Case studies

Segmentation, business impacts of decision making, hotel management.

Undergraduate Business or Finance.

The sales manager at a Caribbean hotel wonders whether to accept a large block booking at a discount rate from a group participating in an international sporting event. Do the promised publicity benefits justify the risk of turning away guests from higher paying segments?

The case should: highlight the potential for conflicts when customers from different segments with different needs and expectations find themselves in close contact with each other; identify the trade offs that may have to be made when acceptance of a large block booking might displace regular customers; and calculate the incremental financial impact of revenues from new business less revenues forgone when capacity limitations mean that some traditional business will have to be turned away to accommodate the block booking.

Teaching notes.

Business management, entrepreneurship, strategic management and business environment.

Undergraduate and Masters level business and management programmes.

This case features a small labour intensive Chinese company, Bags of Luck (BoL), located in the south-eastern Fujian province. BoL makes ladies fashion handbags, unisex fashion backpacks and trendy lightweight cases for laptop and netbook computers for export to the US market. BoL have done very well over the years as a small private enterprise focusing on low-tech manufacturing and have managed to stay afloat through the most difficult period of the recent world recession. Currently troubled by fast changing market trends, rising material and employment costs, continuing appreciation of the Chinese currency, severe labour shortage, declining production volume and profitability, dated machinery, passive and reactive nature of business model, ineffective management structure and a complete lack of strategic vision, BoL is in deep crisis with its fate now hanging on the balance.

The case provides encourages students to: research into a range of current business management issues; analyse the impact of environmental changes on the survival and growth of a business organisation; develop their strategic thinking informed by real life and real-time research and assess the impact of exchange rate changes on the Chinese economy and the sustainability of Chinese model of economic growth.

Teaching note.

Ethics in IT, community informatics, management.

Undergraduate and postgraduate information technology and citizens' rights, strategic decision making.

This case spotlights Athlete Sports in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). It focuses on the malfunction of the company's equipment that is rented from ABC Sports Equipment. Athlete Sports has been in the UAE over a decade and has positioned itself fairly at the top due to its qualified coaches and quality of facilities it provides. The case highlights the company's transition from owning equipment to leasing equipment that increases profits. However, it also sheds light on ABC Sports' venture into code reusability in order to upgrade equipments faster. The case looks closely at the ultimate consequences of ABC Sports' practice and the impact it has on Athlete's Sports' clients and the subsequent decisions the managers are expected to make.

This case can be used to teach strategic decision making, and ethics in information technology.

A teaching note is available on request.

Marketing.

This case study can be taught in a marketing course MBAs students: (communication trends analysis, sales models analysis, strategic marketing decision). It can also be taught in a sales management course with focus on sales process analysis and financial risk analysis. Students should use quantitative criteria for the analysis: potential sales revenue, market potential and qualitative criteria: risk analysis, customer satisfaction.

Vision of the owner of the company was to improve modern marketing communications using high end technologies – mainly touch sensitive technologies, by which the company was named. The case study “touché solutions” describes the example of new start up business as a small enterprise involved in high tech marketing interactive communication solutions in Serbia. Set in 2007, the company is having problems with profitability, sales negotiation and choosing priority business clients in 2009. Lazar Stojkovic, CEO has recently identified influences on the Internet, “Y” generation needs and new communication challenges, that led to conclusion that interactive technology provides the possibility of dialog with consumers and response to company's offer.

Understanding the differences between habits and customer behavior of X and Y generation; being able to understand the influence of media mix investments on marketing and sales effects globally, in EU and Serbia; understanding the obstacles and benefits of small enterprise and partners for financial sales agreement – new financial model; recognizing the differences between traditional sales model and innovative sales partnership model; being able to analyze and identify sales and market potential for business clients; understanding the model of accepting the innovation on the market.

Teaching note.

Strategy, competitive analysis, remittance industry.

Undergraduate and postgraduate business and management.

This case study examines the money transfer and foreign exchange industry in the Middle East context particularly United Arab Emirates. It focuses on the strategy making process. Possible business level strategies different firms can employ will be a consideration in the process of strategy making. Also, the stakeholder perspectives in the strategy making process are also dealt with. The characteristic required for cost leadership, differentiation, and focus needs to be matched with the context to arrive at an optimal strategy. The importance of arriving at a strategy to avoid being stuck in the middle during a period of financial crisis is one of the key areas of discussion.

This case can be used to teach: the stakeholder perspective, business level strategy, cost leadership, differentiation, remittance industry, foreign exchange business, and strategy process.

A teaching note is available on request.

Sustainable development; business, government, and society.

The case is designed to be taught to students at MBA and MA level.

In February 2009, Justin Smith, manager of the good business journey at Woolworths, a leading South African department store, was a worried man. Woolworths had launched its five-year sustainability strategy just under two years before. After undertaking an impact assessment, Smith was concerned that the original targets – which covered transformation, social development, the environment and climate change – had been set without a clear understanding of exactly what it would take to achieve them. Woolworths had recently identified ten key risk areas that impacted on the achievement of its original goals. If the sustainability goals were not reached, Woolworths could lose credibility among its shareholders, staff, and consumers. What did Woolworths need to do to ensure that it achieved its sustainability goals? And had the company been too ambitious in the targets it had set initially, he wondered?

To examine the differences, if any, between sustainable development in South Africa and other developing nations and sustainable development in developed nations; to impart an understanding of sustainability in its broadest sense; to investigate the challenges in implementing sustainability strategies in business; to look at ways of measuring the success of sustainability strategies; and to explore whether and how sustainability strategies should differ across industry sectors and across companies.

Teaching notes.

Innovation, marketing, strategic decision making.

Advanced undergraduate, MBA/executive education.

Zwack Unicum is an enduring icon of Hungarian business and culture having survived many generations of change. The case describes historical development of Zwack Unicum focusing on the years after 1989 through EU Accession of Hungary in 2004, while the company shifted away from a family business to become a publicly traded company. Elements hint at how corporate governance changes incentivize and constrain decisions of top management. The marketing strategy called “Innovate on tradition” is examined and it demonstrates how product and marketing innovation can be led by leveraging tradition, and how companies in emerging markets faced with competition from established developed-country brands can use local culture to outmaneuver attempts at market-share capture. Threats explored include the impact of a global economic crisis on sales domestically and internationally, and the changing demographics in their primary places of commercial activity (an overall aging and decreasing population in tandem with a growing minority population). Management must find a balance between short-term and long-term strategic decisions and revisit the sustainability of a marketing strategy associated with messages that are not necessarily preferred by a growing number of their consumers.

To understand the need for wide-perspective, flexibility, and foresight in emerging markets and companies therein.

Teaching note.

The case addresses issues related to value chains, sustainable businesses, business environment in emerging economies and cross-cultural issues.

This case would be best addressed by students in upper years of their undergraduate degree or at a Master's level.

The case addresses a project conducted by MEDA in Pakistan which focused on developing a value chain in the embroidery sector with the end goal of improving the livelihood of homebound rural women. The case walks the students through the local cultural constraints, the project design the development of the various value chain actors and the most significant outcomes. The primary issue requires the students to evaluate the most appropriate exit strategy for MEDA which would not harm the existing networks and allow the whole value chain to continue sustainably.

To appreciate the complexity of value chain development while understanding the benefits and opportunities they offer. To understand the importance of sustainability and how this can be achieved using market tools. To grasp the concept of exit strategies in the context of development projects and explore various ways these can be structured. To identify the impact of culture on business environment. Integrating the poor into thriving markets. Business as a development tool.

Teaching notes

This case is designed for an undergraduate entrepreneurship course dealing with the launch and growth of an entrepreneurial venture, including strategies for effective team building, especially with teams based in different countries.

This case has been used in 300 and 400 level entrepreneurship courses.

The case tells the story of John Lee (CEO) and Regina Adams (President), the founders of a new business called global loans in entrepreneurship (GLIE) based in Singapore. GLIE facilitates micro-loans for small business owners in the developing world and specifically targets entrepreneurial development projects for the poor. Many social enterprises start their operations on a shoestring budget. Typically, the deficit of cash pushes the leadership to use creative strategies to move things forward, including recruiting individuals who are willing to work in the startup phase without monetary compensation. This case sheds light on what can happen when founders recruit and rely on a volunteer for essential technology development, vesting the individual with substantial power, and creating the possibility for him/her to delay or purposefully hold up the launch of the company.

The case highlights the importance for someone on the founding team to have whatever core competencies are most critical to the firm. Additional themes are the importance of raising adequate funds at startup, the pitfalls of using volunteers in the wrong capacity, and the disastrous impact the wrong employee can have in a small firm setting.

Teaching note.

The built environment

This case can be used for undergraduate and post graduate level business and management studies. The topics identified for this case study would be environmental management applicable to green management, corporate sustainability and financial planning, buildings conservation, sustainable constructions and projects and the hospitality industry.

Mr Niranjan Khatri is one of the people involved in ITC's successful implementation of green management techniques. The key issue causing concern to management is how they initiate this new concept to the already existing and functional hotels in the country. The second key challenge is managing their stakeholders. Being in the service industry, customer service and convenience is of prime importance and at times they may be in conflict with the sustainability agenda of ITC.

Students should be able to analyse the importance of environmental management in the hospitality industry; recognize the operational constraints and legal obligations surrounding environmental performance in hospitality and tourism, Interpret environmental theory and work out an implementation plan for implementing environmental management in hotels.

Teaching note.