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This case study deals specifically with the issue of manufacturing strategy, and business strategy.

The case can be used in a number of course contexts, including undergraduate and MBA programs. The focus is on both business strategy and manufacturing strategy issues. The case can be assigned as an opening vignette, during the initial phases of business strategy, since the case situations and concepts are both simple and clear. It can also be assigned for an in-depth treatment of manufacturing strategy.

The case focuses on Capital Mills Limited (CML), a flour milling company, and concentrates on whether the company should refurbish its two 40-year old flour mills at a cost of US$6 million or if the company should invest US$15 million in the construction and installation of a new, fully-automated “Lights out” flour mill. This decision is viewed as a “make or break” decision for CML, since for the first time in the company's 40 year history will it face significant direct competition, in the form of the impending entry of a second flour milling company.

The case has four primary learning objectives, namely to: illustrate the linkages between business level strategy and the functional level, manufacturing strategy; discuss the role of a company's history and internal resource structure in the decision making process; explore how operational issues influence capital expenditure decisions; and explore the perspective of managers in different functions in an organization that is facing a new competitive challenge.

Teaching notes are available – consult your librarian for access.

What started as a FMCG distributor in 1967 in Kenya as Export Finance Company, is now a dynamic global conglomerate across 48 countries and 5 continents — Export Trading Group. ETG was taken over by the then CFO Mahesh Patel after exit of the founding stakeholders. It was then when the company shifted its focus to being a key regional player. In the next 35 years, the company grew systematically. Business focus evolved when Patel saw an opportunity in logistics in remote sub-Saharan Africa. This was followed by business expansion with supply chain diversification and significant infrastructure investments. All the different businesses amalgamated under a single group for better operations and ease of scaling up. They were later divided into six separate verticals for better management. Vamara (FMCG vertical) was launched in 2018 as the company moved towards digitalisation — externally and internally. ETG plans to focus on new business opportunities and continue to diversify across geographies and portfolios.

Critical analysis of observed practice.

Field study.

To expose accounting and MBA students to Lean management and the performance measures that support Lean management by presenting a case of a comprehensive and very successful Lean transformation; to give accounting and MBA students the opportunity to construct a strategy map and a balanced scorecard based on a rich case description; and to critically assess the suitability of balanced scorecards for a company that embraces Lean management.

The case describes a comprehensive transformation from conventional management to Lean management and business practices, with an emphasis on the largely non-financial performance measures used to support the transformation. Around the time of the Lean transformation, the balanced scorecard, a multi-dimensional measurement approach, was introduced to address the problems of excessive reliance on financial performance measures. Students are asked to compare and contrast Wiremold’s approach to the balanced scorecard.

Graduate or upper level undergraduate courses in cost accounting, managerial accounting and strategic management.

AgriBusiness entrepreneurship

Post-graduate and executive education classes in agribusiness: MBA, Executive Education programmes for senior managers; entrepreneurial studies and workshops for SMEs.

This case study is centred on Ibrahim, a businessman in Tanzania, who decided to start a business to process and sell cassava starch flour. Following a market survey, he realized that the demand for cassava starch surpassed the supply and planned to bridge this gap. To realize his business idea, he applied for and received a loan from an investment bank (Tanzania Investment bank), with which he bought processing machines and some acres of land for the cultivation of the crop. Unfortunately, he encountered a major setback because the sub-standard processing machine he bought stopped working after one week. He could neither repair his equipment nor buy new ones because the bank refused to extend his loan facility. Ibrahim was also having problems meeting a huge international and local demand for his cassava because of inadequate supply of cassava by local farmers.

This paper aims to understand the entire cassava value chain, which is made up of three major players: growers, processors and end-users; to understand the business case for opting to focus on one of the three areas, what arguments could be given for being a grower, a processor or an end-user; to understand that there are different types of end-user products: cassava starch flour, high-quality cassava flour, both of which can come from an intermediate product called “grates”; to understand the reason for the paradox, that there is (potentially) a high demand for cassava flour locally, and yet these end-users are not yet willing to patronize the local market because supply is low, and supply is low, not because farmers cannot produce more, but simply because they are not processing more – why is this?; to understand that the “processing” stage seem to be the rate-limiting-stage in the cassava starch production value chain – how can this process be improved?; to understand the case for aggregating local farmers into cooperatives to produce enough cassava roots to feed the need of industrial processors, and aggregators can also collect and pre-process into “grates” before selling to industrial processing companies; and to understand the importance of locating processing plants close to the farms.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The case is an example of the dilemma and constraints an entrepreneur faces as they go forward in implementing ideas while setting up an enterprise. Through the eyes of John, the case helps the participants to understand and analyse two distinct business models, the bricks and clicks model and an online aggregator model and evaluate them using a visual business tool like the business model canvas (BMC). Thus, the case helps the participants to:▪ Analyse the customer segments and demand.▪ Apply frameworks for analysing a new venture’s prospects.▪ Understand two distinct business models and learn how to sketch a business model using the BMC.▪ Compare various business model designs using the BMC template.

Set against the backdrop of high consumerism and haute couture, conventroad.com is an example of fashion aggregation and curation in the online platform. Once known as the fashion hub of Kerala with its crowded streets, cramped with boutiques on each corner, Convent Road lost its following as big and major stores left the miniscule space for better facilities in the name of development. This case follows Rijin John, founder and developer, through the course of his idea conceptualisation. In an attempt to regain its popularity through the internet, John set out to rope all the popular Convent Road boutiques into one platform. But, as more options became available, John was in a dilemma about whether he should continue to try to convince the indifferent boutique owners to be a part of his enterprise or explore an alternative model and create a platform for weavers while sacrificing the brand value of Convent Road.

The case is designed for use in an undergraduate or graduate-level course on entrepreneurship, marketing, business policy and managing growing ventures.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

This case is one of a pair of cases used in a merger negotiation. It is designed to be used with “British Petroleum, Ltd.” (UVA-F-1263). One-half of the class prepares only the British Petroleum (BP) case, and one-half uses this case. BP and Amoco are considering a merger, and are in the process of negotiating a merger agreement. Macroeconomic assumptions, particularly forecasting future oil prices in an uncertain environment, and assumptions about Amoco's ability to reduce exploration and production costs make Amoco's future cash flows difficult to predict.

This case is one of a pair of cases used in a merger negotiation. It is designed to be used with “Amoco Corporation” (UVA-F-1262). One-half of the class prepares only the Amoco case, and one-half uses this case. BP and Amoco are considering a merger, and are in the process of negotiating a merger agreement. Macroeconomic assumptions, particularly forecasting future oil prices in an uncertain environment, and assumptions about Amoco's ability to reduce exploration and production costs make Amoco's future cash flows difficult to predict.

Strategy.

The case can primarily be used for a Strategic Management course for teaching the revival strategies for financially weak plants. The case highlights the need to shift from a product manufacturing perspective to a market orientation perspective and, hence, may add value as an add-on case in a Strategic Marketing course. The case also covers the topic of benchmarking which may be of use in an Operations Management course.

DJSL Ltd. is the largest engineering and manufacturing enterprise in India in the energy-related/infrastructure space in the public sector. Its Lucknow unit, manufacturing porcelain insulators and wear resistant ceramic lining (CERA LINING), has started reporting losses. A change of management took place in October 2015, whereby Mr. S P Singh was appointed as the Head of the Lucknow Unit. Mr. Singh had rich functional experience of 30 years, mainly in the domains of strategy, project execution and commercial aspects. He was asked to come up with a revival plan for the Unit by the top management of DJSL. The case highlights the importance of operational issues in turnaround management.

Students may be encouraged to debate the benchmarking practices that are best suited for the Lucknow unit. They can also discuss the impact of benchmarking efforts upon turnaround strategy. Students are also encouraged to understand the constraints which may limit the success of initiatives impacting operational improvements. Students need to develop the understanding of marketing strategy to perform a SWOT analysis of each product of the Lucknow unit and to sense the business opportunities in and around the environment. Students need to discuss how productivity may be improved with the adoption of appropriate people development strategies. Students are encouraged to discuss the revival/turnaround strategies and to identify the influence of improvement in operational efficiency/productivity upon revival plan.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS: 11: Strategy.