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When do you throw it all away? The first senior female in a male-dominated business school decides it all comes down to a question of principle – and maybe a few others. What is the best balance between her responsibilities to students, family, and the next generation of female leaders? Can she both be true to herself and compromise? What factors should influence this decision? This case brings together questions about power and influence, rational decision-making, leadership, and the intra and inter-personal responsibilities of organizational “firsts.” Further, issues related to a university's effort to better compete within the global higher education marketplace, provide a valuable opportunity to explore institutional approaches to promoting diversity, inclusion, and cultural competency.

This case, which was developed from primary sources, highlights the array of competing objectives and personal and political tensions involved in university administration.

This case was designed for graduate students in Masters of Public Administration, Masters of Business Administration, Masters of Education in Organizational Leadership, or similar graduate degrees that include significant management and leadership content. Students working with this case should have already completed foundational courses in topics such as organizational management, public policy, leadership, strategic human resources management, or their equivalents within their respective programs of study. Virtually all of the issues raised by this case address core themes, concepts, theses, and theories associated with an accredited graduate program in educational management, business or public administration.

Strategic management.

The case is suitable for undergraduates, MBA, and executive MBA courses.

This case on Satya Bharti School Program, an initiative of the Bharti Foundation, highlights the journey, achievements and challenges faced during the implementation of a noble vision. The case maps the strategy implemented from multiple vantage points and aims to show how the compelling need of providing quality education in rural India transformed the way people look at corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.

The case analysis aims to help students comprehend and understand: the concept of corporate social responsibility; the strategic decision-making process amidst constraints in the context of not-for-profit organizations; how organizational excellence models are embedded to improvise practices and processes; the concept of the multi-stakeholder framework; and how external and internal issues can affect the success of a CSR program.

Teaching notes are available; links to videos are provided.

The case presents the situation prevailing in Loreto Day School, Sealdah, when Sister Cyril took over as the principal of the school. It details the initiatives taken by her to turn around the school. With her active interest and concern for marginalised children, the school started admitting a greater number of non - fee paying children, bringing their number to half of the total enrolled children in the school. Several programmes like providing shelter to street children and integrating them into the education system, weekly visits by school children to nearby village schools, addressing the problem of hidden child labour, programmes for platform children and training for barefoot teachers were organised along with other teaching and learning activities in the school. Pedagogic changes like activity oriented science teaching, value education, work education, and an assessment programme which took into account the effort put in by children were also initiated. Views of a cross-section of parents, some of whom had high praise for the school while some others expressed concerns about its divergent activities are also included.

This study aims to particularly focus on undergraduate and postgraduate early stage level students pursuing business, educational, social work programs. Particularly those studying organizational behavior, leadership and change, curriculum design management, social literacy and courses on 21st Century Skills.

Social entrepreneurship, developmental studies, education, organisational behavior are the subject areas focused in this study.

Purpose – The present case study is an empirical account of the gender perspectives on leadership styles and entrepreneurial mind-set demonstrated by Jigyasa and Gaurav, the co-founders of “Slam Out Loud” (SOL) – an Indian for mission non-profit organisation established in 2017. The authors intend to highlight the challenges faced by SOL during COVID outbreak, to establish community connect in the virtual domain and deliver hyper-personalised socio-emotional learning (SEL) frameworks. Will SOL’s Creatively Omnipresent and Versatile Inclusive Design framework transform Indian child education in the wake of New Education Policy 2020 of India while being sustainable as well as globally competitive?

This case study is based on primary data collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with the founders of SOL. It follows the deductive approach of methodology. The data has been complemented by documentary analysis, including videos, descriptions of internal processes and articles.

SOL has been strengthening the transformative power of performance and visual arts to help build creative confidence (CC) among children from disadvantaged communities below five years of age. The co-founders have focused on imparting life skills such as communication, critical thinking and empathy in children. The framework adopted by SOL is a combination of six 21st century and SEL skills including creativity, communication, critical thinking, collaboration, self-esteem and empathy.

A novel Sinha’s 5 × 7 SEL- COVID Matrix.

Learning outcomes can only be achieved using case-based pedagogy. Students are encouraged to dive deep into the dilemma. After the case discussion students will be able to define Creative Confidence (CC) with its importance in social development, comprehend the impact of developmental interventions such as Jijivisha Fellowship during COVID 19 and post COVID 19, understand servant leadership and its impact in the management, analyse how servant leadership accelerates social efficacy in the social enterprises, illustrate the novel 5 × 7 SEL-COVID framework for educators, create and evaluate their hyper-personalised SEL framework curriculum.

The SOL initiative is well aligned with the National Education Policy introduced in India in 2020. It will address the issues of not only providing equitable and inclusive education but also enhancing enrolment ratio and reducing dropout rates. Adoption of Arts-based education will also develop Creative Confidence (CC) and improve emotional well-being of children in primary education.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

After practicing the case students will be able to; understand the importance of recruiting the right person in retaining employees. Understand the underlying causes of employees’ turnover. Formulate retention strategies.

The case presents the situation of high turnover in Case Research Center (CRC), Sukkur IBA University. The protagonist, Dr. Waheed Ali Umrani, Head CRC was concerned about the retention of Research Associates in the CRC. The case also highlights the reasons for the turnover of early-career female research associates in an academic setup of Sukkur IBA University. This case will involve students to critically think and come up with retention strategies and measures that recruiters, in this case, should consider before and after the selection of Research Associates.

Graduate.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

The case presents the efforts of Dr. Dhanesh Jain, founder of Ratna Sagar Publications to innovate in children's publishing space. His innovations received mixed response. Commercial success was delayed. Adoption of innovations by the educational institutions did not happen as expected, the innovations, however, created opportunities for other business ventures. Dr. Jain is wondering whether the innovation efforts were worth their while.

Participants will learn to analyze the basis of consumer segmentation in management education. It will specifically highlight the importance of positioning in influencing the marketing strategy of a firm and discuss the importance of a differentiated-low cost strategy to gain competitive advantage. The case will familiarize students with the business environment of rural India, and the applicability of the 4A’s and the 5D’s framework. Finally, the case will help participants understand the difference between a rural market and a Bottom-of-Pyramid (BoP) market.

A rural MBA institute for BoP students is grappling with the problem of low admissions, leading to an existential crisis. Two divergent options are presented to the protagonist. The first is to close down the B-school and use the infrastructure and facilities for a well-funded government skill development program which is vocational and intended for creating blue-collar workers. The second is to find ways to bolster the B-school to ensure that it gets adequate student enrollment, thereby leading to profitability.

This case is suitable for an undergraduate or MBA course in marketing management, rural marketing in India, South-Asian marketing or strategic marketing.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or e-mail support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. There is an accompanying spreadsheet with the case for studying the market. It contains relevant market data that would support analysis of the case. Comments are added for easy understanding. Instructors can access the separate spreadsheet that works out the break-even calculations for the fee structure of the institute. Instructions on calculations as well as comments are added for easy understanding.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The Director, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow is preparing to face two challenges: maintaining the educational purpose of transforming students into down-to-earth managers and lifelong champions of the institute, and attracting and retaining good faculty. The case illustrates the institutional processes that a school which is part of a chain needs to consider. The tension between autonomy and conformity, and the concept of a corporate office, which is new to educational settings, are illustrated.

An instructor engaged students in managing and reporting sustainability initiatives at an organisation. After completion of the case study discussion, the students will be able to critique the sustainability initiatives that can be undertaken at an organisation; understand sustainability reporting; analyse how result-based management aids in sustainability report preparation; recommend critical considerations for conducting a sustainability impact assessment by an educational institute.

The case contributed to the growing knowledge base about reporting sustainability initiatives at an organisation and managing them to aid in decision-making. The case called for better integration between sustainability activities and reporting under organisations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting.

Ajay served as the head of the management department and a leading member of the sustainability initiatives at University Alpha, Delhi NCR, India. He was assigned the task of publishing the university’s annual report. The management had requested him to consider preparing a standalone sustainability report for the university.

He began the task by examining the benefits of standalone sustainability reporting. He proceeded to analyse the specifics of SDG reporting, SDG Accord reporting and ESG reporting using the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. During discussions with a consultant, the necessary steps for creating an SDG-only report and an integrated SDG and ESG sustainability report were clarified.

Guidance from an expert led to an intention to use a result matrix in preparing the sustainability report and ongoing impact assessment of SDG initiatives for reporting. The dilemma involved deciding between continuing with the sustainability initiative listing in the annual reports or opting for a standalone sustainability report. Critical considerations concerning the sustainability impact assessment of SDG-related activities at an educational organisation were also explored.

This case is intended for discussion in the graduate-level program in strategy, general management, sustainability management, environmental management and environmental economics. The case may also be used for participants in executive program.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 4: Environmental Management.

Upon completion of the case study, students are expected to identify the characteristics that differentiate a family business from other businesses, understand the life cycles of family businesses and evaluate the significance of succession planning and leadership development in a family business.

In May 2023, when the sultry afternoon had settled down, Bijan Dam, a first-generation entrepreneur and a septuagenarian, was in a pensive mood. Introspecting life events, he ruminated that if he could rewind the tape of life, go back in space and time, would things be different. “I wish life gave me a second chance,” he lamented! Perhaps he could have planned better. Since founding the printing business in 1985, Ruby Art Press had scaled up significantly from letter press to full-fledged computer printing technology unit. The press had made inroads in job orders, government contracts and screen printing. Its client base was large. It also attracted repeat clients from adjoining states. With a successful business history of three and half decades, he had assumed the business would thrive perpetually. Today the business he had built, sustained and raised was practically gone. Why had he not anticipated the future potential of the business? Why had he not dwelled upon the successful business progression? Regardless of impeccable client service and personalized vendor management, what were the missing cues in the business? Deep agony and heavy burden of remorse were mentally excruciating. This had pestering effect on his health condition. Given these challenges, how could Dam ensure business continuity?

This case can be used in entrepreneurship, family business management and human management courses. The dilemma can be explained as part of the courses for undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.