Sharmaji’s Canteen was the only cafeteria on the campus of a prominent management institute in Gurgaon, India. The business had been operating since 1990 and its success depended on a captive residential population of primarily students and staff. The lockdowns imposed by the Government of India in March 2020 to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus led to the closure of the academic programs. During the pandemic, students had become accustomed to more choices offered by online food delivery that they felt Sharmaji’s Canteen did not match. The business was losing sales and profitability was eroding. The owner needed to decide between three different revival strategies based on the data collected.
BHP, the Australian mining company that also diversified into ship chartering, has an important mission statement: "BHP's purpose is to bring people and resources together to build a better world." Rashpal Bhatti (Bhatti) Vice President of BHP's Maritime and Supply Chain Excellence (MSCE) arm endeavoured to bring this purpose to life. The case discusses BHP's efforts to reduce emissions from its chartering business by transitioning from pollutive conventional fuels to alternative fuels. Maritime transport was the backbone of the global economy. It accounted for 75% of global freight activity, with nearly 80% of globally transported goods being transported by sea, and yet it utilised only one-fifth of the energy or 225 million tonnes of oil equivalent. This made it economical to transport large volumes and weights across vast distances which led to maritime trade doubling between 1990 and 2020. Unfortunately, as maritime trade grew, so did the demand for energy-dense, inexpensive, highly pollutive fossil fuels. To reduce emissions, many in the maritime ecosystem, including BHP, explored the use of alternative fuels. Recognising that the use of alternative fuels involved convincing multiple stakeholders, first, Bhatti secured buy-in from his colleagues and team. Then, the team measured ship emissions and did not charter ships that had poor emission ratings. Next, their research found that Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) produced 30% emission abatements and was the most feasible. Finally, BHP ran tenders for LNG-fuelled ships and for LNG bunker fuel supply. The efforts paid off, and in February 2022, Mt. Tourmaline was delivered to Singapore's Jurong Port for its first LNG bunkering. Bhatti realised the entire endeavour was successful not only because of LNG fuel innovations but also due to the efforts put forward by stakeholders in the maritime industry, such as vessel owners, regulatory authorities, ship charterers and fuel suppliers.
The case is set in 2021 and explores the journey of Chiranjeev Restaurant and Foods Pvt. Ltd., located at Koregaon Park, Pune. It has evolved sustainable business practices, delivering innovative organic food products from farm to table to its customers at the restaurant over the last 25 years. The case underlines Malaka Spice's efforts to mainstream sustainability in the restaurant ecosystem by challenging the current food system followed by fine-dining restaurants in India. Malaka Spice, led by the founder Praful Chandawarkar and his experienced management team, has implemented a circular food system by incorporating natural farming practices, enrolling local suppliers, having an integrated supply chain, training staff to efficiently use the produce, composting waste and feeding the compost back into the soil, and closing the system's feedback loop. The case explores critical events in Praful's personal life and the entrepreneurial journey that persuaded him to pursue a mission to bring prosperity to all, including the restaurant's employees and the planet's ecosystem. Malaka Spice's culture is rooted in the Indian management thought process inspired by the sutras from Kautilya's Arthashastra (ancient Indian treatise on economics, statecraft, warfare, etc.). The principles derived from the sutras led to unconventional practices within the organization. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, the management team empowered the employees to start their own enterprises while continuing to be employees of the restaurant chain. They were trained to source materials and supply them to the restaurant. Malaka Spice influenced the competition to adopt its best practices and created an environment of trust to promote the cross-learning of ideas within the hospitality industry. Finally, the case delves into green solutions that the Malaka Spice team designed and prototyped to tackle the climate crisis proactively.
During the summer of 2021, Sumana G., Chief Technology Officer of South Central Railway, was reviewing the annual productivity reports of field employees. This was an annual exercise that was crucial to central planning as it helped identify potential weaknesses and possibilities for improvement. Sumana knew that evaluating the productivity of store personnel would be the most challenging task because Indian Railways (IR) managed over 280,000 items stocked in 215 depots across the country. While reviewing the time sheets, Sumana quickly realized that field officers were spending a significant time amount of time on materials purchase, especially items purchased locally by field offices. On further inquiry, field officers revealed that retrieving data from the stores database based on item descriptions posed considerable challenges, and in most cases, the search results were not very useful. Sumana was quick to realize that an artificial intelligence (AI)-based search engine could solve this problem.
Nreach Online Services Private Limited (doing business as Xoxoday) is a technology company that builds digital infrastructure for rewarding employees, customers, and partners through perks, incentives, and disbursement payouts. Incorporated in 2018, it has grown at a scorching pace; in just a little over three years, it has acquired more than one thousand clients that leverage their technology infrastructure to run rewards programs for about two million end-users. Xoxoday has built a sizable suite of reward, recognition, and motivation products for three target segments: (1) corporate workforces, (2) customers and channel partners, and (3) sales teams. The product lines for these three client groups are called Empuls, Plum, and Compass, respectively. Employee well-being, both physical and emotional, has been a challenge for Xoxoday's Empuls (corporate workforce) clients. These challenges have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Another issue apparently catalyzed by the pandemic-and with which corporate employers were grappling, given that most of their workforce had been working remotely since 2020-was that of attrition. Xoxoday's Empuls clients are looking for novel solutions to stem the tide of what is now famously called the "Great Resignation." Should Xoxoday implement gamification as a strategic solution to encourage well-being behaviours among the workforce of its corporate clients and to arrest attrition? Why and how could Xoxoday demonstrate responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) while deploying gamification as a strategic solution for addressing the two key human resources management (HRM) challenges of employee well-being and attrition? How can trust pose a potential challenge to the implementation of AI-based HRM solutions? Which approach to business model innovation should Xoxoday adopt while offering such solutions?
Sharmaji's Canteen was the only cafeteria on the campus of a prominent management institute in Gurgaon, India. The business had been operating since 1990 and its success depended on a captive residential population of primarily students and staff. The lockdowns imposed by the Government of India in March 2020 to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus led to the closure of the academic programs. During the pandemic, students had become accustomed to more choices offered by online food delivery that they felt Sharmaji's Canteen did not match. The business was losing sales and profitability was eroding. The owner needed to decide between three different revival strategies based on the data collected.
Greenkraft Private Limited (Greenkraft) supplied artisanal products to global clients and was an India-based not-for-profit organization. The company worked to address the socio-economic needs of artisan women. For 800 women workers, the Greenkraft production unit symbolized independence and pride, motivating them to work and deliver quality output. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Greenkraft was compelled to adopt home production to supplement production unit operations to fulfil its supply obligations. With the rapid spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in January 2022, Greenkraft's management had to choose a production and fulfilment strategy in the new normal. They considered adapting production unit operations with the COVID-19-related protocols, changing to complete home-based production, or adopting a hybrid model with part production unit and part home production. The change in the production strategy impacted Greenkraft's business viability and producers' livelihood, needing careful thought and implementation.
AstraEye Pharma Pvt Ltd.: An Unsettling Dilemma (APP) was an ophthalmology pharmaceutical company that drew 80 per cent of its revenue from the artificial-tears segment. Elena Sanders was responsible for drafting a turnaround strategy for increasing market share by building prescription momentum, improving operational efficiency, and devising a renovated digital strategy. Based on the available options, Sanders had to decide between improving operational efficiencies for an existing brand-Rejuvenate at a 0.5 per cent carboxymethyl cellulose concentration-or launching a new product-Fresh Plus at a 0.3 per cent hyaluronic acid concentration-to cater to a greater number of patients. She was also tasked with sharing an important element of digital strategy: launching APP's health-care-providers-and-practitioners engagement website or launching a microsite on a third-party online community platform for doctors (i.e., the Health Support Network for Professionals). The decision was urgent, as Sanders had to present her position during the annual strategy meeting scheduled for March 2022.
The authors' earlier research found that an employee's psychological safety and relationship with their manager are key drivers for them to feel able to bring up ethical concerns. The authors investigated further and tested managerial interventions that were found to increase that sense of safety and speaking-up behaviors.
Wednesday November 16, 2022 was a historic day in the ascent of Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, to the top echelon of YouTube creators. That day he became the YouTuber with the most subscribers ever-a total of 112 million. The meteoric rise of the 24-year-old Donaldson, long "obsessed with figuring out how to make videos go viral," as he put it, had not only made him one of the entertainment world's most popular creators, but also enabled him to launch a variety of other businesses. Donaldson's businesses now generated more than $100 million a year. He had also emerged as a formidable force in philanthropy. How big could MrBeast's presence on YouTube become? Did he have the right strategy for further growth on YouTube-while sustaining the ever-increasing levels of spending-and with his other businesses? And would MrBeast's unique approach to philanthropy stand the test of time?
In 2023, the term metaverse - a combination of "meta" and "universe" - had become a catch-all for a diverse set of expectations about online virtual worlds and the future of the internet. To some, the metaverse conjured images of a massive participatory videogame inspired by science fiction. To others, the metaverse meant the evolution of the internet into something more three-dimensional and social. In October 2021, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his strategy would be "metaverse-first," leading him to change Facebook's name to Meta. However, executives at other companies like Epic Games, Microsoft, Nvidia, Electronic Arts, and Apple had different views of if, when, and how the metaverse would take shape. Amid the hype and uncertainty, executives and entrepreneurs had to grapple with critical questions as they strove to form their own vision and strategy for the metaverse. First, was the metaverse going to emerge in the next few years or much further down the road, if at all? Second, what would be the important use cases? Some expected gaming to emerge first, while others expected enterprises would drive adoption. Third, and perhaps most critically, would the metaverse be an open and interoperable virtual world, like the internet itself? Or would the development of the metaverse play out like the more recent models of app stores and social networks, born on the internet but maintained as distinct walled gardens? Answers to these questions would shape billions of dollars of investment, profits, and losses.
A module note for the Mastering Consulting and Advisory Skills (MCAS) course, "The Trusted Advisor's Mindset" introduces some of the differences between working as an operator and an advisor.
A module note for the Mastering Consulting and Advisory Skills (MCAS) course, "The Advisor's Approach to Strategy Analysis" introduces the options-led approach to strategy as well as how this valuable piece of an advisor's toolbelt differs from that of an operator.
A module note for the Mastering Consulting and Advisory Skills (MCAS) course, "Communication as a Trusted Advisor" provides best practices for communicating as an advisor across multiple contexts.
A module note for the Mastering Consulting and Advisory Skills (MCAS) course, "Client Interviewing and Data Collection" introduces the essentials of client interviews and provides best practices for early career consultants and advisors.
A module note for the Mastering Consulting and Advisory Skills (MCAS) course, "Persuasive Client Presentations" breaks down bad habits and good rules of thumb when preparing and giving client presentations.
Open innovation rests on the idea that not all the smart people work only for you, and managing human interaction across organizational boundaries is therefore central to open innovation. This article starts with outlining and reviewing research on this human dimension of open innovation. The article develops seven principles of innovation- producing encounters that can guide managers in enabling value creation through open innovation. We continue by introducing the rest of the special section, which expands beyond the human dimension to also include firms, platforms, and ecosystems, with important implications for the creation and capture of value from open innovation.
The case opens in August 2022, as Ahmed Galal Ismail, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Properties and Fatima Zada, digital and omnichannel director at Majid Al Futtaim Shopping Malls, go over the plans to roll out the omnichannel mall offering for the Mall of the Emirates they have been piloting for the past six months. The Mall's omnichannel transformation had been propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic and aimed at enabling customers to shop both online and offline, while redefining the mall's value proposition and its business model. The case takes the reader back to the founding story of the Majid Al Futtaim Group, its culture and vision. The case also provides an overview of the Group's successful digital transformation journey as well as its omnichannel transformation of its retail business. The case also provides a detailed overview of changing customer habits and shopping preferences, the different kinds of players competing for customers' share of wallet, and the evolution of the role of the physical shop from a point of sale to a point of experience. The case puts the reader in Ismail and Zada's shoes, who have been trying to physically, digitally, and commercially to better serve both the customers and the mall tenants. The pandemic had forced even the most digitally conservative tenants to reconsider the extent of their digital offering, thus creating the perfect backdrop for an omnichannel transformation. Ismail and Zada knew that they needed to transform the value proposition to update the business model for the malls to survive in the digital area. They needed the figure out a sustainable and profitable way to do it.
Kaichiro Yamamoto is the 10th generation president of Yamamotoyama (YMY), a tea company that is one of Japan's revered shinise: companies that have operated for more than a century. His only child, Nami Yamamoto, is expected to serve as the first female president of the company after him. YMY had gradually expanded the business overseas to Brazil and the US, and Nami Yamamoto had taken charge of overseas operations. YMY had been a household name in Japan and enjoyed the great reputation of a shinise. At the same time, it faced a changing business environment in which gift giving was becoming less common, reducing demand for YMY's expensive and fine products. Each generation encountered different challenges. Along with it came the tensions among growth, stability, risk-taking, and sustainability. How could the leaders ensure the survival and sustainability of the company?