Rahul Jacob, “Inside Track: Traditional Values at the Click of a Mouse,” Financial Times, August 1, 2000, p. 14. Online book retailer Amazon.com changed the book business compelling conventional book retailers to react. Some data in this area originates from past Harvard Business School Case Studies: “Li and Fung: Beyond “Filling in the Mosaic”- 1995-98,” (HBS Publishing No. 398-092) Michael Y. Yoshino, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Anthony St. George; January 1, 1998;  Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey and “Li and Fung (Trading) Ltd.,” HBS Publishing (No. 396-075) Gary Loveman, Jamie O’Connell, October 26, 1995.  Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey With a public interview the next day, William was certain of the Group’s presentation and lifung.com’s prospects. In any case, he realized that significant issues stayed uncertain: Was there any opportunity of channel strife or cannibalization between the disconnected business and the start-up? How might the market resp Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey ond to the start-up once it was propelled the next year? What’s more, how explicitly would web based business at last change his family’s extremely old organization? Organization Background Li and Fung was established in 1906 by William’s granddad, Fung Pak-Liu and his accomplice, Li To-Ming in Guangzhou, China as a fare exchanging organization offering to abroad vendors. During the 1920s and 1930s the organization differentiated into warehousing and the production of crafted works. Soon after Fung Pak-Liu passed away in 1943, his child Fung Hon-Chu accepted charge of the organization. After two years, quiet accomplice Li To-Ming resigned and offered his offers to the organization. The organization held Li’s surname, a homophone “I’m not an Internet fellow, I’m a business fellow,” jested William Fung, overseeing executive of Li and Fung Trading Co. Clad in his chinos and dark American Eagle T-shirt, Fung looked significantly more like another economy business visi Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey onary than the selfdescribed disconnected, “old economy relic”: “I’m 51, I’m in excess of a silver hair in Internet terms, I’m a fossil.”1 Nor did lifung.com, his senior sibling Victor’s new o Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey nline organization, take after a run of the mill Internet start-up, especially with a 96-year-old parent conceived toward the finish of the Qing Dynasty. In August 2000, the day preceding beta dispatch of the new business-to-business (B2B) online business entry, William depicted the difficulties confronting Li and Fung: About three or four years back, Victor and I talked about the Internet and how it impacts us. Our beginning stage was a cautious stance: Would the Internet disintermediate us? Would we get Amazoned2 by somebody who will assemble the majority of the data about purchasers and industrial facilities on the web? After a great deal of research we understood that the Internet encourages store network the board and we wouldn’t have been disintermediated. The key is to have the old economy know-how but then be available to new economy thoughts. Show 1 Li and Fung Consolidated Income Statement (December 31, 1999), in HK$* 2000 1999 1998 (HK$ thousands) (HK$ thousands) (HK$ thousands) (HK$ thousands) (June 30) (December 31) (June 30) (December 31) Turnover 10,267,606 16,297,501 6,583,730 14,312,618 Cost of offers (9,262,171) (14,585,881) (5,895,432) (12,891,709) Selling costs (191,616) (354,124) (143,136) (287,524) Authoritative costs (87,741) (867,842) (56,436) (747,725) Benefits before tax collection 328,943 613,861 208,936 471,098 Tax collection (29,805) (36,638) (14,536) (16,42 Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey 5) Benefit after tax collection 299,338 577,223 194,400 454,673 *In August 2000, US$1 _ HK$7.78. for “benefit” in Chinese, which, alongside “Fung,” a homophone for “wealth,” had a promising ring when joined. Li and Fung migrated for all time to Hong Kong toward the finish of World War II, extending its tasks to incorporate toys, pieces of clothing, plastic blooms, and gadgets. In the mid 1970s, b>