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In mid-2013 Deepak Kumar, Chairman and Group CEO of MakeMyTrip (MMT), was headed to the Hindustan conference room of the company's head office in Gurgaon, India, for deciding the new homepage design. A day earlier, Ajay, Product Head, had shared the consolidated results of the trials of different options (see Exhibit 1 for the results of testing the options) with the homepage website redesign team, responsible for the entire project. The team consisted of the head of business (CBO), the Analytics Head, the user experience (UX)head, the Product Head and the Tech Head (CTO).

Looking at the results, Deepak Kumar reflected that there were a lot of surprises in how the different options had performed. While the tracking tools in online businesses had a huge advantage over traditional businesses in that almost every customer interaction could be measured, there was still a lot of reading between the numbers that had to be done. Deepak was looking forward to a fruitful discussion to evaluate the options and finalise the new homepage design to be rolled out. As he opened the door to the conference room, he heard an excited chatter.

In early 2013, Mr. Deepak Kumar, Chairman and Group CEO of MakeMyTrip1 (MMT), summoned a meeting to discuss about redesigning the MMT Homepage2. It was a three-hour meeting at the Hindustan Conference Room at the company's head office in Gurgaon, India. Theis meeting was attended by key members of the homepage website redesign team comprising the CBO, Analytics head, User Experience (UX) head, Product head and the Tech head (CTO). As a pre-read for the meeting, Ajay Singh, Product Head, shared his findings3 that could help in defining the issues faced by visitors to the homepage of MMT.

Entrepreneurship, innovation, marketing and strategy.

Master's, postgraduate and executive level programs.

Deepak Ravindran, an engineering student at LBS College, Kerala, India, was attempting to launch Innoz. The company flagship product SMSGyan will allow users to access information on low-end mobile devices with no Internet connectivity. With the improvement in the Internet standards and rapidly growing smartphone users, selling SMSGyan never came easy to Innoz. The case explores challenges faced during the transformation of a start-up into a profit-generating business. The case describes the dilemma faced by Deepak Ravindran and key role players of Innoz to sustain in business in the scenario of dynamic technologies. Should they re-innovate the technology that was limited for low-end mobile users? Innoz being at the bottom of the pyramid innovation is the key competitive advantage. Low-cost or niche market or differentiation connects this case to the basic business strategy concepts. Through this case, students learn about many practical issues related to technology development in the global competitive environment. They are also exposed to broader trends and facets of start-ups and globalization. The Innoz case is designed to stimulate discussion of broad array of issues encountered by the early start-ups. In particular, it deals with introducing innovation and entrepreneurship skills leading to social change.

To identify new business opportunities for non-Internet mobile users. To explore various possibilities of application services for low-end mobile users. Evaluate the advantages and liabilities of expanding globally at a very early start-up stage. The case focuses on Innoz's early development with only concept in hand and transforming it into a profit-generating business. To develop and give exposure to entrepreneurship skill set in students. To understand learning and strategies behind setting up of start-ups and the motivating self-driven skills. Discussion on innovative use of technology as a stream of business. Silicon valley culture adaptation into Indian context. To highlight use of mobile technology for teaching and learning. To showcase how entrepreneur skill in business can lead to social transformation.

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

One week since the first meeting, Mr. Deepak Kumar, Chairman and Group CEO of MakeMyTrip (MMT), called a second meeting of the homepage website redesign team for redesigning the Home Page (see Exhibit 1 for the current Home Page)¹. This team comprised of the CBO, Analytics Head, User Experience (UX) Head, Product Head and the Tech Head (CTO). The second meeting was called to discuss and finalise the options of the Home Page design to be tested, the criteria to be used for choosing the best option, and the testing methodology.

This case enables students to understand the nature of a typical crisis and manage a crisis drawing insights from the protagonist handling of the crisis and from the various crisis management models in the literature. The rich description of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the world in this case enables students to understand the nature of a typical external crisis. The critical appraisal of the protagonist’s plans and actions to overcome the crisis enables students to appreciate the various crisis management frameworks or models. In addition, students get perspectives about the leadership skills and competencies required during a crisis. In this way, students will not only learn about the theoretical concepts related to the crisis but also the practical know-how to effectively handle the crisis.

This case study describes the functioning of the International Delhi Public School (IDPS) Akhnoor, Jammu, and Kashmir, India, through the COVID-19 global crisis. The IDPS academic operations were disrupted because of the COVID-19 global crisis in March 2020. The protagonist, KCS Mehta, the school principal of IDPS, faced with the crisis, takes various steps to ensure the smooth transition of school’s academic operations from the physical mode to the online mode. This case explains the nature of an external crisis that completely crippled the organization’s day-to-day operations and how the organization’s leader tried to manage the crisis to revitalize the organization’s operations. The case can be used for teaching of alternate Models of Crisis Management and Change Management.

The case is developed to teach the courses of Executive training programs and MBA programs in business schools.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Ostensibly the case is about an employee resigning from the organization due to lack of support, job clarity, and information about reporting structure. It addresses issues of socialization process, performance appraisal, and communication issue between colleagues in a consulting organization. The case serves as medium for diagnosis and action planning around integration of new employees into the organization, effective performance appraisal, and resolving communication barriers.

Marketing, strategy, and integrated marketing communication.

The case is suitable for analysis in an MBA level marketing communication course where the theories of hierarchy of effects (HoE) models, push vs pull strategies as well as positioning strategies can be introduced. The case is suitable for analysis in an MBA level marketing course for the module on marketing communications/advertising and promotions.

Sanjay, the regional head of PepsiCo India (eastern region), had been tasked with the preparation of a support plan for a new communication campaign of Mountain Dew, a yellow-coloured drink in PepsiCo's soft-drink portfolio. He had attended a meeting at the headquarters where he had been briefed on the new national campaign roll-out for Mountain Dew – for the first time with celebrity association. While Mountain Dew had been growing its market share in other regions of the Indian market, the Eastern region had been unresponsive to the mass media image building campaigns. During the meeting, the various aspects of Mountain Dew's performance were discussed and Sanjay was asked to prepare a support plan for the national campaign that will help to increase revenues and market share of the brand in the Eastern region.

To understand the complexities of differential impact of integrated nation-wide communications on various segments of the market due to cultural variations, to understand the role of push strategy vs pull strategy in marketing communications, to understand the role of consistency in image between the trade and consumers perception, to understand the impact of celebrity endorsements, an introduction to the HoE communication models and their applications, to understand limitations of the HoE and Think-Feel-Do models in objective setting and understanding the uses of alternative models, to build a communication plan based on pull vs push 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.

This case depicts a managerial problem faced by Tradition and Trust, a traditional sweet and snack manufacturer, which is 100-year old family business manufacturing, retailing and exporting sweets, snacks and other confectionery products. Like other traditional sweet and snack manufactures, the company is facing the challenge of consumers' shift towards ‘healthy snacking’. Moreover, brands like Haldiram's and Bikanerwala are posing a tough competition to the traditional sweet manufacturing brands. In recent years, the brand has witnessed a decline in sales. In view of the challenges posed to brand, the Chief Marketing Officer, wants to understand the various factors influencing decline of sales and find ways to redesign the strategy for sustaining its current position in the market. The case is written to illustrate how six fundamental steps of conducting a marketing research can be used to address a given managerial problem.

The learning outcomes are as follows: identify and evaluate the impact of risk factors for health-care organizations during crisis; evaluate the role of different organizational factors in building resilient health-care organizations; define organizational resilience in a health-care context; and apply the effect-strategy-impact resilience framework.

September 2022 found Ranjan Thakur, the Hospital Director at Manipal Hospital, Jaipur (MHJ) reflecting on MHJ’s resilience toward future health-care crises. MHJ was established in the capital city Jaipur of the Indian state of Rajasthan in 2014, as a 225-bed multispecialty unit of the nationally renowned Manipal Health Enterprises Ltd. As the Hospital Director, Thakur had been responsible for navigating his team and the hospital through the multiple health-care related challenges exacerbated by the multiple waves of the Covid-19 pandemic in a large Indian state with a sizable rural and semiurban population. Though Thakur and his team of doctors had worked through the vulnerabilities of their health-care ecosystem, mapping the risks and mitigating the same, Thakur asked himself if they had done enough. He wondered how a health-care institution such as theirs could sustain effective health-care delivery during future crises situations to deliver high-quality health care to the vulnerable communities. Had they effectively mapped MHJ’s vulnerabilities and built resilience into the hospital’s functioning? The backdrop of the case is public health in the state of Rajasthan (Jaipur), and the case is rich in detailing social factors such as behavior issues of patients, doctors and nurses; operational factors such as standardization of treatment and standard operating procedures, availability of resources, clinical concerns; leadership and management of the hospital through the pandemic. This case can be used by instructors to teach organizational resilience building in the health-care context.

Graduate- and executive-level courses in managing change during crisis in health-care context; health-care management/leadership.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management Science.

This case describes the events following an incident of a rape in a taxi associated with Uber, by its driver. Uber was an application based taxi operator. The events raised several issues for government systems and processes, such as need for regulation of new formats of business like application based taxi services, integrated databases, checks against forgery and holistic approach towards women safety. The case also brings out how an e-commerce business raises regulatory concerns.