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Murrah Dairy Company Limited (Murrah Dairy) is a strategy and management case related to entrepreneurship, with a focus on marketing, expansion, strategy and management of a family-run small and medium enterprise (SME).

The case is suitable for senior undergraduate and/or graduate MBA strategic management, entrepreneurship and marketing courses.

The case is about Murrah Dairy, Thailand's first and only buffalo dairy producer. The company combines the concepts of regular SMEs together with community enterprises to build a business that can be used to achieve community benefits as well as private gains. With 11 years of experience, Murrah Dairy remains the first and only extensive dairy buffalo farm in Thailand. The market is growing, the brand is catching on and the company keeps expanding. Beginning with Murrah Farm in 2003, now Murrah Dairy now operates Murrah Farm, Murrah House and Mini Murrah Farm. The question now is where to go from here and what will it take to grow?

The expected learning outcomes are the increases in understanding on environment assessment (such as SWOT analysis, Porter's Five Forces, success factors), marketing strategy (product portfolio analysis, market-product analysis) and SME management, as well as abilities to propose growth strategies and marketing strategies for the firm.

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New product development (NPD), entrepreneurship and strategic management.

Advanced undergraduate, MBA/MSc in Marketing and Management course that cover the topics on NPD.

This case illustrates that commercialization of a new product requires a proper strategic direction to make it a reality. The case fact is positioned in livestock feed industry centered on commercialization of a newly developed urea-molasses mineral block (UMMB) or called Nutriblock. Dr Wan, a Senior Principal Research Officer of Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI), developed food supplement for ruminants which contained urea, molasses, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Dr Wan believed that the UMMB was a better quality food supplement compared to products in the markets because it contained 12 raw feed ingredients and an anthelmintic medication. After almost 10 years of research, in 2003, Dr Wan completed his research and, thus, wanted to get a suitable way to commercialize this product. He had two options: commercializing the technology through licensing of intellectual property right (IPR), or to transfer it as a public domain. The Business Development Unit(BDU) was responsible for the former option, whereas Centre for Promotion and Technology Transfer (CPPT) was in charge for the latter. At the beginning of2006, MARDI decided to commercialize the Nutriblock through licensing the IPR to March Avenue Technology Sendirian Berhad (March Avenue), a newly formed company. March Avenue was formed byKarthiir, a lawyer and Ma Irwan, an electrical engineer. The operation was going smoothly for the first two years. However, problem started in 2008 when Karthiir left the company due to some disagreement with Ma Irwan. Since then, March Avenue failed to achieve its sales target that seriously affected its profit level. Moreover, it suffered from internal management problem. The company finally closed down at the end of 2009. By this four year of operation, March Avenue failed to pay any royalty to MARDI. This circumstance forced Dr Wan to think seriously about his next move regarding choosing the right way of commercializing his Nutriblock. MARDI requested him to give his opinion by January 15, 2010 about whether to give another chance to BDU to commercialize this technology through IPR or to go for public domain under CPPT?

Using this case, students can learn that new product development and its commercialization requires proper strategic directions. It illustrates the importance of managing the commercialization of a new product effectively. NPD involves many stages, and it is important to manage every stage properly. This is because a “high-quality product” and/or a “new to the market” product are not enough to succeed in the market. In other words, producing a “product that meets market needs” must be combined with appropriate strategies.

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This case describes the challenges faced by Amul in organising dairy farmers into a co-operative and creating continuous opportunities for value addition. Participants in the case discussion are required to review the developments in the organisation and recommend a strategy for the future.

Entrepreneurship, Small Business, Small-scale Dairy Farmers

This case is appropriate for undergraduate final year/senior as well as graduate-level programme students.

This case explores the life of Saravanan, a small-scale dairy farmer in Malaysia. He inherited the business from his father. Small-scale farmers in Malaysia own farms with 30 (or fewer) milking cows. Over the years, milk consumption had been on the rise, but production was less than promising. Besides low-quality milk, Saravanan often experienced issues of low milk yield. Selling fresh milk as his only source of income and the milk collection centre as his sole marketing channel, Saravanan was caught in a financially tight situation when product diversification and marketing initiatives were limited. Saravanan’s problems began with rejected fresh milk, which landed him with zero income for the day. This issue was detected when the authorities identified a few contaminated batches of milk during a site visit. The problem compounded when Saravanan had to settle three months’ debt with the feed supplier on the same day. Saravanan’s predicament echoed the plight faced by small-scale farmers in Malaysia. After managing the farm for more than 30 years, Saravanan had plans to pass it to his son, Mugunthan. However, doubts about the sustainability of the business remained. Would Mugunthan suffer the same dire fate? Would he be able to find a way out? Based on the problem-solving framework, the case attempts to identify and assess the problems faced by small-scale dairy farmers in Malaysia, and at the same time, to suggest solutions that will ensure the sustainability of their business.

After attempting the case, students should learn to empathise with the hardship small-scale dairy farmers endure in the pursuit of their businesses, analyse issues and determine the root causes of the problems faced by small-scale dairy farmers in Malaysia based on the problem-solving framework, generate and justify sustainable solutions to solve the problems faced by these dairy farmers and present the case, discuss and work in teams, and critically offer sustainable solutions based on framework and theories.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Strategic Management, Entrepreneurship, Business Management.

This case is of medium level of difficulty and is designed for students in School of Economics and Business Management, also an optional course for students in other majors who have strong interest in strategic management and entrepreneurship. Students from all disciplines are welcomed and encouraged to take this course; however, it will be better if registered students have already gained basic ideas about industry, company analysis and marketing.

In 2010, Hangzhou Wahaha Group (The Group), a leading Chinese beverage company launched its new brand – Edison milk powder. Meanwhile, people were concerned about food security because of several scandals and Wahaha had to convince the mass public during the high time. The decision makers had to balance various options besides Edison. In this case, we would mainly discuss several possible long–term strategies of this eye–catching private enterprise. The Group intended to carry out diversification strategy in several industries domestically and internationally to maximize its profit.

Have an insight into China's beverage industry and dairy sector, with the representative Hangzhou Wahaha Group., Know how to develop analytical and decision skills facing multi–choices. SWOT model is recommended here., Have a comprehensive understanding of diversification strategy and how to make priorities.

Teaching notes.

Competitive strategy.

Post-Graduate (MBA/Doctoral) level courses.

This paper aims to examine the evolution of Himalaya Drug Company (hereinafter referred to as Himalaya), an Ayurveda-based pharmaceutical-wellness company. Over the eight decades of its history, Himalaya has built a reputation for Ayurveda-based formulations that conform to allopathic standards and are accepted globally. In the recent years, Himalaya dramatically strengthened its competitive position of “scientific Ayurvedic products” through its entry into fast-moving consumer goods (or consumer-packaged goods), categories of wellness products as well as over-the-counter (non-prescription) drugs. This case describes the focused differentiation strategy of Himalaya and sets out the challenges it faced/would face in sustaining its focused differentiation strategy, as it enters into highly penetrated categories such as toothpastes and soaps (that were traditionally dominated by broad differentiators and broad cost leaders).

The outcomes are as follows: to exemplify the logic of focused differentiation, where a competitor commands a higher willingness to pay than its average competitors, by narrowing its target segments; to illustrate how the firm’s entire set of activities are tailored to meet the specific needs of a set of carefully chosen products, narrow customer segments, of defined geographic markets; to highlight how a combination of tradeoffs and fit helps protect the firm’s competitive position from its potential imitators; and to demonstrate the limits of a focused strategy, specifically relating to growth, and how a company such as Himalaya can overcome such limits.

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CSS 11: Strategy.

This case should facilitate participants to analyze the influence of internal and external factors on a growing company in the dairy, agro and food industries; analyze the drivers of a company’s competitive advantage; evaluate the relevance of the company in the new product-markets; and propose growth strategies for the expansion of the business beyond the core markets.

Gyan Dairy began its journey in 2007 and operated in the business-to-business segment by supplying skimmed milk powder and white butter to other dairy players. Then, the company launched its packaged milk brand in Lucknow – the capital city of Uttar Pradesh – one of the largest provinces in India. By the end of 2020, Gyan was the leading private dairy brand in Uttar Pradesh. The company’s vision was to become one of the top dairy brands in India by 2035. While deliberating on the growth choice, the company’s senior management debated whether to strengthen the company’s position in the existing markets or expand operations in adjacent locations. Increasing market share would have led to price wars or advertising costs. Diversifying into product categories involved the risk of product–market misfit and new product development and marketing costs. However, pursuing these options would further strengthen the company’s position in the North Indian market. Expanding into new locations would help establish the company’s presence across different parts of India. However, both these options were replete with various challenges. Expanding into new markets needed one of the promoters of the Gyan Diary, to relocate, build new markets and institutional connections and build a completely new localized economy of scale, which would create a financial burden on existing operations until the new operation was self-sustainable. However, in this journey, they would find and build a model to help expand their operations in other countries as well. Ideally, the company could pursue all the options, but this was not possible due to constrained resources.

This case allows students to discuss and evaluate alternate growth options associated with operationalizing the growth strategy choices in perishable branded food categories beyond existing markets and products. In addition, it also helps discuss how to arrive at such decisions after analyzing the focal firm’s market opportunities and existing capabilities. This case is helpful for the “growth strategy” module in the strategic management core course in a general MBA program and in specialized MBA programs in food and agri-business management.

This case is suitable for graduate-level courses on strategic management courses in general management programs and agri-business management programs. In a strategic management course, the case will help cover topics such as analysis of the internal and external environment of the firm and growth and expansion strategies. This case will help teach how to build competitive advantage in dairy and agro-food industries and the strategic analysis needed while pursuing growth decisions. Emerging markets, including India, are the growth markets for leading multinational companies in the food and dairy industries.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The teaching case is designed to be used by students in higher education institutions at the undergraduate level. This case may also be relevant for staff at the bursary departments of any public universities or public organizations that have biological assets.

This case provides a study on agricultural activity at Universiti Pengurusan Malaysia (UNIPM). The purpose of this case is to create greater awareness for case users on the accounting framework and on methods recommended for recording specific assets in agricultural activity, i.e., biological assets. This case provides users with experience in explaining the nature of an organization’s agricultural activities and accounting for biological assets as recommended in the Malaysian accounting framework. In addition, users are exposed to some current issues in accounting standards, such as ethical issues. In this case, Fakhrul, an accountant at UNIPM and a leader of the Asset Unit, was responsible for reporting the value of all UNIPM’s assets, including biological assets. He was instructed to accurately recognize, measure, and disclose the value of biological assets according to the appropriate accounting standard. Furthermore, UNIPM had been urged to replace the existing accounting standard of the Malaysian Private Entity Reporting Standard (MPERS) with the Malaysian Public Sector Accounting Standard (MPSAS). Fakhrul was considering how to account for and report biological assets according to the new MPSAS. This case is a decision making or ‘unfinished’ case which is suitable for financial accounting and reporting courses. The names of the people and the university are fictitious, but the details were based on actual events. A series of interviews were conducted with the key players to gather the data. Other useful documents such as the university’s annual report, university’s website and the deer reports were also referred.

The primary objective of this teaching case is to provide an opportunity for case users to understand both the accounting framework and the methods recommended for recording specific assets in agricultural activity. More specifically, the teaching objectives of this case are to achieve the following learning outcomes: to identify the relevant accounting standard for recognizing, measuring, reporting, and disclosing biological assets by public universities in Malaysia, to apply the appropriate accounting treatment in recognizing, measuring, reporting, and disclosing biological assets in accordance with the appropriate accounting standard for public universities in Malaysia and to understand the ethical issues involved in deer valuation methods.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and finance.

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.

After the completion of this case study, students will be able to understand the importance of being close to local people when embarking on social business; understand that clear purpose and good decision-making can lead to great outcomes; and learn that innovation is crucial to ensure sustainability of both business and impact.

The case highlights the journey of Laiterie du Berger (LDB), a social enterprise in the agribusiness industry and the challenges faced as it expands and innovates. LDB’s roots lie in its commitment to social impact, aiming to uplift the Fulani livestock farmers and address socioeconomic issues. The company’s business model prioritizes people over profits, focusing on sustainable development and poverty alleviation. The LDB case showcases the challenges and opportunities in the agribusiness industry. LDB’s commitment to social impact, demonstrated through its support for farmers and sustainable farming practices, has been integral to its success. As the company expands and innovates, it faces critical decisions that require balancing financial growth with social responsibility. By embracing development, innovation and collaboration, LDB can continue to be a catalyst for positive change in the agribusiness industry while staying true to its roots and the principles that have defined its journey.

This case study is designed for bachelor’s and master’s degree students in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as MBA students. The case focuses on social entrepreneurship with the example of an agribusiness company located in Senegal, prioritizing social impact and quality of life. The case study explores the dynamics of the sector, including expansion strategy, innovation initiatives and the dilemma of balancing social mission and profit that social entrepreneurs may be facing. By analyzing this real-world situation of LDB, students will have the opportunity to enhance their decision-making skills.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship