Search results

In late 2009 Toyota became the subject of media and U.S. government scrutiny after multiple deaths and injuries were attributed to accidents resulting from the unintended and uncontrolled acceleration of its cars. Despite Toyota's voluntary recall of 4.2 million vehicles for floor mats that could jam the accelerator pedal and a later recall to increase the space between the gas pedal and the floor, the company insisted there was no underlying defect and defended itself against media reports and regulatory statements that said otherwise. As the crisis escalated, Toyota was further criticized for its unwillingness to share information from its data recorders about possible problems with electronic throttle controls and sticky accelerator pedals, as well as braking problems with the Prius. By the time Toyota Motor Company president Akio Toyoda apologized in his testimony to the U.S. Congress, Toyota's stock price had declined, in just over a month, by 20 percent---a $35 billion loss of market value.

Understand the strategic and reputational nature of crises Recognize the challenges of managing a crisis Learn the requirements for building trust in a crisis Understand the challenges of managing a crisis that may not be the company's fault Identify the strategic business problem in a crisis Understand how corporate structure may help or hinder effective crisis management Understand the media landscape and its impact on crisis management

Entrepreneurship.

The case could be taught in the core marketing course at the post graduate level while discussing the notion of positioning. The case could also be taken up in marketing strategy courses, where the linkage of the positioning to past and future customers and implementation challenges within the organization could be highlighted.

The case shows how the CEO of an entrepreneurial venture, Team Computers, was coping with the problem of creating a unique identity in the market. It tracks the evolution of an embryonic organization to an Indian rupees (INR) 2.3 billion organization with 1,500 employees and its competitive landscape. It also highlights that an organization could become quite big without a very well defined positioning in the mind of its consumers and even its employees, however such growth could not be sustainable. It highlights the key challenges for Team Computers with respect to defining its positioning platform. The biggest challenge for Team Computers was to arrive at an appropriate positioning within an increasingly competitive market place, a distinct image of the company was almost a pre-requisite to the vision of sustainable, profitable growth for the company. The problem was inherent in the condition prevailing in the industry, which had intense competition among the incumbent firms and a high degree of employee turnover which plagued the industry. The case focuses on the challenge of deciding on a positioning platform for the company, considering its checkered evolution and somewhat difficult to predict and plan future trajectory. The case provides enough evidence to evaluate the positioning options of the company, the criteria to finalize the positioning options. It also opens up the possibility to discuss changes in organizational structure required to implement the positioning. The case also opens up the debate about conditions under which democratic process might not be the best way to decide on positioning.

The following insights could be elucidated by the case: criteria for evaluating the positioning options for an organization; the need for a clear positioning platform to grow beyond a threshold level for a service based organization in a competitive landscape; and the possible need for organizational restructuring to be able to implement positioning in the market.

Teaching notes are available for faculty. Please consult your librarian for access.

Ken Roberts, the owner of an independent automotive repair business in small coastal city in New England, arrived early for the workweek to discover an unscheduled and unknown vehicle awaiting repair in the driveway. Ken needed to develop a tactical plan for dealing with the owner and the potential repair of the vehicle, mindful of his reputation as one of the best independent shops in the area. As a service marketer, beyond providing competent repair work, he knew that word of mouth was crucial to his business's continued success. Students ar challenged to evaluate this situation and provide recommendations within the context of the marketing of services.

The learning outcomes are as follows:

1. assess and evaluate the challenges affecting a mobile food aggregator platform’s business model and its effect on the customer journey in a developing market;

2. understand the relationship between the different stakeholders on such platform, namely, restaurants, end-users and the platform itself, and its implication on the customer journey; and

3. develop different potential marketing strategies under that business context that can be implemented and replicated in a given emerging market.

Zomato is an online restaurant aggregator and food delivery company that provides information, menus and user reviews of restaurants. While Zomato was growing exponentially in terms of number of users and listed restaurants, the platform had to constantly reinvent itself to stay competitive in light of increasingly aggressive competitors that were launching into the different markets it serves. Maya, the country manager of Zomato Lebanon, faced a key dilemma deciding which potential strategy to replicate from head office into the local market that would help her fend off rising competitors while still increasing the size of the market.

This case can be used mainly in senior undergraduate-level business school students. The case can be taught in courses covering marketing and strategy.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Pharmaceutical marketing, brand protection.

It could be used with the pharmaceutical marketing students and MBA students for analysing counterfeit medicines' menace in developing countries and positioning of a disruptive technology. The case could be used for marketing consultants, Brand managers and executive development programmes to explore issues such as protecting brands through technology, pharmaceutical packaging marketing, competitiveness of counterfeit drugs, global harmonisation.

Against the backdrop of rising menace of counterfeit drugs in developing countries, the case talks in particular about an innovative pharmaceutical packaging company. The company has developed a unique security technology called non-ClonableID™ which can enable products to be authenticated throughout the supply chain, thus protecting brands and preventing misuse. Despite a promising technology, it poses challenges regarding its adoption and commercial success.

Counterfeiting as an inevitable result of Globalization has become a global nuisance and has to be dealt at global level. Brand protection could be one of the lowest cost tools for pharmaceutical companies to restore public confidence in their products and themselves. While all methods for anti-counterfeiting are known to have short lives the menace still must be dealt with. For this, companies need to deploy anti-counterfeiting strategies that set up various layers of security.

Teaching note.

The case is suitable for all post-graduate students and executives doing a course in human resource management (HRM). The case will enable these students to apply concepts such as inclusion, empowerment, glass ceiling, in business situations involving women. It will help them to trace the evolution path for women employees who have the traits to lead a department or organisation and assume entrepreneurial roles.

The case study is particularly beneficial for MBA students specialising in HRM focussed on leadership and training. It can be used in courses such as gender and entrepreneurship for students of MBA entrepreneurship and MBA family business management. As the case is written in India, it can explore the gender issues in emerging markets surreptitiously. Most importantly, the case addresses COVID-19 perspective adequately, to teach modules embedded in main courses of any MBA program.

PRISM World Pvt Ltd is a leading training and consultancy firm in Delhi, India. The firm is owned and managed by a young woman Dr Anubha Walia. She started her career as a human resource manager in leading Indian companies, but somewhere down the line, she felt the job was not allowing her to realise the fullest potential. The Indian corporate training industry was male dominated with self-serving men, supporting the “glass ceiling”. To break the barrier, Anubha opened her training firm founded on the basis of a new philosophy, which should serve the ideals of helping and promoting women in workplace. This new philosophy was called PRISM. Anubha provided an inclusive environment which allowed her trainers to grow and feel empowered in a gender-biased industry.Very recently, when COVID-19 pandemic happened, female trainers were under tremendous strain as training requirements completely dried up, and they were rendered jobless. Most of these educated young women had small kids and paid monthly installments for their home loans, sharing the financial burden with their husbands. Some mature trainers were single women who had to support themselves through savings in these difficult times. But Anubha’s sense of empowerment at PRISM helped these women to do things which made their livelihoods turnaround even in uncertain circumstances. PRISM philosophy made a turnaround too. While employees were thinking of abandoning their companies and vice-versa, trainers at PRISM went for free webinars to draw clients to their firms and changed the concept of training and delivery in corona times.PRISM acquired a new meaning of wellness and spirituality in these difficult times and soared ahead successfully.

The case study hopes to achieve the following pedagogical objectives: 1. To educate students on manners and traits of women entrepreneurs. Besides, the usual difficulties of financing and running a business, women face adversities at home in the form of lack of access to working capital, trust deficit amongst family and friends. Basically, lack of support system to propels women into the tougher role of an entrepreneur graduating from a regular employee. Gender becomes a disability, which women had to fight in the workplace. The case introduces the PRISM philosophy as a unique methodology to inculcate inclusivity in work environment leading to women empowerment. 2. To outline all issues related to ‘glass ceiling” – the barrier which existed in the corporate world for businesswomen. Students need to know about problems women faced in the business environment as well as shortcomings within themselves, which can make them unproductive. 3. To align students first hand with the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic, specific to women. The case talks about educated young and mature women in Anubha’s firm PRISM, fighting for lost livelihood owing to reduced levels of business. But women are known to be highly resilient and empowered in the right direction will turnaround the situation in their favour.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

The case has tremendous social implication for educated working women in traditional patriarchal Indian societies. Though a sizeable percentage of women have achieved higher education and started working in a male-dominated corporate world, only a small number of them are visible as entrepreneurs and/or leaders. Every woman needs to trace her journey from an employee to an entrepreneur or a CEO to assume a position of leadership. This case can be an eye opener for many such ambitious women who can build small- to mid-size businesses in a short span of time. Digital intervention is very important in COVID times to stay afloat. The author has shared links for many videos which can disseminate ideas for digital transformation in businesses. The case tries to showcase an ideal inclusive environment which will propel women to achieve their latent goals and desires breaking the 'glass ceiling.'

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Parsana Health Centre Private Limited, a part of the INR 4,500 crore¹ fitness industry, was a fitness centre established at Ahmedabad (Gujarat) in India in December 2002, as an integral part of the organized players of the fitness industry. It had been relentlessly working towards creating and nurturing a healthy lifestyle for the people of Ahmedabad over the previous two eventful decades. Under the able guidance of skilled trainers and dieticians, the fitness enthusiast could enjoy state of the art gym facilities, in the upcoming mega city of Ahmedabad. Parsana Health Centre Private Limited enjoyed the first mover advantage in Ahmedabad and tapped the fitness club² market through its 13 franchises opened in select vantage locations of the city. It was started by the Parsana brothers: Vijay and Dinesh. They strived hard to inculcate the fitness regime in people and attempted to interweave the benefits of fitness with their occupations. However, the road undertaken threw challenges at them – sometimes from people who failed to underline the importance of fitness in their daily schedule, and sometimes from other fitness brands which emerged as strong competitors. The emergence of many individual and branded fitness chains started making inroads into the busy streets of Ahmedabad and they too worked hard to pull out fitness enthusiasts to these social fitness centres by providing personal health counseling, rejuvenation, yoga, etc. Sustaining competitive advantage became a tough task.

International marketing, distribution channel management, market entry, strategic management.

Masters level management students and executives specializing in distribution channel management. This case can also be applied to Masters level analysis of strategic marketing.

The case examines BBMCI, a wholly owned subsidiary of a multinational making an entry in the Indian consumer appliances market. The focus of the case is the distribution aspect of the market entry strategy, its formulation and implementation.

The key learning objective is to evaluate distribution channel design and monitoring mechanisms. The case examines the linkage of distribution strategy formulation and the implementation challenges in a large and internationally extended sales organization. The key takeaway would be the need to change the distribution strategy as the organization's position in market evolves.

Teaching note.

Cipla-Medpro acquisition: the pre- and post-merger story.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to develop a deeper understanding of the pre- and post-merger factors that should be considered in an M&A transaction; to develop an appreciation of the human capital and organisation cultural aspects involved in cross-country M&A’s; to develop an understanding of the role of leaders and an integration team to make an M&A realise the intended value; and to develop a sensitivity for doing an M&A in a developing country like South Africa.

This case study creates opportunities for discussing both pre-merger and post-merger dynamics to create a sensitivity that multiple factors contribute to a successful merger and acquisition strategic move. It is intended for classroom discussion only and does not represent correct or incorrect handling of the situation.

The complexity is MBA level. This case is primarily focussed on M&A’s as part of a course in Strategic Management (MBA level) but can also be considered for a course on Strategic HRM.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 11 Strategy.

This case involves the issues within an organization of growth, expansion, change, and a possible shift of focus from hobby to profit. The case also deals with important factors, which could potentially impact any company's operation. The owners are seeking to address two key issues. The first is a valuation issue prompted by one of the shareholders wishing to sell her interest in the railcar LLC. The second issue is one of expansion. A potential investment ($60,000-$135,000) would permit the company to lease the railcar to other operators who could run the railcar on Amtrak certified tracks nationwide but would remove the shareholders from the day to day operations of the train. The critical decision is whether the owners should invest more money in the business or maintain their current business model and operational structure.