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This case aims to enhance students’ scholarship and understanding of performance management systems with respect to the formulation of key performance indicators (KPIs). Specifically, working through this case and the assignment questions, students will be able to:▪ critically analyse process-based and outcome-based performance indicators;▪ recommend the right mix of process- and the outcome-based KPIs;▪ apply the specific, measurable, aligned, realistic and time-bound (SMART) framework to the KPIs;▪ create SMART KPIs; and▪ propose when to involve team members in decision-making.

The Director of the Centre for Learning and Innovative Pedagogies (CLIP), Dr Tanushree Sharma, was in for a surprise when the Dean and the Advisor to the school expressed their dissatisfaction with her approach to framing performance indicators for the management of the Centre.

They categorically advised her to change her process-based orientation to an outcome-based one and create tangible ground-level outcomes. Their feedback made her realize why, in spite of having rolled out several initiatives, the Centre was struggling to demonstrate its impact on student learning and faculty development. It dawned on her that the Centre’s inability to showcase a tangible impact on the school could mar the collective hard toil of the team.

Accepting the feedback and recognizing the merit of designing outcome-based SMART performance indicators, she started working towards them. Although she was able to conceptualize a broad framework, she was uncertain about whether to include only outcome-based KPIs. She was also unsure whether to unilaterally create and assign the key responsibility areas (KRAs) and KPIs or co-create them with her team members. A confluence of factors weighed heavily on her mind – the pressure of limited time, remote working because of the pandemic, moderately experienced team members, voluntary team membership, lack of positional power and her limited organizational influence. With less than a month to the proposal submission, she had no time to waste.

The case is suitable for courses on performance management systems, human resources and leadership; however, it is particularly relevant to framing KRAs and KPIs, developing outcome-based KPIs and applying the SMART framework to developing KPIs. It can be used in both postgraduate and undergraduate programmes at business schools.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

The data has been provided by the protagonist in the form of interviews, tables and figures.

Abdul and his team, comprising MS Finance graduates from Lahore University of Management Sciences, embarked on a transformative process that led to the inception of their startup, Ingine. Originating from a discarded idea of importing recycling machines, the team pivoted to address a significant gap in the influencer marketing industry. They envisioned a subscription-based software-as-a-service platform that streamlines interactions between influencers and businesses, emphasizing secure payment processing, messaging and feedback features. The narrative underscores the intricate connection between influencer marketing and the return on investment for small businesses, recognizing the challenge of decoding tangible financial gains. Ingine’s mission is to unravel this puzzle, optimizing small businesses’ investments in influencer marketing while navigating the complexities of crafting a competitive influencer compensation model. The team’s background, strategic considerations and commitment to fostering sustainable relationships between influencers and businesses serve as a compelling backdrop to Ingine’s entrepreneurial aspirations.

The case can be used in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial finance. The case can be used in undergrad, master’s, MBA, executive MBA and short executive programs. The complexity of a case can be increased or decreased depending on the level of class, i.e. start, middle or end of the course, and the time allocation, i.e. 90 min.

After working through the case and assignment questions, students should be able to develop an understanding of how to identify female leadership competencies; analyze social and psychological barriers to developing female leadership; and consider various solutions to build trust in rural settings by overcoming social and psychological barriers.

In 2022, Mrs Anjaria, the Managing Director, and Mr Anjaria, the Chairperson of the Rangoli Group of Institutions in Gandhinagar, Gujarat (India), were facing the challenge of how to empower thousands of females in the preschool venture in the rural area as they could see the impact of their female edupreneurs in the urban area. Both had worked up the ladder in the preschool venture after quitting their professional careers in the corporate world. They now wanted to create female edupreneurs to empower women and bring about social and educational change at the grassroots level. They needed to make an informed decision about how to scale the preschool offerings at rural sites to bring educational change and increase revenue simultaneously; however, they were unsure how to execute this vision into a tangible profit-making social edupreneurial reality. Government preschools (Anganwadis) and social structures in rural Indian contexts were a major consideration. It was important to increase their hiring efforts to empower women with their franchise model. However, issues such as leadership competencies, psycho-socio-cultural barriers, and creating trust in rural economies challenged their vision.

The case is suitable for MBA students or postgraduate-level courses on development communication, business communication, entrepreneurial communication and gender communication seeking to develop female competencies through communication models. This case illustrates how to create trust through communication among female eduprenuers by overcoming social and psychological barriers in rural settings.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 3: Entrepreneurship

▪ Students learn how an educational institute impacts water resources on the campus and its surrounding community.

▪ Students acquire knowledge on how decision-making, related to natural resources, is influenced by the institute’s obligations towards surrounding communities and the long-term sustainability of the resources.

▪ Students become acquainted with the decision-making process adopted by an educational institute for achieving resource-efficient development on the campus.

▪ Students learn how to design evaluation methods for investments related to water conservation at an educational institute.

▪ Students become proficient with the payback method specifically when evaluating water-enhancing projects at an educational campus.

Dr Ajit Parulekar, Director at Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Goa, India, was evaluating options to improve the sources of water at GIM at the beginning of 2021. He was reviewing the projects proposed to meet the water requirement at the campus for the next five years (2021–2025). The projects were recommended by consultants (ENV Consultants Pvt Ltd) who proposed a total expenditure of US$68,667 which involved storage enhancement and water table upgradation (See Case Exhibit 11). The maintenance department had studied the plans but their projections showed that the execution of these projects and initiatives would still lead to a deficit of water in the future. Dr Parulekar reviewed the reports and weighed the expected tangible and intangible benefits from the proposed projects. The projects had to be carefully selected, keeping in mind the multiple objectives to be met: an increase in water supply within a short time, a financially optimum investment and a minimum impact on the surrounding community. The selected projects had to meet the long-term sustainability objective of resource efficiency at the campus.

Students studying finance, project appraisal, campus sustainability at graduate or postgraduate management programs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 4: Environmental Management.

This case provides detailed information about digital technologies and business practices that may help offline retailers catch up with the trend of new retail. After studying the case and working on the assignment questions, students will be able to:▪ Understand new features of smart cash registers, including facial-recognition payment, purchase-sales-inventory management, customer profile and store management, which all are important for the long-term development of the retail business in the age of “new retail”.▪ Identify opportunities, practices and impacts of digital technologies, such as big data and artificial intelligence, on contemporary retail businesses.▪ Identify problems of traditional retail and suggest solutions by applying the concepts and tools learned above.▪ Apply digital marketing approaches and tools (e.g., social media, livestreaming and online word-of-mouth) to design marketing campaigns; students should include basic elements such as the 6Ms for effective marketing communications (market, mission, message, media, money and measure).

This case describes difficult situations facing Leo Shoudong Pan, the founder and CEO of Yun Dong Jia Technologies Co Ltd (YDJ), in marketing communications. With a motto of “Making it easy to open stores anywhere”, YDJ develops and sells smart cash registers, which provide a self-developed operating system and cloud computing services. Pan targets small and micro retailers, who are technology laggards when digital transitions had swept the world. His goal is to build a network of 100,000 pieces of smart cash registers across China, but he has only sold 8,000 pieces since he founded YDJ in 2016. He must make a breakthrough in the business. To drive leads and sales, he feels the urgency of conducting effective marketing communications with target customers and enhance their understanding on the value that YDJ creates for them. Monetary incentives are tangible but not yet fully demonstrated YDJ’s value. With the traditional retail approach, brick-and-mortar stores, especially those small-scaled ones, are not able to meet the market change; instead, they must adopt digital techniques to catch up with the trend of new retail, which is necessary for a long-term business development rather than just a temporary measure during the Covid-19 pandemic. Pan must craft more compelling messages. What customer value should be chosen as incentives to motivate the target market? How to conduct effective marketing communications correspondingly?

Senior undergraduate; Postgraduate; MBA; EMBA.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

This case was researched using publicly available sources, including Mercury Systems financial filings and press releases, news stories about the seasoned equity offering, financial information from Bloomberg and industry information from IBISWorld Industry Reports and articles related to seasoned/secondary equity offerings, intangible asset valuation and the use of revolving lines of credit. Quotes are taken from Mercury financial reports and press releases and express the (optimistic) opinions of company executives.

Mercury Systems, a technology company in the aerospace and defense industry, announced a six million share seasoned stock offering in June 2019. This resulted in a 6% stock price decrease. A stock price decrease is a typical event when a firm announces the issuance of new common shares, but with Mercury Systems, there were concerns about how much money the firm needed to fund its strategy of growth through acquisitions. If internally generated funds were not sufficient, should the firm issue debt or have another seasoned equity issue? Students will look at the objectives and success of the most recent seasoned equity issue, determine future funds needs and how the firm should finance these needs.

This case is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students in corporate finance electives. Typically, topics such as seasoned equity offerings are not covered in introductory courses, so this is recommended for finance electives. Even in advanced finance courses, sometimes there is insufficient time to cover seasoned equity offerings.

By the end of the case and class discussion, students will be able to estimate project costs and benefits, both tangible and intangible, analyse enterprise environmental factors that may impact a project, identify the complexities of managing a multinational project and evaluate a project status and determine if continuation or cessation is the best option.

This case narrates the story to connect landlocked Botswana’s rich coalfields with the Namibian coast. In 2005, the Governments of Botswana and Namibia started discussions to bring forth a 1,500-km railway that traverses the two countries to the Port of Walvis Bay. In total, 10 years and many lengthy negotiations later, the Trans-Kalahari Railway (TKR) Project Management Office finally opened in Windhoek in April 2015. The project is expected to cost US$14.2bn and will be developed via a public-private partnership approach based on a DBOOT contractual arrangement, whereby a developer undertakes the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the project. This case illustrates the complexities of managing a multinational project. After much slower than expected progress, the viability of the project is questioned.

This case is intended for post-graduate business students and MBA students who are studying in a management curriculum. It is primarily written for students in a project management course but may also be used for other courses, such as a negotiation class. The case can be used with undergraduate students by modifying the case questions.

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CSS 7: Management science.

Marketing

Primary target: Marketing and communications undergraduate students, especially coming from emerging countries. Secondary target: MBA students studying Principles of Marketing, Integrated Marketing Communications (a similar version of this case, has been used for the MBA students at Yeditepe Univ. Istanbul, Turkey in the “Strategic Marketing and Management” course. The submitted case is an expanded version, with the 2008 crisis data added, as well as being tailor-made for the Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies).

Global brands are all around us but the true winners are global brands with a local touch in every market they operate. However, this is easily said than done. This case looks into a well-known global carbonated drinks brand in Turkey and what it has done to become a true global brand with a local touch, especially at hard times when the country was facing a major economic crisis in 2001, and then later in 2008 during the global crisis. In this case, we see how this international brand reacted under these harsh circumstances, what they have done to be able to move closer to the hearts of Turkish consumers. We also see the importance of continuation of marketing and communication efforts for brands when economic conditions are not so good. Consumers are quick to respond to brands which keep talking to them, keeping the dialogue channels open and give those brands credit long after the crisis is over. Brand M sets a good example in this regard, showing how research can be used for setting tangible measures. The questions posed: How could market research help an international brand to move closer to its local customers? How should international brands act when economic conditions are not that promising? How could a brand be built upon learned knowledge in one economic crisis to the other? The case tries to answer these questions based on an emerging country experience, showing ways of becoming a global brand with a local touch.

To show the importance of branding and market research findings for an international brand while operating in a local market. Although it is iterated that consistent, continuous and sustainable communication is important for brand's marketing, in general advertising budgets are the first to be cut when economic trouble sets in. This case will help in showing that brands which choose to continue advertising during economic crisis actually make long-term marketing investments and this will be exhibited with the help of market data obtained from an emerging country. The case also sets an example on how the message given should be adopted to the current economic conditions. To simulate difficulties of being an international brand with a local touch. Although it is common knowledge that decision-making in business life is crucial for the continuation of business, we do not come across many cases showing us volatile market conditions, coupled with drastic changes taking place in the economy overnight. This case sets out to do that, based on an emerging country example. On the other hand, 2008 global economic crisis showed us all that today's global managers should be better prepared for such sudden changes wherever they may be based.

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International business; business ethics; international trade law; intellectual property

Undergraduate and Master's level courses in Business and Management, particularly with a focus on international trade.

This case covers the issues that surround piracy of intellectual property by highlighting illegal manufacture and distribution of millions of Zippo brand windproof lighters and considers the seriousness of the large-scale theft of intellectual property by civilized nations. The focus of this case is on the additional victimization of the producers of genuine products, mostly European and American, who have the policy of life-time repair-or-replace warrantee, which by extension, although wrongly, becomes applicable to their counterfeits. Some micro and macro aspects are covered in detail, some are alluded to, while others are left out for the teachers of this case to justify considering the local logic and culture.

There are major lessons embedded in this case: first, intellectual piracy is not less than the theft of tangible property. Second, the problem of piracy carried out by large, civilized countries is really serious because of its huge size. Third, if the rights of those developing innovation are not protected and they cut their investments in R&D, the consequence will hurt all people in the world – emerging and developed.

Teaching note.

Information management, IS alignment.

Undergraduate.

The case examines the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in one of Egypt’s top mobile service providers, through closely analyzing their systems, the way they work and how technology could be optimized to provide greater benefit and value to support an organization’s business goals. The main objective of the case was to identify business problems that information systems have managed to solve as well as grab a potential opportunity that the organization can or have captured. The main contribution of this case is to emphasize and provide real case application on information management concepts and theories related to Information Systems Alignment (IS Alignment), business value from IS adoption, IS implementation issues and information and process integration.

This case was written to present a practical example about the strategic use of ICT within a specific organizational context. It enables students to apply some theoretical concepts studied in information management courses (such as IS alignment – or strategic alignment –, IS assessment and IS implementation) on a real-case study. In particular, teaching this case aims to realize a number of learning objectives: understand telecom industry and acquire an overview about its environment and the challenges it faces in general and within a developing context in particular; identify the different technologies used by telecom companies; develop a business strategy based on a thorough analysis of an organization’s internal business operations as well as its external environment; and learn how to align IT use with organizational strategies and analyze critically both its tangible and intangible added values.

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CSS 11: Strategy.