Ujjivan: A Microfinance Institution at a Crossroads (A)

V.G.   Narayanan; Pamela  Freed

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Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2008

Ujjivan: A Microfinance Institution at a Crossroads (A)

by V.G. Narayanan and Pamela Freed

Abstract

Samit Ghosh, the CEO and founder of Ujjivan, a major microfinance provider in Bangalore, wants to grow his business rapidly and become financially sustainable, but he's struggling with staff fraud, high costs, and how to stay true to Ujjivan's mission of poverty alleviation, while simultaneously reaching out to higher-income customers. The case explores how Ujjivan can grow, looking at such issues as new technology, diversifying product offerings, and how to hire the best staff.

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Microfinance; Ethics; Mission and Purpose; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Bangalore;

Format: Print

21 pages

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Citation:

Narayanan, V.G., and Pamela Freed. "Ujjivan: A Microfinance Institution at a Crossroads (A)." Harvard Business School Case 108-057, March 2008.

About the Author

V.G. Narayanan

Thomas D. Casserly, Jr. Professor of Business Administration
Chair, MBA Elective Curriculum

Accounting and Management

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Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2019 (Revised May 2019)

Fetchr: A New Way of Last Mile Delivery

V.G. Narayanan and Eren Kuzucu

By mid-2016, five years of aggressive growth had transformed Fetchr from a small logistics startup to a 1,000-employee, full-fledged last-mile delivery company operating across four countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Already beneficiaries of the largest Series A round to the Middle East from an American firm, CEO Idriss Al Rifai and the Fetchr team had ambitions of raising another $40 million in Series B and deliberated continuing international expansion. But first, Al Rifai and his team needed to address the operational efficiency and profitability issues that led their investors to threaten the discontinuation of funding and put the company’s future at stake. The case provides background information on the logistics sphere in the Middle East and the challenges companies face in the region. The case then takes the reader through Al Rifai’s journey of founding and growing Fetchr, backed with innovations like their patented GPS-based delivery technology. Finally, the case zooms in on Fetchr’s management team as they race against time to perform evaluations of their operational efficiency, weigh cost-cutting options, and explore strategies to improve profitability.

Keywords: Startup; decision; financial strategy; UAE; KSA; MENA; Cost Accounting; Business Model; Business Startups; Transformation; Cost Management; Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Logistics; Service Delivery; Supply Chain Management; Performance Evaluation; Mathematical Methods; Mobile Technology; Transportation Networks; Middle East; United Arab Emirates; Dubai; Bahrain; Egypt; Saudi Arabia; North Africa;

Citation:
Narayanan, V.G., and Eren Kuzucu. "Fetchr: A New Way of Last Mile Delivery." Harvard Business School Case 119-018, March 2019. (Revised May 2019.) View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2019

Mahindra Finance

V.G. Narayanan and Tanvi Deshpande

Mahindra Finance is a non-banking lender operating mainly in the rural and semi-urban areas of India. Set up in 1991, the company had grown to become a market leader with assets of $8.5 billion and a presence in 3,30,000 villages across India. Since most of Mahindra's customers are occupied in farming or allied activities, they are reliant on India's erratic monsoons for their source of livelihood. In order to manage the credit risks associated with lending to such a group, Mahindra Finance has developed ways of diversifying its risks and dealing with bad debt. The case discusses Mahindra Finance's practices of how to manage credit risk, measure this risk, make appropriate provisions for this risk, and finally communicate the risk and its management to the capital markets.

Keywords: Accounting; Business Model; Volatility; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Credit; Financing and Loans; Service Delivery; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Services Industry; India;

Citation:
Narayanan, V.G., and Tanvi Deshpande. "Mahindra Finance." Harvard Business School Case 119-003, March 2019. View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2016 (Revised July 2018)

Accenture Human Capital Strategy

Paula A. Price, V.G. Narayanan and James Weber

Accenture is a leading global consulting, technology, and outsourcing company. It has clients and its own operations throughout the world. This case describes the human resources and related activities necessary to deliver its services to clients. It allows students to explore how Accenture predicts its staffing needs, identifies the necessary skills, identifies how to recruit staff, when to hire them, in what parts of the world, how to develop compensate, and motivate them, how to form them into project teams, and manage the process in a cost effective manner. The case also provides a fictional example of an Accenture project. A potential client has issued a request for proposals to deliver a technology project. Students are asked to create a project team with the right mix of people at a cost that is competitive enough to win the project.

Keywords: management consulting; technology consulting; outsourcing; human resources; Human Resources; Activity Based Costing and Management; Management Practices and Processes;

Citation:
Price, Paula A., V.G. Narayanan, and James Weber. "Accenture Human Capital Strategy." Harvard Business School Case 117-032, August 2016. (Revised July 2018.) View Details

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Ujjivan: A Microfinance Institution at a Crossroads (A)

Abstract

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