In December 2023, Avenue Supermarts Limited, operating as DMart, celebrated its robust performance in the offline retail sector in India. Since its establishment in 2002, DMart had built a sizable network of profitable offline stores, showcasing industry-leading metrics. However, its online subsidiary faced losses, prompting the management to confront pivotal decisions for future expansion. The management grappled with the choice of expanding its physical stores and deliberated on the strategic approach: Should it broaden geographically or deepen existing clusters? Simultaneously, they confronted the challenge of resource allocation for the online business amid intense competition and recent financial setbacks. DMart's leadership stood at a crossroads, weighing options to sustain offline success while addressing the complexities of online market dynamics and profitability.

In June 2023, Zerodha, a leading player in India's discount brokerage industry, was at a crossroads. Founded in 2010 by Nikhil and Nithin Kamath, who were avid stock traders from a young age, the company had grown significantly by putting customers first. The pandemic and low-interest environment had provided a strong tailwind to the sector as well as the company, especially in terms of the number of customers and revenues. However, the competition was nipping at Zerodha's heels. Many start-ups offered similar technology interfaces, and some were funded by venture capital. A few were spending aggressively to court customers as well as tech employees. With a debt-free balance sheet built through several years of profitable operations, Zerodha could pursue strategies that required large spending, but the key question was: should Zerodha deviate from its time-tested strategy of being a cost leader and not following the herd in the new post-pandemic environment?