Case Studies

The beer industry comprises elements of sub-national, national and global competition. To expand, the industry players use various strategic approaches as illustrated by five major beer companies: Anheuser-Busch InBev (9B11M124), Groupo Modelo (9B11M125), Tsingtao Brewery (9B11M126), San Miguel (9B09M074) and Thai Bev. Observations about the beer industry — a fairly easy product and industry to understand — can be extrapolated to other industries. Lessons can be drawn regarding the influence of industry pressures on the four key components of an international expansion strategy: product choice for expansion, market choice for geographic expansion, timing of entry and mode of entry. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

Yamato Transport, Japan's leading parcel delivery company, experienced internationalization and geographical diversification issues. When it launched its operations in Singapore in 2010 with a view to further branching out into Southeast Asia, the company faced challenges owing to different cultural and social landscapes, difficulties penetrating a small and saturated market, and problems hiring manpower aligned with the company's business model. The key success factors for Yamato Transport in Japan and their applicability in Singapore are analyzed. What will it take for Yamato Transport to succeed in Singapore when pitted against the mighty SingPost? For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

The chief executive responsible for the Indonesian railways, a state-owned enterprise, is under pressure to show profits, but he also needs to balance widely diverging stakeholder expectations that include inexpensive transportation and excellent customer service. The government subsidizes the railway's passenger travel segment and has capped its fare prices, which has turned the railway's mainstay into a loss-making business. The chief executive wonders how to best trade off the different stakeholder expectations. He needs to develop a plan to present to the minister for State-Owned Enterprises. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

The beer industry comprises elements of sub-national, national and global competition. To expand, the industry players use various strategic approaches as illustrated by five major beer companies: Anheuser-Busch InBev (9B11M124), Groupo Modelo (9B11M125), Tsingtao Brewery, San Miguel (9B09M074) and Thai Bev (9B13M065). Observations about the beer industry — a fairly easy product and industry to understand — can be extrapolated to other industries. Lessons can be drawn regarding the influence of industry pressures on the four key components of an international expansion strategy: product choice for expansion, market choice for geographic expansion, timing of entry and mode of entry. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

The beer industry comprises elements of sub-national, national and global competition. To expand, the industry players use various strategic approaches as illustrated by five major beer companies: Anheuser-Busch InBev (9B11M124), Groupo Modelo, Tsingtao Brewery (9B11M126), San Miguel (9B09M074) and Thai Bev (9B13M065). Observations about the beer industry — a fairly easy product and industry to understand — can be extrapolated to other industries. Lessons can be drawn regarding the influence of industry pressures on the four key components of an international expansion strategy: product choice for expansion, market choice for geographic expansion, timing of entry and mode of entry. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

The beer industry comprises elements of sub-national, national and global competition. To expand, the industry players use various strategic approaches as illustrated by five major beer companies: Anheuser-Busch InBev, Groupo Modelo (9B11M125), Tsingtao Brewery (9B11M126), San Miguel (9B09M074) and Thai Bev (9B13M065). Observations about the beer industry — a fairly easy product and industry to understand — can be extrapolated to other industries. Lessons can be drawn regarding the influence of industry pressures on the four key components of an international expansion strategy: product choice for expansion, market choice for geographic expansion, timing of entry and mode of entry. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

Led by CEO S.D. Darmono, Jababeka was a publicly listed real estate firm in Indonesia specializing in industrial estates. Due to infrastructure and logistics bottlenecks in Indonesia, the company had moved into various infrastructure projects, including a power plant and a port. Even though the company had identified substantial business opportunities in the form of a captive market of industrial estate tenants, both projects suffered from delays due to regulatory complexity. Darmono skillfully aligned the interests of private and public-sector partners, but was still unable to get quick returns on his considerable investments, necessitating an allocation of more funds. The case illustrates the opportunities and risks of emerging market infrastructure projects. Students are asked to evaluate the viability of Jababeka's new infrastructure strategy and formulate an action plan. 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 presents a means by which students can explore how government policy can be influenced by the actions of stakeholders in an economy: firms, taxpayers and voters, unions and other such organizations. It highlights the point that policy-making can be a process endogenous to the interests and influence of private sector influence, and not an exogenous one, even in domains that are the power reserve of public policy makers. In 2010, the ruling party in Australia had devised a new tax, which they designated as the Resource Super Profit Tax (RSPT). This tax was devised to enable national and state governments to benefit from the boom in the mining industry by expropriating a greater portion of the earnings of the industry, via the imposition of a new tax. The RSPT was devised without any input from major mining companies in Australia, and if implemented it represented a substantial increase in their tax payable. The case is presented from the perspective of the CEO of BHP Billiton, one of the largest mining companies in Australia. The situation considers what, if any, action can be taken to combat a tax that has already been devised by the government, and is about to be implemented. Successful analysis of the case involves an evaluation of all interested stakeholders in the Australian economy that will be influenced by the imposition of the RSPT. After this is done, a strategy needs to be devised that will successfully influence a government to withdraw a tax to which it has already demonstrated a firm commitment. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

The Wang Group was created by Alfred Wang in Hong Kong after fleeing China during the turbulence that marked the beginning of the communist regime. After successfully building up the diversified trading business and expanding to various other Asian countries, in 1995, the business was taken over by his second son, Charles Wang, a charismatic leader. Charles wished to create a more sustainable family business, tuned in to today's global trends, and run by non-family members. To this end, Charles hired an outside CEO to implement his vision after implementing a far-reaching corporate change program. The global economic crisis that started in 2008, however, caught the company halfway through the reorganization, and brought losses and the departure of the newly hired CEO. Charles Wang had no other option than to again take up the top job himself, and had to reconsider the path towards a sustainable future for the family firm. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)

Marco Polo Marine (MPM) Ltd is a medium-sized Singaporean shipping company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange, involved in regional shipping and shipbuilding. The company was part of a larger Indonesian family business group, and had been built from scratch by the CEO, the heir to the group. MPM had started off providing barges to transport mining products and sand, initially for the group's mining operations, but increasingly for third parties. It subsequently entered the shipbuilding industry by establishing a shipyard in Batam, Indonesia, an island near Singapore. As a next step to grow the company, the CEO intended to become an international player in the much more sophisticated offshore marine services sector, but he had yet to decide what strategy to take to achieve it. The case study allows students to analyze a global industry and present recommendations to the CEO for positioning the company within this industry. As a company from an emerging market, MPM is an example of an aspiring "emerging market multinational" and the case discusses the challenges such companies face in catching up with more advanced incumbents in global industries. In order to penetrate this market, decisions are required as to what types of vessels to build or buy, which countries to target and how to enter this market given financial constraints and limited technical expertise. For NUS Business School: (Faculty only) To obtain a free copy of the case, please contact Ms Kwok Siew Geok (bizksg@nus.edu.sg)