Saankhya Labs: Compete, Collaborate, or Disappear

Saankhya Labs Private Limited (Saankhya), was a fabless semiconductor company formed in 2006 in Bengaluru, India. It provided innovative products and solutions used in consumer electronics, wireless communication, and broadcasting applications. Similar to other domestic telecommunications manufacturing companies in India, Saankhya found it difficult to penetrate the domestic equipment market. While its fluctuating fortunes had stabilized to some degree after 2016, the company continued to struggle in the face of regulatory uncertainty and competition from multinational giants, and the expected advantages of government initiatives intended to support the domestic industry had not yet materialized. In 2018, Saankhya's chief executive officer and co-founder wondered how long the company could survive under such competitive circumstances. Should it compete or collaborate with other stakeholders in the industry?

This case can be used in undergraduate- and graduate-level courses on strategic management, public policy and governance, and human resource management. Students will apply strategic management theory to real-world problems and will discuss issues of public policy and governance—particularly, what regulators and policy-makers can do to reduce uncertainties, and whether public policy advocacy can assist indigenous companies in competition with multinational corporations. The case can also be used to explain theoretical positioning frameworks that are useful to start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises, and local manufacturing companies, and to explore how companies can retain talent in highly competitive markets. After working through the case, students will be able to do the following:<ul><li>Describe the various conflicting issues affecting local manufacturing companies in a sector dominated by global giants and experiencing rapid technological advancement.</li><li>Conduct a positioning analysis and suggest various strategic options that a local manufacturing company could adopt to successfully compete with global giants.</li><li>Recommend policy advocacy and regulatory prescriptions to promote indigenous research and development and domestic telecom companies.</li><li>Explain how a domestic company can reduce attrition rates.</li></ul>

• regulatory uncertainties
• global giants
• positioning strategies
• policy advocacy
• ring-fence talent
• local manufacturing