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The case illustrates the sequence of events that played out between the customer and his interaction with a Bank from which he availed a credit card and a loan. The failure of service deliverables and deficiencies in the processes of the bank resulted in default of the loan amount and inconvenienced the customer. In the case, the focus on the customer helps in understanding that organizations need to initiate responses for customer satisfaction at their interface points, as expected by its customers. The case is suitable for use in courses on ‘Services Marketing’ for Post Graduate courses and Management Development Programmes.

Organizational Behavior and Strategic Management.

MBA, Management/Executive development programs.

This case study can be used effectively for understanding the nuances of employee loyalty, especially if there is a cost of employee loyalty. While Anand Finance is happy that its workforce has largely been loyal, the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous times force it to chart new course of action. The newly appointed Business Head, Ashok Singh's challenges compound when he finds that there was not’t a single innovation or best practice adopted over the past three years. Given his mandate to make Anand Finance as the Walmart of financial services, can he aspire to rally the forces behind the new mission? This case study facilitates an interesting discussion on the significance of operational and strategic alignment at organizations in the backdrop of an interesting story of Anand Finance, one of the leading non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) in India. The non-alignment was noticed by Ashok Singh (Singh) who took over as the Business Head of Anand Finance. While the company boasted of long-standing employees, Singh was quick to notice that the company had been paying a cost for employee loyalty. What was the cost of employee loyalty? Singh could also sense that the company was in a state of active inertia. Expected to make Anand Finance Walmart for financial services by 2025, Singh had a big task at hand given the lack of strategic orientation of the employees. What would be the likely course of Singh's actions? As the case study deals with strategic dilemmas related to the organizational culture, it can be suitably used for organizational behavior and strategic management courses. This case study is meant highlight that even if an organization is operationally sound and successful, it cannot afford to be strategically disoriented, as its strengths may prove to be its weaknesses with changing business conditions.

At the end of this case discussion, the participants are expected to know the merits and demerits of employee loyalty and the implications of the same for organizational change; whether employees’ relatively longer stints at companies would contribute to active inertia (as defined by Donald N. Sull in Harvard Business Review article, “Why Good Companies Go Bad”); and the ways to align operational orientation with strategic mindset, especially in the case of employees who rose through the ranks and had been serving the company for relatively longer period.

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

This public-sourced case describes the latest restructuring efforts by Deutsche Bank (DB) and gives a short history of prior restructuring efforts from the decade before. In July 2019, Christian Sewing, the new CEO of DB, announced a series of measures that included, among others, the elimination of global equity trading, the layoff of 18,000 employees, the creation of a “bad bank” to transfer noncore assets, and the suspension of dividends until 2022. The case describes key decisions a bank CEO makes when a bank needs to change course to return to profitability and growth. The case offers an opportunity to debate these key decisions, as well as discuss some of the prior ones during earlier restructuring efforts, and put the students in the CEO's shoes: What would you do and why? The case also describes key banking performance metrics (e.g., ROE, ROA) and other critical variables such as those reflecting capital health (Tier 1 ratio), as well as gives an overview of the bank business model and factors impacting bank profitability and value.

Bonnie CLAC (car loans and counseling) is a social entrepreneurship venture whose mission was to help low-to-moderate income consumers purchase new cars. Co-founder and social entrepreneur, Robert Chambers developed a business proposal for the venture. Chambers was struggling to convince banks that the proposal significantly reduced the banks' risks and the proposal provided significant benefits to the banks and community at large. The case begins with another bank rejecting the business proposal, continues with an explanation of the issues sub-prime consumers (generally low-to-moderate income consumers) face when attempting to obtain financing for reliable automobile transportation, and concludes with Chambers beginning to revise his proposal to convince risk averse bankers that Bonnie CLAC's clients were credit worthy and worth the risk. The exhibits for the case are the principal information sources students will use to answer the ice breaker and discussion questions.

The authors developed the case from interviews with Robert Chambers and secondary sources.

Personal finance, Financial management, Financial institutions management

Personal financial planning, Bank lending decisions and Credit scores

This case asks students to step into the role of Adalberto Flores, co-founder and CEO of Kueski, one of the first companies to develop a proprietary algorithm for online loan approval in Mexico. Mexico lacks a standardized credit scoring system, making it difficult for many Mexicans to get approved for a loan or credit card. This, together with the fact that Mexicans generally do not trust traditional banks, makes Mexico an attractive opportunity for fintech companies. Growth, however, could require fintech companies to partner with traditional banks. Students assume the role of Flores to think about the benefits and risks associated with a partnership between Kueski and traditional banks. Students are also challenged to compare the structure of U.S. financial services markets with the Mexican structure and consider the implications on the sustainability of fintech companies in the two markets. The teaching note analyzes the Mexican financial market and the benefits and threats it holds for fintech companies, and outlines a framework for evaluating the risk associated with partnerships.

In China, supply chain finance (SCF) has gradually emerged as a new service for the retail industry. This case systematically discusses how JD conducts product design and risk control of supply chain finance and related financial services, and analyze the impact of supply chain finance on JD's retail operations. The case also analyzes the relationship between JD supply chain finance and traditional financial institutions, and explore the future development of retail supply chain finance.

Hedge fund Magnetar Capital had returned 25 percent in 2007 with a strategy that posed significantly lower risk to investors than the S&P 500. Magnetar had made more than $1 billion in profit by noticing that the equity tranche of CDOs and CDO-derivative instruments were relatively mispriced. It took advantage of this anomaly by purchasing CDO equity and buying credit default swap (CDS) protection on tranches that were considered less risky. Now it was the job of Alec Litowitz, chairman and chief investment officer, to provide guidance to his team as they planned next year's strategy, evaluate and prioritize their ideas, and generate new ideas of his own. An ocean away, Ron Beller was contemplating some very different issues. Beller's firm, Peloton Partners LLP, had been one of the top-performing hedge funds in 2007, returning in excess of 80 percent. In late January 2008 Beller accepted two prestigious awards at a black-tie EuroHedge ceremony. A month later, his firm was bankrupt. Beller shorted the U.S. housing market before the subprime crisis hit, and was paid handsomely for his bet. After the crisis began, however, he believed that prices for highly rated mortgage securities were being unfairly punished, so he decided to go long AAA-rated securities backed by Alt-A mortgage loans (between prime and subprime), levered 9x. The trade moved against Peloton in a big way on February 14, 2008, causing $17 billion in losses and closure of the firm.

This case analyzes the strategies of the two hedge funds, focusing on how money can be made and lost during a financial crisis. The role of investment banks as lenders to hedge funds such as Peloton is explored, as well as characteristics of the CDO market and an array of both mortgage-related and credit protection-related instruments that were actively used (for better or worse) by hedge funds during the credit crisis of 2007 and 2008.

Marketing.

The primary target for this case study is marketing and communications undergraduate students, especially those from emerging countries; the secondary target is MBA students studying principles of marketing, integrated marketing communications.

Turkey probably faced the most severe economic crisis after the Second World War in February 21, 2001, when the Turkish Lira was devalued by 94 percent against US dollar just overnight. Against this volatile business environment, Bank Z as one of the major banks in Turkey, was preparing for the launch of a major new marketing and communication plan. In April 2000 Bank Z had set itself the target of “changing the banking concept in Turkey, accomplishing no other bank was able to realize”. So Bank Z was ready to communicate its new consumer banking products when the country started to face rough times. Especially financial institutions and banks were encountering serious trust issues. Bank Z on the other hand, had grouped its products according to their line of financial expertise in five groups with the aim of having specialized personnel in these different areas, serving clients in the best possible way. Furthermore, the bank was aiming to realize 80 percent of its transactions via telephone and internet banking. Therefore, Bank Z had undertaken major technological investments in order to be able to deliver these services. But under these volatile economic conditions, should they go ahead with the campaign? Or should they postpone the campaign? Or should they realize it with a reduced frequency and budget? What if they postpone and one of the competitors start a new advertising campaign with similar propositions? The case tries to answer these critical questions with the help of market data, showing the likely course of business decisions can take in an emerging country just under 24 hours.

There are two main outcomes: first, to show the importance of consistent, continuous and sustainable communication for brand's marketing activities, especially during times of economic instability. The second outcome is to simulate difficulties of decision making under highly volatile market conditions and in high-risk environments, especially when the business environments can change abruptly.

Teaching notes are available.

General management/Strategy: Problems with debt recovery industry in India Strategic positioning and core competencies: expansion plans.

The case can be used on an MBA program for a course in strategic management. It can be used to understand the concept of strategic positioning. It will give the students an opportunity to critically evaluate a firm’s strategic positioning in the competitive environment, enable them to understand how to create and capture superior value by differentiating as compared with other players in an industry and address expansion and growth strategies.

The case represents the success story of “Adhikrut Jabti evam vasuli”, a debt recovery agency that dared to use the unconventional strategy of employing women as recovery agents, against the stereotyped muscle-flexing male agents. Continuous focus on improving the processes and systems backed by an authoritative yet tactful approach of persuasion and patience has brought this recovery agency accolades and growth. But now Parag Shah the Managing Director is planning to expand its horizons and wonders whether he should go ahead opening up more branch offices across the country or whether he should convert his recovery firm into an Asset reconstruction company.

The case reinforces the importance of “Strategic positioning” of a firm due to well-planned differentiation in services. The case also addresses concepts of leadership, standardization, people skills and relationship management.

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.

This case teaches students the importance of maintaining a strong FICO score by illustrating the consequences of paying bills late or not at all. The protagonist is David Molina, a waiter at a struggling Italian restaurant located down the block from where he lives. Money is tight for Molina right now—his limited income means he lives paycheck to paycheck. However, Molina knows things will be looking up for him soon because he recently accepted a job as a bank teller across town—his first desk job.

Molina has been putting off paying two of his bills: a cable bill and his Bank of America credit card bill, both of which are late and have been issued, this time, in the form of threats to impact Molina's credit score if he doesn't pay them. He has just enough money to afford the minimum payments on each overdue bill. But then he receives a phone call from his friend, Jim Lindsey, reminding him about an invitation to go to Myrtle Beach for the upcoming weekend. Molina knows he cannot afford it, but a woman he's attracted to, Jessica, will be there too. Should Molina put off the bills yet again, and if so, how exactly will being late on them hurt his credit score?