Case studies

Upon completion of the case study, student will be able to discuss valuation of new-age ventures and understand how it is different from the valuation of organisations with a longer history; analyse the considerations (quantitative and qualitative) while evaluating investments in new-age ventures; and develop a framework involving the various dimensions of investment readiness.

The fintech space in India has seen an upsurge of activities since 2016. The growth of Paytm, RazorPay and many such ventures and the drastic improvements in this ecosystem have been significant catalysts for this segment of new-age tech companies. Funding and valuations have seen a sharp increase, especially when businesses worldwide felt the after-effects of the pandemic, with India being home to a large number of unicorns, second only to the USA. Open Financial Technologies Ltd (OPEN TECH) is one such venture that claimed its spot as the 100th unicorn of India within a span of five years since inception. With a strong focus on disrupting the banking sector in India, this neo-bank aspires to be the equivalent of Stripe in India and eventually be a strong competitor in the international market.

Richard O’Neil is an active investor in the fintech space, based out of the UK, and he is currently looking to expand the market by considering investment options. In the process, Richard and his team have identified India as a viable and competitive market, as new venture support and funding are increasingly emphasized through policies such as Startup India, Make in India and many such more to sustain and propel its benefits. As the team was exploring ventures worth investing, Open Financial Technologies caught their attention. However, Richard, given his experience across fields and being a seasoned private equity investor, realised that valuing new-age companies is as much an art as it is a science. Multiple quantitative and qualitative aspects need to be considered while relevance of traditional valuation techniques to put a value on such entrepreneurial ventures is questioned. At this juncture, he finds it crucial to evaluate the investment readiness of OPEN TECH.

This case allows students to understand how valuation of new ventures is different from that of established companies and analyse the crucial factors worth considering while evaluating an investment proposal as a venture capitalist, which eventually helps shape the funding pitch of an entrepreneur in the space.

This case study can be useful for students undertaking graduate- and executive-level courses on business valuation and strategy and entrepreneurship, as well as entrepreneurial finance elective at the undergraduate level. One could use this case in courses on entrepreneurship and innovation, such as an introductory course on entrepreneurial finance and a course on venture capital and private equity. It also allows discussion on fintech and neobanking and the valuation of privately held companies.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and finance.

This case aims to study the growth, evolution, and social innovation of iThrive Games, a socially minded initiative that aims to create meaningful opportunities using technology for teens to enhance the knowledge, mindsets, and skills they need to thrive through development and across the continuum of mental disorder to wellness. iThrive's focus has been on creating “meaningful games”—that is, games that promote health and well-being of teen players. Founded in 2014 by Dorothy Batten, President of DN Batten Foundation, the organization's mission was to collaborate with game developers, partner with teens across the game development cycle (ideation to testing), and provide resources to foster teen thriving through gameplay. To do so, the organization took a unique social entrepreneurial approach. Drawing on a positive psychology framework and building the brand among key stakeholders including game developers, researchers, funders, youth, educators, and parents, the organization orchestrated a community dedicated to advancing the meaningful games field, and in doing so, have widespread impact.

Suning Group launched Suning.com when its chain stores were developing at the highest speed, realizing the transformation to an Internet retailer. Suning continued to follow the growth strategy of “Technological transformation and Smart Services”, and was renamed Suning Commerce Co. Ltd. It launched a business model of “e-commerce + stores + retail service providers”. Riding on the brand new O2O business model, Suning is thinking and practicing from simple donation to actual implementation, from constructing public welfare network to extending CSR ecosystem in a bid to advance towards deeper and more extensive Internet economy, and to create greater social value.

This short case challenges students to review an array of corporate financial metrics and to match them to one of 13 listed industries. As such, students must use their intuition and common sense pertaining to the distinctive characteristics of, and the key differences between, the 13 named industries, and then identify the financial metrics that are most indicative of those traits.

This case studies the growth of OYO Hotels (OYO) to illustrate the operational processes necessary to succeed in the service sector. The case allows for a discussion of employee- and customer-management systems, tech-driven solutions, and profit drivers. The material unfolds OYO's growth and its solution for making economy hotels discoverable and bookable online.

The case raises a series of questions around OYO's business model, its ability to translate across global markets, and growth potential. It has been successfully taught in a second-year MBA class on the management of service operations.

Post analysis of the case study, students will be able to comprehend the significance of Six Sigma and its integration with the human resources (HR) processes in the service sector. Post case study discussion, students will be able to: examine the HR processes of ISOQAR (India) and deduce the reasons to seek change in their approach; validate the importance of integrating Six Sigma in the human resource management (HRM) framework of an organization; and categorize the difficulties encountered while implementing Six Sigma in the service sector compared to those in a manufacturing environment.

In September 2006, four senior employees of an audit firm made the decision to start their own venture. They identified a gap in a sizable and fiercely competitive auditing industry. Nishid Shivdas, Suhas Risbood, Shiv Prakash Bhutra and Burgis Bulsara, co-founders of ISOQAR (India), had distinct leadership experiences that drove the organization to concentrate on developing a broad range of services, with a focus on management consulting, training and audit services. They created a distinctive positioning in market in a short span and reported growth by building strong customer relationships, providing high-quality service and personalized attention to individual clients and meeting deadlines. The wide gamut of services included areas such as the payment card industry, data security standard, information security management systems, business continuity management, service management systems, food safety management system, Responsible Jewellery Council certification services, retail audit services and risk assessment services. They concentrated on collaborating with UKAS for their accreditations. The focus on offering great services with faster response times, a varied array of services and the expertise of its founders let them to price their services at par with some of its competitors, and even higher in few cases. It did not have a large support staff; however, the ones they had were multifaceted, both full time and contractual. Being in the service industry, the founders realized that to maintain growth as the firm aims to grow geographically, their heavy engagement in the existing operations would have to give way to more standardized processes in general and HR in particular. Ensuring the integration of the current workforce to the Six Sigma framework presented challenges.

This case is designed for second-year students enrolled in Master of Business Administration/Post Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA/PGDM) or equivalent postgraduate-level programmes, in the domain of “Human Resource.” It will enable the students to engage with the significance of “Six Sigma” being used in various processes in the HRM framework. It can also be taught to students in the domain of Marketing because of its relevance to the service sector.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

This case is used in Darden's required first-year course, “Strategic Thinking and Action.”

In 2015, Steve and Heidi Crandall, the founders of Devils Backbone Brewing, LLC (DBB), were looking back on eight years of unanticipated success and significant growth. DBB had created a destination, a brand, and beer that drew people from all over, and it was the largest craft brewery in its region. The entire community, not just loyal beer drinkers, had supported DBB. In addition to funding and zoning accommodations, so many local residents had built their own economic lives around what had been their “little brewery that could.”

But the success had brought challenges, specifically in terms of growth. DBB was consistently not meeting demand in its existing markets and was receiving complaints about out-of-stocks. The Crandalls and their team had to figure out how to grow with, or preferably ahead of, demand for DBB's product. Should DBB build further capacity despite an already exhausted line of credit? Should it employ a contract brewer despite the local authenticity concerns such a move might stir up? Or should it just keep trying to manage business within its existing footprint, comfortably serving its loyal customer base?

Dialogue in Darkness (DID) is a global social enterprise, which provides products and services such as workshops, exhibitions and activities in the dark in China. The corporate workshops are designed for companies, institutions and government agencies to provide unique leadership training and some other training in teamwork, communication, innovation and change management. And education workshops are aimed at providing young people with unique leadership training and training in teamwork, innovation and empathy and so on for the educational institutions. Over the past five years, DID, headquartered in Shanghai, has expanded to Beijing, Chengdu and Shenzhen, realizing strategic coverage of East, West, North and South of China. DID achieved break-even within less than one year since its inception. Its sound and healthy development offers an innovative way for the sustainable development of social enterprises.

Few cases allow the student to understand the relationship between brand strategy, marketing strategy, implementation, and analysis. While some conceive of the process as being sequential, this case demonstrates that in fact, this process is more fluid, and that implementation and analysis impact subsequent strategy.

This field-based case provides a rare glimpse into the turnaround of a brand that was all but dead. After Buick suffered more than five decades of declining business results and an inferior brand image versus all rivals, few thought that the brand could be resuscitated. This case provides a valuable under-the-hood look at how the Buick team, over time, progresses through a series of marketing improvements all anchored on an evolved strategy. Specifically, Buick introduced a shift in brand strategy behind an evolved brand essence statement (i.e., brand positioning), improved product lineup, new-to-the-world innovation, enhanced dealership service, and more compelling advertising. The results led to a record number of product awards, significantly improved advertising measures, improved service ratings, and better business results.

Despite significant improvement across multiple dimensions of the business, Buick still trailed key competitors on one of the most important measures Buick tracked—the brand momentum rating—suggesting that there was still more work needed to complete the brand turnaround. The case introduces Molly Peck, the new marketing director on Buick, who is wondering what more, if anything, Buick should do. The material allows for instruction around marketing strategy and the process of converting it into implementation through the use of a creative brief.

The key learning from this case study include the following: first, there are various leadership types that leaders can exhibit, such as servant leadership and transformational leadership, and an individual’s leadership style can be evaluated by analysing his/her traits and behaviours. Second, decision-making is much more critical for leaders than for anyone else, and there are different approaches, such as rational and intuitive decision-making, that leaders can apply when making a decision. Third, in male-dominated work environments such as the sports sector, female executives should carefully weigh the risks and opportunities of leadership positions while being promoted.

The UPS Sports and Culture Club was founded in 2003 by Haluk Ündeğer in Zeytinburnu district, one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in Istanbul that had a bad reputation for being high on crime and drugs. The club’s main goal was to train children from disadvantaged groups to develop a career in sports. Shortly after the club’s founding, Semra Demirer, a physical education teacher who had devoted her life to children’s physical, cultural and personal development, crossed paths with the UPS Club. In 2004, Demirer started to work at the UPS Sports and Culture Club as the general coordinator. She played an important role in the growth and development of many children over the years and helped raise very talented athletes such as Simge Aköz. In 2020, on the heels of financial and administrative difficulties, the club was at the risk of being shut down. Hence, Demirer grappled with the decision of whether to share this information with the employees and players in the club. She deeply considered how she could overcome the conflict between transparency and confidentiality she was experiencing.

The case study is suitable for undergraduate students.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.