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The dilemma falls within the Change Management, Leadership, Organizational Development subject areas. In addition, the case highlights typical issues in “green” or sustainable supply chain, corporate social responsibility and sustainability courses.

The target audience is includes post-graduate diploma-level or master’s level students, such as in Masters in Business Administration.

The case focuses on the dilemma that Phiwokuhle Mhlangu in Mpumalanga, South Africa, faced when his company’s board had not signed off on capital expenditure to improve his colliery’s clean coal technology initiatives. He had to influence his colleagues’ mindsets to adapt to changes in the environment. The case highlights the global coal landscape and South African mining industry’s challenges in terms of infrastructure and strained labour relations, as well as the focus of the South African Government to enhance alternative energy resources. Although a clear business case for investment in clean coal technologies was evident, Mhlangu could still not persuade his colleagues to support these initiatives. A different approach was required […]

The learning objectives in this case are: gaining insight into the dilemmas of sustainability in coal mining by exploring various interest groups in difficult sustainability situations and enhancing understanding of getting a buy-in from various stakeholders when leading change in the coal-mining sector.

A teaching plan and particular teaching methodologies is included. The two learning outcomes are posed as questions for groups to discuss and model answers are provided and to relevant literature.

CSS 7: Management Science

International business, Strategic management

BA and MA; courses: International business, Management courses with special focus on emerging and developing countries, Intercultural management, Strategic management.

Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa, June 2013 – Representatives of the London Mining Corporation and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH were discussing the details about the official launch of the From Mines to Minds project. The From Mines to Minds project consisted of two components technical, vocational and educational training at St. Joseph's and functional adult literacy for people who could not benefit from the upgrade of St. Joseph's in 17 communities around the mine site. Each of them had committed 200,000 euros to the project. While the mining company favored an early launch due to internal and external pressures, the development agency evaluated that they needed to have a consolidated program before advertising it locally and nationally. This joint decision on the official launch revealed more structural issues in the “fit” between these two organizations in this cross-sectoral partnership designed to contribute to local and national sustainable development.

The purpose of the case is twofold. The first aim is to introduce students/participants to the challenges that arise when entering into a cross-sectoral partnership with another organization in a development project. The second aim is to expose students to the operational, business and strategic challenges related to operating in the volatile local and national context of a least developed economy.

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 study will help improve systemic gender-related challenges for women in STEM, male-dominated nontraditional workplaces, such as mining, and contribute to CASE FOR WOMEN database of women-centered business teaching cases.

The learning objectives are as follows: discuss gender issues in nontraditional science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM)–related male-dominated industries; conduct a strategic competitive strengths and weaknesses, the opportunities and threats analysis and political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental analysis; evaluate relevant information and decision criteria to assess the options; provide recommendations for strengthening vision mission and strategy; and analyze the business model using the Business Model Canvas.

Alicia Woods (she/her), founder of Covergalls Inc., was facing an unexpected challenge during the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic restrictions and lockdowns which had created an unprecedented disruption to her business. Should Covergalls continue on its current path, or was it time to branch out?

This case is suitable for diversity, equality and inclusion, strategic management, entrepreneurship, marketing or leadership courses at the undergraduate BBA and graduate MBA level on campus or online.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 3: Entrepreneurship.

International Business, Ethics, International Legal Issues/Law, Environmental Management.

Upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. The case is appropriate for courses in International Law, Ethics, International Business and Strategy.

This case is inspired by current ethical, legal, social and environmental issues that have plagued the multinational mining industry in frontier markets. The case focuses on a multitude of legal, ethical and strategic issues involving the multinational mining industry. This case describes a hypothetical assignment facing an operations manager at the fictional Minera, Inc. The assignment revolves around several dilemmas a manager must confront as he attempts to secure valuable mining licenses from the Mongolian Government while simultaneously attempting to harmonize seemingly detrimental operating practices with the organizations' stated beliefs. The case provides detailed background information on the social, economic and political climate in Mongolia, as well as the applicable laws, ethical frameworks and competitive market considerations facing multinational mining organizations.

This case will help students understand the complexity of international business in frontier markets; identify key international legal issues such as the foreign corrupt practices act; and recognize ethical issues and formulate economically, strategically, ethically and legally sound courses of action in complex environments.

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

BHP, an Australian mining company, threatens to enter the potash mining industry through a hostile takeover of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan. Complicating matters is the fact that the Canadian potash industry has operated as a legal cartel in which the provincial government has a stake. This case enables students to assess BHP's strategy in terms of value creation and value capture, how it relates to its existing investments in the industry, and the risks and rewards of alternatives to BHP's strategy

-How cartels help firms capture value in an industry and how the threat of entry can limit the cartel members' ability to do so -How firms outside a cartel can capture value though a competitive threat -The range of strategies available to incumbents and

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.

The case presents a responsible investment dilemma case. Swedish institutional responsible investors have to make a choice about their investment in Lonmin, a platinum mining company whose operation are located in South Africa and has been the theatre of workers’ killings.

The case targets MBA students and can be taught in a corporate finance course, a corporate governance course, a business ethics course or on sustainable and responsible investment.

The teaching case follows the journey of Hilde Svensson, the head of equities for a Swedish responsible investor. She has been tasked to visit the site of Lonmin in South Africa which is the theatre of a tragic workers’ unrest that led to the killings of 44 workers in August 2012. She must decide what the best responsible investment strategy is to adopt with Lonmin for the future.

The students are expected to learn about what responsible investment entails and the dilemmas that can be faced by responsible investors. The case also gives insight to business students and the complexities of environment, social and governance (ESG) analysis and how to integrate financial and ESG analysis when you are a responsible investor.

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

CCS 1: Accounting and Finance

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

Madan Mohanka set up Tega Industries Ltd in 1976 to manufacture abrasion-resistant rubber mill lining products used in the mining and mineral processing industries. In 2006, as part of its inorganic expansion strategy, Tega bought a mill-liner company in South Africa. Buoyed by this growth, two acquisitions were made in Australia and Chile in the year 2011. However, post-acquisition, several managerial, legal and commercial problems crept up in its manufacturing facilities in Chile, leading to financial downturn in Tega's fortunes in 2016 and compelling it to either plan a revival or divest its interest in its Chilean Plant.

AngloGold Ashanti: the dawning of a new age.

Change management, leadership, human resources management and organisational behaviour.

Business and organisational behaviour students at a Master's level of study.

This case study explores the challenges facing one of the jewels of corporate South Africa, AngloGold Ashanti, as it seeks to introduce and implement vast changes across its global operations within a pre-established time frame. It explores those factors that impact the introduction and implementation of a successful and sustainable change initiative at AngloGold Ashanti.

By understanding the manner in which the company's new business improvement initiative is sought to be introduced at the organisation, students are better able to understand the role of leadership and the impact of change on a global workforce. Students will gain an appreciation of how to manage the change process, key actions that ought to be taken by all levels of management and staff, pitfalls that should be avoided and challenges that need to be addressed to ensure that the organisation can emerge stronger and take its rightful place in the competitive global arena.

Teaching notes are available; please consult your librarian for access.