Case studies

Harley-Davidson's first-ever chief marketing officer has his work cut out for him as the classic American motorcycle manufacturer seeks to curb slowing sales from aging customers. The dilemma: what to do with its less known and unprofitable Buell brand, which has a younger customer base? Which of five options continue its dual-brand strategy, double down on Buell, operate Buell as an endorsement brand, sell it, or discontinue the brand entirely will best attract younger buyers without alienating current diehard customers?

In early 2018, Diana Mulhall was undertaking a career change that would eliminate the need for frequent business trips to Toronto. As a result, she wondered whether she should sell her condo in the heart of the Canadian city or keep it as a rental property to generate income for herself. The housing market in Toronto was booming, so Mulhall believed that the condo would fetch top dollar as a sale. She also thought it would be easy to attract tenants if she kept it as a rental. She had invested in rental property before but never outside of her hometown of Chicago, so Mulhall needed to identify the key risks associated with being a landlord in Toronto.

The premise of the case is how to make best use of customer shopping time while staying competitive and profitable: The increase in the number of ecommerce-based channels and the growth of Amazon and Wal^*Mart have forced brick-and-mortar retailers to seek alternative ways to reach potential customers in a cost- and time-efficient manner. In the U.S., an average of 0.74 hours per day is spent purchasing goods and services, while an average of 1.77 hours per day is spent doing household activities. Regardless of location, customers all have the same 24 hours in a day and only so much of it can be spent shopping.

One of the benefits of ecommerce has been an increase in product variety offered to customers. The online marketplace has enabled consumers in many industries to locate, evaluate and purchase a far wider variety of products than they can with traditional brick-and mortar channels. 30% to 40% of Amazon book sales are titles that wouldn't normally be found in brick-and-mortar stores.

EC-Creamery is an Eau Claire, WI based dairy processor selling yogurt products throughout the Midwest region of the U.S. Inaccurate forecasts have wreaked havoc in the company, leading to frequent stockouts and creating operational challenges. Your task is to draw on the information you obtain from your colleagues to develop sales forecasts, document your choices and procedures and share your thoughts and insights on issues related to forecasting and sales & operations planning.

In March 2017, Oded Golan sat in his technology startup's conference room with his co-founder, pondering the fate of their company, Start A Fire. In just four years, the two entrepreneurs had taken an idea that started in Golan's apartment in Tel Aviv and turned it into a company that had raised $3.5 million in venture capital funding and served more than 3,000 of the world's biggest brands using an innovative content distribution and social media management platform that enabled brands to improve communication and engagement with their followers

The purpose of this paper is to understand the situation of Accurate and then to consider possible options for Accurate to face competition in future. Several opportunities are also linked with certain drawbacks and hence by studying the entire mechanism, the decision makers of Accurate may decide on its future direction and how to go about it.

Accurate Weld Arc was established in New Delhi in 1993, his son. The company focused on manufacturing wire drawings and selling to niche customer segment. Due to this, they were operating at a modest turnover. At this juncture, the organization took two critical decisions, first, to enter the welding electrodes market which had a bigger target segment, and second, to hire a Marketing Head who conducted an extensive marketing research to recognize the need of customers and to identify differentiating factors for the organization. Later, the company made further investment in middle-gauge welding electrodes and its turnover climbed in the first year. After that, the company had set up a manufacturing unit in Raipur, Chattisgarh which generated huge profit and is now looking forward to spread its wings in other parts of the country.

This case may be used for postgraduate students, who are doing their specialization in finance and accounting.

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

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance

After a thorough briefing, classroom discussions and de-briefing, the students should be able to appreciate issues of leadership; understand challenges related to managing an organisation; and understand the aspects of organisational politics and power.

This real-life case study is based on a leading management institution of central India. The institute was quite successful in establishing its brand central India during 2011-2017 and is still going strong. The case here captures a change of leadership and the challenges/opportunities it posed to faculty and staff members. The case also intends to address the power struggle that ensued in later years of its functioning. The case is also about how the present leader would finally deal with it all. Students would be able to generate insights in leadership style, power and politics, employee retention, organisational decision-making and concerns in recruiting culturally fit employees.

Graduate level.

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

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance

This case centres around a senior vice-president in a private bank, who becomes aware of a potential sexual harassment (SH) case within his team. The case captures his reactions, right from his initial attempt to understand the scenario, to his conversations with the woman concerned, and his eventual attempt to minimise the incident. The purpose of the case is to explore how such incidents can play out in the Indian corporate sector, where socio-cultural factors and gender role expectations influence the way organisational members perceive and respond to the complaints. Influence of factors such as gender role expectations, power dynamics, office politics, individual differences, and business concerns in a) perception of harassment incidents and b) attributes related to harassment incidents

This case features an entrepreneur striving to rapidly grow a successful chain of hair salons that serve women with afro hair. After doubling from 13 to 26 salons across Brazil in 2014, the founders' expansion plan called for 120 Beleza Natural salons and R$1 billion in sales by 2018. CEO and cofounder Leila Velez is considering various fundamental marketing strategies to catalyze growth: Should Beleza launch a new mass-media campaign, increase promotional discounts, expand its target market to serve men, broaden its service offerings, streamline processes to reduce wait times, expand distribution channels, or franchise? Students assume the role of Velez and are asked to recommend which growth strategy would be their top priority. In doing so, they are required to evaluate how these strategies pertain to the company's business model and value proposition. They are also challenged to consider what a brand is and what makes a strong service brand in order to verify if their strategies are consistent with Beleza's brand. The teaching note outlines a framework for developing or evaluating a business model as well as developing strategies for managing growth. The case is accompanied by a series of video interviews with Velez that support case preparation, in-class discussion, and key learning points.

Stanley Cirano owns two retail shopping centers in suburban Chicago. With interest rates near all-time lows in late 2015, Cirano believed it was an opportune time to consider the debt financing of his properties. Although the properties were similar in many respects, the lenders willing to lend against each property were offering noticeably different terms. Cirano had to consider not only the interest rate and size of each potential loan, but also the various fees, potential prepayment penalties, and variations in recourse to make the best decision for each property.