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Uber had pioneered the growth and delivery of modern ridesharing services by leveraging the explosive growth of technology, GPS navigation, and smartphones. Ridesharing services had expanded across the world, growing rapidly in the United States, China, India, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Even as these services expanded and gained popularity, however, the pickup experience for drivers and riders did not always meet the expectations of either party. Pickups were complicated by traffic congestion, faulty GPS signals, and crowded pickup venues. Flawed pickups resulted in rider dissatisfaction and in lost revenues for drivers. Uber had identified the pickup experience as a top strategic priority, and a team at Uber, led by group product manager Birju Shah, was tasked with designing an automated solution to improve the pickup experience. This involved three steps. First, the team needed to analyze the pickup experience for various rider personas to identify problems at different stages in the pickup process. Next, it needed to create a model for predicting the best rider location for a pickup. The team also needed to develop a quantitative metric that would determine the quality of the pickup experience. These models and metrics would be used as inputs for a machine learning.

All aspects like finances, marketing strategy, competitors, etc. have been taken into account to provide the readers a complete and realistic image about the working, decisions and their outcomes for boAt. Secondary data has been used from blogs, company website and other sources in this study.

This case presents boAt’s growth in the Indian market because of India’s exponentially growing customer base in the tech and audio industry. This case brings to light all the factors considered and the business decisions to be made while growing in the market. The challenges faced by boAt after they entered the market and the company’s business decisions to overcome these challenges are also discussed. This case provides an opportunity for students to understand the dynamics associated with expanding in a competitive market to maintain growth and maximize profits.

This case is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students and can be used for courses in strategy, marketing, entrepreneurship and business management.

After completing the case, students should be able to understand: the importance and uniqueness of the individual market and developing a suitable marketing strategy. The concept of value creation and learn the importance of developing the right value proposition to compete and succeed in a market. The target audience and how to create the right marketing mix. Competition in a digital landscape and the importance of developing an appropriate strategy to counter its rivals and position the brand effectively.

During his visit to India in December 2019, Netflix’s founder and chief executive officer Reed Hastings talked about a series of steps the company had taken in the recent past to successfully face stiff competition and move towards achieving its stated target of 100 million viewers. These steps involved significant changes in their marketing mix such as reworking their pricing, developing a rich portfolio of Indian content and building various partnerships. Since Netflix’s launch in India (December 2016), it faced fierce competition from players such as Hotstar and Amazon Prime, both of whom had developed a rich portfolio of Indian content and adopted a very aggressive pricing strategy thus, making these changes essential. At the time of their launch, Netflix had set a very ambitious target of gaining 100 million viewers within five years (by 2021) while adopting a premium pricing strategy and positioning themselves uniquely based on their international content. They quickly learned that they would have to reevaluate their approach if they wanted to achieve their target on time. The changes announced by Hastings were an effort in that direction. The moot question was whether these steps would help Netflix India reach its goal. This challenge was further compounded by an almost 40% hike in data tariffs by three major wireless carriers considering most Indians watched over-the-top media content on their mobile phones.

The case is designed for undergraduates, as well as for fundamental marketing courses in the Master of Business Administration and other graduate level programmes. It can be taught in the Principles of Marketing, Marketing Strategy and International Marketing courses. It is ideal for topics such as understanding the operation of a digital business in a new market, customer value creation and value drivers, brand and brand positioning, product promotion, strategies for business growth and expansion, fighting competition in a digital landscape.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Following successful discussion of this case, students should be able to:▪ understand and apply the principles of effectuation;▪ understand the difficulty of obtaining traditional financing in Latin America;▪ determine the importance of matching new hire and company values, particularly in a small business; and▪ analyze some of the unique problems facing a business at the point of scaling up and provide suggestions for how the protagonist could address those problems.

This case provides an introduction to the Fintech industry in South and Central America, fruitfully combining tenets of the lean startup methodology, effectual principles of entrepreneurship and a novel method of managing personal finances via decentralized vehicles provided through fintech. In addition, Kuiki Credit and its use of fintech represent a compelling example of industry disruption by an entrepreneurial firm. Owing to its unique location, this case provides students with a lens into a part of the world rife with bureaucracy and, in some cases, corruption. The disruption is thus unique in that not only does one view traditional disruption of industry dynamics, but also government policy and cultural mores. This is evinced within the body of the case through direct quotes from founder Ernesto Leal and Eduardo Morán, one of the company’s first employees. This information highlights the market Kuiki Credit pursued, one underserved by traditional financing and thus lacking access to credit.Consistent with effectual entrepreneurship principles, Ernesto Leal, the main protagonist and a Nicaraguan entrepreneur, drew upon his significant corporate experience in financial institutions and as a franchise owner to create a new venture. Kuiki Credit is designed to increase access to capital and disseminate fintech throughout Central and South America, and in particular first in Costa Rica and later in Nicaragua. The case is set in 2018, when Leal faces a scaling issue. Specifically, he wonders how to maintain an entrepreneurial company with high levels of innovation and a culture of continuous improvement despite the need to grow. Near the end of the case, some specific issues relative to culture are briefly reviewed in relation to the sales department and Leal feeling the need to restructure the company, while being encouraged by the board to hit breakeven targets for three consecutive months prior to expanding to new markets.

This case most appropriately lends itself to discussions in entrepreneurship at the junior or senior undergraduate level. To engage in this case most productively, students should have a basic understanding of entrepreneurship, the equivalent of two to three weeks into the semester.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS:3: Entrepreneurship.

The case focuses on brief elaboration, importance, objectives and components. While there are many ways to elaborate a brief, the overriding goal is to outline the most relevant guidelines for campaign design, and the decisions required to launch an advertising campaign.

This case may be used for the first marketing course in MBA curricula, as well as in executive education programs addressing communications and advertising strategy issues.

On a cold July afternoon in 2005, Matías Ruiz faced a difficult challenge. After months of long presentations and detailed discussions, the budget for a new advertising campaign had been finally approved. Ever since its arrival in Argentina, the company had concentrated all its efforts on positioning its corporate brand. Now with a firm standing in the domestic market, the time had come to advertise Lubrax, Petrobras' lubricant brand. Bearing in mind that the goal was to build a unique and independent brand identity for Lubrax while preserving its links to Petrobras, Ruiz's team, along with Diálogo Publicidad, a local advertising agency, had prepared three TV advertisements. Ruiz had to choose the most suitable campaign with an approved budget of US$ 3 million – 40 percent below the sum he had hoped to raise. At least one of those ads had to be launched in late October 2005, in time for the category's seasonal consumer sales peak. To do that, Ruiz needed to make a decision and to present a complete proposal to Lubrax's Marketing Director. This case study describes the questions confronting Ruiz at that time – Which ad should we pick? What brand image do we want for Lubrax? What is it that we wish to communicate? What is our goal? What segment are we addressing?

The case provides an insight into the use of advertising campaigns as a marketing tool, describing the company's competition, consumers, distribution channels and organizational hurdles. As a result, it may be used to help students: understand communications complexities, delving into each step in the process and taking stock of relevant decisions involved; learn about the research studies and data analyses required to build a communications plan that fits in with a company's strategy; manage a specific marketing budget; gain experience on advertising campaign development and subsequent evaluation; and survey the mix of marketing drivers needed to boost business sustainability. It will enable students to realize both the significance of thorough brief preparation to pursue a company's strategic goals and the importance of ensuring the ad chosen matches that brief.

Teaching notes are available; please contact your librarian for access.

As founders of First Interstate BancSystem, which held $8.6 billion in assets and had recently become a public company, and Padlock Ranch, which had over 11,000 head of cattle, the Scott family had to think carefully about business and family governance. Now entering its fifth generation, the family had over 80 shareholders across the US. In early 2016, the nine-member Scott Family Council (FC) and other family and business leaders considered the effectiveness of the Family Governance Leadership Development Initiative launched two years earlier. The initiative's aim was to ensure a pipeline of capable family leaders for the business boards, two foundation boards, and FC.

Seven family members had self-nominated for governance roles in mid-2015. As part of the development initiative, each was undergoing a leadership development process that included rigorous assessment and creation of a comprehensive development plan. As the nominees made their way through the process and other family members considered nominating themselves for future development, questions remained around several interrelated areas, including how to foster family engagement with governance roles while guarding against damaging competition among members; how to manage possible conflicts of interest around dual employee and governance roles; and how to extend the development process to governance for the foundations and FC. The FC considered how best to answer these and other questions, and whether the answers indicated the need to modify the fledgling initiative.

This case illustrates the challenges multigenerational family-owned enterprises face in developing governance leaders within the family. It serves as a good example of governance for a large group of cousins within a multienterprise portfolio. Students can learn and apply insights from this valuable illustration of family values, vision, and mission statement.

This case examines the exchange rate risk of a U.S.-based manufacturer of women's luxury shoes that has recently introduced its product in Japan. Students are asked to evaluate the extent of the firm's exposure to currency risk and whether hedging via forward contract or currency option is advisable.

The family matriarch dies without a written succession plan, leaving her children to determine how to cope with the continuity of the family’s expanding food empire. This becomes increasingly difficult when one of the siblings wants to incur expensive, yet required, renovations to the family’s original restaurant. The situation is further complicated by the fact that the two older siblings are focused on corporate expansion efforts, while the youngest is trying to demonstrate her competence in running the family’s historical restaurant. A central focus of the case is to understand and identify effective strategies that should guide the firm-related choices each sibling makes.

This case, which was developed from field interviews and personal experience, highlights the array of competing financial and personal objectives and tensions involved in a family business. An interactive tool allows users to conduct multiple scenario analyses to determine if the company’s manufacturing expansion goals can be achieved while simultaneously honoring the family’s restaurant roots.

This case was designed specifically for the undergraduate junior or senior business or economics student who has already taken basic finance, economics, strategy, entrepreneurship, or psychology courses. Typically, by the third or fourth year of study in a traditional undergraduate program, virtually all of the core themes, concepts, theses, and theories associated with the case have been addressed in previous business or economics coursework.

The case provides an intentional opportunity for students to demonstrate their emerging financial analysis competencies, while concurrently synthesizing the so-called “soft” skills associated with rational decision making, organizational behavior analysis, business strategy, entrepreneurship, and negotiations.

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.

The first company under the Amara Raja Group was established in 1984, i.e. Amara Raja Electronics Limited (AREL) followed by Amara Raja Batteries Limited (ARBL). Its founder leveraged the presence of his family in Renigunta, a rural village in South India, and chose to start the industry there to create employment opportunities. Preference is given to local population in all ARG enterprises. Despite its strong people orientation, the HR department/function at ARG got strengthened only after Jaikrishna strived to make it central to business. The department's evolution has been demarcated in three phases. The first and second phase saw few initiatives, and during the third phase the HR department was structured according to the Dave Ulrich Strategic HR Model. While this structure had been successful until now, certain sections in ARG still doubted its sustainability.