After more than 1,100 people lost their lives in the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory building in Bangladesh, executives of Joe Fresh, a Canadian fashion and lifestyle brand, had to respond. Along with numerous other Western retailers, Joe Fresh had sourced much of its merchandise from the Rana Plaza factory. The disaster evoked an emotional public reaction, ranging from sympathy to outrage. The clothing industry had become a critical part of Bangladesh’s economy, and this was not an isolated incident. How would the Rana Plaza incident affect the public perception of Joe Fresh, and what could the company do to improve that perception? More fundamentally, how could Joe Fresh balance its competitive position, obligations to shareholders, and customer demands with ethical sourcing?
In March 2015, the founder and chief executive officer of Nyassa Retail Private Limited — a manufacturer of premium natural and luxury bath and body products based in Mumbai — was contemplating how to ensure the company’s future growth. Product acceptance had been phenomenal, allowing the company to build up a reasonable market share, with healthy profit margins. Although Nyassa had experimented with franchising as a quick way to gain a foothold in and cater to new target markets, it had quickly realized that the odds of losing control over the process due to lack of infrastructure were too high and might result in dissatisfaction and poor service. Thus, it had focused on developing its chain of exclusive retail stores, kiosks, and “shops in shops.” As competition from both Indian and international companies increased, the company was exploring online marketing options, return policy, packaging changes, and cross-selling for its new ultra-premium products. Should it penetrate deeper in India, skim the markets that showed high potential, launch the brand in overseas markets, or accept venture capital funding to achieve its goals?
This case describes the social cultural challenges confronted by Mr. Srikanth, President, Rotary Club, Chennai in making a village near Chennai in rural Tamil Nadu, Open Defecation Free (ODF). It highlights the role of a non-profit organization such as the Rotary Club and behavioural change consultants such as Feedback Foundation in the effective deployment of toilet construction and bringing about a social cultural change in village communities towards acceptance of ODF. The case also points to the of critical need of Swachh Bharat Mission addressing the socio cultural issues and bringing behavioural change, towards acceptance of ODF.
The case describes the situation faced by the chairperson of CIIE with respect to commercialization of an innovation of one of the incubatee companies. The incubatee had been working on a prototype of a flow monitor for IV fluids since his diploma days and won the competition organized by CIIE for the best innovation worthy of commercialization. The case describes the problem of nurses spending considerable time in monitoring the administration of IV drugs and the solution that the innovator had developed to reduce the monitoring burden. The case also chronicles the development of infusion systems, a rival method of reducing the burden that was expensive and not well adopted in India. The dilemma that the chairperson is facing is vis-Ã -vis a marketing and distribution deal that a pharmaceutical company involved in mentoring of the project had offered.
Elli Kaplan founded Neurotrack in 2012 with a breakthrough non-invasive cognitive diagnostics test that will detect Alzheimer's Disease in its earliest pre-symptomatic stages. While the company has gained great traction in the three years since it was started, with no therapeutic product available in the foreseeable future Kaplan is considering whether it is time to change the company's business model.
By 2013, the U.S. wireless industry was in the midst of a costly transition. As consumers began to embrace more sophisticated mobile devices, the industry's four main players spent heavily to improve their infrastructures for providing reliable high-speed data services. T-Mobile, the smallest of the four major carriers, lacked the scale of its competitors and risked falling further behind in the contest for market share. Faced with this daunting business environment, T-Mobile's new CEO declared war on the rest of the industry, decrying competitor pricing practices and upending the traditional contract-based business model. This case provides background information on the state of the wireless industry in 2013 and follows T-Mobile's early steps to transform its market position.
The case deals with the hiring of a CEO for a newly established business by an existing group. The Chairman of the Group was of the view that the Group should hire stars from various multinational companies and raise its professional level, even if it required changing the culture of the Group. The case discusses the business plan and risk of business and an approach of linking the incentive system with the cash flow requirements and risks of the business.
Ahmedabad Container Depot (ACD) was a fast growing inland container depot (ICD) in Ahmedabad. ACD had been facing various challenges due to inefficient manual container tracking system at the facility. Due to good business, the company was able to reach 90 - 95% of its capacity which was also the main problem ACD had to deal with. The management wanted to increase efficiency by reducing the number of moves required to locate a container by implementing a technology solution. The Head IT of ACD, Bhavik, was examining proposals from vendors and had identified a few alternatives. He was also considering the options that other large container yards had used successfully. His dilemma was to determine the feasibility of the alternatives, particularly those which had not been tested by any other firms in the country. Also, implementing technology could cause a change in roles and responsibilities; dealing with that situation was another area of concern.
Back in early 2013, Jimmy Ng, the new head of Group Audit at DBS received an urgent call from Kelvin Lam, Country Head of Taiwan Audit, requesting an increase in Taiwan's audit headcount by ten for mandatory audits required by the Financial Supervisory Commission in Taiwan. However, Ng was very sensitive about allocating more headcount to Taiwan, especially for compliance activities that consumed extensive resources. As DBS Taiwan had grown to 43 branches, the volume of mandatory audits kept increasing for the bank - all of its branches, business and support units were subject to two mandatory audits per year. In view of the cumbersome audit work and the serious consequence of compliance failure, Ng understood that providing more headcount would be of no help in the long run. A fundamental business strategy was required to rethink the auditing process to make it less volume sensitive. By the end of 2014, the implementation of new business processes proved to be very successful, and Ng and the audit team at DBS Taiwan could heave a sigh of relief.
Jeff Bezos, six years after starting a revolution in retailing with Amazon.com, turned his life-long passion for space into a start-up, Blue Origin. Blue (as it was called) was a part of the New Space industry, a collection of startup aerospace engineering companies that were intent on disrupting the American space sector with new technologies, management approaches, and competitive pressure. NASA hoped to leverage New Space to outsource its near-Earth activities and refocus its own efforts on deep space exploration. One of the agency's main mechanisms for this shift of activities was its Commercial Crew Development program (CCDev), a multi-phase initiative launched in 2009. Blue participated in the first two rounds of CCDev, and by all accounts these had been win-win experiences for it and NASA. The decision point of the case is whether Blue should participate in the third, much larger, and more complex, stage of CCDev. The trade-off facing Blue's leaders was between the legitimacy, expertise, and funding provided by working with NASA and the autonomy, efficiency, and independence threatened by working with NASA. How would Blue, with its clear respect for NASA but its desire (and financial ability) to set its own priorities, make this decision?
Linda Rabbitt, founder and CEO of rand* construction walked into her office at the company's headquarters in Alexandria, VA and briefly closed the door behind her. It was 10:00 a.m. on Monday, September 22, 2014, and she had just addressed her staff after the sudden and tragic death of the company's well-loved President, Jon Couch, the previous Friday afternoon. It had been an emotional address, as Rabbitt tried to inspire the company to move forward while holding back her own tears. For Rabbitt and for everyone else at the company, the loss was both professional and personal. Furthermore, Couch's death signified for Rabbitt the loss of her entire succession plan. Now in her mid-60s, Rabbitt was preparing to turn over the reins of the company to Couch, whom she had partnered with and mentored for eighteen years. What should Rabbitt do now? What should she plan for the future now that Couch was gone?
The Royal Harbour Resort & Spa was a large hotel and spa with over 300 employees. In December 2010, the human resources manager was advised by the general manager that headquarters had ordered an immediate restructuring due to a decline in the hospitality industry, especially in the luxury hotel sector. The human resources manager was advised that she had to terminate the employment of their banquet manager - an employee of over 17 years. The human resources manager was instructed to prepare the severance letter by the following day and meet with the banquet manager on Monday to finalize the termination.
In 2015, Britannia Industries - India's most recognized biscuit brand - had overtaken Parle as the market leader in the biscuit (cookie) category and faced stiff competition from Parle, ITC's Sunfeast, and many regional competitors. Britannia had to devise a strategy that would allow it to further consolidate its leadership position without losing market share; increasing the price alone was not an option in this highly competitive market. What could Britannia do to remain India's number-one biscuit maker? How could it stay ahead of its rivals in the area of product innovation? In a market swamped with near-identical product packaging, it had to devise a strategy that would help it avoid an identity crisis and make it the consumer's first choice. The company's senior management needed to chart a clear roadmap for the future.
In March 2015, the founder and chief executive officer of Nyassa Retail Private Limited - a manufacturer of premium natural and luxury bath and body products based in Mumbai - was contemplating how to ensure the company's future growth. Product acceptance had been phenomenal, allowing the company to build up a reasonable market share, with healthy profit margins. Although Nyassa had experimented with franchising as a quick way to gain a foothold in and cater to new target markets, it had quickly realized that the odds of losing control over the process due to lack of infrastructure were too high and might result in dissatisfaction and poor service. Thus, it had focused on developing its chain of exclusive retail stores, kiosks, and "shops in shops." As competition from both Indian and international companies increased, the company was exploring online marketing options, return policy, packaging changes, and cross-selling for its new ultra-premium products. Should it penetrate deeper in India, skim the markets that showed high potential, launch the brand in overseas markets, or accept venture capital funding to achieve its goals?
The chief executive officer of Network for Information & Computer Technology (NICT), an information and communications technology implementation firm, had to consider a proposal from India Post in which the latter would leverage NICT's franchisee-based last-mile customer service kiosks to offer banking solutions to rural areas in India. With the deal, the Post Bank of India would emerge as India's largest commercial bank. NICT's network of customer service kiosks was already used in a limited capacity by public-sector banks (the Bank of India and the State Bank of India). The India Post offer could stabilize the financial health of NICT and enable it to venture into new domains. However, its current partners might object to the relationship with India Post and withdraw from their partnership. While NICT had the competencies to serve its current clients, it would need to build new ones for India Post. The CEO had to choose between this emerging, possibly highly profitable opportunity and the existing but less profitable partners.
LifeCell International, a stem cell banking service in India, reduced its subscription pricing in 2013. The managing director and chief executive officer was considering the effects of this price differentiation strategy on his efforts to make regenerative health care affordable in India. He needed to address several critical issues, including improving awareness of regenerative therapies, disseminating product information, increasing market penetration, evaluating the new price structure, and continuing to support technological advancements.
While both management and marketing courses detail the importance of having a strategy, there is a dearth of tools available that can help students understand how to create a strategic plan-as well as some of the attributes that make for stronger strategic plans. This technical note describes a tool that can be used to construct a strategic marketing plan. The note helps walk students through the process of constructing a strategic marketing plan and provides examples. This is appropriate for strategy, marketing strategy, brand management, and marketing capstone courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.