Search results

Case can be taught at the undergraduate or postgraduate level, including executive Master of Business Administration programs.

This case is intended for courses in strategic management, entrepreneurship and innovation at the undergraduate or postgraduate level.

The case is about challenges faced by Linda Portnoff, the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Riteband, a Sweden-based fintech startup. In March 2020, Portnoff was conducting beta testing of Riteband’s app, which experts considered the world’s first stock exchange for music trading. After completing a PhD, Portnoff who was working as a Research Analyst, left her job to pursue entrepreneurship. Through Riteband, Portnoff helped to resolve pain points of artists who were forced to give the copyright of their music tracks or albums to distributors, in lieu of funds or promotional campaigns that distributors arranged for them. Portnoff invested in developing a patent-pending machine learning-based algorithm that based on several parameters could predict the likelihood of a music track or an album to become a success. Based on this prediction and royalty that artists were interested in sharing with fans, shares were issued to investors, who were also fans of the artists. As Portnoff identified an innovative business opportunity to trade music on a stock exchange based on Riteband’s machine learning algorithm, competition in Riteband’s strategic group was also becoming intense. Consequently, Portnoff was facing challenges of establishing competitive advantage of Riteband. Furthermore, as women in general faced challenges in raising funds for their startups, and even though Portnoff obtained some funding for Riteband, but overall, funding was a challenge for her as well. Moreover, as machine learning was a technical aspect for artists and potential investors, Portnoff also faced challenges to monetize on its machine learning algorithm.

By the end of the case study discussion, students should be able to: understand the principles of cross-industry innovation and explain the creation of new business opportunities based on cross-industry innovation; differentiate between direct and indirect competitors through strategic group analysis and further critically analyze the competitive advantage of business over other direct competitors; determine ways of reducing gender biases in venture capital funding; describe how machine learning works and further formulate ways to monetize a business through machine learning; and demonstrate the application of the value proposition canvas and business model canvas.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship; CSS 11: Strategy.

In March 2017, Oded Golan sat in his technology startup's conference room with his co-founder, pondering the fate of their company, Start A Fire. In just four years, the two entrepreneurs had taken an idea that started in Golan's apartment in Tel Aviv and turned it into a company that had raised $3.5 million in venture capital funding and served more than 3,000 of the world's biggest brands using an innovative content distribution and social media management platform that enabled brands to improve communication and engagement with their followers

Rivigo, a new entrant in the trucking business in India, believed that a new paradigm in the trucking/logistics industry could be brought about that would not only improve the quality of service dramatically, but also upgrade a truck driver's lifestyle. While the industry faced driver shortage largely due to long stays away from home, Rivigo hoped to attract drivers by offering them roles which would bring them back home in 24 hours. Drivers would be part of a relay, handing over the truck at pit stops. Further, they leveraged an IT-enabled IoT platform on a fleet of owned trucks. All this revolutionized most of the traditions then followed in the industry. The entrepreneur and his core team comprised professionals from premium institutes of the country, with experience in professional organizations in related domains. By offering services like assured delivery at half the time and full shipment visibility, Rivigo had to charge a premium to market segments that would value this. The case raises the question of sustainability in the future.

MS / MBA / Executive Education

Leadership

In 2019, French multinational electric utility company, ENGIE SA (ENGIE) was on the verge of zero carbon transition. Under the leadership of Isabelle Kocher (Kocher) who became the CEO in 2016, ENGIE embarked on an arduous journey toward re-profiling ENGIE toward renewable, low-carbon energies, such as solar, green gases and digital. Kocher inherited a loss-making company and took in on a path of transformation toward a company with business lines for future. This meant ENGIE would slowly move out of energy generation through non-renewable sources, toward renewables along with storage and digital technologies. This case chronicles Kocher’s turnaround plans and investments, and explains how she went about making ENGIE a forerunner in energy revolution. While the turnaround was on track, ENGIE was unable to give returns as expected. With mounting pressure Kocher announced a strategic plan in 2019, which reemphasized ENGIE’s focus on renewables and technology. But several major shareholders including the Government of France were not impressed with the plan. It is time Kocher proves that transformation of ENGIE into a clean power company also means returns for the shareholders.

The outcomes are as follows: First, to illustrate how leaders bring in change and innovation in large well-established companies. It shows the role of leaders in leading the innovation process and in molding the companies according to the opportunities and threats presented by the macro environment. Second, to analyze the role of a leader in bringing changes in the organization. Third, to understand the strategies used by energy companies as they position their businesses in the context of a changing energy landscape.

Teaching Note

Renewable Energy – Growing cocnern about the impact of climate change on the world at large, has brought to the fore the importance of renewable energy.

CSS 4: Environmental management

Strategic management, IT strategy, Business & IT Consulting, International Business.

PGDM and Executive programmes.

Cognizant Technology Solutions, one of the giants in the Indian information technology (IT) industry, has been continually evolving new strategies and business models to cater to the global IT demand. Starting as an in-house technology unit of Duns & Bradstreet, the case highlights the various pioneering and transformative decisions taken by Cognizant to become one among the Fortune 500 companies of the world. However, despite its supremacy in the global market, they are facing tremendous competition from the other IT giants – TCS, Infosys and Wipro, to name a few. Also, the expansion of global IT players like Accenture and International Business Machines (IBM) in India is making matters worse. This intense competition, when juxtaposed with commoditization and price sensitivity on behalf of the IT demand, makes sustainability a big question mark. The million-dollar question remains “How should Cognizant strategize to ensure inorganic growth in the price-sensitive industry?”

The case highlights the market dynamics of the Indian IT industry – from its humble beginning as an attraction for low-cost labour to being one of the strategic outsourcing geographies of the IT sector – and thereby categorically points out the significance of continuous evolution on behalf of the IT firms to stay alive in this client-driven industry. The students are expected to analyze the IT industry of India, keeping in mind its vulnerabilities – price sensitivity, dependence on developed economies and intense competition – and relate the same to different strategies incorporated by Cognizant to remain one of the powerhouses of the Indian IT industry.

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

An instructor engaged students in managing and reporting sustainability initiatives at an organisation. After completion of the case study discussion, the students will be able to critique the sustainability initiatives that can be undertaken at an organisation; understand sustainability reporting; analyse how result-based management aids in sustainability report preparation; recommend critical considerations for conducting a sustainability impact assessment by an educational institute.

The case contributed to the growing knowledge base about reporting sustainability initiatives at an organisation and managing them to aid in decision-making. The case called for better integration between sustainability activities and reporting under organisations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting.

Ajay served as the head of the management department and a leading member of the sustainability initiatives at University Alpha, Delhi NCR, India. He was assigned the task of publishing the university’s annual report. The management had requested him to consider preparing a standalone sustainability report for the university.

He began the task by examining the benefits of standalone sustainability reporting. He proceeded to analyse the specifics of SDG reporting, SDG Accord reporting and ESG reporting using the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. During discussions with a consultant, the necessary steps for creating an SDG-only report and an integrated SDG and ESG sustainability report were clarified.

Guidance from an expert led to an intention to use a result matrix in preparing the sustainability report and ongoing impact assessment of SDG initiatives for reporting. The dilemma involved deciding between continuing with the sustainability initiative listing in the annual reports or opting for a standalone sustainability report. Critical considerations concerning the sustainability impact assessment of SDG-related activities at an educational organisation were also explored.

This case is intended for discussion in the graduate-level program in strategy, general management, sustainability management, environmental management and environmental economics. The case may also be used for participants in executive program.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 4: Environmental Management.

To develop the case, the authors used secondary sources including company annual reports, industry reports, news articles, social media sites, academic journal articles and company websites. This case has been classroom tested with students in the MBA Program and Master of Science in Management and Technology Program, and with undergraduates in an operations management course.

Movado Group, which has been a fierce competitor in the luxury watch market, has been facing unprecedented challenges posed by consumers’ enthusiasm for smartwatches and by their love of shopping online. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified these problems and brought new setbacks. This case examines these challenges to the company’s current business model. It then explores opportunities that could transform Movado into an innovative, digitally oriented organization capable of reaching consumers in a dynamic market while combating intense competition from the smart wearable devices that threaten traditional watch companies. The case also discusses the importance of building a robust supply chain through the lens of Industry 4.0 to guard against future supply chain disruptions.

Instructors can use this case in operations and supply chain management classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The focus of the case aligns with discussions of supply chain management and Industry 4.0. In particular, the case uses supply chain innovation theory to investigate the implications of Industry 4.0 in the watch industry and dovetails into discussions of omni-channel experience and virtual reality in retail that integrate multiple points of contact to reach consumers efficiently.

After completion of the case study, students will be able to appreciate the challenges in managing a pharma sales team by learning the nuances of business hygiene, learn how new managers taking over a pharma sales team analyze data of a sales territory by balancing both quantitative and qualitative factors, evaluate the challenges of performance management of sales teams and balancing the expectations of various stakeholders, understand the approach of sales and effort hygiene – correlating data points that may not be directly connected but have a dependency and learn to forecast and build a business projection

Innov-Health’s dermatology (skin and hair) division in West Bengal, an Eastern state of India, recently hired Pradeep Vir as the area business manager. Innov-Health, a leading 100-year-old global healthcare player, was headquartered in the USA, with categories spanning oncology, immunology, neurosciences, metabolic, dermatology and pain management. Its brand Acnend, an acne cream, the only product in the division, was a market leader in India. Acnend required doctors’ prescriptions to be bought and was sold by pharmacies via distributors. In India, Acnend was doing well at the end of the first quarter (January–March) of 2022 in a highly competitive product category. Vir had just joined the West Bengal territory with four major cities, each with a district manager (DM). The position had been vacant for the past three months, but the DMs had done well in their sales performance for Quarter 1. All of them had achieved their targets, so Quarter 2, when he joined, started on a high note. But Salil Govind, the regional sales manager, his boss, was very concerned that a territory that had no manager had been consistently doing so well. He was concerned that the territory had far greater potential than the Quarter 1 projections had laid out. Govind now wanted Vir to re-work the Quarter 2 projections of West Bengal on priority since April had already begun. As Vir started working on the data, he was perplexed. While at a very obvious level, all four DMs were outperforming, there were gaps in varying degrees in the effort levels of each. The cumulative key performance indicators such as inventory, call average and doctor coverage and the data essentials for business hygiene[1] were worrisome and needed to be addressed. In addition, the doctor coverage, resulting in conversion, left a lot to be desired. However, he was conscious that he was new to the organization and would have to tread carefully. He wanted to do well. Vir got down to analyzing and taking action.

This case study is suitable for use in graduate-level management programs. It can be useful in courses such as sales management, marketing strategy and marketing analytics. The case study is also well suited to introducing students to the basics of sales, sales productivity, territory management, managing a team and business forecasting. The case study provides students a step-by-step understanding of business hygiene, and how just looking at overall sales numbers may not be conclusive, but a deep dive into effort and productivity is far more useful for forecasting.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The key learning objectives are mentioned as follows:▪ analyse the attractiveness of the bike rental market using Michael Porter’s five forces model;▪ apply the TWOS framework to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of Tazzo;▪ evaluate various competitive strategies of Tazzo; and▪ identify the unique value proposition for such a service in an emerging market such as India.

Tazzo was an Indian technology bike rental start-up based in Hyderabad. It was a pioneer in providing on-demand bike rental services. Tazzo was founded in 2016 by Priyam Saraswat and Shivangi Srivastava, both from IIT Guwahati, Priyank Suthar from IIT Roorkee and Vikrant Gosain from IMT Hyderabad. Within two years since its inception, Tazzo had scaled up from 5 bikes to a fleet size of 600 bikes with more than 1,000 daily rides. They were making around 24,000 rides monthly with an average ticket size of INR 250. The revenues crossed INR 10 crores with more than 20,000 active users. In 2016, the market was nascent and the concept was new. There was huge demand for such an on-demand bike rental services for self-commute in the metros. However, increasing awareness of a huge untapped market in the bike rental market had led to entry of a flurry of competitors. Notable among them were Vogo, Bounce and ONN Bikes. Facing such intense competition Priyam, co-founder and CEO of Tazzo, had the challenge to be able to sustain his company’s early momentum. How would he be able to retain Tazzo’s market leadership position? Would it be possible for Tazzo to keep up the pace of growth amid increased competition? Would the company be able to ward off the challenges from its competitors? Priyam was facing all these challenging questions and had to quickly address them to continue to lead in this competitive race.

This case can be used in Marketing Management course’s “Competition Analysis” module for both MBA and executive-level programs dealing with marketing. This case study helps students in dealing with issues pertaining to a given market sector where a firm is operating, the strategies that could be used by the competitors and application of competitive strategies which the firm can apply.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Entrepreneurship, Strategic management, Management information systems.

Undergraduate and graduate capstone course in entrepreneurship, strategic management or management information systems courses.

This case study of a young technology firm, Codezin Technology Solutions, helps to analyze the challenges faced by such firms in emerging markets. Such markets are characterized by rapid turbulence in the market characteristics. The authors seek to analyze the role of disruptive regulatory changes, resulting in the growth of new startups, in affecting the growth and expansion of such young firms. Codezin was established in 2009 as a bootstrap company, to provide low-cost IT services to Indian small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs). Despite some initial success, it began to run into losses due to poor coordination and improper planning. After a period of struggle, the company stabilized its revenue from services business and expanded to mobile solutions, digital marketing, etc. But then the government of India announced the Startup India initiative at the beginning of 2016 to boost new ventures. Codezin did not qualify as per the government rules and thus failed to use the various incentives offered. Hence, it needs to determine a new strategy to compete with the onslaught of freshly funded startups but with a relative lack of market experience.

With the case discussion, the students will gain rich insights on technology businesses aimed at SMEs and the impact of changes in the regulatory regime in emerging markets like India. Further, they get to step into the shoes of the co-founders and choose between diversification vs new market development strategies, spurred by market disturbances and thinning competitive advantage.

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 3: Entrepreneurship.