Case studies

After completion of the case study, the participants would be able to understand the challenges in building a sustainable homestay tourism business; develop a positioning statement for La Pinekonez which builds a unique competitive advantage; and outline elements of the business strategy to profitably sustain and grow a sustainable tourism homestay in terms of service offering, pricing, marketing and operations.

La Pinekonez Homestay, located in the beautiful region of Himachal Pradesh, India, is the subject of this case study, which explores both its successes and its difficulties. In August 2022, Arvind, the dedicated sole proprietor of La Pinekonez, grappled with multifaceted challenges, the first being the foray of established hotel chains into the homestay business. As the protagonist, was is in dilemma of preserving La Pinekonez’s unique identity amidst corporate competitors, particularly with regards to differentiating from the expanding hotel chains. The clash between customer expectations for hotel-like amenities and the homestay’s commitment to sustainable tourism presented a crucial challenge. Negative reviews questioning the authenticity of La Pinekonez’s green initiatives heightened the complexity. Adding to Arvind’s predicament were the seasonal fluctuations in tourist inflow and his aspiration to embrace immersive tourism trends. This case study facilitates exploration of strategic positioning, sustainability management and marketing strategies in the dynamic and competitive hospitality industry. It also offers insights into the complexities of balancing differentiation, customer satisfaction and sustainability while navigating the evolving landscape of tourism trends.

This case study is suitable for students of tourism and hospitality management at postgraduate level. The case study can be discussed once the basic concepts of hospitality management and service dimensions are covered.

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CCS 12: Tourism and hospitality.

This case study provides in-depth, practical knowledge to develop business strategies for the management program. After reading this case study, the students will be able to learn about the challenges and problems that service firms face during a crisis, the drastic changes in the market environment due to a crisis and the analysis tools that can be used when analyzing the shifted market environment. By analyzing this case study, students will be trained for the decision-making that arises in the process of crisis management in the hotel industry.

Nam Nghi Resort, situated on the picturesque Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam, experienced the tumultuous period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, Nam Nghi was a thriving five-star resort, deeply rooted in Vietnamese culture and renowned for its luxurious amenities and breathtaking location. However, the onset of COVID-19 brought unprecedented challenges to the hospitality industry, leading to a sharp decline in tourism and revenue. Despite the adversity, Nam Nghi implemented risk management practices successfully and displayed resilience and adaptability. Through rigorous cost minimization, strategic facility upgrades and targeted marketing efforts, Nam Nghi managed to navigate the crisis and gradually rebuild its business as travel restrictions eased. As the industry began to show signs of recovery, the general manager faced new challenges in restoring the resort’s prepandemic vitality. The challenge remained of understanding changing consumer values and market dynamics.

This case study can be used as class material for Master of Business Administration (MBA) students. In particular, MBA students in the hospitality industry such as hotels, resorts, travel agencies and restaurants are the target audience.

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CSS 12: Tourism and hospitality.

The learning outcomes of this study are to recall the fundamental concept of revenue management in the hotel industry (remembering); explain the various performance measures used to evaluate room revenue in hotels (understanding); use revenue management strategies to improve room revenue in hotel operations (applying); and examine and evaluate the optimal solution for revenue enhancement, considering factors such as capacity management, duration control and differential pricing (analyzing).

This case study delves into the challenges faced by Hotel King’s Cross, a business hotel located in Pune, Maharashtra, in the year 2022. A week before Christmas Eve, Soham Dande, the hotel’s revenue manager, sought a meeting with Rohan Chopra, the director of sales and marketing, to discuss “revenue optimization for the hotel.”

During their meeting, Dande mentioned that the hotel had fallen behind its budgeted room sales targets for 2022 across various metrics, such as room booking nights, occupancy percentage, average room rate and revenue per available room. Furthermore, the hotel was trailing behind its competitors. The situation was compounded by the management’s decision to raise the targets for 2023 by 5%–7%, factoring in upcoming events, competitive performance and pandemic-related losses over the past two years. Chopra faced the dilemma of formulating an action plan to achieve the ambitious 2023 targets and establish Hotel King’s Cross as a market leader.

Students undertaking executive development programs and graduate-level courses in non-profit hospitality and tourism management, as well as revenue management courses in the executive MBA, management development and graduate MBA programs, may all benefit from this case study.

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CSS12: Tourism and hospitality.

This case study aims to stimulate the students’ thoughts about the introduction of sustainability and its importance in the travel and tourism industry and introduce the concept of resilience and building of dynamic capability of a venture from the perspective of an entrepreneur.

Established in 2009, India Someday was a fledgling travel company based in Mumbai, India. The team comprised passionate travellers who provided planning assistance for those willing to explore India independently. The company offered customised, personalised and tailor-made trips to create a memorable travel experience for travellers with differing budgets and age groups. Upon the launch of Asia Someday, an extension of the travel venture India Someday, Mr Asif Munshi shared a moment of relief as he shook hands with his co-founder, Mr Harsh Shirodkar. The pandemic significantly impacted the tourism industry, yet it fortified their entrepreneurial spirit and inspired them to bounce back with a dynamic and vigorous comeback and further strengthened the foundation of the endeavour. The expansion of their entrepreneurial venture marked the initiation of the second innings of their enterprise. Although the company had managed to stay afloat because of savings, it was soon depleted. But the withdrawal of the no-fly list and the gradual opening of borders brought a ray of hope for India Someday. Munshi was preoccupied with his thoughts about the future steps of his dream venture. With emails from his previous clients regarding travel plans to India, he could see that the prior impact of India Someday had not gone in vain. Although relieved with the commencement of people travelling, the future was uncertain and the founders knew that they had to be prepared to successfully operate their venture.

Tourism and hospitality courses/entrepreneur courses

Beginner

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CSS 12: Tourism and hospitality.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to use advanced frameworks and tools to convey complex ideas related to strategy and sustainable business practices; apply relevant concepts and theories of corporate social responsibility and governance to a practical situation while making decisions; demonstrate understanding of the importance of stakeholders when developing socially responsible thinking; and analyze the different strengths and weaknesses of the organization when making a decision that would affect the company strategy.

Claire Humphry was the General Manager at the renowned The Nacre Hotel in Penang, Malaysia. Claire had a very busy job as she had many people who reported to her, and the hotel was always full of guests. One of the things Claire also managed was the restaurant OceanSound that was owned and operated by her hotel. OceanSound was a very thematic restaurant that specialized in making sculptures of food for special events. On the New Year’s Day in 2023, Claire came to work ready to tackle what was sure to be a long and busy day. However, Claire had not anticipated exactly how taxing the day would end up being. During Claire’s talks with her colleagues throughout the day, her conversation with her friend, the head chef of OceanSound, Poh, would nag at her head for the rest of the day based on the events that followed. The New Year’s special sculpture at OceanSound was to be a large rabbit made of cake to commemorate 2023 being the year of the rabbit according to Chinese zodiac. This is usually kept secret until the sculpture is revealed; but somehow this information had been leaked. This led to The Nacre Hotel and OceanSound being in the spotlight for bad reasons as this sparked a debate online regarding food wastage. This escalated quickly and even led to a famous food influencer commenting on this using specifically The Nacre’s name. Activists also quickly emerged in front of the hotel to protest the creation of sculptures and the food wastage in Malaysian hospitality industry, seeking to make an example out of The Nacre Hotel. The online criticism died down and was eventually replaced by praise for the sculpture. The activists were also eventually asked by the hotel security to leave, which led to the rest of the day to go as expected for a New Year’s Day at The Nacre. However, Claire’s nagging suspicion that they were not out of the woods led her to start looking into food wastage in the hospitality industry in Malaysia to educate herself and bring it up in a future meeting. Two days after this incident, on January 3, 2023, Claire found The Nacre Hotel posted on the newspaper headlines, dissecting the food wastage associated with the hotel now. After getting an urgent phone call from the Regional Manager, who was pressured by the board and shareholders, Claire decided the time to address this issue could not be delayed any longer. She wrote an email to her strategy team to come up with some ideas for possible solutions to the issue and to present them in a group meeting within a week’s time. At the conclusion of the meeting, Claire was contemplating about the decision that she had to make if she wanted The Nacre Hotel to continue operating successfully in Malaysia’s hospitality industry.

The main theoretical concepts illustrated in the case include corporate governance approaches, types of corporate social responsibility, stakeholders’ prioritization, organizational culture, organizational structure, industry analysis and strategic choices. Therefore, this case study can be used in a upper-level undergraduate business courses in the field of Strategic Management and Corporate Social Responsibility. The case study can be successfully used in a capstone course on Business Policy and Strategy, when tackling the concepts of corporate social responsibility, environmental sustainability strategy and corporate governance. Under this scenario, the usage of conceptual frameworks from Chapters 2 and 3 of the textbook titled “Concepts in Strategic Management and Business Policy: Toward Global Sustainability” by Wheelen and Hunger would be required. This case study can also be successfully applied to MBA level courses on Strategic Management in a Globalized World. In this case, the latest edition of the textbook titled “Exploring Strategy” by Whittington et al., could be used (particularly, the material from Chapters 2–9, 11, 14 and 15). Additionally, the case could also be used in courses related to Tourism and Hospitality, especially in schools which have specialized programs in this field.

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CCS 12: Tourism and Hospitality.

At the end of the case, a successful learner will be able to:▪ develop sound criteria to guide investors entering into hotel management agreements (HMAs);▪ reconcile principal and agent disputes through the lens of an agency framework; and▪ evaluate the impact of the work environment on employee and organisational outcomes.

Muyiwa, Chairman of Fara Ltd., signed a HMA with Aytello Hotel Group to operate his hotel in Nigeria, the Mélange Abuja. Aytello was an international hotel management company based in the USA. It was a renowned operator with several brands in its portfolio. The Mélange brand was contemporary, upscale and targeted young business guests with an appetite for adventure. It was the first Mélange to have opened in West Africa. A management agreement was signed in August 2016, which meant that Aytello was now responsible for operating the hotel on behalf of its Owner, Muyiwa. On his part, Muyiwa provided the funds needed to run the hotel profitably. However, soon after the opening, the operator and owner showed signs of conflict. Muyiwa began to distrust the operator and intervened directly in operations. The frequent clashes between Muyiwa and the operator soon led to an impasse that made productive dialogue difficult. As relationships soured, Muyiwa needed to make a decision soon. This case study is designed to teach agency relationships in organisational behaviour.

This case study is designed for business leaders on executive programmes and postgraduate students.

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CSS 12: Tourism and Hospitality.

This case focuses on organizational development, leadership and HR management questions.

This case is mainly aimed at students specialized in leadership, organizational development and HR, or in MBA and executive education. However, undergraduate students can benefit from it as well and learn about key terms related to organizational development and HR.

Loxon Solutions is a Hungarian technology startup founded in 2000 that develops various software solutions for the banking industry to improve processes such as retail and corporate landing, collateral management and monitoring, among others. The company grew significantly since being founded, and from a small IT company it became a significant player in the banking software industry all around the world. However, with rapid extension comes a drastic internal transformation as well: Loxon now employs 252 people, has 5 physical offices in 2 different countries and is trying to balance an effective organizational structure and a friendly startup environment. It is clear that the company needs to adapt its previously informal structure to fit the now middle-sized organization while maintaining the current benefits of their culture. Also, they require stability and maturity which the current team consisting of mostly junior employees and the significant fluctuation cannot provide. Tamas Erni, the CEO and Kristof Farkas, the founder of Loxon are now working on these pressing issues with the company’s HR department to rethink the company’s organizational structure and policies as well as their hiring and employer branding strategies.

Students should get familiar with typical organizational structure models, the meaning of Employee Value Proposition and main KPIs related to hiring and employee retention.

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CSS 6: HR Management.

Roger Cagle, the co-founder and deputy CEO of SOCO International, watched the dreary London rain outside his office window one February morning in 2015. Never had SOCO, the oil-and-gas exploration and production player that ranked among Britain’s top 200 companies, experienced such a public backlash against its operations. For nearly 20 years, Cagle had helped steer his company’s projects around the world—often in volatile regions where others feared to tread, such as Vietnam, Russia, and Yemen—while delivering significant returns to investors. But the international uproar surrounding SOCO during the past year had been nothing short of mind-boggling.

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.

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CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

After the successful release of the first Hunger Games film in 2012, the film's distributor, Lionsgate, was preparing to release the next movie in the series, Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Fan expectations had grown after the success of the first film, and Lionsgate faced the challenge of keeping moviegoers interested and engaged in another Hunger Games movie. In an era marked by the rising popularity of digital and social media, Lionsgate knew that attracting fans to a sequel meant pushing the boundaries of traditional marketing tactics.

Digital brand storytelling is about using digital media in a holistic way to tell a brand story and build excitement for an audience. Brand storytelling seeks to make a connection with the audience by giving them an emotional experience that resonates with them. While Lionsgate was aware that traditional marketing would need to be blended with a digital campaign to bring in moviegoers, it also needed to strike a careful balance between the two and choose the appropriate platforms to tell a cohesive story. Should Lionsgate launch a brand storytelling campaign to appeal to fans? Lionsgate's comparatively small marketing team gathered to brainstorm about how to execute such a campaign and position the film for another big success.