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The fraud diamond theory, the COSO framework on internal control and theories of ethical leadership and ethical decision making are applied.

The details of this case were compiled using publicly available information, including court records and news reports. No modifications were made to the names of individuals or places mentioned in the case. All resources have been properly cited.

Employee embezzlement is a common issue in limited resource organizations when adequate controls are not in place to prevent or detect fraud. In such organizations, personal financial hardships can drive individuals to commit crimes that are out of character. This case is a story of a respectable small-town couple implicated in a near million dollar embezzlement scheme. Students are asked to consider what went wrong and propose solutions for the prevention of similar crimes. Lessons learned from this case emphasize the importance of ethical leadership, creating a strong ethical environment and how small unethical acts can escalate over time.

Instructors can utilize this case to teach the topics of ethical leadership and decision making, fraud prevention and detection and internal controls. The themes of this case fit well into any business ethics, accounting or auditing course at the undergraduate or graduate level. The case has been implemented in courses for full-time and part-time MBAs, and master’s programs in finance, human resources and accounting.

In this case, teams can compete in the real-life situation produced by Tommasso-Southwest Sport Machines. Teams will act as the buyer or the seller and will need to consider the cost implications, risk and responsibility, and price negotiation.

The learning outcomes of this case study are to identify the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in social upliftment of developing countries, understand the functioning of NGOs, understand the challenges faced by the NGOs in day-to-day operations and discuss the probable solutions for the same, appreciate the role of leader and leadership in an NGO, study the working style of NGO leaders, appreciate the importance of having a formal organizational structure for these informal organizations (NGOs) to ensure the sustainability of their ventures and design a sustainable organization structure having a proper succession plan for the NGOs.

The case study is about one NGO – Mahesh Foundation – located in a small town named Belagavi, nestled in the state of Karnataka, India. Mahesh Foundation worked towards the upliftment of poor children infected with HIV. Today, fighting against all odds, Mahesh Foundation is a safe shelter home for 45 HIV-infected children in the age group of 6–18 years and has reached more than 2,000 beneficiaries from the time of its inception (2008). In addition, Mahesh Foundation also provides skill-based education to the HIV-infected, slum and underprivileged children. The foundation also supported the livelihood of underprivileged women and till date has supported more than 1,500 needy women. Mr Mahesh Jadhav, the founder member of Mahesh Foundation, has been successful in overcoming different challenges faced by the NGO, may it be the requirement for funds or shelters or social agitation. However, Jadhav was worried about the succession planning of his organisation. Mahesh Foundation, being run as a one-man show, Jadhav was bothered about its sustainability after him. The case study therefore highlights and discusses the importance of having a formal organization structure for such informal organizations, thereby having a proper succession plan to ensure their perpetual existence.

This case study is best taught as part of a graduate and postgraduate Business Administration (BBA/MBA) programme, Management Development Programme or Executive MBA Programme.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The case is supported with a teaching note, discussion questions and suggested responses to those as well as verbatim transcripts from interviews conducted with managers and others for purposes of a research project after the strike had ended. Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

The learning outcomes are as follows: students will be able to critique the approach to collective bargaining of both the company and the union in the case and suggest alternative approaches; identify the steps the company could take to both deal with the aftermath of the strike and develop preventive measures for the future; and advise the company on a series of questions it needs advice on.

A violent strike erupted after failed wage negotiations. It laid bare deep divisions between African and non-African employees and between permanent employees and those appointed as temporary employees only. It also revealed the mindsets of people on both sides of the conflict, as well as several errors made by management in the manner in which they viewed the role of the union and failed to build strong relations with employees on the shop floor.

The case is suitable for students at honours or masters level in conflict studies, dispute resolution, employment relations, human resource management and negotiation.

CSS 6: Human resource management.

General management/Strategy: Problems with debt recovery industry in India Strategic positioning and core competencies: expansion plans.

The case can be used on an MBA program for a course in strategic management. It can be used to understand the concept of strategic positioning. It will give the students an opportunity to critically evaluate a firm’s strategic positioning in the competitive environment, enable them to understand how to create and capture superior value by differentiating as compared with other players in an industry and address expansion and growth strategies.

The case represents the success story of “Adhikrut Jabti evam vasuli”, a debt recovery agency that dared to use the unconventional strategy of employing women as recovery agents, against the stereotyped muscle-flexing male agents. Continuous focus on improving the processes and systems backed by an authoritative yet tactful approach of persuasion and patience has brought this recovery agency accolades and growth. But now Parag Shah the Managing Director is planning to expand its horizons and wonders whether he should go ahead opening up more branch offices across the country or whether he should convert his recovery firm into an Asset reconstruction company.

The case reinforces the importance of “Strategic positioning” of a firm due to well-planned differentiation in services. The case also addresses concepts of leadership, standardization, people skills and relationship management.

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 traces the genesis of NASSCOM and presents a decision situation faced by the new president who has to formulate a road map in the light of changed circumstances. NASSCOM has been an exemplary trade association. However, it faces challenges that can jeopardize the future if the industry. While the challenges do not have short term effect on the growing Indian IT-BPO industry, as the active industry ally NASSCOM's new leader has to ensure long term success of IT-BPO industry. The case can be best used to understand the IT industry dynamics through the eyes of an exemplary trade body and also understand how a trade association in emerging economies can play an important role to fill institutional voids.

Brand management, marketing management and retail.

This case is applicable to postgraduate business management students.

Mr Rajesh Jain promoted Miraaya chain of stores in the year 2010. Currently, Miraaya is a fast-evolving retail chain selling women's wear, and this case describes Miraaya's journey since its inception and its attempt to build a brand with limited resources and to carve a place for itself amidst growing competition and fast-growing customer awareness. Though Rajesh almost singlehandedly led the brand, the organization has professionals in each function and there has been process orientation – both for front-end functions as well as back-end functions, right from the beginning. In the second year of operation, the revenue grew very rapidly, but in the third year, when faced with the challenge of stagnant revenue, the organization could still increase the profitability. With a focus on product innovation, he and his team have been able to retain the customers' interest, which is at a premium with widespread competition from both organized and unorganized women's apparel retailers. With innovations like salwars in knitted fabric and cropped trousers with elastic waistband, Miraaya remained ahead of the pack. To keep the costs low, Rajesh and his team worked constantly on expanding via franchising and shop-in-shop formats as well as on online sales, thus also increasing the brand awareness. Students might come to the class with an understanding that brand building is done mainly through active communication in the media, while this case would create an opportunity for the students to appreciate that word-of-mouth, online media and building customer relationships via product innovation can be very exciting, affordable and successful media.

With the help of this case, students would learn about customer-based brand equity model and its factors. The case would also help to understand the challenges of brand building in retail in a country like India. It also defines the latest buying behaviour of Indian women and their aspirations.

The case illustrates the challenges and opportunities for a retail entrepreneur in an Indian environment. The case is a nice piece of work to showcase how a new retailer should build the brand in a highly competitive market. This case can be a source of inspiration among budding entrepreneurs.

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 purpose of this study is to discuss the complexities and challenges involved in retailing luxury motorcycle brands in India.

This study has been developed by carrying out in-depth interviews of company officials of Triumph Motorcycles. The researchers also reached out to various distributors of luxury motorcycles in Tiers I and II cities, and through the interview process, tried to understand the problems/issues faced while selling luxury motorcycles.

There has been a marked increase in the branding and marketing of luxury products in the recent years. Although the two wheelers account for 80 per cent of the domestic demand, the luxury motorbike market in India is still in its introductory stages. This study discusses the challenges faced at Triumph Motorcycles and raises questions on what should be done to increase the market share of Triumph Motorcycles in India. Readers would get insights into the activities carried out to build customer connect and would be able to suggest marketing strategies and customer relationship programmes for luxury motorcycle brands.

This study can be used for the core course on marketing management or for elective courses on customer relationship management, brand management or consumer behaviour course in MBA programme.

The case was written based on personal interviews with Jordan Boyes.

Boyes Group, a private real estate brokerage in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, had been growing rapidly. Company founder Jordan Boyes needed to determine where to continue expanding. Saskatoon held great potential in home building, and he wondered if this would be a direction for his company. His real estate reputation was excellent, but he wondered if building homes would jeopardize his current relationships with local builders. He wanted to move fast, to avoid giving up market share to his competitors.

This case was designed for undergraduate and graduate classes in strategy.