In February 2022, Sudhir Kumar Singh, head of human resources (HR) at Tata Steel Limited (Tata Steel)—one of India’s oldest and largest steel producers—was meeting with the vice president of HR to discuss how a unique pilot project to employ transgender people at the mine could be rolled out across the entire company. The long-term objective of the initiative was to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and contribute toward achieving a 25 percent diverse workforce by 2025. Although the pilot project had been successful, how could the HR team now scale up the transgender initiative across Tata Steel? Singh understood that to overcome these challenges he needed to adopt a multi-stakeholder approach, plan holistically, and integrate all the learnings from the pilot project to create a clear, consistent, and comprehensive plan that could be discussed with the vice president of HR.

In February 2022, Sudhir Kumar Singh, head of human resources (HR) at Tata Steel Limited (Tata Steel)-one of India's oldest and largest steel producers-was meeting with the vice president of HR to discuss how a unique pilot project to employ transgender people at the mine could be rolled out across the entire company. The long-term objective of the initiative was to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and contribute toward achieving a 25 percent diverse workforce by 2025. Although the pilot project had been successful, how could the HR team now scale up the transgender initiative across Tata Steel? Singh understood that to overcome these challenges he needed to adopt a multi-stakeholder approach, plan holistically, and integrate all the learnings from the pilot project to create a clear, consistent, and comprehensive plan that could be discussed with the vice president of HR.

The case raises the issues on diversifying the workforce in a male-dominated industry. The dilemma before the protagonist, Rahul Maitra, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) is how to meet the objective of 10% women in its workforce by 2022.This case focuses on the Indian cement sector, where women's representation in the Indian workforce has always been less than 3%. In a bid to bridge the gender gap, Ambuja Cement, the largest player in cement in India, further, faced a setback in hiring due to the COVID 19 pandemic. The CHRO, Rahul Maitra, was under pressure from the parent company, LafargeHolcim, to deliver results within 2022. While companies had taken steps to bridge the divide, gender diversity in the cement industry remained low and a concern. Achieving the target of 10% women in the workforce by end of 2022 was an uphill task for Maitra given that the factories were set in remote locations, making it unattractive for women, and the current workforce was not fully prepared to respond to an inclusive and diverse environment. Maitra had to decide what immediate actions had to be taken to reach the target within the time frame to address the diversity challenges of the company.

In May 2018, Walmart Inc. (Walmart) announced its acquisition of a 77 per cent stake in the Indian e-commerce company Flipkart India Pvt. Ltd. (Flipkart). It was the largest acquisition of an Indian company and the world's largest purchase of an e-commerce company. The deal would provide Walmart with the opportunity to expand globally in competition with its old rival, Amazon.com Inc., and it would provide Flipkart with additional capital to operate in a hypercompetitive environment and an opportunity to leverage Walmart's omni-channel retail expertise. However, despite the strategic alignments, several factors could complicate the deal. Were Walmart's detailed analysis and due diligence prior to the acquisition sufficient to ensure a successful acquisition, or could human resources considerations affect the expected outcomes of the acquisition?

In May 2018, Walmart Inc. (Walmart) announced its acquisition of a 77 per cent stake in the Indian e-commerce company Flipkart India Pvt. Ltd. (Flipkart). It was the largest acquisition of an Indian company and the world's largest purchase of an e-commerce company. The deal would provide Walmart with the opportunity to expand globally in competition with its old rival, Amazon.com Inc., and it would provide Flipkart with additional capital to operate in a hypercompetitive environment and an opportunity to leverage Walmart's omni-channel retail expertise. However, despite the strategic alignments, several factors could complicate the deal. Were Walmart's detailed analysis and due diligence prior to the acquisition sufficient to ensure a successful acquisition, or could human resources considerations affect the expected outcomes of the acquisition?

In March 2017, a training manager at IndCo, a large Indian manufacturing conglomerate, faced a pressing problem. She had been asked by one of IndCo’s general managers to design and implement a customized training program on strategic thinking for his departmental team. Because she had prior commitments and had never conducted a training module on this topic before, the training manager sought to outsource the program to an external expert–a professor from a reputable business school. Although this arrangement seemed promising, the professor’s training proposal presented certain challenges, including cost and availability. The training manager needed to assess whether the proposal met IndCo’s requirements, and whether she had made the right decision in outsourcing this task. She had to choose her next steps very carefully to avoid displeasing any of the involved parties, while also satisfying IndCo’s budget constraints and ensuring the ultimate delivery of a high-quality training program.

In March 2017, a training manager at IndCo, a large Indian manufacturing conglomerate, faced a pressing problem. She had been asked by one of IndCo's general managers to design and implement a customized training program on strategic thinking for his departmental team. Because she had prior commitments and had never conducted a training module on this topic before, the training manager sought to outsource the program to an external expert-a professor from a reputable business school. Although this arrangement seemed promising, the professor's training proposal presented certain challenges, including cost and availability. The training manager needed to assess whether the proposal met IndCo's requirements, and whether she had made the right decision in outsourcing this task. She had to choose her next steps very carefully to avoid displeasing any of the involved parties, while also satisfying IndCo's budget constraints and ensuring the ultimate delivery of a high-quality training program.