Beginning with an exploration of insurance player Ping An's evolution to contrast with HDFC ERGO's strategy adaptation to the Indian market, this case sheds light on HDFC ERGO's strategic shift towards a mindshare-centric ecosystem from its roots as a digitised insurance provider in India. The case starts with Ping An, which is perhaps the best-known successful example of an insurance-based multi-product (and multi-actor) ecosystem. It looks at Ping An's journey, emphasising its digital transformation, ecosystem expansions and technology integration. It then turns to HDFC ERGO, which aimed to create its own ecosystem, and considers the similarities and differences. Drawing parallels and contrasts with India's burgeoning startup ecosystem and the transformative India Stack, HDFC ERGO crafted unique strategic principles. It emphasised avoiding direct competition, offering tangential value, filling market voids and balancing mindshare with value. Utilising internal capabilities and market insights, HDFC ERGO focused on healthcare, leveraging data and digital infrastructure. The development of the 'Here' app exemplifies the company's strategic prowess, aligning healthcare solutions with customer preferences. The case illuminates HDFC ERGO's meticulous approach to tailoring an ecosystem strategy amid shifting market dynamics and technological landscapes, and shows how it built its multi-actor ecosystem in various verticals to support its multi-product ecosystem play. It showcases the company's adeptness in adapting strategies while embracing innovation, resonating with market needs to forge a unique path in the evolving digital insurance realm. This case study stands on its own, offering valuable lessons on strategic planning and execution in the rapidly evolving digital and consumer landscapes. However, when taught in conjunction with its sister case "HDFC ERGO: A product ecosystem built on mindshare" (LBS CS-24-009), students can gain a comprehensive understanding of both the macro-strategic vision and the micro-level steps that underpin HDFC ERGO's ecosystem approach. This complementary perspective enriches the learning experience, illustrating not just the 'why' and 'what' of HDFC ERGO's shift towards ecosystem building but also the 'how' of its implementation, which is what this case focuses on. This case sheds light on two sets of topics that are not covered in the previous case. First, it looks at the choices a firm needs to make as it builds an ecosystem: Which parts of it need to or should be built by itself?

Anuj Tyagi, Joint Managing Director of HDFC ERGO, is facing the challenge of transcending the traditional limitations of insurance interactions and establishing a significant presence in customers' minds beyond annual transactions. The case explores the context of the insurance industry in India before 2019, spans HDFC ERGO's history, exploring the impetus for digital transformation with an emphasis on "multi-product" ecosystems, the evolving regulatory landscape, market shifts, and the inception and strategies behind the Control N vertical - the spearhead of HDFC ERGO's digital innovation. The case delves into HDFC ERGO's pursuit of expanding its market presence beyond traditional insurance through an ecosystem play and illustrates one of the facets of industry convergence and the rise of digitally-enabled broad firms that span several sectors. The case focuses on Anuj, a key decision-maker in HDFC ERGO, as he is confronted with the need to enhance customer engagement (mindshare). The case then analyses HDFC ERGO's assessment of the healthcare and mobility sectors, examining opportunities for ecosystem expansion. This case can be taught independently or paired with its sister case, "From Ping An's inspiration to HDFC ERGO's journey: Building an insurance-based ecosystem" (CS-24-009) for a more in-depth analysis of the sequential steps HDFC ERGO took in this transformation. The present case focuses on the "what" and the linked case focuses on the "how".

This article analyzes the connection between gamification and business success, focusing on customer retention, new customer acquisition, and transforming user perceptions. Based on a qualitative comparative analysis of 40 high-profile gamification projects, it shows that a combination of three key features-virtualization, social comparison, and tangible rewards-explain the various pathways to success. Each pathway requires the presence-and sometimes absence-of different design features, and firms do best when they focus on one or two objectives rather than all three at once. The article presents a framework for designing and implementing gamification more strategically and effectively, noting the ethical questions that arise.

Haier had come a long way since Zhang Ruimin took it over as a failing Chinese Collective-Owned Enterprise in 1984. Since then, he'd been able to transform it into one of the world's leading appliance manufacturers, known for quality and innovation. Haier was also noted for its bold geographical expansion, which had included buying iconic European brands, such as Candy, and, in 2016, the venerable General Electric Appliances (GEA), one of the world's most established white-goods firms. Along the way, Haier pioneered a new managerial philosophy: RenDanHeYi, a policy of staying close to the user (a term Haier preferred to "customer") where employees were encouraged to act as entrepreneurs and held accountable for their actions. More recently, it had put the digital agenda at the heart of its approach, leading a revolution in household appliances and aspiring to be the leading ecosystem brand in the Internet of Things (IoT) - a distinction duly conferred on it by BrandZTM in 2019.

Ecosystems offer a new way to bring multiple firms together in order to deliver new value propositions. By working together, the hub firm and its complementors can create innovative 'product plus service' bundles that span traditionally separate industries to offer an experience that simply wasn't available before. Such experiences can delight customers and give firms a powerful point of differentiation against competitors.