This case is about Sabina, one of the leaders in the Thai lingerie market, and its proactive adaptation to changes in its business environment over two decades. The firm first took advantage of the depreciation of the Thai baht in the late 1990s to ramp up its export business and become a trusted OEM supplier to major European and US brands. The OEM business accounted for 60% of the firm's turnover by 2006. Bunchai Punturaumporn was appointed the firm's managing director in 2007. The Thai baht had started to appreciate, so the firm de-emphasized the OEM business and built a successful Thai branded business. This required innovating in the marketing area, broadening distribution, achieving excellence in production, and adapting the firm's organization structure over time. In 2012, the OEM business accounted for only 9% of sales. Sabina also coped successfully with other challenges, including rising labor costs in Thailand, and cheap imports from China. Bunchai was preparing the company in 2013 to go regional and take advantage of the opportunities arising from the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015. Learning objectives: Show how SMEs can successfully adapt to drastic changes in their business environment through proactive shifts in their strategy and organization.

The case describes the four-part approach that Nestlé used to accomplish this: adapting its product from a soupy noodle to a dry cake and formulating a taste that would appeal to the Indian palate across the entire country; strengthening its competitive position by attending to each element of the value chain - R&D, manufacturing, supply chain, sales and marketing; growing the category through product innovation and go-to-market innovation; and retaining a leadership position in the face of competition from other MNCs by continuous innovation and willingness to cannibalize its own products. The case illustrates how multinational corporations (MNCs) can capitalize on the huge opportunities available in the Indian market. While the market is potentially huge, the challenges in developing it are also daunting. Success requires persistence and entrepreneurship at multiple levels of the corporation. In the case of Nestlé, top management at its Swiss headquarters, the country head in India and the front line product champion in India all played their parts in an aligned manner. The case illustrates how an MNC can blend local responsiveness with its global strengths to create a winning position in the Indian market. Learning objectives: The main learning objective of this case is to support mid-level and senior executives (senior executives, country managers in emerging markets, supply chain professionals, product development teams) as well as MBA participants in exploring how MNCs can best leverage the India opportunity.

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"It was late morning on January 21, 2004 and Dr Robert Easton was enjoying the beautiful sunshine and crisp mountain air on the ski slopes of Davos, Switzerland when his mobile phone rang. It was a call from Ken Greatbatch, the former CFO of Vantico, with very interesting news: Clariant's attempt to auction off its operating division, AZ Electronic Materials (AZ-EM), had failed. There was now a great chance of an exclusive deal for Carlyle to acquire the company. Clariant needed to make the deal happen, and fast; it had promised shareholders and analysts during the summer of 2003 that it would reduce its debt level by almost €800 million. Six months had passed and the company had very little to show for its efforts. To dispose of its division, Clariant had initially engineered an auction among AZ-EM's closest competitors, but had not succeeded in finding a suitable buyer. Faced with the failed auction, increased pressure from shareholders and a clear need to raise cash rapidly, Clariant resorted to its second-best option - a negotiated sale with a qualified private equity buyer. The Carlyle Group immediately voiced an interest and offered to expedite due diligence if a deal could be negotiated rapidly. Speed was now of the essence for Clariant's top management team, who were very keen to figure out how quickly Easton and his team could move. Learning objectives: Buyout, due diligence, managing transition, turnaround management, leverage, incentives, restructuring."

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The RHP was particularly attractive to treat the poor. At a treatment cost of just US$ 25 a year, the RHP was expected to make a major dent in lowering CVD-related deaths and disabilities in India. Dr. Reddy's had completed clinical trials to launch the pill in India and international clinical trials were under way to launch the pill in other markets. The company also hoped to introduce a variant of the pill for primary prevention, helping patients with a low to moderate risk of CVD avert a first heart attack or stroke. The case details the many dilemmas that the top management team of Dr. Reddy's faced in pursuing the RHP project. The active ingredients in the RHP were generic drugs; and yet, because the combination had never been offered before, the RHP had to go through clinical trials to prove its bioequivalence to each of the constituent drugs. The RHP also had to be marketed to physicians and could be sold only through a prescription. The added R&D and marketing costs had to be recouped through the price of the RHP, although this price had to be closer to generics prices. In addition, it would be hard to get a patent for the RHP. Here was a pill that was neither a new discovery drug nor a straight generic. Shaping a strategy for it was demanding and yet if the RHP could be launched successfully, there would be several other opportunities for a combination pill to treat other chronic diseases like depression and osteoarthritis. Learning objectives: The case is a good vehicle to discuss the changing landscape of the global pharmaceutical industry which is faced with the simultaneous challenge of a thinning new product pipeline and increasing pressures from government regulators and third party payers to cut costs. Projects like the RHP at Dr. Reddy's provide examples of the new business models (and the dilemmas that underlie them) that industry leaders would have to consider.

The Tata Nano was launched by Tata Motors, a member of the Tata Group in January 2008. This "one lakh car" ($2,500) was hailed as the people's car. Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, which was widely respected for its socially responsible business practices, had personally championed the Nano's development in the belief that it would revolutionize the mobility of the middle class in India. The first models were due to roll out of the company's green field factory in Singur, West Bengal in October 2008. While Tata Motors had been offered financial incentives to locate to West Bengal, the company also wished to play an active role in the re-industrialization of the state and contribute to the economic development of the region. But protests severely disrupted work at the Nano plant and it finally ground to a halt on 2 September 2008. In October 2008 the company announced that it was relocating its Nano factory to the western Indian state of Gujarat, walking away from its $328 million investment. Learning objectives: The pursuit of Sustainable Development (SD) is not as straight forward as its proponents advocate. A firm's financial, social and environmental performance may be at odds with each other. The challenge for top management is to deal with the underlying dilemmas. Nano offered the middle class Indian a safer alternative to carrying his family of four on a two wheeler. The company located its Greenfield factory in West Bengal, again to help develop backward regions of that Indian state. Yet, there were challenges to the Nano project from environmentalists and politicians concerned about the impact of the project on subsistence farmers.

Tata Motors is one of the crown jewels of the Tata Group, India's premier industrial house. In Fiscal Year 2008 the company sold 585,649 vehicles and had a turnover of INR 335 billion (Indian rupees) (US$8.4 billion), making it the largest automobile company in India. Tata Motors had ambitious plans to double the number of vehicles that it sold in a mere five years by maintaining its lead in the booming Indian market and by establishing a greater global presence. The case describes Tata Motors' journey to becoming a global contender. It traces the company's business portfolio and strategy, its dramatic turnaround in 2000-2002, its strengthened position in India in both commercial vehicles and passenger cars, as well as its diversification into international markets through greenfield ventures, as well as acquisitions and alliances - notably the Jaguar LandRover purchase in 2008. In January 2008, Tata Motors unveiled the Tata Nano, priced at INR 100,000 or one lakh ($2,500), the cheapest car in the world. By entering two of the fastest growing areas of the automotive industry (the premium and small car segments), Tata Motors company was firmly on the path to becoming a global contender. Learning objectives: The case has the following objectives: 1) Introduce students to Tata Motors - an emerging global player in the auto industry from India; 2) Understand and critique the company's domestic strategy to date (including the launch of the Nano); 3) Review its international strategy to date (including its acquisition of Jaguar and LandRover; 4) Discuss how the company's Managing Director should address the challenges facing the company.

Describes how a corporate entrepreneur shapes an internal growth venture within the company, mobilizes the resources that are needed to implement the venture, and achieves success. Complementing his entrepreneurial behavior, however, is the support that he receives from several senior managers in the firm. Allows a careful examination of the challenges for corporate entrepreneurship in a large multinational firm and the roles that senior executives have to play to support it.

Describes the leadership dilemmas facing the top management team of a leading Indian pharmaceutical company--the first in its industry to be listed on the NYSE. Much admired for its impressive growth, Dr. Reddy's stands at a crossroad. How much emphasis should it place on the legacy business of active pharmaceutical ingredients and generics that have brought the company its current stature, and how much should it focus on future business like specialty pharmaceuticals and discovering new chemical entities? The two represent different business models and straddling the strategy, organization, and human resources demands of each one is the challenge for Dr. Reddy's top team.