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Upon completion of the case, students will be able to reflect the forces, which may disrupt the art industry through Artientifique initiatives and the ability to apply Phoenix encounter method with proactive scanning to remain competitive; create various multi-functional roles as a youth entrepreneur in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) capacity and be able to understand the level and review the competition and business trends from an art industry perspective; analyze how innovation clubbed with sustainability will create a competitive advantage in a circular economy; determine the leadership style most appropriate for MSMEs to indulge in innovation and sustainability in the fine arts business; and design and discover opportunities to promote women’s entrepreneurship in the art industry, especially in emerging markets.

On a cold Friday morning in November 2020, Aisha Mir was in utter confusion written all over her face. She had to decide on a prosperous pathway. Should it be customization or standardization of artwork? Also, whether she should continue investing in the existing in-house supply chain or outsource this to a third party. Being practicing sustainability in her personal and professional life, she had designed her art studio herself by using upcycled materials. While enjoying the pigeons and sparrows chirping and eating grains on her wide windowpane, she looked at the world map with keen interest and imagined herself flying to each country along with her gray and white pigeons. While sitting in Madina city, Saudi Arabia, she was concerned about the expired makeup collection hub being set up in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The collection and the painting processes had to be monitored; the artworks needed auditing, framing and packing before they were shipped to a customer. Centralizing would add unnecessary hassle, and outsourcing needed distribution of authority. Keeping the challenges in mind, she was struggling to find a solution for efficient community engagement.

This case has been particularly focused on undergraduate and postgraduate early-stage level students pursuing business or commerce programs, particularly those studying entrepreneurial and management courses in innovation and sustainability.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Management, marketing and branding and strategy.

Undergraduate and postgraduate management courses.

This is a real-life case involving a confectionery manufacturer in Malaysia where it has grown over the years. As the market becomes more competitive, more challenges are confronting the company. Although there is still profit to be made, the margin is declining. Hence, the management of King's Biscuits Berhad must embark on the marketing environment scanning to prepare the company for future challenges and to ensure continued existence. As in the case of most strategy cases, little guidance was available for the students to reflect upon.

With the completion of this case study; student will be able to familiarize with the exercise of marketing environment scanning, determine the branding, product lines and positioning issues, adopt the marketing mix concept into real practice, and have the opportunity to visualize a true business scenario and simulate their minds and thinking towards managing a business.

Teaching note.

This case study applies the scanning of marketing environment (i.e. typology of marketing environments); strategic marketing planning process, involving SWOT analysis, growth strategies; and marketing mix (four ps).

This is modeled as a qualitative study. Primary data were collected through a phone interview with the key informants, and secondary data came from various publications such as government reports, news portals and company websites.

Ghacem was the first cement manufacturing company in Ghana and had enjoyed a monopoly for almost 33 years. The company offered a homogeneous product to an undifferentiated market from 1967 until competition began in 2000. New competitors promote the use of cement grade numbers on their product packaging to signal a better value, which intensified the competition. As the Head of Marketing of the company, Benny was asked to develop a marketing strategy for the company’s newly developed product for the company to remain competitive.

Undergraduate students taking Principles of Marketing.

The case study illustrated strategic, marketing, financial and operational challenges faced by Netflix in India's growing SVoD market. This case is appropriate in courses such as Strategic Management, Business Strategy, Marketing Management and International Marketing for postgraduate MBA students, other graduate-level management programs and undergraduate-level students. The case was developed to raise awareness among students, to understand the complex nature of the technology-driven industry, to survive in the highly competitive market, to set up a company that serves the huge Indian market. This case delves into the dynamics of marketing on the Indian market, characterized by unorganized players such as local cable television; torrent downloads and organized and established players, low digitalization rates, language barriers, low internet penetration, lack of infrastructure, price-sensitive consumers. Due to up-gradation in technology, internet penetration, an increase in smartphone users, and the market has undergone a notable amount of change, due to a lot on new entrants, competitions, substitutes. The case states various obstacles, for a multinational company while entering the market such as India and how they are required to strategize, mold their marketing mix, need to analyze en-cash their strength, overcome their weakness, take maximum advantage of opportunities and modify their strategies to face huge challenges. The specific learning outcome of the case will help students to understand the strategy that multinational companies can adopt to sustain, compete in emerging countries such as India and within that emerging market such as streaming videos on demand (SVoD). This case will help students to understand the importance of internal and external resources, which help multinational companies to make strategies based on these resources. The case study offers learners the opportunity to explore the strategy in a dynamic environment. This case also highlights the critical issues that should be addressed by multinational companies when entering into a foreign market. The case highlights the importance of analyzing the competitive environment in which it’s going to compete and sustain. It can be used to introduce Ansoff’s growth matrix, internal and external factor analysis and porter’s five forces in the delivery of course for both regular and executive programs. The case should be offered in the middle term periods of the course. Additionally, the case could be used in marketing courses to indicate the importance of scanning the business environment in marketing activities for any organization. The case illustrates the strategies that companies can undertake to expand the market, introduce new products, as per the requirement of business environment and concerns linked with innovating approaches to support the organization to satisfy a larger number of price-sensitive consumers from varied backgrounds.

Netflix has been optimistic about the potential growth of the Indian market. It will grow slowly and gradually and become profitable. The SVoD market in India has been price sensitive. There are no plans for cheaper prices. Netflix had a long way to go. The pricing model of Netflix was a hurdle in its growth, but the future of Netflix in India was bright. There have been numerous challenges in terms of government regulations, pricing structure and an increase in the number of competitive players on the market. Netflix believed that Indian audiences enjoyed “Bollywood” film productions but watched low-quality soap opera content on television. Television audiences were a massive untapped market for their brand of original, exclusively produced content. Can Netflix come up with a marketing and growth strategy, or else they might be looking to lose market share and revenue. Should a new product such as Amazon and MI fire stick be introduced in the existing market like their competitors? Should they enter the existing market with existing products, or should they seek a new market in India, such as the rural market, the Pyramid market, the Tier II market and the City III market? Should they diversify into a new market with new products? How Netflix should plan its market communication if it wants to launch a new product or if it wants to reposition its existing product. Netflix had to rethink its strategies and also needed to address these issues so that they could travel smoothly on Indian roads. High marketing budget and aggressive promotions helped Netflix India to make a profit in its first year.

Postgraduate MBA students, other graduate-level management programs and undergraduate-level students.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The case should be introduced after students have been exposed to the following topics: the practice of entrepreneurship, opportunity recognition, market segmentation and minority business enterprise.

The names of the companies and individuals in this descriptive case have not been disguised, with the exception of the solar company representative and his company affiliation. Information was obtained from interviews (i.e. first-hand accounts) with Nikita Floyd, President and Owner of Green Forever Landscaping and Design, Inc., and secondary sources cited.

Nikita, a 50-year old, African American male, had grown his business from a one-person seasonal landscaping business to a year-round landscaping and design business with full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees and an array of services and customer segments. To his delight, he was able to unite his avocation with his vocation. With over 30 years of experience in landscaping and landscape design Nikita was always scanning the landscape for new business opportunities that would align with his company’s mission statement and help sustain Green Forever’s core business.

This case is most appropriate for introductory undergraduate and graduate level courses in entrepreneurship.

This case will enable students to understand the operations and business model of an international retailer. The case offers enough insights and learning on a retailer who enters a different market and collaborates with the local players to gain market access; and to understand the marketing techniques and strategies of an international retailer to capitalise on market opportunities.

The case is about a third largest US-based multinational Costco Wholesale corporation which is a giant retailer. The company operated at 803 locations with a revenue of $166.7bn, which makes it the third largest global retailer in 2020. The case offers comprehensive insight into Costco Wholesale’s business model, distribution strategy, marketing techniques and internationalisation. The authors further discuss that how Costco put forth its model among different range of customers and provided them with high-quality products at a comparatively lower price. The focus of the case is towards the Asian expansion of Costco. In subsequent parts, the strategies and challenges of Costco with respect to its Asian competitors have also been discussed. After generating experience in Asian markets, Costco has considered China as its next destination. The case also discusses the foreign retailers’ success, failure and retail format.

This case is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate classes of management and business administration.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The case study uses a strategic foresight method, scenario-planning, to examine the strategic options for a financial services firm. As such, it covers the fields of strategy, environment of business, innovation, digital disruption and organizational change as they relate to the firm’s ability to adapt to changes in the environment of business in an emerging market context.

The case was developed with master's-level students in mind, particularly those seeking a master of business administration, masters in strategic foresight or related management degrees.

The case of NEDBANK, a longstanding and successful financial services firm based in South Africa is confronted with major challenges from competitors because of technological change in the industry as well as having to expand their market penetration across Africa. A rising regulatory burden, tough economic conditions and the need to access low income markets, provide a significant organizational development challenge as a decades-old bank, known for a relational approach to banking, has to navigate the new domains of “fintech”, micro-lending and public sector banking.

Students will gain comprehensive insight into the industry environment in emerging markets, understand the strategic management challenge before financial services firms in this environment and be able to consider the alternative strategic interventions that may be used to ensure corporate sustainability amid these challenges. Simultaneously, the case provides a comprehensive view into the use and application of scenario-planning for strategic 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

Leadership style and organizational change.

The case study level is rated medium to difficult depending on the depth of the analysis undertaken. Managers and executives who undergo training in leadership related issues will benefit from the case study through development of analytical- and decision-making skills. In addition, this case study is written for high level managers and postgraduate students in business courses.

This case study revolves around a man whose name is Rozano Saad. He was a man with strong will, imagination, and ready to explore the new world of Huntsman Tioxide. To him, development of people was necessary. Development of people is the process of getting people to progress from dependent to socially and economically self-reliant. This man with positive views saw difficulties with enthusiasm and noted obstacles as opportunities. He was brave enough to go that extra mile into moulding the organization in the “right pattern.” He was an optimistic angel who was sent to the bleak area of Teluk Kalong, though others might just pack their bags and leave. He was eager for improvement and never stopped looking for ways to make the situation better.

The target users of the case study are expected to:

• Identify the critical success factors (CSFs) of successful leader.

• Examine the leadership and decision making styles employed by the leader.

• Develop the competencies or capabilities of a leader.

• Determine programmes or initiatives and strategies used by the leader in transforming the organization.

• Apply the lesson learnt of a successful leader to their organization.

Identify the critical success factors (CSFs) of successful leader.

Examine the leadership and decision making styles employed by the leader.

Develop the competencies or capabilities of a leader.

Determine programmes or initiatives and strategies used by the leader in transforming the organization.

Apply the lesson learnt of a successful leader to their organization.

Teaching notes.

This case study has been developed based on the primary data obtained through a series of interviews held with the senior management of Cargills, and the secondary data obtained from the company’s corporate website www.cargillsceylon.com/,annual reports and publicly available sources of information such as newspaper articles.

This case study focuses on the strategic responses employed by Cargills (Ceylon) PLC – a leading business conglomerate in Sri Lanka – in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The duration of this case study is from January 2020 to September 2021. The case study particularly examines the key business sectors of Cargills (Ceylon) PLC – retail, food manufacturing and quick service restaurants – which elaborate on the change management practices and strategies deployed by the company in each of these sectors during this challenging period. This study is based on the primary data gathered from the interviews held with the Cargills (Ceylon) PLC team, and the secondary data obtained from the corporate website of Cargills (Ceylon) PLC. This case study is most suitable to be taught in academic courses related to strategic change management.

The case is most suited to be discussed with undergraduates (3rd year and 4th year) following business and management studies related disciplines. While the pivotal area around which the case has been developed is strategic change management, covering environmental analysis, strategic analysis and process of change management, the case could also be used in strategic management classes, to discuss environmental analysis, strategic planning approaches and business and corporate level strategies.

CSS 11: Strategy.

This case study was built from secondary data such as news articles and videos. Several drafts of the case study with teaching note were tested in classroom settings and shared at a case writing conference. The case was revised based on feedback from students and roundtable discussions from the conference.

“What’s next: Ever Given after the Suez Canal incident (Evergreen Marine Corporation in, 2022)” explores the situation of the firm Evergreen Marine Corporation, a world-leading cargo shipping company headquartered in Taiwan, and its efforts to deal with challenges stemming from a pandemic and the global supply chain transition. The case provides background on the latest changes in global business environments, the Suez Canal Incident stemming from the grounding of Ever Given and firm-specific information, which would help students to understand the context affecting Evergreen Marine Corporation’s (EMC) strategic decisions. The case enables students to evaluate EMC’s overall position and to analyze the actions that they can take to deal with these challenges in a dynamic global environment.

This case would be appropriate for a course in strategy or international business, especially with the topic of international supply chain management.