June'23


Case Folio
The IUP Journal of Management Case Studies

ISSN: 0972-5350

It is a quarterly journal focusing on thought-provoking case studies covering different aspects of management. It is a useful reference for all executives, managers, practitioners, faculty members and students.

Privileged access to Online edition for Subscribers.

Focus Areas
  • Industry
  • Management
  • Corporate
  • Marketing
  • Human Resources
  • Operations
  • Corporate Finance
  • E-Business
  • Governance and Ethics
Highlights
  • A quarterly refereed journal focusing on thought-provoking case studies covering different aspects of management.
  • Selected teaching cases that faculty members and trainers around the world will love to take into their classrooms.
  • A useful reference for all executives, managers, practitioners, faculty members and students who want to upgrade their knowledge and skills of analysing the performance/non-performance of businesses and the underlying hurdles.
Regular Features
  • To Our Readers
  • Book Review
  • Case Shelf
CheckOut
Article   Price (₹) Buy
Tim Hortons: On the Road to Recovery?
50
ByteDance Ltd: Navigating the Journey from Viewership to Profit
50
GoTo - A Merger of Indonesian Digital Giants
50
Johnson & Johnson Spin-Off
50
Moonlighting Conundrum: The Indian IT Industry's Troubled Phase
50
       
Contents : (June' 2023)

Tim Hortons: On the Road to Recovery?
Syeda Ikrama and Syeda Maseeha Qumer
The case discusses the revival of Canada's largest fast-food restaurant chain Tim Hortons, founded by the hockey superstar of the same name in 1964. What started out as a small mom-and-pop storefront with just two doughnuts on the menu, grew into a global coffee chain with over 5,100 restaurants across 13 countries, including the US, Mexico, Spain, UK, Middle East, China, Thailand, and Philippines, as of March 2022. Tim Hortons' slide began in 2014 after its management got into a bitter fight with franchisees in Canada as its parent company, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), began cutting costs in order to increase operational efficiency and boost profits. After RBI took over, Tim Hortons was perceived to be acting in a way that seemed antithetical to Canadian values. Many store owners were unhappy with what they saw as self-serving measures by the parent company to increase its margins at the franchisees' expense. The very public row between the Tim Hortons parent company, franchisees, and employees hurt not only the brand's reputation, but also its sales. Moreover, declining product quality, little innovation, inadequate marketing, proliferation of new products, and Covid-19-related repercussions led to a decline in same-store sales. The growth rate of same-store sales declined by 29.3% globally and by 29.9% in Canada for the quarter-ended June 2020, the steepest fall the brand had ever experienced. However, in early 2020, Jose Cil (Cil), CEO of RBI, reinvigorated the brand with a Back-to-Basics plan. That plan included a refocus on its core coffee and breakfast platforms and extensive investments in technology, including massive changes to its loyalty program, and a $100 mn investment in drive-thru menu boards. Tim Hortons also expanded overseas and opened more stores in UK, Spain, Mexico, and Middle East. In fiscal 2021, Tim Hortons' sales were $6.5 bn, a 19% increase compared to the $5.5 bn registered the previous year.     More »


© 2023,. All rights reserved.

ByteDance Ltd: Navigating the Journey from Viewership to Profit
Shwetha Kumari and G V Muralidhara

The case describes the growth of ByteDance Technology Co Ltd (ByteDance), one of the China's largest content platforms, which was founded in 2012 and shot up the rankings to become the world's biggest startup within six years of its inception. It starts with a background note on how Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance, developed the idea of a news aggregation app powered by artificial intelligence. It then talks about the way ByteDance became a giant with a news site named Jinri Toutiao and with a slew of acquisitions and strategic investments. It also discusses ByteDance's mercurial growth and popularity across the globe and talks about several issues and challenges faced by the company such as scrutiny of clips on its apps and a backlash online for inappropriate and potentially dangerous content, adding to the regulatory woes. The case ends with the move by SoftBank Group Corp., KKR & Co., and General Atlantic to make a huge investment in ByteDance, an investment which could value the company as high as $75 bn, helping it eclipse Uber Technologies Inc. as the world's largest startup.     More »


© 2023 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

GoTo - A Merger of Indonesian Digital Giants
S Vijaya Lakshmi and Nagendra Kumar M V

On May 17, 2021, PT Gojek Indonesia and PT Tokopedia, two Indonesian digital giants operating in the segment of online ride-hailing services and e-commerce business respectively, decided to merge. The merger was considered to be a landmark as it resulted in two digital services companies collaborating for the first time in the history of Indonesia. The combined entity, called GoTo, went in for an initial public offering (IPO) in April 2022. The response to the IPO was positive, with a large number of retail and institutional investors showing interest. This was considered to be a positive sign for the company as the IPOs of its competitors, Sea Limited and Grab Holdings Inc, had received a lukewarm response. However, GoTo reported a net loss of $444 mn for the quarter ending March 31, 2022, and the stock price went down to IDR 302 from the listed price of IDR 338. GoTo needed to sustain the confidence of investors amidst growing inflation and interest rates in the country, and growing competition. In this context, the case can be helpful in understanding the role of technology in the socioeconomic development of a country, the business model of super apps, marketing challenges faced by technology startups, the financial risks associated with investment in technology startups, and     More »


© 2023 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Johnson & Johnson Spin-Off
Smita Ray and Manish Agarwal

The case is about Johnson & Johnson Corporation's (J&J) spin-off of its consumer health business. The company came into existence in the year 1886 and grew significantly over the years. Over a period of 135 years, while J&J expanded its business to countries around the world, it also faced various issues related to its products, among them its baby powder. The case highlights how these issues affected the performance of the company and increased its liability to about $24 bn by the end of September 2021. To rid itself of such liabilities, J&J came up with the plan of restructuring its business and started looking for various restructuring alternatives. The company decided to spin-off its consumer health business to reduce its debt burden. With this separation, it was expected to increase its focus on each business, strengthen its financial position, and offer more products and better health products to patients and consumers. It remains to be seen whether the spin-off decision is really going to help J&J revamp its position.     More »


© 2023 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Moonlighting Conundrum: The Indian IT Industry's Troubled Phase
Aravamudhan N R and Bharathi S Gopal

Moonlighting has roiled the IT industry like no other. While the Covid-19 pandemic has ringed in remote working for employees of technology firms, there has been a marked uptick in the number of moonlighting cases, as it has become a tad easier for employees to dabble in second job or business, dodging the knowledge of the primary employer. Tech companies bristle at moonlighting owing to legitimate concerns involving serious breaches of data security and trust and productivity impairment. Employers are tightening the screws on their employees in an attempt to dissuade them from taking up a side hustle for that "extra income". They are revisiting the employment contractual provisions and deploying tools and techniques to identify and prevent any risk associated with moonlighting. As the debate on multiple employment gathers steam, questions about the ethicality and legality of moonlighting practices abound. But the law is eerily silent on moonlighting. What should the government do to remove the ambiguities in the gray area? What explains this sudden surge in the number of employees moonlighting? Why do employees take up secondary employment dodging their primary employer's knowledge? Are the employers justified in calling moonlighting unethical? Can the primary employers put a stop to this practice of moonlighting, and if so, how? Is there a case for all the IT bellwether companies to acknowledge and recognize that moonlighting cannot be such a bad thing after all?     More »


© 2023 IUP. All Rights Reserved.