個案總覽

Beijing Xiaomi Technology Co. Ltd. (Xiaomi) had grown into the third-largest cell phone brand in China and the sixth-largest in the world. The company solely deployed online channels, which contributed to its success. In the initial stage, Xiaomi depended on its own online channel to interact with consumers to develop user-friendly products and sell products. Three years after its inception, the company successfully established its flagship store on the largest business-to-consumer e-commerce platform in China. However, Xiaomi was facing a series of challenges, such as competitors' imitation and consumer complaints regarding services. Xiaomi was at a crossroads: should it stick to its online channels or develop online-to-offline channels?

CoCubes.com, (CoCubes) an entrepreneurial firm, instituted a paradigm change in the way campus recruitment occurred in India. In a paradoxical environment of the high availability of a formally educated yet not readily employable talent pool in a growing economy, CoCubes offered unique value propositions to its dual set of customers (colleges and companies). It was critical for CoCubes to effectively manage engagement with the recruiting companies and attempt to change their mindset regarding recruitment from non-established, non-premier institutes. Conventionally, colleges have not paid to have their students placed. Getting colleges to see the value in this and to pay for it was critical for CoCubes to succeed and grow in the face of increasing competition.

Within a few years of its establishment in 2010 by four young engineers in Pune, India, BlazeClan Technologies had prospered as a cloud solutions delivery company by providing true value to its customers in India and around the world. By 2014, though, the company was facing a long and slow sales cycle in the Indian market where businesses were hesitant to give up in-house data control to the cloud. Though the company invested a lot of marketing dollars in educating this potential segment through events, webinars, social media campaigns and talks at important industry forums, the customer base was not building and market penetration was not gaining ground. The momentum that was badly needed to push cloud adoption to the next level was also affected by external factors, such as the availability of the Internet, regular service outages leading to network disruptions, resistance to change and unclear licensing issues. The company worked hard to reduce these fears, but it had a number of decisions to make to go forward.

The C&D Hotel, the first five-star deluxe hotel in Xiamen, a coastal city in China, needs to improve its service delivery process. In particular, the hotel's customer service manager needs to present her plans for handling some recent customer complaints and decide how to compensate hotel guests for errors that have occurred during service delivery.

Following decades of civil strife among warring clans, and exacerbated by the worst drought in decades (2010-2012), millions of starving dislocated Somalis resided in crowded camps throughout the country. Humanitarian aid organizations made good-faith efforts to distribute food and medical treatment and supplies to those who suffered most. Almost always, however, these nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were thwarted by so-called gatekeepers, who, backed by military force, required that all aid be delivered first to themselves and only thereafter to the intended recipients, under conditions the gatekeeper set. This case summarizes the tactics used by the gatekeepers of Al-Shabaab (a cell of the radical Islamic group Al-Qaeda) in Somalia and the corresponding risks that the United Nations and NGOs had to confront.

Onion prices have been particularly volatile in India, reaching an all-time high of Rs. 100 in the month of October 2013 in certain parts of the country. The core of the onion price problem appears to stem from massive hoarding by cartels of intermediaries. How can this be stopped? Are there deeper problems with India's agricultural policies that belie the onion market failures? Onion is an important commodity for Indians of all classes; it is also the one that has swung political fortunes in India. The state of affairs in the onion market is indicative of gaping policy holes in the Indian agricultural markets. As India gears for the national elections in 2014, there is heightened interest in policy manifestos of the competing political parties. A history of policy measures adopted by past governments of India and the effects of these measures are outlined in this case. The case provides a platform for students to discuss the appropriateness of various policy measures with respect to agricultural produce marketing in India.

The case is about Inscape, a Bangalore-based Indian entrepreneurial company in the category of furniture attempting to develop a brand. Since times immemorial, humans have expressed their "one-upmanship" in a variety of ways. Consumer behavior has a '`self-concept'' component that is reflected in the symbolic behavior of consumers. Products, brands, and possessions of consumers form a symbolic part of their self-concept. Status orientation, reflection of lifestyles, and a sense of belongingness are some of the universal themes associated with symbolism. There are three aspects that form the highlights of the case. Emerging markets such as India are closely following western symbolism with regard to possession and consumption of products and brands. The case develops a historical perspective on the category by dividing the timeline into three periods of time frame that stretches from the pre-independence to the post-liberalization era. The influence of imperial lifestyles on the Indian cultural landscape is captured in the case. The second aspect is the unorganized nature of the furniture industry. An unorganized industry structure in the Indian context means several unbranded offerings are a part of the industry. Many of these offerings may be of sub-standard quality, may not have typical distribution channels and most importantly these offerings are priced much lower than the branded offerings. Around 90% of the industry is characterized by the unorganized sector. The third aspect of the case is the challenge in the formulation of a marketing strategy that can be extracted from cultural symbolism and self-concepts associated with the category. The three major aspects are set in the backdrop of a consumer survey among two prospective groups consumers and the survey delves into the behavioral dimensions associated with self-concept and cultural symbolism associated with furniture as a part of the Indian culture.

HCL Technologies Ltd., India's fastest growing IT services company, had radically improved its performance since the announcement of its famous "Employee First, Customer Second" strategy. Although sales, customer and employee satisfaction had significantly increased, HCL still lagged its competitors on overall profitability. With manpower costs accounting for a significant part of the operating cost, HCL responded to the changing competitive environment and redesigned its talent management strategy. The case is set in the dynamic context of the growing competitive environment of talent shortages and increasing wage costs in India where the Talent Acquisition Group (TAG) of HCL is looking to become a true business partner by evolving its service capability to help increase overall profitability. As part of its new strategy, HCL realigns the TAG, implements major change initiatives to align its members and signs up aggressive SLAs with the business stakeholders. With the implementation of a new HRIS system to aid quick decision making, innovative methods of talent acquisition and focused metrics for the function, the HCL TAG pushes the boundaries of what can and should be strategic recruitment.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF) was founded in 2000 in Bangalore to provide free mid-day meals to the students of government schools. TAPF's kitchen in Vasanthapura provided meals to 650 schools in and around Bangalore benefitting 87,045 children. In 2014, TAPF provided meals to 1.4 million students and by 2020 they wanted to reach out to 5 million students. This massive expansion needs to be achieved without compromising the quality of food provided and simultaneously ensuring that all the key performance indicators such as time of delivery and temperature of food at the time of delivery are maintained as per the specifications. Muralidhar, the head of quality at TAPF along with his team have implemented several quality improvement projects. However, massive expansion plan by TAPF posed a greater challenge to Muralidhar. One of the critical to quality metric in TAPF is the "cooking-to-consumption time'', which should ideally be less than 6 hours. As the number of children to be fed increases, the cooking-to-consumption time is likely to increase. Muralidhar is contemplating use of lean and Six Sigma concepts to ensure that the cooking-to-consumption time is kept within the allowable time limit.

The case describes the use of linen at the Apollo hospitals. Apollo Hospital in Bannerghatta Road Bangalore is a tertiary care hospital with a capacity of 250 beds. In 2013, Apollo Hospital spent INR 5.1 million on managing bed lines (consisting of bed sheets and pillow cover). Dr Ananth N Rao, head of quality at the Apollo hospitals thought that the cost of linen management can be optimized using mathematical programming techniques which can have a significant impact on the bottom-line of the hospital. Each bed in the hospital is given two bed sheets and a pillow cover; however, there was 2% additional usage of linen owing to various reasons such as linen becoming dirty, wet, etc. Apollo hospital keeps a safety stock of linen for two days and any linen sent for washing is returned on day d + 2. The objective is to develop a mathematical programming model to minimize the total cost of linen management.

Larsen and Toubro (L&T) was India's largest technology, engineering, construction and manufacturing company. Construction and Mining Business (CMB) sold equipment such as Dozer Shovels, Dozers, Dumpers, Hydraulic Excavators, Motor Graders, Pipe Layers, Surface Miners, Tipper Trucks, Wheel Dozers and Wheel Loaders. CMB also provided the services of equipment installation and commissioning and other maintenance services. Supply of spare parts was critical, since the customer faced severe losses in case of equipment unavailability. Forecasting was done on an ad hoc basis based on the experience of the planning personnel. The value of each spare part ranged from INR 10 to INR 8 Million. It was critical to maintain a correct balance for the spare-parts inventories, since unavailability led to loss of revenues, decreased profitability, customer dissatisfaction and also gave rise to the fake products industry. Excess inventory led to high inventory carrying costs, working capital lock-in and also a possibility of spare parts becoming obsolete. Vijaya Kumar, Deputy General Manager of CMB, had to arrive at a forecasting methodology with an error of less than 10% for the 20,000 odd spare-parts. This warranted for 20,000 forecasting models, however this was not only very time consuming but also very expensive to develop and manage. Kumar wanted to build the forecasting model quickly so that he could roll out the forecasting strategy on a pan-India basis within a few weeks.

In September 2012, the vice-president of Internal Audit at Prashanti Technologies, a multinational corporation headquartered in Mumbai, India, was reviewing an external audit team's report before a meeting of the company's ethics committee. The committee had only one item on the agenda: a sensitive case involving a company vice-president, the head of its financial services division, who had been accused by an anonymous whistleblower of conducting a workplace affair with a subordinate. Further, it was alleged that he had unfairly promoted her by giving her additional undeserved responsibilities and that she had taken undue advantage of her workplace romance by giving orders to the rest of the team. The ethics committee was required to decide what action, if any, should be taken against the vice-president and the junior manager.

A Swedish light bulb manufacturer reviews its strategy to better compete against large global multinationals.

Founded in 1984 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, La Martina has grown from a high-end polo equipment company into a global fashion brand with operations in 56 countries. Polo, which is not only a sport but also a way of life, is at the core of the brand DNA. Polo is a unique sport with a long history and strong culture that the brand intends to protect, preserve, and share with as many people as possible. The world of polo has traditionally conjured up images of exclusivity, sophistication, and elegance, attracting a wealthy crowd of royals, movie stars, and successful business entrepreneurs. It has naturally developed into a suitable environment for luxury brand sponsorship, co-branding, and partnership opportunities. At the same time, polo is a "niche" sport with limited expansion opportunities. Could La Martina continue to grow within the polo world boundaries? Should La Martina diversify into other sports? What impact would a departure from its polo roots have on the brand identity and authenticity? As a global fashion retailer, La Martina was also confronted with a new set of challenges driven by changes in technology, e-commerce, social media, consumer preferences, and shopping behaviors. In 2015, in a fast-paced, globalized, and ultra-competitive environment, La Martina needed to reconsider its business model and decide on its next strategic move.

The successful rise of Ferns N Petals, a branded flower boutique, coincided with the post-liberalization retail boom in India, a period of rapid growth for organized modern retailing, including online retailing. As the economy grew, disposable incomes rose, driving demographic and lifestyle changes and fuelling aspirations. The Ferns N Petals chain tapped franchisees aggressively. In a predominantly unorganized and localized market, the company successfully convinced potential franchisees to become part of the chain of nationwide branded stores. However, Ferns N Petals' unique franchising business model faced many challenges - including creating and sustaining volume growth for franchisees while continuing to widen and deepen its retail footprint and replicating its model in the high-priced, highly skill-oriented and competitive wedding segment.

The director of Edible Agro Products Limited (EAPL) was reviewing the production figures for Gujarat Til-2, a variety of white sesame that EAPL had introduced to West Bengal in 2008. He had hoped to bring about a revolution in sesame production with this superior new variety and to create higher value for West Bengal farmers and for EAPL. However, his plan had yet to achieve the outcomes he had anticipated. The year 2010 was the third consecutive year in which EAPL had received less than 20 per cent of the expected quantity of harvested produce. Should he quit sesame production and focus only on the oil trading business? Should EAPL change its communications policy/strategy for promoting the value of white sesame to farmers who are not formally educated? How should he address the growing concerns of the farmers? How can he prevent malpractice among vendors and farmers, such as selling the harvested produce to other traders at a higher price? Should he change the pricing policy?

Three friends have followed their entrepreneurial dream to build a five-star hotel in Liepaja, a seaside city in Latvia. After a few early profitable years, the hotel is struggling, due to the massive downturn in the Latvian economy as a result of the European Union financial crisis and slow recovery. The hotel has declined from generating an annual profit to now making a loss or barely breaking even. On several occasions, the co-owners have considered selling up while they can still break even. With the European Union showing signs of recovery, business confidence is returning and the future is starting to look up. The co-owners must decide whether to put all their struggles behind them, retain the ownership of the hotel and look forward to the potential days of profit that lie ahead. Alternatively, they can move in an almost opposite direction, by selling up and moving on. What strategic direction will produce a successful outcome?