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The Home Depot case is a great story. It's about entrepreneurship, growth, CEO leadership, and the dramatic impact, good and bad, a CEO can have on a company's growth culture, strategy, and performance. Home Depot had faced market growth challenges for the last seven years as it tried in numerous ways to reignite its growth engine. The case explores the growth strategies of CEOs Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, and Blank's successor Bob Nardelli, a former GE executive. After examining Home Depot's growth history, the case challenges students to devise a growth strategy for the company under a new CEO.

This telecommunications international business case study is the second in a series (A, B and C) of Vodafone cases.

This case is intended to be used in MBA graduate and undergraduate business courses in strategy, cross-cultural management and human resources.

This case examined organizational structures and human resource operating strategies of Vodafone Egypt from 2002 until 2007. Vodafone’s business model, how Vodafone addressed the differences in national culture between Britain and Egypt and how Vodafone fostered adoption of the Vodafone corporate culture are the main themes of this case. Further, this case examined business issues, products, processes and people systems that challenged Vodafone to grow quickly from zero local operations in 1998 to 4,000 employees and national mobile coverage in 2007.

The students who have used this case in the author’s classes have gained a clearer understanding of how international managers often have to develop a change culture and structure as a catalyst for firm growth in emerging markets. Adaptation to the local culture may not be an option for fast growth technology firms and may be ill-suited to meet corporate objectives.

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 5: International Business.

The learning outcomes of this case study are as follows: It presents an opportunity for the instructors to introduce the concept of decision-making on matters involving risk (like scaling the business) using in-depth market research techniques. The case’s central idea is to make the students understand the growth of the online service delivery model, with a specific example of home-cooked food that also improves social welfare. It is expected to provide the participants with an opportunity to understand the decision-making by the leaders in newly established companies. It enables future managers to analyze a venture’s pros and cons before deciding to expand.

Chef Junction is an online food delivery platform that allows customers to order hygienic home-cooked food prepared by handpicked home chefs in Bhubaneswar. This city in eastern India is one of the fastest-growing metros, is regarded as a study hub, and provides ample employment opportunities making it one of the sought-after destinations for the migrant youth population. The idea behind Chef Junction is to cater to the healthy food needs of the young by utilizing the culinary productivity of the home cooks, empowering the latter by opening up an extra source of income. These chefs prepare delicious healthy food, usually not listed for sale with online food delivery apps. Chef Junction earned revenues by adding an order-dependent commission on the price quoted by chefs and accepting a flat delivery charge from the customers. This offer was very lucrative for home chefs who could join the platform with zero investment and flexible working hours. The customer’s pockets were also handled when several offers and discounts were rolled out through an attractive pricing strategy. Chef Junction expected to improve its patrons’ health quotient by ensuring the nutrition of the home-cooked food, thus contributing to social welfare. With food being delivered from home to home amalgamated with social welfare and empowerment of home chefs, especially women, this case study is an apt example of a sustainable work-from-home model that has proved effective in crisis times. The pertinent question is: “How feasibly can CJ’s business model grow towards an expansion as the demand increases?”

This case study has been prepared keeping in mind the teaching pedagogy for graduate and postgraduate management programs in strategic management, operations research, entrepreneurship and marketing management. It is also expected to be useful for training courses such as management development programs, faculty development programs and executive programs, in discussing service operations in general and online delivery logistics, in particular for working executives and industry practitioners.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Transnational entrepreneurs (TEs) are individuals that migrate from one country to another, concurrently maintaining business-related linkages with their former country of origin and currently adopted countries and communities. TEs are active social actors who enact networks, ideas, information and practices for the purpose of seeking business opportunities or maintaining businesses within dual-social fields, which, in turn, force them to engage in varied strategies of action to promote their entrepreneurial activities (Drori, Honig & Wright, 2009). This case research focused on the ethic, legal and cultural challenges TE has been facing when operating their business across boards.

The data used in this case were collected from mainly third-parties, including the office de la protection du consommateur; Office of consumer protection (OPC), securities and exchange commission (SEC) reports, news as well as marketing materials posted on public media by Sinorama Corp. and Vacances Sinorama. The authors conducted interviews with former employees of Vacances Sinorama to gain the understanding of the owners and the business challenges faced during the years of operation. The authors also communicated with the OPC through to obtain specific case-related information through the Canadian freedom of information channels. Triangulation of such information from multiple resources had been conducted to validate and support the details described in the case content.

A Chinese immigrant couple migrated to Canada and started Vacances Sinorama Inc. (“Vacances Sinorama”) in 2005. The focus of this case is on the expansion of their travel businesses after 2015. In 2016, they established a financing shell company, Sinorama Corporation (“Sinorama Corp.”), in Florida, USA, which became the holding company to the operation subsidiaries. Born during the 1970s and raised in Mainland China, the owners were culturally traditional and operated the company with the values and norms from their heritage culture. Vacances Sinorama successfully penetrated the local tourism market using Web-based technology and aggressive low-pricing strategies after the scaling-up strategies. However, Vacances Sinorama was operating in the red for several consecutive years (2015–2018). Sinorama Corp. received additional capital of US$4.4m by listing a portion of its shares on the NASDAQ over-the-counter market during 2016 and 2017. Canadian regulators began to investigate its operational and financing activities in 2017. They found a comingling of client and operation funds, which directly violated Canadian consumer protection laws. As a result of these violations, the license for Vacances Sinorama was nonrenewed in August 2018. The majority of owners fought to overturn the regulators’ decision and failed at all levels of appeal, administrative and judicial. This entrepreneurial endeavor ended with Vacances Sinorama declaring bankruptcy in October of 2018.

This multipurpose teaching case aims to assist students from an integrated approach whom are learning about entrepreneurship, international business, business law and business ethics. It is best suited for advanced undergraduate courses in entrepreneurship, business ethics, international business and business law as well as specific teaching modules in MBA courses.

The manager of engineering at Palm Oasis Engineering in Dubai expressed dissatisfaction with his compensation. The uncertainty of his continued participation at a key position came at a critical time for the company. This case provides an event for the analysis of HRM issues of a small company in a nontraditional, international context. Real and perceptual issues surrounding expatriate employee compensation, including wages and benefits relative to home country, cost indices, inflation, and currency fluctuations, are analyzed. Motivation and negotiation strategy are also examined.

This case has been disguised to protect the anonymity of the company and key individuals. The industry, name of the company, and names of personnel have been changed. The authors were granted access to key personnel at the company during a limited time frame.

This case is designed for upper level, undergraduate international management, international human resource management, and human resource management courses. The case is designed as a mid-semester decision-based case that allows students to apply concepts on motivation, human resource management, and negotiation.

The purpose of this study is to describe how Zoom became the tope video conferencing service across the globe.

This case was developed from secondary sources including industry reports, academic, newspaper, periodical sources, company annual reports, social media sites and company websites. This case has been classroom tested with undergraduates in a strategic management course as a capstone course.

The case study describes the rapid growth of Zoom Communications Inc., a San Jose based publicly traded video conferencing company founded in 2011 by Eric Yuan. It illustrates the competition in the online meeting solutions industry in late 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown. To explain how Zoom became the top video conferencing service across the globe, the case highlights the attractiveness of the market and the competitive advantage of Zoom over its rivals. Students can evaluate the internal capabilities and competencies of Zoom as well as identify key challenges in the external environment for sustaining Zoom’s competitive advantage.

This case study is suitable for strategic management classes for upper-level undergraduates and at the graduate level for MBA and/or master students. It prepares students to discuss core concepts in strategy, such as competitive strategy and competitive forces that shape strategy.

Entrepreneurship.

The portable solar cooker case is appropriate for upper division undergraduate and graduate students in entrepreneurship, international, strategy or sustainability courses.

xCRUZA, a small industrial design studio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has experienced limited success and expansion since the company was founded in 2005. Focusing on eco design principles, xCRUZA has maintained an eclectic design mix pertaining to product development in children's toys, medicine, and cleaning products. Challenged by a struggling Argentine economy, a population not focused on environmental concerns, and a general lack of capital availability, the founders of xCRUZA chose to design, develop, market and sell a portable solar cooker. The cooker was originally designed by two of the founders while studying engineering at university. While innovative and award winning in design, xCRUZA's solar cooker has proven to be a challenge to the founders' success both in getting their product to market and fulfilling the mission of the studio.

The learning objectives for the case include: to explore the challenges of an entrepreneurial start-up dedicated to eco design and sustainability principles, to examine market opportunities and consider approaches to selling in dissimilar markets, generate a discussion on strategies that xCRUZA has and can employ, to analyze the mission and direction of xCRUZA. Are they on the right track?

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

Gender Roles, Human Resource Management.

HRM-related courses at undergraduate and MBA level. Can be used in executive training.

Nida Akhtar, a 29-year-old factory unit supervisor and a labor union leader of one of the biggest private textile manufacturing companies of Pakistan, faces a crucial decision regarding her personal and professional life. She is getting married in a few months and may need to move to another city. She has been working at Shanza Textile Limited (STL) for the past nine years. In spite of several social pressures and sometimes unfavorable circumstances, she has continued working because of her determination and endurance. She has earned appreciation and respect from her organization as well as from her family and friends. She has an option of moving to STL’s female hostel if she wants to continue working. However, she will have to gain her husband’s consent to do this. Alternatively, she can look for another job in the new city, but in this way, she will not be able to enjoy the same rank and position which she currently enjoys. She is exploring possibilities, and she knows that this decision will not only affect her own future life but will also have a significant impact on her married life and on her future generation.

Introducing students to an important aspect of labor economics: determinants and demographics of female labor force participation rates, in the context of an emerging market like Pakistan. Enabling students and other participants to engage in a meaningful unbiased discussion regarding gender roles in workplaces of emerging markets. To make students familiar with related characteristics, issues and challenges faced by working women in developing and emerging economies. To devise and present policy suggestions for making work environment more conducive for the female workers.

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 6: Human Resource Management.

Organizational Behavior and Strategic Management.

MBA, Management/Executive development programs.

This case study can be used effectively for understanding the nuances of employee loyalty, especially if there is a cost of employee loyalty. While Anand Finance is happy that its workforce has largely been loyal, the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous times force it to chart new course of action. The newly appointed Business Head, Ashok Singh's challenges compound when he finds that there was not’t a single innovation or best practice adopted over the past three years. Given his mandate to make Anand Finance as the Walmart of financial services, can he aspire to rally the forces behind the new mission? This case study facilitates an interesting discussion on the significance of operational and strategic alignment at organizations in the backdrop of an interesting story of Anand Finance, one of the leading non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) in India. The non-alignment was noticed by Ashok Singh (Singh) who took over as the Business Head of Anand Finance. While the company boasted of long-standing employees, Singh was quick to notice that the company had been paying a cost for employee loyalty. What was the cost of employee loyalty? Singh could also sense that the company was in a state of active inertia. Expected to make Anand Finance Walmart for financial services by 2025, Singh had a big task at hand given the lack of strategic orientation of the employees. What would be the likely course of Singh's actions? As the case study deals with strategic dilemmas related to the organizational culture, it can be suitably used for organizational behavior and strategic management courses. This case study is meant highlight that even if an organization is operationally sound and successful, it cannot afford to be strategically disoriented, as its strengths may prove to be its weaknesses with changing business conditions.

At the end of this case discussion, the participants are expected to know the merits and demerits of employee loyalty and the implications of the same for organizational change; whether employees’ relatively longer stints at companies would contribute to active inertia (as defined by Donald N. Sull in Harvard Business Review article, “Why Good Companies Go Bad”); and the ways to align operational orientation with strategic mindset, especially in the case of employees who rose through the ranks and had been serving the company for relatively longer period.

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

This case was developed from a primary source and is based on interviews and personal evaluations.

Maria was at a scheduled lunch with her direct manager, John, who inquired about the privacy leak regarding employee data she had found a few months earlier. Upon discovering the issue, Maria took on the task of ensuring the privacy leak was dealt with and resolved. John knew it was a challenging interdepartmental task because other managers did not immediately recognize the seriousness and full impact of the issue on employee privacy. Plus, the belief was that the project to combine two software programs improving CRM functionality, causing the employee data leak, needed immediate release. During the lunch, Maria stated that the privacy problem was fully eliminated and that, in the end, it did impact a lot more than only a few employees. John actively encouraged Maria in the conversation to seek feedback from Richard, the managing director directly involved and responsible for the project, which Maria had already done. When the feedback arrived, Maria felt extremely hurt by the comments and began to question the validity of the company’s values. Now, she must decide what her options are.

This case study is about dealing with feedback, career development and how to receive and provide feedback. It presents a situation that allows for a variety of ways to address negative feedback and shows that different reactions can have broader consequences for career development. At the same time, the case illustrates how feedback is given in international teams and companies, and how intercultural or gender-relevant circumstances may have to be considered.

This case study was written for use in BA and MA classes to promote discussion regarding feedback. Relevant courses in business and administration or an international business study program could be organizational behavior, communication training, conflict management, an intercultural competencies course or in line with career management sequences.

Early program BA students, BA students in advanced semesters as well as MA students with work experience are all markets for the case. It has been class-tested with BA international business students. While advanced BA and graduate students are able to and expected to enrich discussions by contributing personal stories, early program BA students benefit from learning how to create feedback and how to read feedback – including from other students, instructors and managers, to use during their first internships.