The Exotic Melons:

You are the manager (Worldwide Sales Cock and Bull Melons) in a Dubai-based company that deals
in selling exotic fruits. Cock and Bull Melons are a special variety of melons that can be cultivated
only on the sandy dunes surrounding the Cock and Bull oasis in the Sahara desert. Worldwide
demand and supply have been quite stable so far at 100 melons a year, with the supply being just
sufficient to cover the demand.
Cock and Bull Melons have traditionally been sold to the sheikhs in the Middle East, and Hollywood
and Bollywood actors and actresses. Their exorbitant prices take them out of reach of common
people.
In January 2002, the research centre at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), India discovers that
Cock and Bull melons can cure the fatal MarGaya syndrome in pregnant women, which kills both he
mother and the child. Also, it can cure the fatal MaraGaya syndrome in diabetic patients. Both these
symptoms are very rare. Unfortunately for you, in May 2002, the MaraGaya syndrome strikes 2000
people in America and the MarGaya syndrome strikes 1000 pregnant women in Sweden. 100 Cock
and Bull melons are required to cure the 1000 cases in America while 100 are required to cure the
Swedish problem. You know that the patients in both the countries cannot afford the high cost of
Cock and Bull melon treatment. You also know that the revenues from treating patients would be
much lower than selling them to sheikhs and film stars.
You are in a real dilemma. What would you do?

 Confidential Information?
Mr. SecretKeeper is a Corporate Head (HR) in a company. He is very nice and gets along well with
all people. People often consult him for help and advice. One person (named “Mr. A”) approaches
him for a job because he is right now jobless. Mr. SecretKeeper takes the guy's qualifications and
asks him to come after a week however, since no job available. He keeps frequently postponing the
job offer. Mr. A keeps visiting the HR head, Mr. Secret Keeper, often and becomes his close friend.
Then, one day, Mr. A confides with the HR Head “I was in prison for 18 years for a crime that I had
not committed. With two years remaining of the sentence, I ran away from jail. Even now, police is
in look out for me.” Mr. SecretKeeper tells the person to go home and that he would give him a job.
However as soon as he leaves, Mr. SecretKeeper calls up the police and gives the details of Mr. A
and asks them to arrest Mr. A.
Because of this betrayal of trust by the HR head, people in the organization have started losing faith
in him. A senior person in the office complains to the VP that the Mr. Secret Keeper has “broken
faith”, so others could not come to him.
Assume that you are the VP of the company. What would you do about the situation?
 In a fix!
You are the young dynamic, blue-eyed boy (girl) in a firm, which is a known leader in the industrial
oils business. Under your leadership, the company has done extremely well in a slow, sluggish,
mature market and has also effectively warded off competition from the superior industrial oil
segment.
However, as a young blooded individual, you decide that the company should branch into something
more glamorous and contemporary. You manage to convince the top management to get into the
film-making business.
The film-making business is started as another division, where the systems and processes are kept the
same to have uniformity across businesses. You manage to hire top talent in this field Mr. A, Mr. B
and Mr. C from different competitors. You have big hopes from the trio as these people have come
together as a team for the first time. You grant every freedom to these people to recruit their own
subordinates.
Barely a month after the film-making business has started, you are in a fix! Mr. B throws his cap,
sheds a zillion tears and tells you in a choked voice that he would rather die than continue with your
business. A couple of months later Mr. C blames your policies and quits.
Your six monthly profit and loss statement shows that film-making business had been a horrific
disaster. The only remaining member of the star trio, Mr. A says that the business is slightly out of
form and that he might deliver if you grant him complete freedom.
You can now see your own future as dark as the industrial oils your company specializes in. You are
wondering what went wrong and what should you do now?

 Tension on the job:

Sujit Bhattacharyya (Bhola) had been an exceptionally bright student throughout his studies at IIT-
Kharagpur. He devoted four years in pursuit of academic excellence. He had very few friends. Few
peers liked him, but he was the darling of all his professors. Bhola joined TELCO from the campus
as production supervisor in charge of vehicle assembly. Bhola used to manage shop floor operations
consisting of truck assembly and in a shift 30-33 operator used to report to him. The IQ level of a
typical operator could be compared to that of a class VIII student, but years of experience had made
them confident about their job.
The operators, by virtue of doing the same job for so many years, had developed a highly robotic
style of functioning and were highly resistant to change. The trade union was powerful and exercised
a lot of leverage with the management, to secure incentives and overtime payment, which were fixed
at a uniform rate across the departments.
Nilesh was an operator in charge of front axle assembly. The number of trucks that rolled out of the
factory was equal to the number of axles assembled. Thus, Nilesh was looking after a highly
sensitive assembly operation. Nilesh, lately, had lost a lot of money in the stock market, had frequent
quarrels with his wife and many times used to come drunk to the shop floor. His abrasive behavior
had caused a lot of worry to Bhola. Nilesh also started absenting himself from duty and became
casual in his approach. Subsequently, Nilesh was transferred to the quality control department to
reduce his physical workload. Bhola found it very difficult to find a suitable replacement for Nilesh
in the assembly area. He had to frequently interchange workers who were unable to cope with the
high pressure work at the axle assembly. They deliberately started going slow, and thereby, affected
productivity. Bhola did his best to pinpoint the problem. He was under tremendous pressure from the
top to increase productivity to previous levels.
The workers started demanding additional incentives and overtime payments. The management, on
the other hand, was opposed to any change in the incentive structure. Bhola was helpless. He tried his
best and at times did the work himself. The workers, sensing that Bhola had little control over them,
became more aggressive and further slowed their work. Bhola suffered an emotional breakdown and
had to stay away from work for two months.
Discuss what the main issues in the case are and what would be your approach in this situation.

Several characters are responsible for a man’s death in different ways. First, give individual rankings and then discuss with the
group to rank the characters on their guiltiness.
Case:
1) Francis – suffers heart attack, but dies after reaching hospital
2) Wife – takes husband to hospital but delays journey
3) Doctor – Refuses to treat patient citing long work hours
4) Hospital Admin – Refuses to admit patient without advance payment
5) Insurance Co agent – refuses to compensate for death due to policy issues
6) Law Makers – made the laws that resulted in flawed insurance policy
7) Citizens – lobby-ed for changing govt policy to cut expenditure
A plane has crashed in the jungles of Assam. There are only 7 survivors, including you, pilot & a bleeding lady. Except you & the
bleeding lady, everybody else (i.e. rest 5 survivors) wants to become the leader of this group to decide the future course of
action. Everybody has brought some of the other useful item (like map, torch, gun etc.) with him/her. Each one is briefly
described in the case (their qualities and all). So, the group need to discuss on who would be the
leader.

https://insideiim.com/forums/topic/interview-experiences-itc/