Case studies

The case depicts an opportunity for undergraduate and postgraduate students to be exposed to the basic digitization of supply chain management, technology adoption, change management and cost-benefit analysis concepts. The study aims to encourage them to use the data given in the case and exhibits to compare and contrast physical and digital supply chains (SC); design the digitized version of the traditional SC; examine the nitty-gritty of technology adoption in the SC context; develop the change management plans for the successful adoption and implementation of SC digitization; design the risk register and Explore the business process management; and conduct the return on investment analysis.

Amber Yen, Chief Operating Officer Apparel Sourcing at Ransys Partners Ltd (RSL), was presented with the task of reducing physical sample production cost and time without impeding order pipeline. RSL was experiencing significant capacity constrain during the COVID-19 crisis, failing to deliver physical samples to international brands. To win large export orders, RSL had to adopt a new innovative way to reduce the sample approval process while meeting customer requirements. Ms Yen wanted to convert the entire sample approval process into a digital mode. She was facing multiple challenges related to the design, implementation and adoption of the digital sample approval process to coordinate the entire SC. She had limited time and was grappling with other impending constraints such as increasing cost, intense competition, demanding customers, shortage of labor due to COVID-19, reducing the bottom line. It was her time to test the idiom “necessity is the mother of innovation”.

The target audience for this case is management or business school students. This case can be used to teach digitization of SC, operations management, organization behavior, digitization of enterprises, IT for business, new service development, supplier management technology adoption, and change management in management or business schools.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

The learning outcomes of this study are as follows:

1) illustrate the project management failures that contributed to the fire accident at Grenfell using a fishbone diagram;

2) identify and classify the power and influence of various stakeholders involved in a brownfield project using a relevant framework; and

3) elaborate the need for following effective stakeholder management processes and project leadership, especially in the context of a refurbishment/renovation project.

On 14th June 2017, the Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, West London, UK, caught fire. The fire raged for 60 h and around 72 people lost their lives. Many criticized the response of the London Fire Brigade (LFB) and their lack of preparedness to respond to such an emergency. There were calls for Dany Cotton, the Chief of LFB, to resign. However, there had been a major cladding-related refurbishment at Grenfell, and subsequent investigations revealed that the use of combustible materials, a lack of compliance with the fire-safety norms and a blatant disregard for resident safety had contributed to the fire. The tragedy was a cumulative outcome of failure on two counts: effective project management and stakeholder management during the process of refurbishment, especially in the context of a low-cost housing project. Given this situation, this case considers whether Dany Cotton should own up to her responsibility and resign from her position. In the process, the case considers Grenfell refurbishment from the theoretical lens of project management in the construction management scenario to understand the factors that could have led to an “avoidable” tragedy.

Postgraduate students of construction management; final year undergraduate engineering students who have a foundational course on project management; and architects.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 2: Built environment.

Students comprehend the importance of the transformational idea and apply it in their leadership. Students can analyze how to spread the transformational idea across the team and the organization. Students understand the value of working with different stakeholders (partners, headquarters). Students can analyze the role of focusing on a client and apply client-centric way of thinking. Students can apply the concept of the transformational idea to create (synthesize) possible solutions for the presented dilemma.

This case tells the transformation story of the logistics company Ekol Ukraine, which began in 2013. This company was the most successful branch of Ekol Logistics, an international corporation operating in 13 countries. From 2013 till 2021, Ekol Ukraine experienced a crisis related to the start of a conflict between Ukraine and Russian militants. It proved its ability to cope with challenges, gained almost complete autonomy from the head office, transformed the business model and culture and achieved considerable success in building an ecosystem.

Having this stage of transformation completed by 2021, the company reached a plateau and had to decide what the following changes would be. In 2021, only 14% of Ukrainian businesses used outsourcing logistics services (like the ones Ekol Ukraine provided). The remaining 86% had in-house logistics and were not ready to change the model. So, Ekol Ukraine faced a problem: how could a logistics provider grow in a market that was not mentally ready to outsource?

MBA programs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management science.

The learning outcomes of this paper is as follows: to structure the impact investing phenomenon and distinguish it from traditional investing or philanthropy, including the motivation of investors in impact investing projects; to analyse stakeholders in impact investing projects according to four main categories; to structure the implementation model of the theory of change in the context of impact investing; to build managerial decisions concerning the development of impact investing projects in crisis situations.

The case describes the development path of the Promprylad.Renovation project from its concept to the critical moment at the end of 2018. Yuriy Fyliuk – the case protagonist, acts as the main ideologist and leader of the project, the essence of which is the establishment of an innovation centre on the area of the old Promprylad plant in Ivano-Frankivsk. Impact investing was selected as the main project development tool, as it allows for attracting investors who share the aspiration for positive change of the city and potential financial benefit. The project is implemented in several stages as follows: partner involvement (Insha Osvita, MitOst, Pact Ukraine and LvBS), vision finalisation and research (together with Stanford Research Institute, Zotov & Co, FORMA Architects, Moris Group, etc.), the launch of the pilot floor (attracting more than $683,000 from allocated grants and more than $590,000 of private investments). Open equity crowdfunding and the purchase of the entire plant, with its subsequent renovation, should be the next stage. As of 2017, agreements have been reached to pay fully for the purchase of the plant by the end of 2019. After a successful pilot and lengthy negotiations, it was agreed that $1,000,000 should be paid by the end of 2018 and $2,000,000 by the end of 2019 to complete the buyout. However, as of the end of 2018, martial law was proclaimed in Ukraine. Hence, considering the risks, a major US investor refuses to contribute. The main dilemma is either to find a suitable solution to complete the buyout of the plant or to stop the project.

This case can be used in the master’s programmes of business schools (MBA, Executive MBA, Entrepreneurship, etc.), as well as in training programmes for public and state sector managers. The case study will be particularly useful for mixed groups with representatives from different sectors of the economy. This case study might be taught in the following disciplines: social entrepreneurship, social investing, leadership and crisis management. The subject of impact investing allows recognition of the benefits of combined cross-sectoral efforts over joint projects.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management science.

Roger Osayende, a former management consultant, must advise the Ministry of Health of Ektu, a fictional country in Central Africa, on how to implement a new point-of-care diagnostic test for infants with HIV. In Ektu, mothers often transmitted HIV infection to infants during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding due to inadequate resources to invest in prevention efforts. The existing procedure to diagnose infants with HIV required collecting dried blood samples at more than two hundred healthcare facilities around the country and transporting them to a central laboratory in the capital for testing. This process was characterized by significant delays due to long transportation times, batching of samples in transportation and processing in the lab, and concomitant congestion in the lab. This delay resulted in loss to follow-up, that is, lost patients due to mothers not collecting their infants' results. A new point-of-care device was about to be introduced, which would obviate the need for this centralized processing and the resulting diagnostic delay. The key decision under consideration is where to place the devices to maximize their effectiveness.

Understand the importance of making public health decisions based on a data-driven, logical framework   Uncover the link between operational performance of the healthcare system and health outcomes at the population level   Appreciate the relevance of operational decisions in enhancing or diminishing the effectiveness of a medical technology   Use process analysis concepts to characterize various components of delays

Sustainable development (in under-developed rural communities).

Bachelor's degree.

The case follows six young adults from Quebec, who are mandated with a three-month agro-environmental project in the fight against desertification and poverty, in Kamaka, a village in the Sahel region of Mali. The project's central element is the development of a community garden that would ensure the diversification of the community's nutritional diet, and the rehabilitation of the environment. The mandate also consists of various environmental awareness workshops pertaining to efficient energy consumption, composting, and solar food drying techniques. The project, in its fourth year of collaboration between the Quebec organization and their local Malian partner, does not seem to have been yielding the desired results. The team is faced with the challenges of understanding the opportunities and limitations of the project so that they can try to succeed where previous teams have failed; while overcoming the organizational and logistical shortfalls that they faced prior to the start of their work, as they simultaneously struggled to adapt to their totally new context.

How to prepare for, approach, and carry out local community development projects – environmental and/or social – in under-developed regions such as Mali. Mainly, how to create a shared vision with the concerned community; build an effective multi-stakeholder network; and ultimately co-create sustainable value (as per the proposed Senge model).

Teaching notes and short documentary online link.

This case presents the dilemma of a multinational oil and gas company, ExxonMobil, as it factors in the ethical issues related to the environment and cultural differences in deciding whether to proceed with building a pipeline in Chad and Cameroon, two of the poorest and most corrupt developing countries in West Africa. The many players in this project included the World Bank--which cofinanced the project and put restrictions into place that would hopefully prevent pipeline-related government corruption in both Chad and Cameroon--and many environmental and human rights groups that warned of potential disaster. The case also covers the environmental and social analysis of the areas that would be affected by the pipeline.