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GoCoop is a four-year old start-up that is creating an international market for Indian artisanal products such as handlooms through a B2B e-commerce platform. The company, founded by Siva Reddy, a former technologist with managerial experience in India as well as abroad has received a round of angel funding, followed by a Series A round recently. It has pivoted (i.e., changed its business model) twice and is now poised for a phase of rapid growth. The case traces the history of the company and examines some of the critical choices made by the entrepreneur and his key learning experiences. The case is anchored on the next steps that GoCoop will have to undertake to meet its growth aspirations. It also provides an opportunity for the class to deliberate and reflect on the choices made by the company and the entrepreneur so far. The case is accompanied by a background note on the marketing of Indian handloom products from an earlier period prior to the advent of electronic commerce. Company videos and those of Indian artisans are also available on YouTube.

Supplement to case IMB639. GoCoop is a four-year old start-up that is creating an international market for Indian artisanal products such as handlooms through a B2B e-commerce platform. The company, founded by Siva Reddy, a former technologist with managerial experience in India as well as abroad has received a round of angel funding, followed by a Series A round recently. It has pivoted (i.e., changed its business model) twice and is now poised for a phase of rapid growth. The case traces the history of the company and examines some of the critical choices made by the entrepreneur and his key learning experiences. The case is anchored on the next steps that GoCoop will have to undertake to meet its growth aspirations. It also provides an opportunity for the class to deliberate and reflect on the choices made by the company and the entrepreneur so far. The case is accompanied by a background note on the marketing of Indian handloom products from an earlier period prior to the advent of electronic commerce. Company videos and those of Indian artisans are also available on YouTube.

Earls Restaurants, Ltd., a Canadian restaurant chain headquartered in Vancouver, was facing a communications crisis in April 2016, when it changed its sourcing policy with regard to beef. In a bid to appeal to millennial consumers, who were conscious of animal welfare standards, it decided to source beef from a U.S. farm that had its beef independently certified as humane. This cut out the restaurant’s traditional supply sources among Canadian ranchers, most specifically in Alberta, where the restaurant chain had been founded. The backlash was immediate. After discussing the situation with his core management team and asking a consultant for help formulating a communication strategy, the company’s president had to decide how to proceed to restore the company’s reputation. Should Earls do nothing and wait for the attention to die down, go back to sourcing its beef through Canadian suppliers, or continue to serve humane beef in its restaurants?

In 2015, the executive director of Furniture Bank had successfully managed the Toronto social-service agency by turning a $300,000 net loss two years prior into a $100,000 net income. He had employed a variety of strategies and information technologies to integrate and rationalize business processes that resulted in significant productivity and performance improvements. However, Furniture Bank, which collected unneeded furnishings from donors and distributed them to those in need, had been a victim of its own success; it had maximized its capacity and was struggling to meet growing demand for its services. The executive director had to explore growth opportunities, specifically those accessible by leveraging information technology (IT), and choose from among four likely options.

Fundacion Inclusion y Desarrollo Laboral (IDEL) was a not-for-profit organization in Buenos Aires, Argentina, whose mission was to enhance the dignity of and improve the quality of life for people with intellectual disabilities by promoting their inclusion in the formal labour market. IDEL did this by providing a sheltered work environment, projects, and wages for participants in its programs. In 2016, IDEL was seeking to increase the number of individuals it served by developing its own source of earned income and securing additional stable clients to provide work projects and revenue for these individuals. The organization acquired a machine to produce garbage bags that it planned to sell in the Argentine market, and the organization's executive director was finalizing a plan to develop the manufacturing of garbage bags as a source of earned income. She needed to decide how to grow IDEL sustainably, by scaling its operations to serve a larger community while also addressing the needs of its stakeholders.

Fundación Inclusión y Desarrollo Laboral (IDEL) was a not-for-profit organization in Buenos Aires, Argentina, whose mission was to enhance the dignity of and improve the quality of life for people with intellectual disabilities by promoting their inclusion in the formal labour market. IDEL did this by providing a sheltered work environment, projects, and wages for participants in its programs. In 2016, IDEL was seeking to increase the number of individuals it served by developing its own source of earned income and securing additional stable clients to provide work projects and revenue for these individuals. <br><br>The organization acquired a machine to produce garbage bags that it planned to sell in the Argentine market, and the organization's executive director was finalizing a plan to develop the manufacturing of garbage bags as a source of earned income. She needed to decide how to grow IDEL sustainably, by scaling its operations to serve a larger community while also addressing the needs of its stakeholders.

Soweto Gold was a premium microbrewery in the township of Soweto, South Africa. In 2011, one of its co-founders got the idea to start a craft brewery while on an advanced brewing course in London. After a period of soul-searching and research, in 2013, he found a partner to begin producing and marketing a new craft beer. They found early success by focusing their efforts on getting to know the craft beer market and creating a sustainable value proposition. However, by 2016, they faced questions regarding how to grow the market for their iconic brand. How could they better reach some of their untapped markets and cement the brand in the minds of consumers? Should they contract out the brewing to a larger company outside Soweto in order to expand production? The challenge was to act boldly but not make any mistakes.

Over the past five years, Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. (Patanjali) had emerged as a major player in India's fast-moving consumer goods industry. Building on the capabilities of its two founders, the company had differentiated its products with a unique mix of Indian nationalism, yoga spiritualism, and natural/Ayurvedic ingredients. In combination with its low-price and low-cost position, this strategy had challenged the incumbent multinational and conventional Indian competitors. In October 2016, Patanjali’s two co-founders considered adding blue jeans to the company’s business portfolio and expanding its current products into international markets. However, some observers doubted whether Patanjali's successful strategies could be successfully extended to fashion. Others believed the jeans initiative would be problematic because Patanjali had more compelling growth opportunities, such as increasing sales of its existing products within India and abroad. Patanjali's founders needed to decide on the appropriate priorities for their company's continued growth and success.

In 2011, Partners Group is nearing the end of a year-long quest for a new mandate from a European pension fund, Future Plan. The fund has struggled with its 6-year old PE programme, consistently falling short of its target allocation to the asset class and generating poor returns, seemingly always one step behind the opportunity in the market. Future Plan has built its PE programme by investing in closed-end funds of PE products managed by two executives, one focused on European markets, the other on global markets. But the fallout from the global economic crisis wreaked havoc with Future Plan's PE programme and something has to change. With an interest in expanding its PE activity to include secondary and direct investment strategies, Future Plan begins a manager search process with one goal in mind: to achieve the target return to the asset class by 2014. The case charts Partners Group's role in the selection process and how its expertise and services, along with a novel holding structure, offer a way to achieve Future Plan's goals. Please visit the dedicated case website http://cases.insead.edu/partners-group to access supplementary material.

In 2016, the owner of a small community bakery in Strathroy, Ontario, was planning the future of her business, since the lease on the store would expire soon. She was considering the financial feasibility of closing the bakery and focusing on only catering events. The bakery had not earned a profit as of late, and some local eateries were significant competitors. Running a bakery full time with two young children had been overwhelming at times, and she needed to consider a change to better manage her home and work life. She intended to continue withdrawing her annual salary of at least $40,000 under this catering-only option. She was concerned for the welfare of her four employees but also wanted to begin saving for her children's education. This owner had to decide which option would be most appropriate for her needs.

By 2015, JSW Steel Limited had established itself as one of India’s leading steel producers. Since 2002, it had increased its capacity from 1.6 million tons per annum (MTPA) to 18.0 MTPA at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18 per cent; increased production from 1.30 MTPA to 12.36 MTPA at a CAGR of 19 per cent; and increased market capitalization by 59 times, from US$79.26 million to US$4.676 billion. The company’s innovative shared-value approach at its Vijayanagar plant contributed significantly to its success. The plant set an example of how to integrate social and environmental challenges into a business core and create an integrated value chain with many benefits. However, an adverse economic performance in financial year 2015–16 and a gloomy forecast for the steel industry in the next few years raised questions for top management about whether to continue with the shared-value and corporate social responsibility approaches.

In 2007, when Tata Steel (Tata) bought the Anglo-Dutch steel maker, Corus Group plc (Corus), it was a moment of great promise for India’s growing steel industry. At almost 10 times the size of Tata, Corus was a company of enormous scale. The importance of that scale was reflected in Tata’s need to raise the price of its original offer by a premium of 34 per cent. Tata’s aim was to become a formidable force in the world steel industry. It stood to gain global market exposure, research and development, and technology, while Corus stood to gain cheap raw materials and access to emerging economies. However, negative indicators and market concerns by analysts eventually proved true on March 30, 2016, when Tata announced its decision to sell some units of its U.K. operations. When Brexit occurred in June 2016, confusion grew and Tata’s plans for a future sale of U.K. assets seemed in jeopardy. The removal of the chairman of Tata further added to the woes of Tata Steel Europe. How would the new leadership, after a major failure, bring about changes toward a better future?

Ricoh India Limited, a subsidiary of Ricoh Japan, failed to submit its quarterly results in September and December 2015, leading the Bombay Stock Exchange to move the company’s shares from the B category (companies with small to mid-capitalization rates) to the Z category, which included companies that had failed to comply with listing requirements or had failed to resolve investor complaints. Although the company claimed that it had adhered to corporate governance standards and high ethical conduct, it admitted to having falsified its accounting records. Between March 2016 and May 2016, the company’s shares lost 42.3 per cent in market value. What was the impact for the company’s shareholders? After the falsification of the company’s financial statements was made public, should an investor continue to hold the Ricoh India shares, or divest?

In 2016, the owner of a small community bakery in Strathroy, Ontario, was planning the future of her business, since the lease on the store would expire soon. She was considering the financial feasibility of closing the bakery and focusing on only catering events. The bakery had not earned a profit as of late, and some local eateries were significant competitors. Running a bakery full time with two young children had been overwhelming at times, and she needed to consider a change to better manage her home and work life. She intended to continue withdrawing her annual salary of at least $40,000 under this catering-only option. She was concerned for the welfare of her four employees but also wanted to begin saving for her children’s education. This owner had to decide which option would be most appropriate for her needs.

In December 2014, Guardian Lifecare Private Limited (Guardian), a pharmacy retail chain in India, was looking for ways to maintain its high growth in India’s emerging market. Riding a surge of growth in organized retailing, Guardian had become the second-largest player in the Indian pharmaceutical retail market within a decade of its launch. This market had been plagued by several structural weaknesses such as widespread sales of spurious and substandard drugs, customers’ lack of education, a poor overall customer experience, and low margins caused by the market’s highly fragmented nature. Placing customer centricity at the core of its value proposition, Guardian had addressed these weaknesses to build a successful retail chain. Now, as it prepared to open more stores as part of its consolidation phase, it needed to address several long-term growth challenges such as poor penetration in rural areas and competition from e-commerce and small local pharmacies.

In 2016, the managing director of Eco Tasar Silk Private Ltd., an organization that sold handloom Tasar silk products created by low-income artisans in rural, underdeveloped areas of India, faced issues with his sales team. The managing director's dedication and perseverance, coupled with his past experience in a non-governmental organization in a similar field, had helped his company grow quickly over a short period of time. However, as the company scaled up operations, members of the sales team appeared to be either unconvinced of the company's business model or insufficiently competitive to ensure the business's sustainability. How could the managing director identify and recruit sales professionals who both understood and supported the business's unique value proposition and were sufficiently sales-oriented to ensure the business's longevity?

In December 2014, Guardian Lifecare Private Limited (Guardian), a pharmacy retail chain in India, was looking for ways to maintain its high growth in India's emerging market. Riding a surge of growth in organized retailing, Guardian had become the second-largest player in the Indian pharmaceutical retail market within a decade of its launch. This market had been plagued by several structural weaknesses such as widespread sales of spurious and substandard drugs, customers' lack of education, a poor overall customer experience, and low margins caused by the market's highly fragmented nature. Placing customer centricity at the core of its value proposition, Guardian had addressed these weaknesses to build a successful retail chain. Now, as it prepared to open more stores as part of its consolidation phase, it needed to address several long-term growth challenges such as poor penetration in rural areas and competition from e-commerce and small local pharmacies.

Promontory, Inc. is a small, privately-owned firm in the promotional products (specialty advertising) industry. After starting the firm two years ago with the intention of pursuing a high-quality/high-price strategy, the CEO is seeking methods of increasing sales revenues and profitability. He is considering whether and how to increase the size of the sales force, redirect, or redeploy the company's current sales efforts, utilize alternative marketing vehicles, and maximize sales potential. To attain this goal, the firm has bought some customization equipment and attempted to find niches in which it can succeed, by doing the work usually done by suppliers and manufacturers. The case raises numerous general marketing and sales management issues and provides a profile of various approaches to personal selling. At its heart is the appropriate marketing organization for this company's strategy, and especially, the details of execution in the field. These multipronged challenges make the case suitable for courses in Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Sales, Small Business Management, General Management, and Strategy.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 917535.

In 1999, three brothers opened a small fast food outlet in a small city in Eastern India. The geodemographics of the city changed markedly over the next few years, providing the brothers with an opportunity to redefine their business and grow. By focusing on who their customers were and what they needed, the brothers created a new market in the city's fast food sector, avoiding the entrenched competition in the existing market. The brothers’ venture was not initially successful and they did have some problems along the way, but by 2016, they had established an unrivalled chain known for its biryanis and other food items. What led to the brothers’ success? Could they continue to grow with this strategy? Were they established enough to consider international expansion?