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FIS Consulting Services was a business process outsourcing company specializing in consulting and financial advisory for global clients. This case deals with an offshore project team in the United States that was characterized by intra-group competitiveness, poor leadership and resource sharing, poor coordination, and limited cooperation. At the outset, the team developed a one-sided focus on achieving a high performance appraisal rating rather than completing the project as a team. The team underwent an inadequate group development process, which was manifested in the team’s immaturity. Poor leadership and lack of behavioural norms led the team to move forward with conflicting beliefs, structural inadequacy, lack of guidance, and low cohesiveness. These factors led to a decline in the team’s performance and stood as obstacles to the project’s progress. Furthermore, these events damaged the reputation of the firm. The human resources manager needed to take urgent measures to save the project team.

A young entry-level employee starts work in the hotel industry in Eastern Europe. The case describes her experiences and shows the HRM practices in the particular hotel in which she works. The issue for analysis is less whether or not the employee should stay or leave this hotel, which has minimal pay and poor working conditions, and more the overall nature of human resources (HR) operations at this service organization, with regard to ethics and sustainability.

How will the logic of globalization change for corporations from countries such as India, China, Indonesia, Brazil, and Turkey if the growth opportunities in emerging markets continue to far outpace those in developed markets? Natura Cosmeticos, a Brazilian beauty giant, has considerable experience with that question. For some 30 years, the company has been attempting to move, with decidedly mixed results, into developed markets even as the opportunities of its region have grown stronger and stronger. Markets like the United States exert a strong pull on emerging-market multinationals, but Natura must contend with a changing economic equation: The U.S. beauty market grew by an anemic 1.1% in 2010, whereas demand in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru increased by 10.9%. Ultimately, Natura has moved beyond stereotypes of globalization, recognizing that winning in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico can be an entry onto the world stage every bit as effective as conquering Paris or New York.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article.

This case discusses the emergence of low-cost carriers (LCCs) in India in relation to the growth of the Indian aviation industry and the subsequent fall of the LCCs into financial loss. The LCCs became important for value-adding and cost-cutting alternatives in corporate business travel. Before the 2008 global economic crisis, domestic air traffic LCCs recorded a compound annual passenger growth rate of 18 per cent. Among the many low-cost airlines in India, SpiceJet had been one of the most popular, with the lowest airfares and highest customer value. Though SpiceJet had a net profit of INR 1.01 billion (US$20.2 million) in fiscal year 2010-2011, the results following the financial year indicated that the company had also joined the ranks of loss-making airlines in India. A host of issues — such as rising debt, increasing cost to revenue ratios, growing management challenges, complicated flight operations, and rising oil prices — were threatening the survival of airline companies, especially LCCs. SpiceJet was no exception.

The CEO of the Indian animation studio Tulsi Studios Ltd. is considering approaching either Pixar or DreamWorks Animation to partner on future animation projects. The case provides a perspective on the film industry to indicate how it is rapidly changing and expanding globally, and outlines the history and past successes of the studios. The CEO must decide which potential partner to approach.

This case deals with a dilemma faced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. Following the elimination of India from the knock-out phase of the World Cup 2007 championship, the BCCI and team sponsors found themselves at a crossroads. Others were vying with cricket for the advertising budgets of companies, and spectator interest for cricket was on the wane. The vice president of the BCCI had to perform a situation analysis after the backlash from fans and assess the way forward for the sport after the team’s poor performance in the World Cup. The case facilitates an analysis of the environment for cricket in India in 2007 and an assessment of the need for next steps for the game to regain its preeminent status among sports fans in the country.

The newly-promoted international operations director for ReedTrek Manufacturing, is trying to diagnose the issues at his company's under-performing China plant. While the operations director originally believed the loss-making operations suffered from technical issues, his visit to the plant suggests to him that there are leadership and management issues.

This is a supplement to ReedTrek Manufacturing (A) 9B12C051.

This is a supplement to ReedTrek Manufacturing (A) 9B12C051.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Emerging Chinese Global Competitors Category at European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>7 Days Inn, a leading hotel group in China, was established in 2005 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2009. It now operates more than 1,000 hotels in 168 major Chinese cities and has enrolled more than 30 million customers in its membership club. Its success is largely due to its innovative business model and operations strategy, which includes designing product services with the vertical cutting approach, enhancing customer loyalty through a membership system and direct sales, managing a hotel chain with different governance structures and expanding a hotel chain with an innovative franchised-and-managed model. In particular, the case introduces the company’s shepherd management philosophy. However, as the company expands, it has become difficult for headquarters to manage and supervise all the hotels. In addition, the resignation rate of hotel managers has gone up to 30 per cent in the past few years. What should 7 Days Inn do to deal with these challenges? Does the company need to break the rules again and innovate its business model, operations strategy or operating model — or all of them?

Capitec Bank was a new bank established at the end of apartheid to offer banking services and loans to the large numbers of low-income potential customers newly opened to economic progress and aspiration by the end of the discriminatory system. The banking context was dominated by four major and long-established banks characterized by conservative legacy practices. Capitec planned to create an innovative offering to serve the low-income market and to migrate this offering into higher income groups. At the same time, the competitive context began to change, as other banks sought to attract lower-income clients as well. The case examines Capitec’s strategic options for survival and expansion in this context.

The executive vice president of sustainability and corporate affairs at Monsanto was facing a difficult situation that could dramatically reshape the firm's business. A decade earlier, the firm had introduced into India, through a joint venture, the first in-the-seed cotton trait biotechnology. This trait protected cotton crops against potentially devastating pests, thereby reducing the need for pesticides and improving yields. Subsequently, three Indian state governments imposed a price ceiling on these biotech seeds. In addition, by 2010, the company was facing competition from over 40 Indian seed companies that offered similar or competing biotechnology cotton seeds. Also, a federal ministry had overruled the recent regulatory approval for a second, indigenously developed biotech crop, brinjal (eggplant). How should a technology innovator such as Monsanto deal with an unpredictable regulatory approval process in an increasingly competitive marketplace? Looking forward, two new in-the-seed trait technologies were being considered for introduction to Indian farmers. Should Monsanto proceed and, if so, how? More generally, what should the firm's long-term approach be in this promising market?

The collapse of Lehman Brothers, a major Wall Street investment bank, sent shockwaves through financial markets as global liquidity dried up and investor confidence reached an all-time low. Banks with exposure to complex financial instruments in high-debt environments were considered particularly vulnerable. ICICI Bank — India’s largest private-sector bank with maximum international exposure among Indian banks — was hit by rumours about its exposure to Lehman assets. Solvency fears drove its depositors to withdraw large sums of money and the bank’s stock value started to erode. ICICI’s management responded to the crisis by initiating an intense public relations effort: the bank released information on its exposure and supported its position through media appearances of its top executives and statements issued by rating agencies, regulators, and the government of India. The bank emphasized the strength of its balance sheet, the limited exposure to risky assets, adequate provisioning, and a healthy cash reserve ratio. It alleged malaise and rumour-mongering by market intermediaries as the reason behind the crisis and denied any threats to its solvency. The public relations effort had barely concluded when another episode of stock collapse and customer withdrawal started. The case gives students an opportunity to evaluate crisis communication efforts in the age of new media and its link with business reputation. The student, in the role of a PR consultant, must decide why the efforts failed. What else could have been done to restore trust?

Joint ventures with local entities in developing countries can bring big rewards--but they're also rife with risk. The CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine International, which collaborates with governments, insurers, foundations, and health care companies abroad, describes several hurdles the organization has faced, along with the approaches that helped it clear them.

The CEO of a multinational company wanted a new human resource team that operated in Guangzhou (China) to recruit and select 85 individuals for different positions throughout the enterprise. These positions included finance managers, production managers, security guides, workers for the factories, secretaries and interns. The members of the human resource team that dealt with these tasks were highly diverse in terms of their educational background (e.g., marketing, law, human resource, public relations, general business administration) and countries of origin (e.g., Canada, China, Germany). The team had to deal with a series of challenges in order for the project to be successful. These issues included a decision about task-specific job requirements, methods to assess these job requirements, strategies for recruitment, methods for personnel selection and final decision making. The team also had to deal with diversity within the team, and cross-cultural issues as well as with the leadership behavior of its CEO.

Since its inception in 1997, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had been trying to control drug prices through various supply-side initiatives, which had yielded limited success. This time around, NPPA had announced a new initiative, which was aimed at educating consumers about the inexpensive alternatives for medicines prescribed by doctors. By giving consumers information about various brands and their prices, NPPA hoped to offer customer self-selection of drugs through short message service (SMS, or “texting”). NPPA appeared to be operating on the premise that customer self-selection could result in self-regulation of consumption, thereby giving greater control of health care expenses to customers. Given the huge penetration of mobile phones in India and the gradual reduction of various mobile service charges, text-based service looked feasible. However, the proposed system had met with strong opposition from other stakeholders, such as doctors and chemists. Besides, the large-scale adoption of the proposed service was being questioned as the decision-making process for medicines was very complex.

The vice president and managing director of Nokia India needed to decide whether to undertake an all-India launch of Nokia’s newest service offering for emerging markets, called Nokia Lifetools (NLT). The NLT pilot was very successful, with consumer adoption and retention rates over 70 per cent. However, offering services and applications that came directly loaded onto a handset was new for Nokia, put it in direct competition with service providers, and required the company to develop a very different distribution strategy. It could not avoid the important stakeholders in the telecommunication value chain as they were also crucial partners whose cooperation was key to Nokia’s success. Successfully launching NLT in India could shift the telecommunications industry globally. The decision facing the vice president was likely one of the most important business decisions he would ever make.

Founded in Trieste, Italy, Illy marketed a unique blend of coffee drinks in over 140 countries and in more than 50,000 of the world’s best restaurants and coffeehouses. The company wanted to expand the reach of its own franchised coffee bar, Espressamente, through international expansion. Potential markets included Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 2012, the managing director of Espressamente knew that global expansion meant prioritizing markets, but where did the greatest potential lie? In addition to market selection, mode of entry was vital and included options such as exporting, franchising, and joint ventures. This case provides a practical example of the challenges faced in international business.

MSPL Limited was an iron ore mining and processing company in India. Owned by the Baldota Group, it also had interests in shipping, pelleting, and wind energy. In January 2012, MSPL’s businesses and operations were headed by Narendrakumar A. Baldota and his two sons. MSPL’s main source of revenue, the Vyasankere Iron Ore Mine (VIOM), was one of the largest iron ore mines in the private sector in India. MSPL had been progressive and proactive in its approach to sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Many of its initiatives predated government legislation related to environmental, employee, and community issues. MSPL’s policies towards environmental issues and local communities had been driven by the beliefs and vision of its founder and chairman, Baldota’s father. Baldota expanded MSPL’s initiatives related to the environment, employees, and communities. The case deals with the choices and decisions that Baldota had made regarding the numerous CSR and sustainability initiatives undertaken by the organization. Were there other initiatives that MSPL should have undertaken? Was it even necessary for the company to carry out CSR activities in the local communities?