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Marketing, entrepreneurship, operations management, and transportation/logistics.

The case is suitable for junior, senior undergraduate and first-year graduate business classes. It can be used entirely in business classes in marketing, entrepreneurship, operations management, and transportation/logistics, and parts of it can be used for discussions in classes related to emerging economies/markets, environmental management, sustainability, and technology management.

The case builds on the expansion plan considered by a young software company, called Hangzhou Omnipay located in the city of Hangzhou, China. Mr Chao, Vice President (VP) of Omnipay, is the main character of the case. He was aware of the current car-sharing industry leader – Zipcar headquartered in Boston and also identified multiple stakeholders in the city for decision making. By collaborating with a global student project team, Mr Chao collected a great deal of information and data. This teaching case provides students and educators ample opportunities to examine, from a multitude of aspects, the viability of a car-sharing service in Hangzhou.

The central goal is to help students gain a comprehensive understanding of the role of car-sharing service in a country's development in sustainability, socio-economy, environmental commitment, and new urban life style, as well as in a technological company's active pursuit of business expansion opportunity. In addition, students will not only understand the social, cultural, technological and strategic perspectives of car-sharing service implementation, but also develop and enhance analytic skills needed to conduct fundamental cost analysis, determine a base-line pricing scheme, and service location network design.

Teaching notes are available, please contact your librarian for access.

Social media.

Under graduate/Easy.

The case study presents a discussion on how the Delhi Traffic Police has used social media, Facebook in particular, to collaborate with the commuters on Delhi road to improve its traffic management. This case study can be as an example to illustrate the use of social media by a government department, to address operational and resources limitations. The case traces the start and evolution of the Delhi Traffic Police’s journey on the social media as the department responds to the inputs from the commuters on its Facebook page.

The case study is an illustration of a non-traditional application of a new technology by a non-business organization, the challenges it faces in its adoption and the solutions it provides.

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 8: Marketing

Illinois Superconductor Corp. a technology start-up, came up with an innovative new superconducting filter for use in cellular base stations. It needed to estimate the demand for its filters. The manager came up with a simple chain-ratio-based forecasting model that, while simple and intuitive, was too simplistic. The company had also commissioned a research firm to develop a model-based forecast. The model-based forecast used diffusion modeling, analogy-based forecasting, and conjoint analysis to create a forecast that incorporated customer preferences, diffusion effects, and competitive dynamics.

To use the data to generate a model-based forecast and to reconcile the model-based forecast with the manager's forecast. Requires sophisticated spreadsheet modeling and the application of advanced forecasting techniques.

PT. Bank Central Asia, Tbk. (BCA), the largest national private bank in Indonesia, won an award for the Best Bank at the Euromoney Awards for Excellence (Asia) 2014. During the same event, in several categories, haloBCA^TM and BCA employees also won several awards. Previously, a number of awards were received by BCA such as: Best Indonesia Local Private Bank in 2010, Contact Center World Champion in 2012 and 2013, and Best Mega Contact Center in Asia Pacific Region in 2014. BCA is currently facing a problem of an aging population. Since the economy crisis facing the country in 1998, BCA has recruited fewer employees. The company resumed recruiting in 2010. BCA’s human resource (HR) profile in 2013 showed that nearly half of BCA’s permanent employees were aged 45 years or older, 40 per cent of whom have been working for more than 20 years. At the time of their retirement, the Bank faces the potential of losing a significant number of employees from three different generations. BCA has raised its efforts to recruit new talent. However, recruitment is not easy, as BCA wants its new employees to continue maintaining BCA’s heritage, building the Bank to become an Indonesian company that they can be proud of. How have these values, which have been a common belief, a foundation to work passionately and the glue that bonds the Bank’s employees, executives and owners, been communicated outside of the BCA and have been used to attract the future successors of BCA in Indonesia?

Master Degree in Human Resources Management or MBA Program.

PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (BCA), which was established on February 1957, is Indonesia’s largest lender by market value and the second largest bank by assets. The bank has experienced a remarkable recovery from the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s when the Indonesian banking system became almost bankrupt. It provides both commercial and personal banking services through its 1,000-plus branches across the country. As the largest national private bank, BCA is a well-known bank in Indonesia. BCA is managing more than 12 million customer accounts, processing hundreds of millions of financial transactions and fulfilling the needs of individual and corporate customers through various products and services. BCA Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) are located virtually and BCA’s Electronic Data Capture (EDC) machines are available at many merchants both in big cities or small towns across Indonesia’s archipelago. However, for a nation with a population of more than 240 million spread out over 34 provinces, the presence of BCA is still deemed unevenly distributed. In the next 10 years, BCA has no plan yet of expanding outside of Indonesia. BCA put its attention on developing its market in Eastern Indonesia. Funding sources, which usually becomes an issue for expanding companies, are not a source of concern for BCA. BCA is currently facing a problem of an aging population. Since the economy crisis facing the country in 1998, BCA has recruited fewer new employees. The company had recently resumed recruiting in 2010. BCA’s HR profile in 2013 showed that nearly half of BCA’s permanent employees were 45 years of age or older, 40 percent of whom have been working for more than 20 years. At the time of their retirement, the Bank faces the potential of losing a significant number of employees from three different generations. Currently, BCA has raised its efforts to recruit new talent and its future leaders through various programs, such as: BCA Development Program (BDP), one of the most acknowledged management trainee programs in the Indonesian banking industry, provides intensive and rigorous training to selected new recruits to ensure development of BCA key talents and future leaders. HR business partners that actively visit campuses in the eastern region of Indonesia. Socialization programs in state and private universities. Job fairs, Web recruitment, internships and employee referrals, job opportunity advertisements posted at BCA branch offices located near universities and in the leading mass media. Utilization of recruitment consultant services, especially to find candidates with specific qualifications. Utilization of communication media printed (poster, flyer, booklet, banners) and electronically. Provision of scholarships to high school graduates with excellent academic records but facing financial difficulties. However, recruitment is not easy for BCA because – like other well-known companies in Indonesia – the Bank only recruits the best people based on the prospective employees’ hard and soft competencies. BCA’s aim to project a positive perception toward its employees as “a fun workplace with family-oriented atmosphere, and commitment about employees’ development” has yet to strongly resonate in Indonesia’s labor market. BCA wants its new employees to continue maintaining BCA’s heritage, building the Bank to become an Indonesian company that they can be proud of. How have these values, which have been a common belief, a foundation to work passionately and the glue that bonds the Bank’s employees, executives and owners, been communicated outside of BCA and have been used to attract the future successors of BCA in Indonesia? How should BCA obtain a large number of qualified talent pools through an effective Employer Branding strategy?

By the end of discussing the case, the learner will be: conceptually: able to explain what is meant by employer branding, internal and external approach and able to explain the relationship of employer branding with business strategy, talent management strategies and HR management functions as a whole; practically: able to identify and analyze BCA Recent Condition – able to explain the BCA brand image in the eyes of public/external/job seekers in Indonesia and internal/current employees of BCA – able to identify strategies that BCA does to recruit potential job seekers – and able to explain the influence of innovative products and services that BCA has currently on BCA employer branding; able to identify BCA goals/needs; able to identify the characteristics, needs and preferences of BCA target group of workers, concerning to the latest issues arise such as: Gen Y and AEC (ASEAN Economic Community); able to evaluate the effectiveness of BCA employer branding strategy and communications and to identify the problems faced by BCA related to employer branding; able to generate ideas related to the improvement of BCA employer branding strategy and programs – what message to be branded (company unique employee value propositions – tangibles and intangibles) – what program to be implemented (internal and external) – and how is the integrated marketing communication strategy (segmenting-targeting-positioning, channels).

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:6: Human Resource Management.

This case describes the challenges faced by Amul in organising dairy farmers into a co-operative and creating continuous opportunities for value addition. Participants in the case discussion are required to review the developments in the organisation and recommend a strategy for the future.

After studying and analyzing this case, students will be able to: understand and evaluate the integrated marketing communications (IMC) strategy for online businesses; understand and create the various components of an IMC plan; determine the challenges of scaling up a business and how social media marketing can help in that; learn how to assemble the positioning statement of a startup; determine and differentiate the different business models (revenue models); and understand and create the social media marketing strategy.

It was late April 2021, and Mr Srinivas Rao, the co-founder and director of Mentorrd EduTech, India, was contemplating the journey of more than five years. Much had changed since the startup Mentorrd Education Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Mentorrd EduTech) was launched in 2015. From being an online artificial intelligence (AI)-based tool for analyzing and building resumes, Mentorrd expanded to specialized premium services for career development catering to MBA aspirants from India to international markets. However, during the same time, many problems had also started showing up. The competition had increased, and conversions became difficult. Mentorrd generated 95% of its leads through Google Ads pay per click (PPC) advertising. However, now, the increased competition made PPC costlier, where Mentorrd started at INR 10 per click but was now paying INR 50 per click. The customers also were only limited to searching for keywords; hence, actual lead conversion was minimal. Mentorrd was present on different social media platforms and had developed an audience: LinkedIn (close to 10,000 followers), Facebook (1,600+ followers) and Twitter (numbers), but conversions from there were only contributing to 5% of the total revenue.Mr Rao wondered that with a change in demand from general review services to specialist resume and interview preparation services such as MBA, he would have to develop a sound social media strategy integrated with the current Google Ads usage to reach the audience and generate conversions. He had a limited marketing budget which he wanted to use most effectively but was not sure how to spend across platforms.

This case can be used as an IMC strategy case for MBA courses in marketing. In a marketing course, the focus should be on components of IMC strategy, customer perception, company positioning and marketing channels. The case can also be applied as a strategy case for courses in entrepreneurship or digital marketing strategy. In an entrepreneurship course, the focus should be on the business model, growth and scaling decisions a startup needs to make to grow the business. In a digital marketing strategy course, the focus should be on social media marketing and search engine marketing decisions and the implications for revenues and profits. The case can also be used in executive-level courses to illustrate IMC, growth and digital marketing strategies for a startup.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Besides the metrics developed to measure the impact of the video campaign run by the company, the case has serious practical implications for all companies in emerging markets selling budget/low-cost products. Marketing managers can take note of these key performance indicators in evaluating the success of their social media campaigns.More importantly, students need to understand how the campaign managed to integrate uninitiated and less-privileged consumers to the world of social media with aspirational sentiments.

The case deals with a digital media planning activity for a low-cost handset company based in India. TRIVIA International Ltd is a manufacturer and marketer of smart phones and feature phone in the price range of below US$70–100 and US$20, respectively. The phones cater to low-income consumer bracket, which forms the vast microcosm of India. The consumer base is huge, but the purchasing power is very low, so they are at times referred to as the micro-consumer in Bottom of Pyramid approach. To approach this consumer base, Trivia planned a very engaging campaign on social media that yielded positive results, contrary to popular belief that only high-income individuals explore the social media intensively through their smart phones. The chapter ends with a set of recommendations for all digital managers who want to analyse their campaigns effectively via awareness, sentiment and engagement metrics.

The case is meant for all post graduate programs in Business Management, which include the MBAs, Masters in Business Administration and the Executive Development program for managers. The case can also be used in Part Time Business Management programs held over weekends for working professionals. Most likely the students are going to handle this case in their second year of a full-time program or at an advanced level of their career development programs. The subjects so mentioned here were offered as electives or areas of specialization. It is presumed that the students undergoing these courses have basic understanding of marketing management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The Employee Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), established by the Government of India is one of the World's Largest Social Security Organizations. The purpose of EPFO is to ensure social security for Industrial workers and their dependents. EPFO maintains more than 15 crore accounts of its members. Traditionally EPFO had been functioning as a legacy organization, administered and managed by Indian bureaucracy. Operational processes were riddled with over emphasis on rules and regulations, but were weak on transparency, accountability, effectiveness and efficiency. The 120 EPFO offices established all over the country operated in silos. Consequently, the very purpose of social security and welfare of the industrial employees suffered, while all other stake holders enjoyed significant controlling power. Recent interventions at EPFO were focused on process reengineering and ICT enablement to make EPFO more customer-centric. The case documents the transformation of EPFO from a bureaucratic, opaque organization to a customer centric, stakeholder friendly, transparent and accountable organization through IT enabled operations.

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.

Should B&K Distributors implement a Web-based customer portal with an integrated marketing campaign? Asks readers to assist Jim Anfield, business development director for JDA Consulting, and Nancy O'Neil, B&K Distributor's sales VP, in determining the feasibility of this project. They must build the final ROI projections and develop recommendations for B&K's senior management team. Emphasizes the importance of assumptions and the range of possible outcomes. Based on a real-life management decision for a mid-size firm.

To teach ROI analysis best practices for technology project investments, requiring the analysis of several factors to conduct a thorough review of the investment's feasibility.