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“Leaders are made, not only born”
John Gracy
Leadership is not a place where one can arrive, rather it is a journey which one needs to undertake and keep on moving. Leadership can be learnt and developed provided one would be willing work towards it. Case based teaching is a strong methodology of experiential learning, especially when the context is easily understandable and clearly visualized. When students are able to relate learning with the context around and perhaps also able meet the protagonist as well, it is bound to create memorable experience leading to great learning. Here at Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur we have taken the lead in this regard and proposed to write leadership cases from local Rajasthan context with a view to make it available to students. The Leadership Lab will enable students to participate and learn from all such leadership cases which will further be built and shaped with relevant follow up workshops and forums. The idea is to appreciate and develop leadership which goes from local context to global context. The teaching of cases in the Leadership Lab will also bring about innovation in pedagogy to the forefront. Each case will have wellstructured pedagogy which will touch upon human senses and encourage the element of mystery, drama, humor as the dominant tool. The learning outcomes will be measured and sessions recorded for larger dissemination and further research on teaching-learning.
The Leadership Lab would be aiming towards few critical objectives, listed as follows:
The use of case studies can be a very effective classroom teaching-technique. It is an exercise in negotiation, compromise, creativity and ofcourse respect for others’ viewpoint.The Leadership Lab will allow students to experience the real-world problems related to life and business that are often difficult to understand and do not have an obvious solution. The idea is to provide an immersive experience and bringing students as close as possible to reality.
Learning Leadership From Local to Global, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur
Director, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur
Welcome to the Leadership Lab!
Here you will find teaching cases and videos of how they have been taught in the classroom environment. This is useful from two points of view:
Our objective is to develop leadership cases from local Rajasthan state context where our institute is situated, and use them for teaching our students with a view to develop leadership qualities in them. There is a need to get inspired with local success stories and learn from stories of failure. Any neglect to relate education with the local need and stories would make it incomplete and devoid of context. At Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur we did not want to miss on the opportunity to learn from local stories and bring them to the classroom to make it more contextual and exciting for participants. Perhaps, Jaipuria Institute of Management will be the first B-school in the country to initiate writing of teaching cases on local scenario in a big way and make it a part of curriculum. I am sure this project has the potentiality of impacting learning in a big way and make it more relevant and contextual. I admire the foresight, perseverance, and courage of our faculty colleague who decided to take up this project. I would also like to put on record my sincere thanks and gratitude to all the protagonists of teaching cases included in this volume who saw merit in what we wanted to carry forward with, and agreed to be part of this initiative. Now, we would like to open this learning for everyone interested in case based teaching on leadership, especially learning from the local context and using them to address global problems. Please drop in your comments and suggestion to us.
Case 1 – Supreme Polymers: Challenging in Scaling up an SME
Date: 23rd August 2023
Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur organized its 1st Leadership Lab session for Batch 2023-25. The case was titled-“Supreme Polymers: Challenging in Scaling up an SME”. The case was written and presented by Dr. Niranjan Rajpurohit, Faculty- HR and Dr.Shubha Johri, Faculty- Marketing.
The session generated some big questions about the case study and what complex situation the protagonist is facing in the present. This caught students attention and many other unique perspectives were discussed in the case. The students also shared their perspectives related to the case study. All the challenges discussed pertained to four major issues i.e. Labour Intensive, Profit Margins, Specialised team and machinery. Dr. Niranjan also explained the manufacturing process of bottles in Supreme polymers.
An opinion poll was also conducted on Kahoot which involved the students and gathered their opinions about product improvement, branding and customer service.
Then protagonist Mr. Achal Jain, founder and Managing Director, of Supreme Polymers entered the classroom and talked about the company, the packaging process of products and how the company is overcoming challenges. The Leadership Lab session ended on a positive note with the concluding remarks by Dr. Prabhat Pankaj, Director, Jaipuria Institute of Management Jaipur. Overall, it was an interactive session where students really liked the idea of the protagonist coming into the class and discussing various points. The Leadership Lab initiative is coordinated by Dr. Varun Chotia, Program Chair, PGDM GM First year at Jaipur campus.
Supreme Polymers: Challenging in Scaling up an SME
Case 2 – Purpose-Driven Branding: A Case Study of Microsign Products
Date: 15th September 2023
On 15th September 2023, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur, orchestrated its 2nd Leadership Lab Session for Batch 2023-25. In a captivating session led by Dr. Ramzan Sama, Associate Professor (Marketing), the students dove deep into the world of purpose-driven branding, using the fascinating case study of Microsign Product as the guide.
Through the session, the audience discovered how Microsign harnessed the power of purpose to transform its brand identity. The session unraveled the brilliant branding strategies that have made Microsign stand out in purpose-driven marketing; a social purpose-focused signature program; Recruiting special able people; Integrated signature program aimed at Right job alignment and building inspiration.
When the visionary Mr. Nisheeth Mehta, Founder of Microsign Product, stepped into the session, magic happened as his insights and revelations about the company left the audience spellbound. He shared that his approach to “Human Engineering” has enabled him to achieve maximum efficiency while mostly employing physically disabled people. Students were snowed under by his thoughts like, “Risk-taking capability is the fire to run the business.” and “If you have patience and passion, it leads to victory.”
Further embellishment of the session was on the values followed by the Microsign in its work culture, such as caring for the society’s brand image, giving employees a sense of belonging, giving dignity to all, and making the workplace a temple of humanity. Key learning from Mr. Nisheeth’s talk was that Money and materialistic things should not matter, aggression should not be the aim, and people should remember the values along with the goodness of the brand.
To rebrand the Microsign Company, points of view were called from the students, who were appreciated for their ingenious and creative ideas. For instance, students advised that a tagline can be used as hashtag for the people; the company can progress by doing social media campaigns along with implementing a 3D brand logo. The session concluded with giving the students, who rendered these amazing ideas, T-shirts with the word “HUMANITY” written on them, which were bought by the founder himself, passing the message ‘to serve humanity’. Exploring these untold stories and future possibilities made this session an unforgettable experience.
Purpose – Driven Branding: A Case Study of Microsign Products
Case 3 – Resisting the Tide: Bagru Block Painting’s Triumph over Polyester and Synthetic Fabrics
Date: 29th September, 2023
On 29th September 2023, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur conducted its 3rd Leadership Lab Session for Batch 2023-25. In a session led by Dr. Oum Kumari, the case study titled “Resisting the Tide: Bagru Block Painting’s Triumph over Polyester and Synthetic Fabrics” was conversed. Through the session, the audience plunged into the traditional art form of painting.
Session progressed ahead and informed the students about the process of creating Bagru block paintings, explaining the materials used in the traditional art form and tracing its origins; delved into the historical culture surrounding the famous painting of Rajasthan. The students unraveled the painting, which is the pride of Rajasthan, and how, after independence, East India Company flourished its exports worldwide.
Around the 1970s, modern art forms were taking up the market, with polyester and synthetic techniques replacing Bagru block paintings, which started facing threats like declining interest and economic viability. Reasons for the threats were called from the students, and some of them were that rational consumers prefer the product at a reasonable price with the best quality, having a brand in the market, and within less time.
A marvelous moment of the event happened when the protagonist of the case, Mr R.K. Derawala, entered the session. His expertise and achievements added significant value to the session. Setting the class into the canvas world of block painting, he shared his insights into the art form, discussed its magnitude, techniques, and the need for preservation. Perspectives were taken from the audience; overwhelming ideas came out, like collaborating with the fashion designers, inviting youth in the industry, and creating a storyline with its employees.
Further embellishment of the session was on the working culture of the Bagru Block Paintings, which is snowed under the great personality; his determination towards this art form had bought it here to become the honor of Rajasthan.
The captivating session concluded by bridging the gap between theory and practice, offering students a unique opportunity to learn from both academic experts and practitioners in the field. The integration of case studies, practical demonstrations, and interactions with accomplished individuals like R.K. Derawala enriched the educational experience and provides students with valuable cognizance into the real-world applications of their studies.
Case 1 – What does it take to be a Leader?: Lessons from the Life and Experiences of Ms. Mugdha Sinha
Date: 16th December 2022
Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur organized Leadership Lab Session-1 for first-year students. A small psychometric assessment was floated to the participants just before the session, so that the students may answer the Leadership styles they like to go for. After the assessment, students were given badges according to their leadership styles, which was a unique way to engage the students.
A Kahoot quiz was also conducted in which the students were asked to write a word on leadership traits, according to them. Students highlighted many different leadership traits through words like motivator, inspirational, powerful, the one who leads the team etc.
In the Leadership Lab, “What does it take to be a Leader?: Lessons from the Life and Experiences of Ms. Mugdha Sinha” case was discussed by Dr. Prashant Gupta. Dr. Aparna Mendiratta played the role of Devil’s Advocate. The discussion initiated with the question; “Are leaders born or made” where the student’s stance was divided. Towards the end, Mugdha Sinha’s leadership traits were analyzed; which included vision, integrity, action, anticipation, multidimensional, teamwork, proactive, innovative and legacy generator.
What does it take to be a Leader?: Lessons from the Life and Experiences of Ms. Mugdha Sinha
Case 2 – Kebabs & Curries Company (KCCO) in Rajasthan: Is a Food chain restaurant or Food-Tech Data-Driven company
Date: 17th January 2023
The Leadership Lab at Jaipuria Institute of Management administered its second case. The case which was selected this time was titled ‘Kebabs & Curries Company (KCCO) in Rajasthan: Is a Food chain restaurant or Food-Tech Data-Driven company’.
The protagonist for the session was Varun Behl, Managing Director, and Co-Founder, Kebabs and Curries Company (KCCO) India Pvt Ltd. Dr. P Mary Jayanthi, Chairperson, Business Analytics Area introduced the agenda of the session and discussed the case study. Later Dr. Akash D Dubey, Chairperson CMC, very interestingly generated the interest and curiosity amongst students by playing the role of Devil’s Advocate and opening a discussion on whether Food Companies should be Data Driven or Taste Driven.
Mr. Varun Behl joined the discussion and discussed the journey of Kebabs and Curries Company. He discussed the various strategies they follow regularly to grow their market share and create a better experience for the customers. He keenly talked about their approach in their latest market segmentation. Students actively took part in the discussion. Dr. Prabhat Pankaj – Director, Jaipuria Jaipur talked about various creative uses of Data and its importance.
Kebabs & Curries Company (KCCO) in Rajasthan: Is a Food chain restaurant or Food-Tech Data-Driven company
Case 3 – Can Individual Social Responsibility help achieve an equitable education infrastructure?
Date: 15th February 2023
Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur executed the third case under its unique initiative of Leadership Lab.
The case discussed was “Can Individual Social Responsibility help achieve an equitable education infrastructure?” It was based upon an inspiring journey of a man who comes from a very backward city in Bihar and one decision of his parents of sending him to Delhi for higher education sets his path to serve society. Subsequently, the journey began by his aspiration to become a civil servant while serving in the NGO – SEWA. Later getting the idea of upgrading his skillsets by pursuing a degree from Harvard and his journey there gave birth to Edjustice, a people-led and volunteer-powered education campaign. Edjustice initiative aims at creating awareness and building capacity that included initiatives like EdConnect Monitoring, Gyan Dan, Shiksha Setu, etc.
Based on the case study, students of Class 2022-24 performed a role play and the students sitting in the audience were asked to put forward their opinions. At the end of the role-play, Dr. Swati Soni, Associate Professor, presented the concluding notes, saying “Individual Social Responsibility (ISR) is better as you can do more when you’re doing it individually. It also makes ISR more scalable and replicable.” Dr. Varun Chotia, Program Chair – PGDM-GM First Year, presented the vote of thanks to the gathering for putting forward their points and appreciated the participants of role play, on their performance.
Can Individual Social Responsibility help achieve an equitable education infrastructure?
Case 4 – Nurturing Dosaka
Date: 15th March 2023
On 15th March 2023, in continuation of the unique initiative by the Jaipuria Institute of Management Jaipur, the institute administered another inspiring real-time story on how good leadership skills have proven to be the biggest factor of one’s success. This time the case discussed was titled, “Nurturing Dosaka”, which was developed by Dr. Anvay Bhargava, Faculty-OB/HR. Dr. Anvay began the session on case discussion by making the students explore the traits of a team leader which leads to good performance of the team. Yugansh Sharma – Founder, Dosaka was later requested to tell his success story as an entrepreneur.
Yugansh opened his 200 sqft restaurant with a modest staff of 10 people. Just when the business started gearing up, COVID happened. But Yugansh proved to be a good leader to his team and his business, he supported his staff with accommodation and in other ways as well.
After COVID his business started to gain popularity and trust in the market. He expanded his business and opened a chain of restaurants in South Indian cuisines in various places of Jaipur and later collaborated with “Foodies” and opened an outlet at the Jaipur Airport. Keeping up with the standardization, they will have centralized kitchens in one place for some of the recipes. Lastly, he shared his future plans of expanding to other cities of Rajasthan and tier 1 cities outside Rajasthan as well. At the end, Dr. Prabhat Pankaj, Director – Jaipuria, Jaipur congratulated Yugansh Sharma on his success of an entrepreneurial journey and guided the students to seek inspiration from his story of following his passion and becoming a good leader.
“Nurturing Dosaka”by Dr. Anvay Bhargava
Case 5 – Kirana King: Transforming Traditional Kirana’s into Superstore
Date: 4th May, 2023
Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur organized its 5th Leadership Lab session on the theme “Kirana King: Transforming Traditional Kiranas into Superstore”. The case was written and presented by Dr. Vijay Prakash Anand, Faculty – Marketing and Dr. Pankaj Chamola, Faculty – Marketing. Dr. Vijay started by summarizing and briefing the case to the students. Then he talked about what retailing is.
The session also addressed some big questions about the case study and how traditional Kirana stores are going to survive and sustain in the future, which caught students’ attention and some unique and different perspectives were then discussed in the leadership lab. Then students shared their thoughts on the various challenges and pain points for a traditional Kirana store owner. Dr. Pankaj listed all the challenges and said that all these challenges belong to these four heads i.e. Providing an assortment of products and services, Breaking bulk, Holding inventory and Providing services.
Then Dr. Vijay talked about Mr. Arun Kumar, Founder and CEO, Kirana King and shared his story as to how Kirana King is trying to cater to all the stakeholders and overcomes the challenges of traditional Kirana stores by following retail-as-a-service (RaaS) model. Then a video was also shown which talked about standardization, centralization and digitalization aspect of Kirana King. The 5th leadership lab session ended on a positive note with concluding remarks by Dr. Prabhat Pankaj, Director. Dr. Varun Chotia, Faculty Coordinator, Leadership Lab proposed the vote of thanks.
Kirana King: Transforming Traditional Kirana’s into Superstore
Case discussion on: What does it take to be a leader? Lessons from the life & experiences of Ms. Mugdha Sinha
aipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur inaugurated Leadership Lab on October 22, 2021. The inauguration comprised discussing the case. This case discussion was unique as during the case discussion the protagonist Ms. Mugdha Sinha , also joined the class and addressed student queries and questions. The case was steered by Dr Prabhat Pankaj, Dr Prashant Gupta, and Dr Aparna Mendiratta.
The Leadership Lab aims to develop leadership acumen in students through various teaching pedagogies including discussing cases written in context of our Home State Rajasthan, which have global relevance also. It also aims to make students more agile and receptive towards change.
The Institute has taken initiative to develop local context cases and to teach them in the class. Use of case studies can be a very effective classroom teaching-technique. It is an exercise in negotiation, compromise, creativity and of course respect for others’ viewpoint. The Leadership Lab will allow students to experience the real-world problems related to life and business that are often difficult to understand and do not have an obvious solution. The idea is to provide an immersive experience and bringing students as close as possible to reality.
What does it take to be a Leader?
Case discussion on: Strategic Leadership at Voylla
On Wednesday, 30th March 2022, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur successfully conducted the second episode of “Leadership Lab: The Powerhouse of Case Centric Learning” for Batch 2021-23. It administered the case titled “Strategic Leadership at Voylla – Lessons from Vishwas Shringi, CEO, Voylla” focusing on the concept of Strategic Leadership. Leadership Lab is a unique initiative of Jaipuria Jaipur whose motto says “Our own experiments with innovation in teaching pedagogy”. The innovations brings in the aspect of having a case instructor along with a devil’s advocate.
The case was authored by Dr. Anvay Bhargava, Assistant Professor, OB/HR Area. The case focused on Rajasthan and what better way to have the case discussed on the occasion of Rajasthan Diwas, March 30.
Various leadership styles such as transactional, collaborative, authoritative, strategic, transformational, etc. were also a part of the insightful conversation. Dr. Samar Sarabhai, Dean Academics played the role of devil’s advocate and argued with the case author on various occasions to bring in a contrary prospective to the case.
Afterwards, the protagonist of the case, Mr. Vishwas Shringi, CEO, Voylla graced the session with his presence which took the students by surprise. He addressed the students by sharing the journey of Voylla that how it has evolved over the years, and how it survived during the pandemic. He also talked about empathy concerning COVID-19. According to him, a good leader knows exactly when to step down and let someone else lead in front.
The guest elucidated the difference between strategic leadership and leadership in general. He taught the students how to deal with stress with the help of reading, writing, and meditation. Towards the end of the workshop, students asked various thought-provoking questions which were enthusiastically addressed by Mr. Shringi.
Case discussion on: Strategic Leadership at Voylla
Strategic Leadership at Voylla | Listening from the protagonist and students
Case discussion on: Tapri – Back to Sustainability”
On Wednesday, 20th April 2022, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur successfully conducted the third episode of “Leadership Lab: The Powerhouse of Case Centric Learning” for Batch 2021-23. It administered the case titled “Tapri-Back to Sustainability” focusing on the concept of Sustainability Leadership. This time, innovation happened in the sense that the case instructor role was played by Ms Palak Jhawar along with the devil’s advocate role played by Ananya Agrawal, both students of Batch 2021-23.
The session was followed by all the participants joining the protagonist and devil’s advocate in the debate of Sustainability v/s Profits in which many points were raised such as:-
The Tapri case was summarised by the protagonist, Mr. Jaineet from Tapri. Mr Jaineet explained the key sustainable practices followed by Tapri.
Case discussion on: Tapri – Back to Sustainability
