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After reading and analyzing the case study, the students would be able to understand the complexities of leadership and decision-making in a diverse workplace, specifically when promoting differently abled employees; explore the importance of fostering an inclusive environment, addressing biases and developing empathy in the context of leadership and diversity; explore the challenges and considerations involved in managing a team with diverse backgrounds and abilities; and evaluate the potential impact of promoting employees with disabilities on the morale and retention of other team members.

This case study is about a hearing-impaired individual, Jessica, who was recently hired by a medium-sized organization, Zerial Education. She was the organization’s first hire with a disability, and some of her colleagues were skeptical about how she would fit in. There was a clear bias against her because of her disability, and she faced many challenges while proving herself and earning the respect of her colleagues. Despite the initial skepticism and bias, she quickly proved herself to be a valuable member of the team. As the appraisal period arrived, Stan Logan, her reporting manager, faced a tough decision. He wanted to be fair and avoid to seem to be biased, yet he was also committed to fostering diversity and inclusion. If he promoted Jessica, it would affirm the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusivity, and it would also validate Jessica’s impressive year of work. However, this might come at the cost of creating tensions among the other top performers who were also deserving of the promotion and potentially complicating client interactions owing to Jessica’s hearing impairment. Logan had to navigate these complexities and make a decision that aligned with both the company’s values and operational needs, while also considering the potential consequences on team morale and client relationships.

The case is suitable for use by students at an MBA level. Human resource management: In this course, students might learn about the legal and ethical issues surrounding disability in the workplace, as well as strategies for recruiting and retaining employees with disabilities. Organizational behavior: In this course, students might learn about the psychological and social factors that influence how individuals with disabilities are perceived and treated in organizations, as well as how to promote diversity and inclusion within a company.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management

Drawing from individual experiences and shared passion, Amena and Ramez first founded Helm as a student club at the American University in Cairo in 2012. As a club, Helm worked extensively to identify the main challenges facing persons with disabilities (PwDs) in Egypt. During meetings with various stakeholders, Helm found that employment was a recurring theme. The employment rate for PwDs in Egypt was only 21.3% compared to 40.2% among the non-disabled. During its first year alone, Helm found jobs for 300 individuals with some sort of disability. Despite this initial success, Helm strived to increase its social impact by increasing the integration of PwDs in Egypt through changing employers’ mindset and building inclusive work atmospheres where PwDs could work and thrive. There were, however, major cultural barriers in Egypt standing in the way of this vision. Despite these challenges, Helm managed to play a pivotal role in creating social transformation around disability in Egypt. Helm became a key player in reshaping Egypt’s legislation on PwDs through participating in several policymaking discussions, parliamentary committee meetings and programs with governmental entities. In the hope of increasing Helm’s potential social impact, Amena and Ramez aimed to maintain their growth in Egypt and to expand to other markets in the region. Accordingly, they were faced with a set of compelling questions. Amena and Ramez further wanted to make sure that their current business model and contribution to social transformation for PwDs could help them to grow and serve other markets. Should they adapt their business model and services offerings to scale up their social impact accordingly? If so, how?

This case allows students to consider the nature of social enterprises in developing countries and how they create social transformation in supporting PwDs in local communities. This case also introduces students to social enterprises’ business models, scalability and the sustainability issues which such enterprises face in the context of developing countries. By the end of studying the case, students should be able to understand the following: Objective 1: Identify the characteristics of social entrepreneurship and apply it to a social enterprise using Robinson’s (2006) definition of social entrepreneurship; Objective 2: Analyze the business model of a social enterprise using the nine building blocks of the business model canvas of Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010); Objective 3: Evaluate the social enterprise revenue model for sustainability using Yunus et al.’s (2010) building a social business model; and Objective 4: Suggest business model modification to improve a social enterprise’s scalability and service offerings in a new market.

This case study is aimed at students who are enrolled in entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, non-profit management, corporate social investment and sustainability courses. This case is written at an honor of graduate level so it can be used for master’s level, short graduate programs, MBA. The case is directed to students who have a business background and want to understand and explore social entrepreneurship.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

This case can facilitate students to develop a deeper understanding of the social mission-based business enterprises, startups, solopreneurship, one-man companies, women-led businesses, benefits and challenges associated with service innovation and design thinking, along with the competitive forces and funding problems in scaling up a social enterprise. It can be used for the BBA, MBA or Executive MBA programs for courses on entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, design thinking, business strategy and service innovation.

This case is suitable for both the undergraduate or graduate-level programs in the area of entrepreneurship, innovation and startup management.

Dr Anita Sharma was a solopreneur who started a car driving school in Amritsar, Punjab, deploying specially designed, retrofitted cars to train People with Disabilities (PwDs). She demonstrated exceptional prowess in defying the social taboos and popular stigmas associated with PwDs by establishing “Drive On My Own” (DOMO) as an innovative project, a first-of-its-kind car-driving training school in India to provide an accessible car-drive learning experience to PwDs. She ignored the extreme sensitivity displayed in the social behavior of people around her, who were either were too sensitive for the PwDs by treating them as Person with Special Abilities (PwSAs) or were completely insensitive toward them or their problems thinking that their disabilities are their misfortunes. This continuum of insensitive to overprotective societal attitudes and lack of infrastructure concerning travel for PwSAs made this service innovation possible by design thinking. This entrepreneurial initiative enabled solo as well as group travel and tours possible for PwDs, by bringing in new inclusive modes of communication and solutions for self-mobility. It has also paved a path for social inclusiveness and livelihood sustainability by bringing positive change in the lives of PwDs and their family members. Moreover, a new design implementation is in her plans, as she wants to redesign these cars further to be accessible for people using wheelchairs too. The potential growth of this solopreneur’s social enterprise calls for scaling up the business, but it may also attract competition as the existing big tech-travel automobile companies may enter this domain soon with their driver-less or self-drive cars. Considering all these factors, Dr Anita Sharma faced multiple dilemmas: Can she formalize her project? What can be the type of business she can proceed with? How can she sustain and scale up her women-led project, better qualifying as a PwD-led social enterprise? How can she resolve the challenges related to the design implementation, funding the project and facing competition while scaling up DOMO as her social and service innovation?

Thus, this case study enables the application of concepts and theories of business enterprise, business funding, service innovation and design thinking. It also helps recognize and understand the challenges related to social entrepreneurship.

CSS: 3 Entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship; Social entrepreneurship.

Graduate level.

This paper, The Brownies & Downies case study, aims to examine a social enterprise that provides employment, training and job placements for people with intellectual disability within a trendy artisanal coffee shop in Cape Town, South Africa. The business is based on a similar establishment (same name) in The Netherlands and was brought to Cape Town by Wendy Vermeulen, a Dutch national who completed a social development internship in Cape Town. The case is located within the field of social enterprise with a particular focus on the tension between purpose and profit and the pressure and challenges of replication, growth and scale/expansion. The protagonist in the case is Wade Schultz, Wendy’s business partner, who is grappling with how to not only remain true to the social purpose of the business but also turn a profit in the pressured and competitive coffee industry. He is further challenged by deciding whether to expand the existing training business into other sectors or seek a replication model in other South African cities as a means of growing revenue and increasing the social impact.

The key learning from this case study are as follows: First, intellectual disability is a hidden form of disability, often misunderstood and subject to prejudice and discriminatory hiring practices. Intellectual disability exists on a scale – some individuals are able to work outside of pretexted or sheltered workspaces. Greater effort is required within open workplaces to sensitive staff to working with/alongside intellectually disabled people. This case illustrates a social enterprise model that seeks to bridge the gap between sheltered workspaces and open workspaces. Second, most social enterprises grapple with the tension between profit and purpose; this case presents a company that is living this dilemma. The importance of remaining true to purpose needs to be balanced carefully against becoming economically self-sufficient; however, the pursuit of profits should not happen at the cost of social mission. Alternate business models are a mechanism to building revenue to support the social objective.

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: 3: Entrepreneurship.

The case can be used at undergraduate and postgraduate level, in management development programmes or in Executive Education programmes.

Social entrepreneurship, social inclusion, business model innovation, sustainability, strategy design and strategy execution.

The case explores the development of MITTI Café, an organisation that trains and employs individuals with intellectual, physical and/or psychiatric disabilities to work in inclusive kitchens and cafes in India. The protagonist is the founder of the café, Alina Alam, who has won several international awards for her work. The case highlights Alam’s approach and how she is trying to challenge societal and business perspectives relating to disability. From 2017 to 2021, Alam has scaled and operationalised the business, building her core team, leveraging several partnerships with stakeholders and putting into place offerings, processes and procedures that created a sustainable business model and blueprint.MITTI Café aligns itself with several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with sustainability and social impact at the core of its strategy. As Alam considers the future in July 2021, what else needs to be taken into consideration to scale either within India or abroad?

Following reading and exploring the case, students should be able to identify how social exclusion and inclusion manifests in a business context, and how social entrepreneurship ventures such as MITTI Café can address this challenge; identify capabilities in the context of people with disabilities; recognise how stakeholder relationships can be leveraged as a force for good and for growth, and address SDGs through social enterprise; identify and categorise resources and capabilities within organisations; evaluate opportunities for growth and scale.

The case explores how the protagonist is challenging the concept of “ability” and through her work with the differently abled providing scalable opportunities for social inclusion and dignity.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

This paper aims to enable the application of Value Proposition Canvas and Business Model Canvas to evaluate an opportunity; understand the commonalities and differences between social and commercial enterprises; and recognize the challenges related to the paradox of the social mission and the financial/economic logic.

Neha Arora demonstrated exceptional capabilities of defying the social stigma associated with People with Disabilities (PwDs) to establish Planet Abled, a first in the world venture to provide accessible leisure excursions to PwDs. This entrepreneurial initiative enabling group and solo travel for PwDs as inclusive tourism has created the possibility of social sustainability by bringing change in the lives of PwDs and their family members by ignoring either the insensitive or overprotective societal attitudes and lack of infrastructure concerning travel for PwDs. Its potential growth qualifies for scaling-up, but it can also attract the existing big travel solution providers to enter this domain. Considering these facts, Neha faces multiple dilemmas: How can she sustain and scale up the early momentum created by her enterprise? How can she resolve the challenges related to the paradox of the social mission and the financial/ economic logic while scaling-up Planet Abled?

This case study is suitable for both undergraduate or graduate-level programs in the area of entrepreneurship.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

This paper aims to sensitize learners to some of the ethical and public relation issues involved in decision-making with specific reference to the educational field.

This case brings out a dilemma faced by the school management of Vidyalaya School, Karnataka, India in responding to a notice issued by the State Government to pay a huge compensation and to re-absorb a teacher who was rendered physically challenged owing to an accident within the school premises. The case is set in the milieu of a self-financed, private education industry during the period 2013-2018. This is a case in “Strategy formulation” and “Ethical dilemma” involved in the field of education in India. A teacher was permanently injured and confined to a wheelchair in an attempt to rescue a child attempting to jump off the school building and end her life for having obtained low marks in a test paper. While the school management was initially sympathetic and paid her medical bills and full salary purely on humanitarian grounds, they discontinued this support-line after about two years. The teacher filed a complaint with the Disability Commission, a grievance redressal body of the Government of Karnataka, India. She demanded re-absorption into the job, payment of salary arrears and reimbursement of all the subsequent medical bills incurred abroad totaling Rs 15.5 million, which is unaffordable for a school of that size. The management is faced with a situation where they cannot accept such a huge financial liability as well as accept a wheelchair-bound teacher who would not be able to discharge her duties. The school was briefed by legal experts that there exists no law that specifies either compensation or re-absorption into the job in a situation like this. At the same time, to fight the case purely on legal grounds and deny her a decent livelihood would impact the image of the school as being inhuman to a lady who had actually tried to help the school in the name of humanity. The management is caught in a dilemma on the course of action they must take – to fight the case legally or to accept the demand on humanitarian grounds.

This paper is suitable for Undergraduate or Graduate students of Business Management.

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CSS 11: Strategy

The case is suitable for all post-graduate students and executives doing a course in human resource management (HRM). The case will enable these students to apply concepts such as inclusion, empowerment, glass ceiling, in business situations involving women. It will help them to trace the evolution path for women employees who have the traits to lead a department or organisation and assume entrepreneurial roles.

The case study is particularly beneficial for MBA students specialising in HRM focussed on leadership and training. It can be used in courses such as gender and entrepreneurship for students of MBA entrepreneurship and MBA family business management. As the case is written in India, it can explore the gender issues in emerging markets surreptitiously. Most importantly, the case addresses COVID-19 perspective adequately, to teach modules embedded in main courses of any MBA program.

PRISM World Pvt Ltd is a leading training and consultancy firm in Delhi, India. The firm is owned and managed by a young woman Dr Anubha Walia. She started her career as a human resource manager in leading Indian companies, but somewhere down the line, she felt the job was not allowing her to realise the fullest potential. The Indian corporate training industry was male dominated with self-serving men, supporting the “glass ceiling”. To break the barrier, Anubha opened her training firm founded on the basis of a new philosophy, which should serve the ideals of helping and promoting women in workplace. This new philosophy was called PRISM. Anubha provided an inclusive environment which allowed her trainers to grow and feel empowered in a gender-biased industry.Very recently, when COVID-19 pandemic happened, female trainers were under tremendous strain as training requirements completely dried up, and they were rendered jobless. Most of these educated young women had small kids and paid monthly installments for their home loans, sharing the financial burden with their husbands. Some mature trainers were single women who had to support themselves through savings in these difficult times. But Anubha’s sense of empowerment at PRISM helped these women to do things which made their livelihoods turnaround even in uncertain circumstances. PRISM philosophy made a turnaround too. While employees were thinking of abandoning their companies and vice-versa, trainers at PRISM went for free webinars to draw clients to their firms and changed the concept of training and delivery in corona times.PRISM acquired a new meaning of wellness and spirituality in these difficult times and soared ahead successfully.

The case study hopes to achieve the following pedagogical objectives: 1. To educate students on manners and traits of women entrepreneurs. Besides, the usual difficulties of financing and running a business, women face adversities at home in the form of lack of access to working capital, trust deficit amongst family and friends. Basically, lack of support system to propels women into the tougher role of an entrepreneur graduating from a regular employee. Gender becomes a disability, which women had to fight in the workplace. The case introduces the PRISM philosophy as a unique methodology to inculcate inclusivity in work environment leading to women empowerment. 2. To outline all issues related to ‘glass ceiling” – the barrier which existed in the corporate world for businesswomen. Students need to know about problems women faced in the business environment as well as shortcomings within themselves, which can make them unproductive. 3. To align students first hand with the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic, specific to women. The case talks about educated young and mature women in Anubha’s firm PRISM, fighting for lost livelihood owing to reduced levels of business. But women are known to be highly resilient and empowered in the right direction will turnaround the situation in their favour.

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The case has tremendous social implication for educated working women in traditional patriarchal Indian societies. Though a sizeable percentage of women have achieved higher education and started working in a male-dominated corporate world, only a small number of them are visible as entrepreneurs and/or leaders. Every woman needs to trace her journey from an employee to an entrepreneur or a CEO to assume a position of leadership. This case can be an eye opener for many such ambitious women who can build small- to mid-size businesses in a short span of time. Digital intervention is very important in COVID times to stay afloat. The author has shared links for many videos which can disseminate ideas for digital transformation in businesses. The case tries to showcase an ideal inclusive environment which will propel women to achieve their latent goals and desires breaking the 'glass ceiling.'

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

This case talks about the role that can be expected to be played by a disabled woman in an organization and shows how a disabled woman can assume a leadership position and be a role model.

This case identifies the qualities that help a person from a minority group succeed in the corporate environment; examines the contribution that a disabled person, especially a woman can make to an organization; analyzes transformational leadership; assesses the importance of inclusive design in today’s products; and recognizes the corporate role in ensuring an inclusive culture that encouraged disabled people.

The case “Sumaira Latif at P&G: pioneering inclusive design and accessibility to all” provides an in-depth look at the efforts of Sumaira “Sam” Latif (she), Accessibility Leader at P&G, to incorporate inclusive design in the company’s product packaging. Sam – a blind woman and mother of three – had always struggled to use various everyday products. Her personal struggles drove her to find ways to fix such problems for people with disabilities. So, after a decade of experience at P&G, when she got an opportunity to interact with the top management, she convinced them that catering to the disabled was not charity, but a smart business move. Sam also put forth the role she could play in helping P&G make products with an inclusive design. Impressed with her, P&G made her Special Consultant for Inclusive Design, a position specifically created for her. Sam created the widely lauded tactile indicators which helped the blind differentiate between shampoo and conditioner bottles. P&G then promoted her to the position of Company Accessibility Leader, wherein she played a pivotal role in bringing inclusive design to more of P&G’s products. Sam also played a critical role in making P&G adopt certain technologies to help the blind shop for the company’s products independently, apart from ensuring that all P&G ads were audio-described. However, Sam had an ambitious vision to infuse inclusive design into all products, which required her to bring about a culture change in the CPG industry. She was also faced with the predicament of how to ensure that audio-described ads became a media buying standard, considering the wide-scale resistance to it. How can Sam succeed in making the CPG industry develop inclusive design, the way she convinced P&G to do it?.

Graduate and post-graduate programs.

Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

The case focuses on Thivra Info Solutions Pvt Ltd, an entrepreneurial organization incubated by Prasannan (she/her) in 2017. The organization started with a mission to provide technology-based learning solutions for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Thivra Info Solutions Pvt Ltd had developed multiple offerings, including gamified learning, targeted to ASD and general ed-tech users. The firm also launched “Dwani,” the communicative-based learning app for ASD children. The initial feedback by users, parents and teachers had been encouraging. Prasannan was exploring avenues to scale the business when the Covid-19 pandemic affected all the operations.The case presents the multiple dilemmas entrepreneurial firms face in managing resources, finances, growth and product and customer focus. Students are encouraged to debate the organization strategy, product and consumer target segments and solutions to scale the business while managing frugal resources.

This case study can be used in entrepreneurship, leadership, crisis management, business development, organizational behavior and technology.

The case study describes the navigation of Thivra from a Generic Gamified App to its niche of catering for ASD students. The case presents the challenges presented to leadership to manage the crisis and try to grow their entrepreneurial venture. This case has been designed for use in business-to-consumer marketing or entrepreneurship, gender entrepreneurship, ed-tech-based startups, in MBA, executive MBA or executive education programs in the field. The case is suitable for those doing business in Asia, for post-graduate and under-graduate students studying business innovation, entrepreneurship, strategy and marketing. It is also appropriate for courses on gender entrepreneurship; women and crisis management; and product management. The case aims at facilitating classroom discussion on the extension of Indian-based ed-tech startups to ASD children.

Students will also be able to explore the following issues: to study the role played by a business model that withstands the competition over a long period and adopting sustainability; to describe the concept and implications of paradoxical leadership, thereby drawing its impact on business decisions; to analyze how a leader acts in terms of crisis from a startup point of view; to draw the phases and constraints of the enterprise development and compare and contrast it based on gender; to demonstrate the value to different constituents (ASD students, parents, teachers and ASD counselors) by understanding their differentiated needs and developing powerful value propositions for each. Articulating and demonstrating this value is key to gaining the buy-in of the various decision-making units; to understand how, having gained traction in one market segment (in this case, tractions with parents of ASD children), a company can develop new market segments; to study the issues and problems faced by startups in developing economies, especially the tech-based ones; and to understand the application of gamification on education and communication for ASD children.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship