Featured Cases
Daraz.pk: Online Marketplace's Value Chain
Muhammad Shakeel Sadiq Jajja, Mohsin N. Jat
This case study provides an understanding of the channels through which orders at an online retail platform are fulfilled. Daraz.pk, the pioneering and leading e-commerce platform in Pakistan, started in 2012 as an online fashion retailer and evolved into a general marketplace for brands selling items ranging from electronics to home appliances to fashion. The case study is built around the decision regarding how to engage international brands in the wake of increasing local completion and the potential entry of some established international players. Highlighting the decision’s implications on logistics (and vice versa), this case study exposes various important trade-offs between in-house inventory and vendor-managed inventory. Through the example of a sales-day event conducted by Daraz, this case study also brings to light various strains that logistics could potentially face because of demand hikes and the steps that could help in managing a situation like this.
Jajja, M.S.S., Jat, M.N. (2019). Daraz.pk: Online Marketplace's Value Chain. Asian Journal of Management Cases, 16(1), 21-37.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0972820119825976
Service Tyre and Tube Decision: Strategic Capabilities for Business Growth
The case describes the growth challenges faced by Service Industries Limited (SIL) in the year 2014. There were a number of strategic growth options available to the firm, some related to product diversification and some related to product extension, and SIL had to devise the best plan in order to tap into these strategic growth options.
Since 2011, SIL was continuously on the growth path where its domestic and international sales had increased. This had been made possible through improving virtually every aspect of its value chain as well as activities in the market and product development sides. However, recently, the domestic sector which gave the lion’s share of its sales was undergoing a stagnation, and thus SIL was exploring new avenues of growth in both the domestic and the international markets. These avenues included venturing into tractor tyres and tubes business, auto spare parts business (in which SIL had already embarked) and export business. Each of these growth options had its own peculiarities and implications on various sections of its value chain. This might disturb the very recipe of its internal systems that had given SIL significant growth since 2011 in the first place. Arif Saeed, Managing Director of SIL Tyre and Tube Division had to take steps in a careful and cautious manner in order to further grow.
Chatha, K.A. (2019). Service Tyre and Tube Decision. Strategic Capabilities for Business Growth. Asian Journal of Management Cases, 16(1), 51-75.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0972820119825981
Akhuwat: Measuring Success for a Non-Profit Organization
Mohsin Bashir, Ashar Saleem, Ferhana Ahmed
Dr Amjad Saqib, founder and CEO of Akhuwat—a non-profit interest-free microfinance organization—faced a dilemma in July 2014. He was worried if the organization was actually making an impact—the real impact—that he originally intended. The conventional measures being used to assess Akhuwat’s performance, that is, financial performance, loan disbursement and recovery rates, had all shown impressive signs. For instance, the recovery rate had always been above 99 per cent since Akhuwat’s inception. Still, Dr Saqib was concerned, as he wanted to know whether these measures had actually translated into achieving his original intention of founding Akhuwat, which was to increase tolerance, compassion, voluntarism and happiness, in the target communities. This concern was further aggravated in the backdrop of a rapid expansion plan that Akhuwat was following since 2010.
Back in 2001, Dr Saqib founded Akhuwat in order to provide an alternative to conventional microfinance institutions, which he saw as exploitative and against the Islamic principles of mutual support, as these charged very high interest rates from poor borrowers. Akhuwat, on the other hand, charged zero interest on its microcredit products. It relied on charity and donations, instead of bank loans, as its lending base and for covering operational expenses. The organization underwent a rapid expansion after a credit injection from the provincial government in 2010, resulting in a sevenfold increase in its loan portfolio, which rocketed to PKR 2,460 billion in 2014, and a fivefold increase in the number of branches, which stood at 289 across the country in 2014. This transition also brought many changes and challenges to the working style and performance monitoring of Akhuwat, which had traditionally operated in a rather informal manner. The case highlights Dr Saqib’s worries regarding the effectiveness of these measures in achieving Akhuwat’s intended impacts.
Bashir, M., Saleem, A. and Ahmed, F. (2019). Akhuwat: Measuring Success for a Non-profit Organization. Asian Journal of Management Cases, 16(1), 100-112.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0972820119825973
Pakistan's First Successful Launch of a Real Estate Investment Trust - Dolmen City (REIT) - A Shariah Compliant Rental REIT Scheme
Fazal Jawad Seyyed, Salman Khan, Yasir Mir
It was the start of November 2015. Muhammad Ejaz, the CEO of Arif Habib Dolmen REIT Management Limited (AHDRML), was preparing for a presentation to the Board of AHDRML for the following week. The presentation was to recount the story of Dolmen City REIT (DCR), launched a few months back in June 2015, highlighting the regulatory and legal challenges faced during the process and many lingering issues still confronting this nascent sector. Ejaz realized that the group, as a leading player in the sector, had a crucial role to play in lobbying for further changes in the regulation to pave the way for future launches. More importantly, Ejaz wanted a nod from the Board for launch of a different REIT structure in 2016 to capitalize on the immense opportunity in the real estate sector of Pakistan.
Seyyed, F.J., Khan, D. and Mir, Y. (2018). Pakistan's First Successful Launch of a Real Estate Investment Trust - Dolmen City (REIT) - A Shariah Compliant Rental REIT Scheme. Asian Journal of Management Cases. 15(2). 129-146.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0972820118780740
Shanghai Silk Pharma Ltd: Employee Turnover
Jawad Syed, Junhua Wang
This case highlights the issues of employee turnover and retention in a Chinese private sector pharmaceutical company. It discusses the reasons of high employee turnover and the company’s approach to retention. While the case shows that individual–company fit and individual–work fit affects voluntary turnover, it also highlights the importance of financial and non-financial incentives and measures to improve employee retention. It also discusses issues of high-power distance and guanxi that are unique to China. Overall, the case brings to light different organizational choices and strategies to address employee retention.
Syed, J., & Wang, J. (2018). Shanghai Silk Pharma Ltd: Employee Turnover. Asian Journal of Management Cases. 15(2_suppl), S55-S67.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0972820118804969