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The case deals with project management principles that are required for implementing a social project in India.

The study has been carried out at primary schools in an underdeveloped state, namely, Odisha, in India.

The case illustrates a project management approach for improving primary education in a government set up. The bureaucracy set up in education in a state like Odisha, India, needs to undergo radical changes. To be effective, an education system requires an optimal integration of the three main components, namely, people, infrastructure (this includes technology) and pedagogical processes. Using a public–private partnership model, American India Foundation (AIF) through its Digital Equalizer (DE) Program has been able to make a positive impact in an underdeveloped tribal dominated district like Keonjhar. The case study also illustrates the detailed execution plan predicated on total system planning, required to achieve this amount of success. The case study also explains how to measure success through different metrics where intervention has to be at multiple levels. The learning from the case study can also be adopted for designing an implementation strategy in other states.

Expected learning outcomes are as follows: how to approach implementation of technology-based intervention with involvement of all stakeholders; learn project management techniques related to digital learning model implementation; understand the DE methodology; and understand the challenges faced while implementing the DE Program.

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 7: Management Science.

Management scholars and researchers have long been concerned about the impact and relevance of their work. Here we chronicle the teaching, research, management, and personal leadership development lessons that have arisen from a collaborative, decade-long relationship between three management faculty members and the senior management team of a major Norwegian-based global shipping and logistics company. This relationship grew from the creation of a teaching case in 1997 to many years of productive and meaningful work together, including the development and delivery of the all-conference Plenary Session at the 2006 Eastern Academy of Management Meeting, held concurrently with the annual CASE Association Conference. At the 2006 Plenary Session, each of the authors expressed powerful personal and professional development through their collaboration over the years, which is summarized in this article. Reflections, lessons and future research directions are provided.

Todd Wilson, manager of partner development at Educational Technology Corp., needed to determine the targeting, positioning, and selling strategy for its innovative Interactive Mathematics software for the college market. This required determining what types of colleges to target and which stakeholders to focus on within institutions. His task was complicated by the unclear objectives of nonprofit institutions and the differing motivations of teachers, students, and college administrators in adopting software-based learning technology. Highlights the difficulties in innovation adoption within large nonprofit institutions and the challenges in marketing to institutions with complex decision-making processes, multiple influencers, and conflicting motivations.

The specific teaching and learning objectives are as follows: to help students manage virtual communication in cross-cultural settings and developing the trust in virtual teams. To have them assess their effectiveness in the virtual collaboration process. To design the strategies to combat the challenges involved in working collaboratively on a common computing platform.

Higher education institutions in India are facing intense criticism for failing to impart employability skills to the students. Despite being one of the largest education systems in the world, Indian universities are not listed in the rankings of best international universities. It is grappling with the challenges of adopting the right teaching methodologies that foster deep learning, which may lead to sustainability in higher education. To gain relevancy, the higher education institutions must discover the ways to transit from the knowledge-intensive to skill-intensive institutions. By introducing a virtual collaborative professional project for international business students, Professor Bose proposed a small step of moving from a rote teacher-centric to more hands-on, student-centric teaching methodology. While virtual projects are a common and successful way of enhancing cross-cultural competence in students, Professor Bose is unsure how receptive Indian students will be with this methodology. He visualizes many challenges related to the execution of the project and is worried whether he will be successful in achieving his goal of skill-based knowledge creation. While systems and institutions of higher education in India struggle to address the pressures created by globalization, Professor Bose knew that the one-size-may not fit all. “Flexible pedagogy” and personalizing the methods to suit the requirements of a majority of the students was the way forward. However, he needs to know if the faculty and students will be open to change.

This case is immediately valuable for the students and faculty who are the part of the courses such as “International Business” in which the global leadership challenges, managing virtual communication in cross-cultural settings and developing the trust in virtual teams are main features of the curriculum. The case could also be used effectively in the seminars conducted for the managers working in international organizations and managing the tasks in virtual teams located globally.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 5 International Business.

In May 2013, Jack Russo, a Chicago-based tech entrepreneur, had to choose one of four possible product concepts to use as the starting point for his new K–8 educational learning company, TabletTeach LLC. At the time, the K–12 education market in the United States was experiencing major disruption due to print-to-digital transformation, new Common Core State Standards (CCSS), new standardized tests aligned to the Common Core (rolling out in most states in the 2014–2015 school year), and increasing pressure from parents for schools to incorporate technology in their children's learning. Based on his first-hand experience and research, Russo knew there was a significant opportunity for a company that brought to market a tablet-enabled learning solution focusing on grades K–8, which made learning Common Core math and/or language arts fun for every student and engagingly simple for all teachers.

This case provides an interesting example of something typically hard to teach: transitioning from the fuzzy front end of a market opportunity analysis to a specific product opportunity. The case bounds the problem by outlining four potential product concepts, which students will then evaluate and rank using their own sets of criteria.

Define evaluation criteria for an opportunity analysis of a tech startup in a dynamic market; use these criteria to evaluate a set of product concepts and their business opportunities; refine a set of product concepts to develop and present a recommendation; understand the importance of the problem-persona-product fit and “jobs to be done” data in identifying high-value opportunities; present findings in an opportunity brief and a market opportunity hypothesis statement

• After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:• Identify the difference between core competencies and dynamic capabilities and how they make a difference in a crisis towards building an agile organisation.• Evaluate the support through a collaborative, temporary, trans-organisational system to local manufacturers to achieve agility and sustainability.• Realise the importance of clear expectations exchange and communication between partners to enhance collaboration, even in temporary structures in increasing agility and sustainability.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns created a crisis for South Africa and the President, Cyril Ramaphosa called for urgent collaboration between business, labour and government to meet the demand for locally produced Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and medical devices. The case illustrates this response and collaboration between government, labour and business through a temporary newly formed structure, called Business for South Africa (B4SA). Ross Boyd, Head of the innovation work stream of B4SA which housed the local manufacturing partnership (LMP) was considering his dilemma of how to be agile in sustaining their support to the South African manufacturers even though the LMP was a temporary structure. The local manufacturers had to repurpose their production lines to produce local PPE and medical devices. How could the LMP support the South African manufacturers to sustain their agility in building capabilities during COVID-19? At the same time, Ahmed Dhai, the Group Executive of Operations of Kingsgate Clothing, which was benefiting from the support of the LMP, was reflecting on his leadership in taking decisions to repurpose production and increase capacity during COVID-19. Dhai was considering his dilemma of being agile during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. The case features several decisions taken by Kingsgate and offers students the opportunity to evaluate these decisions given the fluctuations in supply and demand of PPE and the leadership that Dhai demonstrated in how he communicated and dealt with his staff during the pandemic. Students could also give recommendations to Ross Boyd and Ahmed Dhai on how they could lead their organisations to be more agile during and beyond COVID-19.

The case study is suitable for MBA or MPhil level on Strategy courses. The case would also find good application in Organisational Behaviour and Leadership courses on Masters level and Executive Education programmes.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management Science.

This article is a continuation of the article entitled “A Primer on Case Reviewing” published in The CASE Journal, Volume 1, Issue 1. Used in conjunction with the article “Case Research and Writing: Three Days in the Life of Professor Moore”, this article should help both case writers and case reviewers understand the critical elements of what a reviewer should look for in the case and the teaching note.

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.

Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to test the effectiveness of the case exercise process as it relates to increasing student participation and engagement. Surveys were used as a data collection method where students self-reported their participation.

This research paper argues that class engagement and participation is a process that must be learned by students. To this end, it presents a case exercise process designed particularly for the introduction to management class that helps students to learn and apply management theory while increasing their engagement. While each element of the process is not new, the integration of the elements into a process that is structured and repeated throughout the semester adds value to student participation. Empirical data demonstrated that students increased their participation in classes that used the case exercise process over traditional lecture classes.

This paper is relevant for faculty members seeking to use case exercises in teaching undergraduate management courses, particularly introductory management courses.

This case study is designed to enable students to formulate the strategic planning process in relation to an organization’s resources; assess the critical tasks required for the company’s business planning for growth and market expansion; and examine the importance of the value delivery process for the company, its customer and its employees. At the end of the case discussion, students will learn how to plan their business in an emerging market by using their existing resources, where the business stands at present and where it may go in the coming future.

The case study discusses how Byju’s, an Indian multinational educational technology company, revolutionized student learning programs through its innovative strategic implementation. It explores the company’s growth and expansion strategy by considering a strength, weakness, opportunity and threats analysis. It elaborates on how Byju’s acquired various companies in India and other countries to become an international technology-based educational brand with 150 million users in 2022. The case study also highlights the marketing and promotional strategy used by the company on online and offline platforms. The case study elaborates on the value delivery process and its importance for customer and employee satisfaction. Despite its success in the Indian market, Byju’s faced tough challenges in the US and European markets, such as lower-than-expected growth rates and lower subscription numbers, even though it followed the same strategy as in the Indian market. The acquisition and celebrity strategy works in emerging economies such as India but not in developed countries. The company’s return on investment was down owing to the high costs it had incurred over the years on market acquisitions and marketing promotions. The growing competition was also expected to bring more challenges for Byju’s. New players such as Tata Studi and YouTube planned to enter the market. Byju Raveendran and his management group had to decide whether to maintain or change the current market offering to reflect market developments to satisfy their customers and employees. They also had to determine whether the main components of the marketing strategy, such as the company’s ongoing value delivery process and ongoing strategy toward the target audience, partners and rivals, are advantageous to the firm or not. The team was in dilemma whether the marketing planning process was going in the right direction and how to make all elements of its businesses more efficient in dealing with the issues. Raveendran kept asking questions about to what extent it is still possible to alter the marketing plan.

The case study is appropriate for discussion in courses such as marketing management, service marketing and strategic marketing management, whether they are part of an undergraduate program (Bachelor of Business Administration [BBA]), a postgraduate program in business management (Master of Business Administration [MBA]) or an executive-level program (executive MBA). The breadth of business topics addressed and the intricacy of the scenario make this case study best suited to be used after the semester as either a culminating project or as a seminar discussion for undergraduates (BBA). The case study can also be discussed in the marketing management course (graduation level) under the marketing and service strategy chapters.

CSS8: Marketing

Teaching notes are available for educators only.