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6 Items
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Strategy Suprajit Engineering: Ensuring Family and Business Continuity
Ajith Rai hailed from a humble background. As a first-generation entrepreneur, over the last three decades he had built a successful automotive business under the umbrella of Suprajit Engineering Limited (SEL). Rai and his wife, Supriya, along with their three sons were a close-knit family. The two older sons were deeply involved in the family business, and the third son was close to finishing his engineering studies. Supriya, a dentist, was engaged in the philanthropic activities of Supriya Foundation, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of the business. Rai had seen many business families disintegrate for lack of governance, and hence early on in his business career, he decided to formulate a family constitution. His sole objective was to safeguard family kinship and business longevity. The case reveals not only the process adopted by Rai to formulate the instrument of family governance-the family constitution-but also his ability to focus on building the capacity of all family members. The case closes with Rai reflecting on the satisfying journey thus far and hoping that the family constitution will be comprehensive enough to take care of the conflicting scenarios that could arise in the future.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the importance of instituting different organizational entities into a family constitution,
- Evaluate the possible conflicting scenarios that may arise on the basis of the policies devised in the SEL family constitution
- Evaluate the different ownership models that family businesses can pursue for succession planning and wealth management.
Published: Sep 25, 2022₹399.00 -
Strategy Suprajit Engineering: De-Risking for Future Growth
In 2019, Ajith Rai, Executive Chairman of Suprajit Engineering Limited (SEL), a pioneer in the design and manufacture of mechanical control cables in India, is contemplating his company's future growth strategy in the face of changing trends and demands in the automotive sector. Established as a private limited company in 1985, SEL became a public limited company in June 1995. In its over three decades of existence, SEL had grown from a single-product, single-customer, single- segment, single-brand, and single-location company to a multi-product, multi-business, multi-brand, multi-customer, multi-location, global company. SEL's growth and evolution as a truly diversified company was the result of Rai's ability to expand its operations in domestic and overseas markets organically and inorganically through acquisitions. In 2019, when the case is set, new developments in the automotive sector, both in terms of new technology as well as competition, made it necessary for SEL to take stock and plan for the future. Rai decided it was time to conduct a thorough analysis of the business, its growth both organically and inorganically, its ability to integrate its acquisitions, and its environment, in order to reinvent itself and identify the next wave of growth. By tracing SEL's inspiring growth story and highlighting the reasons behind its success, the case provides valuable insights into the rapid growth strategies used by entrepreneurial firms.
Learning Objective
- Understand the importance for a firm of constantly reinventing its product portfolio and the business for survival and growth
- Understand the use of rapid growth strategies such as diversification, mergers & acquisitions, and internationalization by entrepreneurial firms.
- Examine the performance of a company's diversification strategy.
- Understand the options used by a rapid-growth entrepreneurial firm to strategize and exploit significant opportunities in an evolving market environment.
Published: Jun 27, 2021₹399.00 -
General Management Eastern Condiments: The Changing Curry Company
Navas Meeran, the Chairman and Managing Director of Eastern Condiments Private Limited (ECPL) had been instrumental in the growth and professionalization of ECPL by bringing in non-family professionals, introducing state-of-the-art systems and processes in manufacturing, and nurturing the values of compassion and loyalty that his father had instilled across the organization. In 2014 he had taken a sabbatical and handed over the company operations to his younger brother Firoz. ECPL, the flagship company of the INR 8 billion, family managed Eastern Group headquartered in Kochi, India, was engaged in manufacturing and marketing spices, blended spice powders, pickles, breakfast staples and beverages in both domestic and international markets. The company began as a small shop set up by their father M.E. Meeran in 1961. It had grown to record revenues of INR 5.60 billion in 2014. Though Navas was pleased with the company's 2015 business performance under Firoz's leadership he was uncomfortable with the pace and execution of major organizational changes brought in by Firoz. He was worried about Firoz's aggressive approach; the speed of the internal changes Firoz had made to tap external market opportunities had resulted in 10 -15% attrition at all levels in the organization. Was it right for a traditional family run business bred on a culture of compassion and loyalty to make a sudden shift to a metrics-based performance culture? Would Firoz's efforts to transform the company into a professional organization ultimately sustain the growth of the business? Was there a need to both cultivate professionalism and reward loyalty across the ECPL value chain? Could a company based out of a Tier 2 city such as Kochi be able to attract high-quality talent easily? These were some of the questions that worried Navas.
Learning Objective
Professionalization of a business is about putting in place structure, systems and processes. Family owners need to practice professionalism to professionalize their business. Professionalization calls for appropriate changes in the structure and processes at the top management level to ensure that key people have the same organizational perspective. It should provide platforms to debate on HR policies; avoid creation of silos, that are detrimental to growth of the business.
Published: Mar 3, 2017₹399.00 -
Strategy Moser Baer and OM&T - Choosing a Strategic Partnership Mode
"This case is set in December 2006 when the management at Moser Baer India Limited (MBIL) was faced with the critical decision of whether to pursue a strategic partnership with Optical Media and Technology (OM&T) and what form such a partnership should take. MBIL was India's largest and the world's third largest optical storage media manufacturer with a presence in over 82 countries, serviced through marketing offices in India, the United States and Europe. In 2006, MBIL had also entered the photovoltaic (PV) cells industry and aimed to succeed in this new business by leveraging its core process strength in "coating thin films on substrates". OM&T was based in a high technology cluster in Eindhoven, the Netherlands and was known in the industry for its contribution to prototyping, standardization and pilot production of advanced optical disc formats such as Digital Versatile/ Video Disc (DVD) and Blue Laser Discs (Blu-ray discs). For the MBIL management team, all the options were on the table -- a licensing arrangement, a strategic alliance by taking an equity stake in the company or a complete acquisition of the company. After careful evaluation, they had to choose the most appropriate option and arrive at a decision."
Learning Objective
The case is structured to achieve the following pedagogical objectives: a) Highlight the uncertain dynamics within a high-growth and a technology intensive industry. b) Allow students to choose between organic vs. inorganic growth options. c) Evaluate the costs and benefits of different modes of inorganic growth in order to identify the best option for strategic partnership in a given context.
Learn MorePublished: Jun 25, 2014₹399.00 -
Entrepreneurship & Innovation GOQii: Envisioning a New Fitness Future (B)
Supplement to case ISB079. Gondal, a serial entrepreneur, was supported by top technology experts in GOQii's angel round of funding. Case A details GOQii's journey from its incorporation in 2014 until April 2016. It describes GOQii's product-service offering of wearable fitness band technology supplemented with remote personalized coaching, its launch in the Indian market, and its emergence as a pioneer of a new category of product in the health and lifestyle space that had the ability to integrate human assistance with built-in artificial intelligence. Gondal realized that while people were adopting wearable technology solutions for healthy living, there was still a lack of awareness and an air of hesitancy about the usefulness of and need for wearable devices in India. Gondal's dilemma: whether to continue GOQii's positioning as "wearable technology with personalized coaching" and aggressively expand globally, or consolidate and broaden his present offering by embracing the customer more fully and focusing on the "customer healthcare journey" in India. Case B picks up from October 2016, by which time GOQii had consolidated and broadened its offering by focusing on the "customer journey" in India. It had successfully on-boarded different service providers such as doctors, a diagnostic center chain, a hospital chain, sports and grocery stores and Axis Bank (for payments) on their platform, thus providing a complete health ecosystem to the GOQii user. By the second quarter of 2016, GOQii had achieved the number one spot in the Indian wearables market. The immediate decision that GOQii core team need to make is whether they should tie up with multiple insurance providers or explore the possibility of partnering with a reinsurer to complete the entire health spectrum services offering on their data platform.
The two cases allow for an in-depth discussion on the key role of a business model in ensuring the competitive advantage and sustained success of a business venture.
Learning Objective
The cases are structured around the following teaching/ learning objectives:
- To identify the various traits of an entrepreneur
- To identify the forces on which an entrepreneurial opportunity is dependent.
- To appreciate the market attractiveness and future of wearable technology.
- To understand the importance of a customer journey and its ability to provide competitive advantage to a brand.
- To understand the key role of the choice of business model in ensuring the competitive advantage.
Published: Dec 31, 2016₹399.00 -
Entrepreneurship & Innovation GOQii: Envisioning a New Fitness Future (A)
Gondal, a serial entrepreneur, was supported by top technology experts in GOQii's angel round of funding. Case A details GOQii's journey from its incorporation in 2014 until April 2016. It describes GOQii's product-service offering of wearable fitness band technology supplemented with remote personalized coaching, its launch in the Indian market, and its emergence as a pioneer of a new category of product in the health and lifestyle space that had the ability to integrate human assistance with built-in artificial intelligence. Gondal realized that while people were adopting wearable technology solutions for healthy living, there was still a lack of awareness and an air of hesitancy about the usefulness of and need for wearable devices in India. Gondal's dilemma: whether to continue GOQii's positioning as "wearable technology with personalized coaching" and aggressively expand globally, or consolidate and broaden his present offering by embracing the customer more fully and focusing on the "customer healthcare journey" in India. Case B picks up from October 2016, by which time GOQii had consolidated and broadened its offering by focusing on the "customer journey" in India. It had successfully on-boarded different service providers such as doctors, a diagnostic center chain, a hospital chain, sports and grocery stores and Axis Bank (for payments) on their platform, thus providing a complete health ecosystem to the GOQii user. By the second quarter of 2016, GOQii had achieved the number one spot in the Indian wearables market. The immediate decision that GOQii core team need to make is whether they should tie up with multiple insurance providers or explore the possibility of partnering with a reinsurer to complete the entire health spectrum services offering on their data platform. The two cases allow for an in-depth discussion on the key role of a business model in ensuring the competitive advantage and sustained success of a business venture.
Learning Objective
The cases are structured around the following teaching/ learning objectives: · To identify the various traits of an entrepreneur · To identify the forces on which an entrepreneurial opportunity is dependent. · To appreciate the market attractiveness and future of wearable technology. · To understand the importance of a customer journey and its ability to provide competitive advantage to a brand. · To understand the key role of the choice of business model in ensuring the competitive advantage.
Published: Dec 31, 2016₹399.00
6 Items
- Author Sonia Mehrotra Remove This Item