Taxshe Cab Services: Coping with COVID-19

A former investment banking professional had her eureka moment when she noticed instances of assaults on single women travelling alone in taxi cabs at odd times of the day. The prevalence of these instances led her to begin a safe cab service run by women for women—Taxshe Services Pvt. Ltd. (Taxshe), located in Bengaluru, India. In March 2020, the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic began in India, and a lockdown was announced as a preventive measure. Taxshe, whose customers mainly comprised working women and school-going children, faced a significant challenge, as the sudden changes and stringent restrictions brought on by the lockdown precipitated a substantial drop in the need for cab services. Taxshe’s founder contemplated the company’s dilemma and consulted people from across her wide network of personal and professional acquaintances. How could she keep Taxshe up and running in spite of the restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic? What value-added specialty services could Taxshe offer as a cab service during the pandemic that would benefit society at large?

This case can be taught in undergraduate- and graduate-level courses on commerce, management, entrepreneurship (commercial and social), strategy, women’s safety and empowerment, or social sciences. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:<ul><li>Appreciate how entrepreneurial alertness can be used to identify a niche business opportunity.</li><li>Understand how bootstrapping can help in mitigating the financial risk involved in a business.</li><li>Acquaint themselves with the challenges faced by a women-led and for-women (and children) enterprise, as well as the role played by the enterprise in the empowerment of women.</li><li>Learn how to address the issues in scaling up encountered by a social enterprise catering to niche markets.</li></ul>

• entrepreneurship
• cab services
• enterprise scale
• women empowerment
• safety
• gender equality
• taxi