Search results

Teaching objective 1: To flourish and explore the current business model to get socioeconomic benefits from organic farming compared to conventional farming; in the context of hill farming. Teaching objective 2: To explore and design innovative entrepreneurship opportunities in the field of organic farming and how these opportunities can be seized by using managerial skills. Teaching objective 3: To analyze the economic benefits of organic farming compared to conventional farming.

Manj Gaon is a small village in the Tehri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand. This village serves as the Uttarakhand Organic Commodity Board’s training facility. Organic farming was the primary source of income for farmers in the late 1970s, but the Green Revolution in India had a negative impact on agriculture, the environment and the economy of the country. After the Green Revolution, the agriculture sector was completely dominated by conventional farming, and the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides affected the village to some extent. But farmers like Bhagchand Ramola paved the way for other farmers to grow and shine through organic farming. The organic farming model developed by Ramola was helping farmers and society in several aspects, such as the economy, health and the environment. A self-developed organic farming model had been generating fair revenue for the farmers and uplifting their socioeconomic status as compared to conventional farming. Complete adoption of organic farming in the village requires an analysis in terms of sustainable economic growth. However, there was a certain dilemma that was stifling the growth of the newly adopted business model because farmers were dependent only on Japanese buyers and input providers. So, there was a huge need to tie up with other consulates across the country. Secondly, expanding a business model requires more input and output in terms of manpower and revenue, so persuading conventional farmers to adopt the organic farming model was quite a challenge for Ramola.

The case can be taught to the MBA-level students.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

This case enables students to understand the nature of a typical crisis and manage a crisis drawing insights from the protagonist handling of the crisis and from the various crisis management models in the literature. The rich description of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the world in this case enables students to understand the nature of a typical external crisis. The critical appraisal of the protagonist’s plans and actions to overcome the crisis enables students to appreciate the various crisis management frameworks or models. In addition, students get perspectives about the leadership skills and competencies required during a crisis. In this way, students will not only learn about the theoretical concepts related to the crisis but also the practical know-how to effectively handle the crisis.

This case study describes the functioning of the International Delhi Public School (IDPS) Akhnoor, Jammu, and Kashmir, India, through the COVID-19 global crisis. The IDPS academic operations were disrupted because of the COVID-19 global crisis in March 2020. The protagonist, KCS Mehta, the school principal of IDPS, faced with the crisis, takes various steps to ensure the smooth transition of school’s academic operations from the physical mode to the online mode. This case explains the nature of an external crisis that completely crippled the organization’s day-to-day operations and how the organization’s leader tried to manage the crisis to revitalize the organization’s operations. The case can be used for teaching of alternate Models of Crisis Management and Change Management.

The case is developed to teach the courses of Executive training programs and MBA programs in business schools.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The case is positioned in the domain of building, managing and communicating corporate reputation. It discusses the entry of Lenovo in the Indian market where the company faced reputational challenges. Definition of a corporate reputation strategy which was aligned to the overall strategy of the company, helped Lenovo traverse difficult terrains. The case would be relevant for courses on corporate reputation, communication and strategy.

The case is targeted at MBA students, corporate and PR professionals. The case can be used for MBA courses or management development programmes on corporate reputation, communication, and strategy.

The case brings out key elements of entry into an emerging market flooded with international, well-positioned players and discusses the entry of Lenovo in the Indian market where the problem was compounded by perceptions of Chinese origin. How does Lenovo bring about a turnaround in positioning, building, communicating and managing reputation, how does it steer stakeholder opinion in its favour? Will Lenovo India be able to replicate the success model in China? The case presents the challenges and discusses the strategies adopted by Amar Babu, MD Lenovo to bring about a change in the existing perceptions of stakeholders.

To discuss strategies for building corporate reputation.

To critically examine and analyze the strategies adopted by Lenovo India to build reputation and gain market share.

To analyse links between strategy generation and reputation management.

Teaching notes are available, please consult your librarian to access these.

Tihar Jail (TJ), one of the largest prisons in the world also functions as a reformation and rehabilitation centre. As a part of this effort, it operates a factory and a baking school in its premises. A consultant had been employed by Tihar Jail to find solutions for the stagnation in sales revenue despite marketing quality products and garnering good reviews from customers. This case is suitable for first-year MBA-level course in marketing management as well as for more-focused courses in product marketing strategy, business strategy, consumer behaviour, organizational behaviour, sales and distribution, or public policy.

Marketing, Pricing, Strategic marketing.

The case is developed for an MBA-level program.

In May 2017, the telecom industry in India witnessed an intense price war over 4G (fourth generation) data prices. Gopal Vittal, CEO of Bharti Airtel was exploring various options on how best to respond to the situation. He had to take a final call regarding Bharti Airtel’s marketing team’s counter move to tackle this price war by Jio – should Bharti Airtel ignore it, accommodate it or retaliate with even lower prices? Bharti Airtel strongly believed that Jio pricing structure had violated “fair pricing” norms, and its pricing was anti-competitive. It had filed a case with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to restrain Jio from further giving “free” promotional offers and penalize it for it. Could the legal recourse by Bharti Airtel dampen Jio’s consistent subscriber growth rate?

The case provides the students with an insight into how the competition focused on pricing happens in the telecom industry. The pricing war affects the profit margin of all competing companies. It changes the customer reference point for evaluating the competing products and services. The students would also learn practical applications of positive-sum pricing, pricing war, fair pricing and legal aspects of pricing. This case provides the students with an opportunity to understand the pricing war and how to respond to it in a particular situation; understand positive-sum pricing and negative-sum pricing in telecom industry context; understand legal aspects of pricing; and how to leverage data for gaining newer customer insights.

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 8: Marketing.

The learning objectives of this case study are to understand business-to-business (B2B) marketing in a logistics organization; apply go-to-market (GTM) strategy in the logistics industry; design B2B distribution strategy so as to enhance geographic penetration; and develop digital marketing strategies in the logistics industry.

V-Xpress is a leading B2B player in the express cargo category in the Indian logistics industry. In March 2017, Sachin Nair, Head of V-Xpress Marketing, was presenting three different GTM strategies to the CEO for the new Assured Timely Movement services. He wanted CEO views on each of them so that he can choose the best one. Sachin was also trying to find a solution to backhaul problem in eastern India. The resolution of this problem would have helped V-Xpress to become a truly pan-India B2B logistics company. Sachin was also revamping the digital marketing strategy as part of ambitious V-Xpress marketing strategy. These initiatives were taken as part of CEO’s vision for reaching annual revenue of INR 10bn by 2020. Sachin was thinking about various options so as to implement these changes with least investments.

This case study can be used in B2B marketing, marketing management and marketing strategy course of an MBA program.

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: 8: Marketing

This case uses concepts from Korten’s strategies of development-oriented four generations of non-government organizations (NGOs) and social psychology such as stereotypes, prejudices and actions to explain the social phenomenon. In furtherance, the case presents Aristotle’s approach to creating a message for masses that include use of ethos, pathos and logos. Stood’s (2017) narrative, engagement and technology (NET) model of social leadership was used to analyse the characteristics of social leaders.

Prima facie the case was developed from primary sources i.e. interviewing with Ashish Thakur. Literature from secondary sources was obtained to make teaching notes. List of references is presented towards the end that depicts the use of textbooks, research papers, websites and blogs. This case was tested in the classroom with MBA students learning business communication.

The case dealt with the challenges of an NGO that included conducting respectful last rites of unclaimed dead bodies. As the NGO grew, Ashish Thakur, the initiator of Moksh started facing resource management challenges, namely, volunteer induction, fundraising and managing non-human resources. These issues are deeply embedded in several social stereotypes about dead bodies. Learning covers strategies of four generations of NGO development, a NET model of social leadership, breaking social stereotypes related to dead bodies and last rites (necrophobia), designing social communication and opportunity to assess faulty rationalizations and do critical thinking around the socio-religious practices.

This case is intended to be used for the students of the social leadership or social entrepreneurship, social psychology, business communication or communication skills, organizational behaviour, advertising and social media.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a well-performing company can turn into a loss-making company on account of adverse industry cycle and poor management of risks in the business. The importance of factors like optimal level of leveraging, the ability of the management to deal with external and internal risks, and importance of corporate governance in the process of credit appraisal is understood from this case.

The case relates to the credit appraisal by the banks of a prominent steel company in India. The company, Bhushan Steel Limited, was doing very well. The banks lent aggressively to the company, based on their credit appraisal. However, the company soon turned insolvent on account of poor assessment of risks and deteriorating external factors. While this case may be analysed and studied through the eyes of both the Management and the lenders, the focus is currently on the latter. In a real-world scenario, the challenge for the lender is to sieve through the financial as well as non-financial data and make a valid conclusion on the level of credit worthiness of the borrowing company. This includes the topics of operational efficiency and synergies, commodity price cycles, external credit ratings, operating and financial leverage, regulatory risks and corporate governance.

Post graduate business management programmes – Finance specialisation.

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