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This case explores how driver training school create experience value for their trainees. It describes the development of driver training industry, the foundation and new training mode of Rongan Driving School, changes and challenges of environment for Rongan facing and so on, which will guide readers to discuss six influence factors of customer experience, six dimensions of customer-experience value, the relationship between them, and the influence of social environment. Rongan's innovative training mode of “pay after learning, time-based billing, one car for one person”, provides a good training experience for driving trainees. It has become the benchmark of the national driving training industry within six years.

There had been many pieces of research on international expansion approaches, and they continued to grow. However, research about the firms belonging to emerging nations and that went global were still in the early stages. It had been argued that most theories on international expansion had focused on explaining the internationalization of large firms, majorly originating in developed countries. This case study offers an intriguing reading about an Indian MNC, successfully entering the developed markets and competing thereof amidst tough and complex world. Moreover, the leaders like Baba Kalyani met the stiff challenge from complexities and disruption successfully through entrepreneurial mindset. The case study offers insights into “Creating Value Through Entrepreneurial Leadership Framework”.

The case study has been developed through secondary data sources. The published online resources, the firm's annual reports formed the basis of the research work. Author accessed online news articles, auto component industry experts' views and reports from global consultancy firms, and auto industry body such as SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) reports helped the research. The views and interviews by promoters of the company are available online for deeper insights and analysis.

An Indian multinational, Bharat Forge Limited (BFL), was a shining example of achieving global manufacturing standards through perseverance and entrepreneurial leadership. For more than the past four decades, BFL faced complexities, uncertainties and disruptions multiple times, and every time, the business world saw a resurgent company, Bharat Forge. The company achieved growth through diversification, related and unrelated, acquisition, product innovation, portfolio expansion and expansion in domestic and global development. Competitive market, economic slowdown, innovation and technology disruption had not deterred BFL from growing into a worldwide auto component giant. BFL overcame all hurdles with grit and enterprise. It achieved a paradigm shift with over half the revenue from non-automotive sectors such as defence, electric vehicle components, e-mobility, power electronics and aluminium light-weighting.

This case is planned for MBA students, primarily in the second half of the course curriculum. It can be executed in marketing, strategic marketing and strategic management courses. The conceptual framework pertaining to corporate strategy, global expansion, diversification, product development, innovation, disruption, market development and entrepreneurial leadership can be taught through the case. The case is suitable for MBA executive students as well, in courses mentioned above in addition to courses such as strategic leadership.

Rivigo, a new entrant in the trucking business in India, believed that a new paradigm in the trucking/logistics industry could be brought about that would not only improve the quality of service dramatically, but also upgrade a truck driver's lifestyle. While the industry faced driver shortage largely due to long stays away from home, Rivigo hoped to attract drivers by offering them roles which would bring them back home in 24 hours. Drivers would be part of a relay, handing over the truck at pit stops. Further, they leveraged an IT-enabled IoT platform on a fleet of owned trucks. All this revolutionized most of the traditions then followed in the industry. The entrepreneur and his core team comprised professionals from premium institutes of the country, with experience in professional organizations in related domains. By offering services like assured delivery at half the time and full shipment visibility, Rivigo had to charge a premium to market segments that would value this. The case raises the question of sustainability in the future.

Uber had pioneered the growth and delivery of modern ridesharing services by leveraging the explosive growth of technology, GPS navigation, and smartphones. Ridesharing services had expanded across the world, growing rapidly in the United States, China, India, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Even as these services expanded and gained popularity, however, the pickup experience for drivers and riders did not always meet the expectations of either party. Pickups were complicated by traffic congestion, faulty GPS signals, and crowded pickup venues. Flawed pickups resulted in rider dissatisfaction and in lost revenues for drivers. Uber had identified the pickup experience as a top strategic priority, and a team at Uber, led by group product manager Birju Shah, was tasked with designing an automated solution to improve the pickup experience. This involved three steps. First, the team needed to analyze the pickup experience for various rider personas to identify problems at different stages in the pickup process. Next, it needed to create a model for predicting the best rider location for a pickup. The team also needed to develop a quantitative metric that would determine the quality of the pickup experience. These models and metrics would be used as inputs for a machine learning.

This case is designed to enable students to understand the role of women in artificial intelligence (AI); understand the importance of ethics and diversity in the AI field; discuss the ethical issues of AI; study the implications of unethical AI; examine the dark side of corporate-backed AI research and the difficult relationship between corporate interests and AI ethics research; understand the role played by Gebru in promoting diversity and ethics in AI; and explore how Gebru can attract more women researchers in AI and lead the movement toward inclusive and equitable technology.

The case discusses how Timnit Gebru (She), a prominent AI researcher and former co-lead of the Ethical AI research team at Google, is leading the way in promoting diversity, inclusion and ethics in AI. Gebru, one of the most high-profile black women researchers, is an influential voice in the emerging field of ethical AI, which identifies issues based on bias, fairness, and responsibility. Gebru was fired from Google in December 2020 after the company asked her to retract a research paper she had co-authored about the pitfalls of large language models and embedded racial and gender bias in AI. While Google maintained that Gebru had resigned, she said she had been fired from her job after she had raised issues of discrimination in the workplace and drawn attention to bias in AI. In early December 2021, a year after being ousted from Google, Gebru launched an independent community-driven AI research organization called Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research (DAIR) to develop ethical AI, counter the influence of Big Tech in research and development of AI and increase the presence and inclusion of black researchers in the field of AI. The case discusses Gebru’s journey in creating DAIR, the goals of the organization and some of the challenges she could face along the way. As Gebru seeks to increase diversity in the field of AI and reduce the negative impacts of bias in the training data used in AI models, the challenges before her would be to develop a sustainable revenue model for DAIR, influence AI policies and practices inside Big Tech companies from the outside, inspire and encourage more women to enter the AI field and build a decentralized base of AI expertise.

This case is meant for MBA students.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CCS 11: Strategy

International business

Undergraduate/graduate/executive education.

China has become the world's largest producer of automobiles, surpassing the USA and Japan. The Chinese auto industry differs quite significantly from those countries though. While the industry exhibits a substantial degree of concentration in the USA and Japan in early 2011, it remained highly fragmented in China. The Chinese Central Government had announced a desire for consolidation, yet it remained unclear whether a significant shakeout would occur in the near term.

Like many Chinese automakers, Chang'an partnered with well-known global auto makers to develop, produce, and distribute its products. In the coming years, Chang'an hoped to develop more independence from its foreign partners, including the production and distribution of self-branded cars. However, the company grappled with how it could strive for independence while managing its existing joint ventures. Executives worried too about how to compete with foreign automakers who had achieved global economies of scale.

The case provides a rich description of the evolution of the Chinese auto industry, and it documents how the Chinese industry differs from other global markets. Readers can analyze the extent to which they believe scale economies provide foreign firms an advantage over smaller Chinese rivals, and they can evaluate the conventional wisdom regarding the industry's minimum efficient scale. The case also provides a detailed account of Chang'an's rise to prominence. The case concludes by offering an in-depth description of the firm's key rivals, and it presents the key questions being considered by Chang'an executives in 2011.

Enables students to examine how and why an industry's structure can differ substantially across geographic markets.

Enables students to examine whether the need to achieve economies of scale may cause substantial consolidation in the Chinese auto industry.

Provides an opportunity to evaluate the pros and cons of the joint venture strategies employed in China.

Provides an opportunity to examine how a relatively small firm can position itself against large multinationals in a high-growth emerging market.

Teaching notes.

This case may be taught singly or used as a merger-negotiation exercise with “Chrysler Corporation: Negotiations between Daimler and Chrysler” (UVA-F-1240). Set in February 1998, the case places students in the position of negotiators for the company; their task is to value both firms, assess the potential earnings dilution of a combination, and negotiate a detailed agreement with their counterpart. The case can be used to explore such interesting negotiation issues as determination of a share-exchange ratio, treatment of major stockholders, and structuring a deal. Also, the case and exercise can be used to spark a discussion of acquisition in comparison with strategic alliance, or other less formal models of combination.

This case may be taught singly or used as a merger-negotiation exercise with “Daimler-Benz A. G.: Negotiations between Daimler and Chrysler” (UVA-F-1241). Set in February 1998, the case places students in the position of negotiators for the company; their task is to value both firms, assess the potential earnings dilution of a combination, and negotiate a detailed agreement with their counterpart. The case can be used to explore such interesting negotiation issues as determination of a share-exchange ratio, treatment of major stockholders, and structuring a deal. Also, the case and exercise can be used to spark a discussion of acquisition in comparison with strategic alliance, or other less formal models of combination.

The case study has been prepared for management students/business executives to understand electric vehicle (EV) business, business environment, industry competition and strategic planning and strategy implementation.

The size of the Indian passenger vehicle market was valued at US$32.70bn in 2021; it was projected to touch US$54.84bn by 2027 with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of more than 9% during the period 2022–2027. The passenger vehicle industry, a part of the overall automotive industry, was expected to grow at a rapid pace, as the Indian economy was rising at the fastest rate. However, the Government of India (GoI) had put a condition on the growth scenario by mandating that 100% of vehicles produced would be EVs by 2030. Tata Motors (TaMo), a domestic player in the market, had been facing a challenging competitive environment. Although it had been incurring losses, it had successfully ventured into the EV business. TaMo had taken advantage of the first mover by creating an electric mobility business vertical to enable the company to deliver on its aspiration of providing innovative and competitive e-mobility solutions. TaMo leadership had been putting efforts to scale up the electric mobility business, thus, contributing to GoI’s plan for electric mobility. Shailesh Chandra, president of electric mobility business, had a big task in hand. He had to scale up EV production and sales despite insufficient infrastructure for charging and shortages of electronic components for manufacturing.

The case study has been prepared for management students/business executives for strategic management class. It is recommended that the case study is distributed in advance so that the students can prepare well in advance for classroom discussions. Groups will be created to delve into details for a specific question. While one group will make their presentation, the other groups will question the solution provided and give suggestions.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Premium customer service in the commodities market can be made a competitive advantage. The case deals with BPCL, a public limited Government organization that is successful through its strategic orientation while serving its customers.

This case is suitable for students who are enrolled in a Masters or an Executive Programme in Management. For a Masters programme in Management, the case can be introduced in the marketing course in sessions related to Customer Relationship Management, Marketing Strategy and Marketing in a Government organization. The case will also fit well with the audience of the Executive Programme in sessions on Marketing Management. The assignment questions provided below are designed from the perspective of teaching this case to a business student audience.

The case study shows how a public sector company has taken steps to retain customers as well as increase its customer base through premium servicing. In all the fuel filling stations in India, the price is the same and is totally controlled by the Government. However, to survive in this market, different players adopted strategies to lure more customers and be profitable and productive in their operations. BPCL adopted a company owned company operated model, where they created a niche for themselves through premium service provided to retail customers. The case study deals with details of planning, recruitment and training and job rotation of staff by BPCL and shows how the same has led to increased commitment and motivation among employees. While operating in 24 × 7, 365 days mode, BPCL has been able to address customer complaints and feedback which has led to less waiting time for retail customers. There has been an increase in the number of customers and a high retention rate of existing customers.

To understand how the customer is central to an organization’s growth strategy. To appreciate the management concerns in the light of deregulation in an earlier monopoly market. To comprehend the challenges associated with maintaining competitive advantage over a long run. To appreciate the importance of employees in organizations. To understand the role of technology in achieving business goals of an organization.

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 9: Operations and Logistics.