The Story of Che Minah Songket: The Family Business For Cultural And Heritage Economy

Abstract

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic a year ago was the trigger of various forms of reaction against individuals and business entities. Though its effects on the survival of businesses depend on the severity and prevalence of the contagion in each geographical location, firms may still face a variety of challenges due to the interdependencies between businesses and customers. Ayam Bismi is not spared the effects and pressures of this challenging situation. Even if the company is operating, as usual, it still needs to review its business operations and tailor them according to its current suitability and needs. This situation raises several questions: What are the issues faced by Ayam Bismi? More specifically, this case would demonstrate how the decisions of the government regarding the Movement Control Order (MCO) continued. This became a push factor for Jaffri Ahmad and Mazlina Kamarudin, the owners of Ayam Bismi, to carry out their usual business activities to sustain this enterprise in these challenging times. But as they were adjusting to the changing business scene and activities, they overlooked certain business issues, specifically the controlled price of chicken in the market, hence burdening the business with ever-constrained cash flows. It would be useful to document their experiences to illustrate the extent of their efforts to which the organization’s strategies were directly affected by the crisis, and how they made a difference to the continuity and viability of Ayam Bismi. Such a case, as well, could facilitate the development of certain steps to mitigate losses from the COVID-19 pandemic. These steps may also be applied outside of crises to bring additional benefits to other types of businesses too.

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Case Teaching Strategy

This case is rated medium to difficult; depending on how deep the analysis one wants to undertake. The case should be distributed to participants or students a few days before the discussion session takes place, and at least THREE HOURS should be allocated for the discussion and class activity. If desired, the initial discussion can be conducted in groups of THREE or FOUR participants/students and followed by a general class discussion. For students, the case study can be used for a long report in lieu of the traditional final exam.

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Teaching note

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