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This case serves as an introduction to field sales management. A manager must address three sales representatives' ingrained behaviors in order to implement a major shift in marketing strategy. Students should recognize the nature of the "man-in-the-middle" squeeze: the manager caught between the pressure of implementing a new strategy from the top and the resistance to change from the bottom.

Mr. Sajjan Jindal, MD of JVSL (nos JSW) wanted to bring the latest technology of iron making into India. His project went to several cost overrun and time overrun due to several foreseen and unforessen circumstances. This case discusses the issues new technology introduction in iron making area, problem faced by inexperienced contractor. It shows the need for proper risk management is required. It also shows the criticality of the project does not mean time cost trade off, but many other factors like reliability of the equipment, process and reliability of the equipment and plants.

The three cases (Case A: JSW Steel's Ispat Acquisition: The Opportunity; Case B: JSW Steel's Ispat Acqusition: The Setback & Case C: JSW Steel's Ispat Acquisition: The Turnaround Strategy) describe the business situation leading to acquisition of Ispat by JSW, the acquirer company's failure to realize synergies post-acquisition, and the subsequent turnaround initiatives to salvage the situation. In 2010, JSW Steel, a 14 mtpa Indian steel company acquired Ispat Steel with annual production capacity of 3 mtpa. The acquisition was part of JSW's multipronged strategy to realize its aspiration of being a 40 mtpa firm. At the time of acquisition, Ispat had huge debts, a long pipeline of unfinished projects, high production costs and unpredictable cash flows. Its main plant, Dolvi was shutdown for 45 days. However, the plant also had numerous advantages. It was located near the seashore and was technologically very advanced. Case A describes the events leading to acquisition of Ispat by JSW. It captures the facts, opinions and inferences around the acquisition decision, which were used as inputs in the due diligence process to assess synergies between JSW and Ispat. The case describes the economic, competitive, and industry factors prevailing in 2010 when JSW was thinking of acquiring Ispat.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a well-performing company can turn into a loss-making company on account of adverse industry cycle and poor management of risks in the business. The importance of factors like optimal level of leveraging, the ability of the management to deal with external and internal risks, and importance of corporate governance in the process of credit appraisal is understood from this case.

The case relates to the credit appraisal by the banks of a prominent steel company in India. The company, Bhushan Steel Limited, was doing very well. The banks lent aggressively to the company, based on their credit appraisal. However, the company soon turned insolvent on account of poor assessment of risks and deteriorating external factors. While this case may be analysed and studied through the eyes of both the Management and the lenders, the focus is currently on the latter. In a real-world scenario, the challenge for the lender is to sieve through the financial as well as non-financial data and make a valid conclusion on the level of credit worthiness of the borrowing company. This includes the topics of operational efficiency and synergies, commodity price cycles, external credit ratings, operating and financial leverage, regulatory risks and corporate governance.

Post graduate business management programmes – Finance specialisation.

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 1: Accounting and Finance

The political and economic environment of business.

The case is suitable for students of MBA and equivalent courses; courses on the international business environment, international marketing and related subjects.

The case focuses on cross border acquisitions in the sub-Saharan economy of Zimbabwe. It discusses Essar Steel's attempt to acquire a stake in Zimbabwe Iron & Steel Company (ZISCO) with long term goals. However, recent political developments have led to the situation hanging by a thread. The case attempts to provide an overview of the complex business environment in Zimbabwe.

Students are expected to highlight the economic and political factors during the analysis of any country's business environment.

Teaching notes are available; please contact your librarian for access.

Madan Mohanka set up Tega Industries Ltd in 1976 to manufacture abrasion-resistant rubber mill lining products used in the mining and mineral processing industries. In 2006, as part of its inorganic expansion strategy, Tega bought a mill-liner company in South Africa. Buoyed by this growth, two acquisitions were made in Australia and Chile in the year 2011. However, post-acquisition, several managerial, legal and commercial problems crept up in its manufacturing facilities in Chile, leading to financial downturn in Tega's fortunes in 2016 and compelling it to either plan a revival or divest its interest in its Chilean Plant.

The three cases (Case A: JSW Steel's Ispat Acquisition: The Opportunity; Case B: JSW Steel's Ispat Acqusition: The Setback & Case C: JSW Steel's Ispat Acquisition: The Turnaround Strategy) describe the business situation leading to acquisition of Ispat by JSW, the acquirer company's failure to realize synergies post-acquisition, and the subsequent turnaround initiatives to salvage the situation. The Case A details the potential synergies that were identified during due diligence process while the Case B details the setbacks which did not allow JSW to realize the anticipated synergies. Nevertheless, not deterred by the setback, JSW salvaged the situation by undertaking a massive turnaround program aimed at plugging strategic, operational and organizational gaps. Concurrently, several initiatives were also taken to integrate the processes and workforce of the two organizations. Eventually the JSW team succeeded in turning around Ispat and merged it with the parent group. Case C provides a rich description of the turnaround and integration initiatives by JSW.

This is a case of a crisis project management which showcases the unpredictable nature of the project and the role of management in handling the crisis. It is the case of a very severe cyclonic storm hitting the city of Visakhapatnam plant during October, 2014. The whole city was devastated and so was the situation in the Steel plant as it was under zero power conditions for around 10 days. This case gives need for managing an integrated steel plant in case of very severe cyclonic storm and documents the sequence of events and managing unforeseen uncertainty using NTCP concepts.

Upon completion of this study, students will be able to define, explain and describe sustainability and its application in the business context; learn and demonstrate their understanding of current practices, processes and operations in companies that are aligned to business sustainability by identifying such in the case study to enable them to provide relevant examples; discuss and describe sustainable operations and practices across different industries; identify sustainable themes in manufacturing sectors and other related industries; and identify sustainable strategies for production and manufacturing processes.

This case study focused on Gunung Raja Paksi (GRP), a steel manufacturing company in Indonesia, with a portfolio in steel trading, cement plants and carbon markets. The case study covered the COVID-19 crisis period, especially the year 2020, which disrupted the normal operations of businesses and subjected the community to economic challenges. The emergence of GRP’s prominence in sustainable business attributed to the initiatives advanced by Kimin Tanoto, the chief executive officer (CEO) and chairperson of the Indonesia Iron and Steel Association (IISIA). Kimin Tanoto assumed leadership of GRP, a family-owned business, in 2018, despite being the second son. At the time of Kimin’s induction into the board of commissioners, two main challenges – the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted the supply chains, and the company culture that resisted sustainable business approaches – acted as detriments to profit-making. Sustainable efforts, however, contributed to noticeable success during and after the COVID-19 crisis.

The case is suitable for instructions in undergraduate courses in Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) in Sustainable Resources, Engineering and Management, Bachelor in Sustainable Environmental Management, Bachelor of Culture and Arts in Smart and Sustainable Design, Bachelor in Sustainable Solutions and Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, and other instructions on sustainable practices.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

“NTL suffered huge losses in its foreign exchange hedging activities as its highly complex leveraged structured products backfired badly in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008. The CFO and the Treasury head have both been sacked, and Joshi, the new CFO, has embraced aggressive litigation as NTL's survival strategy to cope with the losses that threaten its solvency. In the meantime, NTL also faces tax investigations and whistleblower allegations of fraud, and it finds that the record-keeping of its derivative transactions was hopelessly incomplete and patchy. A complete reconstruction of the entire derivative transaction history is the only way to rebuild trust, and that task falls on Reddy, a seasoned derivatives expert brought in by the Board specifically for this purpose.

In this dire situation, Seth, the founder Chairman of NTL decides that NTL needs to put all this behind it and focus on rebuilding the business. The challenge for Seth, Joshi and Reddy is to go about doing this in an environment that offers very few rays of hope.”