Case studies

The case describes the origins of money, touching on the gold standard, the Fed’s 1942 purchase of US debt to fund the “war effort”, Bretton Woods (1944), Nixon’s 1971 pulling the currency peg and descent of money from gold to fiat. It also touches on theories of inflation and deflation, quantitative easing (QE) post the 2008 crisis and the “swamp” of (unorthodox) modern monetary theory (MMT). Aside from providing a brief history of monetary policy and economics, the case study seeks to widen students’ understanding of key economic issues including: fiat money, QE, government funding mechanisms, taxation, economic stimulation, inflation/deflation – and of course, the need for an ombudsman to limit excess.

In May 2020, South Africa’s deputy finance minister David Masondo announced that he would support the South African Reserve Bank’s lending to the government. This statement followed President Ramaposa’s earlier announcement of a R500bn COVID-19 stimulus package. The case explores the economic history of money, from barter to gold to cryptos. The case examines the origins of central banks’ printing of money, initially to support the Second World War effort and more recently the 2008 global financial crisis and now the COVID-19 crisis. In particular, the case raises the question of central bank independence – “democratically elected governments always need money, is it appropriate for central banks provide it? And are there limits?”

MBA and Executive Education

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 1 Accounting and Finance.

The specific teaching and learning objectives are as follows: to help students manage virtual communication in cross-cultural settings and developing the trust in virtual teams. To have them assess their effectiveness in the virtual collaboration process. To design the strategies to combat the challenges involved in working collaboratively on a common computing platform.

Higher education institutions in India are facing intense criticism for failing to impart employability skills to the students. Despite being one of the largest education systems in the world, Indian universities are not listed in the rankings of best international universities. It is grappling with the challenges of adopting the right teaching methodologies that foster deep learning, which may lead to sustainability in higher education. To gain relevancy, the higher education institutions must discover the ways to transit from the knowledge-intensive to skill-intensive institutions. By introducing a virtual collaborative professional project for international business students, Professor Bose proposed a small step of moving from a rote teacher-centric to more hands-on, student-centric teaching methodology. While virtual projects are a common and successful way of enhancing cross-cultural competence in students, Professor Bose is unsure how receptive Indian students will be with this methodology. He visualizes many challenges related to the execution of the project and is worried whether he will be successful in achieving his goal of skill-based knowledge creation. While systems and institutions of higher education in India struggle to address the pressures created by globalization, Professor Bose knew that the one-size-may not fit all. “Flexible pedagogy” and personalizing the methods to suit the requirements of a majority of the students was the way forward. However, he needs to know if the faculty and students will be open to change.

This case is immediately valuable for the students and faculty who are the part of the courses such as “International Business” in which the global leadership challenges, managing virtual communication in cross-cultural settings and developing the trust in virtual teams are main features of the curriculum. The case could also be used effectively in the seminars conducted for the managers working in international organizations and managing the tasks in virtual teams located globally.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 5 International Business.

Operations Research and Operation Management.

Undergraduate/MBA/Postgraduate.

The case depicts an opportunity for students to be exposed to optimization techniques using linear programming (LP). This case intends to: generate the LP model (identification of objective function and constraints); apply MS-Excel solver to arrive at an optimal solution; analyse manufacturing scenarios; and plan decision dependencies.

VBK Fibreo Tech Industries was a manufacturer of fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) products for industrial and domestic applications. Despite being a new entrant, it managed to exhibit great performance and attract a loyal base of customers. This case brings to light the problem that the company was facing that is demand exceeding capacity. The protagonist of the case Madhav, the Production Manager, was tasked to solve the problem of “product mix”. He was in a dilemma on how to fulfill customer orders while minimizing losses for his company. He knew that while losses were inevitable in the current scenario, they could be minimized with appropriate planning. Students are expected to use data and facts from the case and exhibit to formulate LP, by identifying the objective function and the constraints. They are also encouraged to use MS-Excel solver to find the optimal product mix and understand the decision dependencies.

This case can be used to teach LP in an undergraduate/postgraduate-level course on operations research. Students are exposed to the creation of a mathematical model for optimization and along with devising the implementation plan.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and logistics.

The subject area is international business and strategy. The case allows scope for the following areas: internationalisation, market strategy, emerging market multinational companies, and doing business in Africa.

The primary target audience for this teaching case is postgraduate business students such as Master of Business Administration (MBA), or postgraduate management programmes. The case is primarily designed for use in courses that cover strategy or international business.

This case centres on the international growth strategy of FMBcapital Holdings Group (FMB), the Malawian commercial banking firm. The case finds the founder and current group chairman, Hitesh Anadkat, in 2016, as he and the FMB board are about to decide on the next move in their Southern African strategy. Since opening the first FMB branch in Malawi and becoming the country's first commercial banker in 1995, Anadkat and his team have ridden a wave of financial deregulation across the region to successfully expand into neighbouring Botswana, Zambia, and Mozambique. Now, an opportunity to gain a foothold in Zimbabwe means the leaders must decide (1) whether they want to continue to grow the FMB footprint across the region, or focus on their integration and expansion efforts within existing markets; and (2) how they will realise this strategy.

International expansion – identifying the need to expand into new markets; identifying the combination of internal strengths and external conditions that make international expansion viable; and identifying and analysing each possible new market(s) and the decision-making process involved.

Political, social and economic factors in Africa – understanding how these external institutional factors present constraints, risks and opportunities for internationalisation and hence shape strategy; understanding that these factors may vary significantly across countries on the continent (in spite of their geographic proximity) and in some cases, within a single country; and understanding that by selecting markets with extreme socially and politically volatile contexts, the risk of a worst-case scenario transpiring (in which institutional forces trump business strategy) is appreciable.

Combination of resource- and institutional-based approaches – recognising that successful internationalisation requires capitalising upon both internal resources and institutional mastery.

Choosing expansion strategies – assessing the type of new market entry (e.g. greenfield or acquisition of existing operations) and its adequacy for penetrating a new market.

Using networks and local partners – to substitute and enhance the benefits that originally flow from a small (and sometime family-established) business, with an emphasis on acquisition of skills and networks in foreign countries.

Regional integration – optimising business operations through a sharing or pooling of resources and improved capital flow between subsidiaries, in some instances by taking advantage of economies of scale (this extends to enhancing the reputation and awareness of a brand across a wider region).

Family businesses – identifying the value that can be gained through establishing a family business with the support of many “close” stakeholders while also noting the limitation that exist as expansion and growth is required.

Learning outcomes of this paper are to analyse, record and classify financial transactions; prepare unadjusted trial balance; record the adjustment and closing entries and prepare post-closing trial balance; and prepare financial statements.

The case aims to induce users to draw up financial statements from the details provided. The complete accounting process is covered through solving the case. The case follows a start-up company from its first set of financial transactions to preparing the first set of financial statements. The case will help in application of accounting concepts, principles and the processes for recording transactions and preparation of financial statements.

The case is best suited for senior undergraduate- and graduate-level students of management/business schools in the courses of introductory financial accounting, intermediate accounting and financial reporting.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: accounting and finance.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Nintendo was dominating the video game industry with a market share of 90 per cent. Since that time, market share has dropped substantially with new competitors, new technology and changing consumer preferences. This case examines the history of Nintendo including its loss of market share in a rapidly changing industry.

This case is suitable for undergraduate courses in strategic management where an instructor’s focus is on strategic decision-making.

Micro organizational behavior – an individual level of analysis (i.e. motivation, personality, attitudes, learning, etc.). Meso organizational behavior – team/group level of analysis (i.e. communication, team dynamics, power, politics, etc.). Macro organizational behavior – an organizational level of analysis (i.e. strategy, structure, culture, control, etc.). Marketplace or external environment (PESTEL analysis).

The research was conducted by a consultant in the role of a participant-observer.

The focus of the case is a disguised nonprofit organization, the American-Netherlands Foundation (AmNet), based in Chicago. The organization faced leadership and organizational challenges related to conflicting strategic and operational priorities among the board of trustees, the president and staff. An unexpected contribution of $750,000 increased the salience of these differences. The case provides students an excellent opportunity to apply their analytical skills and knowledge gained in a management and business course.

Organizational behavior; organizational design; organizational development; and organizational theory. Levels – upper-level undergraduate through first-year MBA students.