Case studies

1. To analyze the various business models and choose the best model to contribute maximum profit to the company.2. To understand the importance of customer management with the help of the Net Promoter Score in the food retail context.3. To develop customer loyalty strategies and implement them to improve customer management?

39 Bakers, a multi-outlet bakery chain in Jammu, India, is run by its founder Gagan. 39 Bakers, through its retail outlets across the Jammu region, offers a variety of products, ranging from bakery items that include blends of Indian and Italian cuisines, offering more than 1000 stock keeping units (SKUs). Through its high-quality offerings at an affordable price range, the brand has carved a niche in the hyper-competitive bakery market of the Jammu region. Gagan, has closely seen the Jammu market and customer preferences and strongly perceived that the customers in the Jammu region are very price sensitive. Thus, he has always been very reluctant to increase the prices of his product offerings at 39 Bakers. He has always believed that any drastic price rise may lead to immediate dissatisfaction and customer churn and therefore has not increased the prices at 39 Bakers for two years in a row. While this decision of Gagan paid off in terms of its popularity and recognition as one of the highly recommended bakery chains among customers, it drastically impacted the bottom line (i.e. profitability) at 39 Bakers, especially in the year 2020–21. Getting popularity at the cost of dipping profitability made Gagan rethink his decision to be protective of price increases at 39 bakers. How can he measure customer satisfaction and loyalty? Which loyalty strategies will work for the huge customer base of Jammu? Should he change his business model from B2C to B2B? How can loyalty be established? How can he manage his existing and loyal customers through price increases?

The case study is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Marketing Management and Retail Marketing. The case study’s focus can be on the importance of pricing, business model evaluation, customer management analysis, customer loyalty, Customer Loyalty analysis, and net promoters score. The case can also be useful to entrepreneurs and regulators.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Students discussing the case will be able to:▪ Evaluate and decide the marketing strategy that will best align the organizational resources and capabilities with the external environment.▪ Demonstrate the process of segmentation and choose the most attractive target market.▪ Analyze the competition and develop an effective positioning strategy.▪ Evaluate and use different growth strategies in business situations.

The case demonstrated the decision-making process behind the post-pandemic strategy of ShakahariS by Awadhpuri, a restaurant in the emerging Indian market. The restaurant was situated in Ahmedabad, one of the fastest-growing mini-metro cites of the Indian restaurant industry. It was known for authentic Indian vegetarian cuisine. The restaurant, originally named Awadhpuri, was started in 2012 by Ms. Vandana Singh. It was positioned as a non-vegetarian restaurant providing Awadhi cuisine in the fine-dining segment known for its ambiance and authentic taste. However, due to the predominant vegetarian market in Ahmedabad city, the restaurant was rebranded and repositioned as ShakahariS by Awadhpuri, serving only vegetarian cuisine in 2018. The years 2019–2020 were very harsh due to the Covid-19 crisis. During the uncertain times when the lockdowns and the guidelines kept on changing, it was difficult for the restaurant to even recover their costs. It was a good time to explore the possibilities of the cloud kitchen format, and they came up with multiple kitchens offering different cuisines and targeted new customer segments. The case highlighted these survival strategies adopted by the restaurant during Covid. Post-pandemic, the protagonist was now contemplating a long-term growth strategy for the restaurant to target a new market with a new offering. The dilemma for the restaurant is whether (or not) to align the marketing strategy by repositioning again to cater to the new target segment.

Undergraduate courses on Business Management (BBA) and specific topics in introductory courses on marketing management and strategic management of the post-management programs.

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CSS 8: Marketing.

This case provides detailed information about digital technologies and business practices that may help offline retailers catch up with the trend of new retail. After studying the case and working on the assignment questions, students will be able to:▪ Understand new features of smart cash registers, including facial-recognition payment, purchase-sales-inventory management, customer profile and store management, which all are important for the long-term development of the retail business in the age of “new retail”.▪ Identify opportunities, practices and impacts of digital technologies, such as big data and artificial intelligence, on contemporary retail businesses.▪ Identify problems of traditional retail and suggest solutions by applying the concepts and tools learned above.▪ Apply digital marketing approaches and tools (e.g., social media, livestreaming and online word-of-mouth) to design marketing campaigns; students should include basic elements such as the 6Ms for effective marketing communications (market, mission, message, media, money and measure).

This case describes difficult situations facing Leo Shoudong Pan, the founder and CEO of Yun Dong Jia Technologies Co Ltd (YDJ), in marketing communications. With a motto of “Making it easy to open stores anywhere”, YDJ develops and sells smart cash registers, which provide a self-developed operating system and cloud computing services. Pan targets small and micro retailers, who are technology laggards when digital transitions had swept the world. His goal is to build a network of 100,000 pieces of smart cash registers across China, but he has only sold 8,000 pieces since he founded YDJ in 2016. He must make a breakthrough in the business. To drive leads and sales, he feels the urgency of conducting effective marketing communications with target customers and enhance their understanding on the value that YDJ creates for them. Monetary incentives are tangible but not yet fully demonstrated YDJ’s value. With the traditional retail approach, brick-and-mortar stores, especially those small-scaled ones, are not able to meet the market change; instead, they must adopt digital techniques to catch up with the trend of new retail, which is necessary for a long-term business development rather than just a temporary measure during the Covid-19 pandemic. Pan must craft more compelling messages. What customer value should be chosen as incentives to motivate the target market? How to conduct effective marketing communications correspondingly?

Senior undergraduate; Postgraduate; MBA; EMBA.

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CSS 8: Marketing.

The learning objectives of this case include:

▪ Outline the brand repositioning approaches that Equity Bank used in its various stages of growth.

▪ Identify the impact of Equity’s brand repositioning in supporting its growth.

▪ Develop a brand repositioning framework for Equity bank as a fintech.

▪ Identify the theoretical frameworks that informed Equity’s brand repositioning during the various growth stages.

▪ Suggest a theoretical framework that would help Equity to reposition the new brand in the market.

In March 2020, the Government of Kenya declared a lockdown to slow down the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The lockdown of entire economic sectors put pressure on the adoption of technology to deliver services such as education, training and financial services. Banks had to innovate ways of supporting customers transactions with minimal physical and cash contact. Equity Bank had been implementing a digital banking strategy which had demonstrated successful adoption. Covid-19 accelerated the adoption and usage of Equity Bank’s digital banking by consumers. The bank found itself in a new territory competing fiercely with new and more agile fintechs. Consequently, Dr James Mwangi, the Group Managing Director and CEO of Equity Group, was contemplating the possibility of bringing forward the bank's strategic intention of repositioning as a fintech. He was convinced that such a move would bring massive success to the bank’s digital banking strategy, achieve enhanced efficiency, improve customer experience and attract a new segment of digital-savvy customers. But he needed to carry the Board, his management team and customers along in this repositioning strategy without sacrificing the gains made in the consumers' minds about Equity's brand as a bank.

This case can be taught to graduate-level students of marketing courses. It can also be taught to participants of executive education undertaking short courses in in business management and entrepreneurship.

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CSS 8: Marketing.

This case study outlined the strategic and organizational issues faced by an entrepreneurial firm operating in an emerging economy. While the traditional view is “more for more” and “less for less” with respect to quality and price, the medical devices sector demands “more for less” in an emerging economy such as India, i.e. the market demands quality products at affordable prices. This case was written to equip students with the knowledge of how entrepreneurs can overcome certain barriers and use technology to recognize and exploit an opportunity, using the Indian health-care industry as an example. The key learning outcomes for the case include the following:

• Entrepreneurs define their own market, come up with innovations and create a completely new market with suitable customer value proposition.

• Entrepreneurial opportunity recognition comes from being prepared, having prior knowledge of customers and the market and having a strong network.

• An entrepreneurial preference for error of omission or commission is the determining factor when deciding whether to exploit a recognized opportunity or not.

• Entrepreneurs exploit an opportunity by giving special emphasis on their entry and risk reduction strategy.

• A technology-based product with a combination of services that will create its own product ecosystem with data is the primary goal.

The Indian health-care sector is one of the largest sectors in India and incorporates the medical devices sector, and the heart monitor segment especially represents a huge untapped opportunity. India has the highest number of deaths because of heart disease in the world, yet there is no mechanism for affordable heart monitoring, which results in large number of deaths. As existing products are either B2B or unaffordable, there is an opportunity to leverage technology to come up with cgiq products similar to blood pressure and sugar monitors. However, there are certain challenges unique to the market and product. The case described how two young entrepreneurs founded a company called Agatsa and overcame certain challenges to create a credit card-sized ECG device and the importance of building an ecosystem in a new market. Some specific issues that the case posed included the following: will it be possible for Agatsa to come up with an ecosystem to monitor heart functioning and will that be accepted by the stakeholders in an emerging market such as India? Should Agatsa have a product-driven strategy or a data-driven strategy? Will Agatsa be able to find the right business model to create and capture value?

MBA in courses such as entrepreneurship development, new venture creation and entrepreneurship in emerging markets.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The case is structured to achieve the following learning objectives: ■ to assess how an intuitive response to social need can be complemented with a methodical approach to social entrepreneurship; ■ to analyse the importance of business model canvas from the social sector lens; ■ to evaluate the value created by a small NPO 17000 ft Foundation; ■ to analyse the core elements of a business model for success in the social sector; and ■ to assess and evaluate the options for an early-stage NPO to engage in scaling for a systemic impact.

17000 ft Foundation (hereafter referred to as 17000 ft) is a not-for-profit (NPO) organisation incepted in 2012 by Sujata Sahu, with the objective of supporting education of children living at high altitudes in remote villages of Ladakh, India. It is an effort that contributes toward objectives of clause 6.1 on educational inclusivity in the new National Education Policy 2020 of India. The case study is set in the context of Indian education, with all its challenges. It describes how Sujata Sahu was motivated to start the Foundation and how it developed to become a complex organisation working on different education-related projects simultaneously. The Foundation’s business model is interesting and unique. It leverages digital technologies to develop a network of interconnected activities, involves local communities and uses an extensive network of different kinds of stakeholders to impact a change in the quality of education in government schools in these remote villages. The case provides a solid basis for the discussion of the vital role of NPOs such as 17000 ft (in emerging economy) which is creating social and economic value for the remote villages of Ladakh, India. The new NEP 2020 argues for equity and inclusivity in education for all, but it failed to provide a blueprint for the implementation process. On the other hand, 17000 ft with its small team was invested and experimental in its approach. It had been working on the same cause of educational inclusivity. They had piloted a quality education business model for the harshest and remote Indian terrains and proven its positive impact. What were some of the core elements that had led them to success so far? The announcement of NEP 2020 provided a new ray of hope. How could they contribute and work together with the government to impact inclusive education and development in India? What collaborative mechanisms could possibly help them replicate their proven business model across the 1,000 schools of Ladakh and beyond? How could they scale for a systemic impact? After all, a nation as big as India required multiple strategies and multiple stakeholders from NPOs, private companies, government agencies, educational institutions, etc. to work collaboratively to bridge the inclusion and equity gaps in education.

The case can be used in graduate and executive education courses in entrepreneurship and strategic management. It can also be used for executive sessions at incubation centres for NPO start-ups and is aimed at early-phase social entrepreneurs.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The learning outcomes are as follows:

1. enable students to appreciate how a platform company can navigate through diminishing network effects;

2. enable students to foresee the downside of scaling up a platform business;

3. enable students to appreciate the trade-off between an efficiency-centric and a novelty-centric business model for platform businesses; and

4. enable students to create a platform business model canvas for a company.

The teaching case discusses the dilemma of Akshay Chaturvedi, the founder of Leverage Edu, an artificial intelligence-enabled platform for students seeking admission to foreign universities. It had received nearly US$9.6m in funding until December 2021.

Chaturvedi wanted to make the best use of his funds, but was torn between turning Leverage Edu into an “efficient platform” and transforming it into a “novelty-centric platform”. The teaching note attempts to resolve Chaturvedi’s dilemma by analyzing competitors using the platform canvas model and determining how Chaturvedi could create and use network effects to Leverage Edu’s advantage. The case is based on secondary data that is freely available in the public domain.

This case is intended for MBA Entrepreneurship students taking a platform business elective. It can also be used in faculty and management development programs under the banner “Technology and Platform Businesses”.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The learning outcomes of this study are as follows: ■ understand organizational turnaround and its sustainability;■ applying the understanding of turnarounds to distinguish between operational and strategic levers of a turnaround strategy; ■ analyze and evaluate past and present turnarounds from a sustainability perspective; and ■ formulate managerial actions to make turnaround sustainable.

Braithwaite Company Ltd. (Braithwaite) was a specialized engineering firm headquartered in Kolkatta, India. It primarily undertook structural steel fabrication to make railway wagons and bridge structures. It was incorporated as a private enterprise almost a century back. However, since its nationalization five decades ago, it has been operating as a public sector undertaking (PSU) under the aegis of Indian Railways, a department of the Government of India. The case documents the past three decades of the firm’s journey, during which it experienced three episodic turnarounds. Details of the first two turnarounds are presented as the background, in light of which sustainability of the third turnaround is to be examined. The case explores the sustainability of organizational turnarounds from the perspective of the current Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), the case protagonist. Braithwaite underwent financial and operational distress in 1992, 2005 and 2015 and negotiated them under different leaders. These leaders from diverse backgrounds used distinct tactics and strategies to bring about organizational turnarounds. The case provides data and information to assess the sustainability of the third turnaround. Hence, it allows a class to explore the paradoxical observation that while “turnaround” inherently implies sustenance of good performance over time, turnaround sustainability is not spontaneous in the real world. The case deals with the performance issues of PSUs, which make significant contributions to the national economy in the case of emerging economies (for example, 5%–8% of the Indian National gross domestic product is contributed by PSUs; https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/psus-are-crucial-for-indias-growth-but-only-if-they-play-a-strategic-role). Under government ownership and management, the poor performance of PSUs is often attributed to bad decision-making by its top management. In contrast, Braithwaite’s top management’s sound contextual decision-making resulted in a jump in its performance during each turnaround phase, but unsound fundamentals resulted in the unsustainability of the turnarounds. Hence, the case enables an exploration of the unique challenges faced by PSU that emanate from legacy roles, monopolistic markets and dual purpose – the concurrent pursuit of profits and social welfare. Consequently, the case allows an examination of the reasons for the distress of PSUs and the viability of turnaround strategies in the context of the broader Business–Government–Society landscape in emerging economies.

The case is written for use in the MBA elective course covering “Strategic Revival and Turnaround Strategies.” It can be used at the beginning of the course to identify reasons for organizational failure/distress or in the later part of the course to discuss the implementation of operational and strategic turnaround strategies.

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CSS 10: Public Sector Management.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to understand how organizations can leverage the built-in brand equity; outline the challenges of extending a strong brand; and ability to think about the core-essence of the brand impact and its perception among customers before deciding to extend.

JML was a 74-year-old company and was a No.1 player in the domestic market and No. 4 globally. It maintained this leadership position through a robust product portfolio and serving new needs and opportunities. Customers associated JML's products (buses and trucks) with high-quality performance, sturdiness & reliability. JML had a well-established brand – “Callisto”, in the heavy bus segment but saw an opportunity in light buses, which could be used within the city and for school and office commute purposes. They launched Callisto Lite, a variant of successful Callisto buses, in 2015 for cashing this opportunity. Though initially, the brand showed positive signs but soon lost the novelty value and saw low returns on marketing investments. Callisto Lite was also diluting the strong brand equity of the successful parent brand. The management was undecided as to what to do. Should they move out of the segment or continue? Each had its own pros and consequences, and the decision was not easy.

The case can be used in an undergraduate or a post-graduate management program to teach the core concepts of branding and brand extension. The case can be used in an introductory marketing course or elective courses like Brand Management and Marketing Strategy.

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CSS 8: Marketing.

After reading and discussing the case, the participant would be able to: comprehend the ethics in marketing strategies that were displayed by an entrepreneur in the challenging times of the Covid-19 pandemic; appreciate how the marketing was executed in a socially responsible manner through digital means when there was a conflict between the business and the social interest; and understand how the innovative services or products can be developed that turn the trouble into an opportunity. The case shall also enlighten the students on how to create suitable marketing messages in digital times. The purpose of this paper is to let the students appreciate how they can carry out marketing efforts for a business while keeping customer needs and aspirations at the core, how the marketing campaigns can be designed and executed in a socially responsible manner and how the product portfolio can be suitably altered to make it more valued to the customer. After reading and discussing this case, the students will also be able to appreciate that it is important to identify and address the customer’s pain which may be stated or unstated by the customer. The case intends to teach students how to identify and reap the opportunities that get created from time to time and to make them appreciate that businesses can contribute significantly towards societal gains by committing minimal resources.

The mainstream marketing discipline focuses on excessive consumerism as opposed to the concept of “socially responsible marketing” which advocates that business initiatives should be supported by ethical considerations. The coworking industry was one of the worst affected industries by the pandemic since their customers started working from their homes during and post the lockdowns, leading to a loss in revenues. The protagonist in the case had a strong belief that the business interests would be secondary to the overall interest of society, and therefore, he advised the customers on how they could work productively, safely and stress-free from their homes. As the lockdown was un-eased, the marketing campaigns were launched and executed in a very ethical manner, while designing innovative service offerings were designed.

The case is relevant for the students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies in the field of business and management.

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CSS 8: Marketing.

The learning outcomes of this study are as follows:1. Analyze the pricing strategy followed by Netflix in India;2. Examine the challenges faced by media companies, including over-the-top (OTT) service providers, in developing content for target consumers in emerging markets; and3. Evaluate the dynamics of the Indian OTT industry and understand the effect of external and internal factors on the growth of Netflix in India.

This case discusses the dilemma faced by Netflix in India regarding pricing and content. Netflix was accused of hurting the religious and political sentiments of Indians by broadcasting bold shows such as Sacred Games and A Suitable Boy. Netflix is caught in a dilemma between its pursuit to achieve its target of achieving 100 million subscribers from India versus continuing its profitable high pricing strategy. Another key dilemma is regarding the streaming of attractive bold content which may occasionally hurt the religious/political sentiments of some Indians or stream only safe content which may be deemed as boring by its young target audience.

Undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Marketing courses in Commerce and Business Management streams can use this case.

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CSS 8: Marketing.

This case highlights the challenges faced by a young and inexperienced Area Sales Manager (ASM), early in her career. This is an often-encountered situation by fresh graduates. Through the analysis of the case, the students will be able to: ■ understand challenges a young manager faces in taking over a new, unfamiliar and underperforming territory; ■ analyze and learn to manage data and identify performance gaps in the territory, by selecting the right metrics; ■ learn the factors for evaluating the performance of current intermediaries (distributors); and ■ appreciate the importance of managing all stakeholders – internal team and building a strong relationship with the intermediaries – both distributors and retailers.

Kavita Kaur, the new Area Sales Manager at Broadway India Pvt. Ltd. (BIPL), had just taken over the Chhattisgarh sales territory in January 2020. Fresh out of a B-school, it was her first job, and her allotted territory was severely lagging growth at only 1%, compared to an all-India country growth at 13% in 2019, over the previous year. The territory was operated by established intermediaries (distributors) with long associations with BIPL. Based on her data analyses of distributors’ performance, Kaur started her retail visit with the highest selling distributor’s area (Sharda Agencies) to confirm her understanding of what the data had shown her. Following her retail visit and a meeting with Sharda Agencies, the situation turned for the worse. An email bordering to a threat from him took her aback. Kaur now had to make a choice to ensure growth in her new territory. Her options were between placating the current distributor or appointing a new one – should she retain or replace? Both had their own risks.

This case is intended for use at the postgraduate level in courses such as sales management, channel management and strategic marketing courses, as well as in executive management programs. The case is relevant from the context of channel management in India, where channel intermediaries can be very demanding. The case will give students a practical hands-on decision-making situation, where there are complexities of quantitative and qualitative nature. It will also help young graduates prepare for real life situations where the assigned territory is struggling in performance and a lot is expected from the new recruits.

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CSS 8: Marketing.

After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to understand the following aspects:▪ how good strategic planning can convert a crisis into an opportunity;▪ importance of service excellence and customer satisfaction through customer delight and customer feedback; and▪ utilisation of resources and excellent time management strategies.

This case discusses how vital teamwork and motivated leadership can convert a crisis such as Covid-19 into an opportunity. This case study talks about Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC), a metro rail corporation working to develop metro trains in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The case discusses how challenging it was for the metro rail corporation to transform its processes in a short period and deal with the crisis on major fronts such as facilities maintenance, human resource management, ensuring safety and security of its staff and riders, motivation of staff, service quality and maintaining all operational aspects. The case discusses how UPMRC is a leader on all fronts and has excelled in its operational work. It talks about what challenges the lockdown and unlocking phase posed in front of the leadership and how teamwork, dedication to exemplary service quality and customer satisfaction gave the team the strength to make changes that improved their processes and helped them overcome the crisis.The case starts with a discussion of metro rail inception and incorporation of UPMRC and then how this newly formed metro has to face the challenges of pre-lockdown period where the team worked very hard for sanitisation and safety. The lockdown created a completely different set of challenges related to the facilities and the entire metro train systems, which was a difficult situation to deal because of restrictions and other challenges. However, the team dealt with situations with strength and strategic planning, leading to better managed processes and staff. The unlocking phase also gave many challenges that the team handled with a lot of care and efficiency.

This case is suitable for post-graduate-level courses on services marketing, service operations management, general management, crisis management and strategic management. Participants can use the case to develop an understanding of strategic planning and management.This case can also be used in the executive education program for managers to encourage them to think through challenges faced by metro rail corporations.

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CSS 10: Public Sector Management.

Discussion of the case will enable students to:

• explain what are the five specific dimensions that are important determinants of an environment conducive to entrepreneurial behavior;

• analyze how to measure the internal environment on the five dimensions critical to creating an entrepreneurial/innovative environment;

• devise a profile of the firm across the five dimensions – top management support, work discretion, rewards and reinforcement, time availability and organizational boundaries;

• explain how to attempt to identify the perceived gaps at the unit or division level and then work to rectify the specific areas; and

• describe models of corporate entrepreneurship.

explain what are the five specific dimensions that are important determinants of an environment conducive to entrepreneurial behavior;

analyze how to measure the internal environment on the five dimensions critical to creating an entrepreneurial/innovative environment;

devise a profile of the firm across the five dimensions – top management support, work discretion, rewards and reinforcement, time availability and organizational boundaries;

explain how to attempt to identify the perceived gaps at the unit or division level and then work to rectify the specific areas; and

describe models of corporate entrepreneurship.

Mexicali is a border city in the state of Baja California, Mexico. It was in the month of May 2022. The President of Prodensa Consulting Services (PCS), Marco Kuljacha (Marco), was sitting in his office thinking about a way forward to create an intrapreneurial culture by identifying more “Marcos or Marcias” among his current PCS employees. As he contemplates the future of the company, he is hoping to identify individuals within the organization who exhibit an entrepreneurial mindset through generating and leading new business initiatives for PCS. He desires to support people who have the potential to emerge as future leaders within the organization. He is striving to identify those individuals who want to proactively develop their career trajectories in ways similar to Marco’s earlier professional experiences. After starting with Grupo Prodensa in 2006 as a Junior Project Manager, Marco, by pursuing an intrapreneurial path, worked his way up to become President of the PCS in 2022. According to Marco, such individuals should exhibit the willingness to foster opportunities for new business ventures for PCS and possess traits such as innovation, proactivity, risk-taking, accountability and networking.

With an eye toward the need for continuous innovation and change, Marco was thinking about ways to identify and develop entrepreneurially minded individuals among his employees working at PCS. Corporate entrepreneurship was of great importance for him and the future of the company. The case provides an opportunity for students to step into the shoes of Marco and find an appropriate intrapreneurship model to implement the intrapreneurship culture. In doing so, students should take into consideration the data regarding the existing corporate entrepreneurship processes and teams at Grupo Prodensa that helped it to innovate and make assumptions to analyze the feasibility of implementing intrapreneurship culture by finding more Marco or Marcia.

This case can be used as an introductory case in a postgraduate class on corporate entrepreneurship, as it delineates the challenges faced by Marco in finding an appropriate intrapreneurship model and finding in PCS more Marco or Marcia has qualities such as innovator, proactive, risk-taker, accountability, networking, for implementing corporate entrepreneurship culture in PCS. The case can also be used in a corporate entrepreneurship course and an innovation management course. The case allows students to learn about the model of corporate entrepreneurship; strengths, opportunities, aspirations and results analysis; pros and cons analysis; and challenges faced by the company during the implementation of corporate entrepreneurship. Thus, the case can be used for covering multiple perspectives related to measuring the internal environment or managers’ perception of the five dimensions critical to implementing corporate entrepreneurship (e.g. the application of the Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment Instrument), and is ideal for teaching the different corporate entrepreneurship models.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Upon completion of the case, students will be able to reflect the forces, which may disrupt the art industry through Artientifique initiatives and the ability to apply Phoenix encounter method with proactive scanning to remain competitive; create various multi-functional roles as a youth entrepreneur in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) capacity and be able to understand the level and review the competition and business trends from an art industry perspective; analyze how innovation clubbed with sustainability will create a competitive advantage in a circular economy; determine the leadership style most appropriate for MSMEs to indulge in innovation and sustainability in the fine arts business; and design and discover opportunities to promote women’s entrepreneurship in the art industry, especially in emerging markets.

On a cold Friday morning in November 2020, Aisha Mir was in utter confusion written all over her face. She had to decide on a prosperous pathway. Should it be customization or standardization of artwork? Also, whether she should continue investing in the existing in-house supply chain or outsource this to a third party. Being practicing sustainability in her personal and professional life, she had designed her art studio herself by using upcycled materials. While enjoying the pigeons and sparrows chirping and eating grains on her wide windowpane, she looked at the world map with keen interest and imagined herself flying to each country along with her gray and white pigeons. While sitting in Madina city, Saudi Arabia, she was concerned about the expired makeup collection hub being set up in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The collection and the painting processes had to be monitored; the artworks needed auditing, framing and packing before they were shipped to a customer. Centralizing would add unnecessary hassle, and outsourcing needed distribution of authority. Keeping the challenges in mind, she was struggling to find a solution for efficient community engagement.

This case has been particularly focused on undergraduate and postgraduate early-stage level students pursuing business or commerce programs, particularly those studying entrepreneurial and management courses in innovation and sustainability.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The case can be used to discuss leadership issues in young ventures. It also allows for a discussion of effective sales and marketing functions for a new product. The case also addresses the different challenges facing certain business models in the market, and finally the importance of having a supporting team.

The case traces the development of an Egyptian startup software venture and the challenges faced regarding the entrepreneurship ecosystem. The startup’s main dilemma is whether to continue in its existing market or to extend elsewhere. Launching the main services of the startup is another challenge, as the market needs to be educated to see its value. Despite the success story, as a young Egyptian entrepreneur, the founder is expected to face various challenges to excel in the Egyptian market, such as financing, marketing, teamwork and self-development of the entrepreneur himself.

The case can be used at all levels, from undergraduate and MBA classes to executive seminars, because the issues it addresses are of broad interest.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to design an appropriate strategy for firms to succeed in low-income, price-sensitive markets; to appreciate how business model innovation can help to overcome the obstacles faced by firms when serving rural and semi-urban markets in an emerging economy; to identify possible threats to the business model and evaluate strategies to sustain growth in a dynamic environment; and to allow students to consider sources for competitive advantage and how to build a sustainable business model in low-income markets.

The case details the growth story of Vakrangee Limited (Vakrangee) from a technology consultancy firm to a technology-driven firm focused on creating the largest last-mile retail network providing various services in underserved parts of India, mainly rural India. The firm launched retail outlets called Vakrangee Kendras (VKs) in 2011 that evolved from non-exclusive stores offering a single line of e-governance services into technology-enabled franchisee-based exclusive stores that offered a multiple line of services such as banking, finance, insurance, ATM, e-commerce and logistics. VK however is witnessing competition from different players in different segments. Additionally, the dynamic business environment such as the growing penetration of smartphones and internet usage, heterogeneous needs of customers and government policies pose further threat to the company’s growth in the future. In the wake of these challenges, what should Vakrangee do to sustain its growth? Should it focus on cost-leadership or differentiation for strategic positioning?

This case can be used in an MBA or an executive management program, in courses on strategic management, entrepreneurship, services marketing and rural marketing.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

This case is intended to help students of business communication and public relations to trace the effects of communication by public figures and understand essential elements of designing effective communication. After working through the case and assignment questions, the students will be able to:understand the drivers of vaccine hesitancy;analyze the effects of mass communication on public sentiment, in a fast-changing public health situation; anddesign interventions to influence public awareness and action, using a simple model (5W) for mass communication.

As the vaccines first arrived after the devastating first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Indians hesitated to take the shot. Vaccine hesitancy, a worldwide phenomenon, hampered the uptake of the first Covid vaccines despite the dark clouds of the lethal disease. The case looks at the massive problem of vaccine hesitancy and how an integrated communication strategy could overcome and mitigate the challenge. The case protagonist, the leader of a communications agency, looks at the messaging, medium and platforms needed for strategic communication pitch to combat this vaccine hesitancy.

The case was designed for use in a graduate-level course in business communication. This case may be positioned toward the middle or end of the course to illustrate mass communication strategy for pressing and sensitive challenges. The case may also be used in a course on public relations, both at graduate and undergraduate levels.

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CSS 8: Marketing.

The key learning objectives are mentioned as follows:▪ analyse the attractiveness of the bike rental market using Michael Porter’s five forces model;▪ apply the TWOS framework to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of Tazzo;▪ evaluate various competitive strategies of Tazzo; and▪ identify the unique value proposition for such a service in an emerging market such as India.

Tazzo was an Indian technology bike rental start-up based in Hyderabad. It was a pioneer in providing on-demand bike rental services. Tazzo was founded in 2016 by Priyam Saraswat and Shivangi Srivastava, both from IIT Guwahati, Priyank Suthar from IIT Roorkee and Vikrant Gosain from IMT Hyderabad. Within two years since its inception, Tazzo had scaled up from 5 bikes to a fleet size of 600 bikes with more than 1,000 daily rides. They were making around 24,000 rides monthly with an average ticket size of INR 250. The revenues crossed INR 10 crores with more than 20,000 active users. In 2016, the market was nascent and the concept was new. There was huge demand for such an on-demand bike rental services for self-commute in the metros. However, increasing awareness of a huge untapped market in the bike rental market had led to entry of a flurry of competitors. Notable among them were Vogo, Bounce and ONN Bikes. Facing such intense competition Priyam, co-founder and CEO of Tazzo, had the challenge to be able to sustain his company’s early momentum. How would he be able to retain Tazzo’s market leadership position? Would it be possible for Tazzo to keep up the pace of growth amid increased competition? Would the company be able to ward off the challenges from its competitors? Priyam was facing all these challenging questions and had to quickly address them to continue to lead in this competitive race.

This case can be used in Marketing Management course’s “Competition Analysis” module for both MBA and executive-level programs dealing with marketing. This case study helps students in dealing with issues pertaining to a given market sector where a firm is operating, the strategies that could be used by the competitors and application of competitive strategies which the firm can apply.

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Following successful discussion of this case, students should be able to:▪ understand and apply the principles of effectuation;▪ understand the difficulty of obtaining traditional financing in Latin America;▪ determine the importance of matching new hire and company values, particularly in a small business; and▪ analyze some of the unique problems facing a business at the point of scaling up and provide suggestions for how the protagonist could address those problems.

This case provides an introduction to the Fintech industry in South and Central America, fruitfully combining tenets of the lean startup methodology, effectual principles of entrepreneurship and a novel method of managing personal finances via decentralized vehicles provided through fintech. In addition, Kuiki Credit and its use of fintech represent a compelling example of industry disruption by an entrepreneurial firm. Owing to its unique location, this case provides students with a lens into a part of the world rife with bureaucracy and, in some cases, corruption. The disruption is thus unique in that not only does one view traditional disruption of industry dynamics, but also government policy and cultural mores. This is evinced within the body of the case through direct quotes from founder Ernesto Leal and Eduardo Morán, one of the company’s first employees. This information highlights the market Kuiki Credit pursued, one underserved by traditional financing and thus lacking access to credit.Consistent with effectual entrepreneurship principles, Ernesto Leal, the main protagonist and a Nicaraguan entrepreneur, drew upon his significant corporate experience in financial institutions and as a franchise owner to create a new venture. Kuiki Credit is designed to increase access to capital and disseminate fintech throughout Central and South America, and in particular first in Costa Rica and later in Nicaragua. The case is set in 2018, when Leal faces a scaling issue. Specifically, he wonders how to maintain an entrepreneurial company with high levels of innovation and a culture of continuous improvement despite the need to grow. Near the end of the case, some specific issues relative to culture are briefly reviewed in relation to the sales department and Leal feeling the need to restructure the company, while being encouraged by the board to hit breakeven targets for three consecutive months prior to expanding to new markets.

This case most appropriately lends itself to discussions in entrepreneurship at the junior or senior undergraduate level. To engage in this case most productively, students should have a basic understanding of entrepreneurship, the equivalent of two to three weeks into the semester.

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The learning outcomes of this study are as follows:▪ to explain the marketing of products that fall under “stigmatised” products;▪ to develop a multi-segmentation strategy and identify variables used in segmentation;▪ to identify the target segments;▪ to draw a value proposition canvas;▪ to construct positioning statements; and▪ to decide the product portfolio based on segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP).

This case considers the dilemma faced by Deep Bajaj, CEO of Sirona Hygiene Pvt. Ltd., a company in the female menstrual and intimate hygiene products space, in May 2021. During an investor meeting, an investor questions Sirona’s focus on menstrual cups (MCs) and advises Deep to expand instead the sanitary pads category. While the company has been growing at more than 100% year-on-year and has also been profitable for the last three years, the case considers how Deep can better participate in the bull run in the Indian menstrual hygiene market. Should he discard menstrual cups from Sirona’s product portfolio and concentrate on sanitary pads – India’s most highly accepted menstrual hygiene product? Alternatively, should he discard sanitary pads from his product portfolio and focus on MCs – his flagship product? Or, could he tap the large and growing menstrual hygiene market to “have his cup and pad too”?

This case is suitable for a class of 90 min in an undergraduate course or an extended session of two 90-min classes in a graduate MBA course. It can be studied as part of the STP module in a Marketing Management course. It may also be used in a strategic management course within a graduate MBA program to provide an understanding of the value proposition canvas as part of the module on business model canvas.

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The learning outcomes of this case are in understanding core concepts of brand management and brand dilution. Assessment of macro-economic risks and proper positioning strategies are the key take-away from this case. The case gives an understanding of how brands are built and positioned, and the pitfalls of poor brand planning and assessment that could lead to brand dilution. The case is useful for highlighting the importance of brand management and the challenges of re-positioning. The discussions would shed light on why it is important to plan and manage spending on marketing for brand building activities, and why brands would suffer when spending is reduced. This case is a teaching case and not a research case. It will help participants assimilate available information in combination with existing academic theories and publications to help develop an accurate assessment and prognosis of the events leading until the point of slicing the case.

Reid & Taylor in 2015 had been reduced to a discounter brand offering extended end-of-season sales when most other competitors have ended their promotions. In the 17 years since its big-budget launch in the Indian market in one of the most memorable brand introductions, Reid & Taylor changed its ambassador twice and repositioned itself thrice. The case would allow participants to delve deeper into aspects of marketing spending, brand management, positioning and advertising effectiveness. The case brings to the fore discussions on marketing, specifically on branding, positioning and its related advertising in the textile sector for a brand that has not been studied in academic literature until the present time. The discussion allows for novelty, involving both forward- and backward-looking assessments and evaluations to help participants better imbibe learnings in brand management and positioning.

The case is suitable for a graduate-level (Master’s level) course in marketing and brand management. This case is suitable for elective courses that discuss positioning and brands.

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The case covers several topics such as social entrepreneurship, social innovation, green startups, their marketing and growth. The learning outcomes are as follows: identify the characteristics of social entrepreneurs; learn about the concept of social innovation, its challenges and opportunities; apply the concepts environmental sustainability to possible growth strategies; and evaluate the different growth opportunities available to the company in the region.

The case tells the story of a recently established technology and agriculture startup, Schaduf, founded in Egypt. Their concept mixes tradition with technology to improve the quality of life for city dwellers. Research and development (R&D) plays a big role in this company’s success. Schaduf uses the concepts of soilless farming to grow rooftop crops for low-income households. The company also provides aesthetic solutions for businesses and homes to increase their green spaces. Driven by a desire to transform the monochrome city to a green paradise, two Egyptian entrepreneurs founded Schaduf, an urban micro-farming and eco-friendly venture. The founders of the startup, brothers Sherif and Tarek Hosny, are in the process of expanding their business. They are faced by the dilemma of staying true to their original business concept in developing markets or pursuing other lucrative ventures in more affluent economies. This case offers learners insight into the growth strategy of a social enterprise that relies heavily on R&D to stay ahead of the game. Learners should evaluate the different growth strategies available to the company.

The case can be used for senior undergraduate students and at the graduate level in MBA, management, innovation, entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship programs.

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After completion of this case, students would be able to understand the challenges faced by social entrepreneurship in a time of pandemic, as well as gain a perspective of the background, history, evolution and the setup of such organizations; appreciate the role of marketing methods in tackling the challenges faced and how the management of such enterprises could use them on the ground; evaluate possible future options/pathways that could be taken in the backdrop of a pandemic and, more importantly, in a developing country context; and apply the elements of social entrepreneurship theory and suggest a way ahead for ThankUfoods (TUF).

TUF is a social enterprise that empowers visually and physically challenged people by using while profitably selling food products. Few years of existence, it was facing a major dilemma regarding strategies to continue its existing business and the way forward. Because of the pandemic, the traditional offline business models became redundant on which TUF was heavily dependent. At the same time, TUF had to balance providing support to its employees, staying financially afloat and upholding its parent organization’s core objectives, the India Association for Blind (IAB). IAB was founded to rescue and provide livelihood for specially abled people. TUF was formed as a sister concern that combined charitable work and profit earning to make visually challenged people self-sufficient. At this juncture, the protagonist of the case Mr Abdul Raheem, chief executive officer of TUF and vice president of IAB, approached consultants to chart the way forward. He was forced to explore novel options ranging from conceptual ones, such as setting the right objectives and revisiting mission and vision, to more operational ones, such as venturing into online space, increasing advertisements and achieving breakeven sales. This case study highlights the overall journey of TUF, the underlying constraints, the new challenges faced and the dilemma ahead. Further, it covers the context and challenges peculiar to an emerging market setting. More importantly, it provides a setting for the students to be in the protagonist’s position and ponder – how should a social enterprise functioning in an emerging market function in times of pandemic crises? If it decides to explore novel options, what should be those, how can it proceed, and what to be cautious about.

The target audience for the case study are students from MBA and BBA courses, management trainees who are interested to learn about the challenges social entrepreneurship face at the time of crisis. This case study could be used to explain concepts about social entrepreneurship, brand positioning, e-commerce marketing and decision-making in the time of pandemics/crises. The case is also suitable for senior management personnel who participate in executive education programs.

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The learning outcomes are as follows: to analyze the driving forces that lead non-government organizations (NGOs) to develop need-based programs; to evaluate the strategy adopted by NGOs in attaining the organization’s mission and creating a social impact, corporate social responsibility, inclusion, labor market, social enterprise, strategy and vocational learning; to apply social business canvas for analyzing the business model deployed by NGOs to develop market linkages; to analyze the challenges in setting and scaling NGO programs and strategies designed to address the same; and to enable students to brainstorm in creating future growth options for scaling up and replicating NGO programs.

The case describes the journey of Salaam Bombay Foundation (SBF), a national-level NGO registered in 2002 in Mumbai, India. In March 2020, SBF had an annual budget of INR 13.98 crores (US$1.84m). It addresses the challenging environments children from economically constrained families face by engaging them in continuing school education and providing vocational training. Since its inception, SBF has launched and executed many in-school and after-school programs. To successfully transit skilled adolescents and teenagers into the labor market and help them make informed career decisions, SBF launched “DreamLab,” a stipend-based “internship” model, in August 2018. Gaurav Arora, Vice President SBF, was assigned the responsibility to scale up skills@school and DreamLab internship programs. With disruptions caused by the pandemic in March 2020, Arora struggled to operationalize DreamLab as initially planned. The case is at a crucial decision point where clouds of uncertainty have made Arora and his team anxious about their future course of action.

The case is intended for students of undergraduate and graduate programs in Business Management, Social Entrepreneurship and Social Work programs. Executives of management development programs can also use the case to analyze the effectiveness and management of the skill development program.

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The case demonstrates the use of strategic management tools such as pros and cons analysis, SWOT analysis, strategy canvas, the four-action framework and the eliminate–reduce–raise–create grid to create a Blue Ocean.Through a discussion of the case, students will be able to:▪ conduct pros and cons analysis to objectively understand a situation;▪ conduct SWOT analysis to understand the internal and external ecosystem;▪ understand non-customers and paths to reach them;▪ demonstrate the role of strategy canvas and the four-action framework in designing a new offering; and▪ explain how to create a Blue Ocean market space, by implementing the concept of value innovation.

This case describes a situation in which Dr Vishal Sardeshpande (Sardeshpande), a first-generation entrepreneur in the agro and food processing industry, started Sarvaay Solutions to provide technological solutions for the sector, especially for the small/medium-sized farmer. Such farmers did not have access to technology and the markets to create value addition on their farm produce, and hence were at the mercy of the middlemen or the large farmers. After years of experimentation from 2006 till 2018, Sardeshpande made a resource-efficient jaggery manufacturing process (REJMP) in Pune to enable and empower the farmer to produce quality jaggery using their own sugarcane, which otherwise was sold to the middlemen. Sardeshpande knew the industry and was aware of the challenges faced by the farmers, traditional jaggery producers and cooperative farming bodies. In June 2022, while sitting in his house, Sardeshpande was struck with an idea that the key to success of REJMP is to empower farmers or traditional jaggery producers or cooperative farming bodies to create value from agriculture produce and wondered the way forward. The purpose of this case is to provide an opportunity for the participants to use management tools such as strategy canvas, four-action framework, Pros and Cons analysis and SWOT analysis to understand noncustomers and paths to reach them and understand new industry creation. Participants need to take into consideration the data given in the case and make realistic assumptions to understand how new industries are created.

The case engages the participants in deciding a suitable course of action for Sardeshpande to decide the Blue Ocean strategy. It helps them to delineate the challenges faced by an entrepreneur to select a route for the new market space.The case is ideal for undergraduate, postgraduate or executive education students and can be used in the following courses of a business management, agri business management or entrepreneurship programs:▪ creating new industries;▪ Blue Ocean strategy; and▪ strategic management.

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In the light of the case and the accompanying case questions, the students should understand:1. The theoretical underpinnings of the brand positioning and brand repositioning.2. Critical evaluation of marketing communication material in the light of theoretical underpinnings.3. The nuances of operating in emerging markets in technology-driven sectors.4. The intricate link between the business goals and communication goals5. The application of the attention-interest-desire-action model and the brand media wheel when translating business strategies into communication strategies.

It was in June 2016, when Asad Haroon, the young head of brands at Ufone, a Pakistani originated telecom operating company, was posed with a challenge of dwindling subscriber identity module card sales, deteriorating average revenue per user and an exponential increase in customer churn. The telecom industry itself was in a flux due to various factors such as changes in the regulatory frameworks and technological shifts.Asad felt that the reason for the brand’s decline might be the lack of synergy between the business strategy and the brand’s communication strategy.Asad knew that he would have to make some unpopular choices and review his brand’s communication strategy which had not yet proved to create a harmony between communication goals and business goals. However, he was unsure about how and if at all he should go about changing a marketing legacy and the brand’s positioning which had reigned the minds of his peers and his customers for so long.

This case is aimed toward undergraduate students enrolled in courses of principles of marketing, marketing communications and corporate media strategy.

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After working on the assignment questions, the learners can achieve the following learning outcomes: to deliberate on the emerging cloud-based business models in the food-tech sector; to scrutinize the challenges faced by a start-up while selecting an expansion model; and to purpose strategies and solutions for scaling up the business.

Ms Megha Bafna, the founder, conceptualized starting Keep Good Shape (KGS) in the year 2017. She started the business with a seed capital of INR 3,500 (US$54.13) from her savings. The idea stuck to her mind as she was working with a real estate firm, and every day, she packaged salad for her lunch. Bafna thought that if someone makes the salad available, she will buy it. Based on this this unmet need of the consumers, KGS started as a passion in 2017 and became a full-fledged business in 2021 with 400 daily customers and 38 full-time employees. Today, she serves 22 different salads, including customized salads for customers with lifestyle diseases based on a subscription model. She grew her organization using social media tools such as Facebook and WhatsApp without using any traditional promotion tools. COVID-19 pandemic has increased her orders by almost 10% as healthy meals emerged as people’s choice in 2021. In 2021, she has to choose between expansion through cloud-based kitchen business models across India. She has been confused about selecting the suitable cloud-based kitchen business model and contemplating about funding if she has to expand the business.

An instructor can use this case in the courses of entrepreneurship/strategy subject of a graduate/MBA program. The case study sensitizes the students about setting up a new business and organizing to scale it up further.

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The context of the case presents an account of how corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiated by Lawrence & Mayo (L&M), a company dealing in optical frames for 140 years, helped to build brand equity, image and identity, creating a strategic advantage against competition. The case had a deep-rooted theoretical association with a theory such as the triple bottom line theory (three Ps: profit, people and planet) on CSR. The case helps to understand and clarify the role of CSR in brand equity. It also gives an insight into the value and culture of L&M, and its impact on various stakeholders, namely, employees and customers.

This case is related to the CSR orientation of L&M and its impact on brand equity. As a brand, L&M is over 140 years old and has a dynamic and trending optics market in India. There is a dilemma in the company around the impact of CSR on brand equity, customer engagement and company goodwill. This case focuses on maintaining and improving brand equity, identity and image through CSR initiatives.

Undergraduate and postgraduate students, essential for students focusing on Marketing and CSR disciplines.

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This case study can be used at the graduate and executive levels.

This case study can be used in entrepreneurship, leadership, social entrepreneurship and human resource management.

Healing Fields Foundation is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that was co-founded by Mukti Bosco to create an affordable and quality health-care ecosystem, primarily through women. The pragmatism of Mukti and her strong alignment with the core values of the foundation ensured that they emerged unscathed from past challenges. During the second wave of the pandemic in 2021, they employed bikers on a contractual basis to satisfy last-mile delivery demand in rural India. However, owing to the recovery post the second wave, the demand for their services dropped and subsequently their earnings. Being provided with four options by her COO, Mukti is cognisant of the social implications her decisions will have on all the stakeholders in the ecosystem.

A. Identify and prioritise key stakeholders of the organisation for effective decision-making. B. Differentiate effectual from causal reasoning and apply their right balance while making decisions. C. Delineate social entrepreneurs from their for-profit, non-mission-driven counterparts. D. Create value for the organisation’s stakeholders through the management of its diverse workforce. E. Formulate entrepreneurial solutions through the application of relevant concepts and frameworks.

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This case can facilitate students to develop a deeper understanding of the social mission-based business enterprises, startups, solopreneurship, one-man companies, women-led businesses, benefits and challenges associated with service innovation and design thinking, along with the competitive forces and funding problems in scaling up a social enterprise. It can be used for the BBA, MBA or Executive MBA programs for courses on entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, design thinking, business strategy and service innovation.

This case is suitable for both the undergraduate or graduate-level programs in the area of entrepreneurship, innovation and startup management.

Dr Anita Sharma was a solopreneur who started a car driving school in Amritsar, Punjab, deploying specially designed, retrofitted cars to train People with Disabilities (PwDs). She demonstrated exceptional prowess in defying the social taboos and popular stigmas associated with PwDs by establishing “Drive On My Own” (DOMO) as an innovative project, a first-of-its-kind car-driving training school in India to provide an accessible car-drive learning experience to PwDs. She ignored the extreme sensitivity displayed in the social behavior of people around her, who were either were too sensitive for the PwDs by treating them as Person with Special Abilities (PwSAs) or were completely insensitive toward them or their problems thinking that their disabilities are their misfortunes. This continuum of insensitive to overprotective societal attitudes and lack of infrastructure concerning travel for PwSAs made this service innovation possible by design thinking. This entrepreneurial initiative enabled solo as well as group travel and tours possible for PwDs, by bringing in new inclusive modes of communication and solutions for self-mobility. It has also paved a path for social inclusiveness and livelihood sustainability by bringing positive change in the lives of PwDs and their family members. Moreover, a new design implementation is in her plans, as she wants to redesign these cars further to be accessible for people using wheelchairs too. The potential growth of this solopreneur’s social enterprise calls for scaling up the business, but it may also attract competition as the existing big tech-travel automobile companies may enter this domain soon with their driver-less or self-drive cars. Considering all these factors, Dr Anita Sharma faced multiple dilemmas: Can she formalize her project? What can be the type of business she can proceed with? How can she sustain and scale up her women-led project, better qualifying as a PwD-led social enterprise? How can she resolve the challenges related to the design implementation, funding the project and facing competition while scaling up DOMO as her social and service innovation?

Thus, this case study enables the application of concepts and theories of business enterprise, business funding, service innovation and design thinking. It also helps recognize and understand the challenges related to social entrepreneurship.

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This case is meant for MBA/MS/executive MBA students.

Entrepreneurship development, leadership.

This case is about the successful entrepreneurial journey of Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder of India-based biotechnology company Biocon Limited. Mazumdar-Shaw established Biocon in 1978 as a joint venture company. As a woman entrepreneur, Mazumdar-Shaw faced many challenges and setbacks during her initial days. She overcame these and took Biocon to new heights. Later, Mazumdar-Shaw decided to make a strategic shift in Biocon’s business model – going from manufacturing enzymes to biopharmaceuticals with the vision of making an impact on global health care by providing access to affordable, life-saving drugs.

The learning outcomes are as follows: understand the ecosystem of women entrepreneurs in developing countries; examine the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in their entrepreneurial journey and how successful entrepreneurs convert challenges into opportunities; and analyze what entrepreneurial leadership is and understand how these leadership qualities play an important role in the success of entrepreneurial ventures.

Mazumdar-Shaw was able to break through the gender barrier that was highly prevalent in Indian society then and successfully established her entrepreneurial venture in biotechnology, a discipline that was still nascent in the1970s. Though she has scaled great heights in the biotechnology area and developed her business, she has remained sensitive to the problems of those who are unable to get affordable medicines. Firmly believing that she should share the prosperity of the company with the poor and the marginalized, Mazumdar-Shaw, through her philanthropic venture, Biocon Foundation, started providing essential drugs at affordable prices to them.

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MBA/MS level programs.

Social entrepreneurship, sustainability and business strategy.

The case discusses about how social entrepreneur Katerina Kimmorley founded Pollinate Energy with five of her friends to provide solar lights to the urban slum dwellers in Bengaluru, the capital city of Karnataka, a state in the Southern part of India. The company recruited people known as “Pollinators” for distributing their solar lights to the communities on installments making it affordable to them. To scale-up its sustainable energy initiatives and expand its global reach, Pollinate Energy merged with the US-based solar energy company Empower Generation in 2018 to form Pollinate Group. Since the company was making losses and was a nonprofit organization, the new CEO of Pollinate Group Sujatha Ramani and the senior management team had to tackle the challenge of scaling up the company while financially empowering women microentrepreneurs from marginalized communities.

Study Pollinate Energy’s business model and explore ways in which it can be made sustainable. Discuss the personality traits of Kimmorley which contributed to her success. Discuss how the merger with Empower Generation will help Pollinate Group in expanding its global reach. Explore ways in which the venture can be scaled up further.

Pollinate Group focused on women empowerment to tackle the gender inequality challenge. The company provided equal opportunities for men and women, thereby removing discrimination from access to opportunities, sources, services and promotion of equal rights.

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Post-graduation.

Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship.

By July 2021, the curve of COVID-19 second wave started flattening. Hetika Shah, the founder of Sanctuary Innovative Safety Equipment, was unsure whether her business would survive in the long run. The company manufactured 4S Shield N99 masks. The business was doing well when the COVID curve was at its peak; however, the sales wobbled with the flattening of the curve. As the company had manufactured the product, especially for doctors who need protection from COVID, the demand showed a sudden fall after the second wave. She was certain that the business would not survive only on 4S shield mask. Diversification of this business seemed to be a suitable idea, where she could manufacture other safety equipment for the manufacturing industry. At that time, she had neither done market research nor had any prototype for such equipment. This variety of products required a huge investment of funds and time. But, as per the market demand of the existing product, it was crucial to make quick decisions for business survival. She had options in front of her, but the uncertainty of the market deterred the decision-making. She was at a junction with three possible choices: One option was to stay in the business of masks and expand it in medical devices market under health-care industry. The masks could be used by doctors engaged in the treatment of other diseases. She planned to distribute masks to doctors treating tuberculosis and cancer. Another option was to shift her attention to diversification of the business and enter the market of safety equipment under manufacturing industry that demanded more investment and a lot of market research. The main idea was to come up with innovative safety equipment. Though, this opportunity came with its array of risks. The last option was to shift towards her underdeveloped chiller prototype for industrial use. By that time, the prototype was 75% complete. Still, it required a lot more time and attention to be brought at the commercializing stage.

The case study can be used in the Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management course. It would be suitable for students at the post-graduation level. Discussion would be on the appropriate teaching method. Though there is no prerequisite, it would be better if students had a basic understanding of entrepreneurship and strategic management. It discusses the entrepreneurial dilemma of starting a business. Furthermore, the case explains the decision dilemma of the entrepreneur about the continuance of existing business, expansion and diversification. Students will be able to understand the following concepts: business plan, business development, strategic decision-making in business, entrepreneurial opportunities, sustainability of an enterprise and challenges faced by entrepreneurs. After this case study, students will be able to understand the following models and theories: uncertainty-bearing theory of entrepreneurship, porter’s generic strategy, porter’s five competitive forces, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, scenario planning, Ansoff’s growth model and social role theory.

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Women entrepreneurship.

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Teaching formats for both BA/MA students and MBA/PhD students in sustainable entrepreneurship and strategic management are offered in the teaching notes.

This case juxtaposes the company’s core values of gender equality, sustainability and inclusivity, with the financial pressures of expanding global operations in COVID-19 times.

This case illustrates the founding and growth of i-did in the broader context of the global circular textile industry. Being the first company that reclaims value of discarded textiles by making design products out of felt, the dilemma is on how i-did can create a blueprint for sustainable leadership in a scalable (financial) business case.

The learning outcomes of this case are as follows: to understand the concepts of circular economy and social impact and how they can be translated to business; to apply their knowledge of strategy and entrepreneurship for sustainable business innovation; to be able to analyze a company according to the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically around gender issues, inclusivity and diversity; to evaluate opportunities for multiple value creation in business; and to have the knowledge and capacity to create a circular business with the help of the Business Model Template.

This case engages students in critically reflecting on sustainability concepts in relation to i-did (theoretical value) and applying novel business model innovation tools to a real-world enterprise (practical value). The students get the chance to explore the ethical challenges the two entrepreneurial leaders face between short-term economic gains (or maybe even survival) and their core values of (gender) inclusivity, circularity and diversity.

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MBA/MS/Executive Training.

Business and society; sustainability; women business leaders.

This case is about the development of sustainable viticulture in Israel. Michal Akerman, a viticulturist and agronomist, implemented out-of-the box ideas at Tabor Winery, Israel, and was successful in developing organic and sustainable vineyard. However, she faced challenges in terms of improving the quality of grapes as she looked forward to growing some of the best quality French grapes in Israel in the challenging conditions of the Negev desert region.

The expected learning outcomes are: to analyze the environmental impact of viticulture and sustainable viticulture through Tabor’s example, to examine how leaders can drive businesses to be involved in sustainable practices and challenges involved in implementing sustainable practices and to develop a framework for female leaders working in male-dominated business environments.

This case captures Michal Akerman’s (Michal) endeavours to develop organic and sustainable viticulture at Israel-based Tabor Winery. The traditional practices followed to grow the vineyards were proving adverse to the biodiversity. Unsustainable practices wiped out rare plants, and micro-organisms, which were essential for cultivation of grapes. The imbalance and unnatural ecosystem ultimately posed a threat to the very sustenance of the vineyards. As a seasoned viticulturist, Michal was of the view that a stable, diverse and balanced ecosystem prevented diseases among plants, and improved the quality of grapes.

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Learning outcomes are as follows: to understand the need for a small business to expand geographically; to evaluate the business dynamics and challenges faced by an entrepreneur during the business life cycle; and to analyze the geography and create a growth strategy for small business setup in a phase where competition is moving from a moderate to an intense stage.

Polymatic Plastics & Packaging (PPP), a proprietorship firm of Mr Shantanu Kalia at Ludhiana, Punjab, India, was formed in 2016 and is involved in the manufacturing of bubble packing and stretch films. Growing business and competition have created both unique challenges as well as propositions for PPP. While growth in business is encouraging Shantanu to secure more contracts for his manufacturing unit, increased competition within Ludhiana is also creating a dilemma to either compete on home turf with USPs ranging from product quality, pricing and superior turn-around-time or explore additional geographies and expand horizontally.

The case is suitable for courses on entrepreneurship and geography strategy in graduate business programs. The case is also suitable for executive program for budding entrepreneurs seeking to explore specific service/product as a potential business proposition and building their business around it.

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This study aims to particularly focus on undergraduate and postgraduate early stage level students pursuing business, educational, social work programs. Particularly those studying organizational behavior, leadership and change, curriculum design management, social literacy and courses on 21st Century Skills.

Social entrepreneurship, developmental studies, education, organisational behavior are the subject areas focused in this study.

Purpose – The present case study is an empirical account of the gender perspectives on leadership styles and entrepreneurial mind-set demonstrated by Jigyasa and Gaurav, the co-founders of “Slam Out Loud” (SOL) – an Indian for mission non-profit organisation established in 2017. The authors intend to highlight the challenges faced by SOL during COVID outbreak, to establish community connect in the virtual domain and deliver hyper-personalised socio-emotional learning (SEL) frameworks. Will SOL’s Creatively Omnipresent and Versatile Inclusive Design framework transform Indian child education in the wake of New Education Policy 2020 of India while being sustainable as well as globally competitive?

This case study is based on primary data collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with the founders of SOL. It follows the deductive approach of methodology. The data has been complemented by documentary analysis, including videos, descriptions of internal processes and articles.

SOL has been strengthening the transformative power of performance and visual arts to help build creative confidence (CC) among children from disadvantaged communities below five years of age. The co-founders have focused on imparting life skills such as communication, critical thinking and empathy in children. The framework adopted by SOL is a combination of six 21st century and SEL skills including creativity, communication, critical thinking, collaboration, self-esteem and empathy.

A novel Sinha’s 5 × 7 SEL- COVID Matrix.

Learning outcomes can only be achieved using case-based pedagogy. Students are encouraged to dive deep into the dilemma. After the case discussion students will be able to define Creative Confidence (CC) with its importance in social development, comprehend the impact of developmental interventions such as Jijivisha Fellowship during COVID 19 and post COVID 19, understand servant leadership and its impact in the management, analyse how servant leadership accelerates social efficacy in the social enterprises, illustrate the novel 5 × 7 SEL-COVID framework for educators, create and evaluate their hyper-personalised SEL framework curriculum.

The SOL initiative is well aligned with the National Education Policy introduced in India in 2020. It will address the issues of not only providing equitable and inclusive education but also enhancing enrolment ratio and reducing dropout rates. Adoption of Arts-based education will also develop Creative Confidence (CC) and improve emotional well-being of children in primary education.

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The case focuses on Thivra Info Solutions Pvt Ltd, an entrepreneurial organization incubated by Prasannan (she/her) in 2017. The organization started with a mission to provide technology-based learning solutions for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Thivra Info Solutions Pvt Ltd had developed multiple offerings, including gamified learning, targeted to ASD and general ed-tech users. The firm also launched “Dwani,” the communicative-based learning app for ASD children. The initial feedback by users, parents and teachers had been encouraging. Prasannan was exploring avenues to scale the business when the Covid-19 pandemic affected all the operations.The case presents the multiple dilemmas entrepreneurial firms face in managing resources, finances, growth and product and customer focus. Students are encouraged to debate the organization strategy, product and consumer target segments and solutions to scale the business while managing frugal resources.

This case study can be used in entrepreneurship, leadership, crisis management, business development, organizational behavior and technology.

The case study describes the navigation of Thivra from a Generic Gamified App to its niche of catering for ASD students. The case presents the challenges presented to leadership to manage the crisis and try to grow their entrepreneurial venture. This case has been designed for use in business-to-consumer marketing or entrepreneurship, gender entrepreneurship, ed-tech-based startups, in MBA, executive MBA or executive education programs in the field. The case is suitable for those doing business in Asia, for post-graduate and under-graduate students studying business innovation, entrepreneurship, strategy and marketing. It is also appropriate for courses on gender entrepreneurship; women and crisis management; and product management. The case aims at facilitating classroom discussion on the extension of Indian-based ed-tech startups to ASD children.

Students will also be able to explore the following issues: to study the role played by a business model that withstands the competition over a long period and adopting sustainability; to describe the concept and implications of paradoxical leadership, thereby drawing its impact on business decisions; to analyze how a leader acts in terms of crisis from a startup point of view; to draw the phases and constraints of the enterprise development and compare and contrast it based on gender; to demonstrate the value to different constituents (ASD students, parents, teachers and ASD counselors) by understanding their differentiated needs and developing powerful value propositions for each. Articulating and demonstrating this value is key to gaining the buy-in of the various decision-making units; to understand how, having gained traction in one market segment (in this case, tractions with parents of ASD children), a company can develop new market segments; to study the issues and problems faced by startups in developing economies, especially the tech-based ones; and to understand the application of gamification on education and communication for ASD children.

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Upon completion of the analysis of the case, the students will be able to distinguish between a family business and a non-family business, evaluate the professionalization strategies used by Jeff Hamilton and categorize the type of family business that Jeff Hamilton is so far using the model of professionalization developed by Dekker et al. (2013). The model classifies family firms into four types according to their level of professionalization: autocracy, domestic configuration, administrative hybrid and a clench hybrid.

The case highlights how Jeff Hamilton, a family business that began in Kenya and has grown regionally in East Africa, has professionalized its operations and, by so doing, facilitated its growth. The family business is run by Major Boke and his wife Lucy Boke and was ranked number 31 in the 2019 top 100 SME survey conducted yearly by KPMG in collaboration with Nation media group – a Kenyan media company. The dilemma revolves around decision-making in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic, where structures put in place to professionalize the business facilitated the decision-making.

The case can be taught to undergraduate and graduate-level entrepreneurship and family business courses. It can also be taught to executive education short courses on family business and entrepreneurship.

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1. Analyze the factors influencing the creation of a social enterprise, while appreciating the theoretical perspectives on social entrepreneurship and social innovations. 2. Analyze the impact of social enterprises on sustainable development. 3. Recognize the need for different types of strategies in the varied situation. 4. Analyze the business model.

Shashi Kumar, the CEO of Akshayakalpa Farms & Foods Pvt Ltd (Akshayakalpa), is determined to take the business to the next growth level. He has integrated technology to measure and monitor the quality of milk and to reach out to tech-savvy customers. Owing to the preservative-free and short life of milk, he believes that redesigning the marketing and distribution strategies is the only way to ensure the massive expansion and growth that will enable Akshayakalpa to reach out to customers directly and quickly. Another issue he was facing was a lag in receivables. Their receivables from vendors were delayed and held up because of issues related to product spoilage and returns. This has posed a liquidity challenge to Akshayakalpa. Amidst all these challenges, he wants to develop the best strategy to take the business forward to the next level.

This case can be used in undergraduate or postgraduate courses in Management, Social Entrepreneurship and Business Sustainability with special relevance to social enterprise creation, enterprise growth strategies, sustainable development, sustainable business models, etc.

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To understand how beauty and wellness business is run by women entrepreneurs in India and to understand the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in India.

Nikita Patel is an women entrepreneur from a small town called Indore in India. She wanted to run a spa business and started a mobile spa venture called “Atheeva” to offer spa services. However, her venture ran into trouble because of objections from male members in the family and due to feeling of insecurity among her female staff members. She had to close down Atheeva after running the business unit for eight months. Undaunted by the failure, she again started a new venture called “Fingertips” to offer Nail Spa services. This time she took the help of digital marketing to promote her business and started spreading her business into different cities through franchisee route. However, she again faced headwinds in business due to rising attrition rates and challenges of maintaining work-life balance. This case covers the journey of a women entrepreneur as she faces multiple challenges and overcomes them and seeks answers to the path she should take to take her business to the next trajectory of growth.

Gives strategic insight of challenges faced by Women Entrepreneurs in India.

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The case has practical value exhibiting forces creating sustainable livelihood at grassroots level and at the same time depicting how business and social goals can be reconciled through innovative mechanisms.

The case covers the journey of a social enterprise lead by a woman entrepreneur, run by women workers and providing livelihood to several rural women entrepreneurs through providing skill development training in making hand-made jute bags.

MBA and BBA

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Leraning outcomes are as follows: demonstrating how companies in the Indian market are using competitive advertising; giving participants an overview of the regulatory framework for advertising in India; highlighting the complexities arising out of the multiplicity of advertising regulations and institutions in India; appreciating the legal and ethical perspectives of advertisements and self-regulation; and evaluating the stance taken by both the parties in this particular case to develop multi-stakeholder perspective.

A recent advertisement by international conglomerate Hindustan Unilever Limited was severely criticized for insulting Indian values by Baba Ramdev, promoter of India's largest Ayurvedic Company selling Indian indigenous and natural alternate medicinal products. It was in a complete reversal of the scenario between 2015 and 2018 when other Indian consumer goods companies complained against advertisements released by Patanjali. Indian fast moving consumer goods sector is witnessing a trend of competitive advertising in which companies are downplaying and criticizing the competitors. Though quite old, this trend caught momentum when Patanjali Ayurved Limited, a new player in the market, started advertising aggressively in 2015–2016. It resulted in many complaints by the aggrieved parties in the industry bodies and different courts of law in India. A part of the confusion comes from the diversity of advertising regulations across different Indian platforms and the absence of a clearly defined institutional framework for resolving such disputes. Consequently, most such disputes land up in the court of law in India. The case study builds an understanding of the legal framework within which companies are governed for brand promotions and creates a contextual ethical dilemma to drive the discourse on advertising through self-regulation in India.

This case is meant to benefit students pursuing a graduate or upper-level undergraduate degree in management or law/business law.

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At the end of the case study discussion, students will able to state the importance of outsourcing with comparing pros and cons in business decision-making; review the value bestowed to the community in using sustainable raw material while at the same time conserving the ancient style of artwork particular to the area; discuss the utility of the products manufactured by “Flying Colours,” especially for the lockdown period which was because of the pandemic; and demonstrate and interpret the use of shark and mosquito bite matrix.

Arun Kumar Patni, 47, and his wife Neelima Patni, 43, are co-founders of Flying Colours, a start-up company based in Jaipur, in the state of Rajasthan, India. Their enterprise was engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of bird products and accessories, including bird feeders, bird houses, earthen water bowls, etc. In July 2020, post-lockdown, they were desperate to hire carpenters to restart their factory. However, COVID-19 posed a serious challenge, making it very difficult to replace their skilled carpenters, who had returned to their native places and had not come back. This disrupted production and order fulfilment. Keeping this situation in perspective in anticipation of the continuing pandemic crisis, Neelima was in favour of outsourcing basic production and designing the birdfeed decoration and artwork in-house. Meanwhile, Arun instead favoured continuing full in-house production as before, by hiring replacement carpenters. Yet for an in-house full-scale production, procuring raw material was a difficult task because of the lockdown. The situation had earlier taken a turn for the worse when Arun had advertised an exchange marketing policy to let customers return their old bird feeders for a 20% discount on a new one. This campaign was a huge success and resulted in a sales spike but unfortunately it caused a huge stock of returned products in their warehouse. Arun initially planned to repair and resell them as refurbished products. It now seemed impossible, because local carpenters demanded higher labour charges than the regular carpenters did. Flying Colours had provided skills workshops and hired external trainers to train unskilled carpenters prior to lockdown, so now all the training investment was in vain. Cash liquidity, sales, marketing, etc. were almost at a standstill.

This case particularly focuses on undergraduate-level students pursuing business or commerce programs, especially those studying core course: Entrepreneurial Strategic Management.

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The various learning outcomes of the case include the following: to provide information and help the students to understand how a start-up business succeeds with the proper branding and marketing; to help understand different marketing theories related to segmentation, targeting, positioning, branding, distribution and marketing process and the frameworks of understanding start-up business marketing with a practical example; to improve analytical skills and help evaluate marketing strategies related to segmentation, targeting, positioning, branding, distribution and marketing in the Indian quick-service restaurant (QSR) business; and to encourage learners to think differently towards solution generation and strategy decisions.

The case portrays the dilemmas related to segmentation, targeting, brand positioning, distribution and start-up business marketing in the context of an Indian QSR. The present case strives to portray the journey of WoW! Momo is a QSR brand in India and highlights the company's branding and marketing challenges. Based on the challenges faced by the company and the decision dilemma pointed out in the case, the readers can get sufficient motivation to generate probable solutions. This was early 2007; Binod Kumar Homagai and Sagar Daryani, bosom friends, were on the verge of finishing their graduate studies in commerce from St. Xavier's College Kolkata. Pursuing Chartered Accountancy or MBA was the common trend as the career option among most commerce graduates then. Still, both Homagai and Daryani thought to be innovative and different in their career options. After a series of discussions, they determined to start with their favorite dish, momos, as an alternative brand proposition that would be opening off from the City of Joy, Kolkata. They managed to arrange a seed capital of INR 30,000 in 2008 and started their venture WoW! Momo. In the financial year 2018–2019, the company's revenue had already crossed INR 1170m, achieved its presence in 11 cities in India, and reached more than 243 outlets. This case has followed the qualitative research methods where in-depth interviews of the founders and stakeholders along with the observation method were used. The case unfolds a systematic solution of dilemmas related to segmentation, targeting, brand positioning, distribution and start-up business marketing in the context of Indian QSR business. This case can also be seen as one of the youth entrepreneurial success stories of Indians.

This case is primarily meant for second-year students in a postgraduate program in business management. The case could also be discussed in an executive development program on marketing/brand management/business strategy.

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The case study can be used in management for the course of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship. It is suitable for the students at post-graduate level. Discussion would be the most appropriate method for teaching this case study. There is no prerequisite required to participate in the discussion. Participants will be able to engage in discussion regarding expansion strategies for micro-enterprises; targeting the right segment of the market; exploring the market opportunities; innovation for entrepreneurial growth; and sustaining an enterprise. After this case study, students will be able to understand the following theory and model: SWOT analysis; resource base theory; McKinsey ESG proposition; Porter’s generic strategy; Schumpeter’s innovation theory; Ansoff’s growth model; and diversification strategies.

Being a micro-enterprise with heavy financial constraints, it was never easy to sustain the business at the time of pandemic. Mrs Jyoti Pruthi (owner of Pruthi Spices) made extraordinary efforts that would help her in survival of her business. She could not recover the business as it was before the pandemic. During such times, the loss of her husband was a setback. That incident broke Mrs Pruthi emotionally as well as financially. By taking some crucial managerial decisions, Mrs Pruthi strategized for the sustainability of her business. Now it was January 2022, after two years of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the world. However, because of the market situation, her pressing dilemma was regarding business survival in such lean times.

The case is meant for undergraduate and post-graduate students pursuing management with specializations in Entrepreneurship and Marketing. The case is bet fit for women entrepreneurship development capacity-building programs, especially in the Asian region. The case is also suitable for any short-term training program where manifestations of entrepreneurship are being taught. It can also be used for Executive and Management development program aiming at women or disadvantaged entrepreneurship. The case can also be used for general courses like “Strategic Management” and specialized courses like “Entrepreneurship Management”.

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At the end of the case discussion, students would be able to: design key account selection criteria for the organization’s vast clients; analyse the application of key account management (KAM) strategies in a business-to-business (B2B) segment for revenue growth for a medium-scale enterprise; recognize the significance of KAM in a B2B space for a scale enterprise; and assess the proficiency of Univ Manufacturers (UM) for KAM in addressing the existing challenges and managing business growth.

Tarun, the proprietor of UM, has recently received two big orders, one from Ram Enterprise, a long-standing client since 2011 of INR 2m (10% profit margin) and another order from a new client based in Chennai, a growing pharmaceutical products company, of order size of INR 2.3m (15% profit margin). Both the orders were required to be completed within 15 days. The new client with higher value and better returns could help UM enter the south India market, whereas business from the existing client was also profitable. Despite both orders being necessary for business survival and expansion, fulfilling them on schedule posed a huge challenge. Tarun wanted to fulfil both orders. He knew similar situations might arise in future. He advocated prioritizing customers, which made him contemplate KAM. On what basis he should categorize his customers was a big question. Tarun felt that it was time for UM to strategize relationship management with his customers. He wanted to optimize the partnerships. Tarun knew he wanted to introduce KAM, but was firm-level internal capabilities were enough for key account execution. What would be the feasible outcomes if KAM is applied at UM? What must he do to prevent such situations in the future?

This case can be used in B2B marketing and sales management courses. The dilemma can be explained as part of a marketing course for postgraduate and executive programs.

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The learning outcomes are as follows: introduce the concept of the decision-making process, decision-making unit and hierarchy of effects and marketing strategy; identify the critical aspect of segmentation, targeting and positioning; and highlight the critical element of pricing and communication media.

In early January 2017, Mr Ashish and Mr Rahul, co-founders of Biziga, a company engaged in training through simulation for management education, was at crossroads. Keeping in view the challenges of the emerging Indian market, Biziga envisioned creating participant-centric business learning simulations. The initial responses and feedback received from several top B-schools were promising. However, the euphoria did not last long. Biziga retained only a few of its initial clients from the Tier-1 B-schools who had adopted the product. But the response received from other categories of B-schools was not very encouraging. Acquiring new clients from these institutes was the major challenge. The founders of Biziga had differences in their thought about the strategic path they should pursue to achieve future growth. There were several options to achieve the goal of a target revenue of INR 1bn in the next five years and be known as a virtual gamification company with a complete bundle of business simulation products. They had to finalize for the financial year 2017-18 the most feasible and promising option/s that would have a long-term impact on the company’s future growth and success in the upcoming meeting scheduled in the last week of February 2017.

Postgraduate students and executive students.

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Need for preventive health care: To comprehend the contribution of preventive health care in improving the health quotient. Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital (SSSSH) and its initiative is an apt example of the wonder which preventive care can bring in the context of rural health. Community participation: The case can be instrumental in showing the pathway to encourage community involvement in mainstream health by promoting the holistic model of SSSSH that understands mothers and children's health profile and needs, especially in the unreached rural segments of an emerging economy like India. Importance of healthy childhood: World Health Organization (WHO) promotes the school health programme to prevent health risks among children by inculcating healthy behaviours during childhood. The successful SSSSH model proves that it is implementable by integrating comprehensive health education modules in the existing institutions for medical care.

The challenge of a healthy childhood is inadequate availability and accessibility of quality care. Non-awareness of the parents is also a significant reason for the children who miss the benefit of a happy childhood. While much is planned by the Government and some part of it being executed, this case highlights the effectiveness of the maternal and child health programme executed by the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital (SSSSH). This initiative fulfills the dire need of ensuring the preventive healthcare component leading to safe motherhood and safe birth of healthy children. Further, the case is also the culmination of pin-pointed innovative awareness activities such as school health screening and the Divine Mother and Child Health Program (DMCHP). It opens up the discussion on the current model of health care followed by SSSSH, Raipur, and its impact in the local areas to decide on its expansion across the country for nationwide implementation.

Bachelors in Business Administration, MBA, Executive MBA, Post Graduate Diploma in Healthcare Management

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