Case studies

The learning outcomes are as follows: to benchmark and compare the theoretical models of the performance management and appraisal processes. (Questions 1 and 2) Remembering-in Bloom’s Taxonomy; to understand the importance of practicing fair performance appraisal process. (Question 4) Understanding-in Bloom’s Taxonomy; to analyze the implementation and effectiveness of 180-degree performance appraisal method and rating system prevalent in the IT Sector. (Question 1) Applying and Analyzing-in Bloom’s Taxonomy; to assess the impact of perceptual biases on human behavior and performance (Questions 2 and 3) Evaluating-in Bloom’s Taxonomy.

The case study entitled “Is HR Blind? Why do People Leave Managers Not Companies? A Case of Unfair Performance Appraisal and Biases” is a classic example of a flawed and biased performance appraisal process and perceptual biasness, which resulted in the loss of a valuable and talented resource in a leading Indian IT MNC. The present case had been based upon the real-life experience of an employee (i.e. Rahul Verma), who worked with the company from year 2010 to 2021. It was among the top ten IT MNCs employing about 0.1 million people. The objective of the case was to highlight real time issues existing with HR practices, mainly in IT sector organizations. For example, in the present case, do the HR seek proper justification from the manager before taking a harsh decision like forcibly asking an employee to sign a termination contract without looking at the contributions of his qualitative performance or even performance rating (refer to the transcript) for that matter? Was the job of the HR to only ensure how to fit in employees in the faulty bell curve system? Whether the performance appraisal system being followed at the company is adequately capable of identifying and recognizing the talent. Do the different functions really work cohesively and organically toward achieving the intended goals and objectives of the organization? Was this a failure of the manager in recognizing talent or something went wrong at the employee’s part? Was this a failure of the entire HR system or performance management process at the organization that was unable to filter out the capable and skilled resources out of the crowd? Was this a problem of organizational culture that put on stake its most critical resource – the human capital – by allowing the appraisers to evaluate them just because of the hierarchical structure, and not because they are not being competent enough to perform this most critical job objectively? Who ensures the appraiser is free from any kind of prejudice or bias and is capable of fairly assessing the talent resource? So, the present case was a deliberate attempt to throw out these burning questions to the practitioners and students to ponder upon. Does HR really follow the blind process merely acting on the feedback received from the different units of the organization?

With the help of strong theoretical foundation and practical applications, the following objectives and questions have been framed to deliberate and propose the workable solutions for the benefits of the relevant stakeholders.

HR practitioners, HR managers, supervisors, senior management and HR students, IT heads, project managers.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

The data set used to write this case was collected from 83 public sources, including company communications, company journals and reports and the company website, along with newspaper articles, industry reports, scientific articles and case studies. The data set was used to analyse both the industry and firm in which Arup operated to draw conclusions about the firm’s strategy and competitive advantage, specifically, as it relates to trust and knowledge management.

Alan Belfield, an employee of Arup Group Limited for 29 years, and the company’s chairman since 2019, had witnessed significant growth since he first joined the firm. Operating globally, Arup had a proud past; since 1946, the company had served 6,931 clients across 143 countries, leading to its important contribution to many world-renowned landmarks within the built environment. From 2018 to 2020, revenue at the global multiservice engineering company had grown almost £250m [1] to £1.809bn.

Over the past few years and as 2021 came to an end, the global engineering services industry had experienced a flood of mergers and acquisitions, as the industry grew towards maturity and clients looked for full-service solutions. Arup’s strategy had proven successful in the past, evidenced by its capacity to grow revenues and partake in the design of well-known structures and buildings. However, with the trend towards consolidation, as Arup headed into 2022, how could the firm retain its position as one of the global leaders in the industry over time?

The case can be used in business courses on global strategic management at the bachelor and master levels, as it applies key strategic management concepts within a global context. The case focuses primarily on the transnational corporation (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 2002) and how it creates value through strategy and structure. Instructors who wish to integrate the human resource management aspect into the course are provided with optional material, including an additional reading, along with an assignment question and associated analysis and teaching guidance.

Risk identification and qualitative assessment are the learning outcomes.

The Bharat Bijlee Construction Limited (BBCL) was one of the largest construction companies operating in the power sector in India. After successfully completing a few projects in the Middle East, BBCL decided to expand its presence into African region. The BBCL was awarded a $85m contract for three sub-station projects to modernise Algeria’s power grid system by the “Shariket Karhaba Koudiet Eddraouch Spa”, a state-owned company in charge of power generation, transmission and distribution in Algeria.

The project, which is the first of BBCL in Saharan region in Algeria’s, presents many unique situations that company had never encountered before, including sand dunes, severe weather, remote locations, supply chain & logistics, strict contractual deadlines and a high level of construction risk. The project manager for BBCL was sceptic about how well his company would perform under the present project circumstances. How could he better align himself with the client, the various on-site local contractors and the numerous suppliers spread around the world?

The case emphasises the identification of various project risks that the project manager might encounter in the project. What do the PESTLE and ASCE frameworks for risk identification each represent, and how are they helpful for the project team in understanding various risks? How should the project’s qualitative risk assessment be conducted? And how can a heat map be a better tool for comprehending the criticality of each risk in the project?

Undergraduate and post graduate courses in project management, civil engineering and architecture domain.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 2: Built Environment.

Public data such as news reports, interviews and memos were used to craft the case. In addition, the technical reports released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), along with secondary data in the form of expert accounts and congressional hearings were used to round out the synopsis of the case study.

This case explores the Boeing–McDonnell Douglas merger and its impact on Boeing’s corporate culture, ethics and strategic decision-making. After the merger, Boeing shifted from a culture focused on engineering excellence to one emphasizing cost-cutting and shareholder value. This cultural shift contributed to the development failures and ethical lapses that resulted in the 737 MAX crisis, which involved two fatal crashes. The case is designed for courses in Strategic Management or Organizational Behavior.

Strategic Management or Organizational Behavior

After completion of the case study, students will be able to identify the traits required in child leadership and the ability to apply “The Whole Leadership Framework” child leadership model today, identify and discover opportunities to promote child leadership and analyse its sustainable impact and analyse how innovation clubbed with sustainability will create a competitive advantage with special reference to the innovative ultraviolet-C light sterilisation Suraksha Box.

Aditya Pachpande was a child prodigy of India, who had stunned the world with his trailblazing attitude ever since the tender age of 12. Aditya’s father, Sandeep Pachpande, a Harvard alumnus, wondered – “My son is ahead of his time. Would institutions ever acknowledge my innovative boy as a child leader? Will my child become a teen chief executive officer (CEO)? Will he ever get accepted?” Aditya leads by example as a student, changemaker, edupreneur, innovator and keynote speaker. He thinks, “Age is just a number”, but has had to shout out loud to be heard. With the nickname “Lecture man” given by his teachers and peers, he went on to contribute in endorsing skill-based experiential and discovery-based teaching-learning that addresses real-world issues and sustainable development goals. A CEO at the age of 11 years, he co-founded NextGenInnov8 Global Solutions Private Limited and NextGenInnov8 Social Foundation. Although achieving these milestones, he had to manoeuvre through several curve balls hurled at him by the system. Not the one to ever compromise on ethics, values and purpose, today he was at the crossroads – whether he should choose social change over-commercialisation of his business, simplicity and minimalism over product perfection, crowdfunding over loans or angel investors, manufacture in China or make in India just to name a few. The unstoppable Aditya, aspiring for acceptance, dreamt that someday, these policymakers and businesses would acknowledge child innovators and not write them off just because they were adolescents. Aditya, standing on a precipice, dreamt along.

This case has been particularly focused on postgraduate-early stage-level students pursuing business or entrepreneurial education-related programs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

This case was developed from published sources. Three types of data were used to develop this case. The accounting data were compiled by the case researcher from bank financial statements such as Form 10-K, Form 8-K and quarterly Financial Highlights issued by the bank. Market data were compiled from data providers such as FactSet, Yahoo! Finance, Pitchbook and the Federal Reserve System. Reports on market developments were gathered from major news outlets such as CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune and S&P Global.

Interest rate risk played a big role in the banking crisis of 2023. For Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which specialized in providing banking services to venture-backed startups in the technology and life sciences sectors, its exposure to interest rate risk and the lack of hedging against interest rate risk had played a crucial role both directly and indirectly in the bank’s failure. This case study discussed the various channels that interest rate risk played in SVB’s failure as well as other risk factors that include an unusually high percentage of uninsured deposits and a high securities-to-asset ratio compared to its industry peers.

In the low interest rate years of 2020 and 2021, startups were able to fundraise a record amount of funding from venture capital (VC) investors. As many startups deposited their funds at SVB, they became an important and concentrated depositor base for the bank and held large deposit accounts that easily exceeded the $250,000 limit insurable by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. SVB benefited from the large deposit inflows in 2020 and 2021. The bank used some of the deposits to fund its loan portfolio, but most of the deposits were used to purchase debt securities such as US Treasuries and agency-used mortgage-backed securities. In fact, SVB’s investments in securities as a percentage of total assets were more than double its peers in the large banking organization (LBO) group, while the amount of loans funded as a percentage of total assets was almost half of its LBO peers.

As interest rates increased rapidly throughout 2022, bond prices fell. SVB experienced unrealized losses of $15.2bn in its held-to-maturity securities portfolio, which was almost equivalent to its equity of $16bn at the time. However, SVB implemented little or no hedging against the risk of rising interest rates. At the same time, fundraising activities slowed in the VC sector amid high interest rates and, thus, SVB’s startups clients had to draw on past deposits to continue to fund their operations. This resulted in SVB experiencing significant deposit outflows throughout 2022.

On March 8, 2023, SVB announced that it had sold all $21bn of its available-for-sale securities portfolio and suffered an $1.8bn in realized losses, which was greater than its entire last year’s net income. Markets jittered following the news. Over the next two days, depositors rushed to withdraw $142bn of deposits that represented 82% of its last year’s total deposits. Unable to withstand the crippling weight of deposit withdrawal, on March 10 the parent company of SVB filed for bankruptcy.

Given the multiplexity of the banking crisis of 2023, this case study specifically discussed the collapse of SVB, which was the second largest bank failure at the time of its collapse. This case would be valuable for finance and economics students to learn how various risk factors interact that precipitated SVB’s failure. While there were many risk factors at play, this case study homes in on how SVB’s exposure to interest rate risk and the lack of hedging contributed to its downfall. For purpose of pedagogy, this case also explains how a bank could use on-balance-sheet as well as off-balance-sheet methods to hedge interest rate risk. This case is appropriate for courses in Risk Management, Derivatives as well as Financial Markets and Institutions with a focus on interest rate risk and its corresponding hedging methods. A course in Money and Banking may also find this case relevant. Before starting, it is assumed that students have already taken foundational finance and macroeconomics courses, have a basic understanding of financial statement analysis and its interpretations, derivative instruments such as futures and swaps, as well as have prior experience with basic duration calculations.

After completion of the case study, students will be able to understand BRalu Profile’s product range, customer base and historical developments; analyze how BRalu Profile’s procurement strategy evolved and its impact on business profitability; calculate and compare procurement costs and evaluate their role in decision-making for different suppliers; examine how market conditions (includes domestic and international dynamics) and pricing strategies influence procurement choices; assess the pros and cons of different procurement options and make informed recommendations based on supply chain principles; and identify potential procurement risks (e.g. currency exchange rates and supplier reliability) and propose strategies to mitigate them.

This case study explored the challenges faced by BRalu Profile, a prominent aluminum profile products company based in Ahmedabad, India. It focused on the critical task of supplier evaluation, selection and the complexities of maintaining relationships with existing suppliers. This case study delved into the intricate dynamics of procurement decisions within the supply chain and their direct impact on the firm’s overall performance. It also emphasized the supply chain’s susceptibility to disruptions and their consequences on company operations and supplier selection criteria. The protagonist, Dhaval Choladiya, had to navigate the complexities of cost-benefit analysis to identify the most suitable supplier, maximizing the firm’s net benefit while considering nonpricing parameters. This case study revealed the critical importance of maintaining strong supplier relationships in a competitive market and offered insights into the complexities of sourcing.

This case study is suitable for an undergraduate or graduate-level course on strategic sourcing or supply chain management or a risk management module in operations, strategy or finance course (e.g. how to deal with input cost fluctuations).

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

After reading this case students will be able to understand the role of General Environment analysis in strategic decision-making; to understand the use of different models such as Porter’s Five Forces, SWOT and resource-based view; and to enable graduates to apply different strategies such as business level and growth strategies and environmental analysis to any company or industry on their own.

Pizza Town Sukkur, once a popular spot for delicious pizzas, was facing a tough situation. New competition was threatening its success, and the manager, Mr. Faisal Gul, was torn between sticking to old ways or trying new ideas. A surprise invitation to a special industry summit added excitement but also uncertainty. The restaurant, started by Honey Bhai in 2007, used to be a hit, but now it struggled with challenges like not having online ordering and falling behind in marketing. Other pizza places in Sukkur, like Pizza Mart, Pizza King and Pizza Grill, were giving tough competition. The story unfolded in the lively setting of Sukkur's food scene, with Pizza Town at a crossroads – whether to embrace change and technology or risk fading away in the face of new rivals.

Undergraduate and Graduate

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

After completion of the case study, students will be able to understand the service offerings within the nascent electric vehicle (EV) sector and end-consumer needs of EV charging services, understand the reasoning behind Sunfuel Electrics (SFEs) prioritisation of destination charging for their first go-to-market (GTM) strategy and appreciate SFE’s use of community marketing and alliance partners to execute its various strategies. Connect game-theory with the proposed strategies.

SFE was an early start-up in EV charging space. The co-founders believed that any success would hinge on their ability to play a differentiated game and carve a distinct yet profitable niche in the EV charging arena. SFE deliberately focussed on “destination charging” and identified a segment that they were confident of making a difference: the discerning high-end consumer. Soon, SFE’s success caught the eye of its deep-pocketed competitors who also entered the same space. As a single service company, the co-founders set in motion a back-up plan and identified three new strategic thrust areas to maintain SFE’s competitive edge. The first involved entering the city charging segment, and the second was a pioneering concept branded “E-Trails” targeted at a community of EV owners who were motor enthusiasts. Thirdly, SFE conceptualised an EV-Roadhouse concept, promising a full-bouquet of select premium services at a pit-stops along the highway. The co-founders needed to test which and to what extent would these initiatives would translate into real gains and if returns were commensurate with investments and SFE’s ability to deliver a scalable consistent experience. Specifically, if these proposed asset-light avenues added the required heft to their GTM strategy.

This case study is suitable for post-graduate students in marketing, strategy, entrepreneurship and sustainability courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

This case is based solely on secondary, publicly available information. Sources include the X social media platform, Anna Maria College’s (AMC) website and the Massachusetts-based Spectrum News.

AMC administrators knew student-athletes held a stake in the institution’s success. After all, over 40% of the College’s students played on its 13 Division-III (D-III) teams, which meant a significant portion of the private institution’s tuition and student fees were paid by student-athletes. But student-athletes were not AMC’s only stakeholders. In Spring 2024, this came to a head when the College found itself intervening as a faculty member and his student-athletes struggled to communicate with one another. AMC administrators were left wondering: How should they reconcile the competing needs of their diverse stakeholder groups?

This case and its accompanying teaching note are appropriate for lower-level undergraduate organizational communications classes that explore how stakeholder theory can drive messaging development. The case was tested in the classroom with upper-level undergraduate students in a strategic managerial communication course. It was embedded in a unit that focused on stakeholder management and communication, and it should be a prerequisite to a unit in which students build on the case’s content to develop full, multi-touch communication campaigns.