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Urban Affordable Housing (UAH) Inc. was a real estate asset management syndication firm that sponsored affordable housing to low-income families and seniors across the USA. The case examines the firm’s management of an internal information technology (IT) change initiative. The case follows the firm’s recently hired IT manager, Anthony Bryant, as he works to change a culture while acquiring resources and acceptance for the project he was hired to oversee. Bryant deals with numerous changing priorities, inadequate sponsorship, resistance from various levels, and a dearth of resources as he struggles to get the organization to complete an overdue database conversion.

This case is based upon the firsthand experiences of the lead author over a seven-year period while working at UAH. Measures have been taken to disguise the firm’s identity, including using a pseudonym, fictitious names for firm employees, a fictitious location, and the alteration of key dates. Key elements of the case have been constructed around semi-structured interviews and the review of archival documentation. Most quotes are verbatim in an attempt to preserve their authenticity, and were drawn from the semi-structured interviews and from historical accounts of actual occurrences and conversations.

The UAH case is multi-faceted, as it can be used in a number of environments amid a business school curriculum. A primary use is likely in a course revolving around organizational change and development. It might also be featured as part of the organizational change component in a course on organizational behavior, used to illustrate and analyze organizational culture and change leadership. Furthermore, the case could be used for change-related topics in management information systems or project management courses. The authors suggest the case be assigned at the graduate level, though it could also be suitable for an advanced undergraduate class.

Critical knowledge for successfully analyzing this case includes the following concepts: the change process (Lewin, 1951); leading change (Kotter, 1996); resistance to change (Kegan and Lahey, 2001); and communicating change (Armenakis and Harris, 2002).

This case was based on secondary data that included various websites, news and academic articles, social media posts and press conferences before, during and after the World Cup. Multiple sources were examined to ensure the accuracy and credibility of the information presented in this case. The goal was to gather relevant information on the Moroccan soccer team, its performance in the FIFA World Cup and the leadership strategies used by Walid Regragui.

“We are the dreamers, we let it happen: Morocco’s soccer team leadership story” explores the transformative journey of Morocco’s soccer team in the 2022 World Cup, highlighting the exceptional leadership of coach Walid Regragui and the power of shared values deeply rooted in Moroccan culture. The instructional manual provides faculty with a compelling case study to inspire discussions on leadership, followership, team dynamics and cultural identity. The case emphasizes the importance of harnessing cultural roots, building trust and unity within a diverse team, strategic vision and tactical brilliance. It demonstrates that with authentic leadership, belief in shared dreams and the strength of cultural values, extraordinary achievements can be realized. The case aims to inspire and educate students, encouraging them to embrace their own cultural heritage, foster teamwork and pursue their dreams with unwavering determination.

The academic level of this case can vary depending on the specific course or program in which it is being used. It is suitable for graduate levels in various fields such as leadership studies, sports management, organizational behavior, cultural studies, or international business. The case provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership, team dynamics and cultural identity, including faith and spirituality, making it adaptable for different academic levels and disciplines. Instructors can adjust the depth of analysis and additional readings or activities to align with the specific educational level and learning objectives of their course.

Marketing.

MBA students.

Titan Industries Limited is the world's fifth-largest wristwatch manufacturer and India's leading producer of watches under the Titan, Fastrack, Sonata, Nebula, Raga, Regalia, Octane and Xylys brand names. When a joint venture with Timex came to an end, Titan found themselves without a range of watches for the youth, a growing segment with significant disposable incomes. To serve that segment, they launched a range of “cool” casual watches under the Fastrack from Titan sub-brand in 1998. Sunglasses were also launched but under the Accessories division of the company. In 2003, a decision was taken to combine the watches and sunglasses and spin it off under a new group called “Fastrack and New Brands”. Post this spin-off, Fastrack was launched as a standalone brand with the vision of becoming the most iconic and exciting fashion brand for youth. The overarching strategy was to bring affordable fashion to the youth and bridging the gap between the unorganized market and international brands. The product strategy was to extend the brand rapidly into other accessories such as belts, wallets, bags and wristbands. The brand personality was to be irreverent and comfortable with impropriety. Their communications reflected the brand attitude with edgy advertising. The distribution model adopted was to have their own branded stores. The brand grew from a mere INR30 crores in 2003 to INR770 crores in 2013. As the brand grew largely from moving into adjacent product categories, Fastrack managers were always looking for the next product category to enter and dominate. In 2013-2014, the product category seriously being looked at was two-wheeler helmets – a category dominated largely by the unorganized sector with low quality. The challenge was to take a product category that existed mainly due to safety regulations and turn it into a personal, fashion accessory. Was it a large enough market to penetrate and dominate? Would they be able to change consumer perception of helmets being a necessary evil to being a fashion accessory proudly displayed? Can they change consumer purchase behavior to go shopping for helmets instead ofjust buying the cheapest, comfortable helmet? Would the brand extension into helmets strengthen or dilute brand equity? These were the questions that faced Ronnie Talati, the Chief Marketing Officer.

Understand how to go about creating a brand strategy when re-launching it as a standalone brand without the support of the corporate umbrella brand; analyze different product markets to enter and how to arrive at a go/no-go decision; comprehend the challenges of extending the brand into different and sometimes unrelated product categories.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email: support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Data from HCL company and their corporate entrepreneurship activities were sourced using interviews and discussions. Secondary data was collected from the company website and other information available in the public domain.

This case narrates activities undertaken by the Enterprise Technology Office (ETO) of HCL Technologies Infrastructure Service Division to build the Corporate Entrepreneurship function. Around 2015–2016, the ETO started engaging with multiple people and organizations associated with the technology ecosystem outside the firm boundary for novel technologies and solutions. These entities included venture capitalists and start-ups. The ETO also began engaging with internal teams and existing customers to promote the identified novel technologies and innovative solutions. The ETO function grew organically by hiring resources from internal and external pools. ETO also undertook specific programs to increase the involvement of internal teams in their initiatives, like the Joint Exploration Program. ETO explored several options to further the ecosystem innovation strategy and institutionalize corporate entrepreneurship activities. The ETO team deliberated on ways to align the stakeholder goals and evaluate if technology could play a role.

This case can be used in any course on “Managing Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation,” “Strategic Management of Technology Enterprises” or any course focused on managing technology and innovation for graduate (MBA) or executive participants.

After reading and discussing the case study, students should be able to identify the reasons why the company needed to digitise and how this links to the company’s strategy around technology and innovation, analyse the digitalisation implementation process followed in the case study by using an organisational change management model and make recommendations and propose a solution for the protagonist to consider for the successful roll-out of the digitalisation project.

DRA Projects is part of the DRA Global business based in South Africa. The company is known locally in the mining and engineering industry for its project development, delivery, execution and operations capabilities. Digital transformation is a key strategic focus in the industry, as clients seek digitised integrated systems. For this client offering, J.C. Heslinga, managing director of DRA Projects, was tasked with leading the digitalisation of the project delivery system. From July 2020 until July 2022, Heslinga led the implementation team through different organisational change stages. As the next phase included rolling out digitalisation to pilot projects and engaging employees and clients in the new process, Heslinga wondered if enough was done to ready the business for this change. The end users would be executing the changes, so their adoption will be imperative for successfully rolling out digitalisation. The case study concludes with Heslinga pondering the approach needed for the next phase. The case study focuses on the digitalisation implementation process through the lens of organisational change. The case study presents an opportunity to analyse and identify the theories and models used in organisational change within a real-life business context. The organisational change learnings can be adapted to help students with any transformation changes in similar business scenarios.

Postgraduate- and master’s-level students and business executives attending short courses will benefit from the learnings. The learnings can be applied to improve decision-making, organisational behaviour and strategic implementation using the fundamental principles of organisational change.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management

1. Maria Jarlstrom, Essi Saru, and Sinikka Vanhala, “Sustainable Human Resource Management With Salience of Stakeholders: A Top Management Perspective,” Journal of Business Ethics, 152, (2008): 703–724. 2. Benjamin A. Neville, Simon J. Bell, and Gregory J., “Stakeholder Salience Revisited: Refining, Redefining, and Refueling an Underdeveloped Conceptual Tool,” Journal of Business Ethics, 102, (2011): 357–378. 3. Mick Marchington, Fang Lee Cooke, and Gail Hebson. “Human Resource Management Across Organizational Boundaries,” Sage Handbook of Human Resource Management, (2009): 460–477.

This secondary source case is based mainly on three documents: the 20-page report by a labor union, Unite Here, titled “One Job Should Be Enough: Inequality at Starbucks”; and two reports by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. and Covington & Burlington, LLP.

In February 2020, Unite Here, a labor union, released a damming report about employment practices at the airport Starbucks stores operated by licensee, HMSHost. Among other charges, the report identified several instances of racial and gender discrimination that HMSHost dismissed as a ploy by a union intent on organizing its employees. The adverse publicity, however, put Starbucks Corporation in the spotlight because of the company’s publicly stated commitment to workplace equality. The recently hired Nzinga Shaw, the company’s first-ever Global Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer, had to address the issue at HMSHost lest it adversely affect Starbucks’ reputation as a progressive employer.

The case is best suited for a graduate or undergraduate course in human resource management or labor relations. As diversity is typically covered in the first third of such courses, the ideal placement of this case would be in the early part of the course. As Starbucks is a well-known name, and it is very likely that students have had their own experience with Starbucks, as either a customer or an employee, the case is likely to draw their interest.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Marketing, Sports marketing and Social media marketing.

Graduate level.

This case, based on field research and multiple secondary sources, documents the 12-month period since early 2014 during which Cricket South Africa (CSA) developed the Protea Fire brand for their national men’s cricket team, known as the Proteas. In mid-2014, Marc Jury, the Commercial and Marketing manager of CSA set up a project team to take the previously in-house Protea Fire brand public. With the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand less than a year away, Jury worked with a diverse project team of Proteas players, cricket brand managers and external consultants to build a public brand identity for the national team, to nurture greater fan affinity and to mobilize South Africans behind their team for the World Cup. The project team developed a range of Protea Fire multimedia content as the core of the campaign. These included video diaries, scripts which were written by the Proteas players themselves, player profile videos, motivational team-talk videos and good luck video messages featuring ordinary and famous South Africans. Having invested in creating this content, the project team faced the difficult task of allocating a limited media budget to broadcast and amplify the content. Another significant challenge was to ensure that the Proteas team values were authentically communicated across all content, including via the social media strategy using Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. As the World Cup tournament kicked off on February 14th 2015, South Africa was well placed to overcome their previous inability to reach a final, although Jury wondered whether another exit in the knockout round would weaken the strong and positive emotions the Protea Fire campaign had ignited. With the last two balls remaining in South Africa’s semi-final game against New Zealand on March 24th 2015, and the home team requiring just five runs to win, Jury joined 60 million South Africans hoping that Protea Fire was strong enough. The case concludes with South Africa losing the semi-final game and Jury turning his attention to how the #ProteaFire campaign should respond.

This study aimed to analyse the development of a sport team brand and a megaevent campaign; to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of a marketing campaign; and to consider appropriate brand responses to the team’s failure to deliver on expectations.

CSS 8: Marketing.

This case describes the talent management practices of Kaivalya Education Foundation (KEF), a social sector organization that works in the domain of school education. The two year Gandhi Fellowship (GF) program run by KEF takes urban youth from the best graduate colleges in the country and creates a cadre of change leaders that will work to bring about social change in the nation. The GFs undertake a rigorous, hands-on journey through the two years that is transformational in many ways.

The (A) case describes the evolution between 1999 and 2005 of an unusual innovation team within the office of the chief information officer at oil and gas giant BP. This team helped business units conceive, develop, and implement novel, value-added applications for emerging information technologies. The team leader, vice president and chief technology officer Phiroz Darukhanavala (“Daru”), eschewed a large group and venture budget in favor of a small, lean team intimately engaged with BP's business units. The case describes several mechanisms created by the CTO office during its early evolution: “Blue Chalk” events that expanded executives' appreciation of emerging technology capabilities, a network of relationships through which emerging technologies were scouted and vetted, a structured technology transfer process, and annual “game-changer” projects.

The (B) case describes how the CTO office team members in 2011 again solicited advice from their ecosystem of thought leaders and held workshops to significantly enhance their impact. As a result, they began developing solutions for broader, more fundamental business problems that came to be known as Grand Challenges: extremely difficult business problems whose solutions could potentially create hundreds of millions—or billions—of dollars in business value.

After reading and analyzing the case, students will be able to:

• Understand the management challenges associated with realizing the business value of new technologies

• Explore how innovation management evolves as an innovation team learns from its successes and failures and, more importantly, builds a reputation within and outside the company

• Examine a prototypical “advocate” model of corporate entrepreneurial practice

• Explore a leading example of a successful internal innovation program

Understand the management challenges associated with realizing the business value of new technologies

Explore how innovation management evolves as an innovation team learns from its successes and failures and, more importantly, builds a reputation within and outside the company

Examine a prototypical “advocate” model of corporate entrepreneurial practice

Explore a leading example of a successful internal innovation program

After the successful release of the first Hunger Games film in 2012, the film's distributor, Lionsgate, was preparing to release the next movie in the series, Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Fan expectations had grown after the success of the first film, and Lionsgate faced the challenge of keeping moviegoers interested and engaged in another Hunger Games movie. In an era marked by the rising popularity of digital and social media, Lionsgate knew that attracting fans to a sequel meant pushing the boundaries of traditional marketing tactics.

Digital brand storytelling is about using digital media in a holistic way to tell a brand story and build excitement for an audience. Brand storytelling seeks to make a connection with the audience by giving them an emotional experience that resonates with them. While Lionsgate was aware that traditional marketing would need to be blended with a digital campaign to bring in moviegoers, it also needed to strike a careful balance between the two and choose the appropriate platforms to tell a cohesive story. Should Lionsgate launch a brand storytelling campaign to appeal to fans? Lionsgate's comparatively small marketing team gathered to brainstorm about how to execute such a campaign and position the film for another big success.