A.

Trinity Finance Ltd. (Trinity), a market leader in vehicle finance (Automobiles, Tractors, Cars, Commercial Vehicals and
Pre-owned Vehicles). The company, established in 1992, started facing troubles since 2011, due to increased competition.
Gautam Narang, a Senior Consultant from a well-known sales consulting firm, approached by Trinity, suggested six specific
areas of improvement including measuring relationships. Trinity’s Leadership Team (LT) faced three questions before any
reasonable solution could be reached for measuring the relationships at Trinity: a) Who would be the stakeholders for
Trinity? b) How to engage with each of the stakeholders? c) How to measure the efficacy of those engagements/relationships
given the fact that establishing and maintaining relationships would have definite cost implications?

1.Discuss and debate on the effective ways and means to engage with all the identified stakeholders

2.Discuss on the ideal way to measure the efficacy of those engagements/relationships

B.
Thermax is a manufacturer of industrial boilers, combustion equipment and water treatment plants. Thermax supports their
customers through their franchisee – Thermochem Corporation in Bangalore. BioCell has been their loyal customer since
many years. Thermax has just lost an order for 12 units of water treatment equipment from BioCell, to a new player, who has
no previous record of supplying to BioCell. The case states the facts of the order lost and how the sales engineer of
Thermochem handled the situation. Various players are subtly arranged in the case and participants will need to examine
their roles in the buying decision.

Explain the model of industrial buying behaviour and Decision Making Unit (DMU), and how this can be useful in
communicating the right value of your offering, to the relevant DMU ? How to move from selling a product to selling a
solution, in a B2B situation ?

C.

On September 10th 2018, Jack Ma (Ma), Co-founder and Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group Holdings Limited (Alibaba),
announced the succession plan of handing over the reins to Daniel Zhang (Zhang), CEO, Alibaba, a year later. Having co-
founded in 1999, Ma transformed Alibaba into a multinational e-commerce giant, a representative of the new-age private
Chines companies. Ma was regarded as the most influential Chinese businessman, almost an icon for the Chinese corporate
sector. Post-announcement of the succession plan, many wondered if Zhang could effectively slip into the shoes of visionary
Ma and carry forward his legacy. While it was a matter of time for the world to see the fruits of this succession plan, Ma had
undoubtedly set an unprecedented example in China by being the first among the wave of Chinese entrepreneurs of Deng
Xiaoping era to plan succession. With the Chinese Government focused on re-invigorating the State-Owned Enterprises
(SOEs), the going could get tough for private enterprises in general and Alibaba and Zhang in particular. Will Zhang be able
to make Alibaba achieve its ambitious goals or will Ma have to come back?

analyze the emergence of Alibaba as a leading globally known Chinese e-commerce player ?
Discuss and debate about the succession planning process at Alibaba ? Debate on the impending challenges for Alibaba &
Zhang, after Ma's exit and the lessons from Alibaba’s succession planning for new-age Chinese private sector companies ?

D.

Emirates was a luxury airline based in Dubai, known for its profligacy and politeness in treating customers, thanks to the
studious nature of over 20,000 employees across five continents who took the ownership of the brand and displayed
enormous organizational citizenship behavior. Emirates’ recruitment team was highly professional and meticulous to take on
the challenges in hiring the right talent from around the world whose value systems synchronized with that of the company
and assured a talent pool of human capital advantage. To this effect, the Emirates Cabin Crew Recruitment Team conducted
international assessments in different countries each month. This case study presents a scenario in which there was a
recruitment drive for Air Hostesses on an ‘Invitation Only Assessment Day’. From among the many aspirants, a selected few
were strategically picked by the HR team. The case discusses how the recruitment team found the person-organizational
fitment among its candidates to bring the best candidate on board even amidst strategic hiring deadlines and time constraints

How the recruiters need to be sharp enough to match the values of the individual job aspirants with the values of the
organization that gives the brand its unique human capital advantage? How the HR Strategy facilitates a value based hiring?

E.

Human resource is considered as the life line for any manufacturing plant. Sheetal Structurals Private Limited (SSPL) is a
tower manufacturing company based in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh. Three managers from production and planning department,
raw material department and dispatch department respectively, resigned from the company one after the other because of the
job offers made by an emerging competitor based in the National Capital Region. All of them were qualified and
experienced. Since the industry operates in a niche segment and not many experienced professionals are available in market,
hiring new workforce immediately was not feasible. In absence of any HR policies with respect to notice period and other
legal implications of sudden resignation, the employees of SSPL were quite vulnerable to poaching by its competitors. The
event had a severe repercussion on the day-to-day operations of the three departments. The unprecedented resignations
called for an urgent damage control and throwback on the policies and procedures adopted by the organization. The
organization also adopted preventive measures to retain its existing workforce.

Discuss role of motivational factors in retention of existing employees? Debate on the ethical code of conduct among
employees regarding job hopping ? Discuss importance of HR practices and policies regarding recruitment, notice period,
workforce retention in a manufacturing organization?

F.

Why do people prefer /buy iphones ?

Haven't you aspired for an iPhone or any of the Apple's products? Like you, aren't millions of people across the globe
devoutly waiting to buy an Apple product? Haven't you heard of people waiting in queues, even during peak winters, to buy
their first iPhone? Who are these people and what distinguishes these people from others? Are they brand advocates or
Apple's apostles? Or are they stupid? Since the first-generation iPhone was launched on June 29th 2007, nearly 1.2 billion
iPhones have been sold globally till March 2017 with cumulative sales revenues of about $800 billion. Undoubtedly, iPhone
maintained its pole position in mindshare over more than a decade. Apple's products - across its product categories - may not
be technologically superior to its pool of competitors, yet, they are vastly overpriced. What explains the premium pricing for
a similar functional brand? What then makes people aspire either for an iPhone or any of the Apple's products - Is it Apple's
ecosystem, or is iOS better than Android or is it iPhone’s design or are its product features better than any of its competitors
or is it its simplicity or is it its delightful and immersive experience or is it its resale value or is it its snobbish value? Is there
any pattern in what Apple had been doing over the decades in terms of its product categories? Not just that, Apple has found
billions of fans for its supremely designed products, even its fiercest competitor (Samsung makes the OLED display, NAND
Flash, and DRAM chips for iPhone X, making $110 for every iPhone X sold) didn't hesitate to embrace an opportunity to
work for it.

This Case must center around (a) The legacy of iPhone brand (b) Why people aspire to buy an iPhone or any of the Apple’s
products even though they may not be technologically very superior compared to its competitors? (c) What should iPhone do
to keep iPhone's aura going?

G.
Croma, the retail arm of Tata group became the sought-after retail brand for Consumer Durables and Information
Technology (CDIT) segment. Marketers of successful 21 st century brands continue to evolve and adapt every aspect of their
marketing programs to enhance brand equity. These marketers will develop a deep understanding of what makes their brand
successful, retaining enduring core elements while modifying peripheral elements that fail to add value or unnecessarily
absorb costs. The businesses that win in the 21st century will be those that have marketers who successfully build, measure
and manage brand equity.

Discuss the need and importance of multi-channel retailing in the context of changing Indian ‘Digital’ landscape in general
and for Croma in particular? how Croma deployed digital retailing strategy and analyze the benefits arising out of adopting a
multi-channel retailing approach to bolster its market penetration in CDIT sales ? debate on the relationship between omni-
channel retailing and multi-channel retailing and analyze Croma’s potential advantages and disadvantages thereof ?

H.

Mumbai Constructions Ltd. (MCL) was one of the oldest players in the field of construction, engineering and real estate in
India. The company had borrowed heavily from a consortium of 30 banks and financial institutions. Total amount of loan
taken from the consortium and outstanding as on September 30, 2016 was INR3,500 crore and the non-fund facilities
outstanding was INR2,800 crore. Though its order book was quite full and had the experience and expertise to execute
projects efficiently, profitability of the company fell down due to various factors and could not service the loans on time.
Lunar Bank was the leader of the consortium. Mr. Arya, General Manager (Credit) of the bank opined that if the loans given
to the company are restructured suitably under the Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A), it will help
the company to revive and service the loans. He was also sure that if the loans are not restructured, only a small amount can
be recovered and hence subsequent loss to the lenders will be heavy.

Arya had to draft a proposal for restructuring the loans of MCL under the S4A scheme and submit it to the board of Lunar
Bank and the members of the consortium for approval. The key issues that were matter of concern for him were
determination of sustainable debt (Part A) and unsustainable debt (Part B); number of equity shares to be issued by MCL to
the lenders as a part of converting Part B debt. Other issues were determining the value of equity shares in accordance with
the SEBI guidelines; ascertaining the amount of Part B debt that would be converted into Optionally Convertible Debentures
(OCDs); decision on providing additional working capital and Bank Guarantee (BG) to MCL; terms and conditions to be
stipulated in the restructuring package. Arya also wanted to analyse the historical financial statements of the company to find
out indicators that can be used as Early Warning Signs (EWS).

Discuss the consequences of financial distress of business firms and the need for restructuring loans ? describe the process
involved in restructuring loans ?