Set in January 2020, this case explores the journey of Praful Chandawarkar, the founder director of Chiranjeev Restaurants and Foods Private Limited, and his core team as they transform their business. After a successful career as an investment banker, Chandawarkar, and his wife, Cheeru, a highly talented chef, decided to pursue their passion and embark on the journey of entrepreneurship. In 1997, they established Malaka Spice, a restaurant specializing in Southeast Asian cuisine, in Pune. Over the course of a decade, they expanded rapidly across multiple cities in India. However, Chandawarkar confronted a personal tragedy when his wife succumbed to cancer. This loss made him take a step back to reflect and reevaluate his approach, crystallizing his personal belief that the primary purpose of an enterprise must be the well-being of people. He realized that he needed not only personal transformation as a leader but also a shift in his approach. Seeking the guidance of a leadership coach, he underwent a personal transformation and introduced new work practices to enhance both employee and organizational performance. He placed a strong emphasis on collective well-being and introduced business practices aimed at enhancing the well-being of all stakeholders, both within and outside the organization. The case presents the story of how Chandawarkar and his team changed their approach and work practices, which led to significant changes such as diversification of the group and accelerated growth. The case concludes with the challenge faced by the organization, especially within the context of the hospitality industry, as the threat of lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic looms large.

Set in April 2021, the case study traces the process of amalgamation of the Union Bank of India (UBI) with the erstwhile Andhra Bank (e-AB) and Corporation Bank (e-CB) following the announcement by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Government of India (GoI), on August 30, 2019. With the Amalgamation Effective Date set as April 1, 2020, Rajkiran Rai G., the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UBI, who oversaw the amalgamation project was faced with formidable challenges. The banks had distinctive cultures and values. While UBI was pan-national, the employee and customer compositions of the e-AB and e-CB reflected their regional dominance. The case documents how Rai and his team successfully integrated people, products, policies, cultures, technology, and customers within a stringent and short timeline. It describes the sustained efforts to unify employees under a common identity and align them toward the shared vision of becoming the best in the industry. The case provides an overview of the differentiated measures undertaken by Rai and his team to engage the different stakeholders, the governance structure for decision making and implementation, comprehensive measures to ensure transparency through communication and access to resources, meticulous planning, delegation, monitoring, and course corrections in the face of obstacles. One year after the AED, the financial performance of UBI testified to the success of the amalgamation. However, Rai had to foster a customer-centric and performance-oriented culture at UBI. He had to fortify the bank's future prospects by institutionalizing the learnings from the transformation. As the bank embraced digital transformation more frequent changes were imminent. Rai had to tackle the challenge of building an agile, mission-driven, and learning-oriented organization.

Anthem Inc. (www.anthem.com) was a leading health care insurance provider and the largest insurer in the Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) network. In October 2017, it approved the establishment of captive subsidiaries or global capability centers (GCCs), called "Legato," in India and the Philippines. The first captive was established in India. From January 2018 to June 2021, the two Legato entities had ramped up their head count to over 15,000 full-time employees (FTEs). This number well exceeded the initial approved business plan of a little over 3,000 FTEs. As a result, the parent organization accrued substantial cost savings. This also helped the company create a foundation to use low-cost internal talent to enable additional objectives, such as supporting digital transformational objectives and improving end-to-end process efficiency. Anthem developed an initial organization chart and reporting structure to establish the new companies. As the entities grew, Anthem made changes to better align them with US processes and strengthen governance and risk management. In 2021, Anthem established a new objective for Legato. As a cost center, Legato had firmly established itself in Anthem's value delivery chain, successfully setting up several information technology (IT) and business process practices. Anthem decided to use this capability by pursuing IT and business service revenue from other BCBS players in the US. It could now offer a suite of IT and business process services from Legato-essentially a profit and loss (P&L) role. The addition of this new P&L role brought up the following questions: Should the existing leaders' role be expanded to take on the additional responsibility of delivering to external customers? Should an entirely new division be established to take on this new P&L role? Or was there any other option to consider?

On August 30, 2019, the Ministry of Finance of the Government of India (GoI) announced the consolidation of ten nationalized banks into four. As part of this move, Indian Bank and Allahabad Bank were to be merged into a single entity, and the new amalgamated bank had to start operations on April 1, 2020. Amalgamating two very different banks with thousands of branches and employees within a pre-set time window would be complex enough under normal circumstances, but the challenge was compounded by the advent of COVID-19 and the ensuing national lockdown in March 2020. Padmaja Chunduru, Managing Director (MD) & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Indian Bank, was given the formidable task of overseeing the amalgamation process. The case study describes the actual integration process in detail and the thorough planning and execution involved. It illustrates the role of the Integration Management Office (IMO) as a central point of information dissemination and an empowered body in the merger process. It also lays out the myriad challenges of the amalgamation process - personnel integration, IT/banking system management, branch rationalization, and customer integration, and the steps taken to tackle each one. The COVID-19 pandemic came as an unknown midway through the integration process and required Chunduru and her team to rethink several aspects of the integration plan and strategy. The case study concludes with the actual mechanics of the amalgamation process. With the worst of the COVID-19 crisis behind them, Chunduru looks towards building a bank of the future. Having undergone rationalization in several areas, Indian Bank not only emerged in a better financial state than before but also laid down its vision as a future-ready bank. How could the learnings from the integration process be made a continuous process and become part of the organization's DNA? These were the key questions facing Chunduru and her team.

The case describes the digitalization of L&T Construction, the largest business of L&T, from conception to implementation. The CEO and MD of L&T believed that the organization-wide implementation of digital at L&T Construction would have a significant impact on the business. As a project organization with a limited number of high-value customers and relatively few customer touch points, the primary goal of digitalization in its case would be to improve operational effectiveness. It created a separate digital department and identified digital officers and champions across projects and sites for effective implementation. The transformation was championed from the top and the digital team initiated a variety of initiatives to facilitate digital at L&T. Within two years, they had developed and deployed a large number of solutions across hundreds of project sites, completely transforming the way work was performed. Buoyed by the success of the digitalization effort at L&T Construction, it was decided to extend it to other group companies.

It provides an overview of the digitalization of other BUs of the L&T group. The digital teams in the various BUs were organized in a decentralized manner; they reported to the CEOs of their respective businesses. At the same time, strong processes and mechanisms were set up to foster coordination, knowledge sharing, and mentoring from the central digital hub. Over the next few months, the non- construction businesses were able to move quickly and successfully implement several digital initiatives. These included solutions that were designed to facilitate the safety of people in work locations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Having reached this juncture, L&T turned its focus to two key agenda items: Diffusing and strengthening the digital mindset and culture in the organization, and Systematic tracking of benefit realization across BUs. CEO was also keen to look at different options to enhance digital effectiveness.

The case, set in 2016, follows Lavanya Nalli, a fifth-generation member of the Nalli family business, as she contemplates a critical decision about her future. Nalli Silks, an Indian ethnic wear retailer, had built an enviable reputation for quality and customer orientation over 90 years. As a female member of a conservative family business, she was not expected to enter the business and play an active role in it. Yet, she joined Nalli Silks after earning a degree in engineering and planned and pursued her own induction and learning in the firm. Over the next couple of years, she displayed her entrepreneurial drive by conceptualizing and setting up a successful business within the larger business. However, sensing that there were limited avenues within the firm to feed her ambition and keenness to learn and grow, she left India for the United States to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School. After graduating, she worked at McKinsey, a leading consulting firm. In 2014, Lavanya returned to India and joined Myntra, a rapidly growing Indian fashion e-commerce company. These experiences provided her with rich and varied insights and perspectives. After seven years away, she was considering returning to the Nalli group with tentative plans of setting up a separate e-commerce vertical from scratch. Three generations of her family - her grandfather, her father and her brother - were active in the business and held independent charge of different parts of the Nalli group. There were serious reservations within the family and the organization about Lavanya's proposal to venture into e-commerce. She herself had some concerns about the larger strategy and set-up of the business, such as the absence of a leadership pipeline and inattention to market trends. The case closes with her reflections and questions on the way forward.

Established in 2012, Youth4Jobs (Y4J) was a not-for-profit organization that served the disabled community, particularly youth, by providing them with market-oriented skills and livelihoods. Meera Shenoy, its Founder and CEO, and the core team of Y4J had previous experience in the skill development and placement of rural youth. However, they quickly discovered that dealing with disabled youth required a totally different approach. The case describes their experiences, the lessons learned and how they evolved their model for Y4J. The case outlines how Y4J became involved in the entire value chain of disability inclusion: education at the school and college levels, imparting skills to increase the employability of disabled youth, and placing them in a wide range of jobs and companies by sensitizing and supporting employers. Within a period of six years, Y4J had grown phenomenally and had a presence across the country. However, given the prevalence of disability in India and the fact that approximately 7-8 million of the disabled population were in the age group of 20-39, Shenoy believed that Y4J had to further enhance its reach to support as many people with disabilities (PwD) as possible. At a visioning workshop in August 2018, Shenoy and key stakeholders of Y4J brainstormed on the way forward for the organization and came up with several strategic options for increasing its impact. Shenoy had the difficult task of choosing among these options and setting the future direction of Y4J. The choices were replicating the model, creating a knowledge hub, and building and empowering the network. Shenoy was also concerned about how to build the requisite capacity to effectively implement those strategies without compromising on the values that had guided Y4J from its inception.

CavinKare Private Limited (CavinKare), a FMCG company was founded by Chinni Krishnan Ranganathan (CKR) in 1998. With the rapid growth of the organization, the spirit of entrepreneurship had given way to bureaucratic functioning. In 2012, CKR undertook a series of human capital interventions aimed at rejuvenating the organization and at aligning performance goals at different levels to the larger organizational strategy, bringing in the right people, providing them the right resources to succeed, and creating the right incentives for performance excellence. New systems and processes were introduced for employee selection, setting clear performance expectations, review & assessment, training & development, compensation and rewards & recognition. The changes enhanced CavinKare's growth and the company registered a double-digit growth while the industry average hovered around 4-5%. Though the company had effectively implemented a range of human capital systems and processes, CKR believed that the culture and mindsets still lagged. There was a need to ensure that the cultural fabric had to be aligned to the intent of creating performance excellence by being entrepreneurial, innovative and learning-oriented. CKR wondered how to address this unfinished agenda of building human capital.

Quess Corp Limited acquired Magna Infotech, an IT contract staffing company in 2009 to go beyond general staffing and get into professional staffing. Magna, founded in 1997 by Pradeep Mittal had achieved the status of being the market leader in IT staffing in India by being highly entrepreneurial, consistently focused on business development, delivery and automation of core staffing processes. Quess carried out a thorough diagnosis of Magna after acquisition. The diagnosis helped identify specific areas where potential for performance improvement existed. Priorities were worked out and systematic efforts were taken up to focus on those areas. Planning and execution of action steps created effective alignment of thought processes among key stakeholders and high levels of engagement and employee motivation. The various interventions resulted in Magna tripling its revenues; the operating profits grew six-fold. But by 2017, the business context had changed for Magna and there were totally new set of challenges that confronted the organization. The case presents a story of an acquisition where despite taking over a successful high-performing company with high levels of motivation, the new leadership team still managed to substantially improve both the topline and bottom line performance through effective execution of a carefully planned change agenda. In the following 8 years, the company retained its market leadership and become much larger. But it now confronted far-reaching changes in business context. How should the leaders reignite the entrepreneurial zeal in a much bigger, more stable and more successful organization?

Symphony Limited, an air cooler company decided to buy International Metal Products Company (IMPCO) in 2009. IMPCO, based in Mexico manufactured industrial coolers that complemented Symphony's product line. Additionally, the acquisition provided Symphony access to the US market. IMPCO, however, was a loss making company and was on the verge of bankruptcy. On taking over IMPCO, Symphony dealt with several issues like financial crisis, operational inefficiencies, low employee productivity, IMPCO's poor brand image, lack of product innovation and weak sales and distribution. This case briefly describes the history of Symphony and outlines the various challenges faced by the organization in turning around IMPCO. The case closes with another opportunity that lands on Symphony's lap - acquisition of Munters Keruilai Air Treatment Equipment Co Ltd (MKE), an air cooler manufacturing company in China. Like IMPCO, MKE was also a loss-making air cooler company. But otherwise, the challenges and the context were starkly different in the two cases. Achal Bakeri, founder and CEO of Symphony wondered how the Symphony team should approach the newest challenge.

Vittala International Institute of Ophthalmology (Vittala), a not-for-profit organization was involved in providing free/highly subsidized eye care to the rural and the economically underprivileged population in the state of Karnataka, India. The case describes the challenges faced by the founder and his family in building the state-of-the-art institution and sustaining it through its difficult initial years. They had to build awareness of avoidable blindness, make eye care accessible and affordable, and develop the right networks and alliances, all within limited resources. Unlike certain eye care issues such as cataract, Vittala focused on retinal eye care problems that required periodic monitoring and treatment. Diagnosis required sophisticated and expensive equipment, which had to be made available in far-flung small towns and villages, and that posed difficulties. To address the challenges, the organization and its founders executed pioneering innovations in organizational arrangements and processes. The case closes with the dilemma facing Krishna, Director of Vittala, which was to examine how the social enterprise could enhance the revenue streams to increase Vittala's reach in providing eye to the economically disadvantaged citizens. He needs to consider issues like creating the right balance of paying and non-paying patients to ensure sustainable operations, consistent quality of care, keeping technology updated, and attracting and retaining medical staff with right skills and values. The case is significant as it highlights what is required to make healthcare accessible and affordable to the poor, and how policy measures can be executed at the ground level through appropriate organizing efforts. It describes how the founder inculcated a system of values to keep the family members together, thus contributing to the effectiveness and sustainability of the social enterprise.

CV Anand, a senior officer of the Indian Police Service (IPS) was assigned to lead the Food and Civil Supplies Department in the state of Telangana, India by the Chief Minister - the top political executive of the state. Since the role involved policy making and implementation relating to procurement and processing of grains, transportation and distribution to the poorer sections of the society, this was a highly unusual role assignment for an IPS officer. The organization had the responsibility of procuring food grains from farmers at minimum support price, and then after rice milling, arranging distribution to lower income population needing rice at subsidized rates. Anand observed a culture of ritualistic decision making, political power plays, and shortage of talent leading to the neglect of key aspects. The funds crisis had arisen due to non-receipt of dues and there were mounting interest charges. Certain parties were exploiting the system and getting away with it. There were archaic procedures, and corruption at different levels. Anand initiated multiple initiatives in the areas of: organizational aspects, technology and systems. He made conscious efforts to mobilize support. With passion, persistence and hard work, different stakeholders were influenced. Time, energy and commitment were allocated to high leverage activities. Within a year of assuming leadership, the result of turnaround was evident - the funds crisis had eased, bulk of leakages had been plugged and the system had become responsive to the needs of its key stakeholders - the farmers and the needy beneficiaries. Anand knew that he was on a short-term deputation and that he would be transferred to another assignment in the following six to eight months. He was concerned about what he should do in the remaining months to ensure that the changes stick and are not leader-dependent for their continuation.

This case series allows students to examine the dynamics of an organization-wide operating system change that was implemented over a decade from 2007 to 2017. The change was initially introduced at Fortis Healthcare Limited in a single hospital and later successfully scaled up to multiple locations. The system worked well for some years before it fell victim to gradual degeneration and defocus. At some stage in the journey of change, this degeneration and defocus was noticed, and a fresh effort was made to revive the change at different locations. Thus, the case series gives students the opportunity to examine the different stages of a change journey-the introduction of change; transferring it to multiple locations; sustaining change; possible .degeneration or defocus, leading to ritualization and loss of spirit; and the rejuvenation of change. In Implementing Fortis Operating System (A), the president of strategy and organizational development at Fortis Healthcare Limited had to decide on a plan scale up change quickly and effectively.

Supplement to case W18383. This case series allows students to examine the dynamics of an organization-wide operating system change that was implemented over a decade from 2007 to 2017. The change was initially introduced at Fortis Healthcare Limited in a single hospital and later successfully scaled up to multiple locations. The system worked well for some years before it fell victim to gradual degeneration and defocus. At some stage in the journey of change, this degeneration and defocus was noticed, and a fresh effort was made to revive the change at different locations. Thus, the case series gives students the opportunity to examine the different stages of a change journey-the introduction of change; transferring it to multiple locations; sustaining change; possible .degeneration or defocus, leading to ritualization and loss of spirit; and the rejuvenation of change. In Implementing Fortis Operating System (B), the chief executive officer at Fortis Healthcare Limited had to create a strategy to ensure that standard operating procedures continued to evolve over time.

In late 2015, Apigee, a fast-growing technology firm, faced competitive pressures. It needed to scale up rapidly, which included hiring additional staff. At the regional office in India, some members of the senior leadership team wondered whether the company would need to modify its human resources practices. The firm had been operating in a unique organizational culture that encouraged employees' openness and freedom, in keeping with its core values of passion, a bias for action, and respect. How could Apigee integrate its unique culture with the organization's growth plans? The senior leadership team needed to decide how Apigee could retain its personalized approach, culture of freedom, and high levels of employee empowerment, as the company expanded both in size and scope.

The case describes a dispute between the management of Dr. Reddy's and a trade union over the employment terms of contract workers. However, as events unfold over a period of 100 days, one realizes that this dispute reflects several underlying issues, such as accommodating untrained and less skilled contract workers when expertise and automation is what is required for meeting global standards, meeting the challenge of operating from a developing country characterized by local/ traditional value systems and approaches and at the same time having to meet the expectations of customers in the developed world. Basically the organization was struggling to reconcile the livelihood needs of it's unskilled contract workers with the competitive realities faced by the corporation. Had it been a straightforward matter of a wage dispute, the negotiation and settlement of the issue would have been far simpler. But when the dispute over service conditions is only a tip of the iceberg in a multi-stakeholder context, the dilemmas and negotiations become far more complex. Thus, the case presents an opportunity to explore several subjects, such as negotiations, dilemmas of companies from developing countries with an internationalization agenda, learning and general management.

Carborundum Universal Murugappa International (CUMI) was a leading abrasives manufacturing company based in India with global operations in Russia, South Africa and China. In the global abrasives business, China held 50 per cent of the raw materials for the industry. China was also the largest market for abrasives worldwide and was expected to contribute to one third of the global demand for abrasives. CUMI had the vision to become a global leader in the abrasives industry within 10 years. It had successfully expanded operations in Russia and South Africa, where it was seen more as a partner than a conqueror in its acquisition strategy. In 2006, the company entered China through a joint venture with a Chinese state company but subsequently bought out the partner. However, the company was facing several problems with its stand-alone operation there, especially in terms of maintaining its workforce and hiring local managers. It was clear that winning market share in China was necessary, but the complexity of the Chinese market had proven to be a challenge. The managing director had to present a strategy for working successfully in China to the board.

The case narrates how A.P.V.N. Sarma, chairman and managing director (CMD) appointed in 1997, realized the pressing need for change to rescue Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) from impending bankruptcy. SCCL was declared "sick" (bankrupt) by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) twice, in 1992 and 1996. It had accumulated losses of 12.19 billion rupees. As it provided direct and indirect employment to people residing in the region around SCCL, the well-being of the organization was critical not only for the mammoth workforce, but also for the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP). The power generation units of the state relied significantly on the coal supplied by SCCL. The case captures various initiatives undertaken by Sarma to bridge the trust deficit between management and blue-collared workers with low literacy and income levels. It discusses the novel communication strategies to connect with workers. The case describes how numerous strikes plaguing SCCL were curbed, and order was restored to allow productivity to rise. Under Sarma's leadership, SCCL achieved a net profit of 894.1 million rupees for the fourth consecutive year in 2001. Sarma had a fixed tenure of five years which ended in 2001. The task for the new leader was to build on the foundations laid by Sarma and take the performance of SCCL to new heights.

The case describes the introduction of a human resources (HR) system named "Project Vishwamitra" (PV) in 2000 in a large, technocratic public sector organization, TP Engineering Corporation (TPEC). PV was introduced with considerable leadership support and visibility. It was intended to provide every engineer trainee at TPEC a friend and guide to ease their entry and socialization into the organization. The senior managers assigned to guide the trainees were called "mentors." For the first four to five years, the project ran smoothly. The trainees distinctly felt supported whenever they needed some help. At the same time, the mentors were happy to guide trainees. After four to five years, certain important changes took place in the organization in staffing of leadership positions. With expansion and new projects, the growth trajectory of TPEC also showed a sharp increase. With earlier people moving out and a significant rise in the number of trainees being recruited, PV ran into difficult waters. Yet, no changes were made in the system or processes. PV started to get ritualized - meetings between trainees and mentors became more infrequent and in certain areas, there was total absence of any contact between the two. In the midst of degeneration, one of the leaders was able to revive the project in Unit Chelpur. With highly ambitious growth plans, the number of trainees was expected to increase from 450 in 2010 to 750 in 2011. The company faced a choice regarding the form in which PV should continue.