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Marketing Management, Product Management, Marketing Strategy.

Bachelor of Business Studies, MBA, Executive MBA.

The case throws light on the intensely competitive Indian passenger car market and its unique challenges faced by Hyundai Motors India Limited (HMIL). It tries to capture the evolution of this dynamic industry, which is characterized by regular product launches and re-positioning efforts. The students are expected to assess the performance of HMIL and the success of its positioning efforts through multiple quantitative and qualitative data points given in the case. The students need to come up with recommendations whether, amidst intense competition, Government regulations and changing consumer expectations, HMIL should launch new products in its portfolio? If, yes, in which segments? And what should be the guiding philosophy behind such product launches?

The case is expected to guide students: 1. in comprehending the various macro-environmental factors that has made India an attractive passenger car market to invest and operate in, to virtually all multinational players across all segments; 2. in analyzing how the passenger car market is segmented in India; 3. in assessing the product-driven segment-wise performance by HMIL specifically and organizations in general and what are its implications on decision-making; this is indicative of the brand portfolio management based on BCG Brand/Product Portfolio Growth Share Matrix; 4. in assessing the impact of re-positioning on the firms performance judged before and after the re-positioning efforts by the firm; 5. in analyzing the market potential of SUVs and MUVs in India and whether HMIL should launch new products/brands for these segments; and 6. in deliberating on the guiding philosophy in new product launches around the concept of “Consumer Perceived Value”.

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 8: Marketing.

Paytm has become a popular method to make cashless payments in India. Be it for transferring funds through mobile numbers, online payment of utility bills, cabs, etc. or payment to offline merchants. This case elaborates on the position Paytm has attained in the market thus far and its ambitious future growth plans. It describes the strategies being adopted by Paytm’s competitors and the new developments in the payments business in India. The case finally narrates the challenges the Fintech firm faces at present and poses a pertinent question: is Paytm on a growth trajectory or committing suicide by leaping so fast?

The case collates secondary data pertaining to Paytm’s current position and recent developments in the Indian mobile wallet industry. It presents the facts and data published on websites, newspapers, and magazines in the form of a case study.

This case can be applied to strategic management at under graduate and introductory level in post-graduate marketing of digital products.

Business Management, Global Marketing Strategy, Strategic Management, International Business, International Management.

The case is suitable for undergraduate and post-graduate business and management students. The case is based on secondary data collection and all the facts are real.

The expected learning outcomes include the selection of a foreign market; the determinants of the foreign mode of entry strategy; the process of integrating an internationalization strategy; how to choose the most appropriate partner; and the monitoring of international markets. The case provides a space to think about practice and help learners, therefore, to connect theory and practice.

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

Operational Management, Strategic Management and Marketing Management.

The case can be taught in introductory marketing courses and management and organizational policy course and in advanced level in promotion, distribution channels, marketing research, consumer behavior and brand management courses at graduate level. Importance of market and technological research; first mover advantage and disadvantages in new market segment; importance of competition in a market; use of PESTL analysis before pursuing for any segment; types of growth strategies which could be used that is Broad base or Narrow base; how company uses marketing mix strategy; and how managers make decision in dynamic environment (contingency theory approach).

This case study relates to a real-life situation the data was collected from primary and secondary sources between 2012 and 2013. The case is of a company Pakistan Accumulators (PAL), having less than 18 years of experience, has been able to grow successfully in the dynamic environment of Pakistan. The decline of the private businesses in Pakistan due to the energy crisis has popped up a new need of power generation alternative equipment in the country. PAL, which is a privately owned company, suppliers of automotive batteries, Uninterruptable Power System (UPS) batteries, lead acid batteries and rechargeable batteries has been able to manage the growth of 20 per cent per year. In this case study, we have highlighted only one market segment of the company that is of UPS batteries, we have focused on what is the future prospect of this particular segment, its attractiveness. Also, the area of focus was the new market segments which can be targeted by the company. Basic issues of the case study: calculation of the market segment value of UPS industry; identification and solution of different challenges faced by PAL in the dynamic Pakistani market (contingency theory); recognition of different future growth prospects for PAL.

The basic objective of this case is to enhance the analytical and qualitative skills of the students by giving them the real-life perspective of a company working successfully in country like Pakistan which is facing economic and political crises. This case can also be used for understanding the problems of third-world markets and how company can pursue successfully in the long–term.

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

The learning outcomes of this paper is as follows: to identify unique selling points of a growing business for attaining competitive advantage; to understand the role of segmentation for Wellness Zone Headmasters (WZH); to explore different strategic choices for successful expansion of business; to help students understand the concept of customer satisfaction in a competitive industry; and to understand the importance of differentiation as a major deciding factor for the future of a business.

In March 2020, Kumud Goel, one of the directors of WZH, a chain of wellness spa and salon in Jammu and Kashmir (India), was considering different marketing strategies to grow her existing business. The company had opened two new outlets in the past two years and was looking at increasing its customer base. Kumud was concerned about keeping her customers satisfied in a highly competitive industry. She was aware that differentiation was critical for future growth. In what ways could WZH differentiate itself from its competitors at a time when the market was exploding? Could customer segmentation be the solution? What measures would WZH need to take to increase its repeat customers?

The case is appropriate for use in a 90-min class in a Masters in Business Administration-level management course and for undergraduates, especially marketing majors and in a module on marketing strategy and customer value.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Interviewing the protagonist and collecting information from secondary resources such as company documents, company and competitor websites, industry reports and online databases like Euromonitor International.

The case explores the metamorphosis of JK Masale from a small-scale family business in India to a regional player. Over a period of six decades, JK Masale (JKM) has emerged against the backdrop of a fiercely competitive spice industry. India, being a confluence of varied regional cultures, poses a diverse consumption pattern. It varies to a great extent with respect to the specific food habits prevalent in each climatic zone of the country. While the brand had successfully captured the Eastern Market and the western market of the country, Mr. Vikash Jain, Managing Director of JK Masale, contemplated to venture in Southern India and introduce new product categories. The case delves into one of the major challenges faced by JKM over the brand architecture and labelling across product categories. Thus, the case provides an excellent opportunity for budding managers to: analyse the company’s performance in the backdrop of a dynamic competitive environment; understand the nature of strategic decision-making and its appropriateness for a small family-owned business; evaluate a brand amongst brands on the architectural framework and select appropriate brand architecture for new products; and understand applicability and risks associated with growth strategies.

The case study can be positioned in both undergraduate and postgraduate level programs for courses on marketing strategy and brand management. Primarily, this case would be ideal to discuss brand relationship and brand architecture in the given context. Instructors have an option to cover concepts like market structure, company analysis, growth strategies and emergent and deliberate strategy through the case.

This case traces through a 20-year history of a Chinese high-tech company, Maipu Communications Technology Company. Throughout the company’s growth, Maipu adjusted its innovation models in order to ensure that they remained compatible with corporate strategies, resources and external environments. However, as the company grew bigger, it was finding it more and more difficult to meet its innovation goals. Its current innovation model is a market-driven platform + distributed innovation. While Maipu has achieved some success under this model, it is faced with a myriad of challenges during the execution of the model. The key questions raised by this case are whether Maipu’s current innovation model is suitable for the company at this stage and how the innovation model should be adjusted to propel new innovation and growth opportunities for Maipu in this increasingly competitive market.

This case was a field research case. The authors paid three visits to Maipu Communications Technology Company, during which the authors conducted in-depth interviews with Mr Zhao, the Head of Maipu’s R&D and Innovation group, and several senior and functional managers of the company. Follow-up communication via telephone and e-mail was conducted to verify the accuracy of the written case.

This case is well suited for courses in the areas of strategic management, innovation management, high-tech management, entrepreneurship, and international business. The target audiences of the case are primarily MBA students, although this case can also be used in upper-level undergraduate business courses.

The theoretical basis for this case includes the following management theories: strategy formulation and strategy implementation, business-level and corporate-level strategies, enterprise life-cycle, corporate strategies at various stages of growth, patterns of innovation and applications, and implementation of innovation strategies.

Strategic Management and Corporate Finance.

Higher undergraduate and graduate levels.

The case demonstrates how a company can be able to manage corporate restructuring successfully and recover from receivership. Uchumi is a company incorporated in Kenya and listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). The case examines how Uchumi successfully recovered from receivership in 2006 owing to previous mismanagement and regained profitability after years of continued losses. A review of the company's management style and the role of the management in turning around the company are presented.

The case demonstrates how financially and operationally troubled corporations can be managed effectively, illustrates how corporate managers can manage corporate restructuring and receivership successfully, shows the applicability of Kotter's eight stages of leading changes successfully and other leadership approaches/theories and demonstrates the differences between the performance of a corporation before and after the restructuring process.

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

The case briefly describes the history of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) under Ross Perot and GM before turning to the beginning of a tumultuous decade in the late 1990s. As the turn of the century approached, EDS made critical strategic missteps such as missing opportunities in the Internet space, overlooking the onset of client-server computing, and failing to obtain major Y2K-related projects. The company attempted a turnaround by replacing the CEO with Dick Brown, whose leadership helped streamline the sprawling company. Despite initial successes, Brown's tenure ultimately ended in failure, due largely to his failure to recognize the growing Indian market and his willingness to buy business at the expense of the company's margin. The disastrous multibillion-dollar Navy & Marine Corp Intranet contract typified the type of high-profile transactions that Brown pursued, often boosting EDS's stock price in the short term while eroding its cash flow short term and its profitability over the long term. EDS management went through several stages of the turnaround process: the blinded phase, the inactive phase, and the faulty action phase, until Michael Jordan replaced Brown as CEO and enacted a three-tiered operational, strategic, and financial turnaround.

EDS's near-decade of turnaround efforts takes students through every phase of the turnaround process and demonstrates that even initially successful turnaround efforts can become distracted, rendering them ineffective. The case will show both a failed turnaround and a subsequent successful one, while adding an international component with respect to EDS's overlooking an important, growing Indian market.

This case was developed solely for the purpose of classroom discussion. Some details of the case, including names of the companies, have been disguised. This case is not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of academic or business data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management of the personnel or company.

Only when the custodial staff showed up at his office door did Vinod Mehra realize that it was already 3 am. Vinod is the VP of Supply Chain for Dockomo Heavy Machinery Equipment Limited. He had spent the entire night analyzing the data from the spare parts division in Pune, India. It was April 15 and he had just two weeks to go before the annual review of the company.

The spare parts division's growth at Dockomo has slowed down to about 10 percent annually when compared to the growth rate of 20 percent an nually over the previous years. Their cancelled orders stood at a staggering 8 percent due to parts unavailability, but at the same time the inventory in the system was $6 million higher than the previous year. Vinod was unsure of the response he would receive from the board of directors, since the inventory level increased along with the number of cancelled orders.

At the meeting, the board was considerate, but Vinod was asked to conduct an analysis of the shortcomings and prepare a report on the leading causes for the unavailability of parts to the customers. He was also asked to prepare a report on the approach to be followed to fix these problems by the next quarterly meeting. Vinod was already aware of many issues which existed in the supply chain, but he had to go through a complete analysis to gain a clearer understanding of the shortcomings in their distribution processes.