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Todd Wilson, manager of partner development at Educational Technology Corp., needed to determine the targeting, positioning, and selling strategy for its innovative Interactive Mathematics software for the college market. This required determining what types of colleges to target and which stakeholders to focus on within institutions. His task was complicated by the unclear objectives of nonprofit institutions and the differing motivations of teachers, students, and college administrators in adopting software-based learning technology. Highlights the difficulties in innovation adoption within large nonprofit institutions and the challenges in marketing to institutions with complex decision-making processes, multiple influencers, and conflicting motivations.

Dean Lynn, of Augustine State University's School of Business Administration, has been asked to develop online offerings as a prototype for the rest of the university. The decision he faced was whether to (A) take on the project alone or (B) make a ten-year commitment to a specialized vendor. If option B was selected, the further choice was whether to allow the vendor to handle everything short of instruction with a customized program or to handle only the marketing elements of the task. In the course of considering what to do, Dean Lynn was faced with the financial as well as the qualitative dimensions of the choice. The purpose of this case is to provide students a vehicle to explore the myriad considerations inherent in every organization's decision making process… qualitative as well as quantitative.

Production management and personnel management.

Production management modules of undergraduate business and management courses.

The case describes the implementation of 5S by a Polish production company, namely Bianor. It presents not only the literature base and benefits of 5S but, in particular, shows the specificity of the implementation process, taking into consideration attitudes of employees; moreover, the study devotes some attention to aspects of organizational culture.

The case shows how to implement the 5S method in a production company, and how effective communication of processes is essential to implementing business change.

Teaching note.

The case study will help to learn about the importance of pre-sanction precautionary measures before lending to self-help groups (SHGs), to learn about the potential lapses and errors while sanctioning SHG finance and to learn about the importance of bank’s guidelines and compliance before sanctioning loans.

This case study details the tenure of Seema in a rural branch of Safe Bank of India located in Haryana which she joined as a manager in the year 2016. She overachieved the target given by the district collector office, and going by the tide, she kept her reliance on the references provided by non-government organization (NGO) without complying the bank’s instructions. She committed errors while sanctioning the loans, which led towards the upsurge of non-performing assets of the branch. Later on, after investigation it was discovered that she did not follow fundamental bank’s instructions. In wake of those lapses and errors, how she could have avoided those lapses and secure the public money? What were the most important documents while granting agriculture finance and what due diligence she should have taken? How did she treat calls from the government departments? Was she right in trusting the suggestions of the NGO?

This case study caters to students of various streams, namely, management, business administration and law, and can be targeted at both undergraduate and postgraduate students. It could be suitable for several types of courses and students. Furthermore, this case study can also be targeted for various training programmes for bank employees and employees of various lending institutions engaged in agriculture finance and credit linkage programmes.

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 strategic management literature states that firms who wish to have a competitive advantage through high customer service (rapid response) and product differentiation need to restructure their organization into empowered, self-managed work units so as to ensure that there is “value-added” at each stage of the value chain. (Porter, 1985; Hill and Jones, 2001) In this case, Vanguard altered part of its structure through the development of teams in order to maximize its operations; and given their results Vanguard successfully put theory into practice. When the major supporter of team management, Mike Wesley, leaves the firm, he is replaced by Wendy Kiefer, a strong supporter of team structures. Her replacement, Shari Lastarza, however is the “old” assembly manager and does not buy into the team concept. Could this be anything but a formula for disaster?

This case describes a newly promoted middle manager in a global, multi-cultural organization who is challenged by a number of factors in the workplace which are impacting her and her team's ability to perform to the expectations of her regional manager. While it would be easy to blame the new manager, deeper analysis in fact reveals that many forces are at work here in addition to her inexperience including communication of strategy and performance objectives, mismanaged team members, cultural inconsistencies, and a lack of leadership direction and/or skill from the very top to her supervising manager.

After reading and analyzing the case, students should be able to 1) analyze and diagnose unmet expectations for performance at work, 2) apply motivation theories and constructs to common behavioral and attitudinal challenges in a team setting, and 3) learn to avoid the fundamental attribution error described in the social psychological literature on judgment in decision-making.

This case enables students to understand the nature of a typical crisis and manage a crisis drawing insights from the protagonist handling of the crisis and from the various crisis management models in the literature. The rich description of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the world in this case enables students to understand the nature of a typical external crisis. The critical appraisal of the protagonist’s plans and actions to overcome the crisis enables students to appreciate the various crisis management frameworks or models. In addition, students get perspectives about the leadership skills and competencies required during a crisis. In this way, students will not only learn about the theoretical concepts related to the crisis but also the practical know-how to effectively handle the crisis.

This case study describes the functioning of the International Delhi Public School (IDPS) Akhnoor, Jammu, and Kashmir, India, through the COVID-19 global crisis. The IDPS academic operations were disrupted because of the COVID-19 global crisis in March 2020. The protagonist, KCS Mehta, the school principal of IDPS, faced with the crisis, takes various steps to ensure the smooth transition of school’s academic operations from the physical mode to the online mode. This case explains the nature of an external crisis that completely crippled the organization’s day-to-day operations and how the organization’s leader tried to manage the crisis to revitalize the organization’s operations. The case can be used for teaching of alternate Models of Crisis Management and Change Management.

The case is developed to teach the courses of Executive training programs and MBA programs in business schools.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Social entrepreneurship

Bachelor/master students.

Women Empowerment through Local Livelihood (WELL) is a social venture that was founded in September 2005, by Danny Merguei. Danny was raised in Israel and had a long career in the corporate world as an auditor. After many years of work, Danny and his family moved to India. Shortly after the family arrived to the south of India, one of the biggest tsunamis in history hit the Southeast coast, on 26 December 2004. Many women who were dependent on their husbands as the family’s breadwinners lost them to the tsunami. Danny reacted to the situation by setting up a program to help these women. As the businesses expanded and the effects of the tsunami subsided, the focus of WELL shifted to women from rural areas who were interested in starting a shared business with a group of other women. Women who are selected for the training offered by WELL are guided for six months on how to create products made of recycled materials, such as household items and accessories. During the training, the women also take classes on how to run a business and on personal development. After the women complete the training, they receive a micro loan to start their own businesses. WELL monitors their development, offers business consultancy and quality controls assistance for the products. WELL also buys the products from the women and sells them to shops in India and around the world. The income generated by these sales is used by WELL to sustain and increase its operations. The women, however, are free to decide whether they want to distribute their products through WELL or find other ways to generate income. The mission of WELL is to provide empowerment tools and alternative livelihood to women. Behind it is WELL’s vision to see the status of women in the Indian society and their self-empowerment improve.

With the help of the case and literature students should understand/learn: Some of the differences and similarities between social and commercial entrepreneurship. The students should try to inspect where there is an overlap in social and commercial entrepreneurship (and how this is reflected in the thought-process and decision of the entrepreneur) and where the two separate. The importance of the social mission in social entrepreneurship. This is one of the crucial differences that exists between social and commercial entrepreneurship. The students think about the motivation that drives the entrepreneur. The students should think about the influence that the lead entrepreneur has on the social business, and how the two are linked. That a social problem can have different layers. The students should come to a realisation that sometimes the “real” or deeper problem is not so easy to see and can be obscured by other more exterior problems. About the complexity involved in building up and operating a social venture. The students should try to identify with the protagonist’s struggles while maintaining their own points of view. To have a critical perspective when making an important decision, and to be able to use and put together the relevant information. How to apply models, theories and concepts from the provided literature to answer the case questions.

Teaching Note 2 videos.

CSS:3 Entrepreneurship.

The teaching case study is based on a (real-life) complex organizational and strategic context, and several bodies of literature may be used to interpret, analyze, explore and discuss alternative solutions. Among several relevant theoretical basis are (educational) leadership, strategy, institutional change, organization, practice orientation of education and organizational learning. The Instructors’ Manual gives suggestions as to how the case may be used in teaching and gives references to relevant literature.

The teaching case study is based on participatory action research. The narrative of the case is based on empirical observations in form of a research diary recording events, dialogues and discussion with colleagues and organizational leaders during a five-year period. The case study is based on real proceedings. But, the narrative is generic, and names are anonymized, and organizational contexts and events are disguised. Any similarities to real institutions are coincidental.

The case tells the story of Birk Grimson (PhD), a professional who returns to academia after many years of business practice in the private sector. He is struck by how different the work ambience is in academia and how bureaucracy and a rigid organizational structure seem to quell innovation, resulting in resistance to systematic learning, organizational development and strategic change.

The teaching case study is appropriate for business, organizational or administrative students at master’s, PhD level or executive education. For students with other disciplinary educational backgrounds (such as engineering, education or health care), some basic knowledge of organization and management or alternatively relevant experience is recommended.

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