Case studies

This teaching case covers aspects of leadership development, strategy, change management, organisational behaviour, and people management. The case explores the following themes:

• Workplace transformation and culture: the challenges and opportunities of remote/hybrid work in large government enterprises and maintaining the culture when moving remote

• Leadership and change: the different perspectives that a leader can take into consideration when leading the business during turbulent and uncertain times and managing the change process in large organisations

• Strategic decision-making: the application of analytical skills by senior management when making strategic decisions in a business

Workplace transformation and culture: the challenges and opportunities of remote/hybrid work in large government enterprises and maintaining the culture when moving remote

Leadership and change: the different perspectives that a leader can take into consideration when leading the business during turbulent and uncertain times and managing the change process in large organisations

Strategic decision-making: the application of analytical skills by senior management when making strategic decisions in a business

The primary audience for this teaching case is management education programmes including: Master of Business Administration (MBA), Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip), specialist Masters in Management, and certain Executive Education programmes.

This case deals with a public-sector entity that collects taxation revenue for the South African government. In 2020, the operations of this public entity are severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The mandatory shift of the workforce from in-office to a remote work-from-home set-up, results in the entity switching to a hybrid work model in order to achieve its goals as an essential service. Protagonist Dr Zanele Twazi, executive head of the public entity's research department, is tasked by the commissioner to conduct a review on the hybrid work model. As the commissioner is also in the process of reviving the organisational culture to regain public trust following multiple corruption scandals, the pandemic adds to this pressure. Dr Twazi must share employee feedback on the remote work option. Meanwhile, the leadership team has to decide if the work model will serve this public entity in achieving its strategy, and from an organisational culture viewpoint, if it is the best fit for the future.

The key learnings from this case include the following:

• Organisational work model: A suitable work model is dependent on the organisational mandate as well as its culture.

• Culture and organisational goals: An organisational work model additionally impacts the future sustainability of the organisation and its ability to achieve its short- and long-term goals.

• Change management framework: For teams to effectively adapt to a hybrid work model, managers have to be empowered to lead and be able to facilitate the change.

Organisational work model: A suitable work model is dependent on the organisational mandate as well as its culture.

Culture and organisational goals: An organisational work model additionally impacts the future sustainability of the organisation and its ability to achieve its short- and long-term goals.

Change management framework: For teams to effectively adapt to a hybrid work model, managers have to be empowered to lead and be able to facilitate the change.

The case is particularly well suited to courses in marketing, promotion, integrated marketing communication, or marketing for small and medium enterprises.

This teaching case is aimed at postgraduate students in management or business programmes.

This case focusses on the growth direction and product promotion decisions of Debbie Ncube, cofounder and managing director of Eden All Natural (Eden) - an award-winning small enterprise that competes in the peanut butter category - in 2021. Conservative with the use of the company’s financial resources, Ncube has to reconsider Eden’s reliance on word-of-mouth, social media, and network marketing for promoting her range of natural peanut and other nut-based products. The case requires students to identify and evaluate the growth options available to Eden, to consider the strategy decisions around product line management and brand development, and to explore the role of packaging in effective product promotion.

To develop strategic product-market growth options (using the market diversification matrix) for a growing enterprise

To recommend what product line management and brand development strategies can be employed as the product mix gets bigger

To explore how packaging could continue to be leveraged to grow sales

It is well suited for short courses focussed on brand equity or marketing.

This teaching case is specifically aimed at postgraduate students completing a management diploma or a professional development course.

Inverroche, one of South Africa’s first artisianl gins, faces an interesting brand dilemma. By the end of 2016 through a distribution agreement with a large wholesaler, it secures a national footprint and becomes available at all leading retailers, resturants, and bars. The product’s immense growth trajectory attracts the attention of the global drinks conglomerates who see an opportunity to secure market share in the lucrative craft gin segment of the market. Founder Lorna Scott grapples with whether she has made the right choice to sell a majority share of her beloved brand to the global house of brands, Pernod Ricard. In this case, she meets with her sales team to debrief the situation as well as have a heart-to-heart with Alex Farnell, general manager of sales and marketing. The case looks at the Inverroche brand in detail, what it represents, and why it resonates so intrinsically with consumers. However, Scott and Farnell differ in opinion on the strategic objectives of the brand. Farnell seems to think that the sale to Pernod will not harm the brand, but Scott is torn. How does a niche artisinal brand scale? Can a brand remain authentic when it does scale? Is there any commercial sense in remaining artisinal? Is an artisinal brand’s brand equity compromised when it is sold to a corporate house of brands? All of these questions relate to whether a brand can remain authenthically artisinal amidst a corporate acquisition.

To identify the challenges of growing an artisinal brand

To identify the challenges of achieving scale as well as the marketing and commercial costs and profits scale represents

To identify how to build a brand that resonates with consumers

To critically assess the link between brand building, distribution, and availability

To analyse the impact of brand architecture on brand equity

The case is particularly well suited to entrepreneurship, marketing, technology, innovation, or strategy courses.

This teaching case is aimed at postgraduate students in management or business programmes.

This case follows the Kenyan healthcare tech company Savannah Informatics as they contemplate how the company will continue to grow in a post-pandemic world. Savannah is the market leader in electronic claims validation solutions for the Kenyan healthcare system. Their flagship product, the digital platform Slade 360, allows health insurers, healthcare providers, and patients to share claims information for health services in real time, drastically reducing payment transfer times, incidents of fraud, and account errors. The Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown mandates from the Kenyan government have reduced short-term revenues by driving down hospital visits for citizens overall, but they have also created a demand for telemedicine and more online healthcare solutions. CEO John Muthee and his co-founders are left to consider their options for growing Savannah Informatics: expanding into new markets, creating more solutions for their insurance and provider customers in Kenya, or diversifying.

Identify the key challenges facing Savannah

Analyse the organisation using the 5Cs model (company, customers, competitors, collaborators and context) and VRIO (value, rarity, imitability, and organisation) analysis

Assess the growth opportunities available to Savannah and make recommendations

This teaching case is well suited for short courses focussed on brand equity or marketing. It explores the following themes:

Premium brand equity: managing the brand in different markets, and the process involved in finding the right partners who care about the brand.

Market entry and penetration: strategies for growing in a market, testing a new market, and identifying the right products for a specific market.

Product expansion: the considerations that need to be made when a company is expanding its brand into new markets.

This teaching case is specifically aimed at postgraduate students completing a management diploma or a professional development course.

This case is about a premium confectionery brand Wedgewood. The company started in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in 1999, with founder Gilly Walters’ handcrafted nougat aimed at a high-income target market. The retail product went on to be sold in stores nationwide. The company has since diversified its product range and tested markets both locally and abroad, with varying levels of success. In early 2020, Paul Walters, CEO, is considering options for the company. While his brother, Jon Walters, head of production and product development, is keen to increase global exports, Paul is less sure. The brand has been developed over the years and the product line expanded to consist of nougat, energy bars, and biscuits. While considering international markets, Paul must keep tabs on how to align the various brands in the process, and limit any potential damage to the brand equity to a minimum. With the company poised for exponential growth entering new international markets, Paul must consider the best expansion strategy. With business growth will they be able to maintain the core values of the business and the brand? Wedgewood will also need to think about staffing resources that would be required should they take on a massive international expansion.

To analyse how a small family-owned business is able to achieve sustainable growth and expand its footprint

To evaluate which business model creates the best platform for the expansion of a premium niche brand

To create a branding strategy for international brand expansion

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.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: HR Management.

The values-based leadership (VBL) themes lend the case to use in courses focussed on individual leadership approaches, personal-professional development, personal mastery, or individual agency in social change and social justice movements. The emerging market context adds a layer of complexity to the protagonist's journey, which may make the case especially relevant for use among students who work in this context or in courses that deal with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA).

The primary target audience for this case is postgraduate students in a management or professional development program.

This case offers a leadership profile of lawyer Fadzayi Mahere as she pursues social change at the national level by running for political office in Zimbabwe in 2018. The case recounts Mahere's professional journey through human rights law and local activism, which eventually drives her to run as an independent for a position in the national election. She does this as a response to the dire state of the country: economic crisis, social instability, and political corruption that are making life increasingly untenable for most people. In spite of running a strong grassroots campaign, Mahere loses the election and is faced with the dilemma of whether or not to forego independence and join the dominant opposition party. The case therefore centres around the role of values in leadership, the role of narrative in shaping the decision to lead, and how these things impact a leader's strategy for affecting social change and achieving social justice.

Appreciate the systemic nature of social problems in an emerging market context and how this creates different opportunities for a leader to act on a problem

Understand how a leader's identity, in terms of values and experiences, shapes their motivations and informs their strategy for leading a change effort

Understand the dimensions of values-based leadership (VBL) – transformational, authentic, accountability, and ethical leadership – and how the actions of a values-driven leader reflect these

Identify the mechanisms that aspiring leaders practicing VBL can use to build an authentic narrative for key stakeholders to accept and embrace them

Recognise the different strategies a leader can adopt to achieve values-driven outcomes, while maintaining alignment with the different dimensions of VBL

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.

The case can be used in the subject area of strategy particularly with a focus on emerging markets.

This case is aimed at use in MBA- or Masters-level courses, or executive education programmes in strategy, entrepreneurship or business modelling. It will also provide insights into small to medium enterprises operating in emerging markets.

Devil's Peak is the largest craft beer brewer in South Africa. This case provides context to the craft beer market in South Africa, a highly fragmented and diverse yet dynamic market. The case further explores the business strategy behind Devil's Peak's success, the importance of strategic decisions, growth decisions, and product portfolio selections' impact on business strategy. Devil's Peak experienced rapid growth phases that have come with various trials and tribulations and the case explores the issues and decisions around rapid growth businesses.

– To analyse a market before entering it using Porter's Five Forces or other tools.

– To assess, as well as understand, the complexities and issues arising from rapid growth in entrepreneurial operations.

– To evaluate different growth strategies — organic growth versus inorganic growth, like acquired growth.

– To make product portfolio selection decisions and the strategic importance of which products to invest in and grow, using tools like the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) growth-share matrix or other tools.

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.