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The case deals with project management principles that are required for implementing a social project in India.

The study has been carried out at primary schools in an underdeveloped state, namely, Odisha, in India.

The case illustrates a project management approach for improving primary education in a government set up. The bureaucracy set up in education in a state like Odisha, India, needs to undergo radical changes. To be effective, an education system requires an optimal integration of the three main components, namely, people, infrastructure (this includes technology) and pedagogical processes. Using a public–private partnership model, American India Foundation (AIF) through its Digital Equalizer (DE) Program has been able to make a positive impact in an underdeveloped tribal dominated district like Keonjhar. The case study also illustrates the detailed execution plan predicated on total system planning, required to achieve this amount of success. The case study also explains how to measure success through different metrics where intervention has to be at multiple levels. The learning from the case study can also be adopted for designing an implementation strategy in other states.

Expected learning outcomes are as follows: how to approach implementation of technology-based intervention with involvement of all stakeholders; learn project management techniques related to digital learning model implementation; understand the DE methodology; and understand the challenges faced while implementing the DE Program.

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 7: Management Science.

Leadership style and organizational change.

The case study level is rated medium to difficult depending on the depth of the analysis undertaken. Managers and executives who undergo training in leadership related issues will benefit from the case study through development of analytical- and decision-making skills. In addition, this case study is written for high level managers and postgraduate students in business courses.

This case study revolves around a man whose name is Rozano Saad. He was a man with strong will, imagination, and ready to explore the new world of Huntsman Tioxide. To him, development of people was necessary. Development of people is the process of getting people to progress from dependent to socially and economically self-reliant. This man with positive views saw difficulties with enthusiasm and noted obstacles as opportunities. He was brave enough to go that extra mile into moulding the organization in the “right pattern.” He was an optimistic angel who was sent to the bleak area of Teluk Kalong, though others might just pack their bags and leave. He was eager for improvement and never stopped looking for ways to make the situation better.

The target users of the case study are expected to:

• Identify the critical success factors (CSFs) of successful leader.

• Examine the leadership and decision making styles employed by the leader.

• Develop the competencies or capabilities of a leader.

• Determine programmes or initiatives and strategies used by the leader in transforming the organization.

• Apply the lesson learnt of a successful leader to their organization.

Identify the critical success factors (CSFs) of successful leader.

Examine the leadership and decision making styles employed by the leader.

Develop the competencies or capabilities of a leader.

Determine programmes or initiatives and strategies used by the leader in transforming the organization.

Apply the lesson learnt of a successful leader to their organization.

Teaching notes.

Upon completion of this case study, students should be able to apply lessons learned in core readings, analysis and discussion to a specific case study dealing with a current, real-world situation, specifically: critically assess Livestock Wealth’s case facts and present and justify their point of view – based on attentive reading, critical analysis and engagement – about the company; use a range of strategic tools such as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis, PESTLE analysis and the Ansoff matrix to thoroughly evaluate Livestock Wealth’s internal and external business environment for developing strategic options for business growth and improvements to marketing strategy; use strategic thinking to develop a range of creative solutions to guide the company’s business growth and improvements to marketing strategy; and assess their own growth and development in terms of personal preparation and organisation, collaboration, critical thinking, decision-making skills, participation and problem-solving.

By February 2022, Ntuthuko Shezi, the founder and chief executive officer of Livestock Wealth, had turned his idea of “crowd farming”, which enables anyone to invest in living farm assets and earn a profit at harvest, into a full-fledged business that was creating wealth for both investors and farmers. Underpinning this case study is Shezi’s vision of an African continent where there is “no ground that is not planted with something of value”, local economies are created in those areas, communities are wealthy, there is abundance, there is money for children to attend school and ultimately where “cows (and agricultural produce in general) are seen as money”. Shezi had grown up in a rural area with grandparents who owned a couple of cows, realizing that the cows were the bedrock of the family’s finances. Describing his business, he says, “Cattle are like a walking bank, and we see ourselves as the bank of the future, where every person who owns a cow can access financial services through Livestock Wealth, just like it has always been in Africa.” This case study describes the two key decisions that Shezi needed to make – what direction to take in terms of business growth and how to improve his marketing strategy (with a limited budget) to attract sufficient investment into Livestock Wealth to make his dreams a reality.

This case study is suitable for use for a post-graduate diploma in business, master of business administration or master’s in management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

In this case, lessons from the Chicago Benchmarking Collaborative illustrate key principles of collaborative action and the importance of using data to achieve SMART goals.

In 2015, the Chicago Benchmarking Collaborative (CBC) was a network of seven agencies in Chicago, Illinois, serving 12,000 low-income residents. Each of the agencies had early childhood, school-age children, and adult education programs. At the prompting of the Chicago Community Trust, they came together to (1) benchmark their education programs outputs and outcomes; (2) learn and share best practices through developing a common set of metrics and measurements and implementing these measurements into a case management software system; and (3) share the costs of the case management software system to be used for program evaluation and continuous quality improvement.

Three aspects of CBC are particularly noteworthy. First, there are no joint program activities or clients among these agencies. Their exchange is limited to sharing data and other information. This makes CBC distinct from collaborations formed to begin a program or to advocate for a policy. Second, the group requires each agency to enter data on a timely basis and to set SMART goals based on the data reports. The agencies are held mutually accountable for their work to achieve their own SMART goals during the year and report on progress. Third, CBC used monetary incentives to ensure that data entry and SMART goal action remained a priority for each agency.

Management scholars and researchers have long been concerned about the impact and relevance of their work. Here we chronicle the teaching, research, management, and personal leadership development lessons that have arisen from a collaborative, decade-long relationship between three management faculty members and the senior management team of a major Norwegian-based global shipping and logistics company. This relationship grew from the creation of a teaching case in 1997 to many years of productive and meaningful work together, including the development and delivery of the all-conference Plenary Session at the 2006 Eastern Academy of Management Meeting, held concurrently with the annual CASE Association Conference. At the 2006 Plenary Session, each of the authors expressed powerful personal and professional development through their collaboration over the years, which is summarized in this article. Reflections, lessons and future research directions are provided.

Manufacturing, Western management theories and Japanese management practices.

This case can be used in project management or management-related courses at tertiary institutions at Undergraduate and Postgraduate level.

This case provides students with an opportunity to find out what make Toyota so successful in manufacturing through its famous production system as well as the underlying Toyota Way principles. All students are expected to understand the Toyota Way model with a balanced view that goes beyond a set of lean tools such as just-in-time. This case opens a historical account for the Toyota Way model by connecting with possible Western management theories and Japanese management practices.

It is expected to significantly benefit students with industry experience with the intention of initiating appropriate changes in their own industry and/or organization by applying what they have learnt from the Toyota Way, through bridging with Western management theories.

Teaching notes.

Management sciences (organizational behavior).

The case is suitable for MBA students, employees of any organization, human resource practitioners, organization administrators, human resource directors and senior line management.

The study deals with unethical or “haraam” practices at the workplace. It is based on the observation of the researchers. The business organization was selected and the behavior of employees was observed for two months. An interesting behavior of an employee was observed and the change in behavior was followed. The study describes the various factors influencing the behavior and performance of the employee and emphasis is made on the “haraam” practices of drinking alcohol and unacceptable behavior. The focus is on the performance of the employee. Major events and changes were elaborated to deduce the descriptive cause and effect results based on observation. It was found that behavior as well as performance was reduced due to “haraam” practices, which can be a lesson for other employees to follow as well as for managers to devise strategies in order to improve the most important resource of their organization, i.e. the human resource.

As this case was designed for an executive education programme, no detail regarding where it fitted into the curriculum is applicable as would be the case with cases designed for students. The case is intended to develop skills in students to creatively approach a common and wide spread problem and to think about the solution in an innovative way. The overall purpose of the case is to engage human resource practitioners (students) in creatively constructing innovative solutions to address the problem of compulsive drinking in the organizational environment.

Teaching notes are available, please consult your librarian for access.

Entrepreneurship.

Postgraduate and undergraduate.

The case study focussed on the dairy sector in the southern African country of Zimbabwe. It offered an analysis of the management and business development approaches DHL employed in the country’s dairy sector. The narrative detailed how DHL’s commercial performance progressively declined overtime. Several factors including operational inefficiencies, intensive competition, political, socio-economic issues and natural disasters were attributable to its decline. To mitigate DHL’s business development challenges, Antony and his top management’s reprised “restructure, expand and diversify” strategy only achieved inconsistent commercial results. The scale and size of these results unequivocally necessitated radical entrepreneurial methods to turnaround its fortunes. It was indeed a matter of entrepreneurial decisions!

The case study used secondary analysis as its main strategy for generating relevant data. The rationale for adopting the principles of secondary analysis was to take advantage of quality archived data, public and readily available information concerning DHL’s commercial performance. Setting up to undertake secondary analysis for the purpose of DHL’s narrative was less-expensive, and it was less time-consuming when compared to structured interviews and self-administered questionnaires. Hence, it was deemed appropriate for producing a narrative on a company whose archived financial reports and publicly available research information were accessible.

DHL’s narrative is relevant for students studying entrepreneurship, business management and international business at postgraduate and undergraduate levels.

The multi-dimensional constructs of entrepreneurship and strategic management provided the theoretical basis for constructing a narrative about DHL’s business activities in Zimbabwe’s dairy sector. Particularly, the entrepreneurial decision-making paradigm offered some insight, direction and guidance in analysing the strategies Antony and his top management team applied in their planning and management at DHL. Equally, strategic management theories provided useful instructions for exploring business development issues in a rapidly changing business terrain that was presented by the dairy sector in Zimbabwe.

By the end of the lesson students will have had the opportunity to identify the features of an organisation with an entrepreneurial mind set; evaluate the importance of making entrepreneurial decisions in a rapidly changing market such as the dairy industry in Zimbabwe; explore the sort of issues faced by large enterprises in establishing an entrepreneurial architecture; develop an appreciation of the importance of practicing entrepreneurial leadership in rapidly changing business conditions; analyse the importance of developing an effective strategy while considering strategic options necessary to withstand markets such as the dairy sector in Zimbabwe that are characterised with rapid changes.

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 3: Entrepreneurship.

Strategic management.

The case is suitable for undergraduates, MBA, and executive MBA courses.

This case on Satya Bharti School Program, an initiative of the Bharti Foundation, highlights the journey, achievements and challenges faced during the implementation of a noble vision. The case maps the strategy implemented from multiple vantage points and aims to show how the compelling need of providing quality education in rural India transformed the way people look at corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.

The case analysis aims to help students comprehend and understand: the concept of corporate social responsibility; the strategic decision-making process amidst constraints in the context of not-for-profit organizations; how organizational excellence models are embedded to improvise practices and processes; the concept of the multi-stakeholder framework; and how external and internal issues can affect the success of a CSR program.

Teaching notes are available; links to videos are provided.

The case deals with the financial and accounting aspects of the one of the important aspects of Power Sector Reforms in the developing countries. It captures the experiment of involving the private parties in improving the overall performance of the company.

The case can be used at postgraduate-level studies in Management, Accounting or Commerce.

The organization in focus is a unique case where the regulator of the sector has become its manager. The shareholder with the majority stake has withdrawn from the business, but the ownership has not been transferred and the organization is now under the custody of the regulators. The organization has a very weak balance sheet, so finding a new owner is not easy, if not impossible. Purposeful inefficiency and a rent-seeking attitude at the field level forced the new chairperson of the State Regulatory Commission to take the bold step of involving the private parties to strengthen the operations of the organization with the sole purpose of improving the financials of the organization. The organization entered into a contract with more than three private companies using variations of a franchisee model. Will such shift improve the overall performance of the organization? The case will try to capture the shift and its ramifications.

The objective of the case is to introduce students to certain strategic decisions that organizations must take to make them financially strong and vibrant. The case requires students to critically examine the legal, financial and accounting implications of the decisions taken by the management. It provides an opportunity to undertake a detailed analysis of the financial position of the company. The case provides lessons about several complications of evaluating corporate and divisional performance. The case contains issues relating to finance, law and accounting which can all be discussed at the postgraduate level. Knowledge about the regulatory issues affecting the power sector will add further value to the analysis. In case students are not exposed to the regulatory accounting and finance, it is necessary for them to go through the suggested readings as a prelude to the case analysis. The following may be the guiding objectives for the class discussion: to critically examine the changes in the organizational ownership and management of regulated entity; to undertake analysis of the financial performance of a regulated entity; to evaluate the financial implication of micro-privatization of certain activities of a regulated entity.

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