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Gary Parr, deputy chairman of Lazard Freres & Co. and Kellogg class of 1980, could not believe his ears. “You can't mean that,” he said, reacting to the lowered bid given by Doug Braunstein, JP Morgan head of investment banking, for Parr's client, legendary investment bank Bear Stearns. Less than eighteen months after trading at an all-time high of $172.61 a share, Bear now had little choice but to accept Morgan's humiliating $2-per-share, Federal Reserve-sanctioned bailout offer. “I'll have to get back to you.” Hanging up the phone, Parr leaned back and gave an exhausted sigh. Rumors had swirled around Bear ever since two of its hedge funds imploded as a result of the subprime housing crisis, but time and again, the scrappy Bear appeared to have weathered the storm. Parr's efforts to find a capital infusion for the bank had resulted in lengthy discussions and marathon due diligence sessions, but one after another, potential investors had backed away, scared off in part by Bear's sizable mortgage holdings at a time when every bank on Wall Street was reducing its positions and taking massive write-downs in the asset class. In the past week, those rumors had reached a fever pitch, with financial analysts openly questioning Bear's ability to continue operations and its clients running for the exits. Now Sunday afternoon, it had already been a long weekend, and it would almost certainly be a long night, as the Fed-backed bailout of Bear would require onerous negotiations before Monday's market open. By morning, the eighty-five-year-old investment bank, which had survived the Great Depression, the savings and loan crisis, and the dot-com implosion, would cease to exist as an independent firm. Pausing briefly before calling CEO Alan Schwartz and the rest of Bear's board, Parr allowed himself a moment of reflection. How had it all happened?

An analysis of the fall of Bear Stearns facilitates an understanding of the difficulties affecting the entire investment banking industry: high leverage, overreliance on short-term financing, excessive risk taking on proprietary trading and asset management desks, and myopic senior management all contributed to the massive losses and loss of confidence. The impact on the global economy was of epic proportions.

Why do some individuals become entrepreneurs while others do not? This fundamental question has vexed entrepreneurship scholars for some time, giving rise to various schools of thought. Traditional economic motivation theories, for example, suggest that entrepreneurial opportunities arise from changes in either supply (Shane, 2000) or demand (Dew et al., 2004) and emphasize personal economic gain as a motivator for pursuing entrepreneurship. Both neoclassical equilibrium and psychological theories take a person-centric perspective whereby stable, enduring differences among people’s characteristics, determines who becomes an entrepreneur. Opportunity recognition may be enhanced through perspective taking (i.e. putting oneself in the shoes of another person) (Prandelli et al., 2016).

The founders of the company provided us with access to the inner workings of the company, their mentors and advisors and themselves. This study used archival research and interviews when preparing this case. Interviews allow for the development of uncensored, real-life insights into the entrepreneur’s business experience. The authors first conducted a 90-min interview with Rajia and Ray at DifferenceMaker^® Central on the UMass Lowell campus. DifferenceMaker^® provided us with pictures and timelines from when Rajia and Ray participated in the various DifferenceMaker^® activities and competitions. A follow-on 90-min interview was conducted with the founders four months later at the UMass Lowell Innovation Hub to delve deeper into their transition from engineers to entrepreneurs.

In the summer of 2016, the future of invisaWear suddenly became uncertain. Rajia Abdelaziz and Ray Hamilton had conceived an idea for smart jewelry that they felt solved a real problem. But it was one thing to have a great idea and quite another to turn that idea into a real business. As engineering students, they were accustomed to solving problems, but if they truly wanted to make an impact, they had to learn to solve problems as entrepreneurs. With the help of DifferenceMaker^® and their mentors, they developed an entrepreneurial mind-set and decided to build invisaWear into a company.

This case is suitable for an undergraduate course in business or entrepreneurship. This case is intended to illustrate to both business and non-business students how individuals with different backgrounds can become entrepreneurs. Presented as a real-life example of how engineering students can make the transition to an entrepreneurial mind-set, the case can also be used to hone in on select topics including opportunity recognition, problem-solving, ideation and the business model canvas.

Mr Qazi was sitting in his office in the Multan branch, reviewing his past month’s key performance indicators when he got a call from his Town Operations Supervisor, Mr Ahmed, based in Bahawalpur. Ahmed was recently promoted and transferred to Bahawalpur, from Multan branch. He informed Qazi about the huge inventory variances, which were not earlier reported by the previous Town Operations Supervisor, Mr Sagheer. Qazi was informed that differences were around 2.37% of total sales vs the allowable company limit of Zero inventory variance. Qazi was worried about whether to report these differences to higher management or not. He was very well aware that reporting might even cost him his job, and that of Sagheer too. He could not see any solution to the recovery of the inventory or cash against the same. Should Qazi take a risk and let go of Sagheer? Should he report the differences?

1. Demonstrate the fraud and integrity-related issues. Why and how happened? 2. Analyzed the role of organizational policies in the decision of blow the whistle. 3. Identify the behaviors that helped a whistle-blower. 4. Assess the ethical dilemmas in which professional duties may conflict with personal ethics. 5. Propose organizational policies to encourage whistle-blowing and to discourage the fraud or integrity-related issues.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and logistics.

BBA.

Ethical leadership and decision-making, engaging and managing multiple conflicting stakeholders.

Utkal Alumina International Limited (UAIL), an ambitious Greenfield project of Hindalco Industries Ltd. faced the challenges of conflicting multiple stakeholders and collective resistance that did not allow UAIL to be commissioned for almost two decades. The case portrayed the journey of a new leader of UAIL in the path of transforming collective resistance to collective collaboration. In the case, the author was introspecting about how far the author could achieve the objective of collective collaborations through stakeholders’ engagements and what would be the next path of the journey.

MBA and executive development programs.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resources.

This case puts students in the shoes of the Ebola response leadership teams of Firestone Liberia and its parent company, Bridgestone Americas, as they worked together to respond to the deadly 2014 Ebola epidemic. While the companies had received positive press for their containment of the virus on their rubber farm in Liberia, which was home to 8,000 employees and 80,000 Liberian citizens, the situation off the property was worsening. With death counts rising and hospitals across the nation closing as staff caught the virus, the Liberian government declared a national state of emergency. The teams now faced the possibility that the government might attempt to take control of the farm's medical center. How could they balance their duty to care effectively for employees against the demands of the Liberian government? Should they try to fend off the government or cooperate to meet the government's demands? Students will learn how to do a methodical situation analysis that considers ethical obligations and strategic implications, and to distill their recommendation into a briefing for senior leadership.

After reading and analysing the case study, the students would be able to distinguish the leadership styles based on leaders’ traits and behaviours, argue the importance of trust in leader–follower relationships thanks to the real-life examples presented and defend their side on the debate of whether leadership is born or made with the related theories and examples.

The teams coached by the successful Turkish basketball coach, Çetin Yılmaz, had reached the finals of the Turkish Basketball League six times and became champions three times. He assumed the coaching position of the Tuborg basketball team in December 2005. Although Tuborg’s Turkey branch made a serious financial investment in basketball, they were at the bottom of the league in the middle of the season. When Yılmaz took over the coaching position, the Tuborg basketball team’s main objective was not to be relegated from the top league in the 2005–2006 season. The team, working very hard, overcame the fear of relegation in two months but still had a very symbolic goal in front of it: winning the most prestigious game of the season by defeating the Karşıyaka team. However, in the last minutes of the game, with the influence of passionate Karşıkaya fans, the Tuborg team got scared and lost the game. At the end of the match, the club president entered the locker room and started shouting at the players, forcing the coach to face a severe dilemma. Either he would remain silent and risk damaging his leading position in the eyes of the players, or he would risk being fired by going against the president, even though he thought the president was right in what he said.

The target audience of this case study is undergraduate students. The field of study is sports management, leadership and coaching. This case study can be used in management, organizational behaviour and sports management courses while covering leadership and coaching topics.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management.

The case dwells with the following theoretical concepts: Appreciate the different need dimensions required to motivate different employee types based on need theory (Alderfer, 1969). Identify the functional needs as per Maslow’s need hierarchy (Hall & Naougaim, 1968) for the permanent and contractual workers. Outline why only hygiene factors are insufficient to arrest worker absenteeism during a pandemic like COVID-19. Apply need theory and “Herzberg’s two-factor theory” (Herzberg, 1966; Herzberg et al., 1957) to enumerate the measures that need to be implemented to build supply chain resilience by reducing absenteeism by motivating employees.

The case is based on primary research carried out by the authors at Alkem Laboratories Ltd., Sikkim unit in India, during the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the company leading to high absenteeism of contractual workers.

Alkem Laboratories Ltd. is a leading pharma major from India with a global footprint. At the break of COVID-19 pandemic, the manufacturing unit of the company at Sikkim is facing the scare of mass absenteeism, especially among the contractual workers who account for 60% of the workforce of the unit. Ashok Priyadarshi (Vice President, Human Resources) and his team along with the think tank of the unit have to find a solution to the problem at hand. What shall be the measures that the think tank will propose? The team sets out to find an answer to these questions so that Alkem could seize the business opportunity at the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The case is suitable for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in organizational behavior, organizational change and development and supply chain risk management. The case can also be positioned for executive education and training modules in companies on employee motivation and commitment.

Describes the history of the tobacco industry and its emergence as an extremely effective marketer and non-market strategist. After years of success, both publicly and politically, the leaders of the tobacco industry are faced with mounting political pressure and the financial threat of litigation from class-action lawsuits. The leaders face an industry-wide strategic decision of whether to acquiesce to government demands in exchange for immunity, focus on judicial success, or develop a new course of action.

To evaluate the formulation and implementation of non-market strategies in the context of regulatory, legislative, and legal institutions. To understand how various aspects of the non-market environment interact and how these environments not only change over time, but change market competition within an industry. Further, to formulate and decide between firm-specific and industry-wide strategies. Finally, to appreciate and reflect upon the potential conflict between non-market strategies and ethical concerns.

The theoretical concepts and frameworks from the following literature are brought in to discuss the case situation. Freeman’s stakeholder framework, Yukl’s Influence Tactics, Johnson and Scholes’ Power-Interest Matrix Please see: Freeman, R. E. (2010). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Pitman Publishing Inc. Yukl, G. (2002). Leadership in Organizations. Prentice-Hall. Johnson, G. and Scholes, K. (1999). Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text and Cases. Prentice-Hall.

Information required for the case was primarily collected from Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussorie, India, where the newly recruited civil service officers (probationary trainees) of India are trained. The main protagonist, a senior officer in the Indian Administrative Services was interviewed by one of the authors. Secondary data from contemporary newspaper reports and government orders were also made use of.

Palakkad District Magistrate Gayathri Nair was tasked with acquiring 130 hectares of land for a government-sponsored public-private partnership project to set up a railway coach factory in Palakkad. After taking the landowners into confidence and fast-tracking the administrative process through the line departments, she successfully acquired 93 hectares of land for Phase I of the project. However, the intervention from local politicians and activists halted the next phase. Gayathri was pressured by her bosses to solve the standstill in four weeks. Unable to make the owners realize the benefits of the project, she witnessed a showdown between the agitating masses and the district administration. The entire episode is worsened by the partisan media coverage. The only options open to Gayathri, as the head of the district administration, are either to go ahead with forceful land acquisition and thereby, risk the wrath of the public or abandon the project and bury the months-long back-breaking teamwork. How could Gayathri handle the situation better? What steps could she take at various stages to ensure a balanced outcome for all the stakeholders in the project?

This case is applicable for the courses/sessions in training programmes for executives, and undergraduate courses related to project management, strategic management, leadership and public policy. It is also useful for courses and training programmes on stakeholder mapping and conflict management.

This case describes the events following an incident of a rape in a taxi associated with Uber, by its driver. Uber was an application based taxi operator. The events raised several issues for government systems and processes, such as need for regulation of new formats of business like application based taxi services, integrated databases, checks against forgery and holistic approach towards women safety. The case also brings out how an e-commerce business raises regulatory concerns.