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It was early 2010, and the Twitter Trio, the founders of Twitter, were faced with a changing market situation and pressures to make money. Twitter was a free service that had been operating without a viable business plan since 2006. In early 2010, Twitter was still not making enough money and it was time that Twitter showed a real return on investment. The Trio had to decide on a business model that was competitive. There was a data-mining project that could bring all the funds Twitter needed to stay in business, make profit, and compete with others. However, the founders were concerned that this project might be perceived to intrude on users’ privacy, even in a company that was founded on the basis of sharing information publicly.

A successful Canadian road construction and maintenance company is contemplating U.S. market entry via a subsidiary in Texas. The case deals with market entry considerations: speed of entry, the need to invest in learning about a market, and the importance of staying focused on what is a reasonable, original strategy.

This is a supplement to Currie Road Construction Limited (A). Having operated for two years in the Texas market, the company is confronting a variety of difficulties. The case looks at the organization issues of reporting relationships, control systems, and staffing.

A young man in India follows his passion through to near-bankruptcy. Equipped with an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, he avoids a high-paying corporate job and instead starts a stockbroking firm. After ups and downs in several businesses, he finally decides his real fulfilment will come from producing a full-length movie — Ashta Chamma, based on the Oscar Wilde play The Importance of Being Ernest. The case chronicles the various issues he faces: funding the production, choosing the director, choosing a story that will satisfy his requirement of family entertainment, casting the principal characters, and creating a team that can bring the production to the movie theatres. The case goes behind the scenes of the film world in Tollywood, the Teluga film industry in Andhra Pradesh, and highlights the pressures faced by an entrepreneur in the industry. A rare combination of creativity, professionalism, and good business sense bring about success for the entrepreneur. Part B of the case presents the outcome after the release of the movie.

This supplement to Ashta Chamma — The Biggest Small Movie Ever Made (A) presents the outcome after the movie’s release.

This is a supplement to Tata Steel Limited: Convertible Alternative Reference Securities (A). Tata Steel’s launch of a convertible bond offering in exchange for its convertible alternative reference securities issued in 2007 was in response to shifts in environmental factors. An analysis of the offer allows for a valuation exercise and an assessment of a capital restructuring decision that considers the interests of the issuer and of the investors.

Established in 2006, OSSCube was an open source software development company based in North Carolina, United States, which had its India office in Noida and its development centres in Delhi, Bangalore, and Noida. OSSCube started as a software training provider and gradually emerged as an open source software development and consulting company. The marketing of OSSCube’s offerings was primarily executed by search engine optimization (SEO) initiatives. Later, OSSCube created a social media presence on a variety of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Vimeo. The primary objective of creating a presence on these social media platforms was to augment the company’s SEO initiatives. Although this strategy helped OSSCube in gaining business leads, the community manager of the firm realized that the strategy was not building the brand identity of OSSCube. Also, the prospect of having a wide presence on social media platforms to augment SEO activities created confusion in consumers’ minds regarding OSSCube’s expertise. Hence, in 2010, the manager was reviewing the social media approach with some definite objectives such as branding employees, branding OSSCube, and promoting open source software. He faced the challenge of forming an appropriate social media strategy that would address these objectives.

This case deals with the problems that Platmin faces as it heads toward full production at a new open-cast mine in Pilanesberg, South Africa. Platmin is in a very difficult situation that is affecting the viability of the operation. The main issue is the timing of the production — investment in mining is typically heavy in the beginning, but when the mine starts producing, payback of loans is usually substantial. Any delay in production has an exaggerated effect on the payback period and, by extension, the viability of the mine. The second major issue is the economic downturn, which has seen the price of platinum decline substantially; however, this may benefit Platmin because it is a low-cost producer, and the downturn has led to some competitors leaving the industry or “mothballing” operations that are not viable at the current platinum price. On the other hand, while Platmin is seeing a shakeup in the industry, it is experiencing pressures on its margins, and this also has an effect on its capital funding.

An executive must estimate the demand for Kodak Express outlets in various developing countries based on socioeconomic and demographic data about the countries. The case requires students to think about how to transform data on a national scale (GDP per capita, population, income distribution) into a form that is meaningful for a managerial decision — here, the number of outlets that could be supported by a country’s market demographics. In this instance, doing so can be accomplished effectively through modeling on a spreadsheet.

This case presents the challenge faced by Nokia India in 2007. Nokia had built a strong brand reputation over a ten-year period and was a market leader in Indian mobile devices. India, incidentally, was also Nokia’s second-largest market, next only to China. Suddenly, what corporate headquarters considered a routine product advisory for a defective battery resulted in panic in customers after the Indian media widely publicized the potential dangers that defective batteries could pose. Over a three-month period, Nokia India had to recall a few million batteries and replace them with new ones.<br><br>The case provides an opportunity for students to develop practical knowledge of the role of operations management in a product recall situation, particularly in an emerging market context. Product recalls are an integral part of supply chain management (SCM). Companies inevitably face a question of when, not if, a recall will be necessary. These recall situations combine the complexity of operations with the time-urgency of a mission-critical task. The case also provides a rich context to learn about the interaction of SCM, information systems and reverse logistics, and to understand the marketing, logistics, and communication challenges faced by a multinational company operating in an emerging market such as India.

This case examines an Israeli firm, B2Bcs, which provides end-to-end services in establishing offshore project development teams and helping firms in their decisions to outsource projects offshore. An interesting aspect of B2Bcs’s work involves cross-cultural partnering, and interfacing Israel-based client organizations with service provider organizations in India and Eastern Europe. However, the recent economic downturn has made B2Bcs’s customers very cautious about the decision to set up offshore development centres. Recently, Israeli firms have been looking for less expensive outsourcing solutions as part of their various cost-reduction initiatives. They expect low-rate quotes from offshore service providers of low-cost destinations such as India and Eastern Europe. However, India has not been hit very hard by the recession, unlike the West, and hence the prices quoted by Indian service providers are still very high.<br><br>Recently, B2Bcs has been facing stiff competition from similar consulting firms. The key to getting business in this area is based on one’s past relationships with key executives in client and vendor firms. Increasingly, other consulting firms have started exploiting these relationships to get new business, thus affecting B2Bcs’s growth plans severely. In such a scenario, two broad questions need to be answered: 1) What is the new value proposition that B2Bcs should now offer to its clients? 2) How can B2Bcs help its clients find the right service provider at a competitive price?

Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E. (OTH) was established in 1998 in Egypt and grew to become a major player in the global telecommunications market. OTH was among the largest and most diversified network operators in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Orascom Telecom Algeria (Djezzy) was launched in February 2002 and grew to become the market leader in Algeria in terms of both subscriber numbers and the quality of telecommunications services provided. Djezzy served more than 14.7 million subscribers on its network and had a 62.9 per cent market share.<br><br>Orascom wanted to further expand, and India was considered a great opportunity. In 2006, OTH agreed to acquire a 19.3 per cent stake in Hutchison to penetrate the Indian market. India was a promising market as there were strong complementary similarities between Orascom and Hutchinson Telecom. However, Orascom was not able to enter the market because it did not consider the expenses in an accurate way and ignored many factors. Now, in 2009, the treasury director of OTH was wondering what lessons in the risks of internationalization he could learn from the company’s failure in India and present difficulties in Algeria.

An acquisition decision by Satyam Corporation created discontent among shareholders and led to a series of investigations that revealed fraud of about INR 50 billion, leading to resignations by several board members and the CEO. This episode became a mockery of corporate governance practices, raising questions about the efficacy of well-accepted governance norms.<br><br>This case covers the events that led to the failure of Satyam. The roles of not only the “promoter” but also other parties, such as the managers, board of directors, auditors and bankers, are discussed in detail. The case draws attention to various corporate governance and ethical issues and provides an opportunity to discuss measures that should be taken by regulators, auditors, and other bodies to prevent fraud.

This case examines the family business constitution created by Dawu Group’s founder, Sun Dawu. It was the only such system in China to date, and made it possible for the group to survive near-fatal challenges. The case starts with problems Sun Dawu encountered, such as a salary-rise request from a recently elected board member; managers’ doubts about the constitution system; and the suspicion of external experts and journalists regarding the group’s elections. The case examines the history of Dawu Group, the family business constitution system, and the approach Sun Dawu took to address succession. One of the issues the family business owner faced was whether it was possible to solve the internal challenges and external doubts about family business succession and governance and, if so, how.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Supply Chain Management Award, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>The case examines the supply chain, managerial, and organizational challenges facing a large European industrial company competing in a mature industry with strong price pressure. Established in the 1930s in Denmark, Danfoss initially produced automatic valves for refrigeration plants. The company has since grown into a major industrial group. Until the mid-1990s, Danfoss had the majority of its sales and production in Europe. This changed, however, with the arrival of a new CEO, who initiated a process to change the company into a global player within all of its main business areas. <br><br>Following this process of internationalization, the company was facing three main issues which top management was concerned about: Danfoss’s manufacturing network; its continued global growth; and its highly engineering-based culture. The first issue stemmed from the fact that Danfoss had followed a strategy of one product, one plant. This had created a situation with a lot of highly specialized product lines and very few common features between them. On the other hand, the internationalization strategy had so far been quite successful in Eastern Europe and China. In the United States, however, the company was still experiencing difficulties despite heavy investments in its manufacturing capacity in Mexico. In China, the company had experienced success and wanted to secure long-term growth in the market. The third issue was the very engineering-based culture of the company, which among other things was manifested in the fact that Danfoss previously developed products at the expense of consumer demand and preferences.

In December 2007, the management of Mercedes-Benz India (MBI), a fully owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, the 12th-largest automobile manufacturer in the world, has decided to relocate to a new facility near Pune in western India. In overseeing the installation of information technology (IT) infrastructure at the new premises, the company’s chief information officer (CIO) must deal with some managerial choices pertaining to IT architecture, IT tools, and IT skill sets of the company. Each choice involves several trade-offs. The CIO’s decision on each will have a major effect on the revenues, margins, and competitive positioning of MBI in the Indian automotive industry.

The founder of the Lakkard Leather Company was proud of his business, and attributed much of its success to his own leadership style, which did not allow for anyone else’s participation in important decisions. When he was badly injured in a car accident, his son stepped in and kept the business going. Without any intention to take over, the son altered the leadership and operations of the company in the space of a few months, so that by the time the founder returned, the company had changed and his role was significantly reduced. The son, in the meantime, grew to like his interim position and believed he did a better job than his father. Both men became locked in a power struggle; yet the company faced several key decisions that had to be taken in terms of expansion, product offering, and sale opportunities.

The project manager of the Partnership for Lebanon (PFL) and Cisco Systems’s regional director of corporate affairs for the Middle East and Africa met in September 2009, three years after the PFL was first initiated. The meeting primarily revolved around the challenge of sustainability and what useful suggestions they could put forward to their partners to ensure that the projects initiated through the PFL were not dependent on the continuous investments of the partners.<br><br><br><br>The PFL, a major partnering initiative in a post-war context, was initiated in September 2006 after President George W. Bush called for the assistance of U.S. companies to help in the relief and reconstruction efforts in Lebanon after the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. The five companies involved were Cisco Systems, Intel Corporation, Ghafari Inc., Occidental Petroleum, and Microsoft. They leveraged their core competence under five main work streams: emergency relief/response, job creation/private-sector revival, developing information and communication technology infrastructure, workforce training/education, and developing connected communities. Cisco took a leadership position within the PFL, establishing a management office in Beirut staffed by five senior full-time Cisco employees, and committed an investment of $10 million in the Lebanese private sector over a three-year period. The PFL’s corporate partners engaged closely with the Lebanese government as well as with various international and local NGOs to develop initiatives under the five work streams and yield a long-term sustainable impact.

The case narrates how A.P.V.N. Sarma, chairman and managing director of Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL) since 1997, realized the need for change to rescue the company from impending bankruptcy. SCCL, a supplier of coal to the power and energy sectors, had been declared bankrupt by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction twice, in 1992 and 1996, and had accumulated losses of 12.19 billion rupees. As it provided direct and indirect employment to people residing in the region around SCCL, the health of the organization was critical not only to the massive workforce, but also to the state of Andhra Pradesh. The power generation units of the state relied significantly on the coal supplied by SCCL. <br><br>The case captures various initiatives undertaken by Sarma to bridge the trust deficit between management and blue-collar 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 million rupees for the fourth consecutive year in 2001. Sarma had a fixed tenure of five years, ending in 2001. The task for the new leader was to build on the foundations laid by Sarma and take SCCL to new heights.

Sumeru Software Solutions was a software development consultancy firm headquartered in Bangalore, India, with offices in Washington, D.C., Dubai, and London. It began operations in July 2001 as a single project with two employees, and grew over 10 years into an organization with approximately 200 employees. The founding objective of Sumeru Software Solutions was to support Art of Living’s social development initiatives through profits earned from delivering high-quality services. Art of Living (AOL) was founded in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji as a not-for-profit, educational, humanitarian non-governmental organization engaged in stress-management programs, including yoga and meditation. Sumeru had developed a unique culture that combined corporate culture with the Art of Living principles of Seva, Satsang, Sadhana, and positivity even in the face of adversity. In line with the AOL principles, the four pillars of Sumeru culture were ethics, caring, sharing and trust. It purported to follow a peaceful yet aggressive way of doing business called “Serene Dynamism.” Harish Ramachandran, CEO of Sumeru Software Solutions, had created an enterprise that was different from other IT organizations. He was wondering how he would sustain the culture of the organization and make Sumeru a high-performing company over the next 10 years as it expanded its business and hired new employees.