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Rural Marketing, Sales and Distribution Management, Salesperson Motivation, Channel Management.

The case can be used in sales management, channel management and rural marketing courses offered to graduate students of MBA degrees. In the sales management courses, the emphasis is on understanding the typical tasks that the rural salesperson is required to conduct. The case can be used to design a suitable motivation-mix for a rural salesperson after analysing their approach towards work. In a rural marketing course, the case can be used to understand the sales and distribution management of fast-moving consumer good products in rural India. The case can be used in channel management courses to design an appropriate channel structure in the rural market in India and utilized for managing the distributors’ salesforce for effective and improved market coverage in rural areas.

Candy Confectioneries Private Limited started its operations in 1995, and was one of the largest confectionery players in India with a market share of 20 per cent. The company had achieved sales of Rs 20bn in 2014 and had 15 confectionery brands in the market. The company was also trying hard to establish itself in the snacks category. The company had nationwide operations, and it was important for the company to expand into the rural market. It served its markets through a comprehensive urban and rural distribution setup. In the rural distribution network, the rural sales representatives (RSRs) played a key role and perhaps were one of the most critical factors in covering the rural market. The RSR system was typical to suit the requirement of product-market coverage with its limitations. The case broadly profiles eight RSRs who were engaged to cover a specific territory in the State of Bihar in India. It also describes their approaches to work and complexities emerging thereof in achieving the best results for the organization.

The case has the following learning objectives: Understanding the design of sales and distribution channel structure followed for distribution and selling of confectionery products in rural India. Examining whether the existing system is adequate to achieve the goals of the firm. Evaluating the performance of each salesperson and identifying common factors to formulate the salesforce policies. Arriving at a suitable motivation-mix for the rural salesperson.

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CSS 8: Marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to deal with the performance modeling and assessment of maintenance priorities for steam generation unit of a sugar plant.

The unit comprises of four subsystems, i.e., Bagasse elevator, Bagasse carrier, boiler and feed pump. The Chapman–Kolmogorov equations are generated on the basis of transition diagram and further solved recursively to obtain the performance modeling with the help of normalizing condition using the Markov approach.

Decision matrices are formed with the help of different combinations of failure and repair rates of all subsystems. The performance of steam generation unit is evaluated in terms of availability levels depicted in decision matrices and plots of failure rates and repair rates of various subsystems. The maintenance priorities of various subsystems of steam generation unit are decided on the basis of effect of failure and repair rates of subsystems on the availability of steam generation unit. The key finding is that the boiler subsystem is the most critical subsystem and hence should be kept on top maintenance priority for performance enhancement of the steam generation unit.

The acceptance of both performance modeling and maintenance priorities decision by the management of sugar plant will result in the enhancement of unit availability and reduction of maintenance cost.

The case helps to introduce some of the elements of strategic management process, which are vital for competitive advantage, particularly for the public utility services such as MSWM. It intends to achieve the following objectives: analyse the external environment for MSWM industry in India; analyse the internal organizational environment for a firm’s strategic competitiveness; introduce the concept of value and value chain understand the role of Stakeholder groups; understand the concept of public–private partnerships (PPP); and understand the role of technology in sustaining a competitive advantages.

This case focuses on entrepreneurial venture of Gaurav Sharma and his team who intend to transform the landscape of Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) industry in the country. THANKYOU (letsthankyou.com) is a Jaipur, India-based enterprise offering waste management solutions across different verticals. It was founded in 2016, following an opportunity in the waste management industry unleashed by the Government of India’s (GOI) new MSWM 2016 rules making it mandatory for the waste generators to manage (segregate, process, transport and disposal) their own waste. After initial examination of MSWM service scenario in the country, Gaurav and his two team members realize that a lack of integration among the multiple entities of waste management value chain is the root cause of the current poor state of affairs. So, they come up with an online marketplace, which offers a one-stop solution for the waste management of general households, residential settings and corporate. With initial projects implemented in the decentralized mode offering unit-level services such as door-to-door waste collection, on-demand waste pick-up and waste audits for corporate, the company has eventually got an opportunity of working on a centralized MSWM project for a leading hotel. Indeed, the company has the first mover advantage of entering the government controlled MSWM industry. However, to move forward, the THANKYOU team must address some fundamental issues in the industry: How to integrate the informal and formal sectors involved in waste management to achieve economies of scale? How to make land-filling the least preferred option of waste management? How to use technology to enhance the efficiency of MSWM value chain?

The case can add value to a course on strategic management at the post-graduate level. It highlights the role of external and internal environment analyses in the formulation of business strategy, ultimately leading to a firm’s strategic competitiveness. In a strategic management course, the case can be used to discuss introductory topics such as the analysis of internal and external environment; value creation by leveraging internal resources and capabilities; analysis of a firm’s dependence on its stakeholder groups; ascertainment of the profitability driver for a firm’s business model; and the concept of PPP.

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CSS 11: Strategy

Adsorption parameters (e.g. Langmuir constant, mass transfer coefficient and Thomas rate constant) are involved in the design of aqueous-media adsorption treatment units. However, the classic approach to estimating such parameters is perceived to be imprecise. Herein, the essential features and performances of the ant colony, bee colony and elephant herd optimisation approaches are introduced to the experimental chemist and chemical engineer engaged in adsorption research for aqueous systems. Key research and development directions, believed to harness these algorithms for real-scale water treatment (which falls within the wide-ranging coverage of the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) ‘Clean Water and Sanitation for All’), are also proposed. The ant colony, bee colony and elephant herd optimisations have higher precision and accuracy, and are particularly efficient in finding the global optimum solution. It is hoped that the discussions can stimulate both the experimental chemist and chemical engineer to delineate the progress achieved so far and collaborate further to devise strategies for integrating these intelligent optimisations in the design and operation of real multicomponent multi-complexity adsorption systems for water purification.

This paper studies the role of heritage walks and tours in promoting inclusive education. It assesses if these walks are an effective method of exhibiting culture and facilitating inclusive heritage learning. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to establish that walks can play an imperative role in creating greater sensitivity towards heritage and conservation.

The study uses a case study approach using mixed methods. Participants for qualitative interviews were chosen using purposive sampling and six interview schedules were sent to walk leaders. Walk participant data were collected through participant observation and standardised survey with randomly selected participants of the case walks. Surveys were sent to participants electronically.

Heritage walks play a crucial role in not only imparting knowledge about history and heritage but also as a tool for learning other crucial skills, competencies, values, attitudes, etc. This paper attempts to highlight that walks are an effective and inclusive way to shed light on the alternative and forgotten stories. As an educational tool these walks can not only encourage the development of historical knowledge and appreciation but also assist in the development of competency to “de-construct” mainstream “grand narratives”, questioning and learning about the forgotten.

This paper has limited itself to the study of select cases in New Delhi. Since the study has followed a case study design, it does not produce a largely generalizable result, but rather examines and understands the dynamics of particular walks and produces insights that may well be applicable in other contexts. Whilst this paper makes an attempt to understand the changes in perception and attitudes, it does not study behavioural changes.

In the long run, walks allow for meaningful citizen engagement with tangible heritage such as monuments as well as intangible heritage such as practices and festivals. This allows for appreciation for the value of heritage resources and leads to a demand for better conservation and preservation from the authorities. In a few cases, local citizens themselves lead heritage management and development activities in a bid to promote their local culture. This paper has shown that heritage walks can be helpful tools in giving “forgotten” voices and stories recognition in contemporary society.

As heritage walks have recently gained popularity, there has been very limited research in the field especially linking heritage walks to heritage education. This is especially true for India. Even a city like New Delhi, which boasts of a robust heritage and is one of the tourism hubs of the country, heritage walks have been a very recent phenomenon. This research aims to address this lacuna in academic research and contribute meaningfully to the field of heritage education and conservation by studying how heritage walks support and promote inclusive heritage education.

The Edible Campus project was begun in spring 2007 in Montréal. An action-research project launched by volunteers and researchers from two leading local NGOs and university-based researchers (Alternatives, [online]; Santropol Roulant, [online]; McGill University's Minimum Cost Housing Group, [online]), it sought creative solutions to turn underutilised urban spaces into productive places. It involved citizens in the creation of green community spaces by incorporating productive growing in containers on a prominent but concrete-covered part of McGill University's downtown campus. Not only is it an investigation into making cities more food-secure by increasing urban food production, it is also a live demonstration of how ‘edible landscapes’ can be woven into urban spaces without diminishing their utility or functionality.

It enables students to understand and design a business model canvas, design standard operating procedure (SOP) for very unorganized business operations and also devise base pricing for vendor negotiation.

Mr Gaurav Chaudhary, chief executive officer and Founder of Pashushala.com, established a first-ever Livestock online marketplace in India, leveraging the penetration of internet users in 2019. Pashsuhala.com evolved as an all-inclusive ecosystem that offered an innovative business model by bundling financial aid, logistics, veterinary and insurance solutions to its buyers and sellers. While every other aspect seemed to have had fallen in place, Gaurav was not convinced with the everyday handling of the cattle especially during transportation. Transporting cattle was the most challenging task tempered with issues such as changing weather conditions, stock density, lack of training on handling cattle while loading and unloading, long journey hours, feeding and watering procedures and many more for which Gaurav had to depend on the logistics partners. Gaurav was in a dilemma whether to have his own fleet armed with trained personnel for transporting the cattle or to streamline the existing operating procedures into SOP to be followed by logistics partners. If he continued with logistics partners he also had to work on standard costs i.e. fixed and variable costs incurred during the transportation of livestock. The case deals with business concepts such as supply chain risk management in the livestock sector, SOPs for a very unstructured and unpredictable ecosystem, pricing strategies and business model canvas.

Masters in business administration (MBA) and Executive MBA level.

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CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

The recent spate of eminence received by the MOOCs (massive open online courses) from media to academia is revolutionary in higher education. MOOCs are a disruptive technological innovation which offers open learning with the aid of the internet and delivered by the faculty of reputed institutions, globally. Since Coursera being one such significant platform, its exploration would display the broader picture of MOOCs. As a result, studying it from various dynamics has been the motive of the current endeavour.

The quantitative study of the collected data was applied with help of descriptive research methodology to measure the contribution of the top six countries namely US, China, Japan, Germany, India and UK. All these six countries were selected on the basis of GDP (harvested from official website World Bank – data.worldbank.org/ to Coursera––an online platform providing MOOCs. The involvement of these selected countries was gauged (from the official website of Coursera https://www.coursera.org/) in terms of number, type of contributing institutions, number of courses offered by those institutions, type of courses offered, number of instructors and instructor gender ratio.

The findings reveal that the United States (US) is the top contributor in terms of partner institutes (97), courses (Specialization courses – 1,267 and degree courses– 40) and number of instructors (1,290). Interestingly, it was also observed that universities are the major contributor institutes in all six studied countries. Most of the institutes provide specialization courses while a very few provide degree courses. A large number of instructors are involved for imparting these courses online. Instructor gender ratio on average is 2:1 (male: female). It was also observed that there is usually a specific common time of starting courses on Coursera.

Online platforms are the main delivery points for MOOCs; therefore, vibrancy and articulacy of such platforms make this innovation a success, and examining such a platform which exhibits such characteristics would present an overall picture of its functionality, development, evolution and future expansion of the innovation (MOOCs).

This paper aims to produce hybrid reinforcement for the development of aluminium matrix composites using ball-billing technique to avoid or reduce the problem of agglomeration of the reinforcement during casting.

In the present investigation, a mixture of silicon carbide (SiC) and rice husk ash (RHA) powder in equal weight percentage ratio 4:4 (1:1) was alloyed mechanically in a ball-mill at distinct milling times of 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 h. Morphological Characterization and density measurements of the ball-milled powder were carried out after different intervals of milling times.

The results revealed that the process of ball milling is a novel technique for the conversion of two or more powders in to an integer powder and reduces the problem of agglomeration also. The density measurement results revealed that an increasing trend of density initially and reduction of the density with the increase of milling time. The density value of the combined particles became comparable to the density of aluminium at the milling time of 75 h for the equal weight percentage ratio 4:4 (1:1) of SiC and RHA.

The manuscript highlights the research work related to the development of the reinforcement for the aluminium hybrid composites by ball milling process. The use of this process for the development of the reinforcement not only reduces the problem of the agglomeration but reduces the density mismatch of the reinforcement and matrix material also.