PeriFerry is a pioneering social enterprise working toward creating sustainable livelihood opportunities and inclusive workplaces for transgender persons in India. Originally located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, PeriFerry has upskilled 320 transgender persons and sensitized more than 30,000 employees about their inclusion in the workplace. PeriFerry’s founder and chief executive officer, Neelam Jain, does not believe in an extravagant showcase of effort. Instead, since she founded PeriFerry in 2017, her approach was that when transgender persons wished to transform their lives, they could locate and reach out to PeriFerry via the internet and various social media platforms like LinkedIn, X, Facebook, or Instagram or meet on-ground community representatives. But Jain is looking forward to PeriFerry’s next five years and contemplating whether this approach will be relevant to scale social impact. Alternatively, Jain is considering adopting a proactive stance in reaching out to transgender people. This could involve extending its geographical coverage to include other cities in India and introducing a diverse range of services to provide holistic support for transgender persons. The new approach will allow PeriFerry to scale wide by reaching out to more trans people who are dispersed in various geographical locations in India who find it difficult to locate PeriFerry due to a lack of technological amenities. But Jain would also have to figure out the resources and capabilities required to scale its social impact. Jain must determine which strategy PeriFerry should pursue in the next 2-3 years.
Atijeevan Foundation was founded in 2013 with a mission to rehabilitate and empower victims of acid attacks. The founder, who was a survivor of an acid attack herself, wanted to ensure that the past traumatic experiences of survivors did not impede their opportunity to make a place in society and lead a meaningful and dignified life. She learned about the challenges through interactions with the survivors she trained and helped find employment. Many of them reported incidents of harassment, bullying, discrimination, and insensitive behaviour from co-workers. The founder was contemplating how to help. Should she support and encourage survivors to independently manage their own workplace challenges at work, which would align with her philosophy of self-advocacy and resilience? Or should she ask the human resources department in each organization to support survivors? She was also contemplating how each organization’s equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives could be expanded to integrate the unique challenges and needs of survivors of acid attacks to foster their empowerment in the workplace.
This case analyzes the challenges faced by the founder of Magic Hive, an organization that offered counselling, parenting workshops (called Chetana), and self-awareness sessions for adults and children. Despite the creation of a psychologically safe climate in the Chetana workshops, several parents hesitated to participate actively. The founder was considering three strategic alternatives: personalized outreach to participants after the workshop sessions to help build rapport and trust; off-line retreats to help build connection among Chetana community members; and integrating interactive activities into the online workshop sessions to promote collaboration. Which option would be the best for Magic Hive?
Sonali Saini was the founder of Sol’s ARC, a nonprofit organization that worked to benefit neurodiverse individuals. She had just returned from a meeting with senior representatives of a leading organization at which they expressed concerns about hiring neurodiverse people. She had managed to persuade them to agree to another meeting in 15 days, at which she planned to try to address their concerns. Saini was contemplating three strategic options: (a) developing a compelling business case by leveraging the past success stories of organizations that had benefited from hiring neurodiverse individuals, (b) channelling additional resources into advocacy and awareness efforts to change corporations’ perceptions of neurodiverse talent, and (c) offering additional services such as job mapping and carving jobs that are suited to neurodiverse individuals.
At the beginning of 2017, India was among the top 10 markets for Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India Limited, accounting for around 10 per cent of its revenue. The company was trying to increase its room air conditioner (RAC) market from 11 per cent to 20 per cent by 2020. It was positioned in the premium segment of the RAC market but wanted to enter the popular segment, which was crowded with established players. The company’s focus had been on the inverter air conditioner (AC) segment, which accounted for 40 per cent of its RAC revenue; however, because of this segment’s market potential and growth, competition from key competitors was stiff. Under these circumstances, the company faced the dual challenge of finding the right strategy to establish itself in the popular RAC market and deciding how to defend its position in the inverter AC segment.
With the quarter ending December 2016 closing on a sour note after a loss of ?79.7 million, Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India Limited found itself reassessing its business expansion strategies. The company’s stand-alone net profit in fiscal year 2015–16 was down 35.73 per cent from the previous fiscal year. Its launch of a new range of imported air purifiers in 2015 as part of its expansion plan may have hit an obstacle with the dip in profits. Should the company enter into new segments such as air coolers, water dispensers, and water purifiers to increase its product portfolio and revenue? Considering that competitors were already fighting it out in these segments, would the timing be right? What strategic capabilities could the company leverage, and what were the possible obstacles to success in the new segments?