In September 2022, Paras Saluja, the founder and director of Shayna EcoUnified India Pvt. Ltd. (Shayna), lost three of his customers within a span of one week, all because of the high cost of his products. Based in Delhi, India, Shayna was a circular enterprise and the first in the country to have acquired a patent for manufacturing recycled plastic products. But in six years of operation, the company had yet to see stable demand: not only did its products cost too much, but its catalogue was too limited. The director urgently needed a growth strategy for his company. One option was to create new products, such as recycled plastic boards as a substitute for traditional timber. The second was to reduce the cost of current products by going backward into waste management. But given his limited financial and human resources—and a buying public wary of recycled goods—which option should the company director choose to cut costs and secure stable demand for his innovative recycled plastic products?
In February 2021, the Indian government announced new regulations to increase the accountability of social media companies for misusing their platforms in spreading fabricated news, misinformation, and obscene material. The new rules were not welcomed by some prominent social media companies, including Twitter. The giant microblogging network claimed that the new rules were designed to suppress freedom of speech among the citizens of India, one of the largest democracies of the world. However, Indian regulators argued that the new rules were required to prevent abuse on open social media networks. Twitter contended that it was self-regulated and argued that its users’ voices should not be regulated because it would clearly amount to suppression of the right to free expression. In a changing political and legal environment, how could Twitter meet increasing demands from regulators to moderate content, while remaining aligned with its mission, vision, and ethical standards? Were the self-regulatory mechanisms of social media companies adequately effective without interference from external forces?
In September 2018, the leadership team of Agarwal Packers and Movers Limited (APML) gathered for a meeting at the company’s headquarters, located in the heart of New Delhi, India. The founder was considering whether the company should go public by the end of 2019. Since APML’s inception in 1987, the team had worked hard to create a healthy brand recall, establish customer loyalty, and build a robust financial base. However, in the 18 months leading up to the intended initial public offering, the founder needed to consider two key questions: How could the company create and maintain service differentiation in an industry characterized by low entry barriers and limited pricing flexibility? How could it deliver quality service to retain customer loyalty?
Headquartered in Gurgaon, India, Vaidam Health Private Limited (Vaidam) was an online medical-value-travel (MVT) facilitator that had been hosting overseas patients travelling to India for medical treatment since its inception in January 2016. It had partnered with over 100 world-class health care facilities across the major cities in the country. Given the improved attractiveness of the MVT services, the founders of Vaidam realized that they would face tough competition in their attempt to further leverage this massive unaddressed business opportunity. Although they had successfully bootstrapped and come this far, they now had a tougher challenge to face in May 2018: as an MVT facilitator, how could Vaidam continuously offer value to medical travellers so that they would continue to choose Vaidam to plan their treatment and travel to India?
It was July 2017 when the co-founders of Fitpass Business Ventures Private Ltd. (Fitpass), an online platform providing passes to fitness establishments in the Delhi–National Capital Region, were reflecting on the need for continuous innovation to stay relevant to their users. Launched in June 2015, the company intended to satisfy the unmet market need for flexible workout options at an affordable price for fitness-conscious Indian youth. The company’s application, FITPASS, had been downloaded 100,000 times, and the company had gained 60,000 registered users and created a partner network of 1,500 fitness establishments in the region. Generating 100 per cent growth in month-on-month revenue, the company was among the leading platforms in this region. However, the online marketplace was becoming crowded with look-alike competitors, and the founders faced some tough questions: How could the company sustain its position in the current market? Was the company ready to move into other similar markets using the current business model and innovative capabilities?
In October 2016, the assistant director for buying and sourcing apparel at Tashn.com (Tashn) was examining his team's readiness for the upcoming End of Reason Sale, scheduled for January 3 to 5, 2017. The assistant director was contemplating a few crucial merchandising decisions: Was Tashn's merchandising plan effective? Was its buying model sustainable for large orders? Were the seller selection and evaluation processes efficient to ensure quality? The assistant director was also concerned about an increase in customer complaints and dissatisfaction with product quality in the general market.
In March 2016, the senior director of logistics and fulfillment at ShopClues.com, a leading online marketplace headquartered in Gurgaon, India, reflected on the positive turnaround in the company’s logistics strategy. Until 2014, the company had depended on air transport for shipment delivery, which limited it to Tier 1, Tier 2, and a few Tier 3 cities. It had relied entirely on the few national courier services available. These services had high logistics costs and could not reach customers in some tier 3 and tier 4 cities, preventing these customers from placing orders and leading to dissatisfaction. ShopClues.com switched to surface transport and a network of third-party logistics service providers to meet its requirements in a cost-effective manner. With evolving customer expectations for online retail sales and fierce competition in the e-commerce market, could ShopClues.com become the first profitable e-commerce company with third-party logistics partnerships as the key enabler?
In June 2016, the founder and chief executive officer of Parentune.com, a rapidly growing online parents’ community based in Gurgaon, India, was feeling the pressure of keeping his parenting support service relevant to the changing needs of millennial parents. Parentune.com supported parents at all stages of parenting by networking parents and experts. Since Parentune.com launched in November 2012, more than one million parents had become members of the community, with another 6,000 added every month. Parentune.com was trusted by parents for its personalized, validated, and state-of-the-art parenting resources. However, many similar platforms began entering the niche segment of digital parenting services, capitalizing on growing Internet reach and social media penetration. In the wake of evolving parenting needs and mounting competition from look-alike platforms, Parentune.com needed to evaluate its plan for continuous improvement in its service delivery.
In November 2014, JCB — the world’s leading construction equipment manufacturer, with a presence in 150 countries — decided to add two more facilities to its existing manufacturing strength in India. Based in the United Kingdom, JCB had put US$300 million into building its production and service capabilities since its entry into the Indian construction equipment market in 1979. However, the intricate business environment in India and its difficult terrain, coupled with the recent infrastructure downturn in the country, posed great risks to this large investment. As the management of the privately owned company evaluated the viability of this investment decision, it faced a tough question: How should JCB sustain its market position in such a competitive, demanding, and dynamic Indian construction equipment market, given the tough challenges it faced?