Teaching note for product W44280.

For Hiroaki Otani, president of YKK Corporation (YKK), the year 2024 began with uncertain challenges. Though YKK had been leading the zipper industry for decades with a large global market share, highly integrated production capability, and advanced technology, the zipper market’s competitive environment was gradually changing, especially within the emerging Asian markets. Furthermore, the global apparel market had slumped due to the COVID-19 pandemic .....more

In May 2023, KOSE Corporation (KOSE) was facing three ominous factors in the Chinese market: declining sales due to weak consumer spending in China following a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases after Beijing ended its zero-COVID-19 policy, new regulations requiring beauty manufactures after January 2024 to label all ingredients that constituted more than 0.1 per cent of a product in descending order (thereby risking disclosing trade secrets), .....more

Teaching note for product W36187.

Spreadsheet to accompany product W36187.

Teaching note for product W37150.

Despite the supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) managed to increase its sales and retain its title as the world’s top-selling carmaker for three consecutive years from 2020. However, the gradual shift in global market trends toward battery electric vehicles (BEVs) threatened to leave Toyota lagging behind, particularly in China, the United States, and Europe. In response to the threats from BYD .....more

The Japanese sake market witnessed a 40-year decline, fueled by shifting consumer preferences and an aging customer base. Asahi Shuzo Co. Ltd. (Asahi Shuzo), a once-struggling brewery from Yamaguchi, defied the trend with the success of its singular brand of sake, Dassai. By 2022, under the leadership of the founder and chairperson of the company, Asahi Shuzo’s sales surpassed ￥ (yen) 16.5 billion, marking a phenomenal 165-fold increase since 1984. .....more

Teaching note for product W34735.

In December 2023, Nippon Steel Corporation, Japan’s largest steel production company, announced plans to acquire United States Steel Corporation (U. S. Steel) for US$14.1 billion. Just four years earlier, the company experienced a ￥430 billion deficit for its 2019 fiscal year. After the appointment of a new president in 2019, however, Nippon Steel successfully achieved a V-shaped recovery, rescuing it from the verge of bankruptcy. Immediately after .....more