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The Employee Provident Fund Scheme (EPFS) had been established as a social security scheme for the Indian industry and has established a huge corpus through its 42 million contributors. At a relatively risk-free rate of nearly 8.75% return, EPFS is recommended as a good retirement product in the debt portfolio. However, administration of the scheme had come under considerable criticism, which had resulted in changes in the regulatory norms around the scheme. The government's interest in promoting a defined contribution approach to retirement benefits appears to work at cross-purposes with the interest of the low-income employees. With recent regulatory changes in the minimum contribution level, the effect on bottom-of-the-pyramid employees covered by this scheme further reduces their net income. The case discusses the impact of changes in the regulatory scheme on all employees, but more specifically on the lower income workforce, the financial impact for organizations. It debates the efficacy of the current social security scheme in India and the options for organizations to design and administer variable compensation structures adapted to individual and life-stage needs.

Maxim, headquartered at San Jose in California, was founded in 1983 by Jack Gifford and other professionals with experience in semiconductor design and sales. The company posted $2.47 billion in sales in 2011, with 9,300 employees, and 35,000 customers worldwide. Maxim had developed expertise in designing and manufacturing highly integrated analog and mixed-signal semiconductors. Maxim set up a technology design center in Bangalore in 2006. The Bangalore center had grown over the years and moved up the value chain in terms of contributing to technology design at Maxim. Gopal Krishna, Head of India Operations, had joined Maxim in 2009. In mid-2011, Gopal Krishna was contemplating the new context that Maxim faced in India. India had been a location that contributed to design in Maxim while now India as a market appeared increasingly attractive. As a first step towards exploring this opportunity, Gopal decided to engage with the marketing faculty at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore who decided to examine the medical diagnostics space in India for value exchange opportunities. Interviews were conducted with healthcare professionals. The management team had to identify attractive market opportunities and develop a strategic plan to enter the Indian medical diagnostics market.

The case focuses on the dilemma faced by Dipak Mane, Bühler's President, South Asia as he pursues opportunities for sustainable growth in India's rapidly growing but competitive food processing industry. Buhler's corporate objectives, innovative technologies, superior quality, positioning as a premium global brand, competition and value chain requirements, determined its product - market strategies in India. Bühler was traditionally focused on the top-level market in several geographies that it served around the world. However, the company had experienced rapid growth during the last decade after it entered the mid-level market with new offerings and a value proposition tailored to the needs of the mill owners. Dipak's dilemma revolved around growing the business in India by consolidating in the mid-level market and/or targeting a new segment, namely the entry-level segment. The key issues relate to - Should Bühler target the entry-level segment? If yes, what adaptations will be needed to target customers in the entry-level segment? What will be the potential cannibalization in the mid-level segment where Bühler enjoyed a sizeable presence and reputation? What should be the differentiation strategy in the entry-level segment? What would be the go-to-market strategy for the entry level?

ScaleneWorks People Solutions LLP (ScaleneWorks), is a Bangalore-based talent management company, which commenced its operations in the summer of 2010 with a vision to build an organization of great value and be among the most respected talent acquisition solution providers globally. Sanjay Shelvankar, CEO of ScaleneWorks was considering the use of an analytical approach to predict renege. Past data from Indian IT companies revealed that 30% of the candidates did not join the company after offer acceptance, which significantly increased the overall cost of recruitment. Sanjay wondered if Analytics could possibly help in identifying the key drivers that influence a candidate in either joining/not-joining a company after accepting the offer, as it would largely help clients save both cost and time. However, there was a risk involved: any error in this prediction could turn out to be a costly affair, as the client could ''wrongly'' reject a potential candidate even without interviewing him/her.

ScaleneWorks People Solutions LLP (ScaleneWorks), is a Bangalore-based talent management company, which commenced its operations in the summer of 2010 with a vision to build an organization of great value and be among the most respected talent acquisition solution providers globally. Sanjay Shelvankar, CEO of ScaleneWorks was considering the use of an analytical approach to predict renege. Past data from Indian IT companies revealed that 30% of the candidates did not join the company after offer acceptance, which significantly increased the overall cost of recruitment. Sanjay wondered if Analytics could possibly help in identifying the key drivers that influence a candidate in either joining/not-joining a company after accepting the offer, as it would largely help clients save both cost and time. However, there was a risk involved: any error in this prediction could turn out to be a costly affair, as the client could ''wrongly'' reject a potential candidate even without interviewing him/her.

Flipkart, the poster child of Indian e-commerce, was an early entrant in the nascent Indian e-commerce market and quickly established itself as the leading company in this space. Flipkart has grown into an online retail giant, valued at over USD 15.2 billion as of 2015. Flipkart has been selling over 30 million products from more than 50,000 sellers in 70+ categories as well as has 30 exclusive brand associations with an in-a-day guarantee in 50 cities and a same-day guarantee in 13 cities. Flipkart was 33,000 people strong and had over 50 million registered users with over 10 million daily visits and 8 million shipments per month. Flipkart has been putting in much effort and emphasis on the use of Analytics in every aspect of decision making. Headed by Ravi Vijayaraghavan, the analytics team had over 100 data scientists in 2015. Customer churn is a major concern for Flipkart since it has direct impact on Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). CLV is an important measure to differentiate customers, which can further help the organization manage them effectively. The main challenge in calculating the lifetime value of customers of e-commerce companies such as Flipkart is that the exact life of the customer is unknown owing to data truncation, that is, the actual point in time of customer churn, which may not be identified in e-commerce since there would be no prior communication from the customer about the churn. Hence, traditional models of CLV calculation may not be appropriate for e-commerce companies such as Flipkart.

Flipkart, the poster child of Indian e-commerce, was an early entrant in the nascent Indian e-commerce market and quickly established itself as the leading company in this space. Flipkart has grown into an online retail giant, valued at over USD 15.2 billion as of 2015. Flipkart has been selling over 30 million products from more than 50,000 sellers in 70+ categories as well as has 30 exclusive brand associations with in-a-day guarantee in 50 cities and same-day guarantee in 13 cities. Flipkart was 33,000 people strong and had over 50 million registered users with over 10 million daily visits and 8 million shipments per month. Flipkart has been putting in much effort and emphasis on the use of Analytics in every aspect of decision making. Headed by Ravi Vijayaraghavan, the analytics team had over 100 data scientists in 2015. Customer churn is a major concern for Flipkart since it has direct impact on Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). CLV is an important measure to differentiate customers, which can further help the organization to manage them effectively. The main challenge in calculating the lifetime value of customers of e-commerce companies such as Flipkart is that the exact life of the customer is unknown owing to data truncation, that is, the actual point in time of customer churn, which may not be identified in e-commerce, since there would be no prior communication from the customer about the churn. Hence, traditional models of CLV calculation may not be appropriate for e-commerce companies such as Flipkart.

It was April 2014, and Cadence Chong, a new analyst at YOB Bank Singapore's consumer banking department, is working on her first assignment. Chong has been hired to improve the bank's credit card business, as her manager believed that there was scope for the business to do better. A specific initiative that had been suggested was to enhance the bank's responsiveness to customer feedback on MyDiningDeals, a mobile application that offered special deals and promotions contingent upon customers using their YOB credit cards. Chong was tasked to apply analytical techniques to the user-generated data gathered by the application. She had to analyse the data in response to customer and internal feedback on the division's credit card offerings to investigate how the application could be made more user-friendly. Chong was eager to complete her task as she knew that her analyses and recommendations would help drive up profitability in the credit card division.

The case is set in May 2015 in Singapore, the regional headquarters of the UK-based travel metasearch firm, Skyscanner. After a successful launch as a start-up followed by a period of rapid expansion, the company is now facing the challenge of growth in Asia. In 2011, Skyscanner opened its regional headquarters for Asia in Singapore. The tech-savvy customers in Asia were gradually beginning to discover the Skyscanner service, but their behaviour in using the site was different from that of customers in Western markets. Many users were accessing the site through mobile devices and linking from social media sites, while Western market customers were traditionally searching from a computer using the Google search engine. Skyscanner traditionally worked closely with partners such as airlines and online travel agents to provide information, advertising, and data services. To help attract partners, Skyscanner allowed the partner to "own" the customer, by passing the consumer through to the partner site to complete the transaction. The partners got paid for click-through traffic or from advertising on the Skyscanner website. By May 2015, Skyscanner had created local websites for 14 countries in Asia Pacific, but the challenge was to scale up the business and get more customers using the site by meeting localised needs. How should it further adapt its local offerings and marketing strategies more effectively to better connect to the in-country users in Asia? How should Skyscanner change its internal organisation to be more nimble to respond to the market? This case targets participants who are interested in understanding the challenges associated with adapting an organisation and its business model for local market needs. The case is designed for use in postgraduate and executive education classes. It allows participants to better understand the Asian context and the challenges of growing a multi-national business in Asia.

In December 2015, Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany and the de facto leader of the EU, faced the challenge of formulating an effective policy response to Europe's migration crisis. Merkel must decide whether Germany can continue to host large numbers of new refugees in 2016, keeping in mind that over a million had arrived in 2015. Merkel could continue Germany's relatively open refugee policy, but would need to decide how many more refugees to accommodate. Alternatively, Merkel could seek to significantly reduce the number of refugees, yet would need to formulate an effective set of international and domestic policy measures in order to achieve this objective. This case introduces students to the complex mix of economic and political considerations that guide policymakers seeking to regulate the cross-border movement of people. Students evaluate the labor-market, fiscal, and economy-wide consequences of different types of immigration flows, analyze how cultural prejudice and xenophobia mediate the political integration of immigrants, and study how electoral competition can give rise to right-wing and anti-immigrant movements that influence the overall direction of policymaking in democracies. This case also highlights the challenges faced by countries seeking to promote international cooperation in the domain of economic policymaking and highlights the role of national security, international law, and human rights norms in explaining policy contestation.

In June 1991, India was in the midst of a currency and balance of payments crisis the likes the country had not seen since independence in 1947. The country's foreign exchange reserves were barely enough to finance 13 days worth of imports. In the face of the crisis, India was forced to consider external help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which was accompanied by market-oriented conditionalities. The prospect of IMF support was a double-edged sword: on the one hand, restoration of finances and a viable path to economic recovery, but on the other, forced trade liberalization that would upend decades of centralized planning and inward-oriented growth. The IMF's adjustment plan would touch nearly every citizen, firm, and industry in the country. Liberalization, in theory, could stimulate long-term growth in the economy, yet it could also impose substantial adjustment costs in the form of firm closures and job losses. These economic reverberations would undoubtedly shake the country's political establishment, potentially jeopardizing the electoral fortunes of those in power. This case introduces students to Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao's decision to liberalize the Indian economy. Students must pay attention to the domestic political actors-communist and right-wing parties, voter coalitions, and special interest groups-that played a central role in influencing Rao's policy positions. They must also evaluate the negotiation strategies of international institutions, national governments, and firms and industry groups in the context of trade liberalization. By applying political economy theories of trade and economic policymaking to the decision facing Rao, students learn about the complex linkages between domestic political factors and international economic pressures when developing countries integrate into the global economy.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are an important tool for improving a firm's competitive positioning and performance. Despite M&As' promise, however, they often fail to meet performance goals. Challenges often arise when managers try to integrate two companies' information technology (IT) systems, and the difficulties encountered often create both short- and long-term performance problems for companies. To help address these challenges, we highlight important issues that managers involved in M&As must consider. We also present some best practices that managers should follow to improve the odds of successful IT integration.

Small businesses face big challenges when it comes to managing fraud risks. Financial strain, rapid growth, and a lack of resources and expertise create ample opportunity for motivated fraudsters to take advantage of small businesses. In this article, we draw upon insights from our years as fraud investigators to offer seven practical recommendations to help small business leaders prevent and detect fraud in this unique environment. These strategies can help even the smallest company make a big difference when it comes to fraud risk management.

The differences between traditional and referral marketing programs are so great that the two share little overlap in terms of appropriate target markets, marketing objectives, marketing organization, and overall planning and implementation strategies. Traditional marketing programs seek advocates among current employees to spread word of mouth, aim marketing efforts at high lifetime-value customers, focus on customer satisfaction, and use promotional programs that heavily rely on social media. In contrast, referral marketing relies on motivating satisfied/delighted customers as a referral base, seeking current customers that can provide referrals with a high lifetime value, using referral-based marketing programs to augment traditional promotions, and developing a compensation system for referrals based on either direct payment or increased visibility. Major advantages of referral marketing programs as compared with traditional marketing programs include greater credibility of friend/family member recommendations over paid advertisements, access to new customers that traditional marketing programs may not reach, and better matching of referred customers' needs to a good or service. This article presents an eight-step process to develop, implement, and evaluate the success of a referral program. In addition, it discusses academic research findings and presents examples of successful referral program strategies from--among others--Dropbox, Roku, PayPal, Digitalis, and Omaha Steaks.

Managers are frequently tasked with increasing the engagement levels of key stakeholders, such as customers and employees. Gamification--defined as the application of game design principles to change behavior in non-gaming contexts--is a tool that, if crafted and implemented properly, can increase engagement. In this article we discuss how gamification can aid customer and employee engagement, and delineate between four different types of customers and employees who act as 'players' in gamified experiences. We include illustrative examples of gamification and conclude by presenting five lessons for managers who wish to utilize gamification.

Crowdfunding has gained substantial interest in the U.S., allowing entrepreneurs to raise startup capital in exchange for equity in their ventures. This approach to equity capital can open up new sources of venture finance to legitimate entrepreneurs, but little attention has been given to how it offers new opportunities for illegal entrepreneurs to defraud investors. We adopt a forensic approach to examine entrepreneurs who launch Ponzi ventures--businesses that continually bring in new investors in order to use their money to pay returns to earlier investors--to demonstrate the ease, creativity, and audacity with which these illegal entrepreneurs operate. The provided examples of Ponzi entrepreneurs show how easily they can circumvent the safeguards purported to protect investors: screening by 'the crowd,' transparency and documentation requirements, independent audit reports, and withholding of funds until the venture's financial goal has been met. In this article, we offer possible solutions to help protect investors, legitimate entrepreneurs, and business in general from the damage created by illegal entrepreneurs.

After firms experience initial success, leaders frequently turn their attention toward producing and selling their products or services more efficiently, likely at the expense of ongoing innovation. This seemingly prudent decision may unintentionally lead firms to become one-hit wonders, effectively limiting their potential success over time. To help prevent a firm's early success from being its only success, small business executives should adopt practices that promote innovation yet don't come at substantial cost given limited financial resources. Focusing on the positive influences of ability, commitment, and feedback, we propose a system of high-performance work practices (HPWPs) as an economical means of encouraging innovative behavior that allows for efficiency without losing an emphasis on creativity and entrepreneurial action. This article outlines and discusses nine specific HPWPs targeted for smaller businesses that are expected to promote and fully realize the potential of employees as the driving force for innovation and sustained success.

With information technology (IT) becoming ever more ubiquitous and pervasive, the resulting deluge of data is driving a wave of digital disruption. No industry, it seems, is immune, and business performance is increasingly dependent on the effective use of IT and investments in technology that generate real business benefits. Yet research continues to report that most of these investments don't pay off as expected. Blame for such scenarios is normally placed at the feet of the Chief Information Officer (CIO). Some commentators have even suggested that it is now time to replace the CIO role with that of CDO (Chief Digital Officer). This line of thinking ignores the inherent organizational dynamics that lead to the derailment of the executive in charge of IT; merely changing the job title won't fix the problem. This article uses research conducted over the course of 8 years to illuminate reasons why CIO leaders are derailed, and what they and the CEO can do to avoid this outcome. Causes of derailment are presented in detail, and prescriptive advice is given for CIOs and CEOs alike regarding how to address causes of executive failure in leading the digital transformation of organizations.

Pricing is the most important driver of profits. Pricing is also, surprisingly, the area most executives overlook when implementing initiatives to increase profits. There is a reason: Research presented in this article suggests that most executives implicitly hold on to a series of weakly held assumptions about pricing that ultimately are self-defeating. These pricing myths are that (1) costs are the basis for price setting, (2) small price changes have little impact on profits, (3) customers are highly price sensitive, (4) products are difficult to differentiate, (5) high market share leads to high profits, and (6) managing price means changing prices. This research shows how executives can overcome these misconceptions and thus implement sustainable profit improvements via pricing.

The increased metabolism of business in the modern world has served to heighten both the frequency and the difficulty of organizational decision making. Practitioners and academics are constantly looking for decision-making mechanisms that can be used to address these challenges. One recently emerged mechanism is prediction markets: a group decision-making tool that uses a market mechanism to rapidly aggregate information held by large, diverse groups of participants. Prediction markets have a number of benefits and have been demonstrably successful in a number of contexts; however, it is important to recognize that they are suited to some types of decisions and contexts but not to others. This article examines the benefits of prediction markets and develops a framework that can be used to identify in which situations prediction markets can be profitably deployed within organizations. It also provides a roadmap for practitioners to use to guide their own organizational deployment of prediction markets.