STRATEGIC STEWARDSHIP

Term 4, PGP and PGPBA

(Three Credits - 20 sessions of 90 minutes each)

Instructor: Prateek Raj, Strategy, prateekraj@iimb.ac.in, Office: C-102

Course Summary
What should be the right price for insulin? Are gig workers employees? How to regulate speech
online if at all? How much pollution is okay? Business leaders face many dilemmas. This course
teaches strategic stewardship, a form of strategic decision-making aimed at enhancing
shareholder value while pursuing “good” and innovative market-friendly strategies that also
produce commons for stakeholders.
Strategic stewards are proactive and integrated in their approach and think through the inter-
related actions and reactions, as their decisions affect society, the markets in which they operate,
and ultimately their business. As strategic stewardship is a proactive form of integrated strategy,
students learn design methodology in this course, for more socially aware and empathetic strategic
decision-making, by putting the human experience at the center, developing empathy for various
stakeholders, and gaining insight into their said and unsaid needs.
The course is divided into five modules:
1. The Design methodology (Sessions 1 and 2)
2. What is good for the firms (Sessions 3 to 6)
3. What is good for the market (Sessions 7 to 10)
4. What is good for stakeholders and society (Sessions 11 to 14)
5. Strategy for the commons (Sessions 15 to 20)
The primary mode of study in the course is the case method. The course is highly immersive and
motivates students to seek their own sources of information during the two sessions per case. In
the initial session students understand the views of various stakeholders, using a variety of
techniques inspired by the design methodology. In the follow-up session students take the
boardroom view and craft an implementable strategy such that the firms can act as strategic
stewards.

Pre-requisites, inclusion/exclusion criteria: Competition and Strategy core course is a

prerequisite for this course and picks up from where the core course ends (non-market strategy
and strategic failure).

Raj: Strategic Stewardship, IIM Bangalore

Learning Objectives
The course is designed with the following specific objectives and learning outcomes:

• Learning the concept of strategic stewardship.

• Learning the concepts of pro-business, pro-market, and pro-society.
• Learning design-thinking methodology.
• Developing awareness of the various visible and invisible stakeholders of a business and
their needs.
• Crafting strategies that create long-term and sustainable value for the firm, while also
contributing to the greater commons.
Course Materials
The course packet will contain all the cases and reading materials.

Pedagogy
The 20 sessions of the course will have 10 cases
• Each case is divided into two sessions
o Visioning studio – Standing in the shoes of the stakeholders (ideation)
o Strategy boardroom – Standing in the shoes of the executive (execution)

Course Evaluation& Grading Pattern

• Class participation – 20 (all twenty sessions): This is an immersive course, with high
participation required from all students.
• Group vision studio – 20 (beginning of the 10th session) + 20 (beginning of the 19th
session): The students will form groups and submit two reports (related to a visioning
exercise for an organization (e.g., Vision for IIM Bangalore). The report will comprise of
two components (i) engagement with different stakeholders of the organization, (ii)
designing a strategic vision for the organization.
• End term – 40 (end of term): Each student will be asked to analyze a company, and conduct
a stakeholder analysis, followed by a critical analysis of the current strategy of the firm,
and if it satisfies a broad set of stakeholders.

Raj: Strategic Stewardship, IIM Bangalore

Dates:
Session Module Topic/Case
1 Making the iPhone
The Design Methodology
2
3 Traditional car manufacturers
4 and EVs
What is good for the firm?
5
Right price for insulin
6
7
India’s telecom market
8
What is good for the market?
9
Gig workers as employees
10
11
Managers during COVID-19
12
What is good for society?
13
Regulating hate speech
14
15
“Optimum” pollution
16
17
Strategy for the commons Worker-owned businesses
18
19
IIMB’s ten-year vision
20

Raj: Strategic Stewardship, IIM Bangalore

 Session-wise plan
Module 1: The Design methodology
1. Why did Apple make the iPhone? (Week 1)
Who made the 2000s mobile phone industry? Why did outsiders – Apple and Google –
disrupt this industry? How did Blackberry and Nokia fail to design the smartphone industry
standard? In this module, we introduce the design-thinking methodology.
Session 1: Students map the different stakeholders in the 2000s mobile phone industry,
followed by an exercise to stand in the shoes of different stakeholders.
Session 2: Students use the case and self-researched information, to understand the degrees
of freedom the executives of incumbents and entrants in the 2000s mobile phone industry.
 Case: Yoffie, David B., and Michael Slind. "iPhone vs. Cell Phone." Harvard Business
School Case 708-451, October 2007.
 Article: Kolko, Jon, “Design Thinking Comes of Age” Harvard Business Review,
September 2015.

Module 2: What is good for the firm?

2. Can traditional car manufacturers make EVs? (Week 2)
How is a car manufactured? How was Toyota different from traditional car manufacturers?
Do automobile manufacturers need a new way for the EV revolution? In this case, we
introduce the concept that labor (workers) is an integral part of manufacturing and strategy-
making process.
Session 3: Students map the various stakeholders of the traditional car industry, and they
stand in the shoes of different stakeholders, especially workers, to understand the influence
they hold in the car manufacturing process.
Session 4: Students use the case and self-researched information, to evaluate the options
contemporary executives have when entering the EV industry.
 Case: Gundling, Ernest. “Disruption in Detroit: Ford, Silicon Valley, and Beyond (A)”
Harvard Business School Case B5875, July 2016.
 Article: Spear, Steven J., and H. Kent Bowen “Decoding the DNA of the Toyota
Production System” Harvard Business Review, January 2006. (2904-PDF-ENG).

3. What should be the right price for insulin? (Week 3)

How is a medicine researched, developed and produced? What are the dilemmas faced by
Eli Lilly’s CEO? What should be the right price for insulin? In this case, we ask the
question: what does it mean to create customer value?
Session 5: Students map the various stakeholders of the pharmaceutical industry, and they
stand in the shoes of different stakeholders, especially patients and researchers, to
understand their perspectives.
Session 6: Students use the case and self-researched information, to evaluate the options
Eli Lilly’s executives have when deciding on the price of their medicines, and the R&D
budget.
 Case: Kerr, William R., and Alexis Brownell. “Transformation at Eli Lilly & Co. (A)”
Harvard Business School Case 817070, November 2016.

Raj: Strategic Stewardship, IIM Bangalore

 Article: Thomke, Stefan, “Building a Culture of Experimentation”, Harvard Business
School, March 2020.

Module 3: What is good for the market?

4. Is India world’s best telecom market? (Week 4)
Who were the key stakeholders of India’s 1990s telecom industry? How has it transformed?
How did India build the world’s cheapest mobile market? What principles should guide an
effective telecom market? In this case, we attempt to understand what an ideal telecom
market looks like and understand the broader concept of a competitive market.
Session 7: Students map the various stakeholders of the telecom industry, and they stand
in the shoes of different stakeholders, especially regulators, to understand their
perspectives.
Session 8: students use the case and self-researched information, to evaluate the options
policymakers have when deciding how to price telecom licenses in India.
 Case: Srabanti, Mukherjee, and Debdatta Pal, “Pricing Telecom Licences in India”,
Harvard Business School Case (W12509), February 2013.
 Article: Faccio, Mara, and Luigi Zingales. "Political determinants of competition in the
mobile telecommunication industry." The Review of Financial Studies 35, no. 4 (2022)

5. Are gig workers employees? (Week 5)

Who are the key stakeholders of the taxi industry? Are Uber and Ola drivers employees or
contractors? How should policymakers regulate the gig economy? In this case, we attempt
to understand what an ideal taxi market looks like and understand how the gig industry
will/should evolve.
Session 9: Students map the various stakeholders of the taxi industry, and they stand in the
shoes of different stakeholders, especially full-time drivers, and customers, to understand
their perspectives.
Session 10: Students use the case and self-researched information, to evaluate the options
policymakers have when deciding how many protections should they give to gig workers,
and how should Uber executives respond?
 Case: Zhou, Wen, and Friedmann Danny. “Uber in Hong Kong: A Regulator's Dilemma”
Harvard Business Review Case HK1149, January, 2019.
 Article: Raj, Prateek. “Does Regulation Build Trust or Entrench Cliques? Lessons From
Merchant Guilds and the Taxi Industry”, Promarket, March, 2017.

Raj: Strategic Stewardship, IIM Bangalore

 Module 4: What is good for Stakeholders and Society?
6. Who was a manager responsible to during COVID-19? (Week 6)
What are the concerns of various business stakeholders during an economic downturn?
What should be a manager’s objective function? In this case, we ask the question: to who
is a manager responsible?
Session 11: Students map the various stakeholders and their changing needs during the
COVID-19 pandemic, and they stand in their shoes to understand their perspectives.
Session 12: Students use the article and self-researched information, to understand how/if
an executive can balance the needs of various stakeholders during downturns and periods
of true uncertainty.
 Case: Saranga, Harita, and Prateek Raj, “How to manage a large-scale public crisis”,
Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2021.
 Article: Raj, Prateek “How to come up with a strategy under true uncertainty”, LSE
Business Review, September 2016.

7. How to regulate speech online if at all? (Week 7)

How should we rate social media’s contribution to society? How can we identify hate
speech online? Who should, if at all, regulate online speech? In this case, we ask the
question: what is hate speech, and who defines it?
Session 13: Students map the various stakeholders of the social media industry, including
groups of users, engineers, and advertisers, and they hold a debate on how free speech
should be, and how hate speech can be defined and regulated?
Session 14: Students use the report and self-researched information, to craft a response on
behalf of executives of a social media giant in a hypothetical scenario where they are being
questioned by policymakers on their (mal)practices.
 Report: Stigler Committee on Digital Platforms, Final Report, September 2019, available
at https://research.chicagobooth.edu/stigler/media/news/committee-on-digital-platforms-
final-report.
 Article: Raj, Prateek “How Twitter weakened India’s information ecosystem”, ProMarket,
May 2021.

Module 5: Strategy for the Commons

8. How much pollution is okay? (Week 8)
Who are the key stakeholders of the chemical industry? Can chemical industry managers
ever be free of guilt? Does a “good” strategy even exist for DuPont? In this case, we discuss
“dirty” industries.
Session 15: Students map the various stakeholders of the chemicals industry, especially
local communities, and stand in their shoes to understand their perspectives on the various
types of visible and invisible externalities the industry produces.
Session 16: Students use the case and self-researched information, to craft a strategy on
behalf of executives of DuPont if they are being questioned by policymakers for the
negative externalities their firm produces. Can DuPont create more positive externalities
for society?

Raj: Strategic Stewardship, IIM Bangalore

 Case: Shapira, Roy, and Luigi Zingales, 2017. Is pollution value-maximizing? The
DuPont case (No. w23866). National Bureau of Economic Research.
 Article: Raj, Prateek, and Brian K. Richter, 2022. Corporate Market Stewardship.
Working Paper.

9. Can worker-owned businesses work? (Week 9)

Who makes Amul? Why are cooperatives not a usual form of business organization? Can
Amul’s model be applied to other businesses? In this case, we envision alternate forms of
organizing business.
Session 17: Students map the various stakeholders of Amul and stand in their shoes to
understand the challenges of running a cooperative.
Session 18: Students hold a discussion on Farm Veda and strategies that can be effective
for the cooperative to grow most sustainably.
Invitee for discussion: TRILOCHAN SASTRY, Professor, IIM Bangalore; Founder,
Farm Veda.
 Case: Deshpande, Rohini et. al., “India's Amul: Keeping Up with the Times”, Harvard
Business School Case (516116), May, 2016.
 Article: Raj, Prateek, “Evolution of Business” IIMB Evolution of Business and Markets,
October 2018.

10. What should be IIM Bangalore’s ten-year vision? (Week 10)

Who is IIMB? Is IIMB delivering to all its stakeholders? What should be IIMB’s strategic
vision for the next ten years? In this case, we create a vision for IIM Bangalore, ten years
from now.
Session 19: Students map the various stakeholders of IIM Bangalore, interact with them,
and stand in their shoes to understand their aspirations for the institution.
Session 20: Students develop a vision for IIM Bangalore considering its various
stakeholders, and the various strategic options that exist for IIM Bangalore to execute such
a vision.

Raj: Strategic Stewardship, IIM Bangalore

 Instructor
PRATEEK RAJ is an Assistant Professor of Strategy at Indian
Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore. He studies how free
and inclusive socioeconomic systems evolve(d) in history, and in
developing countries, and is especially interested in how modern
markets and businesses emerge and function. His other interest
areas include regional economic growth and the role of identity
and culture in business. He did his PhD in Strategy and
Entrepreneurship at University College London (UCL) and is a
Fellow at the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth
School of Business. Prof. Raj teaches Competition and Strategy
and Evolution of Business and Markets at IIM Bangalore.

Raj: Strategic Stewardship, IIM Bangalore