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This case study discussion will enable students to: • Understand and evaluate the steel industry’s nature, opportunities, threats and challenges in an emerging market such as Bangladesh.• Review the techniques used to analyse competition and attractiveness of an industry using Porter’s five forces model. • Identify the corporate-level strategic decisions that can impact the survival and growth of a single business/product company in a highly competitive market. • Evaluate amongst different types of corporate-level growth strategies and their appropriate applications. • Synthesise various internal, industry and market-related information into the selection and justification of any particular corporate-level growth strategy.

BSRM group established Bangladesh’s first-ever steel mill in 1952. For around 70 years, BSRM had been leading the steel industry of Bangladesh with a single product – long steel. Over the recent decade (2010–2020), Bangladesh had been one of the world’'s fastest-growing economies. As the economic development was closely tied with the consumption of steel products, per capita steel consumption in Bangladesh became more than double. Moving from 24 kg in 2010, per capita steel consumption became 55 kg in 2021. Industry experts predicted the per capita steel consumption to be 75 kg by 2024, indicating an enormous scope for the steel industry to grow. Moreover, the industry’s growth momentum was predicted to continue until the nation became a developed one in 2041. This growth momentum kept attracting new competitors to this business. Nevertheless, BSRM maintained the market leadership by dint of its first mover’s advantage, superior quality, branding, innovation and large-scale operations and ultimately accumulated substantial free cash flow over the years. Now, Aameir Alihussain, the Managing Director and CEO of BSRM, was concerned about managing the growth of his business. Would BSRM continue to concentrate on producing steel and building forte by the backward and forward integration of the value chain? Or should the firm opt for some related diversification? Alternatively, was it the right time for BSRM to consider opportunities for unrelated diversification? While opportunities were many, the amount for investment was limited. Thus, Alihussain was in a dilemma pursuing the right corporate-level growth strategy for the overall sustainability of his business in the long run.

This case can be taught in the corporate-level strategy chapter of a core course on strategic management at the undergraduate programs. This case would facilitate students to comprehend the context of corporate-level strategies in managing the growth of a business in an emerging market.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Strategic Management.

The case is designed for a) MBA students b) Short-duration executive MBA courses.

The case refers to India’s leading steel company Tata Steel. Tata Tiscon, the steel rebar brand, is the organization’s leading retail brand. The case chronicles the period between the birth of the retail brand in the year 2000, its dramatic rise and dominance, to the end of 2013 when some of its initiatives had failed. Tata Tiscon was established as a pan Indian brand on the dint of a distribution network comprising 33 distributors and over 2000 retailers, many of them exclusive to the brand. The brand spawned a series of innovation in the category like “selling by piece”, fixed price concept and “free” home delivery. Together with its channel partners, the company achieved dramatic success which was reflected in its leading market share coupled with significant price premium in a category where price had traditionally being the only selling pitch. After 2010, the company saw an emerging challenge in the form of a new business model, where some companies were gearing to provide the complete portfolio of construction material including cement, steel, etc., and a turnkey construction solution for house builders. Tata Tiscon responded by attempting to enter the service space by launching a building design solution and later a construction supervision solution. Both of these initiatives failed. The protagonist of the case is Mr Keshav Viswanath (Chief of Marketing for retail business at Tata Steel), who is concerned with the failures of these key initiatives and is wondering how to ensure the “leader” status of Tata Tiscon in coming years.

The students are expected to understand how a core strategy like differentiation is implemented successfully in “practice”; understand the exploitation–exploration dichotomy in an organization; appreciate difference between radical innovation (based on new organizational routines, new business partners and new relationships) and incremental innovation based on fine tuning of existing organizational routines and relationships.

Rebar production: www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6n9sci8j-8; Tata TISCON AV: www.youtube.com/watch?v=89kOUsbnaYQ; TQM – The Toyota Way: www.youstube.com/watch?v=qf3gdrIMxRw; Disruptive vs. Incremental Innovation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOOL_GiaLTo; Approach to innovation is dead wrong: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pii8tTx1UYM

CSS 11: Strategy.

The three cases (Case A: JSW Steel's Ispat Acquisition: The Opportunity; Case B: JSW Steel's Ispat Acqusition: The Setback & Case C: JSW Steel's Ispat Acquisition: The Turnaround Strategy) describe the business situation leading to acquisition of Ispat by JSW, the acquirer company's failure to realize synergies post-acquisition, and the subsequent turnaround initiatives to salvage the situation. In 2010, JSW Steel, a 14 mtpa Indian steel company acquired Ispat Steel with annual production capacity of 3 mtpa. The acquisition was part of JSW's multipronged strategy to realize its aspiration of being a 40 mtpa firm. At the time of acquisition, Ispat had huge debts, a long pipeline of unfinished projects, high production costs and unpredictable cash flows. Its main plant, Dolvi was shutdown for 45 days. However, the plant also had numerous advantages. It was located near the seashore and was technologically very advanced. Case A describes the events leading to acquisition of Ispat by JSW. It captures the facts, opinions and inferences around the acquisition decision, which were used as inputs in the due diligence process to assess synergies between JSW and Ispat. The case describes the economic, competitive, and industry factors prevailing in 2010 when JSW was thinking of acquiring Ispat.

The case focuses on the importance of the brand-building process, which takes place in B2B companies. Commodity companies focus a lot on the sales and distribution aspect of their marketing strategies but do not emphasize the importance of developing their brands. At the end of the discussion, the participants would be able: to examine the steps involved in conceptualizing the brand identity for an existing product in a highly competitive B2B market, as per Kapferer’s Brand Identity Matrix. To understand the steps involved in the journey of internal and external brand-building processes in B2B. To analyze the various challenges and issues faced by large organizations dealing in the metals and commodity business.

The case discusses a marketing challenge faced by Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) in launching a new brand of thermomechanical treatment (TMT) products in the market. Traditionally, the company had focused on the sales and distribution aspect of their marketing strategies but did not emphasize the importance of developing their brands. This case is based upon the challenges faced in the creation of a new brand identity for JSPL’s TMT products by the protagonist, Mr Paras Sharma (who is the brand custodian and manager in this case).

Postgraduate/Masters in Business Administration (MBA), Masters in Management Studies, Executive MBA.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The year 2013-14 was very significant for Raychem RPG Ltd (RRL) - a joint venture between RPG group, India and TE Connectivity, USA. The sales were looking up and order book was promising. Newly restructured units were working well and business in new segments was picking up. There were several initiatives undertaken by the CEO in last five years of his tenure. His team had achieved the desired stability and turnaround was successful. A high-growth future in a slowing global economic scenario had to be converted into a more profitable opportunity. However, he faced several questions. Was the strategic transformation journey that he embarked on four years ago complete? Could he have done something different? Which were the areas where the next focus should be? Did RRL have the required competences to succeed in those areas? How would RRL manage the changing expectations of the two JV partners?

This is a case of a crisis project management which showcases the unpredictable nature of the project and the role of management in handling the crisis. It is the case of a very severe cyclonic storm hitting the city of Visakhapatnam plant during October, 2014. The whole city was devastated and so was the situation in the Steel plant as it was under zero power conditions for around 10 days. This case gives need for managing an integrated steel plant in case of very severe cyclonic storm and documents the sequence of events and managing unforeseen uncertainty using NTCP concepts.

Marketing.

MBA Marketing Class.

The case describes the transition of a “Galvanized Wires Business of Tata Steel” into a unique identity, the'Tata Wiron' brand. It focuses on key stages in this journey, including “Understanding the Customers in Galvanized Wires Business”, “Value Chain”, “Challenges Faced”, “Need for Branding”, “Market Segmentation”, “Competition”, “Process of Branding”, “Differentiation”, “Distribution & Sales” and “Promotion”. Tata Steel Wires Business is a major player in the steel wire industry, servicing the discerning needs of its customers across global markets and the leading producer of steel wires in India. A wealth of experience and expertise in the wire industry coupled with latest technology incorporations has enabled Tata Steel Wires Division to constantly meet the most exacting specifications and requirements of its customers. It manufactures a wide range of wires catering to the needs of various industry segments, such as automobile, infrastructure, power and general engineering. The products are well established across the markets of Europe, the USA, Middle East Asia, Australasia, South Asia and Asia and the Far East.

The expected learning outcomes are as follows: understanding how in-depth analysis of the competition and value chain establishes the need for branding in a commodity market; understanding how consumer insights help in market segmentation and targeting; and building a brand in commodity market.

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 describes the internal growth workshop initiative at Vedanta Group. Anil Agarwal in 1976 founded Vedanta as a scrap-metal dealership in Mumbai (then Bombay). Over the years, Anil pursued a very aggressive growth journey with a vision to create a leading global natural resource company. The principal objective of discussing this case is to understand how Vedanta introduced this initiative and how it fits within the strategic human resource management at the group.

The political and economic environment of business.

The case is suitable for students of MBA and equivalent courses; courses on the international business environment, international marketing and related subjects.

The case focuses on cross border acquisitions in the sub-Saharan economy of Zimbabwe. It discusses Essar Steel's attempt to acquire a stake in Zimbabwe Iron & Steel Company (ZISCO) with long term goals. However, recent political developments have led to the situation hanging by a thread. The case attempts to provide an overview of the complex business environment in Zimbabwe.

Students are expected to highlight the economic and political factors during the analysis of any country's business environment.

Teaching notes are available; please contact your librarian for access.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a well-performing company can turn into a loss-making company on account of adverse industry cycle and poor management of risks in the business. The importance of factors like optimal level of leveraging, the ability of the management to deal with external and internal risks, and importance of corporate governance in the process of credit appraisal is understood from this case.

The case relates to the credit appraisal by the banks of a prominent steel company in India. The company, Bhushan Steel Limited, was doing very well. The banks lent aggressively to the company, based on their credit appraisal. However, the company soon turned insolvent on account of poor assessment of risks and deteriorating external factors. While this case may be analysed and studied through the eyes of both the Management and the lenders, the focus is currently on the latter. In a real-world scenario, the challenge for the lender is to sieve through the financial as well as non-financial data and make a valid conclusion on the level of credit worthiness of the borrowing company. This includes the topics of operational efficiency and synergies, commodity price cycles, external credit ratings, operating and financial leverage, regulatory risks and corporate governance.

Post graduate business management programmes – Finance specialisation.

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 1: Accounting and Finance