With a vision statement “To be a premium global conglomerate with a clear focus on each of the businesses,” the Aditya Birla Group continuously sought growth channels. India’s post-COVID economy, focusing on indigenization, aligned with the company’s expansion efforts. Chief executive officer Kumar Mangalam Birla’s interest in the jewellery industry led to the creation of Novel Jewels Limited (Novel Jewels) and the launch of its jewellery brand, Indriya, on July 26, 2024. Competing with major players, Novel Jewels targeted a share of the INR 8.3 trillion jewellery market by 2027, raising questions about its business model and potential for success.
In April 2022, Amita Deshpande, a co-founder of reCharkha EcoSocial Private Limited (reCharkha), was reflecting on the future of her social enterprise during a return flight from a sustainable-development conference. For seven years, the Pune, India–based start-up had utilized labour-intensive upcycling to tackle critical issues such as plastic pollution, environmental degradation, and rural unemployment. Despite receiving accolades for her company’s work, Deshpande now faced a pressing challenge: how to scale the enterprise financially while remaining true to its social mission of environmental conservation and rural empowerment. Rising competition and high production costs limited reCharkha’s ability to expand into new markets. Thus, Deshpande needed to explore strategic options to enhance revenue, reduce costs, and increase market reach without compromising on the core values of sustainability and community impact. Balancing these competing priorities, Deshpande contemplated the start-up’s next steps to ensure its long-term growth and mission-driven success.
Vats is the only listed liquor distribution company on China’s A-shares market. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Vats undertook a channel expansion strategy, expanding its channels and recruiting top talent. However, as China began relaxing restrictions in 2023, the economy did not rebound as quickly as expected. This post-pandemic era brought market contraction and economic downturn, compelling businesses to streamline operations. Now, Vats faces a decision: In the current new economic environment, should it continue its channel expansion strategy and hire more employees, or should it switch to a channel contraction strategy and redeploy its workforce?
Sheela Foam Limited was established in 1971 and become a prominent competitor in India’s premium mattress market by 2023. Through its flagship brand, Sleepwell, the company transitioned from manufacturing polyurethane foam to high-quality finished mattresses, capitalizing on India’s economic liberalization of the 1980s that spurred significant market growth. By 2023, the Indian mattress market had grown to a value of US$525 million, from US$408 million in 2018, presenting both opportunities and challenges. Competition from low-cost locally made cotton mattresses intensified as new entrants exploited favourable taxation structures. After Sheela Foam Limited acquired competing brand Kurl-on in 2023, the company’s chairman faced the dual challenge of enhancing brand recognition while managing an extensive product range and streamlined distribution channels. The acquisition introduced complexities in organizational integration that required redefining and realigning the company’s combined workforce and sales distribution channels.
In May 2024, Jonathan Ballesteros, the founder and chief executive officer of Geyser Systems (Geyser), secured an important distribution agreement with BPS Direct LLC (Bass Pro Shops), one of the biggest outdoor products retailers in the world. Geyser’s core product, a water conserving shower, offered an innovative approach to water conservation—a crucial environmental and economic challenge. Bass Pro was key to growing sales for Geyser, and it was essential to fulfilling Geyser’s mission to save water. Ballesteros required significant funding to launch and scale his venture. In spring 2024, he commenced an equity crowdfunding campaign to raise over US$1.2 million. However, by May the campaign had only generated about $90,000. Ballesteros knew his product solved a problem for customers in many markets, but he needed to review his growth plans and financial requirements to make sure he was on the right track.
Acorai AB, a Swedish medical start-up, had developed a heart monitor designed to meet the needs of cardiologists worldwide. The portable heart monitor had demonstrated in clinical trials its equivalence to the prevailing gold standard of invasive blood pressure management. The establishment of proof of parity was a big step forward for the company, though the clinical trials were preliminary and the product on hand was only a prototype. <br><br>The director of Sales and Marketing at Acorai AB was keen to establish product–market fit, and to resolve another dilemma: Should the start-up stay only in Sweden, limiting its activities to local clinical studies, local clinical research, local patients, and local cardiologists? Or should it pursue a higher profile by conducting clinical studies in the United States—the largest health-care market in the world—and then the European Union, as part of getting regulatory approval in both geographies, before launching the product globally?
In June 2024, Masumi Vyas and Arya Dixit were deciding whether to launch Bay6, a sustainable women’s clothing brand, in London, Ontario. To make this decision, the pair needed to assess the environment, evaluate their marketing strategy, and project financial statements for three years.
Help Us Green LLC (HUG), based in Kanpur, India, manufactured incense sticks from floral waste discarded from religious places like temples. Throughout its early stages as it attempted to establish a niche in the domestic market, amidst the challenges of scaling in a price-sensitive environment with limited awareness of sustainable practices, HUG had remained steadfast in its focus on the domestic market. The co-founder was now considering whether to prioritize scaling operations in the domestic market or focusing on export markets where the customer had greater purchasing power and awareness about sustainable products. In the international market, the company would have to analyze the competition and embark on an internationalization strategy to enter hand-picked international markets. With India among the top exporters of incense sticks in the international market, HUG would have to carve out a niche for its environment-friendly products through careful labelling, branding, and certification. It had to evaluate an internationalization strategy and consider the trade-offs between profitability and sustainability.
<p style = "color:rgb(197,183,131);"> <strong> AWARD WINNER - 2024 John Molson Business Ownership Case Writing Competition </strong> </p><br> In 2015, Binayak Acharya founded an EdTech start-up called ThinkZone. Its mission was to improve students’ learning outcomes in low-resource settings by implementing high-quality education programs. When the COVID-19 pandemic happened, ThinkZone decided to leverage readily available technologies—such as radio, TV, interactive voice response, feature phone messaging, and apps—to deliver educational content. It also developed an offline-enabled mobile app to track students’ progress and monitor and evaluate educators. But ThinkZone needed to re-strategize and move toward reinventing itself as ThinkZone 2.0. How could ThinkZone 2.0 learn from the past to achieve its vision of delivering quality education?
<div style="font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.4;"><p align="justify">In 2024, the US-based Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP) hosted two tentpole events. Both events were part of larger initiatives by MilkPEP to address gender inequality in sports and to modernize milk’s image as a performance beverage. MilkPEP launched a national campaign using the tagline “You’re Gonna Need Milk for That.” The phrase became the platform for running, gaming, and performance and health claims activations. MilkPEP had to determine the best strategy for the You’re Gonna Need Milk for That campaign. Should MilkPEP continue to target “modern milk moms” and young consumer groups? Should running and gaming segments be areas of focus or should MilkPEP cater to new audiences with different occasions and areas of interest? How could MilkPEP reinforce milk’s performance associations and keep milk in the forefront of culture?
On July 16, 2024, All Star Honda in Abilene, Texas, faced an unexpected ethical and reputational challenge. A young woman with Down syndrome, who expressed an eagerness to purchase a car with her father’s financial support, was transported to the dealership by a dealership representative at her request. While she enjoyed exploring vehicles and learning about their features, her mother, unaware of the arrangement, became concerned about her daughter’s safety and the circumstances of the visit. In a follow-up conversation with the customer’s mother, Nicholas Varela, vice president of All Star Honda, sought to address the concerns she expressed and reflect on the dealership’s actions. Although she did not offer suggestions for improvement, Varela recognized that it was the dealership’s responsibility to better understand the needs of customers with special requirements. After the conversation, he grappled with how to ensure that All Star Honda could provide inclusive and respectful service while maintaining clear communication with caregivers and families.
In the summer of 2023, an analyst was considering the valuation of Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Ltd. (Mahindra Finance) and tracking the performance of the non-banking financial company (NBFC) industry in India. Mahindra Finance’s stock had been volatile over the past five years, reaching a low share price of ₹76.46 in May 2020 and a high of ₹373.80 in February 2020. This share price volatility could be attributed to the average asset quality. The firm’s ongoing process transformation, Vision 2025, was expected to bring some stability and a reduction in volatility. The company’s management had formulated objectives for 2025 that were aimed at increasing the company’s assets under management by a factor of two in comparison to 2023. Given that the company was poised to achieve growth in the future, the analyst wanted to know the intrinsic value of Mahindra Finance. What would be the fair price for each share of Mahindra Finance? What method of valuation would provide the closest approximation of the intrinsic value of the company and its performance?