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Product cover image for St. Jude Childcare: Applying Systems Thinking in Pediatric Cancer

St. Jude Childcare: Applying Systems Thinking in Pediatric Cancer

Renuka Kamath, Bindu Kulkarni, Varun Nagaraj

Product #:W42201
Supplier:Ivey
Discipline:General Management, Sustainability
Setting:India, 2024
Details:Case (PDF) • 15 pages • 2025-04-08

Subjects:

Leadership and managing peopleManagement

Industries:

Public administration and nonprofits

Geography:

IndiaAsia
Your Price:$9.71

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In March 2024, Anil Nair, the CEO of St. Jude ChildCare Centres (St. Judes), Mumbai, India, was preparing to meet the board of trustees with a strategy. St. Judes, an NGO, had two initiatives: 1) Providing a free ‘Home Away from Home’ (HAH) to under-privileged children undergoing cancer treatment and their accompanying families. Nair looked forward to adding 200 more children at their newest centre, but the demand for places was still higher than they could accommodate. 2) St. Judes for Life (SJFL) aimed to reintegrate cancer-free children (Judians) into the mainstream to lead lives as thriving adults. However, very few Judians availed of this facility. How could Nair navigate the complex HAH shortfall and tweak the interconnections of SJFL toward success?

Learning Objectives

This case is helpful for graduate-level management programs, including Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs. It can be used in a course or module on systems thinking or as a front-end to a course on design thinking. While the system under discussion in the case is a social system, the case can be used in general MBA programs in addition to being relevant to courses specifically focused on the social sector and social change. The instructor is encouraged to use a session before the case to introduce the class to the basics of systems thinking, including Causal Loop Diagrams. The case aims to provide students with the confidence to analyze and address systems problems from the business or social sectors. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:
  • Understand how to unpack a complex system by identifying its stakeholders, resources, activities, and goals.
  • Analyze the system’s dynamic behaviour to identify interdependencies between the components of the system.
  • Create causal loop diagrams (CLDs) to identify the barriers and constraints that impact the system’s outcomes.
  • Develop solutions (interventions) targeting appropriate parts of the system to change its outcomes.
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Case Study: St. Jude Childcare: Applying Systems Thinking in Pediatric Cancer (English version) | Ivey Publishing