretical lens in the strategy literature to analyze a company’s strategies to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. To carry out a successful digital platform strategy companies need to build strong dynamic capabilities to capture or create opportunities and reconfigure their resources simultaneously. Third the advantages and disadvantages of different digital platform strategies (i.e. an independent digital platform and online–offline integration platform) and the possible consequences and risks of different strategies. It is important to evaluate different types of digital platform strategies that require different capabilities in terms of business structure product structure revenue structure organizational structure and technology architecture. A company needs to link these capabilities to a digital platform strategy to enable the integration (or separation) of online business with offline business. It also increases the accuracy and efficiency of online business. Fourth key points of digital platform strategy implementation. Companies need to identify key profit models for their digital platform to promote business growth and financial returns. It is equally important to increase customer value by leveraging its digital exhibition platform and to learn to use digital technology to foster organizational dematerialization.

Zhejiang Meorient Commerce & Exhibition Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “Meorient”) was a leading company in the exhibition industry in China. The unexpected outbreak of COVID-19 plunged Meorient into a state of emergency that forced it to fight for survival. Further, China had launched a national strategy of Digital China, which created new market opportunities for Meorient. As a result, Meorient gradually developed and launched its digital exhibition services in 2015. Meorient suffered significant losses in 2020 due to COVID-19 and had to formulate a new strategy based on a digital exhibition platform in 2021. Chairman Pan Jianjun had two options. One was a purely digital platform strategy without the original offline exhibition business. The other one was an online and offline integration strategy. Which option was the best way forward for Meorient? Pan had to make a choice. Some of the top management team members believed Meorient should completely transform into a digital platform company and provide comprehensive online digital exhibition services. Over the previous 20 years, Meorient had accumulated a large amount of data from domestic and foreign exhibitors and professional buyers and had gradually developed a digital exhibition platform. It was one of the companies that pioneered digital transformation within China’s exhibition industry. More conservative thinking held that Meorient's strategy should focus more narrowly on the integration of online and offline exhibition businesses. Toward the post-pandemic era, China’s national strategy of “Digital China” accelerated the development of digital infrastructures. During such critical transitional period, Meorient had to choose wisely if it was to sustain its profits or even survive.

The case is aimed at students in undergraduate, MBA, short course executive, EMBA or other executive education programs, especially where digital transformation is featured subject matter.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy

This case has multiple theoretical linkages at the micro-organizational behavior level (e.g. job enrichment), but it is best analyzed and understood when examined at the organizational level. Students will learn about shared entrepreneurship, high performance work systems, shared leadership and virtuous organizations, and how they can develop a sustainable competitive advantage.

The case was prepared using a qualitative approach. Data were collected via the following ways: literature search; organizational documents and published historical accounts; direct observations by a research team; and on-site audio recorded and transcribed individual and group interviews conducted by a research team (the authors) with organization members at multiple levels of the firm.

John Lewis Company has been in business since 1864. In 1929, it became the John Lewis Partnership (JLP) when the son of the founder sold a portion of the firm to the employees. In 1955, he sold his remaining interest to the employee/partners. JLP has a constitution and has a representative democracy governance structure. As the firm approaches the 100th anniversary of the trust, it is faced with multiple challenges. The partners are faced with the question – How to respond to the environmental turmoil?

This case has environmental issues – How to respond to competition, technological changes and environmental uncertainty and an internal issue – How can high performance work practices provide a sustainable competitive advantage? Both issues can be examined in strategic management courses after the students have studied traditionally managed companies. This case could also be used in human resource management courses.

The case includes links to video clips on textile and apparel manufacture to familiarize students with the textile manufacturing process. The case also provides links to audio and video clips of the case protagonist discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the cluster at IK.

The case offers opportunities for the learner to analyze the situation from three cases as follows: industry, cluster (broadly location) and firm. Specific teaching objectives are as follows: How to identify and analyze the drivers of competitiveness of a cluster. Assess the strength of clusters using Porter’s Diamond framework. Map the linkages between players of a cluster as follows: across firms, industries and public organizations. Benchmark and compare clusters to identify opportunities for upgrading competitiveness.

The case describes the challenge facing Mr Nikunj Bagdia, the owner and chief executive of Ken Enterprises Private Limited (Ken), a textile manufacturing unit located in the town of Ichalkaranji (IK), in October of 2019. IK boasts the largest number of cutting-edge air-jet looms in India and Ken is IK’s largest exporter of woven textile fabrics. However, IK lags the textile and apparel manufacturing cluster of Tiruppur, in another region of the country. The case enables a microeconomic analysis of the business environment of industrial clusters and a cluster mapping exercise, which helps identify opportunities for enhancing IK’s textile cluster. As the case closes, Nikunj is trying to prioritize opportunities that could emerge from the analyzes.

Masters/MBA level courses on competitiveness, strategy for economic development and microeconomics of competitiveness.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Supply Chain Management, Technology, Procurement, Supply Chain Finance

The key learning objectives are as follows: to gain critical insights into e-commerce supply chains of fashion garments; understand the importance of digitization to manage the risks due to supply chain disruptions; evaluate the role of digitization to improve supply chain performance; understand the importance of supply chain finance in maintaining a healthy buyer–supplier relationship; and appreciate the role of supply chain digitization to transform a regional supply chain into a global supply chain.

This case highlights the challenges faced by fashion garments industry due to fragmented nature of their supply chains, where the manufacturing base was in the east and most of the consumers in the west. Digitization can create a bridge to integrate these supply chains to drive out their inefficiency, fragility and vulnerability to disruptions.

The case could be discussed in 90 min of an Operations Management, Supply Chain Management and Technology Management class at MBA or Executive MBA level.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

As the operational entity of China Yiwu Commodity Market, Yiwugou is designed to integrate online and offline business to upgrade the physical market by relying on and serving the physical market. It aims to highlight Yiwu Market where every physical shop is related to an online shop, thus protecting honest trade. The strong support from more than 70,000 physical shops owned by Yiwugou ensures the first-hand supply that poses a problem for most e-commerce merchants, and equips Yiwugou with competitive advantage. In terms of marketing, Yiwugou is now aiming at commodity markets across the country through the “Center Plan”, and advertising in public space such as airports. Relying on physical market, Yiwugou Hall distributes commodities with Yiwu's features and superior sources of goods to other places, and connects local market players to Yiwu market, establishing an unobstructed supply channel.

This case was developed to serve as a foundation for student discussion of the use of contingent forms of payment in M&A. The protagonist in the case represents the buyer, and must design terms of contingent payment (“arnout”) that will protect the buyer if the rosy future does not occur, yet reward the seller if it does. Students are given completed discounted cash flow (DCF) valuations of the target (Digitech) under both the seller's and buyer's forecasts, which reveal a wide gulf in valuation. The protagonist seeks to bridge this gulf through a combination of fixed and contingent payments to the seller. Two different earnout designs are suggested in the case. Students must simulate the value of the earnout to estimate the expected value of this provision from the standpoints of both the buyer and seller.