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Perdue Farms, the highly successful marketer of brand-name chicken, is considering the introduction of a chicken hot dog to the market. The decision is complicated by a variety of factors, including top management's concerns and conditions, potential ramifications of the hot dog for the company's high-quality image, the uncertainty of market response, uncertainties about how to position the new product, potential consumer objections to use of mechanically deboned meat, and the uncertainty of profitability at recommended levels of marketing costs.

On completion of this case study, students will be able to understand collaboration and synergy between farmers and organisations through value creation, like fundraising, based on the comprehension of the resource-based theory; understand the overview and concept of the value chain and supply chain management in the agribusiness to reduce costs of inventories; understand the concept of segmentation and positioning to increase revenue for organisations by leveraging existing resources – human and financial; and understand the branding strategy to create a sustainable competitive advantage for Suguna Foods.

Suguna was started by two brothers, B. Soundararajan and G.B. Sundararajan, to help other farmers. Suguna, with just 200 broilers in 1984, grew to be the number 1 poultry company across India. Soundararajan was a pioneer and innovator who started “contract farming” in India in 1991. This model helped both the farmers and the company to became successful. The farmers always struggled to pay the cost of feed and other materials, as credit was not readily and easily available from financial institutions. Suguna helped farmers by providing feed, medicines, etc., free of cost in return for the good rearing of chickens. Because of the success of this venture, they decided to continue with it. Today, Suguna is a successful company that sells chicken, eggs and processed meat. They modernised the retail chain to supply consumers with fresh, healthy and hygienic meat. Suguna’s vision was to “Energize rural India” by helping farmers succeed. They helped over 40,000 farmers from 15,000+ villages in 18+ Indian states. Although the growth helped both farmers and Suguna, the increased cost of raw materials for Suguna and increased input costs/power costs for farmers had to be tackled on a war footing so that both could have good income despite the increased inflation. Moreover, the retail price of live chicken was more or less stagnant in the past five years, especially after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This case can be used as the basis for a 90-min class discussion. This case study is suitable for use in an master of business administration course module or in an executive education program on developing an understanding of value creation in the business model in a rural market and also how the supply chain works. This case study can also be used to teach pricing, segmentation in marketing and supply chain perspectives and decision-making skills.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS8: Marketing.

Marketing, Strategy, International Business.

Post-Graduates' classes.

This case focuses on the particularities of the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant run by the Americana Group in Mecca, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It allows students in the service industry, and especially those interested in the quick service industry to understand some of the challenges of operating in a market with high volume and other specific local market conditions. Perhaps, it will also allow those organizations wishing to enter into emerging markets to realize that globalization does not mean standardization of all practices but rather values.

On completion of utilizing the case study as an exercise, students should be able to develop: Case-specific skills: critically examine the importance of the international business and marketing strategy in the Middle East and demonstrate this by analyzing real regional/ world examples using complex theoretical frameworks; identify examples of best practice and explain the dynamics toward international business and marketing strategy with reference to a range of theoretical models; and apply these in a meaningful way to the Middle East North Africa region. Discipline-specific skills: synthesize and critically evaluate a corpus of academic literature and government reports on international business and marketing strategy; and link international business and marketing strategy concepts and theories to real regional/world examples. Personal and key skills: reflect on the process of learning and undertake independen/self-directed learning (including time management) to achieve consistent, proficient and sustained attainment. Work as either a participant or a leader of a group and contribute effectively to the achievement of objectives in the field of international business and marketing strategy.

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

Entrepreneurship, Design thinking and innovation, Strategy, Social entrepreneurship and rural markets, Business at the base of pyramid, Sustainability and leadership.

Undergraduate and Post Graduate Students

Keggfarms Private Ltd was a private company started by Mr Vinod Kapur, a social entrepreneur who wanted to create a scalable social impact with his endeavor, which was the first of its kind outside the developed world. Keggfarms was established in 1967 with the aim of creating a business model which could benefit the rural sector by generating income and also enabling nutritional self-sufficiency. The case study aims to explore the sustainable model which had survived for 48 years without a push strategy and without a sole focus on profit. The business had spread to around 19 states in India, and the enterprise had decided to replicate a similar business model in the African continent. The social enterprise had aimed to touch the lives of millions of people in poverty by providing them with a low cost chicken – Kuroiler, which could survive the harsh weather and environmental conditions of rural India.

The study will help students to understand how social enterprises are born and built from the vision of the founder; how social capital is generated in the economy and how a blue ocean strategy was applied in this case to build a sustainable and financially viable social entrepreneurship model.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

In January 2013, Irish authorities were the first to uncover the year's first food sourcing scandal: horsemeat sold as beef on supermarket shelves. It was not long before regulators and retailers realized the problem was truly a continental one. The incident involved French exporters, Luxembourger production facilities, Cypriot and Dutch meat traders, British and Swedish retailers, and Romanian horsemeat. Food service providers and retailers were forced to test beef products to ensure they were horse-free, pulling products that contained traces of equine meat. British supermarkets alone disposed of an estimated 10 million “beef” burgers in the wake of the scandal.

This case is an example of the challenges of managing the complex global supply chains that make up the modern food industry. In this class discussion, students will use concepts from management, economics, and public policy to assess the damage of this event and to analyze strategies for preventing similar incidents in the future.

This case study exercise highlights the importance of food supplier selection and forecasting to minimize food cost and maximize profit for a hotel restaurant. The importance of data analytics in supplier selection is emphasized. The case exercise provides students with a more comprehensive understanding of spoilage and the calculation of food cost percentage, which should save the hotel restaurant under study significant dollars, help the environment, and strengthen the operation. The events described in this case are based on real world experiences.

This research uses a data driven problem-solving approach to accurately forecast food requirements and minimize spoilage.

Because of its focus on restaurant operations, the case exercise is appropriate for senior-level undergraduate courses or graduate courses in Operations Management, Restaurant Food and Beverage Management, Hotel Management, and Data Analytics.

This case can be used in marketing management as well as consumer behaviour courses.

This case is suitable to use in advanced undergraduate levels, MBA and MSc in marketing courses that cover topics related to market segmentation and marketing mix strategies.

This case highlights the dilemma of an entrepreneur and a manager of a restaurant who were to take a decision about the sustainability of their restaurant business. Balqis Restaurant was owned by Danny who was a retiree from Telekom Malaysia. He wanted to open a restaurant business after he came back from his long holiday trip. He conducted market research to find a suitable place to open his Arabic restaurant. He assigned Waleed Masood Abdullah as the manager of Balqis Restaurant. Finally, in June 2010, he opened his long awaited restaurant at Gombak, Kuala Lumpur. The restaurant was known as Qasar before the name was changed to Balqis in 2015 because of copyright issues related to Saba’ restaurant at Cyberjaya. The restaurant was well managed under Danny’s supervision for 4 years and successfully won customers’ hearts and loyalty before he decided to give full responsibility to Waleed in March 2014. Danny trusted Waleed because he taught and trained him. However, under Waleed’s management, Balqis started to lose its customers. Waleed also started to branch out the restaurant to different places in different states; one in Ipoh, and the other in Perak. He invested much money on renovation for all three branches, but one of the restaurants closed down in September 2014. This is because of the fact that they could no longer bear the cost of operations for the restaurant. However, he failed to learn from the mistake; they set up another restaurant, which was in Kuantan, in the same month. The sales were not that encouraging but it did show gradual improvement; yet, they once again sold it to another Arab businessman. Waleed realized his failure in managing the restaurant business in August 2015. He again opted to open another new branch which was questioned by Danny. He was in a rush to open it by the end of December 2015 to ensure that the additional profits from the current restaurants could cover the variables costs if the new restaurants were launched. Based on that, the owner had to make a decision about whether a new branch should be opened or whether they should just retain their restaurant in Gombak.

The learning objectives of using this case are as follows. 1. Knowledge enhancement: to help students in understanding the problems faced by a restaurant in expanding its market; to make students aware that a properly blended marketing mix is the key to business success and to broaden students’ views and understanding in targeting the proper market segment in formulating an effective marketing strategy. 2. Skills building: to be able to identify the best marketing strategic decisions to manage the restaurant business for its survival and to develop students’ ability to analyse the existing situation to come up with a viable and effective solution. 3. Attitudinal: to help the students to have intellectual openness in accepting different ways of finding solutions for a particular problem and to assist students in making the right move at the right time.

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CSS 8: Marketing.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to understand the impact of external factors in supply chain operations planning; to understand the role of quantitative and qualitative data in supply chain decision-making especially in the restaurant industry; to assess the pros and cons of centralized and decentralized supply chain operations; and to evaluate different alternatives in supply chain planning, for best service level at minimum cost.

This case visualizes the planning of supply chain drivers and process improvement to enhance supply chain speed and flexibility. Asim Rizvi has recently joined as senior supply chain manager at Food Lord, a renowned chain of restaurants in Pakistan. As instructed by his CEO, Rizvi has to take a decision for centralization, or to continue the decentralization of supply chain operations at two of their highest selling branches. These two branches were located at a distance of 125 km from each other. The objective of supply chain operations’ consolidation was to minimize cost and further improve the service level. Rizvi was confused about the decision because any decision cannot be taken on the basis of cost and benefit analysis only. A 360-degree analysis and future requirements also play a vital role to decide about supply chain operations. The CEO was very excited to take this decision; that is why newly hired manager Rizvi was analyzing all the facts to reach a decision that would be best for their business. Centralized or decentralized supply chain decision was not easy because normally the business dynamics completely change due to unpredictable customer demand, unavailability of professional suppliers and unavailability of a strong information system, etc.

BBA and MBA

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CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

At the end of the case discussion, students should be able to:▪ analyse and discuss networks as a form of social capital;▪ identify and discuss alternative growth strategies for an small, medium, micro enterprise (SMME) in the context of prevailing challenges;▪ use the six domains of the entrepreneurship ecosystem to identify and discuss factors that enhance and challenge a business with particular reference to an SMME; and▪ analyse and understand the key dimensions of entrepreneurial behaviour using the case protagonist as an example.

Nhlanhla Dlamini, the managing director of Maneli Pets based in Johannesburg, South Africa had opened an office in Cincinnati in the USA in July 2019 to take over the distribution and marketing of the company’s high-quality protein pet treats. Just over eight months later, the COVID-19 pandemic exploded across the world resulting in unprecedented disruption to people’s lives, world trade and the global economy.Now, in June 2022, Dlamini contemplated the successes and challenges he had experienced since starting Maneli Pets in 2016, not least of which was parting company with US-based Novel Dog LLC, which had previously marketed and distributed the pet treats. He had built an internationally accredited factory from scratch, produced pet products and a brand that was appealing to the competitive international market, and exported to 12 countries around the world. However, Dlamini had also faced the retrenchment of a large number of staff, the breakdown of the relationship with Novel Dog, the difficulties of setting up a distribution business in the USA along with overseeing the South African factory, and in September 2019, his co-founder, Sipha Ndawonde, had left Maneli Pets.Maneli Pets had served Dlamini’s philanthropic purpose of creating jobs and contributing to the growth of the South African economy. Despite the setback of parting ways with Novel Dog, he hoped to continue to create jobs and return to and exceed the staff numbers he had achieved by 2018, regardless of the hard work involved.In his dual position of managing director of Maneli Pets, based in Johannesburg, and sales director of the distribution and marketing arm, Nandi Pets Inc. in Cincinnati, Dlamini had a global view of the companies’ financials that he realised had been missing initially. Would the new structure of Maneli Pets he had created in 2019 in a pre-pandemic world see the company profitable by the end of 2022? What else could he do to take the company to the next level?

MBA, Masters in Management, Postgraduate Diploma in Business, Executive Education short courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Services marketing and marketing strategy.

The case is basically aimed at post-graduate management students; it can be used in strategic management courses. Students can understand McKinsey's 7S model with the help of this case as well as the seven Ps of service industry. Students can also gain an insight into the hub and spoke model. The case can also be used in courses of entrepreneurship.

The case is primarily the entrepreneurial journey of Mr Samar Qureshi in a quick service restaurant business. The entrepreneur Mr Samar Qureshi at a very young age dreamt of opening up an Indian fast food chain. He worked hard to make his dream a reality. In a brief period of five years Qureshi's Fast Trax has reached the level of world-renowned fast food chains like McDonald's and KFC in terms of quality and ambience. Overcoming the hurdles and the challenges Fast Trax has 22 outlets in Delhi NCR. Samar has also introduced the fast food culture in a small town, Aligarh, and wishes to expand it further to other B class towns of India where people desire to go to fast food chains and to enjoy the high standards of food and service as are enjoyed by people living in metros. He has also been instrumental in changing the concept of canteen to restaurant in schools and colleges. The case discusses the challenges facing Fast Trax in the cut-throat environment of the fast food industry.

These include: highlighting the 7Ps of services in the context of a retail chain and establishing interlinkages between the seven Ss identified by McKinsey.

Teaching notes are available. Please consult your librarian for access.