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How one company successfully dealt with the e-mail glut: After executives underwent training to reduce the number of e-mail messages they sent, the output of other employees fell, too--even though they received no training or feedback. The result was a 7% gain in productivity.

Social media give companies tremendous opportunities to engage with customers by inviting them to participate in value-creating activities, such as brainstorming advertising taglines or product ideas. But co-creation initiatives can backfire if customers view them as a chance to bash the company, and managers need to think carefully about the risks.

Detailed accounting records from the 19th century reveal that U.S. and West Indian slaveholders used scientific management techniques to run their operations.

Usually when companies merge, they get right to work on rebranding. But after his airline Avianca merged with TACA, Villegas decided to unify the vision, culture, and operations of the two organizations prior to launching a single brand.

Recent years have brought an avalanche of indices for measuring the relative strengths of nations and their progress (or decline) over time. As someone who has spent an inordinate amount of time studying these indices and the methodologies behind their conflicting rankings, the CEO of the Legatum Institute offers four things for global executives to keep in mind when confronted with these data.

Every day, hackers use the global network to steal information and compromise businesses. Organizations today have to rethink their defenses and move from reaction to anticipation. In this Vision Statement, Matt Kodama and Bill Ladd of Recorded Future use semantic analysis to track where and when cyber-attacks happen, a method which could help companies predict and head off attacks more reliably.

Abstract (Maximum of 2,000 Characters): Briefly describes content of case. There is an emergence of a new segment in the Indian context - Young women in urban India, who are educated, independent, driven towards professional goals adopting a modern lifestyle, even while retaining their ethnic cultural values. This segment is enthusiastic about using brands whose symbolic meanings are aligned with their self-concepts, as it would enhance their very unique self-expression. Raga was the first ever watch brand in the world that was exclusively launched for women, by Titan Industries Limited. Raga was positioned as an ethnic watch for the sophisticated Indian woman, embellished with striking symbolism from the culture of India. Beauty, Sensuality and Feminity were the core values of Raga that were reflected in the brand's positioning .Tanishq was another pioneering brand from the same company that entered as a branded player in a context where the Indian jewelry market was highly unorganized. Tanishq offered professional work-wear jewelry as well as traditional jewellery that women wore for Indian rituals, capturing the evolving women who wore professional as well as traditional jewelry based on the context. Women associated appropriate as well as beautiful looks with Tanishq jewelry. The case explores if the application of psychographics to brands could be taken to the next level - how can a company with similar symbolic brands (Raga watches and Tanishq jewelry) in different categories appeal to the target segment that may have a similar psychographic profile. Some of these challenges include - Should similar appeals be sustained and strengthened? Would such an appeal be favorable to both the brands? Should the positioning of either brand be modified? How do the appeals impact the formation of groups (reference groups) involved with these brands? Can behavioral theories be useful for such challenges of synergizing the appeals of Raga and Tanishq?

The case describes an entrepreneurial firm, CoCubes, which has instituted a paradigm change in the way campus recruitment is done in India. In a paradoxical environment of high availability of formally educated, yet not readily employable talent pool in a growing economy and a concomitant challenge faced by all recruiting firms in being able to identify and attract high quality talent, CoCubes offers unique value propositions to a dual set of customers (viz., the colleges and the companies that are recruiting from campuses), only one of which is a paying customer (colleges). Within such an environment, it is critical for CoCubes to effectively manage the engagement with the recruiting companies and try and change their mindset to recruit from non-established non-premier institutes. On the other hand, the colleges have conventionally never paid to get their students placed. Getting colleges to pay is critical for CoCubes to succeed and grow. This necessitates colleges to see value in CoCubes' offerings. In this context, one of the challenges for CoCubes is to find ways to increase the value of its offerings, especially given the emergence of significant competition that is attempting to mimic the CoCubes business model. CoCubes also partners with various companies in enhancing skills of the candidates. With these partners, CoCubes faces the additional challenge of managing partner relationships and developing new product offerings, in order to stay ahead of the competition. All this calls for continual innovation and flawless execution in order to maintain its initial lead over current and emerging competition. The case is ideal for elective courses on Business-to-business Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Product & Services Marketing.

SEL was set up by Mr. Ajith Kumar Rai, (who serves as its Managing Director), returned as a fresh graduate from Canada. Foreseeing a boom in the country's automobile market, Ajith decided to establish an automotive cable manufacturing unit. His clarity of vision convinced TVS Motors to invest in setting up Suprajit Engineering as a small, one-unit firm in Bangalore, a fast-growing Indian metro. Beginning in 1987 as a small-scale automotive cable manufacturer, Suprajit is now a public listed company, with some of the world's biggest automobile companies as clients, products spanning a wide range of automotive and non-automotive parts, and eight manufacturing units. This case traces the inspiring story of Suprajit Engineering Ltd., the case aims to highlight the reasons behind Suprajit's success, and is intended to demonstrate rapid growth strategies of entrepreneurial firms.

The case traces the evolution of laundry detergent market in India. Although the entry of Lever brothers was the starting point, Nirma made detergents a product of the masses by targeting the economy segment. When P&G entered the market in 1985, the market was already well-entrenched by existing players. P&G started Project 2-3-4 to crack open the Indian market - by 2015, P&G wanted to double the number of Indians who used its products, treble per capita spending by Indians and quadruple net sales of its India operations. The case analyzes a series of marketing innovations - product line expansion, product line pricing to brand expansion - that the competing players resorted to. With a host of little differentiated products in the market, the companies had to think through positioning the offerings well. The era of price wars and increased marketing spends to obtain customer attention and garner increased market share significantly strained profitability. After making successful inroads in the mid-segment with Tide and Tide Naturals, P&G wondered if it should launch a brand for the economy segment too. P&G was lagging behind in capturing the Indian growth story. How could it realistically play catch-up with HUL when it operated in far lesser categories than HUL? Does it have a choice but to take HUL head-on in big categories such as detergents?

This case describes the evolution of Rural Health Care Foundation (RHCF), which provides primary healthcare services to the economically underprivileged in rural India, its various alliances with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and for-profit organizations. RHCF centers attract large number of patients every day from as far away as 100 km, due to low charges (INR 40, which is less than 1 USD, for consultation and a week's supply of medicine) and availability of reliable doctors. The case discusses the scale up challenges RHCF is facing to expand their centers to other locations as well as to provide other services within each center. The case also highlights the role various alliances, between NGOs and for profit organizations, play in delivering healthcare services to the bottom of the pyramid, especially those living in rural localities and can neither access nor afford proper medical facilities.

Ami Shah, founder of IntelliAssist, helped clients to create social media marketing strategies for their products or services and assisted them in the execution of these campaigns. In 2012, Shah had designed the social media marketing campaign for the Bollywood movie ''1920 Evil Returns'', which was a sequel to the movie 1920 that was released in 2008. The next movie in the 1920 franchise was expected to be released in 2014. She was analyzing the impact of the campaign and wondered whether the right social media mix had been used. The social media campaign for 1920 evil returns was very successful and she had the numbers to show for it. Active fan engagement and positive word-of-mouth also validated the success of the social media campaign. However, Shah wondered whether she could have done it differently. Was the spending-mix effective? What strategy should she adopt for the next movie in the franchisee tentatively titled, ''1920 London''? Ami had used a mix of social media for running the 1920 Evil Returns campaign which ran for 45 days. Facebook and YouTube were primarily used for the social media campaign. Google Ads were used on popular Bollywood websites such as Bollywood Hungama, SantaBanta along with news websites such as India times, Hindustan Times and Rediff.com. Total social media spend was INR 0.95 million. Ami had to decide on the next movie's 1920 London digital marketing strategy based on the analysis of 1920 Evil Returns.

Economic Decision Making Using Cost Data: A Manager's Guide is a 6-chapter book published in 2013 by the Business Expert Press and written by Daniel Marburger of Arkansas State University and Ryan Peterson, a practicing accountant. In this book, the authors outline basic economic theory as a guide for managers in making business decisions involving unit cost estimates. In this context, they examine key economic concepts such as opportunity cost, demand theory, and cost theory as well as different approaches to cost accounting. The authors posit that cost accounting represents the results of previous outcomes and, as such, does not provide the information that managers need to make sound decisions moving forward. The authors examine the potential pitfalls that a manager may face when making decisions based on cost estimates and suggest how best to use economic theory to maximize a company's profits. In Chapter 1, What Does Economics Have to Do with Running a Business? (13 pages), the authors explore how economic principles can inform decisions. They posit that economics is the study of how people make decisions within a set of constraints and that managers can apply basic economic principles to make profitable business decisions. The concept of opportunity cost is explored and contrasted to cost-accounting estimates. The authors illustrate the impact of this difference on strategic decision-making through a discussion of the information and choices available to retail stores in a mall that loses significant customer traffic due to competition.

Economic Decision Making Using Cost Data: A Manager's Guide is a 6-chapter book published in 2013 by the Business Expert Press and written by Daniel Marburger of Arkansas State University and Ryan Peterson, a practicing accountant. In this book, the authors outline basic economic theory as a guide for managers in making business decisions involving unit cost estimates. In this context, they examine key economic concepts such as opportunity cost, demand theory, and cost theory as well as different approaches to cost accounting. The authors posit that cost accounting represents the results of previous outcomes and, as such, does not provide the information that managers need to make sound decisions moving forward. The authors examine the potential pitfalls that a manager may face when making decisions based on cost estimates and suggest how best to use economic theory to maximize a company's profits. In Chapter 2, What Matters and What Doesn't: Relevant Revenues and Costs (12 pages), the authors explore the decision-making value of basic data provided by standard accounting reports. They explain why a manager should evaluate the outcome of each decision alternative based only on the relevant revenue and cost, or those which a particular decision will impact. Using the example of a fundraiser, they explore the elements involved in relevant revenue and cost, including avoidable and unavoidable fixed costs, variable cost, sunk costs, and breakeven analysis. The authors demonstrate why managers should not look at historical costs, but instead consider only expected future costs when making decisions.

Economic Decision Making Using Cost Data: A Manager's Guide is a 6-chapter book published in 2013 by the Business Expert Press and written by Daniel Marburger of Arkansas State University and Ryan Peterson, a practicing accountant. In this book, the authors outline basic economic theory as a guide for managers in making business decisions involving unit cost estimates. In this context, they examine key economic concepts such as opportunity cost, demand theory, and cost theory as well as different approaches to cost accounting. The authors posit that cost accounting represents the results of previous outcomes and, as such, does not provide the information that managers need to make sound decisions moving forward. The authors examine the potential pitfalls that a manager may face when making decisions based on cost estimates and suggest how best to use economic theory to maximize a company's profits. Chapter 3, Determining Relevant Revenues: Understanding the Buyer (22 pages), highlights the key concepts in demand theory. The authors posit that understanding the law of demand and the influence of consumer behavior factors on demand will help managers understand relevant revenue. Using the example of concessions at a baseball game, the authors illustrate the concepts of demand, marginal utility, and marginal revenue. They outline the factors that impact demand, including product pricing and competition, as well as consumer income, tastes, and price expectations. They also explore the concepts of price elasticity and cross-price elasticity, providing several real-world applications of why both are critical components of decision-making.

Economic Decision Making Using Cost Data: A Manager's Guide is a 6-chapter book published in 2013 by the Business Expert Press and written by Daniel Marburger of Arkansas State University and Ryan Peterson, a practicing accountant. In this book, the authors outline basic economic theory as a guide for managers in making business decisions involving unit cost estimates. In this context, they examine key economic concepts such as opportunity cost, demand theory, and cost theory as well as different approaches to cost accounting. The authors posit that cost accounting represents the results of previous outcomes and, as such, does not provide the information that managers need to make sound decisions moving forward. The authors examine the potential pitfalls that a manager may face when making decisions based on cost estimates and suggest how best to use economic theory to maximize a company's profits. In Chapter 4, What Your Cost Accountant Can't Measure: The Economic Theory of Production and Cost (28 pages), the authors explore what managers need to understand about relevant cost and cost accounting methods. They explain the pitfalls inherent in how most firms calculate cost information and how this can mislead managers. They illustrate the concepts of production theory and the law of diminishing returns, using the example of a doughnut shop to explain cost theory, including fixed and variable costs, total costs, and marginal costs. The authors discuss how a manager can determine the output and pricing necessary to maximize a company's profit.

Economic Decision Making Using Cost Data: A Manager's Guide is a 6-chapter book published in 2013 by the Business Expert Press and written by Daniel Marburger of Arkansas State University and Ryan Peterson, a practicing accountant. In this book, the authors outline basic economic theory as a guide for managers in making business decisions involving unit cost estimates. In this context, they examine key economic concepts such as opportunity cost, demand theory, and cost theory as well as different approaches to cost accounting. The authors posit that cost accounting represents the results of previous outcomes and, as such, does not provide the information that managers need to make sound decisions moving forward. The authors examine the potential pitfalls that a manager may face when making decisions based on cost estimates and suggest how best to use economic theory to maximize a company's profits. Chapter 5, How Accountants Measure Opportunity (27 pages), explains the authors' approach to cost accounting and why they believe that this information can mislead managers if not fully understood. They explain that cost accounting has three main uses: for providing information to external users (such as banks or investors), as a tool for tax preparation, and for informing managerial decision-making. They also examine the benefits and drawbacks of different approaches to costing, including absorption costing, variable costing, and activity-based costing. They caution managers that accounting costs reflect historic performance and suggest that, for this reason, they are only valuable as estimates of opportunity or marginal costs.

Economic Decision Making Using Cost Data: A Manager's Guide is a 6-chapter book published in 2013 by the Business Expert Press and written by Daniel Marburger of Arkansas State University and Ryan Peterson, a practicing accountant. In this book, the authors outline basic economic theory as a guide for managers in making business decisions involving unit cost estimates. In this context, they examine key economic concepts such as opportunity cost, demand theory, and cost theory as well as different approaches to cost accounting. The authors posit that cost accounting represents the results of previous outcomes and, as such, does not provide the information that managers need to make sound decisions moving forward. The authors examine the potential pitfalls that a manager may face when making decisions based on cost estimates and suggest how best to use economic theory to maximize a company's profits. In Chapter 6, Are You a Better Decision Maker . . . Yet? (6 pages), the authors posit that a manager's success depends on how well he or she applies economic theory in decision-making. They demonstrate how the innovative use of economic theory can result in higher profits by explaining how the CEO at Parker Hannifin Corporation used the concept of price elasticity to revise the company's pricing strategy and grow revenues by $500 million in five years. The authors build a case for their approach by reviewing the economic concepts covered in each chapter. They also provide practical questions for managers to ask about cost information, market competition, and financial analysis, as well as how to follow-up on the initial information and when to engage a consultant.

This is a supplement to Charles Chocolates (A).

This is a supplement to Charles Chocolates (A).