The case is about the concerns of second generation entrepreneurs in a family managed business who aspire to attain the next orbit, the next level of success in the business. Natural Ice Cream was started by the father in 1980s. The passionate ice cream maker made two small innovations; one, a product innovation in the form of using only natural ingredients. He was so creative that he could come up with 125 combinations of fresh and dried fruits in ice cream. Two, a marketing innovation in the form of selling ice cream only in exclusive ice cream parlours. Both were novel ideas of the time and became the 'Unique Selling Propositions' (USPs). The business expanded over the three decades and with the help of his sons changed the scale and adapted best practices of management. The expansion path was carefully drawn up by preserving the USPs of the business. The franchise route for expansion was used. Manufacturing remained at a central location to keep strict quality control. Having taken their business from a small dream to INR 1 billion niche brand in the artisan ice cream segment, the owners at Naturals were dreaming big. They were restless and anxious to enter the next orbit and aspired to become a pan-India and global brand.

Set in April 2014, this case explores some of the important questions confronting Dileep Ranjekar and Anurag Behar, CEOs of the Azim Premji Foundation, which had entered the second decade of its existence with fresh plans and renewed vigor. Ranjekar and Behar had evolved an organizational strategy, after carefully reflecting on the Foundation's past work, that was characterized by the idea of working in an "institutional" mode and not merely in a "programmatic" mode. This meant establishing a long-term presence in the places where the Foundation worked (i.e., disadvantaged districts in the country), and engaging on a continuous and long-term basis with the public education system to facilitate change. Given the trajectory that the management team had set for the Foundation, it was constantly faced with issues related to finding the right people with the required skill sets and mindset, finding field staff to overcome the challenges of working in difficult, far-flung places, and scaling up at the right speed to achieve the desired reach and outcomes. Documenting the evolution and growth of the Foundation, the case brings to light some of the key challenges it faced in scaling up. The case highlights some of the challenges of building a large, professionally managed not-for-profit and the strategic decisions that have to be made to grow it into a sustainable organization.

"The Tata group is among the largest diversified business groups in India. The group generated about US$100 billion in revenues in 2011-12 from 90 companies operating in diverse businesses in seven broad industry categories. The case describes in detail the various mechanisms by which the Tata group attempts to create a corporate or parenting advantage. The case first highlights the important difference in the way a business group like Tata is structured when compared to a typical conglomerate in the West. The case then describes in detail the various services offered to group companies by the corporate centre, such as access to the Tata brand, quality management services, common procurement, centralized HR, legal, finance, public affairs (lobbying), training and consulting services. The case also discusses the perspective of some of the group companies. Companies often found the group affiliation and services to be of value as it provided them with lower transactional costs, less friction and better contract enforcement within the group, superior access to the political power structure and significant financial backing. With the Tata group preparing to welcome its new chairman in December 2012, the case ends with questions on the sustainability of the prevalent structure, practices, group philosophy and culture. "