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To analyze and personally relate to an individual having faced a quarter-life crisis; to define how environmental factors influence the person’s career priorities; to analyze the causes of career-family conflicts; to comprehend another gender’s position and concerns; and to originate ideas for prospective career development.

The case study presents a career management dilemma of a PhD candidate, senior lecturer at the Almaty Management University, Kazakhstan and a married mother of two small children. Having faced a kind of quarter-life crisis and the pressures of a traditional society with gendered career trajectories, the protagonist (33) is challenging her initial plan of an academic career that sees gradual promotion and progress and has to make a difficult decision about her professional and personal identity amidst the realities of a newly emerging and transitional economy.

Master’s level

Teaching notes, company’s organizational charts, protagonist’s curriculum vitae, PowerPoint slides with the protagonist and her classmates’ pictures.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

Upon completion of the case study, the students will be able to analyze the brand equity construct through the associative neural network model for decision-making; identify prospective scenarios through the Delphi method for the construction of strategic plans in organizations; and propose the innovation of a product by applying creativity techniques to enter international markets.

Cafe Galavis was one of the leading family businesses in industrial development and had the highest business recognition, with a century of experience in producing and commercializing roasted and ground coffee in Cucuta, Colombia. In 2015, the diplomatic crisis between the governments of Colombia and Venezuela led to the indefinite closure of the Colombian–Venezuelan border, which caused an increase in income from smuggled coffee. In addition, the presence of different competitors and traditional brands negatively impacted the level of sales, which considerably affected financial stability. Likewise, internal difficulties of family nature and administrative management led to the change of senior management. By 2016, Juan Yáñez was appointed chief executive officer (CEO) and was in charge of avoiding the company’s closure. In January 2023, he received feedback from his consulting team, and upon evaluation of the new market challenges with his collaborators, he realized a great challenge that merited the search for a priority alternative solution. How to design a new product considering the loss of brand identity in the face of the generational change of its consumers? These were some of the challenges posed by the CEO that consequently required starting a strategic management process of innovation.

The teaching case is aimed at students of postgraduate academic programs in the areas of knowledge of innovation, product design, industrial design, marketing or MBA. In the modules of marketing, strategic management, brand management and strategic foresight, the case allowed for the orientation of the concepts of brand value or branding as well as the analysis of the value chain for the implementation of strategies that promote competitive advantages of companies. Similarly, in the modules of product or service design, creativity and innovation and complex thinking, the case allows one to approach a complex problem and apply creativity techniques for its solution.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 8 Marketing.

Entrepreneurship.

The case could be taught in the core marketing course at the post graduate level while discussing the notion of positioning. The case could also be taken up in marketing strategy courses, where the linkage of the positioning to past and future customers and implementation challenges within the organization could be highlighted.

The case shows how the CEO of an entrepreneurial venture, Team Computers, was coping with the problem of creating a unique identity in the market. It tracks the evolution of an embryonic organization to an Indian rupees (INR) 2.3 billion organization with 1,500 employees and its competitive landscape. It also highlights that an organization could become quite big without a very well defined positioning in the mind of its consumers and even its employees, however such growth could not be sustainable. It highlights the key challenges for Team Computers with respect to defining its positioning platform. The biggest challenge for Team Computers was to arrive at an appropriate positioning within an increasingly competitive market place, a distinct image of the company was almost a pre-requisite to the vision of sustainable, profitable growth for the company. The problem was inherent in the condition prevailing in the industry, which had intense competition among the incumbent firms and a high degree of employee turnover which plagued the industry. The case focuses on the challenge of deciding on a positioning platform for the company, considering its checkered evolution and somewhat difficult to predict and plan future trajectory. The case provides enough evidence to evaluate the positioning options of the company, the criteria to finalize the positioning options. It also opens up the possibility to discuss changes in organizational structure required to implement the positioning. The case also opens up the debate about conditions under which democratic process might not be the best way to decide on positioning.

The following insights could be elucidated by the case: criteria for evaluating the positioning options for an organization; the need for a clear positioning platform to grow beyond a threshold level for a service based organization in a competitive landscape; and the possible need for organizational restructuring to be able to implement positioning in the market.

Teaching notes are available for faculty. Please consult your librarian for access.

It is well suited for short courses focussed on brand equity or marketing.

This teaching case is specifically aimed at postgraduate students completing a management diploma or a professional development course.

Inverroche, one of South Africa’s first artisianl gins, faces an interesting brand dilemma. By the end of 2016 through a distribution agreement with a large wholesaler, it secures a national footprint and becomes available at all leading retailers, resturants, and bars. The product’s immense growth trajectory attracts the attention of the global drinks conglomerates who see an opportunity to secure market share in the lucrative craft gin segment of the market. Founder Lorna Scott grapples with whether she has made the right choice to sell a majority share of her beloved brand to the global house of brands, Pernod Ricard. In this case, she meets with her sales team to debrief the situation as well as have a heart-to-heart with Alex Farnell, general manager of sales and marketing. The case looks at the Inverroche brand in detail, what it represents, and why it resonates so intrinsically with consumers. However, Scott and Farnell differ in opinion on the strategic objectives of the brand. Farnell seems to think that the sale to Pernod will not harm the brand, but Scott is torn. How does a niche artisinal brand scale? Can a brand remain authentic when it does scale? Is there any commercial sense in remaining artisinal? Is an artisinal brand’s brand equity compromised when it is sold to a corporate house of brands? All of these questions relate to whether a brand can remain authenthically artisinal amidst a corporate acquisition.

To identify the challenges of growing an artisinal brand

To identify the challenges of achieving scale as well as the marketing and commercial costs and profits scale represents

To identify how to build a brand that resonates with consumers

To critically assess the link between brand building, distribution, and availability

To analyse the impact of brand architecture on brand equity

In September 2014 Leyth Jamal, a transgender woman, filed suit against her employer, luxury retailer Saks Fifth Avenue. Jamal alleged that she experienced harassment from managers and other employees because of her gender identity while employed by Saks, including verbal abuse and threats of violence. At the time she filed suit, no federal, state, or local laws protected transgender employees from discrimination. However, some federal district courts had recently begun to allow such suits on the premise that discrimination based on gender identity was a form of sex discrimination. Other suits and amicus briefs brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) furthered this trend. The EEOC is the federal agency charged with investigating and supporting claims of discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, so district and appellate courts watched the EEOC's position on the application of Title VII. Socio-culturally, many Americans supported transgender rights, even as they voiced anxiety about transgender men in women's bathrooms.

This case has students assume the role of a trusted member of the executive team of Hudson's Bay Company, which owns Saks Fifth Avenue. One Friday afternoon in late December 2014, the Hudson's Bay CEO sends an email to his executive team notifying them that he has approved corporate counsel's motion to dismiss Jamal's case based on the argument that transgender people are not a protected class according to Title VII. The motion will be filed in federal court on Monday. The CEO shares that he personally believes it is preposterous for anyone to think that Saks Fifth Avenue is anything but a strong advocate for LGBT rights, but he invites executive team members to call him if they have any concerns. Members of the executive team have a responsibility to consider the broader strategic implications for the company, so students must decide if and how to respond to the CEO.

Ethical leadership and decision-making, engaging and managing multiple conflicting stakeholders.

Utkal Alumina International Limited (UAIL), an ambitious Greenfield project of Hindalco Industries Ltd. faced the challenges of conflicting multiple stakeholders and collective resistance that did not allow UAIL to be commissioned for almost two decades. The case portrayed the journey of a new leader of UAIL in the path of transforming collective resistance to collective collaboration. In the case, the author was introspecting about how far the author could achieve the objective of collective collaborations through stakeholders’ engagements and what would be the next path of the journey.

MBA and executive development programs.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resources.

The case presents a lot of information, directly and via references and Web-based links, about the economic consequences of the virus. Several themes are evident: As an opening theory-base, the decades-long stakeholder versus shareholder debate is invoked – but does this extend beyond “stakeholders” to the “public good”? There are contexts (generally wars) in which governments are empowered to instruct private companies to engage in the public good – but how far should/must they voluntarily go? The underlying macro-economic issue is: where will we get the capital? Central banks have not recovered from the 2008 global financial crisis and have limited “ammunition” to address the anticipated economic problems introduced by the virus. The case presents data on selected financial metrics (interest rates, debt levels, risk pricing, etc.) and outlines the conventional stimulatory steps used: lowering short-term rates (monetary policy) and investment in assets (fiscal policy) and the less-conventional Quantitative Easing “QE”.

The coronavirus appears to herald a devastating blow to lives and to the world economy – its impact is yet unknown, but likely to be comparable to war and pestilence of biblical proportion. This case focuses on the possible economic trajectories as a consequence of the virus, with emphasis on bailing-out (restructuring) struggling companies and restoring jobs. Within the framework of a world desperately in need of capital, it raises questions about accountability and responsibility. Should retrenched workers in restaurants, banks and airlines feel the consequences of their poor career choices? Must shareholders (read pensioners) shoulder losses to support the public good? Ought governments bail-out whole industries – using tax-payer money? Or do we allow central banks to conjure-up billions and hope for the best? The case does not attempt to provide answers to these questions but presents several vignettes and offers a context in which participants can debate the merits of these problems.

MBA and Exec-ed.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 1 Accounting and Finance.

This case draws upon the literature on appropriate leadership behaviors that Yahoo’s Founders or CEOs could have adopted. It discusses the process of environmental analysis that would have an impact on Yahoo!’s strategy. It discusses and depicts the levels of environmental analyzes that Yahoo! as a firm ought to have undertaken in mapping its competitive environment. Further, this case discusses transformational leadership factors and those behavioral traits that exemplify each of these factors. Finally, the four elements of aspiration in discussing future firm direction are identified. These include an appropriate vision translated into a clarifying mission reflected in specific objectives grounded in explicit value statements.

This case is based on secondary data sources that include official company records, online reports and commentary, newspaper reports, public interviews and books. All such information has been appropriately referenced.

Yahoo!, in its 22 years of existence, has demonstrated remarkable tumult. It has witnessed a succession of six CEOs, exhibited a roller coaster trajectory in its stock price and, for the most part of its existence, played “catch-up” with its strategic competitors. It has also struggled to define its core purpose, its industry category and its very essence of being. In early 2016, CEO Marissa Mayer announced that Yahoo! would be willing to sell its core internet business and that its board would “engage on qualified strategic proposals.” However, the board also reiterated that turning around Yahoo! to prosperity continued to remain a top priority. What went wrong, so terribly wrong, with Yahoo! in an otherwise lucrative industry? Does Yahoo! suffer from a fundamental, essential malaise which, if addressed, could restore it to wealth and vibrancy? This case focuses on the period 1994, the inception of Yahoo!, to early 2016. The acquisition of Yahoo! by Verizon, completed in 2017, is not to be considered for purposes of this case study.

This case is particularly suited to be taught in a capstone strategic management course for MBA/Master’s level business students, after they have been exposed to core courses in Marketing, Business Law, Accounting, Supply Chain, Corporate Finance. It may also be taught in an advanced strategy course for undergraduate business students, typically in their final year of study. Finally, this case can be used to teach senior management in executive management programs.

The case can be used in the subject areas of marketing, strategy, business model innovation in an emerging market. The case introduces a practical example of brand extension as a growth strategy employed by an existing brand to secure additional revenue channels and customer touch points.

This teaching case is aimed at postgraduate business students such as Master's degrees in Business Administration degrees, postgraduate diplomas, executive education, or specialist Master's degrees.

Kauai is a health restaurant with 150 stores across South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, more than 50% of which are franchise-owned. An acquisition of the original Kauai quick-service restaurant (QSR) chain by Real Foods in 2015 leads to a complete rebrand and overhaul of its product offering and store experience. Since the acquisition, the business operates as a startup with few formal processes and KPIs in place to drive performance. Despite the obvious success the team is battling with the factors that need to be considered to ensure that they can scale adequately to realise full potential. Plus how should they position the existing brand effectively within the FMCG space to maximise the contribution of brand equity to its success?

–The understanding around the business model of a strong, existing brand entering a highly competitive and price-sensitive FMCG.

–Analysing the marketing strategy and brand identity approaches that could be used.

–An understanding of the brand extension strategy that could be implemented in light of various challenges.

–Understanding how retail marketing works in an emerging market context.

To understand how beauty and wellness business is run by women entrepreneurs in India and to understand the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in India.

Nikita Patel is an women entrepreneur from a small town called Indore in India. She wanted to run a spa business and started a mobile spa venture called “Atheeva” to offer spa services. However, her venture ran into trouble because of objections from male members in the family and due to feeling of insecurity among her female staff members. She had to close down Atheeva after running the business unit for eight months. Undaunted by the failure, she again started a new venture called “Fingertips” to offer Nail Spa services. This time she took the help of digital marketing to promote her business and started spreading her business into different cities through franchisee route. However, she again faced headwinds in business due to rising attrition rates and challenges of maintaining work-life balance. This case covers the journey of a women entrepreneur as she faces multiple challenges and overcomes them and seeks answers to the path she should take to take her business to the next trajectory of growth.

Gives strategic insight of challenges faced by Women Entrepreneurs in India.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.