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The paper aims to understand the process of transfer of agricultural technology, which comprises incubation of the technology business, valuation, evaluation, licensing and commercialization, to examine various dimensions of the process of technology transfer and the effectiveness of transfer object use criteria, to explore ways of sustaining incubation and commercialization through an autonomous unit responsible for technology transfer, to peruse the role of agribusiness incubators in creating an effective agri-entrepreneurship eco-system and to study the factors that promote or inhibit the sustainability of business incubators in an academic or research institution setting.

An innovative technology for production of liquid bio-fertilizers was developed and nurtured to market levels by Anand Agricultural University (AAU), a State Agricultural University in Gujarat. The technology for production of liquid bio-fertilizers, developed during 2009-2010 to 2013-2014 was licensed to some of the state public and private sector undertakings under the World Bank-financed National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) implemented through Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). For commercializing the technologies from the University, a Business Planning and Development (BPD) Unit was set up at AAU along the lines of a technology transfer office, under the aegis of NAIP during later part of 2009. The NAIP funding from World Bank for BPD Units ceased in June 2014 with closure of the project. With funding no more available, Rajababu V. Vyas, a research scientist at the Microbiology and Bio-fertilizer Department of the University and Head of the BPD Unit, had serious concerns about the BPD unit’s sustainability, as well as sustaining the process of technology transfer from the University.

Anand Agricultural University (AAU), a state-run university in Gujarat, developed and incubated a technology to produce liquid biofertilizer, licensed the technology and marketed its product through a few state-run and private fertilizer firms. The technology was developed between 2009/2010 and 2013/2014 as part of the National Agricultural Innovation Project of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research with funds from the World Bank. A unit to incubate agri-businesses, referred to as Business Planning and Development Unit (BPDU), was set up in late 2009 to expedite the process of technology transfer from AAU to agribusiness firms. Rajababu V. Vyas, a research scientist at the Microbiology and Bio-fertilizer Department of the university, was concerned about the unit’s sustainability, because funding from the World Bank had ceased from June 2014, and wondered how to sustain the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the field in the light of the data available to him.

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Entrepreneurship

This case is in four parts, highlighting the crossroads at which the protagonist Savita finds herself in and the difficulties she faces in balancing her career aspirations with family responsibilities. A Fellow of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, Savita's dilemmas concern working in a prestigious management institute in Kolkata versus getting a job in Mumbai in order to psychologically and financially support her family and get married; joining her husband in China on his posting versus going to the US on a prestigious fellowship prioritizing her career, and finally, starting a family versus postponing the decision till the couple were together and reasonably settled in their respective careers.

The subject area is operations management.

The case is to be used at master’s level, for example, MBA courses on operations management, operations research, logistics management and supply chain management.

It was the morning of 20 September 2012 and the three directors of Distromed Bioclean Pvt. Ltd. were in the office discussing the developments from past night’s meeting with the Rajkot Chapter of the Indian Medical Association. They are a bio-medical waste treatment facility involved in collection, treatment and disposal services and charge yearly subscription fees. On 13 September 2012, fuel prices had gone up consecutively for the second year. Last year, the doctors resisted the fee hike and seemed reluctant this year again. In response, management of the company was looking for ways to minimize the total distance travelled by its fleet to reduce the operating cost.

The paper enables illustration of concepts of routing/scheduling and generation of optimal solutions in a realistic setting; and developing the understanding regarding the travelling salesman problem, Chinese postman problem and the entire family of vehicle routing problems and vehicle scheduling problems.

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CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

Entrepreneurship, internationalization, family-owned business management, strategic management.

MBA/postgraduate management program courses on family business management. The case can be taught at the beginning of the course to acquaint students with the dynamics of family-owned businesses. MBA/postgraduate/undergraduate courses on entrepreneurship. It can be used in the middle of the course to highlight the challenges presented by an entrepreneur due to change in the business environment and macroeconomic scenario. MBA/postgraduate course on strategic management. It can be used at the beginning of the course to introduce strategies for managing and sustaining growth of a business. MBA/postgraduate course on organizational development. It can be used in the middle of the course to help students understand the importance of designing an optimal organizational structure for a family business.

FragraAroma was an Indian fragrance company. Anil Gupta, the Founder and Managing Director of FragraAroma, and his sister Nisha were equal shareholders of the company. With changes in the Foreign Direct Investment Policy in 2013 in India, Anil and Nisha's husband Tarun had different expansion plans for FragraAroma. While Anil was planning to expand FragraAroma internationally, but his sister and her husband wanted diversification of the company's customer segment in the domestic market itself. The case is poised at the juncture, where Anil was facing a labyrinth of critical decisions. Would he go ahead with Tarun's expansion plan or stick to his plan of internationalization? Would his decision affect the harmony of the family? Was there a way that could enable him sailing his family and family business out of the doldrums?

This case is primarily about a family business and the dilemmas faced by the owner of that family business. The case captures the challenges faced by a family business in sustaining growth and competitiveness. The case can be used to understand how decisions are taken in a family-owned business. To understand the challenges faced by a family-owned business while developing and implementing its growth strategies. To understand the opportunities and challenges presented to a family-owned businesses when macroeconomic scenarios change. To understand the spillover effects of business decisions on family relations in a typical family-owned business setup.

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The case is aimed at pointing out the basic nuances of entrepreneurship without a profit motive and the challenges faced in the course of achieving the same.

This case could be a part of the Entrepreneurship course in a Post-Graduate Program in Business Management. In case of an Executive Education Program, this case can be used to facilitate issues in Entrepreneurship Development and Non-Profit Marketing.

The present case is a field-based illustrative study on Xplant, a unit set up by Xavier Research Foundation to promote production and selling of seasonal and ornamental plants with accessories to prospective buyers. The uniqueness about the organization was that it was solely governed and run by the students of Biotechnology Course at Xaviers College, Ahmedabad, India. However, in early 2012, it was found that the organization was facing a lot of issues such as competition, lesser demand and lack of motivation of the employees (students). All of which were taking the unit away from achieving sustainability.

Understanding the basics of a new venture and entrepreneurship; understanding the role of the team members in promoting the entrepreneurship venture; role of leadership in entrepreneurship; impact of independence of the entrepreneur and transference of business vision on long-term success of the venture; role of environment in success/failure or entrepreneurial ventures; and problems faced by entrepreneurship ventures.

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India's diagnostics business valued at USD 10 billion was growing at 20% annually. Several players with different business models competed. Dr. Lal PathLabs, the world's largest histopathology centre led with a menu of 3,500 tests, 1,600 collection centres and 7,000 pick-up points. Its Initial Public Offer had been oversubscribed 33.41 times and the team at Dr. Lal PathLabs was excited about expanding its international footprint. Two overseas companies were incorporated in Netherlands and Nepal. Yet, there were enormous unmet needs in India alongside potential for public-private partnerships. Trade-offs over portfolio choice and regional versus international footprint needed thinking through.

This study will help students determine the economic value of a firm particularly in case of a small business. The crux of the case is to help students estimate an enterprise value for a company and figure the actual worth of the company to aid in decision-making.

This case is about a decision dilemma faced by Shashi Hegde, Director, Hycons Renewable Private Ltd, a company ventured into the production of Bio-CNG. It is about a recent proposal received by the firm from APL Ltd for equity investment with 40% stake in the firm. The case reflects the dilemma faced by small businesses to choose between investment or loss of control. Accepting the proposal will bring in additional funds, whereas the Board loss control on the firm. The case revolves around this dilemma. To help Hegde in this task, he seeks advice from his CFO and his confidant Kumar.

This case is most appropriate for a core finance class for both under-graduate and graduate programs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

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.

Innovation Strategy/Entrepreneurship.

The case can be used in an MBA/postgraduate management program for a course on Innovations Strategy with a focus on disruptive innovation, specifically in relation to disruption in the value chain with the adoption of new technologies or for a course on Entrepreneurship focusing on the opportunities created by the Internet-based technologies for start-up businesses. Alternatively, it can be used in a course on e-commerce strategies, particularly to demonstrate the efficiency of online distribution vis-à-vis physical channels.

The case illustrates how Medknow Publications created a profitable e-commerce model out of a struggling conventional business, namely, the learned society journal publishing. It also provides a useful ground to discuss the challenges faced by the conventional scholarly journal publishing models, the current crisis in scholarly journal publishing and how Medknow, a disruptive business model innovation, would address these issues. Besides, the case illustrates how Medknow created a sustainable “for-profit” alternative to the prevailing not-for-profit models of open access publishing.

After the analysis and discussion of this case, students will be able to: appreciate how technological innovation can disrupt existing business models; understand how digitization helps improve the efficiency of value chain in the content industry, particularly the scholarly journal publishing industry; and appreciate that the flexibility of digitized content and the global reach of the Internet have the potential to transform the scholarly journal publishing industry for good.

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Regency Hospital Limited, a multi-specialty hospital in Kanpur, India was founded by Dr. Atul Kapoor in 1995. The hospital had grown over the years. However, there were a number of issues that were yet to be dealt with. The case describes the struggles that the founder went through in setting up this hospital. It presents the challenges from the perspective of the founder as well as the staff and doctors of the hospital. In the process, the case highlights issues on leadership, entrepreneurship, organizational culture, and management of change.