Practice Case Studies: Short

Improve your decision making skills by solving these short case

studies

• In a public sector company, the workers are very lazy and do not do their allotted
jobs in the stipulated time. The vice-president calls the manager and questions him
about the situation. The manger says that the workers are bored with their jobs and
their salary is not adequate. He is not willing to take a decision. What should the
V.P. do? Who is at fault? Devise a solution.

• A software company was entering a new area of MIS. This company had a good
reputation in the software areas. The company won a contract for MIS for a
pharmaceutical company. The project was scheduled for completion in one year.
But after 8 months a large part of the project was incomplete. Not completing the
project on schedule will bring loss of face and litigation for the company. What
should be the company do?
• Mr. A works in a multinational firm where he is Senior Manager (Production).
Recently, Ms. B was appointed Vice President of the company, with Mr. A reporting
to Ms. B. Due to some problem in the production line, Ms. B requests a late
evening meeting with Mr. A. When Mr. A goes for the meeting, Ms. B makes some
inappropriate advances on him. Mr. A promptly reports the matter to company HR
manager. The HR manager finds it hard to believe Mr. A's story and along with Ms.
B, accuses him of inappropriate conduct. The matter has leaked to the press and is
causing bad publicity for the company. What should the company do?

• A person with software skills gets a job in a hardware firm, on a temporary basis.
He is not doing well and is feared to be sacked within one year. His boss gives him
letters of recommendation to apply elsewhere. At the end of the year, when is to be
thrown out, he files a case against the firm, showing the recommendation letters.
How will the company come out of this mess?
• Mr. X has a distinguished academic record and excels in sports and other extra-
curricular activities since childhood. He joined ABC as salesman. In the company it
was noticed he was conceited and his interaction with other people was not exactly
cordial. He was indifferent to suggestions from superiors and subordinates.
However, he was a star performer as salesmen and always crossed targets, in the
time he had spent with the company. The company needs a new regional sales
manager to improve the performance of a loss-making region, should they appoint
him?

• The M.D.'s driver had been with the company for 25 years. He was very good at his
job. One day he took the car home after dropping the M.D. late at night. While
driving him, he accidentally kills a girl crossing the road. Although it was not his
mistake, the court punishes him. The personnel officer in the company
recommends dismissal. What should the company do? Retain him or fire him?
• A restaurant owner is currently setting up a new restaurant. For the restroom, he
has three options: paper towels, roller towels and hot air dryers. Dryers have an
initial cost of Rs. 500 each and monthly service charges of Rs. 100. Paper towels
cost 5 paisa and the number of paper towels used varies directly with the number
of customers. Toweling rolls cost Rs. 5 per roll and will be changed daily. Which
option should the owner go for considering this is going to be a posh restaurant?
• Mr. A buys a two-storied house which already has two tenants residing in it. The
tenants refuse to vacate the premises even after notices and reminders. On court's
order, the ground floor is vacated to enable Mr. A to shift to his new house.
However, the tenants on upper floor have made life a living hell for Mr. A. The
upper floor tenants have secured a stay order in the case. Mr. A's lawyers, in
connivance with the tenants, have suggested him to reach for a out-of-court
settlement by paying hefty amount to the tenants. Mr. A is unable to pay such a
huge amount. What should Mr. A do?
• John was the personnel executive of a reputed bank and had been working there
for 15 years. During this period he had developed a good rapport with the
subordinates. The subordinates commonly sought his help for their personal
problems. Frank was a clerk and had been working with the bank for the past 20
 years. One day, Frank went to John and confessed to him an event of his past. He
said that when he was a teenager, he was caught stealing and had been
sentenced to prison for 2 years. But he escaped from the prison, when 6 months
were left. This had been a secret since, but he often had nightmares and he asked
John to help him. John expelled Frank from the bank and handed him over the
police. When the Vice-President came to know about John's actions, he sacked
John on the grounds that he had breached the faith of the employee. John wrote a
letter to the President explaining that he was not a priest and so cannot be
expected to remain confidential. Since Frank was a runaway convict he had done
his social duty by handing him over to the police. Moreover, it was company's
policy not to employ any ex-convicts. Since all his actions were justified, he should
be reinstated. What should the president do?
• Illingworth is a engineer in forging division of BAB, an engineering company. He
has been working in the organization for the last 6 years and has been consistently
rated as one of the most innovative employees of the organization. Illingworth
came out with a proposal to import 2 forges from Germany which could save a lot
of money and increase productivity of the organization. The management gives an
in principle approval. Illingworth goes ahead and orders for the import. At the close
of financial year, Mr. Rarely the chairman gets to know that the financial position of
the company is not sound and that he has to curtail unnecessary expenditure. Mr.
Rarely calls Illingworth and says that the management is not supporting his project
which is going to cost the company 4.5 Cr. Illingworth is held responsible for the
decision to import the forges. What happens to the project initiated by Illingworth?
• Litson, a textile company is relocated from Murray to Fairley due to high labour
costs. It Advertises for posts at the new location and gets around 500 applications
out which 260 were selected. Three other companies in the same region lose their
competent employees to Litson. They accuse Litson of foul practices. One of the
three companies which have lost its employees to Litson is a customer of Litson
and accounts for 18% of the market share of Litson's products. This company
threatens to cancel all its orders to Litson, if he doesn't restrain from poaching
people from the company. What should Litson do?
• Co. A is the manufacturer of large jet engines in the U.S. with a 40% market share.
The major purchasers of jet engines are the commercial airlines. There is one
major U.S. competitor and a potential Japanese competitor who will not be able to
enter the industry for another 10 years. The. U.S competitor's prices are below Co.
A's but it delivers the engines in 3 months while Co. A does it in 2 months. Co. A is
going into losses. What should the higher management do?
• A South India based food retailer is looking to expand into North India. The retailer
has 15% market share in South India, with three major competitors having 10-12%
shares each. The rest of industry is fragmented amongst smaller players. Two of
the competitors already have operations in North India. Our company has no
experience of retailing n North India and a minimal knowledge of the region. Should
the company open stores in North India too?
• A lady by the name of Lata has been working in an insurance company for the last
5 years, joins a fast moving consumer goods company. She is a very bright
prospect and does outstandingly well in her training period of one year and her
colleagues during that period also vouch for that fact. After one year of training, she
is given charge of a small territory in which she does very well and is again praised
by her colleagues and supervisors alike. She is then given charge of a much larger
territory after a few months. Her supervisor after a time complains to the senior
management that Lata has not been good at her job and is finding it difficult to
handle her customers. Even the person in charge of overseeing Lata's training
personally, reports that she is not performing well. Lata in turn complains that her
job is going on perfectly well and if there are any complaints it's because she is
being victimized in the male dominated atmosphere. The matter is then reported to
the head office. What should head office do?
• M. Soft is a software co. established 6 years ago by PCC (a construction firm).
PCC cannot give a very high salary as it would not be consistent with their other
business. The ultimate aim of MSoft is to enter the export market but in 6 years
they do well in the domestic market. MSoft decides to hire a firm SYSQS to start a
training program and to improve their business operations. SYSQS does a good
job and MSoft starts to reap the benefits in the form of several prestigious projects.
 MSoft employs 15 new people. Then in the middle of a crucial project, two senior
executives leave for better remuneration. What should the GM of MSoft do?
• A fertilizer company, Pizza and Urea, is located near a village, Payamudirsholai on
the banks of river Pamba. One day, the villagers find fish dying due to fluid waste
from the fertilizer plant. The community makes a representation to the Govt.
through their local MLA and fishing being the main source of income for these
villagers, Govt. issues an order whereby the fertilizer company is to be closed down
and they also have to pay compensation to the villagers, while the fertilizer
company's contention is that it is not due to their fault. The company manages to
get a stay order on the govt. ruling from the High Court. While, the social activists
go to Supreme Court and hope for justice, common villagers suffer due to the death
of fish. Suggest a solution to the problem in the case.

Chemco is a subsidiary of an engineering company with a turnover of Rs 75 Crores

and a 15% bottom line. It initiated implementation of an enterprise wide integrated
software and systems solution and hired the best consultant - Dramco. The scheduled
budget was Rs. 2.5 crores and time frame was 2 years. At the end of 2 yrs, a committee
was formed to review the implementation part. The MD found that the project was only
40% complete and facing serious cost and time overruns. The top management blames
the consultant and the plant level managers and workers for the delay. On the other
hand, the consultant blames top management. Identify the problem and discuss the
course of action.

• A bindaas group of eight Dil Hai University students plan to go on a motorbike

expedition to the nearby hill station, Smile, on a three day break. On the way to the
hill station, they have to go through a village hamlet. One of the two vehicles, which
were cruising ahead of the other two, runs over a village kid and flees from the
spot. Meanwhile, elders in the village come to know about the incident and decide
to search for the culprits. For the students this is the only route to get back to their
home town. The group has four girls whose safety had to be taken care of. If you
are the members of this bindaas group, what would you do?
• Over the past few years, a retail bank has moved from 10 branches in one state to
100 branches in 8 states. All the branches are operated autonomously and the
company as a whole is losing money. Specifically, the branches in four of the
backward areas are losing money. But, government regulations state that it must
have some branches in backward areas too. In the past, the bank has tried to
mandate cost reductions and had formed committees with representatives from
each branch, but to no avail. What should the bank do now?
• There is a private rail company 'Aage Nahin Jayenge'. Its trains aren't running on
time. So, there is lot of criticism in newspapers. The manager appoints a person as
in-charge of a 'Punctuality Cell' and gives him all the powers and asks him to
deliver the results. The person tries to coordinate everything. Drivers who don't run
the train on time are asked to report to the manager. But the drivers and station
masters say that it’s not their fault. The tracks are bad and motor engines used are
quite old. What is the manager supposed to do?
• Gwalior Rooyi is to setting up a textile plant in a Nivunakinapalli, which doesn't
have too many skilled workers. When this plant starts recruiting, they end up with
people already employed in the (only) 3 other existing industries. They are accused
of “buying” out people and threatened with loss of market share due to losing out
on present customers.
• A major airline with a reservation system is thinking about working with a software
developer to add a feature to its system which can track fraud by travel agents. The
primary fraud perpetrated by travel agents is backdating of tickets, e.g. issuing 14
day advance purchase ticket 10 days before the actual flight. How should the
airline evaluate whether they should add this feature or not?
• A student gets admission to a premier engineering college securing a very high
rank in the entrance test. However, his performance in the first year is very bad and
he fails in two subjects. Simultaneously, a rumor starts floating around in the
engineering college that this student cheated in the entrance test to secure very
good marks. This loss of repute for the examination procedures is putting pressure
on the Principal to quell the issue. However, some students are demanding a high
level enquiry, which would lead to a high drop in institute's reputation. What should
the Principal of the engineering college do?
• New Media is an Internet Service Provider that has had two continuous years of
high profits. However, this quarter, the profits have fallen by 50%. What can be the
possible causes for this? As a group, work out an action plan to save the company
based on the causes of decline in profits.