Case Studies in Business Management, Strategy, Economics, Marketing, Leadership, CSR, MBA Case Studies

Video Briefs of
Course Case Maps
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To increase awareness of the new course case maps, IBSCDC launched video briefs on each of the five course case maps, presented by our team of knowledge workers with academic and corporate experience.

Deepa Verma, provides the viewers with the details of case mapping on Managerial Economics.

Deepti Nair, gives an interesting brief on Organisational Behaviour and the need for MBAs to pursue it as a part of the academic curriculum.

Vandana Jayakumar, speaks on how case map on Quantitative Methods enhance learning skills on the subject.

G. Sai Geeta, talks about the intricacies of Financial Management case map.

Sai Prasanna Ragu, provides interesting insights on the case map for Marketing Management.

Presenting the emerging trends in global healthcare industry, this case study, Medical Tourism: Rise of Asia as Global Healthcare Destination examines the evolution of medical tourism and how Asian countries, particularly, South Asia emerged as preferred healthcare destinations. It also highlights the promising prospects of medical tourism that helps narrow down the rift between developed and developing countries. As a number of uninsured and underinsured patients from the developed countries travel to the developing nations seeking high quality medical treatment at affordable costs, enthusiastic entrepreneurs are foreseeing promising prospects in facilitating conveyance, traditional food, lodging, tourism and entertainment along with after-care for the patients from abroad. Thus, the term, ‘medical tourism’ has become increasingly popular. Along with offering high quality medical treatment at affordable prices, Asian countries like India and Thailand are also blessed with rich medical heritage offering alternative treatments like yoga, acupuncture and herbal treatments to medical tourists; not to mention about the beauty of the nature and historical importance.

The case study offers interesting issues to debate on: impact of changing dynamics of the healthcare industry on developed economies, the likely impact medical tourism on healthcare value chain and its potential of bridging the gap between rich and poor countries, ability of the Asian countries to emerge as world’s hottest destinations of medical tourism nd above all, possibility of innovating different business models to successfully leverage on the growth prospects of medical tourism.

At what stage of the brand life cycle does it make sense for any company to come out of its traditional advertising model (the usual emotional and physical characters of the product/brand) and focus on intellectual and self-actualisation issues?

Marketing, once a core activity that only meant to sell the product to the customer, is now a messiah that is making its customers socially aware and responsible. Social-cause marketing is now catching up in India. Tata Tea’s Jaago Re campaign is a fine example of social marketing. This case study, Tata Tea’s Jaago Re! Campaign: The Social-Cause Marketing Initiatives and Long-term Branding Initiatives explores Tata Tea’s Jaago Re campaign and other social marketing initiatives – the possible themes and problems. It also helps debate on the need for social-cause marketing, when companies already have Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a key part of their mission and values, and whether social marketing initiatives and CSR initiatives would further enhance the brand image of the companies. Finally, it discusses on the emerging trend of corporates partnering with NGOs for cause-related marketing and possibilities for a win-win situation.

All these aspects provided debatable issues in the classroom wherein students have come up with interesting points to substantiate their arguments. Further, an interview with Harish Bijoor, brand-expert and CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc., offered valuable expert opinion to case analysis.

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Social Cause
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An interview with Harish Bijoor, brand-expert and CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. In this interview, beginning with his stint with working for Tea and Coffee brands, Bijoor provides valuable insights into intricacies of a brand, how service dimension adds value to a brand, the need and importance of social-cause marketing and how social marketing can be an effective tool in influencing customers’ buying behaviour. He also shares his views on Tata Tea Jaago re campaign, its implications on Tata Tea’s sales and brand image, and above all sustainability of such initiatives, particularly in Indian markets.

Do young executives have the right experience and exposure to take up the job of a CEO at that age? What happens when one becomes CEO at the age of 40s/50s?

With an overview on the evolution of executive career in Indian corporate world, this case study, Engaging the India Inc.: The Young Brigade Leads the Way presents an elaborate view of the new age Indian CEOs and how the role of a CEO has changed over the years, more so as the fast changing business environment is becoming less and less predictable. It also explores debating issues – how and why are organisations looking at relatively younger people to takeover at the helm and the larger societal issues arising out of the trend of younger CEOs running the show. But, don’t grey hair and experience count any longer?

It is one of the interesting case studies that pulled student's attention to many issues that are under debate among research scholars and industry experts. While the challenging times demand a broader experience for a CEO, age and tenure of corporate leaders began to shrink dramatically. Thereby, we are left with the question – Does age has little to do with success and leadership?

Can a business model that operates on usergenerated content and new forms of communication – for millions of people to interact and entertain – become a commercial success? In what ways can such companies turn their services into hard cash?

In the backdrop of evolution and growth of Web 2.0 technologies, this case study, Twitter, Microblogging Site’s Business Potential: What’s the Business Model? delves into the growing presence of microblogging and successful strategies of the pioneer, Twitter. While elaborating on how Twitter operates, the case study debates on whether Twitter services can go beyond entertaining its users to provide more useful applications and helps identify significant sources of revenue for longterm growth and sustainability. It also highlights growing competition and acquisition threat from established players like Google, Facebook and MySpace.

Students found the case study very interesting as many of them already Twitter with friends and other groups. Additionally, students also observed that apart from microblogging, Twitter gained significant presence in the global corporate arena. Therefore, it is not unusual to find ‘Follow Me on Twitter’ on many of the corporate websites.

With growing competition in the global retail arena, established players try to win greater market share by introducing new formats. This case study, Tesco vs Wal-Mart in US: The Format Wars highlights format wars between the two global retail giants Tesco and Wal-Mart. Tesco became highly successful in its 12 international markets with a multiple format approach and penetrated into US markets as well with a unique new convenience store format ‘Fresh & Easy’ after an in-depth market research. In response to competitive threat from Tesco, Wal-Mart, world’s leading retail giant, decided to replicate similar formats, which it had never done in its history. Should Wal-Mart follow the footprints of Tesco and bring changes to its existing business model? What would be the impact of competing on similar format with no clear differentiation? Can Wal-Mart win against Tesco or will it remain an operating clone? On the other side, has Tesco gained a first-mover advantage in the new format to be able to sustain and succeed against the stiff competition from a formidable competitor? Will Tesco’s format war work in the wake of the current economic crisis?

An interview with Richard M Earle, senior associate with the Regis Group Inc. of Leesburg, VA, specialising in Cause Marketing, Branding and Advertising Evaluation.

In this interview, Mr. Richard shares his journey to the Regis group, his stint with the advertising agency supervising advertising for several national and international brands, and his inclination towards public service and social causes. He gives valuable insights on his book, The Art of Cause Marketing – How to Use Advertising to Change Personal Behavior and Public Policy, the intricacies of social cause marketing, why should companies invest shareholders’ funds in social issues, the difference between social cause marketing and CSR, etc.

An interview with Tapan Mitra, chief of HR at Apollo Tyres.

In this interview, Tapan Mitra shares his views on the impact of financial meltdown on the human capital in organisations, the political and economic consequences of employee layoffs across various organisations, implications of shortened work weeks, role of governments in handling such situations, growing popularity of talent management, the new role of HR in today’s organisations, etc.

What makes sense for e-book companies and publishing industry?

In the backdrop of changing dynamics in the global publishing industry, the case study, Amazon.com’s Kindle DX: iPod for Publishing Industry? highlights the impact of technological changes on the industry, particularly the proliferation of broadband. Availability of vast free content via Internet made publishing industry lose ground and questioned the very survival of print. The case study presents how Amazon.com, the online shopping destination for a variety of goods, especially books, posed a challenge to the publishing industry through its e-book reader, Kindle. Owing to benefits like high quality print and lesser price, it is in fact considered the iPod of the publishing industry. However, to what extent is it a reality? Moreover, with the evolution of many new trends such as ‘self-publishing’ in the 21st century, what should be the course of action for the publishing industry and the e-book readers: compete or collaborate?

What is the relevance of brand positioning in an industry like cosmetics?

Capturing the competitive landscape in the Indian fairness products market, the case study explores various factors that led to the growth of the market. Increase in per capita income and corresponding shift towards western lifestyle, raise in consumer spending on personal grooming, health awareness and the desire to look healthy and beautiful and above all, a near obsession of the Indians for fair skin gave an unprecedented impetus to the Indian fairness product market in the past few decades.

Hindustan Unilever limited (HUL) pioneered the launch of fairness products with its ‘Fair & Lovely’ fairness cream and was followed by CavinKare with ‘Fairever’. Within no time, a handful of domestic and multinational companies joined the fray with their unique differentiation and positioning strategies. However, global brands like L’Oreal, P&G, Avon, Oriflame, etc., bagged greater market share claiming more shelf space as premium-end brands. Thus, the case study, Fairness Products Market in India: Who is the ‘Fairest’? tries to analyse various issues – viable marketing mix decisions of the Indian companies, whether Indian fairness brands can make a mark globally and strategies for Indian players to emerge as leaders in the cluttered fairness market.

The use of Internet as a recruitment source, referred to as e-recruitment, is not new. In fact, over the years, e-recruitment has become popular both among the employers as well as job seekers. The reason behind the popularity of Internet as a recruitment source is due to the advantages that it offers over the traditional methods of recruitment. Popularity of Internet in recruitment can be gauged from the fact that there are almost 50,000 job sites in the US alone. Monster, Yahoo! HotJobs and CareerBuilder are some of the premier job sites among them. While the job sites flourished in the past, another Internet phenomenon – social networking – evolved jeopardising the business of job sites, including premier sites such as Monster. Social Networking sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter are increasingly being used both by recruiters as well as job seekers to fulfill their respective job requirements. The case study Social Networking: Threatening the Monster and its Likes? analyses the impact of social networking sites on the business of job sites. It debates whether the heydays of job sites are indeed over or whether social networking is just a passing fad.

How does a company justify its investment in HR as a strategic asset? Can HR create value for a firm, if so how?

Highlighting the need to align HR strategy with organisational goals, this case study, Sears, Roebuck & Company: Operating Performance Turnaround with HR Scorecard delves into the conceptual understanding of the strategic role of HR in achieving organisational objectives and the intricacies of HR Scorecard. Exemplifying Sears, Roebuck & Company (Sears) as retailers that had successfully revived its fortunes by setting a new strategic focus on HR, this case study presents how Sears leveraged on its workforce as a significant competitive advantage and how its competencies, attitudes and behaviours drive customer satisfaction and in turn financial outcomes. It offers interesting issues to discuss – implementation of HR Scorecard, the Employee-Customer-Profit Chain at Sears, the HR architecture, etc.

Consumer goods companies, during the recent years, are undergoing a metamorphosis by changing their attitudes and understanding that brand building is not a simple exercise of online sales supported by few product promotion techniques. Realising this fact, companies are moving away from ‘advertising’ to ‘content’, and sunsilkgangofgirls.com is one such initiative in crafting its brand positioning in an unconventional way. Hindustan Lever Limited (HUL) used ‘Sunsilk’ brand for creating a social networking website, targeting women of age group 16–24, by providing a means of communication for sharing the issues of interest.

Marketing in the new millennium is all about managing relationships and responsible marketing is the key to success and creates indirect reference groups invigorating the buying process. Although reference groups play an important role in the purchase process of luxury products, they also exert a strong influence in creating high brand awareness and brand loyalty. The case study, Sunsilk Gang of Girls: Crafting a Brand Positioning with Reference Groups highlights how sunsilkgangofgirls.com drew thousands of young women around the world using social networking as a mode of communication and ‘gangs’ as reference groups in positioning the brand.

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