Why does the sustainability experience of an emerging country matter: Swiss student perspective

More and more people in the world started to acknowledge the importance of knowledge exchange across different countries and regions in order to create a path leading towards a greener, more responsible and sustainable future. Young researchers and scholars play a vital role in this process as they can seize the momentum and focus more on the experiences of the emerging states in sustainability. Clémentine Robert, oikos Outreach Manager, sat with Loïc Krähenbühl, Project Manager at swissnex India, to discuss his thesis on the peculiarities of CSR in India.

Sustainability challenges are widely spread around the world: emerging countries are no exception and certainly present distinctive characteristics from developed nations.  As for the topic of CSR, they do not receive as much attention as developed countries from scholars, which is a shame” – explained Loïc. He shared with us what are the advantages of doing the thesis on a completely unfamiliar country, how it broadens your horizons, challenges you and how rewarding the results of your efforts can be.

Could you present yourself in a few words?

My name is Loïc, I am 25 years old and I come from Blonay, a village above Vevey in the french part of Switzerland. I did my bachelor at the business school of the University of Lausanne (HEC) in business administration. At that point, I was determined to pursue a career in finance and choose a master accordingly.

However, a gap year between my bachelor and master degrees changed my perspective. I did a 6-month internship in a private bank in Geneva, and a bit of travelling. I realized that I had other aspirations and wanted to find a path more aligned with my values.

I went for a Master in Management and took some courses in business social responsibility as well as business ethics, which I appreciated very much. In addition, I started assisting a teacher whose field of research is focused on social and environmental responsibilities of corporations –  this definitely sparked my interest for CSR.

What is the topic of your thesis?

The exact question of my research paper is: “What are the effects of a law mandating CSR provisions on corporate investments in CSR – The case of India.”

Why did you choose to combine India with a sustainability-related topic?

For our 4th and last semester of the program, we are offered the possibility to go for a professional internship and write a Master thesis about it. My study derives its origins from a shared-internship position as a Junior Project Manager in the Academic Relations team of swissnex India in Bangalore on the one hand, and as an ambassador for the business school of the University of Lausanne (HEC) on the other. swissnex is a Swiss governmental platform that connects Switzerland & the most innovative hubs in the world in fields such as science, research, innovation and art. The organization has offices in Boston, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Bangalore and multiple outposts all over the globe.

My choice to apply for this position in India was mainly motivated by the opportunity to experience a multicultural and dynamic environment and discover India. In addition, the opportunity to serve as an intermediary in trying to create and foster collaborations between Swiss & Indian educational institutes appealed to me.

Before leaving Switzerland, I had a talk with my supervisor (which happened to be the teacher for whom I worked) and told her that instead of writing a research paper related to project management and my role at swissnex, I would be more interested in coupling India and CSR. This would indeed combine my interest for the topic with the opportunity to discover a country I was not familiar with.

I contacted swissnex about the matter a few weeks before leaving: they put me in contact with Clémentine Robert, Outreach Manager for oikos, who was also working part-time for swissnex India at that period. She gave me a few leads, and among them was the “Clause 135 of the Company Act, 2013”.

In a few words, India passed a law enforced in 2014 that obliges certain companies to invest 2% of their profits after tax in CSR activities. I did some research, and got quickly convinced that conducting research about this law could bring valuable insights. First of all, India is the first country in the world to mandate CSR spending. The number of discussions about the role of governments in regulating CSR is growing. The debate covering the widely spread notion of CSR’s voluntary nature versus its compulsory form is intensifying, and so far, researchers have lacked empirical evidence to make a case for mandated CSR. India is a great opportunity to be seized in examining the outcomes of a law enforcing CSR expenditures and in going beyond assumptions and speculations. My objective is to observe if consistent differences of investments’ behaviors in CSR activities emerged since the law was passed.

What are the obstacles and challenges you are facing?

It was a bit naive and pretentious to come to India and decide to write a Master thesis about a country I did not know anything before. Fortunately for me, I quickly realized it and was aware early on that the amount of pre-work necessary was abundant. My supervisor and I agreed to postpone my final deadline, so I would have more time to write the best paper possible. It allowed me to read a lot of material during the first 2 months (books, articles, media coverage) in order to better understand the history, culture and dimensions of the challenges faced by the country. I also took advantage of my extended deadline and used the opportunity presented by the extensive network of swissnex: I had the chance to talk to a few experts within the field who helped me a lot.

What are the benefits of such a thesis (short/medium/long term if possible)?

CSR in India has an organic evolution from within its own history, culture and political ideologies, setting it apart from the West. Studying a concept that has different meanings and origins in distinct parts of the world is challenging, but rewarding. It enlarges your understanding and knowledge of a topic and contextualizes it to a different culture. Or rather, the different culture contextualizes the topic. You become more critical as you get a broader perspective. The upstream work will also deepen your knowledge about a country, a culture or a continent as a whole. It will not only be restricted to the theme of your paper.

In general, what could you say to encourage students to focus their thesis on countries from other continents?

If you’re willing to put on the efforts required – especially at the beginning of your work – to better understand and comprehend the culture and history of the country/region/continent you’re writing on, go for it! The rewards will live up to your expectations.

More specifically, what could you say to encourage students to focus their thesis on sustainability in emerging countries (or at least taking them into consideration)?

We live in a very fast paced world. Countries, regions, continents: their increasingly heterogeneous social, political, environmental and economic characteristics make them fascinating objects of studies that require specific attention. Sustainability challenges are widely spread around the world: emerging countries are no exception and certainly present distinctive characteristics from developed nations. As for the topic of CSR, they do not receive as much attention as developed countries from scholars, which is a shame. I wanted to somehow contribute and be part of the change!

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posted June 6, 2018

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Can Barry Callebaut Attract Sustainable Investment with its ‘Forever Chocolate’ Strategy?

Abstract

Barry Callebaut, a Zurich-based chocolate and cocoa manufacturer founded by Klaus Johann Jacobs in 1996, was the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products. It was one of the first companies to realize that it had to do something about the poor conditions on cocoa farms. In its ‘Forever Chocolate’ plan for 2025, Callebaut committed to scale up its own as well as the industry initiatives to raise industry standards through its four bold targets in the chocolate supply chain. In 2017, the Swiss chocolate giant entered into an innovative revolving credit facility agreement with a syndicate of 13 banks with ING as the sustainability coordinator. As part of this, interest rate was linked to the company’s year-on-year sustainability performance improvement. Callebaut was confident that it could reach its sustainability goals, working with all the stakeholders in the cocoa supply chain, by translating its sustainability targets into a clear set of key performance indicators, and by monitoring and reporting on the progress on an annual basis. However, it was not easy for the company to drive growth on the sustainability front as it faced difficulties in managing consistency in its sustainable growth over the years. Industry observers were skeptical about Callebaut’s long-term sustainability goals and questioned whether these could help generate fund flow to the company.

This case gives students an opportunity to analyze the potential impact of sustainability investment on the company’s strategy and performance and helps them to discuss the possibilities of further investment with the company to achieve its cocoa sustainability goals. This case is meant for MBA level students as part of their Sustainable Finance and Financial Management curriculum. This case is designed to enable students to: 1) Understand Callebaut’s strategic position as a global leader in cocoa sustainability and how this helped it to attract green loans; 2) Evaluate how the Triple Bottom Line ethos of the company creates value for its stakeholders and examine how the sustainability initiatives of the company help in strengthening its liquidity profile; 3) Study and examine how the sustainability performance by the company attracted innovative revolving credit facility linked to its sustainability performance; 4) Analyze how Callebaut can manage its business growth effectively with the underlying objective of achieving sustainability; and 5) Understand the key concern for Callebaut – how can it impress investors to go in for cocoa financing and achieve the sustainability targets.

AuthorsDebapratim Purkayastha, Trilochan Tripathy & Benudhar Sahu
InstitutionICFAI Business School Hyderabad, India
XLRI, Jamshedpur
Competition Year2018
PlaceFirst Prize
TrackSustainable Finance
Key WordsSustainable investment, Corporate finance, Green loans, Revolving credit facility, Blended finance strategies, Financial instrument linked to green investment criteria; Working capital management
CoursesFinance, Corporate Social Responsibility, Strategic Management
Target AudienceMBAs
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posted June 5, 2018

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Alumni Get Together in Bangalore

On 15th June, 2018 oikos alumni will get together in Bangalore, India. The plan is to meet at 8 pm at Restaurant Go Native in JayaNagar. The alumni will have the opportunity to reminisce oikos, discuss sustainability challenges, meet old oikos friends and make new acquaintances in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

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posted June 5, 2018

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SAUDI ARAMCO

Abstract

In early 2016, the largest state-owned Oil Company in the world, Saudi Arabia-based Saudi Aramco (Aramco), declared a proposal to float an IPO. The crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Prince Salman, had stunned the world when he declared in early 2016 that Aramco’s worth would be around $2 trillion. Aramco was not only an oil company but a budget to run the nation as 85% of Saudi Arabia’s budget came from the tax which Aramco had to pay.

The intent to monetize the state jewel came at a time when the economy of the Kingdom was under pressure. A widening fiscal deficit and depleting foreign reserves indicated that it was no longer viable to depend on oil exports to run the nation. There was a need to diversify and the impetus to do so would come from the proceeds of the IPO. But the IPO which would decide the fate of 33 million Saudis would come with its own set of challenges.

In 2017, the world had strong reasons to believe that oil prices would remain unstable. During prosperous times, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which Saudi Arabia was a member had been able to give stable oil prices to the world but the oil glut had put the harmony of OPEC under stress, especially after the shale revolution, that brought in the US as a formidable player into the global oil game.

The success of Aramco’s IPO would be a function of numerous factors – some in the Kingdom’s control and some beyond. In 2017, concerns about climate change were on the rise. Climate policies threatened to put a 40% discount on Prince Salman’s $2 trillion aspirations. The commitment of global leaders to keep a check on global warming would escalate proliferation of renewables across the world and further build a pessimistic outlook for the future of oil prices. Moreover, entrepreneurs like Elon Musk envisaged the death of the internal combustion engine in the near future.

But above all, the elephant in the room was Aramco’s lack of transparency. Several questions were raised in the academia and investor community: Would Aramco pay heed to the voices of minority investors? Or would the monarchy call the shots at the end of the day? How did one valuate an organization with no comparable peers? How would climate control policies play a role in the success or failure of the Aramco IPO? And most importantly, how would an IPO of an oil giant with access to 15% of the world’s oil reserves, impact the future of world climate?

It remained to be seen how an IPO would shape the nation and how an oil giant would shape the future of world climate.

AuthorsAlok Kavthankar & Indu Perepu
InstitutionICFAI Business School Hyderabad, India
Competition Year2018
PlaceSecond Prize
TrackSustainable Finance
Key WordsOil Industry, Sustainability,Finance
CoursesFinance, Sustainable Finance
Target AudienceMBAs
Permission rightsThis case will be published at the Case Centre shortly. You find an inspection copy for download below.
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posted June 5, 2018

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Regulations for a Sustainable Finance Sector

Abstract

This case describes the deliberations of a financial regulation policymaker at the Dutch Central Bank, Johanna Baks. She is asked by the central bank’s Board to recommend regulations that are conducive to the Netherlands curbing climate change, since the Board officially recognizes this as a threat to long-term financial stability. The financial sector claims that a lower capital requirement for catastrophe bonds and climate bonds is the solution.

Johanna researches this option, as well as several other ones. These other potential financial regulations are: mandatory inclusion of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in supervised financial institutions’ internal models, mandatory public disclosure of ESG factors of the organizations’ investments, a financial transaction tax, prohibiting universal banking and/or limiting banks’ sizes, and supervising financials on social aspects like their culture and gender diversity.

Johanna assesses the potential effectiveness of these regulations, both in terms of impact as well as stakeholder acceptance. Her stakeholders are the general public, politicians & government, other countries’ regulators, and the financial sector. In her impact assessment, Johanna pays particular attention on how to balance the public good of avoiding systemic risks in the financial system against the risk that climate change poses to financial stability.

In this case, students will get acquainted with how financial regulation is made and how some of these could contribute to (or threaten) various sustainability aspects within a society. They will learn about some financial regulations that are currently being discussed at supervisory authorities in the world. Students will be challenged to think about the different kind of environmental, social and economic effects that each of these regulations can have separately, as well as in combination with each other. In doing so, students will also get a sense of the fine art of balancing the interests of the different stakeholders.

AuthorsGaya Branderhors
InstitutionHarvard University, Extension School, USA
Competition Year2018
PlaceThird Prize
TrackSustainable Finance
Key WordsSustainable finance, Finance sector, Regulation, Supervisor, Financial regulation, ESG, Catastrophe bonds, Climate bonds
CoursesSustainable finance, Finance, Environmental Economics, Government & International
Target AudiencePhD, Graduate
Permission rightsThis case is part of the oikos free case collection. Download a free online copy below. If you are a faculty member and you are interested in teaching this case, you can request a free teaching note by sending us an email to freecase@oikos-international.org.
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posted June 5, 2018

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Babban Gona’s Agri-Franchising Model: Scaling up Challenges

Abstract
Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, is home to millions of smallholder farmers who, due to low economies of scale, have some of the lowest yields in the world, making subsistence farming unsustainable for them. This has led to large-scale unemployment, especially among the youth. Poverty, unemployment, and a rapidly growing population have made Nigeria a breeding ground for extremist organizations like the Boko Haram.
Kola Masha through his for-profit social enterprise, Babban Gona, is taking this challenge head-on by creating an innovative agricultural franchise model which provides professional management and investment for grass-root level farmer groups. Babban Gona’s holistic end-to-end service delivery model has resulted in farmers reducing their input costs, increasing their yields, realizing a higher price for their produce, and more than tripling their incomes. Babban Gona also embeds into its model, a risk mitigating model, which helps to reduce risks and increases the confidence of its financiers. The organization has the audacious vision of transforming the lives of 1 million farmers by 2025. But, does the model support such levels of scalability?
The case study brings out the challenges involved in setting up a social enterprise in agriculture and the scope of an agricultural franchise in the developing world. It underlines the need for and importance of a risk mitigating model that is constantly updated. The case allows students to analyze and debate the scope for scalability of Babban Gona and the additional risks and challenges it could face in realizing its vision.

AuthorsManish Agarwal & D Satish
InstitutionICFAI Business School Hyderabad, India
Competition Year2018
PlaceRunner Up
TrackSocial Entrepreneurship
Key WordsAgriculture, Smallholder farmers, Low economies of scale, Nigeria, Youth unemployment, Poverty, Agricultural Franchise model, Trust group, Risk mitigating model, Babban Gona
CoursesEntrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship
Target AudienceMBAs, MS level program
Permission rightsThis case will be published at the Case Centre shortly. You find an inspection copy for download below.
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posted June 5, 2018

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Sustainability International’s Alliance with ConsenSys – Leveraging Technology for Social Impact

Abstract

Social entrepreneur Chinyere Nnadi (Nnadi), Co-founder & CEO of Sustainability International (SI), had started his non-profit organisation to provide innovative solutions using technology to alleviate poverty in Africa. Since childhood Nnadi had beheld adversity in Nigeria that had been grappling with oil pollution due to decades of oil drilling and spills in the Niger Delta.  Nnadi observed that the environmental damages in Nigeria had resulted in the loss of livelihoods of farmers and fishermen, causing appalling public health hazards and mass unemployment. To end this misfortune, Nnadi’s SI team launched various projects ranging from infrastructure developments to providing education to girls and creating healthcare awareness. SI had also partnered with various government agencies, companies and NGOs and was using breakthrough technologies such as BIOCLEAN™ Biotechnology to restore the oil-contaminated sites. When Nnadi observed that widespread systematic corruption and distrusts among locals in Nigeria could hamper his initiatives, he started focusing more on utilising breakthrough technologies in his projects.  Towards this end, Nnadi’s SI collaborated with ‘Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition’, an initiative of the US based ConsenSys in mid-2017 to cleanup the Niger Delta and eventually improve the socio-economic condition of Nigeria. Would Nnadi be able to realise his dream of  alleviating corruption, poverty and improve the socio-economic condition of the region? Would SI be able to ‘solve the 20th century problems with 21st century solutions’ in Africa?

AuthorsShwetha Kumari
InstitutionAmity Research Centers, Bangalore, India
Competition Year2018
PlaceRunner Up
TrackSocial Entrepreneurship
Key WordsChinyere Nnadi, Africa’s Socio-economic condition, Niger Delta, Nigeria, Social entrepreneurship, Blockchain for Social impact , Oil pollution, BIOCLEAN, ConsenSys, Shell companies and NGOs, Environment and Economy, Oil spills and loss of livelihoods , One Farm, Virtual Reality Storytelling, Podcast Series – "Transitions, Development infrastructure
CoursesEthics and Social Responsibility
Target AudienceBusiness Management Students
Permission rightsThis case is part of the oikos free case collection. Download a free online copy below. If you are a faculty member and you are interested in teaching this case, you can request a free teaching note by sending us an email to freecase@oikos-international.org.
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posted June 5, 2018

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Preserve: Growing a Sustainable Consumer Goods Company

Abstract

This case presents the startup and growth of Preserve, a sustainability-driven business and B Corp, in the circular economy. The company has grown over the years as a housewares and personal care consumer goods company in the retail industry with a closed loop business model on #5 plastics. With this operational model, Preserve managed to create social and commercial value by attaining strategic growth while meeting its social mission. To serve dual-purpose (social and commercial), Preserve helped its partners achieve sustainability goals, but these investments did not necessarily add to the financial bottom line and short-term growth of the company. The case focuses on the meaning of “growth” as the strategic intent for a sustainability-driven business. It explores to what extent a purpose-driven business like Preserve could meet the challenge of simultaneously being a social value leading business and keeping financial sustainability with the current business model.

The case examines Preserve’s founding mission and organizational values, and it discusses the tradeoff between social mission and economic goals any growth-driven sustainable company would face. It puts into perspective the importance of stakeholder collaboration and communication for sustainability and growth. The case introduces the framework of SEERS – Social, Environmental, Economic Responsibility and Sustainability – for evaluating Preserve’s sustainability strategy. The SEERS framework contains four elements: (1) identifying purpose and strategic intent, (2) engaging stakeholders, (3) developing metrics, and (4) implementing cascading innovations. It provides opportunities for considering strategic decision-making with respect to economic and social value generation and social responsibility.

AuthorsSinan Erzurumlu
InstitutionBabson College, USA
Competition Year2018
PlaceSecond Prize
TrackSocial Entrepreneurship
Key WordsSustainability, circular economy, closed loop, recycling, social and commercial value, blended value, Benefit corporation, B corporation, SEERS, corporate responsibility, start-up, entrepreneurship, operations management, household products, leadership, strategy
CoursesCorporate Strategy, Leadership and Strategic Management, Social Entrepreneurship, Social Innovations, Operations Management, Organizational Behavior, Sustainability, Business and the Environment, and Corporate Social Responsibility
Target AudienceMBAs, Undergrads, Executive Education
Permission rightsThis case will be published at the Case Centre shortly. You find an inspection copy for download below.
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posted June 5, 2018

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Jaipur Rugs –Empowering Communities at the Bottom of the Pyramid through Social Innovation

ABSTRACT

This case discusses how social innovator Nand Kishore Chaudhary (NKC) revolutionized the concept of the traditional carpet industry in India and empowered 40,000+ rural artisans by providing them with a sustainable livelihood.  In 1978, NKC started a small social enterprise under the name Jaipur Carpets (later on renamed Jaipur Rugs). The startup worked with poor artisans and trained and educated them. It offered Doorstep Entrepreneurship under which the artisans received all the raw materials required and wove carpets from their homes. Jaipur Rugs also offered services like healthcare, programs of financial inclusion, and leadership training. Apart from this, its biggest achievement was eliminating the middlemen and providing a sustainable livelihood to communities at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP).

However, NKC’s journey was not without its challenges. Among some sections of society in India, it is considered taboo to interact with people belonging to the lower castes and NKC faced hatred and resistance from his family and society for working with so-called untouchable castes. Further, retaining artisans in the job of carpet weaving and attracting others were becoming tough tasks when these weavers starting migrating to other places in search of better job offers. Another challenge was to scale up the operations of Jaipur Rugs globally. Analysts wondered how NKC could make Jaipur Rugs sustainable in the long run.  What could he do to preserve the dying art of weaving?

AuthorsSyeda Maseeha Qumer & Geeta Singh
InstitutionICFAI Business School, Hyderabad, India
Competition Year2018
PlaceFirst Prize
TrackSocial Entrepreneurship
Key WordsSocial Entrepreneurship; Social innovation; Social Innovator
CoursesSocial Entrepreneurship
Target AudienceMBAs
Permission rightsThis case will be published at the Case Centre shortly. You find an inspection copy for download below.
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posted June 5, 2018

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Employee Diversity at High Beam Global: An Inclusive Approach

Abstract

Founded in 2010 in Gurugram, India, High Beam Global Pvt. Ltd. (HBG) is a sustainability-focused market research organization with the mission of providing high research service quality to its clients and vision of integrating organization’s success with employee’s effort and maintaining organisation sustainability. Gurugram being the hub of corporates in northern India helped Rajat Sahni (Rajat) and Abhik Moitra (Abhik) founders of HBG to gain steady business in the research industry. Despite decent business performance and sustainable corporate bustle.  in December 2011 HBG declares to split as HBG Knowledge Services Pvt. Ltd. (HBGKS) and HBG Medical Assistance Pvt. Ltd. (HBGMA). Was the split a strategic move for expansion or an internal conflict? However, the question was how could they maintain sustainability alone?

The research industry had been grown rapidly in India over the last decade, with the contribution of 7.7 % in Indian GDP for FY 2014–15. Within a short span of six years, HBGKS was able to gain an impactful position in the industry with 35% of the annual cumulative growth rate of business turnover till FY2014-15 and bustle sustainable activity. HBGKS employees were sensitized with eco-friendly behaviour by drilling them on turning the lights off when they left a room, paper-free office and must have good interpersonal relationships with colleagues. Rajat had also designed an inclusive approach to socialize his employee and set them united in diversity. While interviewing employees about their sustainable and inclusive approach, everyone had given a positive viewpoint on the company and their leader Rajat. But few incidents in HBGKS had set the situation adverse to the optimistic opinion of employees. IN absence of Rajat most of the employees were agitating against the sustainable and inclusive approach. Rajat dream for the diverse employees working together and maintaining corporately sustainable was in a questionable state. Few employees attribute the failure to Rajat’s inefficiency and other employees see the downfall due to split and change in company culture of HBGKS. In this case, students will be challenged with analyzing all aspects of a sustainability-focused business and considering why sustainability and inclusion approach failed to work in HBGKS, despite decent financial gain over that period.

AuthorsReshmi Manna, Richa Bajpai & Ankit Singh
InstitutionICFAI Business School-Gurgaon, India & Pantaloons, India
Competition Year2018
PlaceRunner Up
TrackCorporate Sustainability
Key WordsEmployee diversity program, Employee engagement, Inclusive approach, Fringe benefits and churn rate
CoursesStrategic Management, Human Resource Management
Target AudienceMBA, Undergraduate Business Management
Permission rightsThis case is part of the oikos free case collection. Download a free online copy below. If you are a faculty member and you are interested in teaching this case, you can request a free teaching note by sending us an email to freecase@oikos-international.org.
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posted June 5, 2018

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