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After studying and analyzing this case, students will be able to evaluate the strategic alternatives for growth for a small entrepreneurial business in an emerging market, analyze the trade-offs between maintaining continuity and change in the growth strategy adopted by an organization and synthesize an appropriate growth strategy for managing the trade-off between continuity and change in an organization.

It was late April 2022, and Mohammad Hamza – the founder and marketing head of Engineering & Environmental Solutions (E&E Solutions) – disconnected the call of his sales manager. His mind was fixated on how to craft the strategy for the next phase of the company’s growth. The deadline for their biggest tender was at the end of May 2022. Should he commit all the company’s reserves to this project or pursue global markets? Launched in 2015, E&E Solutions had come a long way from being a start-up with just one product to a full-blown manufacturer and environmental monitoring equipment service provider. Growing pollution and strictness in compliance propelled the demand for environmental monitoring equipment in India, poised to reach $342m by 2025. E&E Solutions leveraged its technological capabilities in Internet of Things and sensors producing low-cost monitoring equipment to gain an edge in an evolving market and bootstrapped its way to almost $5m annual turnover in 2021. However, the last review meeting brought many concerns for the next growth phase. E&E Solutions had so far focused on the domestic market, catering to the demands of private as well as government clients. A significant cause for concern had been the small order size of private players, averaging $2,000 and a lower net margin of 8%. Moreover, the company had been missing out on opportunities to bid for large government contracts owing to stringent bidding credentials required (such as turnover of at least 50%–80% of the project value and previous similar order experience with a range of at least 70% of the project value). Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic had stalled their efforts to tap a promising global environmental monitoring market (predicted to be $44bn by 2030). As Hamza and his team sat in their board room for a discussion, they had two alternatives. Either continue focusing on the domestic market, especially the big government contracts (more than $12m order size) or explore the markets in other emerging economies with demand for similar products (such as Middle East and North Africa region) more aggressively. Hamza was, however, wondering if they could do both, for he knew that to qualify for big government contracts, they needed to scale up. He was also getting restless after missing his target of reaching $20m in five years, especially since India’s ecosystem for start-ups and the small business sector had witnessed favorable policies and support from the government. He started pondering how to leverage his organization’s strengths and continuities to achieve the required pace and scale of change. His thoughts wandered around dividing the cash reserves of $500,000 to fuel growth without reducing the R&D budget. After all, R&D has been E&E Solutions’ forte since its inception and has been pivotal in creating its differentiation.

This case study can be used for core strategic management course at the undergraduate and graduate level of management programs. It can also be used in advanced strategy courses like strategic change, entrepreneurship and small business management offered in MBA programs.

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CSS 11: Strategy

This case is designed to provide learners with strategic decision-making skills. It also introduces the various nuances of establishing a technopreneurial venture and creating and sustaining a competitive advantage. The setting allows learners to comprehend the significance of assessing the business environment and the advantage of being a first mover in any business sector. The case allows a rare glimpse into the strategic decision framework of a scale-wise relatively much small tech firm that is competing with global giants and creating waves, and winning accolades for its performance. The case also allows learners to understand the analysis and decision-making parameters studied by a company while selecting a product. After working through and discussing this case, learners should be able to identify the strategic decision framework in which Aeron undertakes a product selection decision; analyze the conditions in the operating environment that made Aeron possess a competitive advantage; and design the product choice strategy for Aeron.

This case is about the journey of two friends, Abhijeet Bokil and Ashwani Shukla, who started a company together in Pune, India, in 2008 and achieved great success. The case discusses their tryst with different products and industrial sectors. It unfolds the journey of their startups and their finding the desired product category. It also discusses the various hurdles they face while establishing the business. The journey was tough as it occurred in the unpredictable background of the dynamic international technology and policy environment. The common challenges to entrepreneurship were present throughout their journey. The team encountered various financial and technological trials during these years. The case explains how excellent strategic choices made the team overcome those challenges. The biggest dilemma faced by the team was to select between two of their products. The one who gave them visibility and success or the new upcoming one with more entry barriers. The case deals with the issue of product selection in the sectors of telematics and weather monitoring.

The case is appropriate for courses in Business management, Strategy management programs & innovation and Entrepreneurship management courses. The case would suit BBA and MBA students learning various management models.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The central lesson to be learned from studying the case is to understand the challenges and constraints posed by contextual conditions in designing contracts in public–private partnerships (PPP) for financing and delivering health care in emerging economies such as India.

Perverse incentives, along with contextual conditions, led to extensive opportunistic behaviors among involved agencies, limiting the effectiveness of otherwise highly regarded innovative design of the program.

India’s “Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana” or National Health Insurance Program, launched in 2007 provided free health insurance coverage to protect millions of low-income families from getting pushed into poverty due to catastrophic health-care expenditure. The program was implemented through a PPP using standardized contracts between multiple stakeholders from the public and private sector – insurance companies, hospitals, intermediaries, the provincial and federal government.

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CSS: 10 Public Sector Management.

The case study offers interesting learning possibilities and offers the following learning opportunities to the learner. assess and conduct a macro- and micro-environmental analysis, comprehend the nature of the competitive landscape and how it changes when one looks at a digital-only versus an omnichannel marketplace, examine the product mix and policy of the firm and evaluate how it delivers customer value and analyse the pros and cons of growth strategies available to a firm and arrive at a viable and actionable future business and product strategy.

The short case study presents the story of a young start-up called Country Delight. The firm began operations in 2011 and was the brainchild of Chakradhar Gade and Nitin Kaushal. The direct-to-consumer firm addressed urban consumers’ non-articulated, latent need to get “fresh and uncontaminated” milk to their doorstep. Country Delight delivered farmer-to-consumer fresh cow and buffalo milk and milk products based on a well-designed and efficient value chain where the supply chain was either wholly owned or quality monitored by the firm. The firm began operations in India’s National Capital Region and was spread across 15 metro cities. Slowly, over the years, Gade and Kaushal added more product categories.Country Delight had a subscriber base of around 500,000, and the ambitious duo wanted to double their subscriber base and reach one million subscribers by financial year 2025. The firm was looking at various paths to achieve this number. Should Country Delight expand into new geographies? Or look at adding to the existing product portfolio? Diversification into agritourism, like the Pune-based vineyard – Sula, also looked attractive to build consumer engagement. Would taking the consumer to the farmers from whom they sourced the milk and vegetables contribute additional revenue to Country Delight and their farmer-suppliers? As the firm got ready to raise another round of funding, it needed a well-articulated growth strategy that was exciting and profitable for all stakeholders.

This case study presents the dilemma entrepreneurs face as they look at the next phase of growth. Thus, this case study serves as a learning opportunity for a graduate-level course in management and as a sounding board for those who aspire to enter the start-up space. Though this case study has the potential to illustrate basic concepts such as value chain and macro- and micro-environment analysis, the protagonist’s dilemma and the problem statement make it apt for integrated discussions that are critical in advanced electives in marketing management.

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CSS 8: Marketing.

Services management, strategy, marketing.

Services management, strategy, marketing.

Owned and operated by the Tata Group, Ginger Hotels is the first-of-its-kind of Smart Basics™ hotels across India. The case explores the business model and the relevance of the service concept given the Indian context and consumer behaviour, the marketing strategy, and communication strategy of Ginger. Challenges such as the use of outsourcing, learning and development, and attrition are discussed.

From a marketing perspective, this case can be used to demonstrate understanding of consumer behavior, reshaping customer expectations, perceived service quality, Gaps in service, service orientation, and value-for-money positioning, aggressive advertising and promotions, use of the marketing mix to introduce a new service concept in a market. From a management perspective, the case can be used to highlight how the marketing strategy is being delivered through a focus on service staff (selection, training, and motivation) and operations (logistics, IT, and communications), and branding (brand strategy – alignment to the corporate strategy).Third, the case is suitable for highlighting strategy – analyzing current competitive advantages, and carving out potential future competitive advantages in a services context. For example, strategic analysis models such as Porter's industry analysis and value-chain models can be applied to examine the sources and sustainability of Ginger's competitive advantages. The case can also be used for teaching service innovation.

Teaching note.

Decision Analysis, Management Information Systems, Strategic Management, Organizational Development, Financial Management, Risk Management.

MBA-1 (Decision Analysis), MBA-2 (MIS).

On a beautiful October morning in 2011, the CEO of a mid-size oil marketing company located in Nairobi, Kenya has to make a tough decision whether to upgrade their current B1 system to a bigger version of SAP. Abbas, the new Information Communications Technology (ICT) Director of Zaidi Group, was worried that Zaidi was building a bigger and bigger company on top of a more and more small enterprise resource planning system. Abbas's fears also include RedLock's past inefficiencies. Kariuki, the Finance Director, on the other hand was into the fear of overspending in a huge information technology (IT)system where current functionalities required can be addressed by a smaller system through add-ons, customization and development.

Demonstrate some tools in decision analysis for problems with multiple objectives including some issues indecision framing and cognitive inertia; Raise the issue for fundamentally changing a firm's infrastructure; Demonstrate the alignment of IT strategy to Business Strategy.

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After completion of the case study, the participants will be able to understand the significance of quality as a pivotal domain within project management and to analyze the issues related to quality and offer logical solutions.

In this case, the Bharat Bijlee Construction Limited (BBCL) group, with a proven track record of over five decades in the transmission and distribution business in India, decided to venture into international projects, considering the prevailing stagnant domestic power sector. They secured contracts worth $85m from the “Shariket Karhaba Koudiet Eddraouch Spa,” a state-owned company responsible for power generation, transmission and distribution in Algeria. However, during the execution phase of these projects, BBCL encountered significant challenges related to product and service quality. These challenges arose due to the tight schedule constraints and cost considerations, as well as a lack of understanding of the dynamics involved in executing international projects, especially in the demanding conditions of the sub-Saharan desert. This case study addresses the complex issue of ensuring and maintaining high-quality standards in large-scale substation projects situated in the challenging environment of the sub-Saharan desert, highlighting the importance of effective project management and international project execution expertise. The case study is from quality management knowledge area and focuses on identification of root cause of quality noncompliance and for better decision-making in projects.

The teaching case is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in project management, civil engineering and architecture domain. The participants will be able to understand the application of various quality tools, statistical process tools and control charts in problem identification, categorization, root cause identification and decision-making.

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CSS2: Built environment

This case study outlined the strategic and organizational issues faced by an entrepreneurial firm operating in an emerging economy. While the traditional view is “more for more” and “less for less” with respect to quality and price, the medical devices sector demands “more for less” in an emerging economy such as India, i.e. the market demands quality products at affordable prices. This case was written to equip students with the knowledge of how entrepreneurs can overcome certain barriers and use technology to recognize and exploit an opportunity, using the Indian health-care industry as an example. The key learning outcomes for the case include the following:

• Entrepreneurs define their own market, come up with innovations and create a completely new market with suitable customer value proposition.

• Entrepreneurial opportunity recognition comes from being prepared, having prior knowledge of customers and the market and having a strong network.

• An entrepreneurial preference for error of omission or commission is the determining factor when deciding whether to exploit a recognized opportunity or not.

• Entrepreneurs exploit an opportunity by giving special emphasis on their entry and risk reduction strategy.

• A technology-based product with a combination of services that will create its own product ecosystem with data is the primary goal.

The Indian health-care sector is one of the largest sectors in India and incorporates the medical devices sector, and the heart monitor segment especially represents a huge untapped opportunity. India has the highest number of deaths because of heart disease in the world, yet there is no mechanism for affordable heart monitoring, which results in large number of deaths. As existing products are either B2B or unaffordable, there is an opportunity to leverage technology to come up with cgiq products similar to blood pressure and sugar monitors. However, there are certain challenges unique to the market and product. The case described how two young entrepreneurs founded a company called Agatsa and overcame certain challenges to create a credit card-sized ECG device and the importance of building an ecosystem in a new market. Some specific issues that the case posed included the following: will it be possible for Agatsa to come up with an ecosystem to monitor heart functioning and will that be accepted by the stakeholders in an emerging market such as India? Should Agatsa have a product-driven strategy or a data-driven strategy? Will Agatsa be able to find the right business model to create and capture value?

MBA in courses such as entrepreneurship development, new venture creation and entrepreneurship in emerging markets.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The case deals with project management principles that are required for implementing a social project in India.

The study has been carried out at primary schools in an underdeveloped state, namely, Odisha, in India.

The case illustrates a project management approach for improving primary education in a government set up. The bureaucracy set up in education in a state like Odisha, India, needs to undergo radical changes. To be effective, an education system requires an optimal integration of the three main components, namely, people, infrastructure (this includes technology) and pedagogical processes. Using a public–private partnership model, American India Foundation (AIF) through its Digital Equalizer (DE) Program has been able to make a positive impact in an underdeveloped tribal dominated district like Keonjhar. The case study also illustrates the detailed execution plan predicated on total system planning, required to achieve this amount of success. The case study also explains how to measure success through different metrics where intervention has to be at multiple levels. The learning from the case study can also be adopted for designing an implementation strategy in other states.

Expected learning outcomes are as follows: how to approach implementation of technology-based intervention with involvement of all stakeholders; learn project management techniques related to digital learning model implementation; understand the DE methodology; and understand the challenges faced while implementing the DE Program.

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CSS 7: Management Science.

On completion of this case study, students will be able assess new venture opportunities by properly allocating expansion fund in growing the business; analyzing various scaling-up options; applying the Ansoff matrix for growth and expansion; designing a framework for scaling up; and using the business model canvas.

Mr Sreeram established Eruvaka Technologies in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh (India), in 2015 to provide products and services related to aquaculture. The company was founded with the goal of assisting prawn farmers who had trouble keeping up with the demands of the industry. Eruvaka Technologies created risk-reducing and productivity-boosting on-farm diagnostic devices for aquaculture growers. The company developed low-cost monitoring and automation solutions for aquaculture by merging sensors, mobile connection and decision tools. Eruvaka’s primary objective was to offer reasonably priced, technologically advanced goods and services to farmers. Eruvaka matured into a promising startup over time, attracting $5m in funding. Sreeram and his team had to detail their plan to their investors about how they intended to use the money from each funding rounds toward growing the business, how the company planned to achieve sustainable and competitive advantage while providing value to its consumers and how they would address critical issues including product acquisition cost, supply chain problem and customer anxiety.

This case study can be taught as part of undergraduate- and postgraduate-level courses and Master of Business Administration courses.

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CSS 11: Strategy.