• What contributed to Prime's lack of diversity?
• Given the definition of diversity that was created, which of the candidates satisfies the diversity definition?
• Who should Jarom select and why?

DIVERSITY IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT: MAKING THE RIGHT HIRE TO LEAD ASIA After spending most of the afternoon meeting with the company's board of directors, Jarom Stuart returned to his office in a happy mood. His company, Prime Toys Global, had just reported its most successful quarter in its 30-year history. With the holiday season approaching the following quarter, Prime was poised to continue its strong financial performance. The board was enthusiastic about the company's direction, and support for Jarom's leadership had never been higher. Perhaps even more exciting for Jarom and the board was that Prime's normally flat share price was finally showing signs of life. Prime had conducted an initial public offering a few years prior but since it was considered a small-cap stock, institutional investors had never been seriously interested in owning Prime. Based on Prime's recent financial performance and its prospect for continued growth, however, a number of institutional investors had recently met with Prime. In fact, after meeting with Prime, two of these institutional investors had bought Prime shares, what the investors referred to as "starter positions" that they intended to increase depending on Prime's performance. Having such well-known investment firms associated with the company had already attracted the attention of other investors, and Prime's share price had seen a significant bump. If Prime continued its performance, Jarom expected that more investors would invest in Prime, further increasing its share price. Prime's stellar results could largely be attributed to its Asia expansion. When Jarom founded Prime three decades ago, he had never imagined that Prime would become an international toy company, but it was clear that Asia would now drive Prime's future. Given the importance of Asia, Prime's board had been pushing Jarom to hire someone to lead the Asia business. This person would be based in Asia, report directly to Jarom, and sit on Prime's board. During tonight's dinner with Prime's board, Jarom knew that they would expect his recommendation on who would lead the Asia business. After a thorough screening process, two strong candidates had emerged, Caleb Young and Isabella Zhou. Since both Caleb and Isabella were strong candidates in their own right, the choice was already difficult. To further add complexity to the hiring decision, many of the investors Jarom had recently met questioned David S. Lee prepared this case for class discussion. Though interviews were conducted as part of developing the case, the case should not be considered a primary source as certain information might have been altered to protect confidentiality or to otherwise facilitate teaching of the case. This case is not intended to show effective or ineffective handling of decision or business processes. Cases are written in the past tense, this is not meant to imply that all practices, organizations, people, places or fact mentioned in the case no longer occur, exist or apply. 2021 by The Asia Case Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong. No part of this publication may be digitized, photocopied or otherwise reproduced, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means without the permission of The University of Hong Kong. Ref. 21/705C