Case Studies - Strategy
This page provides a summary and a link to all Strategy case studies.
Case 2006-2: Casella Wine and the Success of Yellow-Tail
There could be little doubt that Casella Wines has ascended quickly among Australia’s Top twenty wine exporters. It started from eighth position in 2001, and then moved to fifth, fourth, and finally third position by 2004. In fact, Casella’s performance has resulted for the first time in a decade reshaped the order of Australia’s top five wine exporters by both volume and value. Today it accounts for more than one third of Australian wine sales in the U.S. In less than ten years it has grown from five to more than three hundred employees in the winery business alone.
Peter Steane and Yuvon Dufour
The flat panel display industry is the paradigmatic case where a pattern of industrial dynamics can be associated with strategies of fast followership by companies following national trajectories. Starting with the launch of a new technological trajectory based on TFT-LCD technology in the late 1980s, by Sharp, IBM Japan, and Toshiba, the industry has grown rapidly, but has followed wrenching changes through industry cycles (based on changes in prices and production levels) and product cycles as well as value chain dynamics. In the first cycle, new Japanese entrants became players. In the second cycle downturn, Korean firms forced entry, following Japanese initiatives. In the third cycle downturn, Taiwanese firms also forced entry, through counter-cyclical investment. In the fourth cycle downturn, further Taiwanese firms forced entry, while Korean firms invested counter-cyclically to gain leadership of the industry. Now in the fifth cycle, which is likely to peak by the end of 2003 or early in 2004, Korean and Taiwanese firms have become the incumbents, while Singapore and China are also becoming players.
John Mathews
Case 2003-3: Culturecom Hong Kong: Building an alternative to Wintel IT systems in Greater China
While the strategy of platform leadership is usually taken to describe advanced firms in advanced economies bidding for supremacy in their respective industries – such as Cisco in routers, or Intel in microprocessors, or Palm in handheld devices – the case of Culturecom in Hong Kong presents unusual features. Here is a company that is barely past startup phase of a new career in IT and Chinese computing (after transforming itself from a previously well known Hong Kong publisher of Chinese newspapers and comic books) and it is already bidding to be the creator and leader of a new platform for computing in greater China based on efficient creation, processing and storing of Chinese characters and the use of open-source software such as Linux. Culturecom represents an unusual entrepreneurial combination between a smart company promoter, Mr Cheung Wai-Tung, and a visionary technologist, Mr. Chu Bong Foo, both of whom are contributing essential skills to the emergence of a new IT powerhouse in greater China.
John Mathews
Case 2003-2: Strategic Alliances for World Competitiveness: The Case of GPC Electronics
Strategic alliances and business networks can provide organisations with the capability and flexibility to compete with the world. This paper demonstrates the principles of alliances and networks, outlines some government initiatives in this area, and finishes with a case study of General Power Controls (GPC), an Australian manufacturer who successfully competes with other manufacturers throughout the world.
Robert Hunt et al.
Case 2003-1: Cobento Biotech: Birth of a Danish Biotech Company
The production of human and veterinary therapeutic goods from transgenic plants is likely to be one of the most significant areas of application of biotechnology in the 21st century. It has the potential to grow into a major user of plants alongside traditional agriculture growing plants for food. Basically, the idea is that the genes for some particular protein of interest – a growth hormone, or a growth factor, or an immune system component – are identified and sequenced, and then this gene sequence is inserted into the genome of a suitable plant, which then grows and produces the desired protein as a by-product. The plants can be harvested and processed, and the desired product extracted and purified – without any of the problems that arise in chemical synthesis or in production of therapeutic goods by domestic animals such as cows or pigs.
John Mathews and Poul H. Andersen
Case 2002-2: Proteome Systems Ltd: A Macquarie Life Science Spinoff
The 20th November 2001, is a date to remember in the annals of the Australian biotechnology industry. This was the day when the Australian proteomics startup company, Proteome Systems Ltd (PSL), shocked the world biotech community with its announcement of a global strategic alliance with IBM Life Sciences. This announcement, and the depth of collaboration between PSL and IBM in the field of bioinformatics, indicated that this Australian company had “arrived” as a major player in the emerging biotech industry. It was not yet three years old, and had not even had its IPO.
John Mathews and Ramon del Carmen
The New South Wales Police Service (NSWPS) is Australia’s largest police service. With more than 17,000 staff, it is a significant organisation with an important purpose: to reduce crime and pursue increased public safety. Since the mid 1990s it has implemented a range of major changes designed to improve its performance. These have included changes in leadership and management, organisational structure, training and use of technology. The Operations and Crime Reviews (OCRs) commenced in January 1998. Involving principally the Commissioner, his Executive and Local Area Commanders (LACs) their aim has been to focus the organisation on “ethical, cost effective crime reduction”, underline the accountability of the LACs and provide an opportunity for top and senior level managers to share information, discuss strategy, tactics and results and learn.
Ed Davis
Case 2001-4: The Case of the New Intranet
Daina looked at her screen in dismay. “S@*#”, she thought, “only five users yesterday”. She glanced up in half prayer and saw the old version of the corporate mission attached to the wall above the screen “We aim to be the best road maintenance service organisation in the world” it said, .. she thought “ and, I am about to be run over by a truck unless I can get these guys to participate”. Daina was looking at the web log for the intranet CI system she had set up for Transport Asset Management (TAM). Specifically she was looking at the log for CI input. Five users was well below her self imposed kpi target of 30 items per day, and this was in spite of a memo email that had gone out to everyone from David asking for them to cooperate in inputting material.
Chris Hall
Case 2001-3: Taiwan's Dragon Multinational: The Acer Group
Acer is the world’s largest and most successful Chinese high technology company – and it is not yet 25 years old. Established in Taiwan in1976 by entrepreneur Stan Shih, Acer has grown to become a diversified IT group and a world leader in the Personal Computer industry. It is the world’s third largest PC producer (of both branded and original equipment production) and is one of the Top Ten branded PC producers. It offers a range of IT products including high-end servers, multimedia PCs, notebooks, computer peripherals, components and semiconductors – as well as cellular telephones, internet service providers and a range of web-based services. The Acer group encompasses over 120 offices spanning 37 countries and employing more than 32,000 people. The group operates 17 manufacturing sites and 26 assembly plants in 21 countries. Acer group revenues were US$6.7 billion in 1998, rising to $8.7 billion in 1999, but plateauing in the difficult year 2000.
John Mathews
Case 2001-2: The Birth of the Biotechnology Era: Penicillin in Australia, 1943-1980
As Australia seeks to forge a national identity in the year 2001, it is timely to remember that there have been some remarkable achievements in science, technology and industry. One of the most notable is the development of penicillin, as a wartime project, to which Australians made major contributions. Australians during and immediately after the war contributed so much to the scientific identification and purification of penicillin, and to the industrial scaling up in its production at the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories in Melbourne. And yet the nascent antibiotic industry was allowed to run down and eventually disappeared by the end of the 1970s.
John Mathews
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