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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.

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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.

The learning outcomes of this paper are as follows: understanding the complexities of persuading a distributor to increase investments in the Pakistani fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) context. Understanding the data handled by an area sales manager (ASM) for effective territory management, along with the path taken for a focused approach to territory growth. Comparing the distinct perspectives of a company and an intermediary (e.g. distributor) who are pursuing similar business goals. Experiencing hands-on calculations of return on investment (ROI) for a distributor, in a straightforward situation.

In June 2015, Shah Mir, an ASM at PurePack Pakistan, was face-to-face with an irate distributor named Amir Kazmi, who ran Kazmi Agency in Sukkur, Sindh. PurePack Pakistan, a multinational organization dealing with FMCG products, had a turnover of approximately PKR 7.5bn¹ and was a fully owned subsidiary of PurePack Limited, UAE. Shah’s predecessor, Noor Azam, had managed the central Sindh territory very well and had recorded phenomenal growth. The retail outlet coverage had increased during Noor’s time, along with Amir’s investment in the territory. Knowing he was up against an outstanding past achievement, Shah had studied the data of the area and Kazmi Agency’s performance for the past two years and had concluded that there was still greater potential in the area. Amir Kazmi, owner of Kazmi Agency, was an astute businessman who visited his Sukkur market regularly. He knew the distribution business well and had benefitted from it. He was fully aware of the importance of working on relationships with his retailers in the FMCG industry because competition was high and loyalties needed to be nurtured. Like any businessperson, he was concerned about the growth and profitability of his business. Kazmi’s business had increased quite rapidly from a turnover of around PKR 8.7m in 2008 to one of around PKR 54m in 2014, indicating the potential in the Sukkur district. Shah, who was new to the territory and early in his career, was still grappling with the fact that the growth in central Sindh had been phenomenal and that expectations were high for him. He had gotten working on the territory while keeping in mind advice from his boss, Nabeel Asad, who had told him to identify one area at a time so that he could go about achieving his growth targets in a focused manner. This case brings out the challenges that young ASMs face while in the field, when they have to deal with experienced distributors in the Pakistani retail trade, especially in the smaller towns where relationships can greatly affect business. Students will gain an understanding of the key performance indicators required to focus on developmental issues in a territory. It will enable students to appreciate financial considerations as a major tool in dealing with intermediaries (distributors, in this case) and get hands-on experience in a method of convincing a distributor of his past investments and profitability and paving the way for further investment for retail expansion.

This case is designed for use at the postgraduate level in sales management, channel management and strategic marketing courses, as well as in executive management programs. It can be used at later stages of a course and show a link between a company’s requirements and a distributor’s goals. The students should have field experience or aspire to get into roles dealing with intermediaries, such as distributors. The case gives students a practical, hands-on experience in working on simple profitability calculations and pushes them to challenge the assumptions that need to be made. The case attempts to trigger a discussion on distributor management and its challenges in Pakistan, where managing relationships while keeping in mind the business perspective is imperative. Identifying the right geographical territories to focus on and working on the financials of the distributor are the key learning deliverables. The case is accompanied by a spreadsheet with calculations. This spreadsheet is for the instructor’s use and is for demonstrating calculations as the class progresses. By using the spreadsheet, the instructor can practically demonstrate the effects that changes in investments, expenses, etc. have on the distributor’s profits. It can even be used to build a far more complex situation than the one given in the case (advice for which is provided in this teaching note).

CSS 8: Marketing.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

Human resource management; Employee benefits management.

It can be used at undergraduate or postgraduate level for students at institutions of higher learning taking courses related to employee benefits management or human resource management.

The case is about the intention of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) in purchasing health insurance for its employees in early 2011. For this purpose, a tender for group medical Takaful for UUM staff was placed in two major Malaysian newspapers on 20 February 2011. Then, after the tender closing date, a report was prepared and sent to the bursar of UUM, En Amron, on 28 April 2011. Ten companies had submitted their tenders; thus, En Amron had to identify the optimal group medical Takaful offered by the tenderers, so that he could put forward his recommendation to UUM tender committee board for its consideration and approval before the matter was brought to higher authorities for endorsement and implementation.

This teaching case will enable students to explain the reasons why an employer provides health insurance, to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of providing health insurance programme as non-contributory and contributory plans, to conduct company and plan assessment in making decision to purchase group medical Takaful and to evaluate either to purchase group health insurance directly from life insurer or to engage insurance broker.

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

The central lesson to be learned from studying the case is to understand the challenges and constraints posed by contextual conditions in designing contracts in public–private partnerships (PPP) for financing and delivering health care in emerging economies such as India.

Perverse incentives, along with contextual conditions, led to extensive opportunistic behaviors among involved agencies, limiting the effectiveness of otherwise highly regarded innovative design of the program.

India’s “Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana” or National Health Insurance Program, launched in 2007 provided free health insurance coverage to protect millions of low-income families from getting pushed into poverty due to catastrophic health-care expenditure. The program was implemented through a PPP using standardized contracts between multiple stakeholders from the public and private sector – insurance companies, hospitals, intermediaries, the provincial and federal government.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 10 Public Sector Management.

As China has pressed ahead with rural revitalization in recent years, its rural financial sector has also developed rapidly and the financial environment has been greatly improved. But compared with urban areas, the rural financial sector makes rather limited contributions to rural economic development for a variety of reasons, including single types of service providers, narrow coverage, and lack of services and products. The underdevelopment of the rural financial system is closely related to the characteristics of its target customers and the economic system. The deficient rural financial credit system, the low level of IT application, the difficulty in data collection and integration, and the insufficient collateral of farmers pose high costs and huge risks for financial institutions when providing credit and other financial services.

In the present case, fintech and financial innovation complement each other: The application of fintech makes innovation possible, and the need for financial development fuels the development of fintech. Leveraging fintech and new business models, MYbank has overcome the main obstacles in the development of rural finance to provide convenient financial services for farmers and rural MSEs. Fintech is the abbreviation of “financial technology.” It can be understood as the combination of finance and technology for easier understanding, but it is more than that. Fintech refers to the innovation of traditional financial products and services with various technologies to improve efficiency and reduce operating costs. The emergence and development of fintech have led to the creation of new business models, applications, and processes, which have triggered major changes in financial markets, financial institutions, and the ways financial services are delivered, and are reshaping the financial landscapes of countries and even the world.

There are three major problems in the development of rural finance: difficult access to data, difficult risk management, and difficult market penetration. In order to gradually remove the obstacles and guarantee sustainable business development, MYbank has created three new business models with the power of fintech: digital inclusive finance at the county level, industrial finance, and platform finance. With these models, MYbank is searching for a “Chinese solution” to the worldwide problem of rural inclusive finance.

This case is the second of a three-part series that follows the managerial, strategic, and communications decisions of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) or Clean India Mission, the flagship programme of the Government of India to eliminate the practice of open defecation (i.e., not using a toilet) from 2014 to 2019. As of 2014, 550 million people in India practiced open defecation. This problem posed a massive public health hazard and economic drag for the country as well as a threat to global health. Written from an insider's perspective, the cases centre on the decisions made by a new Secretary of India's Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, who was hired to manage SBM, and the team he assembled. Case B discusses the start-up challenges for SBM, including implementation in India's complex federal system, workplace culture, and the deep-rooted behaviour of open defecation in rural India and the managerial and communication strategies formulated to address them. The case concludes by framing the difficulties with slow-moving states and monitoring rigour that the leadership SBM, with a new team, strategic focus, and early momentum, faced as the mission entered its final two years.

This case is the second of a three-part series that follows the managerial, strategic, and communications decisions of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) or Clean India Mission, the flagship programme of the Government of India to eliminate the practice of open defecation (i.e., not using a toilet) from 2014 to 2019. As of 2014, 550 million people in India practiced open defecation. This problem posed a massive public health hazard and economic drag for the country as well as a threat to global health. Written from an insider's perspective, the cases centre on the decisions made by a new Secretary of India's Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, who was hired to manage SBM, and the team he assembled. Case B discusses the start-up challenges for SBM, including implementation in India's complex federal system, workplace culture, and the deep-rooted behaviour of open defecation in rural India and the managerial and communication strategies formulated to address them. The case concludes by framing the difficulties with slow-moving states and monitoring rigour that the leadership SBM, with a new team, strategic focus, and early momentum, faced as the mission entered its final two years.

Case explains how female leaders are more concerned about social issues the industry in which they operate could resolve. Obo-Nia, CEO of Vodafone Ghana, showed concern for resolving the digital divide in Africa and offered a collaborative solution. The case also suggests how female CEOs invest in strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) that could create a competitive advantage for firms. The case also discusses gender diversity issues in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) field and how Vodafone Ghana’s CEO tried to enhance gender diversity in the telecommunication sector and Vodafone. Obo-Nai did not emphasize gender diversity from a CSR perspective but believed in a business case for gender diversity, as an increase in participation of women in the STEM workforce could help the telecommunication sector innovate faster and resolve the digital divide challenge while also empowering women working from the informal sector.

What is the significance of a digital divide and the societal role of the telecommunication sector; Why female CEOs are more concerned about CSR and how CSR makes not charity but business case; Why female CEOs are more inclined toward collaborative strategies and how stakeholders are involved in collaborative strategies for reducing the digital divide; Exploring various strategies for enhancing gender diversity in the STEM field and the significance of gender diversity in the STEM field.

The case is about the challenges faced by Patricia Obo-Nai, the first female CEO of Vodafone Ghana, to bridge the digital divide in Africa while doing so in a profitable manner. Obo-Nai was an engineer by profession and won several awards as she rose to the post of CEO in Vodafone Ghana in 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she took several corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, such as making internet service freely available in certain schools and universities so that education could continue. Obo-Nai also emphasized gender diversity within Vodafone and urged other telecommunication players to focus on gender diversity from a social responsibility perspective because it was essential for innovation. Under Obo-Nai’s leadership, Vodafone itself launched several new products. She called for a multistakeholder collaborative approach to bridge the digital divide and to make 4G internet affordable in Africa. Obo-Nai collaborated with competitors like MTN Ghana to enhance Vodafone Ghana’s roaming services.

This case is intended for undergraduate or graduate-level business and management courses, especially international business and society, CSR and leadership courses. Graduate students in public policy may also find the case compelling.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS5: International Business; CCS10: Public Sector Management

Since the late 1980s, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company has maintained a strong position in the nonstandard auto-insurance market (auto insurance for high-risk drivers). Progressive’s goals in the 1990s are to expand its insurance coverage to include standard and preferred customers (drivers with clean driving records and no accidents). The company never advertised before 1994; as a result, consumer awareness has been very low. Progressive faces strong competition in a varied insurance industry. Companies like Allstate, the nation’s largest underwriter of nonstandard auto insurance, and State Farm, with 21.1% total market share, present a challenge to Progressive as the company strives to make its products available to all drivers. The case focuses on building the company’s brand through advertising and enhancing product differentiation through technology. A teaching note is available to registered faculty, along with a video supplement to enhance student learning.