Andrew Marshall stood at the window of his office looking out over the shipyard, which lay beyond it. The yard belonged to Balcombe & Lane, the company he owned and of which he was general manager. Until last year the yard had been a busy place, with men going to and fro and the constant sound of riveters’ hammers and cutting tools throughout the day. But the yard was quiet now; there was no work,

Ulthak, a small non-descript village in Jalaun District, Uttar Pradesh. Like most villages across the country, this village too had erratic power supply. There had been no electricity for the last two days. However at Umed Baug, the village’s largest house, the solar panels installed on the rooftops powered the ceiling fans.

Thursday, 26 July 2009, 1:30 pm, Mumbai. Black rain clouds, swift winds, and bolts of thunder– the dreary and dark climate complemented Mithun Agarwal’s bleak mood as he was driving home for a quick lunch.

December 2004 : Ajeesh Joshi was ruminating about the future of his business, Srishti D’ Studio, a growing design and marketing consultancy services firm founded eighteen years ago. He looked out of the window of his cozy, upmarket office in Lucknow and replayed in his mind a conversation he had with his friend a couple of days back, ...

Camp Alegria, 12 December 2004. The hallowed home ground of FC Pampalona, one of Spain’s most powerful and popular football clubs was packed to its capacity. The crowd was eagerly waiting for the game to start. The high energy levels and the festive atmosphere were almost palpable. Pampalona (popularly called Pampa) were playing their traditional and fiercest rival Real Fedrick...

October 24 2007. It was 7:30 pm on a fine Wednesday evening and Bhulabhai Desai road, in the plush South Mumbai district, was bustling with activity. The various high end showrooms situated on the road were crowded with customers shopping for the festive season. A colorfully lit, six storied modern, sleek, chrome and glass building stood out among the other older buildings. It was the corporate headquarters of Her Corporation, which owned the famous Her chain of stores across India.

Digital Telecom, a leading integrated telecommunication company, is examining the option of adopting an e-recruitment system to increase all-round productivity and reduce costs. But will such a system fulfill all the company’s human resource needs?

Should this Institute of Higher Learning implement the Other Backward Caste (OBC) reservation quota; will it not be tantamount to diluting its brand identity? Here's a case study that presents the pros and cons of doing so, welcoming suggestions from students as also our experts.

Monday , 04 April 2005 9:30a.m,. Sanjay Gupta, Head - Group Human Resources, Questra Technologies, mentally ran through the agenda for the final review meeting of the year-long merger and integration initiative that his company had undertaken. In 2004, when he was given charge of the project, many skeptics had warned him about the pitfalls awaiting him.

It is 8:45am on 05 March 2007. Kulvinder Singh was fine tuning his presentation with his deputy Sriram Iyer. He quickly ran through the presentation, gathered his laptop and headed towards the boardroom. Iyer wished him luck as he closed the door of his cabin. As the Chief Strategist of Universal, India's third largest bank he had an important role to play in the day's meeting.

It was ten o'clock in the night and the CEO of Ghosh Gilts and Securities (GGS), Shatrupa Bhattacharya, was still in her office in Kolkata. This was a normal routine for her, and she had just finished talking with Anuradha Raman, her HR head

Advaith Hariharan, Fresh Feel’s marketing manager, ordered his second cup of coffee and gazed at the beautiful Arabian Sea. At 5:30 in the afternoon in January, it was calm and blue. Whenever he was in a mood to think strategy, he loved to relax by the sea side.

South Indian Foods had emerged as a private limited company in the Indian market with a strong product line in 1989. Though the company started with only three products, it offered twelve products by 1997. The company has successfully achieved to penetrate in Indian market. It is now planning to expand further by going international. What should be its strategy?

Garuda Udyog’s entry into the Indian passenger car market was a biggest success in the small car segment. It is now planning to expand further by investing in projects for the next four to five years. However, it has to decide whether to rely more on debt or equity capital to finance these projects.

Risk is central to all business life, but takes on a new dimension in speculative businesses such as stock broking and trading. Trustworthy Securities has extensive, high-tech IT systems in place for risk management and surveillance. Yet will these be enough to tackle the real causes of malpractice? Read on to learn more about fraud in the financial services industry, and how to tackle it…

Prime Bank is a classic case faced by most of the banking sector illustrates issues of services guarantee, service failure and service recovery.

There are two trade unions at Alpha Automobiles. Miffed at not having their way during talks over new productivity policies, one union calls for a strike. The strike eventually fizzles out but its shadow lies over the next round of talks three years later.

When a global ink maker entered the Indian market, it decided to bypass dealers. It rapidly won customers, market share and profits. But at a high cost. Soon it saw its market share under pressure from disgruntled dealers. How can it win back the high ground?

Can innovation be planned? Top management and stakeholders want predictable results, but researchers insist the process of discovery is uncertain and unpredictable. That's the dilemma facing this biotech

Vizual is India's biggest color television maker. Today its market share and margins are under pressure. Can it win back, ground in this war for the Indian couch potato?

PennyPost has an extensive network and large capacity. Yet it was unable to make a dent amongst customers. What should be the strategy of PennyPost to take on the competition and survive in the existing scenario?

CoalitionBank of Botswana was facing severe pressure on many fronts. Recognizing that the globalization of economy was there to stay the top management decided to embark on a transformation journey involving radical changes in strategy, structure and system of the bank. The dilemma the bank faces now is whether the strategic management consultants they hired have dealt with the right issues or if they have missed anything.

A new chain of department stores opened with much fanfare but six months later, the cash tills are not ringing they way they should. How can Stellar Department Stores attract locals to visit the new retail outlets?

How can a small scale enterprise with limited resources and no trained HR manager create a learning organization? That is the challenge facing Melvin Miranda, a man with his heart in the right place, but one who can't seem to get the right solutions

A large public sector bank has been put up for sale by the government. Which bid should Arjun and his team pick as the winning bid and why?

Fair Foods Limited, a foods retail company is at a critical stage. The IT savvy three-year-old enterprise has been growing rapidly in all major metros and has an extensive customer base. With competition increasing in the retail food space the question facing CEO Mukesh Dikshit is whether a CRM initiative is the best way forward

e-Maze is a typical family firm with a caring, practical, yet authoritative father and a loving, ambitious, modern son. Their objectives are the same but the beliefs and outlooks of each are so different that this results in conflicts, leading to a tense relationship, lack of trust and disillusionment about the business' future.

Cash rich COFC, India's most profitable public sector company, requires funds to implement its ambitious expansion plans. Government with 96% stake in COFC asks the company to declare a special dividend to fund its fiscal deficits. A special dividend at this juncture would derail the company's growth. In whose favor should the Board of COFC take a decision?

A foreign bank wants to help improve a city. But will the loan be a disaster or a boon?

B-school ranking has recently become a booming business in India. The different methodologies used and varying results have created a confusion of sorts in the minds of recruiters and students alike. The question of authenticity in methodologies used, as well as the perceived gaps in the parameters of the survey are the issues at hand. This is the dilemma facing Andrew Ambercombie, Group Director HR, Sinclair International.

You have started a new job and added value to the company. While your company recognizes your efforts it is unwilling to translate this into monetary rewards as promised. This is the dilemma facing Manish an engineering graduate who has joined AB Compventure Private Limited, as a sales executive. What should be Manish's next step? Should he continue or resign?

The hottest radio station in India did everything right. Within months of entering a new market, it managed to establish a cool brand, acquire the right customers, gain market share and attract over a hundred advertisers. Yet its financials were still risky. The root issue facing Ashok Amrit is how to grow the market and retain his talented but antsy employees. What would you do?

The Sierra Power Project was one of India's most prestigious projects, and Manoj Seth is one of India's leading bankers. But now the project is in danger of becoming the bank's biggest non-performing asset (NPA). In this situation, what should Manoj Sheth do?

A growing business needs strong processes and clear performance parameters. But can you grow leaders through protocols, however well through out they may be? This was the dilemma facing the Monarch Hotel Group. Read on…

Aneez Dastoor, CEO of Delicas, a confectionary making company, wants to scale up operations. A large part of the company's business processes are outsourced to its advantage. But just when Delicas is growing and getting ready ahead of competition, its business partners are letting it down. Top management has to decide what role BPO should pay in the company's growth strategy

Every successful company faces this dilemma at some point. Once it has established a profitable business, it has to expand outside its home turf. Should it go it alone, or take a partner? Keen to internationalize their helmet making company, Hari Singh and his brother Ravi are taken aback by the range of challenges which came up

Markex.com is an online B2B exchange for the automotive industry facing a big challenge. Its biggest customers have banded together to start a rival exchange. In this David-and-Goliath fight, should it diversify or slug it out? In either option, what should be its strategy?

Bharat Industries has to upgrade its IT infrastructure. Should it buy packaged ERP software or should it invest in a customer built solution?

For the CEO of Eastern Lloyds Bank, it’s nightmare come true. His bank is involved in a major scam and the media seems to know more about what’s happening inside the bank then he does. He has to protect the bank, find the culprit and face the media. In this crisis, is Douglas Edwards getting the right advice from his communications head?

Acquisition talks are at an advanced stage between two software giants when the HRD head of the acquiring company demands a place at the negotiating table. What impact will her inclusion in the team have on the deal?

The Indian pharmaceutical industry is at a crossroad today. New global opportunities beckon but would seizing them be strategically wise in the long term? Should Indian companies move up the value curve in India in search of high profits or move down the value curve internationally to get volume and a piece of the world's market share? It's a classic dilemma.