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Public Sector Management and Strategy

This case will be useful for courses in information technology (IT) innovation, public–private partnership (PPP) and strategic management. However, the use of the case will differ on the basis of the target audience who could be students of master's course or executive development course. Detailed discussion can be done on co-innovation strategy followed in a public–private partnership and to understand how a PPP can be successful in enterprise solutions. Further, the understanding on how e-procurement and e-tendering solutions work can be gained through this case. This case should be positioned when the discussion for the planning strategy of IT innovation takes place.

SAP was a market leader in enterprise application software and empowered people across the globe to work more efficiently. The e-procurement solution for OILGIAN was managed by SAP LABS India. OILGIAN entrusted SAP with the task to design and implement the e-tendering solution. SAP appointed Ramakrishna Potluri, Lead Consultant, SAP, to manage the design and implementation of the e-tendering module as a part of e-procurement solution for the public sector. The reporting and the security concerns were stated by OILGIAN, and Potluri reassured that his competent team would comply with the needs. The main predicaments that he was going through were that how best he could take the proposition forward. Should he create the innovative solutions in-house or co-create with the customers? Which business models should he follow for this public–private co-innovation to be a predecessor of successful projects?

The case illustrates the following objectives: to discuss the co-innovation strategy followed in a public–private partnership; to understand how a public–private partnership can be successful in enterprise solutions; and to understand how e-procurement and e-tendering solutions work.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Urban Affordable Housing (UAH) Inc. was a real estate asset management syndication firm that sponsored affordable housing to low-income families and seniors across the USA. The case examines the firm’s management of an internal information technology (IT) change initiative. The case follows the firm’s recently hired IT manager, Anthony Bryant, as he works to change a culture while acquiring resources and acceptance for the project he was hired to oversee. Bryant deals with numerous changing priorities, inadequate sponsorship, resistance from various levels, and a dearth of resources as he struggles to get the organization to complete an overdue database conversion.

This case is based upon the firsthand experiences of the lead author over a seven-year period while working at UAH. Measures have been taken to disguise the firm’s identity, including using a pseudonym, fictitious names for firm employees, a fictitious location, and the alteration of key dates. Key elements of the case have been constructed around semi-structured interviews and the review of archival documentation. Most quotes are verbatim in an attempt to preserve their authenticity, and were drawn from the semi-structured interviews and from historical accounts of actual occurrences and conversations.

The UAH case is multi-faceted, as it can be used in a number of environments amid a business school curriculum. A primary use is likely in a course revolving around organizational change and development. It might also be featured as part of the organizational change component in a course on organizational behavior, used to illustrate and analyze organizational culture and change leadership. Furthermore, the case could be used for change-related topics in management information systems or project management courses. The authors suggest the case be assigned at the graduate level, though it could also be suitable for an advanced undergraduate class.

Critical knowledge for successfully analyzing this case includes the following concepts: the change process (Lewin, 1951); leading change (Kotter, 1996); resistance to change (Kegan and Lahey, 2001); and communicating change (Armenakis and Harris, 2002).

Strategic management, IT strategy, Business & IT Consulting, International Business.

PGDM and Executive programmes.

Cognizant Technology Solutions, one of the giants in the Indian information technology (IT) industry, has been continually evolving new strategies and business models to cater to the global IT demand. Starting as an in-house technology unit of Duns & Bradstreet, the case highlights the various pioneering and transformative decisions taken by Cognizant to become one among the Fortune 500 companies of the world. However, despite its supremacy in the global market, they are facing tremendous competition from the other IT giants – TCS, Infosys and Wipro, to name a few. Also, the expansion of global IT players like Accenture and International Business Machines (IBM) in India is making matters worse. This intense competition, when juxtaposed with commoditization and price sensitivity on behalf of the IT demand, makes sustainability a big question mark. The million-dollar question remains “How should Cognizant strategize to ensure inorganic growth in the price-sensitive industry?”

The case highlights the market dynamics of the Indian IT industry – from its humble beginning as an attraction for low-cost labour to being one of the strategic outsourcing geographies of the IT sector – and thereby categorically points out the significance of continuous evolution on behalf of the IT firms to stay alive in this client-driven industry. The students are expected to analyze the IT industry of India, keeping in mind its vulnerabilities – price sensitivity, dependence on developed economies and intense competition – and relate the same to different strategies incorporated by Cognizant to remain one of the powerhouses of the Indian IT industry.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Management of Innovation and Technology/Management Information Systems.

Information Systems.

SER (Sugar, Energy & Rum) was a company belonging to the Grupo Pellas Corporation. The company operated in four countries, had six subsidiaries, employed more than 25,000 people, had more than 43,500 manzanas of sugarcane crops in Nicaragua alone and had global annual sales of more than US$400m. In 2008, due to the negative effects of the crisis on the company’s business model (increasing costs due to higher prices for fuel and decreasing income because of low international sugar prices), the company decided to implement a business intelligence (BI) system to optimize its processes to reduce costs and increase productivity. At that time, the company had more than 100 years of data, information systems that fed into their main business processes and a culture that appreciated data as the basis for decision-making. However, there were inconsistencies among data systems, users received highly complex reports in Excel or green screens and process monitoring happened long after the tasks had been completed. As a response, SER used extract–transform–load to collect and clean data that would be used in the BI system (the case leaves the questions regarding the systems selection unsolved for discussion). Based on their business model, they selected the most critical processes and defined key performance indicators to measure the impact of changes in those processes. They considered graphic design as a tool to make the system more accepted by users and worked together with users so that reports only offered the most important information. The result was improved costs and productivity. They decreased manual time spent by 14 per cent, automated time spent by 10 per cent, and eliminated 1,556 hours of dead time for equipment in the field, which allowed them to increase productivity by US$1m just in sugar. They saved 20,000 trips from the fields to the factories, which represented more than US$1m in savings by monitoring the weight of wagons loaded with sugarcane in real time. They improved client perceptions about the company both locally and internationally by implementing a sugar traceability system.

The case “Business Intelligence at the Grupo Pellas SER Company” has as its objective to respond to the question: How does a company make its BI system implementation successful? As such, the case: Discusses what a BI system is and what it provides to a business analyses challenges, benefits and context when implementing a BI system; analyses success factors and recommendations in the BI system implementation process; analyses the process of implementing a BI and highlights the importance of the system priority questions and technological alternatives.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 11: Strategy

The case describes an impasse that arose when two professors from diverse backgrounds were co-teaching a course in IMC-M, a reputed business school. Professor Agrawal, who has been educated in the western context, is more research oriented. Prof Yadav, on the other hand has rich industry experience and is an alumni of IMC-M. The case highlights the coordination issues and conflict that occur when there is a lack of communication between two faculties, who had considerable differences in attitudes, beliefs, and expectations. The case illustrates how a conflict unfolds and that effective management of conflict should begin with the design of task itself. The case emphasizes that the important determinants of conflicts are lack of communication and improper management of expectations of the key stakeholders.

This case illustrates the differences between customers and the occasions when conditions change and buyer-seller relationships fail. The key issue is to find ways to anticipate this problem with other clients.

It may be used in second-year courses of MBA marketing programs as well as in specific executive education programs dealing with key account management (KAM) systems, business strategy, industrial marketing and/or sales management courses. This case can also be used at undergraduate programs and courses dealing with sales, sales management, international business, and organizational behavior.

In 2003, after Carlos Etcheverry joined San Antonio (SA) as Latin American Region Vice President, the company implanted a KAM System. SA's relationships with its two key clients, Vintage and Chevron, seemed to progress nicely until mid 2004, when Chevron's newly hired Purchasing Manager decided to change the company's commercial structure, rendering its purchasing process more bureaucratic and extremely competitive. In March 2005, Etcheverry was to meet Chevron's purchasing manager, since Chevron had decided to reassign a service contract through a new invitation to bid, leaving San Antonio out. The case puts forth the questions faced by Etcheverry at the time of the meeting: How had San Antonio come to jeopardize a key account? Would SA's organization need a change? Was this the only solution available? What other factors should be considered?

This case may help students to: understand the complexity of key account management (KAM) system implementation, sales force concepts and business-to-business relationships; and analyze the difficulties faced by companies upon implementing a change in their sales strategies and the effects of this change on the sales force, corporate culture and the organization as a whole management system.

Teaching notes and a Technical note are available; also access to audio visual support with an interview to Carlos Etcheverry.

CFX Inc, an e-commerce start-up based out of India, has built a large e-marketplace that allows sellers and buyers to transact online. The firm currently has 30,000 sellers and aims to have around 50,000 sellers by FY 2015–16. In order to provide best shopping experience to their growing customer base, the firm needs to collect, store and analyze different kinds of data and improve their customer shopping experience. It is in the process of identifying and designing suitable data management systems to sustain and manage their business growth. The management needs a concrete set of recommendations in terms of the nature of solution, choice of the database, a data model that suits CFX's requirements, cost-benefit trade-offs involved and implementation considerations.

This case is intended for use in a course on supply chain management.

The study is applicable to MBA or executive MBA programme.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF) is an Indian non-governmental organisation which provides free mid-day meals to students in government schools. This case revolves around one of its kitchen facility (TAPF Bhilai) located in Bhilai in the Chhattisgarh province of India. TAPF Bhilai is about to witness a significant increase in the number of students to cater for. The Unit President, Vyomapada Das, is determined to ensure that there is no compromise in the standards of service in terms of quality and hygiene of meals in the wake of present expansions. As such, he recognizes that addressing a social cause brings additional responsibilities to them towards ensuring superior quality meals. He thereby lays a special emphasis upon the role of purchasing and supply in facilitating the scale expansion.

This case intends to demonstrate the process of managing, purchasing and supply for a socially responsible supply chain. Students must be able to appreciate the challenges associated with such a system. By applying the key theoretical concept of the social capital theory, they must also understand the nature of managerial responses inherent in these challenges.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

The case study uses a strategic foresight method, scenario-planning, to examine the strategic options for a financial services firm. As such, it covers the fields of strategy, environment of business, innovation, digital disruption and organizational change as they relate to the firm’s ability to adapt to changes in the environment of business in an emerging market context.

The case was developed with master's-level students in mind, particularly those seeking a master of business administration, masters in strategic foresight or related management degrees.

The case of NEDBANK, a longstanding and successful financial services firm based in South Africa is confronted with major challenges from competitors because of technological change in the industry as well as having to expand their market penetration across Africa. A rising regulatory burden, tough economic conditions and the need to access low income markets, provide a significant organizational development challenge as a decades-old bank, known for a relational approach to banking, has to navigate the new domains of “fintech”, micro-lending and public sector banking.

Students will gain comprehensive insight into the industry environment in emerging markets, understand the strategic management challenge before financial services firms in this environment and be able to consider the alternative strategic interventions that may be used to ensure corporate sustainability amid these challenges. Simultaneously, the case provides a comprehensive view into the use and application of scenario-planning for strategic management.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS: 11: Strategy

The chairman and CEO of the Genzyme Corporation, one of the country's top five biotechnology firms, has received a phone call requesting a meeting with the cofounder and principal of a large activist investment fund that now has a 2.6% stake in his company. Before meeting with him, the CEO is aware that he needs a strategy for dealing with this “activist” investor with a track record of forcing out CEOs.