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AWARD-WINNING CASE: Adjudged second-best case at the ISB Case Competition 2010 held in partnership with the Richard Ivey School of Business and the Association of Indian Management Schools and sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.<br><br>This case describes the successful journey of Dr. Amita Joshi in a medium-sized Indian pharmaceuticals organization, Samuel Drugs, which was facing serious performance problems. As CEO, Joshi realized that the organization had strong manufacturing capability but that it lacked marketing excellence and badly needed someone who could be tasked with making the company marketing-oriented. Joshi selected a young general manager of sales, Rajesh Mishra, as director of marketing. He proved to be an excellent choice and performed very well in his new role. Samuel Drugs had three subsidiaries and one of them, Eastern Pharmaceuticals Limited, required a managing director and Mishra was selected. He also continued to perform his previous role of director of marketing. Then conflict ensued between Joshi and Mishra. This case reveals the important roles of communication, co-ordination, multiple and diverse stakeholders, and organizational conflict in determining organizational effectiveness. It also highlights the point that managers need to tackle both formal and informal aspects of an organization, rational and social sides of organizational life, and changing dynamics of relationships.

This case examines how Samsung has grown to become one of the world’s leading companies. It presents a detailed description of Samsung’s “top priority to the people” philosophy and its strong cultural values, both of which have been instrumental in ensuring its continued success in recent decades. Since 1982, the Samsung Human Resource Development Center (SHRDC) has played a critical role in supporting Samsung’s corporate strategy of achieving global competitiveness through programs that focus on maintaining Samsung values and developing a cadre of effective next-generation leaders. New Employee Orientation (NEO), an intensive four-week in-house program for all Samsung employees, is one example of an SHRD program. NEO aligns employees across Samsung affiliates to its strategic direction, thereby fostering a stronger “Single Samsung” culture.<br><br>In recent years, however, NEO has been faced with new challenges. First, Samsung’s pool of new employees has become more diverse, with the recruitment of more experienced and foreign (non-Korean) employees in addition to the fresh college graduates whom Samsung has always relied upon. Second, Samsung has become aware of stark value differences between the older employees, who are obedient and easily follow rules, and the younger “digital native” employees, who are more individualistic and prefer egalitarian and open policies. Managers at SHRDC are concerned that the “Single Samsung” spirit, which forms the core of Samsung culture, is being threatened from within.<br><br>Students must address issues related to the need for maintaining a unified organizational culture among diverse groups of employees with conflicting values, and propose ways for Samsung to effectively employ and utilize all of its employees.

This case explores value-driven strategy formulation and implementation by bringing to the fore issues of ethics, responsible leadership, social intiatives in emerging markets, and the global-local tensions in corporate social responsibility. It examines how Bayer CropScience addressed the issue of child labor in its cotton seed supply chain in rural India between 2002 and 2008. Bayer had been operating in India for more than a century. In December 2002, the Bayer Group completed the acquisition of India-based Aventis CropScience. Bayer CropScience first learned about the occurrence and prevalence of child labor in its newly acquired India-based cotton seed operations a few months post-acquisition, in April 2003. The Aventis acquisition had brought onboard a well-known Indian company, Proagro, which already had operations in the cotton seed production and marketing - a new segment of the supply chain for Bayer. Child labor was widespread in cotton seed production — a traditional practice taken for granted not only by Indian farmers but also by several hundred Indian companies then accounting for approximately 90 per cent of the market share. The (A) case focuses on Bayer’s decision whether, when, and how to launch a self-run program that would take direct responsibility for tracking and eradicating child labor in rural India.

This supplement to Bayer CropScience in India (A): Against Child Labor focuses on Bayer’s formulation of a value-driven strategy with three pillars: communication, implementation, and education.

In this role-play case, you are the new general manager of the Elmwood Group and have scheduled a meeting with your direct report, Darcy Gallagher, who is a sales manager. Gallagher, who has been consistently rated as an exceptional performer over his career at Elmwood, excels in business development, problem solving, and customer focus, and delivers strong results. However, Gallagher has significant gaps in his leadership competencies and skills, and in your view he meets but does not exceed current job requirements. Gallagher’s prior managers have vaguely referenced his need to improve his soft skills but have not followed up with him. For a proud, overrated manager like Gallagher, recognizing and accepting the gap between perception and reality will not be easy. Gallagher, who believes that he has sponsors in higher places, may challenge your authority as the general manager.

This role-play case follows the Performance Coaching case involving Darcy Gallagher. You are the new general manager of the Elmwood Group and four weeks ago you conducted a performance review with your direct report, Darcy Gallagher, who is a sales manager, and outlined three leadership gaps that Gallagher needed to address. The purpose of this new meeting is to discuss Gallagher’s career aspirations at Elmwood Group. In advance of your meeting, Gallagher has submitted his career development plan to you and he aspires to be a vice president at Elmwood, which is unrealistic. In this career coaching discussion, Gallagher needs a reality check about his career plan, and his capability and motivation to develop the strong skills in leading and developing people that are required in leadership roles.

Bert took a position to teach English in South Korea after graduating with his business degree from a Canadian university. It was his second time teaching English in South Korea, and because he had a fantastic experience the first time, he took a second position without doing a lot of due diligence before arrival. Soon, however, he realized that a city tax was being deducted from his pay, and he had suspicions that his boss was making up the city tax, in order to deduct money from the English teachers’ pay. Since Bert’s visa to stay in the country was tied to his employer, he could not look for a new employer, nor could he effectively find legal recourse against his employer, because foreign teachers had few rights in South Korea.

The case describes the introduction of a human resources (HR) system named Project Vishwamitra (PV) in 2000 in a large, public-sector manufacturing organization, T.P. Engineering Corporation (TPEC). PV was introduced with considerable leadership support and visibility. It was intended to provide every engineer trainee at TPEC a friend and guide to ease their entry and socialization into the organization. The senior managers assigned to guide the trainees were called mentors. For about five years, the project ran smoothly — the trainees felt supported whenever they needed help, and the mentors were happy to guide trainees. But afterwards, certain important changes took place in the organization in the staffing of leadership positions. With expansion and new projects, the growth trajectory of TPEC showed a sharp increase. With longer-standing employees moving out and a significant rise in the number of trainees recruited, PV ran into difficult times. However, no changes were made in the system or processes. Meetings between trainees and mentors became more infrequent and, in certain areas, there was no contact between the two. In the midst of degeneration, one of the leaders was able to revive the project in one of the company units. TPEC had highly ambitious growth plans and the number of trainees was expected to increase from 450 in 2010 to 750 in 2011. The company faced a choice regarding the form in which PV should continue.

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M) is a manufacturing leader in the utility vehicles (UVs) segment in the Indian automotive industry. Since 2004, M&M has been exporting UVs to South Africa, the only country in the African continent with a significant middle-class population. M&M has set up a fully owned subsidiary in South Africa, which enjoyed the growth wave in the South African automotive industry up to 2007, then fell into a three-year slump, largely as a result of a recession in the global automotive industry. Now on the verge of industry renewal in 2011, the subsidiary needs to plan its next steps. The case is positioned in May 2011, when M&M’s subsidiary must choose from four alternatives. M&M can continue with its prevailing business model of importing completely built units (CBUs) from its Indian operations to meet local demand while using South Africa as a re-export hub for the burgeoning markets in sub-Saharan Africa. It can also choose to collaborate with a local vendor to assemble vehicles locally from completely knocked down (CKD) components imported from India. Alternatively, M&M may choose to set up its own manufacturing facility in South Africa, like many of its competitors. Lastly, M&M can choose to wait and watch until it notes definitive signs of revived demand. The case provides an opportunity for students to examine each alternative and make a decision on M&M’s way forward in South Africa.

Promoting women to executive positions and nominating them to sit on boards are goals that are still, for the most part, a long way from being realized. As these authors show, responsibility for stepping up to meet these goals starts at the top. This article provides five principles that can be applied to accelerate the promotion of women to executive positions and board rooms.

The battlefield may provide a metaphor for all manner of success in life. Survive, and you’re likely agile, decisive, quick-thinking, and courageous; and that courage manifests itself not just in war. As this Ivey doctorate and battle-tested Canadian Forces officer writes, courage means much more than bravery. It means having the character traits that make one an effective leader on the battlefield — and in the C-Suite.

In 1961, on his second day of classes in the University of Western Ontario's Graduate School of Business Administration, a young Robert Cunningham bought The Human Side of Enterprise, by Douglas McGregor. The book became a classic and changed forever how organizations view and treat employees. The Human Side of Enterprise also had a powerful impact on Mr. Cunningham, who would graduate from Western with an MBA and go on to a successful career of more than 50 years in labour relations and human resources management in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. In this article, written to mark the 50th anniversary off his graduation from Western, and in recognition of Douglas McGregor's great contribution, Mr. Cunningham describes the impact McGregor's book had on him and organizational behaviour.

As a generation, the millennials are very different from the baby boomers. Managers accustomed to using certain practices to engage baby boomers must change their practices if they hope to engage and retain the millennials. This article outlines the key differences between the two generations, such as millennials’ technological prowess, preference to work in teams, and desire for work-life balance. It presents the lessons learned from the author’s research on millennial engagement and explains how to put these lessons into practice, including conducting annual engagement studies, ensuring transparent processes, and identifying key drivers of and threats to engagement.

Conscious capitalism is a philosophy of doing business that incorporates the principles of higher purpose (beyond profit maximization), stakeholder interdependence, conscious leadership, and conscious culture. Companies that adhere to its principles have been shown to outperform the market by a ratio of 9 to 1.<br><br>This article takes four variables inherent in this business philosophy – such as the consequences of fear versus trust in an organization, and understanding workplace prejudice – and applies modern brain science to show their basis. The importance of brain science for risk management and conscious business practices is demonstrated.

Innovation is a While the introduction of an innovative product or service may be highly publicized or glamorous, the process of innovation is driven less by creative brainstorming or strategic planning than by carefully managed and highly sophisticated cross-disciplinary thinking and research. This article explains how to manage the “fuzzy front end” of innovation, which refers to the insight-driven, prototype-powered search for innovation in the 21st century. It details seven phases of this strategic innovation process, including collecting customer insights, sense making and opportunity mapping, rapid concept prototyping, and customer cocreation.

A business leader cannot create a values-driven culture with rules and mission statements alone. Using techniques such as pre-scripting, rehearsal and peer coaching, leaders can learn to listen and employees can learn to speak, thus creating a circle of practice that removes values from the realm of aspiration and positions them squarely within the realm of everyday business practice. Readers will learn how to accomplish this important goal in this article.

Emerging findings in neuroscience research suggest why inspiring and supportive relationships are important — they help activate openness to new ideas and a more social orientation to others. Insights such as these may move a leader’s actions away from a results orientation and toward a relationship orientation. This article considers sophisticated research such as a study with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in order to explore building relationships, emotional contagion and empathy, and helping and inspiring others.

Leadership, an act or series of acts that moves people in a certain direction, is not merely the domain of CEOs and heads of state. This article argues that we need to recognize that leadership can arise from anyone who displays it, even as an occasional, discrete act of influence. It explores the fixation on the traditional concept of the ideal leader and explains how providing direction — which can come from many sources — is the essence of leadership. Finally, it shows how leadership within an organization can be provided by employees who don’t necessarily decide a new direction but rather influence others to accept one.

Organizations that understand the key capability of social technologies to enable employees to connect with others to boost job and organizational performance will realize significant benefits. Accordingly, organizations need to think strategically about using these technologies to help transform themselves into truly collaborative workplaces. This article provides the background on MITRE — an R&D consulting firm with U.S. government clients — and explains the value proposition of social technologies at MITRE and how building social technologies at MITRE resulted in higher performance. Finally, it lists four key lessons learned from social technology, including integrating social technologies into existing work practices and experimenting with various technologies.

There has long been the need for a theory of leadership built on a scientific foundation. This author’s new book, Driven to Lead: Good, Bad, and Misguided Leadership, seeks to provide such a theory using neuroscience and evolutionary biology. This article discusses the evolution of decision making, the four basic drives of humans, and how firms can keep their decision-making processes on track.