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Case Study

Chinese entrepreneurs: The story of Michael Ma

By Winter Nie, Katherine Xin and Lily Zhang

6 pages

November 2007

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Reference: IMD-3-1857

The initial business model of the Speedup Automobile Racing was very traditional. Sponsors provided economic support so Speedup could participate in championship races. However with competition becoming increasingly fierce, Speedup needed to find a new profit model. One such model which Michael Ma implemented was a copy of the Formula One promoter Bernie Ecclestone’s model. Another would be to turn the club’s six departments into six independent profit centers. What sort of challenges would Michael Ma face in building a new business model?

Learning Objective

To understand how Chinese entrepreneurs started from scratch and grew to a certain size and how the business evolved as they grew. What entrepreneurial characteristics can be drawn from the case? What contributed to their success? How could MNCs compete with them in the China market? As they move forward, what challenges are they likely to face in the future?

Keywords

Formula One

Settings

China
2000-2006

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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