The case describes the efforts of Reliance Retail in establishing a dedicated supply chain for sourcing bananas directly from farmers and selling them through Reliance's retail outlets in urban India. Reliance intervenes at multiple points in the supply chain, educating the farmers about better ways of planting, growing and harvesting bananas, introducing hygienic techniques of ripening and bypassing several layers of middlemen. This results in greater income for farmers, lesser wastage in the supply chain and better quality of fruits for the consumers. While Reliance's efforts with bananas seem to be a success, there are various challenges in scaling the model and leveraging the supply chain to source other fruits and vegetables. By describing the challenges and various tradeoffs that Reliance had to make, the case highlights how a large commercial organization such as Reliance can establish a viable business model that makes a positive impact on the lives of poor farmers and traders.

Explores the challenge of merging brands successfully following corporate mergers. It develops a framework for corporate and product branding strategies, as well as for creating the appropriate brand identity among the merged firm's target consumers. A critical key to successful brand mergers is to align the architecture of the merged brand portfolio to brand strategy and identity.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. In an article written well before Enron became a euphemism for corporate irresponsibility, the authors make the case that such misdeeds, so prevalent in recent months, are symptoms of a syndrome of selfishness that has taken hold of our business institutions, our societies, and our minds. Drawing on history, literature, philosophy, and management thinking, they argue that the syndrome is built on a series of half-truths--or fabrications--each of which has driven a debilitating wedge into society. Our narrow view of ourselves as "economic man" has driven a wedge of distrust between our individual wants and our social needs. A distorted view of shareholder value has driven a wedge of disengagement between those who create economic performance and those who harvest it. Our obsession with heroic leadership has created a wedge of disconnection between leaders and everyone else. The glorification of the lean and mean organization has driven a wedge of discontinuity between short-term and long-term goals. And the convenient, widely held notion that "a rising tide lifts all boats" has ratified a wedge of disparity between the prime beneficiaries of stock-price increases and the large numbers of people disadvantaged by the corresponding actions. The authors challenge and deconstruct each of these flawed premises and offer an alternative. Real prosperity, they say, combines economic development with social generosity--and that requires a new philosophy of social and managerial engagement.