In 2016, Somany Ceramics Limited (SCL), a ceramic tile manufacturing company in India, needed industry-ready workers to meet the company’s expansion plan; however, the whole ceramics industry was affected by a shortage of labour. Most of the technically competent ceramics and construction personnel in India preferred to work in the construction industry or join other sectors such as information technology. The company’s human resources team needed .....more

Teaching note for product 9B18C025.

In June 2016, Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart Private Limited (Flipkart) faced a common issue among online retailers: the firm needed to optimize its product return rates to reduce losses caused by returns. Accordingly, Flipkart changed its return policy, including raising the commission fees charged to sellers by an average of 5 per cent. Many sellers resented the policy change, and more than 1,800 led an online protest against Flipkart, which was .....more

Teaching note for product 9B18A045.

Teaching note for product 9B17C023.

In 2016, India witnessed an intense war for talent acquisition in consulting when Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP (Deloitte) poached 20 partners and their teams—around 300 people in total—from KPMG India (KPMG). Deloitte offered a higher compensation to attract KPMG executives and lured partners with a salary jump in proportion to the number of team members they could bring from KPMG. The rivalry between the firms was fuelled by their desire to .....more

On November 1, 2015, the four founders of Kaps Foods India Private Limited (Kaps) invited external business consultants to a business strategy meeting. The ice cream industry was moving toward the premium segment of the market, and Kaps was eager to move out of its stagnant phase. However, two of the four founders were skeptical about the acceptance of the Kaps brand in the higher-end market. They believed that the market would always consider Kaps .....more

Teaching note for product 9B16A041.

Teaching note for product 9B16C013.

A tense situation arose in 2015 after a faculty member at the Premier School of Management in New Delhi, India, mistakenly emailed a test paper to a group email address that included the school’s students, faculty, and alumni. An alumna who received the email responded to the professor using the “reply to all” option. The tone of her email was considered to be disrespectful to the professor. The professor responded by sending his own “reply to all,” .....more