Gyanodaya

    Meet the Organization:

Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society (ULCCS), founded by 14 construction workers in British India's Malabar district, is Asia’s largest and India’s oldest labour cooperative. Its mission focuses on sustainable infrastructure development, labour empowerment, and cultural preservation. As of 2023, ULCCS employed over 17,000 individuals and reported a turnover of approximately INR 20 billion, primarily operating within the Indian construction sector.

     The Story Unfolds:

By 2010, ULCCS had noted that many of its 2,000+ members and their families sought white-collar jobs, leaving the construction industry to migrant workers. To sustain member engagement, ULCCS, led by Palery, expanded into IT and IT-enabled services with UL Technology Solutions, shifting focus to empowering knowledge workers while maintaining its mission of sustainable development.

     The Big Question:

To align with recent construction trends, ULCCS explored new business initiatives, including venturing into Pre-Engineered Steel Buildings (PEB) as an alternative to Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) structures. The management needs to determine whether the PEB venture is financially viable based on the feasibility analysis, and assess how it can help ULCCS stay relevant amid changing construction industry trends and the shift of youth toward white-collar jobs.

   Why does the case matter?

This case presents students with the opportunity to plan a new business launch by estimating and forecasting demand, profit margins, fixed costs, and break-even sales volume. It also enables the assessment of strategic business decisions using both economic and normative logic.

     What would you decide?

Do you believe that diversifying into pre-engineered steel buildings and embracing knowledge-based industries can successfully sustain ULCCS’s legacy and member engagement amid shifting labour dynamics and evolving construction trends?

     From the author

This case was born out of a real consulting engagement with Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society (ULCCS), India’s century-old cooperative enterprise. What began as an advisory assignment on strategic diversification for ULCCS soon evolved into a deeper intellectual journey. It brought together the rigour of academic analysis and the authenticity of field experience. Unlike many classroom cases that abstract a problem for academic simplicity, this one stays close to the ground as the data, dilemmas, and decisions are real, emerging from an actual problem-solving context.

Writing this case was therefore both challenging and rewarding. Translating lived consulting experience into a pedagogical narrative required balancing facts with frameworks and integrating data from diverse sources in to a short story format. The process also reaffirmed how the most powerful learning often comes from organizations that combine purpose and professionalism, as ULCCS does by blending cooperative ideals with business efficiency.

When taught in classrooms, this case may spark high engagement among students. They are likely to be intrigued not only by the financial feasibility question of the PEB business initiative but also by the larger themes of social enterprise sustainability, and mission drift. It encourages analytical rigor while prompting reflection on values and organizational purpose.

For us, the experience underscored the potential of Indian organizations to serve as global exemplars. We hope this case inspires students and executives alike in solving problems as leaders who rely not just on economic logic but also normative logic.