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Liberty Shoes Ltd, had been experiencing falling sales and decreased production as a result of frequent strikes by workers. By 2010, total sales had fallen to INR 300 crores (from INR 500 crores in 2005). In the Annual Board meeting in 2010, Mr Shammi Bansal, the Executive Director expressed his concerns and told the board members that “they must learn to survive or be extinct”. The case study discusses how The Executive Director turned the company around and how the organization became a “learning organization”.

MBA and Executive MBA programs.

In 2004, Liberty Shoes Ltd, had a sales turnover of INR 500 crores. In the year 2006, this dropped to INR 300 crores as a result of regular staff strikes and low morale. However, by 2013, the company had registered sales of INR 800 crores and a growth rate of around 30 per cent on a year-to-year basis. With continued focused initiatives in the organization from 2010 the management aimed to reach a sales turnover of INR 1,000 crores by March, 2014. The contributing factors to this turnaround were the leadership roles which encouraged a learning organization culture with an emphasis placed on the importance of “communication”, “employee development” and “employee empowerment”.

Understand the role of a business leader in building a learning organization. Understand the factors contributing to the building of a culture of a learning organization. Understand the critical aspects and benefits to the organization from becoming a learning organization.

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CSS: 6 Human resource management.

The learning outcomes of this study are to assess the shared value model and elaborate on new multi-stakeholder approaches to business, where the stakeholders include the founders, investors, partners, employees, clients and the surrounding community; to consider the synergies between community development, environmental stewardship, sustainable business practices and the long-term health of organisations and communities, considering these as the new fundamentals of business; to examine the interconnectedness of vision, strategy, purpose and leadership in creating and evolving the shared value model; to explore the relationship between shared value practices and collective well-being, and a specific reference to nurturing transformative experiences through nature, personal development and community upliftment is made; and to assess Grootbos’ ability to translate their purpose and value proposition into a strategy and sustainable vision with a possibility of Grootbos achieving global impact through its evolving model, beyond the founder.

This case study explores the evolution of Grootbos Private Nature Reserve and Foundation, a luxury hospitality lodge and award-winning ecotourism destination, from humble beginnings in the Western Cape of South Africa to a global example of conservation, community, commerce sustainability and transformative experiences. The establishing of Grootbos and its growth and widespread recognition can be attributed to the vision and inspirational leadership of its founder, Michael Lutzeyer. Although much success has been achieved in conservation, community upliftment and individual development of community members within their region, Lutzeyer’s and ultimately, Grootbos’ vision extended well beyond South Africa and aspired to elevate their floral kingdom and model of development and conservation to a global platform of awareness. Although a shared value vision and strategy had transformed the business, placing Grootbos as a leader in transforming their industry and sparking an evolution in the shared value model itself through the interjection of transformative experiences, the larger question remained: How can Grootbos extend the impact, towards people and planetary well-being, beyond the scope of their individual place-based business and their industry? And in terms of the dilemma Lutzeyer and the management team at Grootbos faced: How will this vision and global ambition continue through succession, beyond Luzeyer’s personal drive at the helm?

Experienced leaders within a graduate degree program, executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) or executive education in the areas of leadership development, strategy, shared value and international business.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS4: Environmental management.

The case has been developed as an illustrative case study using primary data. The data and images used for developing the case have been collected from the Alipurduar Division of Indian Railways with suitable permissions. The specific newspaper studies used in developing the case content have been referenced as footnotes on the relevant pages of the case study document.

Train operations in Alipurduar Division of Northeast Frontier Railway zone of Indian Railways are difficult. The division provides the vital rail link between the northeast states and the rest of India. Railway lines in the Alipurduar Division pass through several forests with a significant elephant population. As an outcome of train–elephant conflicts, train operations on one of the railway lines operate under severe speed restrictions. Moreover, the region is known for heavy rainfall and thunderstorms for almost six months every year. For the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), the protagonist of the case, this implied repeated congestion, traffic disruptions, inadvertent delays and lack of time for critical maintenance of the tracks. A solution was planned several years ago for creating an alternative path to de-congest the traffic; however, it ran into a roadblock due to land acquisition issues.With all these limitations, could a solution be found and implemented? How could it be executed?The case illustrates how a simple yet innovative solution was proposed by the DRM in 2015 and implemented in 2016.With this case, students will be able to understand the innovation process that is embedded within long-term infrastructure projects. The case will help students understand how innovation can take place even in the later stages of project implementation, and how simple and creative solutions can have a long-term impact.

The case can be used in graduate and executive education courses in General Management and in Public Policy Management. It can also be used in Doctoral-Level Programmes such as those taught to scholars pursuing Fellow Programme in Management. Since the case brings out elements of problem framing and critical thinking, the case can be used for courses in strategic management. Many professionals, particularly those working in large organizations dealing with large infrastructure projects, will identify with the DRM and the challenges faced by him.

Management, Strategy, International business.

Undergraduate or Graduates.

This case is suitable for students of international business and strategy at the advanced undergraduate-level or introductory masters-level courses. It can be used for organizational design, brand management and business-to-business management classes. It may be of interest to practitioners in the Middle East and North African (MENA) markets looking at managing cross-functional teams.

On completion of utilizing the case study as an exercise, students should be able to develop the following. Case-specific skills: Critically examine the importance of the international business and strategy in the Middle East and demonstrate this by analyzing real-regional/-examples using complex theoretical frameworks; identify examples of best practice and explain the dynamics toward international business and strategy with reference to a range of theoretical models and apply these in a meaningful way to the MENA region. Discipline-specific skills: Synthesize and critically evaluate a corpus of academic literature and government reports on international business and strategy; link international business and strategy concepts and theories to real-regional/world examples. Personal and key skills: Reflect on the process of learning and undertake independent/self-directed learning (including time management) to achieve consistent, proficient and sustained attainment; work as a participant or leader of a group and contribute effectively to the achievement of objectives in the field of international business and strategy.

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Aramex PJSC: carving a competitive advantage in the global logistics and express transportation service industry.

Entrepreneurship, International Business, Strategy.

Post-graduates, Practitioners.

This case chronicles the Aramex PJSC story of entrepreneur Fadi Gandhour. The case looks at the new start-up, its growth and financing plans for expansion and how it got a competitive advantage in an industry dominated by big players. Aramex, as of 2012, was the only Arab company to have successfully listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. After 30 years at the helm of the company, Fadi Ghandour, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), was stepping down and was being succeeded by regional head, Hussein Hachem, the CEO of Middle East and Africa. Aramex had a competitive edge in emerging markets, and Fadi and Hussein knew that the route to sustainable growth was to capitalize on this opportunity using organic growth, acquisitions and strategic alliances.

Strategy included looking at gaining a competitive advantage in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and other emerging markets. Lessons are provided on capitalization of opportunity, funding and creating an organization culture that is sustainable and reflects the Founder's ideal.

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