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This study aims to build on the human capital development theory that focuses on the education and development of individuals considering their spillover impact on the organization’s and community’s improvement. Through examining the efforts put in by the Ministry toward developing its nationals to convert its economy into that of a knowledge-based one, this case shows a practical application of the human capital development theory.

To attain a more comprehensive understanding of how the Ministry underwent the implementation of educational and employment reforms, this study carried out a mixed methods study that pertained conducting interviews and collection of secondary data such as reports, minutes of meetings and publicly available date. First, four top management and executives were interviewed from the Ministry to gain deeper understanding on the planning of educational and employment reforms being implemented by the Ministry, its implementation and the challenges that the Ministry faced in doing so. Additionally, top management and executives from higher educational institutes in Qatar were also interviewed to attain a more comprehensive understanding of how they worked with the Ministry to implement the educational and employment reforms. The interview participants held key positions within the Ministry and education institutes in Qatar. As a result, they were directly involved in driving strategic decision-making in various areas relating to education at all levels (primary, secondary and tertiary). Further, they were directly involved in the establishment of Qatarization initiatives in the education sector within Qatar. Below is a list of the interviewees:

1. Mr Ahmed, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (formerly Qatar University President and Community College of Qatar President);

2. Mr Saad, Higher Education Consultant at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (formerly the Dean of Community College of Qatar);

3. Mr Ali, Assistant Undersecretary of Shared Services Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education;

4. Mr Abdulla, Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Higher Education, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education;

5. Mr Jassim, Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs at Community College of Qatar;

6. Mr Bilal, Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs at College of the North Atlantic-Qatar;

7. Mr Mohammed, Chief Strategy and Development Officer at Qatar University; and

8. Mr Yasin, General Manager of Qatar Learning Center.

Each participant was first contacted to inform them about the nature of the study and to gain their consent to conduct an interview. The interview protocol contained closed- to open-ended questions, aimed at providing in-depth information on Qatarization practices and the efforts to reform the education sector in Qatar. As a result, a semi-structured interview was conducted. The participants were posed with several questions that included but were not limited to these. For instance, the participants were asked with questions like what steps are being taken by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to improve the education system in Qatar? and What are the current Qatarization practices that have been implemented in the Ministry of Education and Higher Education? Upon attaining answers for these questions, the interviewer was able to follow up with more specific and relevant questions like how does the Ministry engage Qataris to take up science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs?, what are the methods employed to attract Qataris toward pursuing higher education?, what are the different types of scholarships being offered to Qataris? and hat are the programs that the Ministry of Education and Higher Education implements to train/employ young Qataris to be qualified for work in the education sector? The interviews lasted about 30–45 min. In addition to interviews, several secondary sources were used from the Planning and Statistics Authority, the World Bank and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

Human capital development is regarded as a fundamental pillar that leads to the sustainable economic, political and social progress of a society. Given the foundation of human capital development is based on educational capacities, Qatar has regarded education as its national and foremost priority and the key to maximizing human potential toward building a sustainable knowledge-based economy in the long run. This case study portrayed the works of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in the state of Qatar. The Ministry had been tasked with the mission to support the government’s national strategy of transforming Qatar’s economy from a resource-based economy into a knowledge-based economy. As such, this case sheds light on the Ministry’s strategic initiatives toward developing the local human capital. The Ministry governs over the education sector, and in providing the Ministry’s point of view, the reader is able to get a grasp on the inner workings of a government entity. In addition to providing an overview on the strategic initiatives employed by the Ministry to enhance the quality of education for Qataris, this case study also examined the Qatarization initiatives taken up by the Ministry. Qatarization is a national strategy implemented by the state of Qatar to nationalize the workforce. In other words, through Qatarization, the government intended to increase the employment opportunities available for Qataris and enhance their professional skill set through training and development efforts. Accordingly, this case also illustrated the Ministry’s role in Qatarizing its workforce successfully. In understanding the challenges faced by the Ministry toward enhancing the education services and employment opportunities being offered to the nationals, students can attain a refined perspective on the real-life challenges that government entities face in implementing strategic initiatives. Through this case, students in graduate and undergraduate courses relating to business, strategy, economics, public policies and education can also attempt to engage in decision-making activities that involve overcoming the challenges faced by the Ministry through devising action plans or revising the strategic initiatives. The issues discussed in the case delve into how Qatar government’s initiatives for economic transformation via educational reforms impacted educational institutions, students and the workforce.

This case is intended to be studied by students in graduate and undergraduate courses relating to business, strategy, economics, public policies and education where they can engage in realistic decision-making activities that involve overcoming the challenges faced by the Ministry through devising action plans or revising the strategic initiatives.

The fundamental concepts in strategic management including vision, mission and setting objectives, external and internal environment analysis, SWOT, stakeholders in strategic management, deliberate and emergent strategy and strategic leaders have been addressed through the case.

The case was developed using primary data gathered from observations, interviews and the experiences of the authors at Chimanbhai Patel Institute of Management and Research (CPIMR) and published sources.

This case is about CPIMR, a management institute in Ahmedabad, India, which was required to recraft their vision and mission statements in light of the compliance requirements of the All India Council for Technical Education and the other challenges including new skills requirement especially because of Industry 4.0 changes and competition in the business education market. The case examines the external and internal environment challenges faced by the institute director and the emerging issues: how should CPIMR recraft the vision and mission? What could go wrong? How to make them actionable? How to disseminate them? The case would help the participants to understand the process of external and internal environment analysis, formulation of the vision and mission statements, their key purpose of informing stakeholders and setting objectives. The case also encourages the participants to put themselves in the position of the director for undertaking the process of recrafting the vision and mission statements of the management institute in the event of a strategic change. While the case setting is that of a management institute, it might also be useful for discussion in other organization settings.

Course: Strategic Management Level: Post Graduate Level.

Organizational change.

Undergraduate and Masters level management programmes, particularly in management accounting, public sector accounting or organizational change.

This case study reflects organizational changes when Fijian Post and Telecom Company (FPTL) made a transition from a government department to a corporate entity. The focus of this case study is to examine some of the intra-organizational or micro-level changes that took place at the company. While the impetus for change may have originated in the Fiji Government's policies of public sector reform, the objective here is to outline the often slow pace of intra-organizational change within FPTL.

FPTL is a sole provider of postal and telecommunication services in Fiji. The organizational actors faced tensions and initially resisted the change to private business routines. However, with wider education and training on the change process, the resistance was reduced. At FPTL, a management team was set up to introduce commercial norms which were subsequently stabilized by the team through the ongoing process of educating employees on the benefits of changes and routinisation of new practices.The learning outcomes are to understand the difficulty of the change process and be aware of some of the resistance that may persist owing to cultural and political circumstance of a specific country.

Teaching note.

Decision-making seems simple, but, in reality, it is not an easy task to decide the cause for its profound result or consequence, leading to inevitable failures. Therefore, a leader must recognize whether there is something incorrect so as to avoid bad results. A good leader is a person who carefully reviews and analyzes aspects of a problem, knows the strengths and weaknesses of his organization and evaluates what the advantages or risks are. It cannot be denied that the appropriate options will reap many benefits to the business. For such important things, this paper will discuss the dilemma of Viettire, a tire distributor company in Vietnam. Accordingly, its CEO was worried about what strategic option he should adopt to approach the Myanmar market while ensuring a strategic fit to its company’s resources and capabilities and also to the overall market demands of the tire industry environment in both countries. However, with different ideas, the expansion strategies in this new market become controversial. The General Director and Founder of Viettire were wondering how Viettire could expand its existing business into Myanmar. To expand the company to new emerging market in Myanmar, Hoang Nguyen – CEO of Viettire – had conducted a strategic analysis of external environment factors to define the opportunities and threats when doing business in Myanmar by using Porter’s five forces model, S.W.O.T and competitive advantages analysis. The results indicated that Myanmar’s business environment is highly risky for foreign investors because of uncertain political, economic, social reforms in the process. Among three options, namely, exporting, licensing and wholly owned, however, Option 2 is illustrated as the best strategy for its dilemma.

Postgraduate/Graduate Business level.

As for a market mechanism, what produces, how and for whom, is not the business’s demand but the consumer’s demand. The business sells only what the market needs, not what it has. In the period of increasingly competitive conditions, stabilizing and expanding markets are a prerequisite for survival. If stability is seen as a “defensive” way, expansion is a “defensive attack” like trying to hold on the “pie” that the market gives to itself. This strategic action is to strengthen regular, close relationships with existing customers and establish new customers. As a result, the potential market is transformed into a target market. Hence, decision-making of which market, which method is the issue that a leader has to think the choice to avoid risks. Mr Hung, Viettire’s co-owner, suggests that Myanmar should be taken into account as a company’s new entry, thus exploring this potential market to increase the company’s growth and profitability. In the progress, Viettire’s marketing team had been doing a thorough tire market investigation in Myanmar. It was concluded that this emerging country, especially Yangon City, was the most suitable for those who were willing to embark on an overseas investment expansion. They believe this was a good opportunity to gain market share compared with other entrants and competitive rivals; if Viettire hesitated to invest, others definitely had jumped in with a first-mover advantage. However, the CEO, Mr Hoang, was worried about what strategic option he should adopt to approach this new market while ensuring a strategic fit to its company’s resources and capabilities and also to the overall market demands of the tire industry environment in both countries.

Understand the basic decisions that firms contemplating foreign expansion must make: which markets to enter, when to enter those markets and at what scale. Recognize the current strategic decisions an organization is facing: positioning, portfolio and market expansion approach. Learn how to develop an effective strategic plan. Be familiar with different strategies for competing globally and their pros and cons. Evaluate various strategic options and decisions in accordance with a company’s resources and capabilities.

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CSS 11: Strategy.

Organizational behavior, Organizational leadership, Organizational transformation.

First year management students in the course Organizational Behavior (OB). Final year management students in the elective course on leadership and change management. Middle level managers who are working in industry, in the management development program related to change leadership and change management.

This case deals with the transformation of the public distribution system (PDS) under the leadership of Dr Raman Singh. The PDS system was an inefficient system and the food grain supply intended for the poor was diverted by intermediaries before reaching the intended beneficiaries. Having experiences in central government ministries as a cabinet minister, Dr Raman Singh decided to transform the PDS. The challenges faced were primarily from that of the reticent bureaucracy and dealing with them requires patience and the skills of a transformational and motivational leader which Dr Raman Singh possessed.

This case intends to develop understanding of various dimensions related to transformational and motivational styles of leadership. Further, it intends to develop understanding of crucial institutional and organizational changes and how leaders bring about these changes in sync with technological and process changes.

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CSS: 6: Human Resource Management.

Business ethics, corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate strategy and public administration.

Undergraduate (final year) and Master level course (e.g. MBA, EMBA, Master in management and Master in public administration).

This case accounts the experience of a Malaysian Governmental Development Agency cum City Council, Bintulu Development Authority (BDA), in organizing and strategizing its CSR initiatives so as to discharge its self-interests and societal expectations. BDA was established following the discovery of huge reserves of natural gas and oil offshore in Bintulu, an industrial town in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia. It serves as the governmental instrument to undertake and coordinate development initiatives in Bintulu. There have been several driving forces prompted BDA to be more vigilant in discharging its social obligations along with its statutory obligations as a development agency and municipal services provider. They are, namely, the BDA Ordinance 1978 that governs its legitimate existence, the emergence of social media era that alters the access of people to information, the growing ecological and social concerns, and the unpredictable geopolitical environment that makes the logic of long-term strategic planning questionable. To ensure discharging its statutory and social obligations, BDA articulated vision and mission statements with strong social orientation. Two master development plans, embedded with social and environmental considerations, have guided BDA in translating its strategic mission into real structured development and action plans from 1978 to present. Through institutionalization of CSR elements as part of the organization's core business routines, annual budget allocation, performance control and reward mechanisms, CSR becomes an organizational routine of value to BDA.

This case has three learning objectives: it assists students to understand the contextual background of the case so as to establish the strategic position of CSR initiatives within the organization; it assists students to assess the embeddedness of CSR in an organization's core business routines and its potential sources of value creation; and it encourages students to examine the possible critical factors that enable or impede the initiation and implementation of regular CSR programs in an organization.

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Through this case, students will not only learn about the latest development of this emerging industry, IoT, but also gain a systematic understanding of “ecosystem strategy” and get to know a new corporate growth model called “co-creation”.

This case describes why and how Advantech Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Advantech) has transformed in the age of the Internet of Things. Aware of the ecosystem attributes of the IoT industry and committed to the company’s principle of “altruism”, Advantech strategically positioned itself as an “IoT platform provider” and an “enabler” for IoT applications. After carrying out a reform in terms of internal management, external cooperation, and development model, Advantech has evolved from an industrial computer maker to an IoT solution provider. Since the launch of the “co-creation model” at the end of 2016, Advantech has drawn attention from many excellent companies in traditional industries. With the Internet of Everything close at hand, Chairman KC Liu is well aware there are many challenges to overcome as Advantech strives to build an industrial IoT ecosystem, the “evolution” continues.

MBAs, EMBAs and senior executives.

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CSS 11: Strategy

This case was designed for use at the undergraduate and MBA level in human resource management and international business. Upon completion of the case study discussion and assignments, students will be able to: (1) understand human resource management in multinational corporations and the importance of cross-cultural management and human resource integration in acquisitions; (2) understand the challenges and solutions faced by multinational corporations in the process of expansion; (3) analysis of what characteristics should be considered in CEO selection for managing a newly acquired company; and (4) analyze how to better promote global human resource management from the dimensions of localized HRM system reform and human resource structure reconstruction.

After a long period of negotiation, exploration, suspension and restart, Geely Group finally acquired 49.9% of the shares of DRB’s Proton Holding and 51% of the shares of the luxury car brand, Lotus Group. On the afternoon of May 24, Geely Holding Group held an acquisition signing ceremony with the Malaysia DRB-HICOM Berhad (hereinafter referred to as DRB). Geely’s commercial territory now extended into Southeast Asia, and its product spectrum increased to luxury sports cars.However, the completion of the acquisition did not mean peace of mind. On the contrary, Geely still faced a series of challenges because of differences in cultural background. The national cultures of the two countries (China and Malaysia) were very different, and so were the values of the two enterprises. Facing the challenges of promoting global human resource integration, Geely needs to make a fundamental decision on the HRM mode in the new-acquired company. Should Geely transplant its own management practice into the Proton, or adopt localized HRM philosophy? Which kind of global HRM practice would be more effective for supporting the new-acquired company developments in the future? In the post-acquisition management, how to better realize the global human resources integration become a key problem faced by Geely.

This case was designed for use at the undergraduate and MBA level in human resource management and international business.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

Marketing, strategy.

This case is suitable for post graduate and executive development students.

The case provides perspectives of customer centric practices of Yes Bank which has the objective of becoming the best quality bank of the world in India. The case study outlines how Yes Bank has become the fastest growing bank by its strong focus on customers through its committed and innovative employees. The customer centricity develops strong existing relationships and focuses on providing exceptional customer service, leading to better financial performance.

These include: highlighting the characteristics of customer centric organizations; discussing how Yes Bank practised customer centricity despite the limitation of being a new bank with no experience; describing the key differentiators and comparing with those of other banks; and establishing the relationship between customer centric practices with financial performance.

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Information technology, management science and strategic management.

The case has been developed for use in “e-government Management and Leadership” and “Strategic IT management” courses and is appropriate for MBA and Executive Development Programs, as well as corporate training programs incorporating information system and e-government dilemmas. The case is appropriate for courses that deal with e-government development.

Ajman Digital Government (ADG) was established in 2017. It is a new government entity intended to deliver the Ajman e-Government Project to increase government efficiency and productivity, as well as transforming public services to meet citizen expectations of digital experiences and satisfying the UAE Federal e-government standard. The current UAE federal e-government ranking includes only two emirates, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. ADG intends to be part of the UAE federal e-government ranking and participating in the world digital competitiveness ranking. Many challenges lie ahead for ADG, which intends to add Ajman’s e-government to UAE’s federal e-government, supporting the digital competitiveness of UAE worldwide and participating in increasing the ranking for UAE federal government in IMD’s World Digital Competitiveness Ranking; in addition to this challenging goal, there are significant new obstacles to the implementation of the new digital government in Ajman. ADG requires specific ingredients for the maintenance and support of the UAE e-government standard to position the project toward the success. Study of the strategic positioning of ADG would help support success of the development of e-government and weigh which technology should be used and how the project should proceed strategically. The case also provides a very useful ground for discussing all challenges faced and how the innovative business model of e-government will address these issues and create a sustainable e-government environment.

The case is structured to achieve the following learning objectives: Students can recognise the dilemma faced by the Ajman Government in managing citizen expectations, stakeholder expectations and the wider implications of its actions on developing a coherent communication strategy. Students can recognise and critically evaluate the role of leadership and communication in using e-government strategies in hyper technology market. To bring out the challenges in the digital government and repositioning strategies in a highly competitive and dynamic technology environment. Differentiation and repositioning strategies in a highly competitive technology market. Learn how to effectively communicate the value of a digital government to the targeted citizens. Understand how to strike a balance between short-term objectives and long-term goals in e-government development. Analyse the environment, competition, industry and IT product positioning. List alternative IT strategies and e-government positioning. Understand the primary drivers of interaction in e-government.

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CSS 7: Management Science.