The 2020 Future of Leadership Global Executive Study and Research Report finds that leaders may be holding on to behaviors that might have worked once but now stymie the talents of their employees. Organizations must empower leaders to change their ways of working to succeed in a new digital economy. The study takes a look at how Fung Group’s leaders have had to address strategic, cultural, human-capital, and personal blind spots to keep up with the pace of change. 

China’s department store sector has gone through some ups and downs in the last decade. The lackluster performance was due in part to the rise of e-commerce as well as the government’s strengthened anti-corruption efforts to eliminate lavish gifts for government officials. To cope with China’s ever-changing retail environment, increasing numbers of department store operators have reinvented and upgraded their businesses by pursuing innovation and transformation initiatives. This report discusses the key innovation and transformation initiatives of leading department store operators, major issues and challenges faced by the sector, and development trends for 2019.

Synopsis: PwC surveyed 1,155 executives at global manufacturing companies in 26 countries and asked them about their views on Industry 4.0 and digital operations. Li & Fung’s digital transformation and vision of creating the supply chain of the future is featured.

Synopsis: This case study is based on a four-year, multi-method research project with companies engaged in internal crowdsourcing. In one part of the research, MIT Sloan conducted in-depth analyses at three large organizations (one in health care, one in telecommunications, and one in retail), and conducted interviews with the executives in charge of the internal crowdsourcing. At fashion and retail company Li & Fung Ltd., MIT Sloan had access to the ideas, documents, and thinking process behind the design of an internal crowdsourcing event.

Synopsis: Chinese family businesses that continue to thrive for more than a century are few and far in between and Fung Group is one of them. Starting as a traditional trader in the early years, Fung Group evolved into a modern multinational enterprise. This book presents the Fung Group’s 110 years of development history and experiences and highlights the transformation and expansion since the global financial crisis in 2008, innovative developments in supply chain management, corporate social responsibility as well as the development opportunities and vision under China’s “Belt and Road” Initiative strategy.

Synopsis: Facing rising expectations on safety compliance, environment, social and working standards, this case study examines how Li & Fung decided to create an integrated and holistic strategy to address these issues in a manner that would create solutions and build value for LF customers in sustainable supply chain management.

Synopsis: Having been able to follow its own “three-year plan” on course constantly, Li & Fung Limited fell short of meeting its stretch earnings target for the first time in almost two decades, leading to a double-digit drop in stock price overnight. Questions were raised on the company’s strategies pursued to meet such targets, and on the validity of its Three-Year Planning process.

Synopsis: How does a small family-run Chinese company navigate through war, revolution, and drastic changes in the world economy to become one of Asia’s first multinationals? The new edition of this book, based on private interviews and access to historical documents, traces the growth of Li & Fung over the past 100 years. It also analyzes the future challenges and the plans that Li & Fung has mapped out for the China market.

Synopsis: This case study describes how Li & Fung utilizes information technology to acquire real-time information from distant factories and to fast-track integration of its acquisitions. It was written in the middle of the company’s Three-Year Plan (2008-2010) which set a target of increasing its size to US$20 billion, from the 2007 level of $11.9 billion. It talks about the company using ecVision’s platform across the spectrum as a single solution that integrates vendor information. The platform supports its internal sourcing teams and vendors, facilitating collaboration in managing its global supply chain and shipping tasks. It also highlights some of the other IT infrastructure such as web conferencing to reduce travel and communication costs.

Synopsis: The second edition offers new material on how the Fung Group’s listed entities are managing through vast changes in the global economy. It also sheds new light on the reasons behind Li & Fung’s success, Victor Fung’s views on the relationship between multilateral trade and supply chains, William Fung’s analysis of how Li & Fung has changed supply chains worldwide, and discussions on the environment and other topical issues.

Synopsis: IDS Group, a provider of supply chain solutions, developed a supply chain concept called “Value Chain Logistics”. Value Chain Logistics took a holistic view of the entire value chain by positioning logistics as the fundamental enabler to drive maximum efficiency and responsiveness in all the steps: from manufacturing to distribution to the final consumers. Given the geo-social diversity of various Asian markets, companies often faced distribution challenges as they tried to bring high quality products to their final consumers at a reasonable cost. As a pioneer of this new supply chain concept, IDS had helped its customers to achieve overall lower supply chain costs while meeting dynamic customer needs.

Synopsis: In the “flat world,” everything changes so what does it take to run a winning company? Success is less about what the company can do itself and more about what it can connect to.  Li & Fung pioneered “flat world” success to become a leading supplier of garments and other consumer goods for the world’s top brands and retailers – without owning a single factory.

Synopsis: This case study discusses the global supply chain management practices of Li & Fung and examines how the company has positioned itself as a global supply chain manager, describing its supply chain management strategy including the dispersed manufacturing technique and its global supplier network.

Synopsis: This case study examines the evolution of Li & Fung from a traditional trading company into a global consumer goods export trading giant and a manager of customers’ supply chains. It discusses the company’s efforts to constantly evolve its business model in response to the changes in the external environment and the customer needs and preferences.

Synopsis: This case study discusses global supply chain management and focuses on Li & Fung as one of Hong Kong’s most successful trading companies. It covers Victor Fung’s and William Fung’s views on the age of the Internet in which they believe that trading intermediaries have an important role to play. Beyond matching the needs of the buyers and sellers to add value in innovative ways, Li & Fung also knows that it will have to keep innovating to stay ahead of other players.

Synopsis: In this interview, Victor Fung explains both the philosophy behind supply chain management and the specific practices that Li & Fung has developed to reduce costs and lead times, allowing its customers to buy “closer to the market.” He describes the organizational approaches that keep the company that way despite its growing size and geographic scope: its organization around small, customer-focused units; its incentives and compensation structure; and its use of venture capital as a vehicle for business development.

Synopsis: The history of Li & Fung which had its origins in Canton 85 years ago, and moved to Hong Kong before the Pacific war, to become one of the biggest trading and retailing houses in the territory.