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Founded in 2008 in Singapore and China, ActSocial was a social marketing company that initially provided brands with word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing services. The firm then adjusted its model to focus on providing online social media and digital content marketing services. After significant success from 2013 to 2015, ActSocial was fully acquired by Linkfluence, a leading global social media monitoring and research company. As part of this larger company, the new leadership team at Linkfluence Asia now needed to decide how to proceed and wondered if they would have influence over the direction of their product, hiring decisions, team-building, and growth plans.

BRAC was the largest non-governmental organization in the world, reaching out to 138 million people. It made a significant contribution to reducing poverty in Bangladesh by employing more than 117,000 community workers (Shasthya Shebikas) to improve the health and nutrition of the rural poor. The manager of BRAC's Health, Nutrition and Population program was faced with two significant challenges. First, she had to find a way to encourage more people to use BRAC’s services; more than 60 per cent of the population sought the services of unqualified health care service providers, despite the significant contribution made by Shasthya Shebikas. Second, she had to bring down the 10 to 20 per cent turnover rate of the Shasthya Shebikas.

In 2014, a Hong Kong-based chartered accountant inadvertently started a social enterprise called Ana by Karma. The initial intent of helping an illiterate Bhutanese woman soon evolved into a journey to empower women in Bhutan to use their creative talents to become financially independent. As a result of her own charming personality and communication skills, the chartered accountant mobilized a team of volunteers to promote scarves that were handwoven by Bhutanese women and thereby bring hope to an increasing number of Bhutanese families who were living in poverty. In early 2016, while relishing her experiences over the previous 18 months, the chartered accountant mulled over the future development of Ana by Karma. How could the venture evolve sustainably? Was it realistic for her to operate Ana by Karma on a full-time basis?

In 2014, KT Corporation, one of South Korea’s leading telecommunications companies, successfully mapped each point of a customer’s interactions with the company. This was done by a team whose function was to identify customers’ pain points, known as critical quality parameters. The customers’ experiences were clustered into key areas of contact and customer satisfaction in each area was assessed, allowing quality innovation to be experience-based. Identifying customers’ unmet needs and developing innovative solutions were already leading to dramatic improvements in customer experience. However, more work needed to be done, especially in encouraging staff to take actions for improvement.

Until 2014, Blossom Inners Pvt. Ltd. (Blossom), a leading lingerie brand in India, had followed the accepted standard of advertising lingerie with images of skin-revealing models. Influenced by their personal philosophy and concern about increasing crimes against women, the company’s directors decided to break from the time-tested lingerie industry standards of communicating with sensual appeal. According to the managing director, Blossom would gain moral support from its customers by being the first in the industry to do away with body-revealing advertisements; however, sales figures dropped to low levels, senior marketing employees left the company, and customer service was flooded with calls. The directors, who were determined to stick to their plan, approached an innovative designer to create a new marketing strategy. Could this new advertising partner help Blossom stem its declining sales? What information should be included in the brief given to the designer? How could the designer advertise Blossom’s lingerie while honouring the directors’ philosophy?

Twitter Inc. (Twitter), based in California, was a social media platform whose growth had stalled over the past few years. Once a promising tool for individuals looking to broadcast short messages to a network, Twitter had been eclipsed by other platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, and LinkedIn. Unlike other social media platforms, Twitter limited its users’ messages to 140 characters. This format served Twitter well in its early days, but users had turned to other more flexible platforms. In October 2016, Twitter’s chief marketing officer faced two main challenges: how to advertise an already popular social media platform to non-users and how to encourage current users to stay with the platform.

Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited (Kaira Union), a member union of the popular dairy brand Amul, was using information technology (IT)-enabled services to benefit individual dairy farmers with very small herd sizes in India. The technical inputs, such as veterinary services, were provided through veterinary centres located near clusters of villages. To improve service delivery, better manage inventory, deploy veterinarians, and manage their routes, the union had established a centralized veterinary call centre staffed at all hours of the day. The call centre had resulted in considerable savings in the cost of service and improved the efficiency of service delivery. The managing director of Kaira Union wanted to extend the call centre to include the union’s operations in the states of Maharashtra and West Bengal. However, he was not sure whether the current architecture was capable of facing the challenge. Kaira Union needed to develop a proposal for the expansion.

Sprint Corporation, a major U.S. wireless carrier, had been losing customers and suffering financially since its merger with Nextel in 2005. Sprint was also ranked the lowest among major U.S. carriers in terms of network speed and data performance. But a new opportunity emerged when the SoftBank Group acquired Sprint in 2013. The new chief executive officer (CEO), appointed in August 2014, publicly gave himself three to five years to turn around this major telecommunication company. The new CEO had a plan; however, he faced many challenges. Sprint had national brand recognition, but customers demanded improvements in network quality and service reliability, and the turnaround plan needed to be implemented in a capital-intensive industry with a saturated market. The optimistic CEO admitted that he faced the biggest challenge of his career. Would he be successful in turning around Sprint’s fortunes in this competitive industry?

In 2015, almost 60 years after being introduced to the market, the Barbie doll was one of the world’s most iconic toys. However, both the industry landscape and consumer preferences were changing, and Barbie was yet again in the spotlight as consumers criticized the toy for providing a narrow and unrealistic vision of how women should look, how they should dress, and the careers they should pursue. Sales and public perception of the doll were both on the downswing. Was there a place for the Barbie doll in 2015, or was this the end of the line for the iconic doll? What could Mattel, the company behind Barbie, do to turn things around?

On May 8, 2012, the president of Hefei Xingtai Financial Holding Group (Xingtai) received a message from a senior officer of the Hefei Municipal Government, the company’s authorizing body, asking that Xingtai provide financial support to PanTeng Company (PanTeng), a solar power manufacturing company. In order to survive, PanTeng needed Xingtai to provide a guarantee for a ¥100 million business loan from a commercial bank. PanTeng had already been turned down by Xingtai Financing Guaranty, one of Xingtai’s subsidiaries, because of the potentially high level of guarantee risk. If Xingtai provided a guarantee, it could be liable to reimburse the loan due to PanTeng’s high-risk operation, lose its risk management expertise, and face further violations. However, denying the senior officer’s request would hamper Xingtai’s important relationship with the local government. Should Xingtai take a chance and approve the loan, or should it deny the guarantee?

The chief executive officer of Kvantum Inc. received a distressing email from the human resources manager at Data Research Services. The two companies shared office space, and Data Research Services had invested seed capital in Kvantum. However, a Data Research Services employee was now accusing one of Kvantum’s most competent junior data scientists of harassment. The Kvantum employee had apparently approached the Data Research Services employee personally and then again through a popular social networking website. If the allegations were verified, Kvantum could lose a valuable employee. Moreover, a workplace scandal could adversely impact the start-up’s reputation. The issue required immediate action. Should it be considered misbehaviour? If so, what kind of misbehaviour? Most importantly, how should Kvantum resolve the problem?

Several experts had drawn attention to a peculiar problem existing in public-sector banks in India. There seemed to be two distinct generations: experienced employees who would be superannuated in the next four to five years; and newer employees who had come on board in the last four to five years. Though these young employees were academically sound, they lacked competence acquired through experience and thus were hesitant in taking on responsibilities. The older generation was slowly withdrawing. Management at Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) knew that in order to improve motivation and encourage higher productivity, the company had to trigger change and transform the mindsets of its employees.<br><br>Harnessing the energies of young members of the marketing team, IOB ran a unique campaign involving all employees called Rang De Basanti. Initial results were encouraging. However, two problems continued to arise: the underperformance of one particular region and the problem of keeping up the momentum and sustaining the change.

A North America-based representative of a major European airline has just received a letter from an unhappy customer detailing a very large number of service problems. A quick check had revealed that this premium-paying customer's complaints were all valid. A meeting is planned with the customer. Before this, the airline representative must decide (A) what to say in response, and (B) what, if any, compensation should be offered. Internally, there was a need (C) to resolve what their organization should learn from this experience, both from a subsidiary and parent company perspective, and the implications on their participation in the Crown Alliance. This case raises many important questions regarding service recovery, communications, and non-equity alliances.

Paul Frank Industries (PFI), a privately held company based in the United States, finds itself in hot water after social media criticizes a Hollywood marketing event hosted by PFI in which Native American stereotypes were prominently featured. When photos of the event are released on Facebook, two bloggers bring attention to the event through their social media channels, and the reaction quickly spreads throughout the Native American community and beyond. In the wake of this public relations nightmare, students are asked to reflect on the actions taken by Paul Frank Industries prior to, during and after the marketing event.

Godrej Security Solutions (GSS) offered both physical security products (such as safes, lockers, etc.) and electronic security products (such as cameras with analytics, closed circuit television, biometric and access control systems, burglar alarms, etc.). Although homeowners were evidently worried about their security, they were typically passive and reactive — as opposed to proactive — in addressing the problem. GSS had launched two effective advertising campaigns; however, continuing to communicate the importance of security solutions and converting this buyer inertia to action was fundamental to its ongoing success. What should the company’s communication strategy be?

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Responsible Leadership category at the EFMD Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>The president and CEO of Providence Healthcare needs to devise a plan to sustain positive change at the health care company. In just four years, she has led the organization through massive change and turnaround, from potential crisis to financial health and innovation. She now needs to consider how to integrate and embed the values that helped her drive change and foster collaboration, both at Providence and with its key partners. What more can she do to sustain positive change at Providence Healthcare through her values-based leadership and to win the support of key stakeholders well into the future? Much of the success thus far has depended on her values and character as a leader.

First National Bank (FNB), one of South Africa’s “Big Four” banks, has, under the stewardship of its CEO, invested in a strategy of innovation to grow its market presence in South Africa, other emerging-market African countries and India. In line with its strategy to lead digital banking in South Africa, FNB has invested in building a social media strategy to enable the brand to strengthen its relationships with customers, through building customer knowledge and stickiness and humanizing its brand.<br><br>In 2012, FNB’s head of digital marketing and media sees a tweet from Standard Bank stating that it has instructed its attorneys to lodge a complaint against what it alleges to be FNB’s misleading advertising. She wonders whether Standard Bank’s use of Twitter to communicate this competitive action is related to FNB’s extensive and well-publicized use of the micro-blogging service. She knows that the debate on Twitter will be a significant indicator of whether her social media strategy has been successful. How can FNB continue to differentiate itself and alleviate the pressure on non-interest revenues?<br><br> Banking on Social Media (B), 9B14A071, is a supplement to this case.

This case is a supplement to Banking on Social Media (A), 9B14A070.<br><br>In January 2013, First National Bank (FNB) launches the “You Can Help” brand campaign, which calls for change and is based on the bank’s research on South African children’s hopes for the country. The campaign receives mixed reactions from political parties, with the governing African National Congress declaring, “This isn’t an advert — it’s a political statement. An attack on the president, his ministers and government as a whole.” Following the harsh criticism by some, select clips are taken off YouTube, the Group CEO sends an apologetic text message to a government minister involved, and the bank buys newspaper advertisements trying to explain the campaign. Has FNB managed the crisis properly?

By the spring of 2014, the founder of EarthWear Face & Body is in desperate need of part-time employees to help run her successful skin care retail business, which she runs out of her home in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. After eight years of hard work, she has turned her part-time hobby making all-natural skin care products into a thriving business. She sells her products online, through retail stores, at craft and trade shows and at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market. But her successful business has become too much work for her to manage on her own. A failed attempt to bring on a part-time employee made it clear that she needs to develop a targeted recruitment strategy. How can she effectively communicate her corporate culture to attract the best candidates? See supplement 9B14C046.

Supplement to 9B14C045.