Case Studies

As the end credits to The Gift of Time rolled at a private screening in Tokyo in October 2024, Mr. Akio Naito, president of the Seiko Watch Corporation, reflected on the themes of the short film and their implications for the Grand Seiko brand of luxury watches. Originally a domestic Japanese brand, Grand Seiko had evolved into an international luxury brand that appealed to collectors and connoisseurs with its design philosophy expressing Japanese aesthetics, quality, and craftmanship—“quiet luxury”—as opposed to ostentatious status symbols. Although Grand Seiko had seen healthy growth in its sales in recent years, Naito was concerned about its future prospects. A shift in Grand Seiko’s customer base toward a younger, more international audience would eventually be necessary to sustain its growth. Could Grand Seiko compete with the established luxury watch brands and appeal to younger consumers without diluting the very philosophy that differentiated it? For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

Aier Eye Hospital Group Co. Ltd. (Aier) grew from a local Chinese provider into a global ophthalmology hospital chain, supported by a split leadership structure separating the hospital chief executive officer from the medical president, a Partner Incentive Program, and a plan-do-study-act style of management. The case reviewed the management team and operating model of Aier and introduced three management approaches: value-based health care (VBHC), time-driven activity-based costing, and the balanced scorecard. By 2026, Chen Bang, Aier’s founder, must decide how to institutionalize a VBHC model to shift Aier from scale-driven growth to high-quality, innovation-driven development while continuing to expand access to eye care and deliver attractive returns to shareholders. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

Circle Internet Group Inc. (Circle) debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on June 5, 2025, reaching a $63 billion valuation. As the issuer of USDC, Circle managed $65 billion in digital dollars, generating revenue primarily through interest on US Treasury reserves. However, the company faced a fundamental dilemma: high interest rates drove profits but increased the opportunity cost for users, while falling rates squeezed margins. Additionally, Circle had to navigate a complex revenue-sharing pact with Coinbase Global Inc. and competition from Tether Limited. Using Circle's financial statements and accounting for the impact of the GENIUS Act and the operational risks highlighted by the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, a financial analyst had to assess the sustainability of Circle's business model and the risks it faced. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

Kenedix, Inc. (Kenedix) was a Japanese financial institution that managed real-estate funds. Recent turbulence in the economy and market had impacted the company adversely. In light of Kenedix’s medium- and long-term goals, its president and chief executive officer (CEO) was meeting in March 2020 with the company’s management to come up with a viable plan to address these challenges. Over the past several years, Kenedix had worked to shift its business toward an asset-light model and had introduced innovative solutions such as crowdfunding. The CEO believed that more could be done to leverage emerging technologies into the company’s core business of real-estate fund management. He and his team needed to consider whether adopting blockchain technology in finance, or real-estate tokenization, would enable the company to thrive in a saturated real-estate equity market. Could tokenization act not only as a solution to the company’s current plight but as a strategic competency for the future? For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

In October 2022, Adidas Group faced a significant public relations crisis involving its long-standing partnership with Kanye West, by then legally known as Ye. After terminating the partnership, Adidas was left with a substantial inventory of Ye-designed Yeezy sneakers and uncertainty about how to manage it. At the same time, Adidas was dealing with a shareholder lawsuit, with investors claiming the company failed to adequately disclose the risks associated with its Yeezy business. Adidas must now consider its options in dealing with the Yeezy inventory, the financial consequences for reporting how it dealt with the inventory, and any obligations it has considering the pending shareholder lawsuit For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

This case follows the Republic of Indonesia as it considered issuing its first blue bond to support its sustainable marine initiatives. The case puts students in the role of a team evaluating three potential markets for the issuance: US dollar (USD), euro (EUR), and Japan’s samurai bond market. Indonesia had built a strong track record in the USD and EUR markets, with multiple successful green and SDG bond issuances since 2018. Meanwhile, the samurai market presented a less conventional but potentially strategic opportunity. However, Japan’s conservative investor profile, which preferred plain-vanilla structures, and its limited secondary market liquidity presented trade-offs. The team faces a complex task to evaluate whether, how, and where Indonesia should launch its first blue bond. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

In early 2025, Elise Lim Ying Qi, a new analyst in the human resources (HR) analytics team at Murata Electronics Singapore Pte. Ltd. (MES), had inherited a regression-analysis project that identified key drivers of employee engagement. With results showing that variables like collaboration and job satisfaction were significant, Lim was now expected to interpret the findings and determine what next steps the company should take to improve employee engagement and retention. She was considering conducting focus groups to explore the results more deeply, but she wasn’t sure which employees to include, how to group them, or how to translate quantitative findings into actionable strategies. Facing uncertainty about how to design follow-up focus groups and communicate insights, she was navigating the challenges of applying data-driven methods in a traditionally qualitative HR environment. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

Great Eastern Holdings Ltd. (GEH)—a leading insurance company offering life and general insurance products, along with asset management services across Southeast Asia—received a buyout offer on May 10, 2024, from its major shareholder, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Ltd. (OCBC). The offer was to acquire the remaining 11.56 per cent stake for S$1.4 billion. The offer price of $25.60 per share was 36.9 per cent higher than GEH’s last traded price of $18.70 but 30 per cent lower than GEH’s embedded value per share of $36.59 as of December 31, 2023. GEH minority shareholders needed to make an informed decision based on the valuation of GEH and weigh the trade-offs of accepting the offer. Key considerations included fair valuation, the interest of minority shareholders, OCBC’s strategic intention, and the potential delisting of GEH from Singapore Exchange Ltd. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

Best World International Private Limited, a company specializing in skin care and wellness products, had faced a multitude of challenges, prompting management to consider delisting it from the public stock exchange. The issues included declining profits, market uncertainties, trading halts, volatile stock prices, and increased regulatory scrutiny. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

In July 2024, McDonald’s Corporation (McDonald’s) faced a strategic dilemma amid rising inflation and interest rates. The introduction of a $5 Meal Deal, designed to attract cost-sensitive customers, sparked concerns among franchisees about shrinking profit margins in the context of McDonald’s franchise-heavy model, which relied on revenue from rent and royalties. McDonald’s had also made substantial real estate investment a core part of its business strategy; this provided stable income but also brought significant liabilities. The company’s chief executive officer needed to consider how the $5 Meal Deal would affect McDonald’s financial resilience and margins in a high-inflation and high-interest-rate environment. What would its impact be on both franchised and company-operated restaurants? For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)