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In April 2013, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Forus Health Private Limited sat in his office in Bangalore, India contemplating the future direction of his company. He was under pressure by his venture capital partner to rapidly penetrate the market for 3nethra — an innovative, multi-functional and low-cost ophthalmology device — before imitators stepped in. Given its features and advantages over expensive imported specialized tools, 3nethra could help address the huge challenge of preventable blindness in India, but after three years since inception, only 100 devices had been sold. Although the market opportunity was large, acceptance by the ophthalmology profession was key to gaining momentum. He had two choices: to maximize sales numbers through the scattergun tactic of going all out and all over the market or to build a sufficient base of positive word of mouth to gain the momentum necessary to pole-vault from the early to the mainstream market. How should he direct his sales team to take the company forward?

In April 2013, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Forus Health Private Limited sat in his office in Bangalore, India contemplating the future direction of his company. He was under pressure by his venture capital partner to rapidly penetrate the market for 3nethra - an innovative, multi-functional and low-cost ophthalmology device - before imitators stepped in. Given its features and advantages over expensive imported specialized tools, 3nethra could help address the huge challenge of preventable blindness in India, but after three years since inception, only 100 devices had been sold. Although the market opportunity was large, acceptance by the ophthalmology profession was key to gaining momentum. He had two choices: to maximize sales numbers through the scattergun tactic of going all out and all over the market or to build a sufficient base of positive word of mouth to gain the momentum necessary to pole-vault from the early to the mainstream market. How should he direct his sales team to take the company forward?

This case documents the challenges involved in the adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) by the government in a democratic system, especially in the context of a developing country. Nemmadi was an e-governance project initiated in 2004 by the government of the state of Karnataka located in the southern part of India. Since the beginning of the new millennium, the policy and the political environment in Karnataka had turned quite favourable for such ICT initiatives. Aimed at improving the transparency, accountability and efficiency of the government administration at the village level, Nemmadi was an ambitious project conceived to offer digital services to rural citizens across 800 hoblis (cluster of villages) in the state. The services included issue of certificates of several kinds, which entitled the citizens belonging to economically and socially backward sections of the society to avail of benefits and concessions under various government schemes conceived as part of affirmative action by the state. Project Nemmadi was conceived as a 'sequel' to a celebrated e-governance initiative called Bhoomi, which involved digitization of seven million agricultural land records, and was a landmark in e-governance in India. Bhoomi was championed and closely led by Shekhar Puri, the then Principal Secretary of e-governance who also led the Nemmadi project during its roll-out phase. The roll-out of Project Nemmadi faced many challenges. The village functionaries and their interface with Nemmadi impacted project implementation, and hence adoption. It had received its share of bouquets and brickbats and had won several awards. Naveen Iyer took charge as the Principal Secretary of this department. Naveen's recommendations to the political leadership and the decisions that follow could transform the project to a truly village-level Citizen Service Center.

In April 2011, Vithal Gambhir, the marketing director of Vibhava Chemicals, an entrepreneurial venture and leader in the black phenyl category in the home cleaning agents (HCA) market in South India, was faced with a marketing challenge. A slew of multi-national corporation (MNC) brands in the emerging new category of specialty cleaning agents had eroded Vibhava’s share of the traditional black phenyl category by 50 per cent over the previous eight years. The marketing efforts of the MNCs had also led to a gradual transformation of the HCA market, expanding and segmenting it in terms of applications (e.g. floor-cleaning agents and toilet-cleaning agents) and benefits (e.g. disinfecting, cleaning, and deodorizing). As a result, Vibhava’s leading brand, “Black Belt” black phenyl disinfectant, had begun losing ground in the market. Vibhava had successfully responded to this decline by launching Ozone, a pine-oil-based floor cleaner, in 2003. Positioned as an herbal, eco-friendly, deodorizing floor cleaner, Ozone had managed to avert Domex, the leading MNC brand of disinfecting floor cleaner. However, during the last couple of years Domex had been available in many variants serving many segments and the market had become flooded with both MNC and established Indian brands. While the sale of Ozone rose in absolute terms, Vibhava’s share in the growing home cleaning market dropped from 25 per cent in a predominantly traditional product market in the 1990s, to 11 per cent in the transformed market of 2010. Gambhir now faced the daunting challenge of meeting an ambitious sales target of INR 1 billion for 2011-2012, which was double the sales of the previous year.