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After studying the case, the students will be able to: 1. understand the business and existing HR practices at Precision Engineering; 2. evaluate the factors affecting business that may require the company to formalise its HR practices; 3. create recruitment and selection-related solutions for HR 2.0 using appropriate models and theory to aid the company meet its business goals; 4. create training needs identification and evaluation practices for HR 2.0 using appropriate models and theory to aid the company meet its business goals; and 5. create performance planning and review-related solutions for HR 2.0 using appropriate models and theory to aid the company meet its business goals. The case helps students objectively assess HR practices related to three core verticals – recruitment and selection; training; and performance management systems. It also enables them to reassess these practices with the help of specific metrics and models.

Precision Engineering was a manufacturer of machined metal components in the Indian automotive components industry. It had been a family-run business since its inception in 1995. Precision was awarded the prestigious Automotive Component Manufacturers of India award in 2020 for excellence in HR. Ms Sakshi Kapoor, General Manager of Innovation, was ecstatic at the receipt of this award. She, however, was thoughtful about the informal human resource (HR) practices at the company. The top management had announced an aggressive growth plan and advised Ms Kapoor to leverage HR practices to facilitate these plans. Recruitment and selection, employee training and performance management systems needed to be formalised on a priority basis to strategically aid the future business agenda at Precision. Ms Kapoor faced the challenge of preparing the roadmap of HR 2.0 while preserving the employee-centric beliefs at Precision. The case initiates a discussion to achieve this goal by adopting suitable HR metrics and models.

It should be taught in the core course on Human Resource Management for first-year Masters in Business Administration (MBA) students. Alternatively, it could be used in elective courses such as Strategic Human Resource Management, Training and Development and Performance Management Systems for second-year MBA students.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

Jane Barrow, CEO of Caprica Energy, must recommend to the board which of three potential “unconventional ” natural-gas development sites in different parts of the United States the company should pursue. The case takes place in January 2011, when the “low-hanging fruit ” of natural-gas production in the United States had essentially been picked. All three of the potential sites (shale, coalbed methane, and tight sands) would require hydraulic fracturing, a process of removing gas that was formerly considered inaccessible by injecting water and chemicals into the ground. Because of emerging concerns about the potential harm “fracking ” can do to drinking water, Barrow must not only analyze which site might be most profitable but also what the potential risks to the environment and area residents might be.

This case describes how eight entrepreneurs discover different opportunities for new businesses to exploit a single technological invention. The case focuses on the process of entrepreneurial discovery and its implications for the creation of new firms. Many of the teaching materials on entrepreneurship assume that entrepreneurs have already discovered an opportunity. While these materials provide useful information about the process of creating new enterprises, they miss the crucial first step in the entrepreneurial process: identifying an opportunity. The case illustrates the theoretical concept of the role of information in the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities. It can be used in a class on entrepreneurship or management of technology.

Operations strategy/global operations/value chain.

BA/Master level – The case can be applied to support operations strategy discussions related to the link between context, configuration, and capabilities, and particularly to discuss internationalization strategy and global operations.

The case is initiated with an overview of the wider corporate and industrial context, which are included to supply contextual information pertinent to the understanding of competitive requirements and strategic choices of the company. The case then moves into establishing an understanding of the operationalization of these requirements and choices through a discussion of the structural configuration and organizational capabilities.

The case it expected to build an understanding of the fit between competitive priorities and their operationalization within structural and infrastructural decision areas.

Teaching note.

Colfax Corporation was a young, privately held collection of pump-manufacturing companies from the United States and Europe. Intending to go public, it was eager to find a story for investors of how it could grow at rates faster than its subsidiaries had historically grown in their home regions and core-customer industrial markets. This case describes a singular new-growth opportunity: selling Colfax solutions into state-owned petroleum enterprises in the Middle East at a time when these producers were straining to add capacity. Designing the optimal marketing system required Colfax to weigh a complex of issues, including global resource allocation and deployment, a process for customer-relationship building, and estimates for revenue streams versus investment outlays. The design process was, in short, far more than “sticking sales rep pins in the map.” Case readers are asked to think along with the Colfax global management team in deciding, “How much can we afford to risk our current income model in order to build new capacity in a new region in a new way?”

Understanding issues related to global B2B marketing channel strategy development, as well as complexities of entering unfamiliar new international markets such as Middle East oil and gas.

strategic alliances/collaborative strategies;

defending against global competitors;

related diversification;

entrepreneurship-organizational life cycle; and

evaluating strategies for firm growth.

MBA/PGP level programmes in management and/or entrepreneurship.

Aztec Fluids & Machinery, set up just over four years ago in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India, caters to the printer hardware, spares and consumables needs of the digital ink jet printing market. The company has identified vendors principally from the UK and China for its printers and consumable sourcing and presently markets these using a hybrid channel structure of direct selling and through 12 distributors in ten cities of India. A recent development of note is the successful transformation of a flexible roll printer into a flat-bed type one by the co-founder. The experiment assumes significance since the cost of a conventional flat-bed screen printer is almost five times that of the improvised printer. The huge, fragmented, price-sensitive, yet quality-conscious market in India offers immense potential for this innovation. At the same time, Aztec's recent interactions with a couple of its UK-based vendors present other alternatives for growth.

To explore organizational life cycle: the introduction and early growth phases.

To understand alliance dynamics for early-stage entrepreneurs –rationale, management and the manifestation of trust between different types of partners: suppliers and customers.

To understand how small firms prepare for and evaluate the challenges of growth.

Teaching note.

This case deals with several types of uncertainties faced by project team in an oil company north east in India. These challenges and uncertainties are in the areas drawing approval, supply chain, critical equipment availability, soll type, control room, soil type, employee availability, environmental clearances, safety and wildlife clearances. This project demonstrates the ownership issues, why it is difficult to complete a project on time in the Northeast of India or why public sector project gets delayed.

The learning outcomes are as follows: Understand the concept and characteristics of Bottom of Pyramid (BoP) markets; understand the concept and characteristics of frugal innovations; understand the Design Thinking approach to product design and how it might be useful to develop frugal innovations for BoP markets.

The case details the journey of a group of students at a premier engineering college in India. The group aimed to develop and implement a social innovation that addressed a serious and important health issue – menstrual hygiene practices among urban slum dwellers in India. The case begins with how a chance visit to an NGO inspired a pair of students to take up this issue, how the project unfolded at their college, the challenges faced in their journey and, finally, an outcome that was only a partial success. It raises important questions of challenges that are specific to bottom of pyramid markets in emerging economies. The case can provide a context for discussions on approaching frugal innovations from a Design Thinking perspective.

This case can be used in social innovation courses/modules at an undergraduate or graduate level in social innovation and social entrepreneurship courses. The case is best positioned towards the beginning of the course as an overview of the process of Social Innovation, and to discuss the relevance of concepts of BoP markets and frugal innovation.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management Science.

The case is intended to enable the student to understand: The dynamics of SME, particularly in the adhesive industry entrepreneurial dilemma faced by the owner of an SME, faced with an existential crisis; the application of analytical frameworks such as Porter’s five forces, PESTEL and SWOT in strategy formulation; importance of long-term supplier relationships and focus on quality in retaining relationship clients.

The case is set up in the context of a SME in the adhesive industry in India where the Managing Director of the company Suntej Engineering Private Ltd was engulfed with questions on the future of the firm. The firm was faced with multiple challenges mostly from the external environment. The case could help students to appreciate the process of strategic decision-making by the owner of a small firm, in response to a crisis situation, and how his vast experience and entrepreneurial mind-set helps him to tide over the crisis.

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

Strategy

Executives at biotechnology firm Genzyme are debating funding a clinical trial for a new version of a medical device called Synvisc. The trial is expensive and the odds of success are not high, but the upside is substantial. The case presents a common business question: invest or not? The case forces students to think about customer insights, wrestle with a number of complex issues, and evaluate the financials of the decision.

The case is ideal for teaching financial analysis and decision making. It can also be used to teach marketing, new product strategy, and healthcare industry management.