“Indiahikes: Treading the untrodden trail”, a case developed by Prof Swapnil Garg, Associate Professor, Strategic Management, and Prof Sanjeev Tripathi, Associate Professor, Marketing, Sports Management, at IIM Indore, was the Overall Winner across categories in the ISB-Ivey Global Case Competition this year, bagging a $3,000 cash prize.
The professors, who took part in the Himalayan Mountain Challenge organised by Indiahikes in 2017, were intrigued by the story behind Indiahikes and initiated a project to document its journey. They wrote about the trekking portal, its expansion across the Himalayas, and its Green Trails initiative.
The case study describes Indiahikes founder, Arjun Majumdar’s early efforts, through Blogspot, to make people aware of the wonders of trekking in India, especially its transforming effects on student and corporate groups. It outlines the challenges Indiahikes faces, given the remoteness of its operations, working in extreme weather conditions and unpredictable circumstances, and highlights the growth opportunities, focussing on how the organisation can expand without compromising on core values.
Second prize
Winning second place in the Overall category was “Thyrocare: Disrupting the Indian Diagnostic Industry”, authored by Prof Suresh Srinivasan, Director-PGDM and Professor, Strategy, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, with Swathi Agarwal and Sameera Sepuri, from PGPM Class of 2018. The winners get a $2000 cash prize.
The case describes Thyrocare’s unique model, how it disrupted the Indian diagnostic industry and the managerial decisions required to sustain its competitive advantage. The issue was analysed from the perspectives of healthcare, diagnostics, strategy, competitive advantage, leadership, corporate culture and disruption.
The ISB-Ivey Global Case Competition has been jointly conducted from 2010 by the Centre for Learning and Management Practice, at the Indian School of Business, and Ivey Business School, Western University, Ontario, Canada. The annual contest identifies and publishes the best India-centric cases from around the world.
Prof Srinivasan said the competition called for original cases based on an Indian business situation highlighting a management dilemma the organisation faces. It is expected to provide pertinent background information that can drive an enriching classroom discussion aimed at finding solutions to the problem. He said the case was, as all such cases should be, accompanied by a note suggesting a teaching plan with clear objectives, indicating the level of analysis (MBA, executive education), student assignments and possible discussion points.
Srinivasan added: “The awesome environment created by founder and Dean Padma Shri Dr Bala V Balachandran at Great Lakes is most conducive to high-end research and industry-academia cooperation, and is vital in enabling faculty and students to produce internationally acclaimed research output.”
India-centric cases
A note on ISB’s website says: “A panel of internationally acclaimed subject experts shortlist the cases in a double-blind review process and provide written feedback on each case. The top cases are distributed to a global audience of business schools through Ivey Publishing and Harvard Publishing. The competition has been instrumental in building and refining case writing capability among B-school faculty submitting cases to the competition.”
This year’s competition received 100 well-written case entries that documented business challenges from institutions across India, Malaysia, Netherlands and the US.
Winners in specific categories
Apart from the overall contest toppers, two other teams won under the Marketing and Human Resource Management categories, bagging a $1,000 prize each. The marketing case on “NAPPA DORI: Crafting the Branding Strategy”, was written by Neena Sondhi, Professor at International Management Institute, New Delhi, and Rituparna Basu, Associate Professor at International Management Institute, Kolkata.
This case describes theenergy of the indigenous leather goods brand that focuses on affordable luxury. It outlines the brand’s journey so far and its potential to become a full-grown international brand with India at its core. The case reflects the passion of young entrepreneur Gautam Sinha, and his faith in the Indian consumer who takes pride in sporting Indian brands that match the best in the world.
In a first, the same author duo also features among the honourable mentions in the overall category, for a second case on “Saregama India Ltd: Repositioning the Value Proposition,” relating the turnaround story of India's oldest music company.
In the HRM category, Bishakha Majumdar, Assistant Professor, Organizational Behaviour & Human Resource, FORE School of Management, New Delhi, and Debolina Dutta, Research Scholar, Indian Institute of Management Udaipur, were awarded for their case on “ iimjobs.com : Integrated Analytics for Talent Management?” iimjobs.com is a leading platform for premium jobs and job-seekers across industries. Leveraging information available on its site and using advanced analytics, the company came up with a way to provide integrated recruitment solutions to organisations. The case explores the strategic choices the firm faces as it plans to launch this solution. It highlights the use of analytics in today’s recruitment processes and the resources available in talent management analytics for HR personnel.