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The case, set in May 2018, follows an analyst as she undertakes the challenge of decoding the acquisition strategy behind a deal that rattled both venture capitalist and tech startup circles in India. Ananya Menon, Chief Consultant for Retail and E-Commerce at a research and consulting firm in India, had been asked by a client to provide a report on the recent acquisition of the Indian marketplace major Flipkart Pvt. Limited by the Arkansas-based retail behemoth Walmart Inc. Founded in 2007, Flipkart, buoyed by multiple massive funding rounds, had registered meteoric growth both in terms of revenue and market share, and dominated the Indian online retail industry. Though it faced a few setbacks due to misplaced strategies and regulatory changes, it managed to cement its position as the market leader with a share of nearly 40% of the market in terms of gross merchandise value (GMV). However, analysts were sceptical about the sustainability of this position, as the company was a long way from profitability and was burning cash in the form of massive discounts to augment its customer base. Moreover, Amazon Inc., another leading global marketplace company, with deep pockets and top-of-the-line technological capabilities, was close on its heels. Walmart had waited on the fringes of the Indian retail industry since 2007 when the market was opened to foreign investors, but regulatory barriers had confined its operations to the wholesale segment. The e-commerce segment was opened to foreign investment eventually, but under several restrictive conditions. Walmart leapt at the chance and acquired a 77% stake in Flipkart, the leader in the online retail segment. However, the deal price of US$ 16 billion for a company that was consistently making huge net losses sent shockwaves across the VC and e-commerce community. As speculation and debate over the move mounted, Menon was tasked by her client with demystifying the strategic rationale behind the deal.

Spreadsheet supplement for case ISB186.

ExtraCarbon was a company focused on the sorting stage of India’s unorganized waste management industry. The company was founded in 2013 with owners’ capital and some investments from friends and family. In October 2018, one of these friend investors expressed a desire to exit the venture. Although ExtraCarbon had made steady progress since its founding, the company did not have enough money to buy out the investor’s stake, and the company’s valuation was too low for the investor to benefit from leaving the venture. The investor complained that the founders had never taken his advice to scale up the venture more quickly, which would have benefitted all stakeholders by providing a better valuation and attracting more investors to the company. The incident led the founders to review their current scale of operations and make more ambitious growth plans for the company, including setting an ambitious revenue target of US$6 million by 2021. The challenge was to identify resources and ways to achieve this target. What strategy would help the company reach its target in a largely unorganized industry?

The case, set in October 2017, follows the predicament of two enterprising young women, Saranya Das Sharma (Saranya) and Aamiya Viswanathan (Aamiya ), the founders of Project Sashakt. After learning that a large number of girls dropped out of school after reaching puberty due to lack of access to affordable disposable sanitary napkin and the adverse impact on the environment caused by the rampant use of disposal of non-indegradable sanitary napkins, Saranya and Aamiya founded Project Sashakt (Sashakt). It crowdsourced fund and procured 100% compostable sanitary pads that it distributed free of cost to the beneficiaries in and around Delhi. In addition, Sashakt conducted awareness workshops and outreach programs to educate the girls on MHM and dispel the taboos surrounding menstruation and they eventually extended their outreach programs to nearby slums. Sashakt's suppliers, Aasma Foundation and Aakar Innovations, were supportive of the cause and supplied biodegradable sanitary napkins at subsidized prices. Yet, as Sashakt grew, in order to become financially self-reliant and sustainable, the founders began to seriously consider the idea of vertically integrating the operations by setting up a biodegradable sanitary pad manufacturing unit in a village in Bihar, a state in Eastern India with poor gender parity indicators. They hoped that the manufacturing unit would not only create employment opportunities for disadvantaged rural women but also produce cost-competitive supplies for the project's free distribution drives, thereby scaling the scope and impact of Sashakt. The proposed venture involved a large capital outlay, yet that was the least of their concerns. They were more concerned about the potential implications of a non-profit transitioning into a social enterprise and the challenges and risks involved in setting up - and scaling up - the proposed venture.

The case, set in August 2017 in the state of Punjab, India, follows the transformational efforts of Manjit Singh Brar, the Managing Director of Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation Limited (Milkfed), the apex body of Punjab's dairy farmers' union. He had taken the reins of the cooperative in March 2015 after holding several top-level administrative positions as a civil servant. At the time of his appointment as the MD, the cooperative was witnessing a decline in its revenue and profit growth. More importantly, Milkfed's brand, Verka, was under siege from Amul, a brand of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which had invaded the Punjab market. Brar was tasked to turn around the cooperative and also to tackle the threat posed by Amul, a pan-national brand that was not only financially resourceful but also managed by a team of dairy technocrats and commercial experts. After securing the government's mandate for his transformation roadmap, Brar rolled out measures to overhaul the organization and shake it out of its bureaucratic complacency. He instituted accountability and efficiency across the organization by implementing commercial management principles and practices. He also put the cooperative on the track to attaining sustained growth in revenue and profitability by revamping its brand positioning, distribution and advertising, and by tweaking the product mix. Brar reinforced Verka's competitive advantage by unleashing defensive strategies and established new means of growing its revenue and market share to fortify its leadership position in the market against Amul. As a financially resourceful brand with a robust procurement network across the nation, Amul was keen on starting a price war in Punjab and disrupting both ends of Verka's value chain. Brar had to find the means to grow Verka's revenue and profits amid tough competition from Amul.

Set in December 2016, the case follows Sumeet Mehta, CEO of Cardpe Services Private Ltd, a fintech startup established to tap into the gap that existed in the payments acceptance infrastructure in India. Cardpe was all set to launch a mobile Point-of-Sale (mPOS) device - a wireless handheld integrated unit - that processed credit/debit card payments. Cash was a predominant medium of transaction in the country but the government was accelerating digitalisation and promoting measures to move towards a less-cash economy. Measures were underway to bring the largely unbanked public into banking network. Correspondingly, debit and credit card issuance was also growing. However, the availability of point-of-sale (POS) devices that could process credit/debit card payments was inadequate and remained concentrated among large merchants in cities. Due to this shortfall, the use of cards for payments remained low. Cardpe intended to target the merchants in the Tier II and Tier III cities, which were largely ignored by the acquiring banks, aggregators and the electronic wallet companies. Mehta had to assess the market potential for mPOS in the increasingly crowded market and to evaluate the odds stacked against Cardpe in the target market and as he re-examines Carpe's go-to-market strategy. This case offers an opportunity to learn about the innovation adoption model and the challenges involved in altering market behaviour; and devising marketing strategy to overcome barriers involved in product adoption. The case would also help students to understand how to apply and integrate market data and information on evolving scenarios to estimate the market size for a product/service.

In early 2017, after launching its successful "Greenhouse-in-a-Box" pilot project in India with fifteen smallholder farmers, Kheyti, a non-profit agricultural technology (AgTech) social enterprise, was struggling with several decisions in developing and growing its business. Kheyti was launched in 2015 to help smallholder farmers battle poverty and income variability by providing affordable technologies bundled with services. Over eighteen months, the team had developed a low-cost and modular greenhouse product to which it added financing, inputs, training, and market linkages to create a comprehensive "full-stack" solution for small farmers. The pilot project was a success in many ways, but Saumya, Kheyti's co-founder and head of product, was concerned that it revealed shortcomings that could severely affect the viability and scalability of Kheyti's solution. Saumya had some important decisions to make. Should Kheyti redesign the product from scratch, or find other ways to reduce the cost for early adopters? Should it rely on upfront revenues from sales of the greenhouse, or consider developing an innovative financing or contract farming model? Kheyti's dwindling cash reserves meant that these decisions were urgent and critical. The path chosen now would determine whether the startup would move beyond the pilot stage and achieve its vision of serving 1 million farmers by 2025.

Co-Founders of the North is a digital multiplayer turn-based strategy game. Players take on the role of "co-founders", so named for their joint pioneering role in constructing buildings on a set of four fantasy islands. Players must both compete and cooperate, having to balance limited resources and allegiances while contending against each other's hidden agendas. Collaboration is essential to winning, yet only a single player will ultimately win. A player must accumulate the most allegiance points to win. This is accomplished by constructing buildings on available slots, or by paying to demolish a building and constructing over it. Each building generates a different number of points for different allegiances and costs a certain amount of gold to construct. Players receive additional income (i.e., gold) each turn from completed buildings. A player will often not have enough gold to construct a building on their own. In these situations, a player may instead invest a partial amount, allowing other players to invest in completing the building. When this happens, players receive an income proportional to their respective investment. Players are thus confronted with a dynamic environment that will affect their strategic choices, such as when to cooperate and when to go it alone. At the end, there can only be one Ruler of the North!

Set in November 2015, the case follows Sisters in Solidarity (SiS), a social enterprise established to emancipate marginalised women in Lucknow, India. SIS was an offshoot of Study Hall Education Foundation (SHEF), a non-profit organisation that promoted feminist pedagogy in the educational establishments under its wings. SHEF also provided high quality education to underprivileged girls from the slum areas through the Prerna Girls School (PGS). The mothers of PGS students, deprived of economic opportunities due to lack of skills and education, suffered in a vicious cycle of poverty, domestic abuse and oppression. Observing the positive outcomes that education and employability brought about in the lives of their daughters, these mothers approached SHEF for help. Shibani Sahni, daughter of SHEF's founder, spearheaded the establishment of SiS, which aimed to emancipate women by improving their employability through vocational training. The enterprise had three business units-DiDi's Foods, DiDi's Driving and DiDi's Creations. However, while the food unit of SIS had evolved into a self-sustaining and profitable unit and the driving unit was a cost neutral vertical integration that helped SiS achieve operational efficiency, the creations unit (crafts and fashions) was struggling and unprofitable. Sahni had to overhaul the business strategy of DiDi's Creations and turn the unit around. Resources were stretched; she would have to revisit all the business segments in the portfolio to sustain profitability and growth. In order to support more beneficiaries, SiS would have to scale up, but Sahni must assess the organisational readiness for this to take place. This case offers an opportunity to learn about revenue growth strategies, profitability evaluation and divestment decisions and various expansion strategies available for a social enterprise. The case would also be helpful in understanding the elements of sustainability and scalability essential for social enterprise.

Student Spreadsheet for product 9B16N015.

In early 2013, an analyst at an insurance company was examining whether IndusInd Bank, a mid-size bank in India, would be a good investment for the insurance fund’s equity portfolio. From January 2008 until March 30, 2013, the bank’s stock had tripled under its new management. The analyst wondered whether deploying funds in the bank would yield any significant returns. He decided to use the available financial information and the residual income valuation method to forecast the company’s stock price.

In early 2013, an analyst at an insurance company was examining whether IndusInd Bank, a mid-size bank in India, would be a good investment for the insurance fund's equity portfolio. From January 2008 until March 30, 2013, the bank's stock had tripled under its new management. The analyst wondered whether deploying funds in the bank would yield any significant returns. He decided to use the available financial information and the residual income valuation method to forecast the company's stock price.

Student spreadsheet for case W16287.

Instructor Spreadsheet for product 8B16N015.

In any industry, companies must keep their mission, vision and values as the guiding aspects, as well as the determinants, of their market position. Kone, one of the global leaders in the elevator and escalator industry, was founded in 1910. Kone has always held the core belief that the elevator user experience should be more than a simple ride up or down. With its focus on design, Kone aims to give passengers an enjoyable experience that adds value to a building and its users. Using the latest technology, its elevators bring ride-comfort to a new level. In 2014, Kone launched the UltraRope, an innovative product built with carbon fibre technology. The new technology also increases rope lifetime to twice that of conventional ropes, which has the potential to reduce replacement costs. In addition, Kone offers a real-time rope condition monitoring system, which again, provides improvements to maintenance and safety. As a disruptive innovation, the UltraRope has potential applications, not only in the elevator industry, but in other industries as well. UltraRope is undoubtedly a significant milestone for Kone. How might this achievement change the elevator and related industries, and concurrently how could Kone maintain its distinctive position as an innovative company and best bring its new product to market? Is there a standout aspect of Kone's business culture that enables it to take the elevator industry to new heights?

Set in July 2015, the case follows Matrix Cellular (International) Services (Matrix), a telecommunications company that forayed into the nascent cellular telephony market in India, as a retailer of mobile handsets, accessories and international SIM cards. The Managing Director and Chairman of the Risk Management Committee of the company, Gagan Dugal, identified the potential demand for international SIM cards in the Indian outbound travel market that was set to boom on the back of globalisation. MCIS bought international minutes in bulk from Mobile Service Providers (MSPs) in destination countries and retailed them through SIM cards to outbound Indian travellers. The service was an instant hit among elite travellers. Matrix, exploiting its pioneer advantage, began to strategically build its capabilities in the areas of sourcing, marketing, distribution and servicing, and expanded its product portfolio. Thus, from being a retailer of hardware and accessories, Matrix quickly evolved into a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), trading and retailing talktime and data. From 2010 onwards, Matrix started facing intense competition from new market entrants and mainstream MSPs. Additionally, events that affected the outbound travel industry also impacted Matrix. Realising its twin identity as a telecom and travel company, Matrix launched additional services - forex cards, travel insurance and VAT recovery. While the services did not significantly contribute to the revenue of the company, they did add to the attractiveness of the company's competitive advantage. Amidst intensified competition and faltering revenue, Dugal and his team had to tap into their core resources to innovatively disrupt the market yet again, but how?

This case details Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra's (RLEK) transformation from a small movement to a well-established organization of more than 150 people. The focus of the case is on identifying the main features of the hill community advocacy group's seemingly perfect setup and recommending solutions to help RLEK move to the next level. The case briefs the reader on RLEK's background as a non-governmental organization (NGO), the reason for its inception, and its current methodology and strategy. Sections on finance, operations, projects, awards, organizational structure, and culture provide insight into the functioning of the NGO. The case also discusses the various problems faced by RLEK in its day-to-day operations, including intense competition, employee attrition, non-streamlined operations, and challenges to its operating principle of the real bottom line (i.e., the development of marginalized and underprivileged societies). The protagonist in the case faces a host of unanswered questions.