Strategic Management

GOC fashion was set up in 1985 to cater to the export market for women garments. Since then, fashion trends have been continuously changing. Today fashion has become synonymous with fast fashion. GOC fashion has been, accordingly, upgrading itself to meet the new challenges arising out of the changing and dynamic demands of buyers. Of late, it has worked on quick response processes in several areas of its supply chain striving for further improvement to move to the next level. Saurabh, Director of the company, is in a dilemma about the future course for the company. He knows that in the current competitive times, the company has to adapt to changing fashion and quick deliveries before the fashion fades. For this it needs continuous investments to cater to the fast changing fashion and pursuant stringent demand from the clients.

The Case narrates the plight of Mr.Huzefa Merchant the Founder CEO of Insync Retail Project Management Pvt. Ltd. who constantly modified his business according to the changes taking place in the Indian Economy. The challenges faced by him are both technical as well as economical and till date he has been able to stir his business in the right direction and the same required a lot of brain storming to chalk out the right plan and then strong will and determination to execute the same. The case gives a live scenario with live challenges faced by the organization. It gives a scope to understand how the external factors can totally change your way of doing business. It also brings out the importance of display in present retail formats. Mr. Merchant is again at the verge of bringing about major changes in his organization to survive and succeed as an Enterprise. The case is a teaching case and its potential audiences are Lifestyle Design Students, Retail Management students and professi...

Conventional banana farmers of Bihar face many challenges with regards to unavailability of credit, lack of quality saplings, training on improved package of practices and poor market linkages. These issues become critical amongst small and marginal farmers who have limited financial and institutional support. This leads to poor productivity and thus, low income. To address these issues, Umbrella Programme for Natural Resource Management (UPNRM),an Indo-German Development Cooperation programmesupported by NABARD, GIZ and KFW, brought out an Agripreneurship model for small and marginal banana farmers in Bhagalpur, Bihar. Under UPNRMprogramme loan and need based grant is provided to implementation agencies called as " Channel Partners " .Indian Rural Association (IRA) – a leading NGO working in Bihar and Jharkhand – approached NABARD with the proposal for Agripreneurship model for small and marginal banana farmers in Bhagalpur, Bihar. The agency identified 200 conventional banana farmers, mostly small and marginal farmers and provided them credit for introducing tissue culture banana cultivation with intercropping. The project also trained local Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs) to extract banana fibre from the pseudo-stem of banana which used to be considered as a waste material earlier. The project has significant positive impacted on the socioeconomic condition of banana farmers and has helped them to become Agripreneurs. The paper delves into the process of agripreneurshipwhere both NGO and farmers have taken risks, implemented new interventions, learnt together and created successful enterprise.

Conventional banana farmers of Bihar face many challenges with regards to unavailability of credit, lack of quality saplings, training on improved package of practices and poor market linkages. These issues become critical amongst small and marginal farmers who have limited financial and institutional support. This leads to poor productivity and thus, low income. To address these issues, Umbrella Programme for Natural Resource Management (UPNRM),an Indo-German Development Cooperation programmesupported by NABARD, GIZ and KFW, brought out an Agripreneurship model for small and marginal banana farmers in Bhagalpur, Bihar. Under UPNRMprogramme loan and need based grant is provided to implementation agencies called as " Channel Partners " .Indian Rural Association (IRA) – a leading NGO working in Bihar and Jharkhand – approached NABARD with the proposal for Agripreneurship model for small and marginal banana farmers in Bhagalpur, Bihar. The agency identified 200 conventional banana farmers, mostly small and marginal farmers and provided them credit for introducing tissue culture banana cultivation with intercropping. The project also trained local Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs) to extract banana fibre from the pseudo-stem of banana which used to be considered as a waste material earlier. The project has significant positive impacted on the socioeconomic condition of banana farmers and has helped them to become Agripreneurs. The paper delves into the process of agripreneurshipwhere both NGO and farmers have taken risks, implemented new interventions, learnt together and created successful enterprise.

Innovation is imperative today as a key tool for creating winning organisations globally. With many global auto players setting up operations in India in the last ten years, Indian companies are now exposed to manufacturing excellence techniques used globally. They need to scale up on innovations to remain competitive and create winning organisations. It would also be important to assess where we stand, identify areas of improvements with respect to global benchmarks and then workout an action plan to have a transition to global levels to build winning organisations. This paper, through an exploratory empirical study, identifies drivers of innovation through a cross sector study. Further, it attempts to probe as to where does Indian auto component industry stand on innovation by suggesting an innovation quotient (InQ) and then measuring them over InQ; what are the enablers and barriers of innovation and what strategy should the industry and the company adopt to accelerate innovation and have transition to reach global benchmarks to create world class winning sustainable organisations.

plays an important role in improving healthcare system for the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illnesses. However, very little research has examined the underlying factors of the consumption of TCM among consumers. This conceptual paper proposed a model which aims to understand the key constructs that influence the consumption of the TCM. The model comprises three key constructs, namely consumer perception towards TCM, consumer perception towards conventional medicine and illness perception of consumer. Relationships between these constructs are discussed, which will be empirically tested in future research. also pointed out that patient with diabetes mellitus believed that TCM offers more personal autonomy and control over their disease. It implies the important of holistic balance view of TCM and the users' participation in improving their general health condition. TCM users also agreed that TCM focused on healing illnesses and applying systems approach which considers the multitude of factors in the social and cultural environment of the patient (Singh, Raidoo and Harries, 2004). Chinese medication also considered to be good for some milder illnesses and also better for 'clearing' the disease (Lam, 2001). Mohamed et al. (2012) revealed that majority of respondents agreed that TCM for aphrodisiac purposes was cheaper than conventional medicine and also easily available in Malaysia. Hence, further research on the impacts of consumer perception towards TCM on the usage of TCM is very useful to understand the use of TCM among consumers.

A Dwarf Gobbles up a Giant – Tata Steel acquires Corus!
At a steel industry event in Paris in 2003, L.N. Mittal spoke about a world where a handful of
players would account for 80-100 million tonnes (mt) of capacity each and have a footprint across
all major continents. At that time, Mittal Steel itself produced less than 40 mt. Not many thought it
feasible then.
In less than three years, the dynamics have changed, and how. Mittal Steel has since become
Arcelor Mittal with a capacity of over 100 mt. The top five global steel players now have more
than 20 per cent of global production (about 1.1 billion tonne). And Tata Steel, 56th in the pecking
order, has just picked up Corus, ranked No. 9, after outbidding the Brazilian Steel company,
CSN’s final bid of 605 pence per share with its bid of 608 pence. The deal amounted to $12.1
billion and the combined entity of Tata-Corus is now No. 5 in the world steel sector.
On the morning of 31st January, 2007 – the morning after clinching the deal - a tired but
exuberant Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Group, exulted:
“I am glad, we are able to win the auction. I think it is a moment of great fulfillment for all of us in
India because Tata Steel as an Indian steel company now has global scale. An Indian company
has successfully bid for a European Steel company, much larger in tonnage size than itself. It is
something that has never happened before.”
The deal has triggered off a wave of reports on further consolidation. CSN, which lost out to the
Tatas, is not likely to give up its aspirations. Arcelor Mittal and Posco have held talks on possible
areas of co-operation, though Posco denied any merger. Nippon and Posco reportedly have a
white knight agreement, by which they have agreed to come to each other’s rescue in the event
of a predatory bid. Says Philippe Varin, chief executive, Corus: “This is a moving picture and is
changing very quickly.”

It was October, 2000, the siren blew at 2.30 pm and the employees of morning shift were leaving the factory after their duty. Dr. Sahay, Chairman & Managing Director of Scooters India Ltd. Looked through the glass window of his corner room and was wondering if he could make the company profitable and secure their jobs through infusion of home grown incremental technology. Can this incremental technology sustain in the long run. He knew the only way Scooter India Ltd. (SIL) could survive was to take an aggressive position in the market through new products and technologies but where to get the required technology? With liberalisation, the global technology developers/owners were no more interested in technology transfer. In-house as well indigenous collaborative efforts had reached their limits. Questions like what should be his strategy, will the strategy be the panacea for the problems the company would be facing in future were moving in his mind's screen. He sought an answer, but only time will tell. About the company Incorporated in 1972, Scooters India Limited is an ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001

In recent years, the world tourism has been affected by the terrorist activities in many countries. It has been a global phenomenon. There is hardly any tourist destination in the world which is not suffering because of terrorism. Security of tourist is a major concern for tourism industry. In India, the terrorist attack are mainly aimed at breaking communal harmony, destabilising the society, the political system and the economy. It can have the devastating effect on the economy of the country. If such terrorist attacks are recurrent, then it will drastically decline the tourism demand in the country. Long-term solutions lies in creating enough employment in the lower strata of tourism sector which not only will avert the probability of youth taking to terrorism but will also contribute to the growth of tourism creating a virtues spiral. This article, after dealing with tourism industry, particularly in Indian context, delves into the trends in tourism and how they have been affected by the terrorist attack in various countries.

During the last century businesses have grown phenomenally. Some of them having annual
budget higher than GDP of many developing countries. On the other hand many of them not only
moved down from Fortune 500/ Global 500 list but disappeared from this club. Those who have
sustained and grew have been observed to be serving not only to stockholders but society at
large. Social responsibility assumed by the businesses have paid them rich dividend over a long
period. This has led to a new discipline of management discipline of ‘Corporate Social
Responsibility’, which has become part of management course in many institutions. Off late the
companies have given a new dimension to CSR by aligning the same to the core businesses
strategies. CSR has moved quite far from the religion/ philanthropy and today is in the domain of
the strategy. Companies have started reporting their CSR activities in their annual reports along
with the financial results. They have understood it well that, financial performance is entwined
with good social and environmental performance. However, there still is not sufficient literature
to understand the symbiotic relationship between economic and social performance. The present
paper makes an attempt to conceptualize the evolution of CSR as a notion.

This paper tracks the story of Mr. Anil Agarwal, Chairman, Vedanta Resources, who was a shy lad studying in a School in Patna, Bihar. His move to Bombay and his amazing entrepreneurial run thereafter to the position of the Chairman of Vedanta Resources Plc, the number 2 global diversified mining company has been captured in this case; emphasis being on his last act, that of growth through the acquisition of Cairn India Ltd. It is a teaching case where issues related to entrepreneurship like idea, ambition, risk, reward, financing, technology, growth etc. have been dealt with. The main objective of this case was to make students learn what corporate entrepreneurship is and how a corporate entrepreneur acts. Though, the case has been mainly written for teaching corporate entrepreneurship, it can also be used for teaching Alliances, Acquisition or Growth strategy.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to attempt to develop a framework that will help managers to design firm level corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives which can be of strategic interest for an organisation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews concepts from the domains of strategic management and CSR literature. The concepts are deliberated and analyzed to build up a strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework. The article starts by identifying the salient stakeholders of a firm, based on the three stakeholder attributes of power, legitimacy, and urgency. The framework then talks about the identification of a firm's interest in CSR, on the basis of firm value chain, context of competitiveness and intention of creating new business opportunities. Finally, this literature talks about the expected benefits to be achieved by carrying out strategic CSR initiatives. Findings – In a competitive atmosphere, it is important to utilize the firm resources in a proper manner and for a worthy cause. The undertaking of CSR initiatives calls for the sacrifice of firm resources. Resources are scarce and valuable. Managers can design CSR initiatives in a number of ways. But the real challenge for managers is to design firm CSR strategy in such a manner that it helps address a social issue and also provides the organization with some business benefits. Originality/value – Though managers are aware of the need and benefits of undertaking strategic CSR, a comprehensive theoretical framework which can guide CSR managers to design and implement CSR activities for strategic gains is not present. This study provides for such an integrated framework from the stage of identification of stakeholders, to the design of CSR, to the nature of strategic gains to be incurred.

Social entrepreneurship is well practiced and talked about in emerging economies. However, till date, no dedicated review and conceptual framework exists, synthesizing and integrating past social entrepreneurship research in the fast growing emerging economies, commonly known as BRIICS (Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China, and South Africa). The purpose of this article is to bridge that gap by conducting an integrative review of 123 most relevant peer-reviewed scholarly articles, filtered out of 1779 search results in six different research databases. Country-specific conceptual perspectives have been extracted and integrated to formulate a novel social entrepre-neurship framework that is inclusive of five key social entrepreneurship dimensions emerging from these economies: (a) Social Welfare, (b) Social Capital, (c) Social Entrepreneur, (d) Economic Value Creation, and (e) Collective Endurance. This exercise was an initiative to facilitate the global community of social entrepreneurship researchers and practitioners in understanding the diversity, meaning, and evolution of the social entrepreneurship phenomenon in the context of emerging economies. They can advance research in this domain with the aid of the proposed framework and the research questions proposed for future research. Int Entrep Manag J https://doi.

Conventional banana farmers of Bihar face many challenges with regards to unavailability of credit, lack of quality saplings, training on improved package of practices and poor market linkages. These issues become critical amongst small and marginal farmers who have limited financial and institutional support. This leads to poor productivity and thus, low income. To address these issues, Umbrella Programme for Natural Resource Management (UPNRM),an Indo-German Development Cooperation programmesupported by NABARD, GIZ and KFW, brought out an Agripreneurship model for small and marginal banana farmers in Bhagalpur, Bihar. Under UPNRMprogramme loan and need based grant is provided to implementation agencies called as "Channel Partners".Indian Rural Association (IRA)a leading NGO working in Bihar and Jharkhandapproached NABARD with the proposal for Agripreneurship model for small and marginal banana farmers in Bhagalpur, Bihar. The agency identified 200 conventional banana farmers, mostly small and marginal farmers and provided them credit for introducing tissue culture banana cultivation with intercropping. The project also trained local Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs) to extract banana fibre from the pseudo-stem of banana which used to be considered as a waste material earlier. The project has significant positive impacted on the socio-economic condition of banana farmers and has helped them to become Agripreneurs. The paper delves into the process of agripreneurshipwhere both NGO and farmers have taken risks, implemented new interventions, learnt together and created successful enterprise. 2

Biogas is a futuristic renewable energy with high market potential due to wide scale availability of organic biomass, and for facilitating countries in meeting sustainable development goals related with creating and providing access to renewable energy. It has potential of being developed as a vehicular fuel or for generating electricity that can be injected into power grids. Despite its prospect, it faces criticism, such as limited contributions in reducing carbon emissions as compared to solar and wind. Consequentially, for higher efficiency and for better commercialization, it is impending not only to upgrade raw biogas but also utilize the energy value of off-gas. Currently available methods have high operating costs and are energy intensive, limiting the commercial applications of biogas. This review is aimed at presenting the state-of-art upgradation technologies currently available and the ones which are promising. It also discusses the future perspectives for overcoming the challenges associated with upgradation.