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Quality management among multiple business units of a large organization is often difficult if each unit is run independently in terms on their quality standards. In this case, participants will discuss how Bukhari Group of Companies should establish a common brand image through standardized quality. Participants should also understand that common brand image for diverse products does not mean identical level of rejection or customer complaints. It should be understood that different markets have different tolerance for product failures. The participants can chalk out the measures the protagonist of the case should be able to take to effectively steer the Bhukari Group to achieve profits and excellence.

The learning outcomes are to remember the overall context of global supply chain management from a stakeholder perspective, to understand the context of material handling movement in a mining industry, to apply the overall knowledge of linear programming in a supply chain context, to analyze the different constraints with flow of goods at different nodes in various location hubs and convert the same into the optimization problem and to evaluate carefully the different costs associated at different levels and then finding the optimal solution that minimizes the total cost.

This case proposes a mixed integer multi-echelon analytical model integrated with the scenario tree analysis. The integrated model is used to optimize the allocation of volumes at various stages of the supply chain of exporters of bulk materials like iron ore from Goa, India, to various countries in Asia. The scenario tree analysis is then used to evaluate decisions under certainty with demand as the stochastic parameter. The proposed integrated model has potential for collaboration in the supply chain and facilitating network design, inventory and transportation planning and policy analysis.

This course is suitable at the MBA level for the following courses: Operations Research (Focus/Session: Applications on Supply Chain Management), Supply Chain Management (Focus/Session: Global Supply Chain Management, Logistics Planning, Distribution Network), Logistics Management (Focus/Session: Transportation Planning) nd Operations Strategy (Focus/Session: Location Node Strategy).

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

This case has four major learning outcomes using hands-on spreadsheet tool. First is to introduce and apply the Clarke and Wright’s Savings algorithm. Second is to conduct a cost-benefit analysis in transportation set up. Third is to find out the optimal route to be taken to fulfill given demand while satisfying time and capacity constraints. Finally, one has to optimize the number of vehicles required for daily operations.

Dhruvam, the protagonist of the case, working at ZeNXL, a third-party logistics service provider, was assigned the task of reducing the operational cost of the company as part of the new service offering called “Route optimization.” This new offering would help optimize vehicle delivery routes to meet daily customer demand. The launch of the new service offering was due in the next 10 days with client LG Electronics to be the first beneficiary.

MBA-1 (Logistics Management), MBA-2 (Route Optimization). This case provides an opportunity for instructors to introduce vehicle routing and scheduling as part of logistics management. Students are expected to use the data given in the case and exhibits to develop the optimal routes (using Clarke and Wright’s Savings algorithm) and conduct cost-benefit analysis. This case also provides insights on the challenges associated with start-up operations.

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 9: Operations and Logistics

This study aims to investigate the factors that contribute to the overall tour experience and services provided by Top Tier Holidays. The study is mixed in nature, and the researchers have used analytical tools to analyse the data factually. Multiple regression using MS Excel is used in the study.

This case is based on the experiences of a real-life travel and tour company located in New Delhi, India. The case helps understand regression analysis to identify independent variables significantly impacting the tour experience. The CEO of the company is focused on improving the overall customer experience. The CEO has identified six principal determinants (variables) applicable to tour companies’ success. These variables are hotel experience, transportation, cab driver, on-tour support, itinerary planning and pricing.

Multiple regression analysis using Microsoft Excel is conducted on the above determinants (the independent variables) and the overall tour experience (the dependent variable). This analysis would help identify the relationship between the independent and dependent variables and find the variables that significantly impact the dependent variable. This case also helps us appreciate the importance of various parameters that affect the overall customer tour experience and the challenges a tour operator company faces in the current competitive business environment.

This case is designed for discussion with the undergraduate courses in business management, commerce and tourism management programmes. The case will build up readers’ understanding of linear regression with multiple variables. It shows how multiple linear regression can help companies identify the significant variables affecting business outcomes.

In this case, students assume the roles of FK Day and Dave Neiswander, leaders of the social enterprise World Bicycle Relief (WBR), which donates and sells bicycles in sub-Saharan Africa. As a social enterprise, WBR combines not-for-profit and for-profit activities. Starting as a traditional not-for-profit organization formed to donate bicycles after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, WBR eventually added a for-profit arm to facilitate growth and reduce its dependence on donations and grants. As a result, by 2017 WBR had distributed around 400,000 bicycles, primarily to schoolgirls, entrepreneurs, and health workers. As the organization grows, its leaders are interested in optimizing operations and entering new countries in Africa. What is the optimal distribution of WBR's resources between its for-profit and not-for-profit operations? How should it define the objective of its operations: should WBR maximize its social impact or the total number of bicycles in the field? Which countries should it enter?

To answer those questions, students are required to analyze the social enterprise business model. This analysis starts at the strategic level and ties into the operational level. If desired, this analysis can be followed by an Excel optimization of WBR's operations. The case contains historical data on the organization and poses questions that can be analyzed from the perspectives of a number of academic fields. It can be used in various types of courses including strategy, not-for-profit organizations, operations, and finance. The instructor materials include a prepared Excel model that can be used to make the quantitative analysis accessible to students without quantitative backgrounds, videos from WBR, and a video that shows FK Day and Dave Neiswander answering questions in the inaugural use of the case at Kellogg.

The learning outcomes of this case study are as follows: Students will be able to comprehend and visualize the initial hiccups and operational hurdles faced by digital start-ups in an emerging market. Students will be able to evaluate the importance of digital marketing for promoting start-ups dealing with sustainable products in the service industry, thereby helping them to develop digital marketing strategies to organically promote a service. Students will be able to perform strategic positioning of a start-up based on perceptual mapping methodology. Students will be able to identify the various aspects for identifying and creating a viable business model. Students will be able to use Osterwalder’s business model canvas for identifying the important operational aspects of the start-up. Students will be able to visualize the entrepreneurial challenges in an emerging market.

This case study highlights the dilemma the protagonist, Prerna Prasad, faced in her travel start-up venture, Ecoplore. Ecoplore is an aggregator platform that onboards only eco-hotels. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, Ecoplore is India’s only platform that promotes and onboards only those hotels made up of mud, wood, bamboo, stone or any local architecture and that maintain at least 30% green space on their premises. Ecoplore has been recognized by the United Nations Environment Program for fulfilling Sustainable Development Goal 12 and has also been bestowed with the Gold Award by Indian Responsible Tourism Awards 2019. Prasad had already identified her target market. Prasad took conscious steps towards reaching her target audience, and her first step towards that was designing Ecoplore’s website. Being aware of the importance of content marketing, Ecoplore’s content was curated with fresh and quality write-ups, pictures, blog posts, etc. Ecoplore’s website was also optimized for mobile and desktop versions to deliver a great user experience. Features like easy navigation and the website's speed were also taken care of. Being active on social media platforms, Prasad made sure that the pages of Ecoplore across various social media platforms were well connected with her website. Despite doing so much, it was found that the number of visitors was few after a span of two years. Conversion on the website was low, which ultimately affected the return on investment. Prasad was befuddled as to why the conversions were low despite having a great website that was considered a window to the organization. She faced the challenge of reaching her target audience despite being present online. Upon detailed analysis, Prasad found that Ecoplore was showing up in the search engine research pages (SERP) in only a few keywords, meaning the keyword density was low. Also, the website lacked backlinks, which would eventually help them to rank high on search engine optimization (SEO). This means that Ecoplore will need to revisit its SEO strategy if Prasad wants to promote her organization organically. Now, to increase visibility and ranking on SERP, Prasad had two options before her; first, she could do it organically via SEO or through search engine marketing. She was keen to build the traffic organically, knowing its long-term benefits. As a marketer, what should be Prasad’s strategy? This case study can be used for class discussion purposes for the students pursuing the courses on digital marketing, SEO and digital marketing optimization.

This case study is suitable for students learning the fundamentals of digital marketing (basic and advanced) course, marketing management students and digital marketing workshops. The level of difficulty is medium. The knowledge pre-requirement is marketing management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The learning outcomes of this study are to recall the fundamental concept of revenue management in the hotel industry (remembering); explain the various performance measures used to evaluate room revenue in hotels (understanding); use revenue management strategies to improve room revenue in hotel operations (applying); and examine and evaluate the optimal solution for revenue enhancement, considering factors such as capacity management, duration control and differential pricing (analyzing).

This case study delves into the challenges faced by Hotel King’s Cross, a business hotel located in Pune, Maharashtra, in the year 2022. A week before Christmas Eve, Soham Dande, the hotel’s revenue manager, sought a meeting with Rohan Chopra, the director of sales and marketing, to discuss “revenue optimization for the hotel.”

During their meeting, Dande mentioned that the hotel had fallen behind its budgeted room sales targets for 2022 across various metrics, such as room booking nights, occupancy percentage, average room rate and revenue per available room. Furthermore, the hotel was trailing behind its competitors. The situation was compounded by the management’s decision to raise the targets for 2023 by 5%–7%, factoring in upcoming events, competitive performance and pandemic-related losses over the past two years. Chopra faced the dilemma of formulating an action plan to achieve the ambitious 2023 targets and establish Hotel King’s Cross as a market leader.

Students undertaking executive development programs and graduate-level courses in non-profit hospitality and tourism management, as well as revenue management courses in the executive MBA, management development and graduate MBA programs, may all benefit from this case study.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS12: Tourism and hospitality.

This study aims to introduce students to uncontrolled and unprecedented business scenarios and strategies to deal with them, to make students understand the importance of contingency planning and create what-if scenarios, to step by step guide students how to build a network contingency planning tool and to enable students to use tools such as solver to build up a dashboard with given information.

The case is about Godrej Commercial, a vertical of Godrej and Boyce that handles warehousing and transportation support to five verticals under the banner of Godrej operating pan India. How Godrej is trying to deal with COVID pandemic, what were their coping strategies and how contingency planning is done is what this case is all about. The main focus of this case is understanding how network contingency planning is done and what parameters should be considered. How a dashboard can be developed that can be used as a base for taking strategic decisions related to networking given the uncertainties due to COVID. The case gives hands on to students to use solver and build a dash board, plus gives a peep into Godrej and its operations.

This study is suitable for students of undergraduate or first year MBA level. Specifically, the case can be used in business strategies, operations and supply chain management courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

Operations strategy/global operations/value chain.

BA/Master level – The case can be applied to support operations strategy discussions related to the link between context, configuration, and capabilities, and particularly to discuss internationalization strategy and global operations.

The case is initiated with an overview of the wider corporate and industrial context, which are included to supply contextual information pertinent to the understanding of competitive requirements and strategic choices of the company. The case then moves into establishing an understanding of the operationalization of these requirements and choices through a discussion of the structural configuration and organizational capabilities.

The case it expected to build an understanding of the fit between competitive priorities and their operationalization within structural and infrastructural decision areas.

Teaching note.

This case is taught in Darden's Investments elective but could be used in introductory Finance classes to explore the concept of diversification of investments or in a portfolio management course as a means to explore optimal portfolio allocation. It is accompanied by several teaching tools including a teaching note for instructors, student and instructor spreadsheets, student and instructor videos, and a PowerPoint deck for class debrief. The case would work well in a module sequenced between CornerStone Partners (UVA-F-1677) used before and Pravda Asset Management (UVA-F-1602) used after.

The global head of investment research at the World Gold Council (WGC) has finished his presentation “The Strategic Case for Gold as an Asset Class” at the 2012 Bloomberg Precious Metals Conference in New York. As a result of the market collapse in 2008 and the ongoing euro-area crisis, investors worldwide have safety and security on their minds, and many in the room were wondering whether gold would provide capital preservation and improve the overall risk-return tradeoff of their portfolios. At the same time, the sustained run-up in the price of gold since 2001 that was mentioned in the presentation was a cause for concern. Was gold the safe haven that it had proved to be in 2008 and 2009, or was it an asset class at the peak of a bubble? The investment case for gold deserved closer examination.