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The case on Moodcafe captures the journey of the start-up and its entrepreneurs from the beginning till the fund-raising stage. The case brings forth critical decisions that each entrepreneur or the team of co-founders have to address during their start-up journey. This short case gives opportunity to delve into two aspects mainly a) As a founder, which investor should one choose for seeking funds and what should be the terms and conditions of investment? and b) How can one review and assess the business model of a start-up?

This study aims to particularly focus on undergraduate and postgraduate early stage level students pursuing business, educational, social work programs. Particularly those studying organizational behavior, leadership and change, curriculum design management, social literacy and courses on 21st Century Skills.

Social entrepreneurship, developmental studies, education, organisational behavior are the subject areas focused in this study.

Purpose – The present case study is an empirical account of the gender perspectives on leadership styles and entrepreneurial mind-set demonstrated by Jigyasa and Gaurav, the co-founders of “Slam Out Loud” (SOL) – an Indian for mission non-profit organisation established in 2017. The authors intend to highlight the challenges faced by SOL during COVID outbreak, to establish community connect in the virtual domain and deliver hyper-personalised socio-emotional learning (SEL) frameworks. Will SOL’s Creatively Omnipresent and Versatile Inclusive Design framework transform Indian child education in the wake of New Education Policy 2020 of India while being sustainable as well as globally competitive?

This case study is based on primary data collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with the founders of SOL. It follows the deductive approach of methodology. The data has been complemented by documentary analysis, including videos, descriptions of internal processes and articles.

SOL has been strengthening the transformative power of performance and visual arts to help build creative confidence (CC) among children from disadvantaged communities below five years of age. The co-founders have focused on imparting life skills such as communication, critical thinking and empathy in children. The framework adopted by SOL is a combination of six 21st century and SEL skills including creativity, communication, critical thinking, collaboration, self-esteem and empathy.

A novel Sinha’s 5 × 7 SEL- COVID Matrix.

Learning outcomes can only be achieved using case-based pedagogy. Students are encouraged to dive deep into the dilemma. After the case discussion students will be able to define Creative Confidence (CC) with its importance in social development, comprehend the impact of developmental interventions such as Jijivisha Fellowship during COVID 19 and post COVID 19, understand servant leadership and its impact in the management, analyse how servant leadership accelerates social efficacy in the social enterprises, illustrate the novel 5 × 7 SEL-COVID framework for educators, create and evaluate their hyper-personalised SEL framework curriculum.

The SOL initiative is well aligned with the National Education Policy introduced in India in 2020. It will address the issues of not only providing equitable and inclusive education but also enhancing enrolment ratio and reducing dropout rates. Adoption of Arts-based education will also develop Creative Confidence (CC) and improve emotional well-being of children in primary education.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

In mid-2013, the Lee family, which owned the Hong Kong based food and health product giant Lee Kum Kee (LKK), struggled with how best to increase involvement of the fifth generation (G5), the children of the company's current fourth-generation (G4) senior executives and governance leaders. Only two of the fourteen G5 members had joined the company, and few had expressed interest in further involvement, including in the multiple learning and development programs the business offered, such as a mentoring program. Many of the G5 cousins had expressed little interest in business careers in general, and none of them currently was serving as an LKK intern. G4 members observed that their children were busy with family obligations, hobbies, and emerging careers outside the business. G5's lack of interest in business and governance roles was part of a growing pattern of low family engagement in general, exhibited by the cancellation of recent family retreats (once an annual tradition) because of apathy and some underlying conflict. A history of splits among past generations of the Lee family regarding business leadership made the engagement issue even more meaningful and critical.

Students will consider the challenge from the point of view of G4 family members David Lee, chairman of the family's Family Office, and his sister, Elizabeth Mok, who ran the Family Learning and Development Center. They and their three siblings saw engaging the next generation as a top priority, one related to key concepts including family-business continuity, generational engagement and empowerment, succession, emotional ownership, and intrinsic/extrinsic motivation.

Rural Marketing, Sales and Distribution Management, Salesperson Motivation, Channel Management.

The case can be used in sales management, channel management and rural marketing courses offered to graduate students of MBA degrees. In the sales management courses, the emphasis is on understanding the typical tasks that the rural salesperson is required to conduct. The case can be used to design a suitable motivation-mix for a rural salesperson after analysing their approach towards work. In a rural marketing course, the case can be used to understand the sales and distribution management of fast-moving consumer good products in rural India. The case can be used in channel management courses to design an appropriate channel structure in the rural market in India and utilized for managing the distributors’ salesforce for effective and improved market coverage in rural areas.

Candy Confectioneries Private Limited started its operations in 1995, and was one of the largest confectionery players in India with a market share of 20 per cent. The company had achieved sales of Rs 20bn in 2014 and had 15 confectionery brands in the market. The company was also trying hard to establish itself in the snacks category. The company had nationwide operations, and it was important for the company to expand into the rural market. It served its markets through a comprehensive urban and rural distribution setup. In the rural distribution network, the rural sales representatives (RSRs) played a key role and perhaps were one of the most critical factors in covering the rural market. The RSR system was typical to suit the requirement of product-market coverage with its limitations. The case broadly profiles eight RSRs who were engaged to cover a specific territory in the State of Bihar in India. It also describes their approaches to work and complexities emerging thereof in achieving the best results for the organization.

The case has the following learning objectives: Understanding the design of sales and distribution channel structure followed for distribution and selling of confectionery products in rural India. Examining whether the existing system is adequate to achieve the goals of the firm. Evaluating the performance of each salesperson and identifying common factors to formulate the salesforce policies. Arriving at a suitable motivation-mix for the rural salesperson.

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.

This case describes the talent management practices of Kaivalya Education Foundation (KEF), a social sector organization that works in the domain of school education. The two year Gandhi Fellowship (GF) program run by KEF takes urban youth from the best graduate colleges in the country and creates a cadre of change leaders that will work to bring about social change in the nation. The GFs undertake a rigorous, hands-on journey through the two years that is transformational in many ways.

Learning outcomes are as follows: understanding the importance of aligning an entrepreneur’s personal orientation and values (e.g. detachment from the enterprise) with business decisions related to enterprise development; appreciating how prior exposure to business settings can be a source of entrepreneurship pursuits for an entrepreneur; and understand whether a different type of leadership can be instrumental in the creation, running and growth of an entrepreneurial venture, especially in terms of introducing differentiated offerings in the target market.

The case is about an entrepreneur, Sangeeth Varghese, with a very humble and conservative background, who worked in various firms, small and large, and become a young global leader at World Economic Forum, before foraying into entrepreneurship. He is driven by the core values of detachment and democratization, which is reflected throughout his life course and has developed his own views on leadership. After running his first venture LeadCap Ventures with some measure of success, Sangeeth is about to launch his new venture LeadBurg, a web- and mobile-based application for behavioral rating and competency discovery for individuals. The predicament for Sangeeth is about the uncertainties related to the new launch from a business perspective, as well as the concern whether the core principles of democratization and detachment that he identified with, would stand the test in this launch.

Master level program (e.g. MBA).

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

As the move from the business incubator loomed, Abdul Khan had to decide where his business should relocate to. ACEES Group LLC, a small consulting firm, had grown from three friends working out of Abdul Khan’s house to a 20-person firm generating more than a million dollars in revenue within five years. This growth had necessitated the need for a larger and more prominent place. Although Abdul knew he did not want to renew the lease at the incubator, and he did not want to move his business too far from its current location, but the decision he had to make was whether ACEES Group should lease a commercial place or buy its own property. He was particularly torn because the real estate prices had fallen considerably, and were now on the mend and interest rates were still low.

The primary source of materials in the case was an interview with the owner (pseudo name: Abdul Khan). The owner wishes to remain anonymous. The financial statements of the firm produced in the case have been modified by a fixed factor so as to disguise the actual numbers but not materially alter the information in any fashion. Other secondary sources of materials include information about the business incubator program, the MBE certification and its benefits through the State of Florida, real estate and lease rates in Central Florida and other economic information.

This case is primarily intended for undergraduate students taking a course in entrepreneurship, real estate investments or financial management, with emphasis on real estate valuation, cash flow forecasting and/or valuation of business. Students should be familiar with time value of money concepts, understand the concept of NPV and IRR, and preferably be comfortable in the use of Excel. This instructor manual provides all calculations of space needs analysis, and discounted cash flow analysis for lease vs buy analysis. A few suggestions to discuss qualitative aspects of this decision making are also included.

The purpose of this case study is to illustrate how Dianne Savastano, founder and CEO of Healthassist, Inc., a US-based health-care advocacy firm, successfully led her clients and team through the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. To gather the data for this case study, the authors interviewed the protagonists, the members of her team and two clients. The authors read Healthassist Newsletters and the firm’s documents; and in fact, they included one Newsletter and several documents in the Exhibits of the case study. The authors conducted a literature review for articles in newspapers and journals about the newly developing field of “health-care advocacy,” a field which Savastano helped to create.

The authors illustrate how Savastano, using the five practices of exemplary leadership by Kouzes and Posner, in The Leadership Challenge, led her team through the pandemic of 2020. This is a story of a woman leader, using traits such as warmth, empathy, analysis and decisiveness, keeps her small business afloat when so many other firms collapsed in 2020.

The authors conducted seven interviews and literature searches on the topics of health-care advocacy; women leaders; leading through a crisis; and COVID-19.

The case study illustrates how a woman founder and CEO can lead her firm through a crisis.

This is an example of how a woman leader managed through the 2020 pandemic.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

This case focusses on management and customer service issues at a historic hotel, the Hawthorne, in Salem, Massachusetts. By 1999, when Juli Lederhaus was hired as the new general manager, the Hawthorne had a reputation of being well past its prime and customers were dissatisfied with the quality of service and outdated physical facilities. This case describes the actions she took, up to 2012, to improve service. The case ends with Lederhaus contemplating whether more changes are needed given that she had just heard a rumor that a company was considering building a new hotel just a few blocks away. The case gives students the opportunity to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the Hotel in relation to customer service, and propose recommendations for future improvements.

A qualitative, interview based, methodology was used. The researchers held numerous, face-to-face interviews with the owner and employees of various ranks. Information was also gathered from archival data and traveler review sites such as TripAdvisor.com and Yelp.com.

The case is targeted to undergraduate business and hospitality students at a sophomore or junior level. Classes in which this case could be used include: Organizational Behavior, Human Resource Management, and Hospitality Management.

Marketing Management and Economics.

Management courses (MBA level), Courses on Tourism

When in India (WII) is a tour company serving the niche segment of Heritage tourism. WII was incorporated in 2011 with the aim to enable foreign and domestic tourists to experience the deeply embedded cultural ethos and heritage of Old Delhi. Their unique tourism product, “the Wonder Pedicabs”, provides leisure rickshaw rides through the Old Delhi lanes. This teaching case focuses on various managerial dimensions of the operations of WII. The case can be used in courses on Marketing as well as Economics. The case discusses the macro and micro environmental forces operating on WII. It deliberates on the economics of various tours offered by WII. It also educates the participants about the process of decision-making that goes into the selection of a tour operator and a tourism product. Hence, it appreciates the significance of need recognition, search for information, evaluation of alternatives and purchase decision as pillars in the process of decision-making process. The case also attempts to educate the participants about the Indian Tourism Sector.

Comprehend what constitutes a tourism product and types of tourism. Understand consumer decision-making for a tourism product. Highlight the importance of the tourism sector in the Indian economy. Discuss economic concepts pertaining to cost and volume, enabling managerial decision-making.

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 12: Tourism and Hospitality.