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The case is suitable for strategy or entrepreneurship modules. It is designed to teach students about the importance of implementing formal processes when entering a growth phase as well as the complexities, unexpected costs, and benefits that growing a business can bring.

The case is aimed at MBA or Master-level students or executive education programmes as part of a strategy or entrepreneurship module.

Lattice Towers is a South African company in the telecommunications infrastructure sector. They are struggling to generate sufficient cash flow to sustain operations as a result of poor strategic decision-making regarding tower-build site acquisition. To compound matters, the owner has been struggling with health issues related to the stress caused by the crises that Lattice Towers is going through. Recently, however, a multinational publicly listed behemoth in the telecommunications industry, Helios Towers, offered to acquire the company. The acquisition offer seems like a saving grace to the owner; however, Lattice Towers is deeply personal to the him and he would not like to lose the brand. Furthermore, there is a tremendous opportunity for business growth due to the imminent increase in demand for tower infrastructure. But based on the challenging financial position the business currently finds itself in, he might not have the option to keep the business.

To develop a decision-making framework and strategy to navigate the business life-cycle stages, from survival to growth

Understand the concepts of uncertainty, risk, and liquidity premiums that apply to entrepreneurship

Understand the stress-related implications for entrepreneurs

Understand the psychological costs and benefits of entrepreneurship

Understand the personal financial implications for entrepreneurship

The learning outcomes are as follows: to demonstrate the phenomenon of strategic inertia in organizations and the impact this has on the type of renewal process that is undertaken; to differentiate between environmental and organizational adaptation strategies and synergies; to apply practical steps of renewal by outlining the influential forces and distinct stages of the process; and to create a practical framework that organizations can use as a guideline for sensing and reacting to changes in the business environment.

The case study examines the strategic renewal processes of Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) for the period 2012–2019. Amplats is the world’s largest producer of platinum group metals (PGMs). Despite the adversarial business environment of the South African PGM mining industry, six years into its new strategy, the organization had emerged debt-free and was poised to be sustainable. This posed a unique dilemma in strategic decision-making, namely, how to maintain a strategic renewal process. Chris Griffith, CEO of Amplats, was about to retire, but realized that the organization had yet to fulfil its potential. The ambition of the organization was to redefine the industry benchmark for performance across multiple pillars of value for different stakeholders, and to become the most valued mining company by 2023. Set in 2019, the case invites students to look back at the symptoms of strategic inertia at the time of Griffith’s appointment as CEO, and to define the nature and stages of the renewal that the organization underwent. This will provide insights that will enable an examination of the application of a framework for continual strategic renewal.

Postgraduate business students

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy

Innovation, privatisation and property development.

Undergraduate and MA level property development courses; modules covering privatisation within undergraduate, MBA and MA level management programmes.

This paper presents the genesis and motivating factors that stimulate a managing director of a housing development (D&B Private Limited Company) to introduce innovation as a strategic solution to the challenges which hinder his firm's growth. The recently launched Ten Malaysian Plan and the Sustainable Programme for Corporate Malaysia are identified as the two stimulating events that triggered the initiation and subsequent implementation of innovation into Design and Build Sdn Bhd. Innovation has been recognized as an endeavor that impacts positively and significantly the performance of the firm that innovates. There was a major focus on factors that enhance innovation of a firm: structure, culture, resources and how to address or react to external factors such as government regulation on innovation, environmental uncertainty and market competition. The quest to be an innovative firm has led to major changes in the structure, culture and review of the firm intangible resources. Coupled with some corporate responsibilities, Design and Build Sdn Bhd has been recognized for its unique performance resulting from the competitive advantage derived from this very idea of innovations.

Students are expected to be able: to present a basic understanding of the motivations and driving force behind the housing developer's keen interest to innovate, to present the multiple benefits of adopting innovation in the housing industry, to highlight the internal and external factors which positively influence innovation among housing developers?, to present how housing developers are able to manage challenges facing their companies through innovation.

Teaching notes.

After reading and discussing this case, students will learn to identify the content and context of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation that is important from an operations standpoint. Through this case, student will discuss and evaluate the scenarios of ERP implementation arising from different deployment alternatives. Students will also learn to comprehend the case organization’s unique operational context and explore the challenges of introducing change into workplace environment and stakeholders’ overall expectations.

This case introduces students to the dilemmas of managerial decision-making that large companies face while implementing organization-wide technological upgrades, such as ERP. The case is set at a time point where ABC Mining Company – a large public-sector mining company – was trying to identify the most optimal ERP option based on its organizational structure and organizational processes. The information related to ABC’s organizational context included their business, structural and operational scenarios at the time. The information related to ABC’s stakeholders’ expectations reflected their perception about ERP and future implications. The information related to managerial conflicts reflected the understandings of the managers, in terms of need for ERP, needed skill to handle ERP and different types of ERP implementations that others have adopted. The case calls students for extensive analysis of the gathered information to identify and evaluate impacts and risks of all possible ERP alternates, and finally pick upon the most optimal ERP alternate. The case assumes a live 90-min class session conducted by an instructor. The instructor is recommended to assign the case to students for mandatory pre-reading before coming to class. The instructor is provided with a teaching plan to navigate the case.

The case is designed as an introductory case for an undergraduate or a graduate course pertaining strategic decision-making of ERP systems implementation.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

A Confrontation of Mindsets: French Retailers Operating in Poland traces the history of French retailers setting up operations in Poland in the mid 90s. The case, however, is set in 2006 when a top retailing executive recalls the important watershed period of 1996-97 when the expatriate managers in charge of setting up the first hypermarkets encountered great difficulties with their new Polish recruits. The managers were not succeeding in transferring the practices and routines that were an essential part of their business model on the home market in France: their Polish employees displayed work attitudes that were the contrary of the initiative and responsibility for enlarged jobs that characterized employees back home. This situation called into question the very viability of their business model in Poland. The case poses very clearly the question of what actions the expatriate managers should decide to take to ensure the store launchings in Poland and future growth. The issues raised concern global versus multi-domestic internationalization strategies, business models, paradigms, corporate culture, management of expats, knowledge transfer and the link between strategic implementation and organizational behavior.

The primary learning objectives of the case are described below:1) Understanding the start-up market segment for an innovative product.2) Analyse the market expansion and diversification strategies of a start-up.3) Evaluate the business expansion through introduction of new product variants or through envisaging new distribution channels.

Cronos Ltd. was Iyer's first business endeavour after completing his Master of Business Administration (MBA). Iyer had aspired to be an entrepreneur since he was a youngster. In 2015, a first-generation entrepreneur with full conviction, he entered a market that was tough for a novice to access. Despite several challenges and uncertainties, he persisted and ventured into the company on the edge of extinction with a concept for affordable sanitiser sachets. Strong willpower, but no background, guidance or finances have made him struggle at each stage of his journey. He made this possible as he had understood the need for a specific lower-income segment of customers who could afford to buy the sanitiser sachets for as low as INR1 ($0.013). Until 2021 he was selling through the GT channel in central and western regions of India. He had planned for product extension by introducing three new products in the FMCG sector with manageable finance needs. Meanwhile, he had gotten an offer to enter into the MT channel to compete with big brands in the Gujarat region. Iyer needed substantial funds to expand his business in the MT channel and had to offer equity partnership to the investor, who would invest in the business.

Graduate and post-graduate in the topics of segmentations and market expansion in the marketing management subject.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Capital budgeting and investment.

Undergraduate level.

Ms Kamariza, a young Rwandan citizen, established the non-profit organization “Solid Africa” in December 2010. She created the organization together with young professionals, friends and family members with the aim of supporting the most socioeconomically vulnerable individuals’ needs for medical, hygiene, emotional and food services. Ms Kamariza became the Chief Executive Officer and her sister the Chief Financial Officer; together with the help of other additional volunteer staff they carry out this important work. The founders have done an excellent job of maintaining the organization for five years, feeding an average of 1,000 patients every day, and gaining widespread favorable reputation. However, the organization has heavily relied on donations through fundraising events and member contributions (currently 148 members). In 2011, the founders decided that the organization should become self-reliant by planning to build an industrial kitchen, which would cater to different companies (new customers) while also providing free meals to socioeconomically vulnerable patients. This kitchen is foreseen to continuously generate revenue and profits.

The case is aimed at undergraduate students, pursuing their bachelor, management or social science studies. The teaching is mainly suited for students focused in the fields of social entrepreneurship, finance and social innovation. Students should be able to demonstrate the challenges faced by social entrepreneurs in their quest for capital investment; they should understand how management biases can affect business decision-making; they should also demonstrate the importance of capital budgeting techniques in a social enterprise to achieve better investment decision-making.

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 3: Entrepreneurship.

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.

This case describes how eight entrepreneurs discover different opportunities for new businesses to exploit a single technological invention. The case focuses on the process of entrepreneurial discovery and its implications for the creation of new firms. Many of the teaching materials on entrepreneurship assume that entrepreneurs have already discovered an opportunity. While these materials provide useful information about the process of creating new enterprises, they miss the crucial first step in the entrepreneurial process: identifying an opportunity. The case illustrates the theoretical concept of the role of information in the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities. It can be used in a class on entrepreneurship or management of technology.

The case discussion will help the participants figure out ways the entrepreneur could handle problems such as labour shortage, demonetisation and customer retention and find possible strategies to overcome them.

MVR Leathers is a small-scale leather-processing unit located in Chennai. MVR was the brainchild of Venkat Raj, who started his career in 1982 as a casual labourer in an unrelated domain. His unwavering persistence helped him to become an independent entrepreneur by 2008. In achieving his dream to become an entrepreneur, Raj encountered many challenges and an equal number of new opportunities. Each time he faced a challenge, he met a new set of people who helped him. However, at times, the same people who had helped him once might throw him out of the scene. In brief, his struggle is never-ending. He keeps fighting to come back and find new avenues to success. A different set of challenges surfaced as he took charge of his firm as a sole owner. Once again, he countered those challenges with courage and grit. In doing so, he made full use of his experience.

The case can be used for discussions at the executive, postgraduate and undergraduate levels. Academic courses that address topics such as entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs, small-firm strategies, business environments, leather industry, leadership, human resource management and entrepreneurial journeys can use the case for classroom learning.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.