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This case focuses on the scaling up of the business. The students/the users of the case will be able to understand the following:1. to analyse the present state of the business to identify the actions necessary for scaling up;2. awareness of the leadership styles demonstrated by the entrepreneurs to grow the business;3. the concept of pivoting for business expansion; and4. organisation building and life cycles for business growth.

Shamika was a lawyer by profession and had a successful career with leading law firms in India, North America and Hong Kong. She was passionate about beauty and skincare and developed a keen interest in that business. Shamika extensively researched brand management, supply chain and production. She had a burning desire to be an entrepreneur in the skincare business. So, she founded the brand “d’you”.The skin care industry in India had seen massive growth. There was a huge increase in people’s interest in cosmetics because of the rapid rise of the middle class. The skincare industry was dominated by firms offering various herbal products. Multiple product categories and a large amount of information confused the end-consumers. Shamika identified an opportunity to offer a skincare product to eliminate the need for a consumer to use multiple serums and compete with products of repute from the international market.South Korea was the top manufacturing hub for skincare products for all leading international brands. Shamika approached many manufacturers there to produce a unique formulation for her. It was challenging to get them interested because of the lack of big orders and the language barrier. Phoenix Cosmetics, a top R&D lab, agreed to partner with Shamika.In spite of severe opposition from her family, Shamika established d’you. She had to figure out customs duties, imports and food and drug regulations. She had to get specialists on board early to avoid time and cost overruns. To be cost-effective, Shamika innovated her promotion strategy. A special airless pump packaging from South Korea was finalised for the product.The pandemic outbreak, national lockdown and pressures of trying to run the business alone were very taxing for Shamika. She struggled to manage the timelines with various agencies, engage with Phoenix and maintain a steady flow of imports from South Korea.After the relaxation of lockdown, Shamika launched “Hustle”, an age- and gender-neutral solution to the skincare woes, in October 2020. She extensively used digital marketing and social media for product promotion and set high service standards. Hustle was recognised in micro beauty awards as the best serum in India. The leading fashion magazines reviewed it very positively. The sales zoomed up.Shamika initiated discussions with venture capitalists (VCs) to scale up. VCs, though positive, were surprised that she had no prior background in skincare. She strategised to create new products with Phoenix, who now desired to collaborate with her after the success of Hustle.Shamika felt the need to expand her team because of the workload stress. She followed the rolling business plan, allowing an immediate course correction because of the dynamic business scenario. She desired to delegate day-to-day operations to the professionals. She would mainly focus on strategising. Shamika was raring to grapple with the challenge of scaling up the business.

This case can be used in courses on organisation behaviour and human resource management in postgraduate and graduate management programmes. It can also be used in general and development management courses and during executive education programmes to teach entrepreneurial leadership and organisation theory.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management

Kotter’s framework of change management adapted to the situation of public policy implementation under the leadership of a civil service officer in the rural areas of a developing economy in South Asia.

This case has been written using the primary data collected from the protagonist through personal and computer-based interviews. Some of the documents associated with the event shared by the protagonist are also reproduced as case exhibits. Secondary data from government official websites were also used to enrich the case.

Mahbubnagar, an arid agricultural district in central India faced the threat of a water crisis owing to the unscientific water extraction by the resident farmers. The government appointed a task force to investigate the problem. The team executed the idea to harvest excess water from the fields through a cheap and efficient method. Though it showed spectacular results in the initial months, the farmers gave up the innovation soon. When the team met two years later, they were shocked by the unenthusiastic response of the farmers. This case pertains to the failure of policy innovations and change management in government.

This case is useful for undergraduate-level courses in public management, public policy and governance with modules in change management, innovation management, rural development and programme implementation. Training modules for novice public service professionals and programme management personnel in government organisations. Elective courses on public policy, government relations and public sector management for undergraduate students of business administration.

After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to understand the following aspects:▪ how good strategic planning can convert a crisis into an opportunity;▪ importance of service excellence and customer satisfaction through customer delight and customer feedback; and▪ utilisation of resources and excellent time management strategies.

This case discusses how vital teamwork and motivated leadership can convert a crisis such as Covid-19 into an opportunity. This case study talks about Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC), a metro rail corporation working to develop metro trains in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The case discusses how challenging it was for the metro rail corporation to transform its processes in a short period and deal with the crisis on major fronts such as facilities maintenance, human resource management, ensuring safety and security of its staff and riders, motivation of staff, service quality and maintaining all operational aspects. The case discusses how UPMRC is a leader on all fronts and has excelled in its operational work. It talks about what challenges the lockdown and unlocking phase posed in front of the leadership and how teamwork, dedication to exemplary service quality and customer satisfaction gave the team the strength to make changes that improved their processes and helped them overcome the crisis.The case starts with a discussion of metro rail inception and incorporation of UPMRC and then how this newly formed metro has to face the challenges of pre-lockdown period where the team worked very hard for sanitisation and safety. The lockdown created a completely different set of challenges related to the facilities and the entire metro train systems, which was a difficult situation to deal because of restrictions and other challenges. However, the team dealt with situations with strength and strategic planning, leading to better managed processes and staff. The unlocking phase also gave many challenges that the team handled with a lot of care and efficiency.

This case is suitable for post-graduate-level courses on services marketing, service operations management, general management, crisis management and strategic management. Participants can use the case to develop an understanding of strategic planning and management.This case can also be used in the executive education program for managers to encourage them to think through challenges faced by metro rail corporations.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 10: Public Sector Management.

Addresses the issue of Gender Equality – UN Sustainable Development Goal No.5. Discusses the topic of diversity, equity and inclusion. Presents the challenges faced by women of color in workplace and shows the capabilities needed to overcome these challenges.

Analyze the capabilities that women of color need to become successful leaders. Explore the importance of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in organizations and the role played by leaders in promoting DEI. Understand what inclusive leadership is. Examine the strategic leadership skills that leaders need to possess.

In March 2021, one of the largest drugstore chains in the USA, Walgreens Boots Alliance, a US$140bn company, announced that Rosalind Brewer (Brewer) (she) would be its new CEO. With the announcement, Brewer became the third black woman in history to lead a Fortune 500 company. After graduating in organic chemistry, Brewer joined Kimberly Clark and went on to lead the Nonwovens business. She then joined Walmart as Vice President. Brewer then moved to Starbucks as Head of Operations. Being an inclusive leader, Brewer brought in several changes to smoothen the operations and make the organizations employee-friendly. At the same time, as a black woman in a leadership position, she faced several challenges, which she overcame. As an advocate of DEI, Brewer strove to take diversity beyond just numbers. After becoming the CEO Boots Walgreens, Brewer was looking at taking medicines to masses and making healthcare affordable and available.

MBA/MS/Executive Education.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CCS 6: Human Resources.

The learning outcomes of this paper is as follows: to strategically evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, threats and resulting opportunities that face an entrepreneurial startup. To apply the academic principle of competitiveness and evaluate the competitive advantage of the business and its competitors through the application of the Porter’s five forces model. To evaluate the contextual tensions that entrepreneurial ventures face, and how these affect the growth of a sustainable business. To develop the skills to create a target market analysis by using segmentation, targeting and positioning principles. To evaluate the best strategic actions to grow a business through the lens of sustainable entrepreneurship, by using principles such as the triple bottom line and people, opportunity, context and deal and framework.

The case look at business challenges faced by an entrepreneur, Renshia Manuel, the CEO of GrowBox, as she attempts to balance the profitability and social impact of her venture in Cape Town, South Africa. GrowBox sells customisable self-contained wooden boxes equipped with all materials to grow a variety of vegetables and herbs for consumers. Large volumes of boxes are often purchased by corporate clients who donated these to lower-income communities as part of their social responsibility projects. Additional landscaping and food-scaping services make up another revenue stream of the business. The case study documents the conception of GrowBox in 2016 and the growth of the business in the first four years of operation. The theft of equipment, and difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff due to the volatile social climate of where the business was situated, have put the business under great financial pressure and reduced the efficiency of business processes. The case highlights a number of the harsh realities of sustainable entrepreneurship where both profitability and social impact are vitally important to ensure business sustainability. The case dilemma involves the choices faced by Renshia at the beginning of 2020 regarding the future, sustainable growth of the business.

The target audience for this teaching case is primarily business students at a postgraduate level, particularly those studying in the fields of sustainable entrepreneurship and social development, as well as marketing in emerging markets. This teaching case is intended to be used as a case study in postgraduate business programmes such as postgraduate diplomas in management, specialist Masters programmes such as those focussed on entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship or social development, as well as those studying a Master of Business Administration or related executive education programme.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Steve Meyer, the chief marketing officer at Trilogy, was evaluating the best way to move forward with an innovative, customer value-based pricing approach for its enterprise software solutions. Trilogy had radically transformed its business from a product-centric organization to a customer-centric one, and value-based pricing was a pillar of this transformation. Meyer had to evaluate three pricing approaches: traditional license based, subscription based, and gain sharing. He had to assess which pricing approach Trilogy and Trilogy's clients would prefer and the conditions under which gain-sharing pricing would work. Meyer also had to address several adoption barriers that prevented customers from embracing the gain-sharing pricing approach.

International Business, International Entrepreneurship, International Marketing.

Advanced undergraduate and graduate students are the primary audience. The case can also be used in executive classes with emerging economies as a focus.

Kaspersky Lab is a provider of information technology (IT) security products such as anti-virus, anti-spam and network security software. It is Russia's largest software company and the only Russian firm that ranked among the world's top 100 software companies. This case presents several interesting features of the company and its environment. The foci of the case are on potential barriers facing firms based in emerging economies in their internationalization initiatives and negative country of origin effects associated with emerging economies.

The learning objectives of this case include:

• To identify internal and external sources of competitive advantage for a developing world originated successful entrepreneurial firm.

• To assess the potential barriers facing an emerging economy-based firm in the internationalization process and analyse whether such barriers differ across economies of various characteristics.

• To evaluate whether the natures of obstacles and challenges faced by an emerging economy-based firm is different in a newly evolving industry.

• To analyze how an emerging economy-based firm can overcome some of the barriers to internationalization.

To identify internal and external sources of competitive advantage for a developing world originated successful entrepreneurial firm.

To assess the potential barriers facing an emerging economy-based firm in the internationalization process and analyse whether such barriers differ across economies of various characteristics.

To evaluate whether the natures of obstacles and challenges faced by an emerging economy-based firm is different in a newly evolving industry.

To analyze how an emerging economy-based firm can overcome some of the barriers to internationalization.

The case specifically discusses the role of stakeholders and non-market forces and how they can potentially influence the strategic choices of firms. Participants need to have some basic understanding of non-market forces, and stakeholder theory. The case is suitable for courses on sustainable supply chain management, closed loop supply chain management, reverse logistics, green business, environmental management, strategic management and business in emerging economies.

The target audiences for the case are bachelor and first-year MBA students and trainees who are interested in learning the relevance of non-market forces in sustainable growth of an industry and the importance of stakeholder management in the smooth conduct of business.

The case study details how the plastic industry in Kerala faces a non-market threat and how it affects the progress of the industry by using the example of Ashiyana Pipe. Though plastic is a unique material by virtue of its reusability and non-perishable characteristics, it has invited a lot of criticism, as there is a wide spread perception regarding its detrimental impact on the environment (such as choking drains, preventing the degradation of solid waste because of its impermeability, etc.). But the reason for experiencing the detrimental impact of plastic can also be attributed to the inability of the supply chain of the plastic industry to reach a closed-loop status, especially in developing countries such as India, as all categories of post-consumer plastic are not reaching recycling plants. Lack of awareness, lack of community participation in proper segregation and aggregation at the source, absence of incentive systems, weak regulations and poor monitoring are discussed as the common barriers hindering the achievement of closed loop status of plastic supply chain. Detailing the barriers, the case study explains the failure of informal and formal recycling markets in Kerala. Finally, the case study proposes a model with involvement of all the key stakeholders to reposition the hate toward plastic into love through recycling initiatives.

Expected learning outcomes of the case are listed below: illustrate the importance of stakeholder involvement in achieving a sustainable business and to stress the importance of a decentralized approach. Illustrate the relevance of non-market forces in sustainable growth of an industry that has significant impact on the surrounding environment and society. Critically analyze the existing business models (based on market mechanism) and suggest possible improvements and alternatives. Understand the challenges that will be faced while implementing an inclusive model with involvement of all stakeholders to reduce the negative impact of non-market forces.

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 11: Strategy.

The case is meant as a way for students to develop ideas related to the challenges facing environmental eco-friendly social enterprises that sell their products in a country like Egypt where consumers are way behind considering the value of their products. In response to these challenges, students learn to evaluate the company status quo by analyzing its weaknesses, strengths and opportunities to grow and expand geographically to a new market. Students also learn about the growth expansion strategies and internationalization modes, options and associated barriers. Accordingly, they can plan the marketing strategies associated with entering this new market for up-cycled products. Objective 1: Analyze the international geographical growth alternative for an enterprise that improves its scalability applying weaknesses, strengths, threats and opportunities analysis. Objective 2: Propose a strategic plan for growth and scalability. Objective 3: Discuss the various modes of doing business in foreign countries. Recommend an internationalization mode for a social enterprise to explore in a new market. Objective 4: Assess the possible barriers associated with internationalization modes and how to overcome them. Objective 5: Propose marketing strategies for an eco-friendly enterprise to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness in the international host market. Other topics that might be discussed in this case include consumer behavior toward environmentally friendly products. Pricing challenges faced by ecologically friendly firms in developing countries.

Rania and Yara were inspired by Germany’s approach to waste reduction, particularly plastic bags. In 2017, after winning several competitions and awards, Up-Fuse was officially established as a social enterprise. The entrepreneurs faced great challenges selling sustainable products made of plastic waste to Egyptian consumers. Egyptian consumers were not fully aware of the value of eco-friendly products which presented a great challenge for Up-Fuse to grow and sell their products in Egypt. After shifting its pricing strategy and expanding beyond the local recycled product markets, Up-Fuse further faced fierce competition from well-established local and international brands with larger market shares. Thus, most of Up-Fuse’s sales were generated from expats and foreigners. In response to local obstacles and limitations, Rania began to consider targeting international markets. Rania thought it was the opportune time to drive growth through geographic expansion. After all, in 2020, Up-Fuse had some minor success when the co-founders experimented with exporting their products to the US market. Rania’s co-founder Yara, on the other hand, felt that the enterprise was not yet ready to enter a new market and it would be wiser to emphasize growth in the local Egyptian market. The co-founders were torn between two growth strategies. On one hand, they faced intense local competition for their products. On the other, expanding by entering a new market came with many challenges. Which growth strategy should Up-Fuse adopt? How could Up-Fuse determine which market to penetrate? What were the possible scalability challenges they faced by entering a new market? How could Up-Fuse reach and increase their international customer base abroad? What was the best marketing strategy for their products?

This case would be appropriate for graduate students enrolled in marketing, consumer behavior, international marketing, international business and social entrepreneurship courses. This case is written at a graduate level and would also be appropriate for use in customized or short programs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 5: International Business.

The case study is based on field research and also on secondary data. A primary survey is included in the case study. Simple frequency and factor analysis as statistical tools have been used.

Family businesses, like that of Kiran Rai’s, owning a local Mom and Pop store in an emerging city were faced with a serious problem of sustaining their businesses. These family businesses countered immense competition from: their own types, i.e. from other local Mom and Pop stores within the same cities; online stores; and the organised stores.The choice of the customers to buy goods from the neighbourhood shops has remained largely as an age-old tradition in the households. With the millennials and the Generation Z (Gen Z) exposed to an array of brands, can they become the first choice of young customers for shopping for all kinds of products and varieties? Can the local Mom and Pop stores spread their wings across the young generations, particularly the Millennials and Gen Z through inexpensive social media channels? What are their growth options? How can the social media serve this purpose? The case uses the social cognition theory and the use gratification theory to throw light on the new concept of Social Shopping.

The case is meant to be discussed in courses like Fundamentals of Marketing, Digital Marketing and Retail Marketing in a 90-min session in the Post Graduate as well as in the Working Executives’ Management programmes. The case analysis will expose the students to the use of social media and its benefits to the small businesses. The students will also be able to analyse and understand the different types of Online Consumers’ Shopping Personalities. This would enable them to strategize for different stages in the decision-making processes.