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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.

This case study aims to understand the criticalities of hiring in a knowledge-based start-up; the various ways of retaining talent in a knowledge-based start-up; the competency requirements of human resource professionals in start-up organizations; the trade-off between business profitability and the R&D drive of the company; and the various organizational structures available for a knowledge-based start-up.

Ayush Jain, a first-generation entrepreneur, is facing a challenge with his start-up, TechShlok. TechShlok is an IT solution provider with its headquarters in Jaipur, India. The company is doing very well and is able to achieve many accolades. As the company grows in business and employee strength, it is facing talent acquisition and retention challenges. Ayush is in a fix to solve the talent issue and retain the key talent of the organization.

The case can be taught in a Human Resource Management course, including “talent management” and “human resource planning”. The case may be taught at upper undergraduate levels. It can also be taught in courses of entrepreneurship and knowledge-based start-ups.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

This case facilitates the learning of marketing concepts like segmentation, targetting and positioning, marketing mix, branding strategies and digital marketing strategies.

The case is written based on the facts available in the public domain and hence it follows secondary data research design. The secondary sources include company websites, industry reports, newspaper articles, social media sites and other online articles and reports. The case is classroom tested with MBA students in digital marketing course and PGDM students in brand management course.

Cycle Pure agarbathi, the leading brand of NR Group, became the coveted brand among the households of India. This success amidst high competition can be attributed to the concerted effort on product development coupled with mindful branding. To keep abreast of time and competition the company opted to go digital with an e-portal. Cycle Pure had a digital presence much earlier through social media, but the e-portal www.cycle.in, was a novel attempt. All the fragrance products of the brand were available for consumers through www.cycle.in. Moreover, the product assortment consisted of a collection of top-quality products and auxiliaries linked to multiple categories such as invocation necessities, personal care, air care and lifestyle. Furthermore, using in-house fragrance research lab, the company experimented with local aromas through numerous variants and also extended to related products such as sambrani (benzene) and dhoops. With consistent product augmentations along with access to innovative sectors such as air fresheners, the company expected to grow at a rate of 15%–16% annually. However, the company targeted to grab one-third share in the total market within the next five years.

This case can be used in Marketing Management, Brand Management, Digital marketing and Strategic Marketing courses at the Master’s level. It is suitable for MBA and executive MBA students.

The case intends to achieve the following objectives with the audience: Apply the knowledge of fundamental analysis to select good companies for investment; analyse companies for investment through the contrarian strategy; and appreciate the need of own research before investing.

This case study provides an insight into the general process around investment for a retail investor. The protagonist of the case, Rajdeep Sharma, is a middle-class, salaried IT consultant from India. He has taken inspiration from Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, a renowned investor in India, and started his journey on the road to generate wealth. He decides to adopt the contrarian strategy and identifies Jaiprakash Associates Limited (JPA) to invest his savings. JPA is a large conglomerate with decades of experience, which has diversified business across multiple sectors. However, JPA’s pursuit of growth and expansion has created financial issues because of a large amount of debt it has amassed over the past few years. The company has been unable to repay its interest and principal obligations to the debt holders, making it consider a restructuring plan to meet these responsibilities. Meanwhile, Rajdeep has been optimistic about his investments but must experience excessive turmoil due to the high volatility in the company’s share prices. The case highlights the value of sound analysis, along with the impact of information on retail investors’ decision-making process. It will help prospective investors appreciate the importance of economic, sectoral and financial statement analysis before making any investments.

Fundamental analysis for MBA students majoring in Finance.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

International marketing/export marketing.

This case is appropriate for discussion in courses such as international marketing and export marketing of post graduate studies in management. The case can also be used for management development programmes concerning practising managers.

The case is based on export marketing strategy with special focus on developing strong buyer (customer) relationships and the associated challenges of a trading company, The Handicrafts and Handlooms Exports Corporation of India Ltd (HHEC). The corporation primarily engages in export of handlooms and handicraft products from India. Since 2005-06 the corporation has been incurring losses and it was only in 2010-11 that the corporation has registered a positive net profit.

To understand the appropriate strategies for buyer retention; to understand appropriate promotion strategies of non-essential items like handicraft, handloom and carpets; and to help students in making decisions for export marketing like understanding product characteristic, development of samples, procurement of products, vendor management, and pricing decisions.

Teaching notes.

The learning outcomes are as follows: understanding of the principles of choice overload and the impact of consumer choice overload on company sustainability and growth prospects; understanding of how several heuristics inform consumer decision-making; applying nudge theory to interpret and clarify the impact and consequences of nudges on consumer decision-making; and considering the challenge of a newly appointed CEO to influence consumer choice.

The case study and teaching note offers insights into the use of behavioural economics principles in consumer choice. The case study methodology was used to design, analyse and interpret the real-life application of behavioural economics in the retail sector. The case demonstrates how choice overload, dual process theory, decision heuristics and nudge theory play a role in consumer decision-making. The case offers insights into the application of behavioural economics to support the sustainability of a company in an emerging market context. Managers can use the findings to consider how to use behavioural economics principles to drive consumer choice. The application of behavioural economics to an industry facing challenges of sustainability offers new insights into how to design spaces and cues for consumer choice.

The case study is suitable for course in business administration, specifically at postgraduate level.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing

The learning outcomes are that at the end of the case discussion, the students should be able to evaluate the drivers of social innovation in an African context; discuss social entrepreneurship as a process-driven set of activities; assess the organisation–environment–opportunity fit when innovating; analyse and resolve practical issues in developing simple and affordable social innovations; appreciate how social enterprises are mission-based businesses rather than charities; and evaluate how an organisation may achieve social objectives and remain sustainable.

SolarTurtle is an award-winning South African social enterprise that manufactures and supplies secure, mobile, solar power stations and kiosks to communities where the electricity grid does not reach. The company converts shipping containers into housings for solar panels to protect them from theft and extreme weather conditions. These units are called “PowerTurtles”. Through the franchise model, the company supplies PowerTurtles to off-grid institutions in rural areas. PowerTurtles are also sold to private sector enterprises and are scalable to suit the energy needs of customers. With the successful launch of the AutoTurtle in 2018 (which folds away the solar panels automatically, where the PowerTurtle requires them to be folded away manually), the company started to develop a new lightweight, fibreglass, solar kiosk with roof-mounted solar panels called the MiniTurtle, and a mobile trolley version known as the BabyTurtle. Now, in 2018, Van der Walt hopes to develop the business to the point where it can sustain itself.

Post-graduate students of entrepreneurship, public governance and social welfare.

Teaching notes are available upon request for educators only. These teaching notes should be shared solely with the instructor and students should not have access to. Please contact your library to gain login or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The focus is on a performance management system and its strategic alignment using a Balanced scorecard in a Public Private Partnership framework. This case study analyses the situation for Tata Power Delhi Distribution (TPDD) which needs to realign its strategy to meet the emerging sustainability challenges of inclusive growth and combating the climate change. The case covers the field of strategic management, strategy formulation and performance management system deployment using the balanced scorecard. It touches upon the emerging need for corporates to look beyond economic signals and take social and environmental impacts into strategy planning process.

The case can be used in the following courses; post graduate program in public administration; MBA/Post graduate program in management in strategic management; executive training program for Government executives in public sector organizations to highlight the concept of performance management system in PPP companies.

After the initial tumultuous years, TPDD emerged as one of the efficient power distribution companies in Delhi region. One of the major management tools that was helpful to achieve this was the balanced scorecard. TPDD's general manager for corporate strategy & planning reviewed the process and the due diligence that went into designing and implementing the balanced scorecard. Now, after the balanced scorecard success story, he along with Dr Ganesh Das, Head of Group – Strategy wants to take it to a next level and integrate their strategies related to inclusive growth of community and combating the ill effects of climate change. They believe that the balanced scorecard method that had helped them to achieve their strategic goals will help them to achieve future objectives too. But whether the existing four perspectives: financial, customer, internal process and learning and growth would adequately address the emerging challenges or whether there was a need to introduce a new perspective – “The Social Perspective” – is what they contemplate in the case.

The case can be used to teach the following: the importance of strategy in an organization and how it helps the firms to realize their stated vision; to highlight the process of strategy formulation and its deployment; to help students realize the difficulties in realizing a strategic goal through performance management system; use the balanced scorecard as an effective tool for strategy deployment and organizational alignment; to introduce students the concept of sustainability in the organization and emerging global challenges; and to illustrate the complexities involved in a strategic planning process

Teaching notes.

The values-based leadership (VBL) themes lend the case to use in courses focussed on individual leadership approaches, personal-professional development, personal mastery, or individual agency in social change and social justice movements. The emerging market context adds a layer of complexity to the protagonist's journey, which may make the case especially relevant for use among students who work in this context or in courses that deal with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA).

The primary target audience for this case is postgraduate students in a management or professional development program.

This case offers a leadership profile of lawyer Fadzayi Mahere as she pursues social change at the national level by running for political office in Zimbabwe in 2018. The case recounts Mahere's professional journey through human rights law and local activism, which eventually drives her to run as an independent for a position in the national election. She does this as a response to the dire state of the country: economic crisis, social instability, and political corruption that are making life increasingly untenable for most people. In spite of running a strong grassroots campaign, Mahere loses the election and is faced with the dilemma of whether or not to forego independence and join the dominant opposition party. The case therefore centres around the role of values in leadership, the role of narrative in shaping the decision to lead, and how these things impact a leader's strategy for affecting social change and achieving social justice.

Appreciate the systemic nature of social problems in an emerging market context and how this creates different opportunities for a leader to act on a problem

Understand how a leader's identity, in terms of values and experiences, shapes their motivations and informs their strategy for leading a change effort

Understand the dimensions of values-based leadership (VBL) – transformational, authentic, accountability, and ethical leadership – and how the actions of a values-driven leader reflect these

Identify the mechanisms that aspiring leaders practicing VBL can use to build an authentic narrative for key stakeholders to accept and embrace them

Recognise the different strategies a leader can adopt to achieve values-driven outcomes, while maintaining alignment with the different dimensions of VBL

The case explores the growth of Dastkar Andhra Marketing Association (DAMA) and its relationship with its sister organizations, as it works to articulate an alternate model of production, distribution and retailing. The case attempts to highlight issues around appropriate interventions in a traditional sector providing livelihood to millions, but confronting the challenges of a modern economy and society. The case would be beneficial in emphasizing the role of market and state failures and the role played by social enterprises in addressing them.