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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how a business idea can be successful in the long run in a rapidly changing environment. Students could learn about the carsharing market and the world of start-ups. During the lesson, students could practice business modelling based on “Value proposition Canvas”. With this model, they can understand the real needs of the customers and the services, with which companies can provide gains for the clients and decrease users’ pain. Beside business modelling, the case provides the opportunity to learn about the concept of First Mover Advantage, which describes the possible advantages of being first on a market. Three different sources can provide first mover advantage: technological leadership; pre-emption of scarce assets; and customer loyalty. Start-ups should systematically think about acquiring some of the above to sustain their advantage.

This case is about a carsharing start-up GreenGo, which was the first company introducing the concept of carsharing in Hungary. GreenGo was founded in November 2016 in Budapest. Until today, it has approximately 170 cars and could establish a solid customer base with 6,000 subscribers. After one year of monopoly, GreenGo got a competitor, when MOL (one of the largest companies of the Central European region) entered the market with its new carsharing service: MOL Limo (Limitless Mobility). MOL Limo is using the same business model and marketing mix as GreenGo and started to operate with 300 cars. The case describes the urban transportation of Budapest, the business model and value proposition of GreenGo and MOL Limo in depth. It also presents some possible options for GreenGo to react to the new market situation.

Master in management, MBA.

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CSS: Strategy, Case study organisation: GreenGo.

The student will be able to understand the concept of spotting an opportunity and exploiting the same. The student will be able to comprehend the various challenges faced in the development of a business idea. The student will be able to understand the strategies that need to be adopted to cope with and grow, in a competitive business environment.

Samar Singla, the Chief Executive Officer of Jugnoo, had sensed a business opportunity in auto rickshaw aggregation. He was convinced that being among the initial players in the market of auto rickshaw aggregation, there would be very little competition. He only had to play his cards right, to become the top auto aggregator. As Singla started the business, there were challenges like inducting the auto rickshaw drivers as partners, training them, hiring the right team, putting the right strategies in place and to expand the business. Singla launched and achieved robust growth in the new business, in a short period of time. Soon, however, Jugnoo felt competition breathing down their neck – form cab aggregators who were already dominant players in the cabs aggregation segment, in the large cities. To hedge their risks, Singla added other services such as “Meal” (meal delivery) and “Fatafat” (goods delivery) – as B2C and B2B services. These services, however, had to be closed soon after because of stiff competition from the local players. Singla also adopted the inorganic growth path by acquiring “Sabkuch,” a grocery delivery logistics firm; “Yelo,” a platform that provided online access to businesses and “BookMyCab,” a taxi aggregation company. Faced with tapering growth after an initial steep rise, Singla had to confront a dilemma about the right method of ensuring growth in the face of competition.

Under graduate, masters in business administration and post graduation in the areas of entrepreneurship and strategy.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The key learning objectives are mentioned as follows:▪ analyse the attractiveness of the bike rental market using Michael Porter’s five forces model;▪ apply the TWOS framework to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of Tazzo;▪ evaluate various competitive strategies of Tazzo; and▪ identify the unique value proposition for such a service in an emerging market such as India.

Tazzo was an Indian technology bike rental start-up based in Hyderabad. It was a pioneer in providing on-demand bike rental services. Tazzo was founded in 2016 by Priyam Saraswat and Shivangi Srivastava, both from IIT Guwahati, Priyank Suthar from IIT Roorkee and Vikrant Gosain from IMT Hyderabad. Within two years since its inception, Tazzo had scaled up from 5 bikes to a fleet size of 600 bikes with more than 1,000 daily rides. They were making around 24,000 rides monthly with an average ticket size of INR 250. The revenues crossed INR 10 crores with more than 20,000 active users. In 2016, the market was nascent and the concept was new. There was huge demand for such an on-demand bike rental services for self-commute in the metros. However, increasing awareness of a huge untapped market in the bike rental market had led to entry of a flurry of competitors. Notable among them were Vogo, Bounce and ONN Bikes. Facing such intense competition Priyam, co-founder and CEO of Tazzo, had the challenge to be able to sustain his company’s early momentum. How would he be able to retain Tazzo’s market leadership position? Would it be possible for Tazzo to keep up the pace of growth amid increased competition? Would the company be able to ward off the challenges from its competitors? Priyam was facing all these challenging questions and had to quickly address them to continue to lead in this competitive race.

This case can be used in Marketing Management course’s “Competition Analysis” module for both MBA and executive-level programs dealing with marketing. This case study helps students in dealing with issues pertaining to a given market sector where a firm is operating, the strategies that could be used by the competitors and application of competitive strategies which the firm can apply.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The learning outcome of this case study is to help students identify issues of the electric two-wheeler industry in India, revisiting conventional business models and transitioning toward sustainable business models. Eventually, this case study will enhance students’ analytical, qualitative analysis, multidisciplinary approach and strategic decision-making skills.

This case study can be used to discuss Michael Porter’s five forces model, TOWS matrix and Michael Porter’s generic strategies for competitive advantage.

Bounce was established in 2014 by Vivekananda Halkere, Anil G. and Varun Agni. The startup was an on-demand service provider of scooters. It also claimed to be the world’s fastest-growing scooter rental startup. As of March 2020, Bounce operated in 12 Indian cities, namely, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Hassan, Kolar, Mysore, Bhuj, Udaipur, Belgavi, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad, Hampi and Delhi. Bounce’s revenue grew to INR 1,000m in the fiscal year (FY) 2020 compared to INR 160m in FY 2019. Halkere was happy and proud of what his friends and he had achieved in the past two years. However, he was concerned about competition. What plan of action was needed to help thwart competition. What would be the best strategy to achieve growth and monetize operations? and How would Bounce address these major challenges to capture market share?

This case study can be taught in advanced undergraduate, MBA or executive-level programs dealing with strategic management. This case study helps students in dealing with issues pertaining to a given market sector where a firm is operating and the strategies to thwart competition.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS11: Strategy.

The case study has been prepared for management students/business executives to understand electric vehicle (EV) business, business environment, industry competition and strategic planning and strategy implementation.

The size of the Indian passenger vehicle market was valued at US$32.70bn in 2021; it was projected to touch US$54.84bn by 2027 with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of more than 9% during the period 2022–2027. The passenger vehicle industry, a part of the overall automotive industry, was expected to grow at a rapid pace, as the Indian economy was rising at the fastest rate. However, the Government of India (GoI) had put a condition on the growth scenario by mandating that 100% of vehicles produced would be EVs by 2030. Tata Motors (TaMo), a domestic player in the market, had been facing a challenging competitive environment. Although it had been incurring losses, it had successfully ventured into the EV business. TaMo had taken advantage of the first mover by creating an electric mobility business vertical to enable the company to deliver on its aspiration of providing innovative and competitive e-mobility solutions. TaMo leadership had been putting efforts to scale up the electric mobility business, thus, contributing to GoI’s plan for electric mobility. Shailesh Chandra, president of electric mobility business, had a big task in hand. He had to scale up EV production and sales despite insufficient infrastructure for charging and shortages of electronic components for manufacturing.

The case study has been prepared for management students/business executives for strategic management class. It is recommended that the case study is distributed in advance so that the students can prepare well in advance for classroom discussions. Groups will be created to delve into details for a specific question. While one group will make their presentation, the other groups will question the solution provided and give suggestions.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

International business and strategy, strategies in emerging markets.

This case can be used in undergraduate, graduate and executive education courses in international business, strategy management and strategies in emerging markets. Further, the case may also be useful to teach sub-topics such as fit between external opportunities and internal strengths (resources and capabilities) and new business model challenges.

Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions (hereafter referred as RBEI) had been chosen by the Management of Bosch in India to engage in the Government of India (GoI) Smart City Business Opportunity. Dhiraj Wali, Vice President RBEI and the present head of RBEI Smart City Projects (RBEI/SCP) over the past few years had been prospecting the non-Bosch clients especially the GoI clients for RBEI. He understood the implications of this big-ticket business opportunity for RBEI. At the same time, he was worried about the complications involved in such large projects, how should RBEI position itself to make the most of this significant business opportunity?

The dynamics and internal challenges of an established captive division of a multinational (i.e. Bosch) venturing into business transactions with non-captive (i.e. non-Bosch) especially government sector clients. The new business opportunities facing a multinational in emerging markets such as India. Understanding the GoI Smart City Mission and its big-ticket business opportunity. To show how the captive units of MNC evolve over the years of operation leveraging, the competencies gained to succeed in the marketplace. The reasons for this range from internal needs to increase the gains from the past investments to exploiting the external business prospects available resulting in both new opportunities for specialization and customers.

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CSS 5: International Business.

Heather Loya started her custom designed wedding invitations business in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, when she was no longer comfortable commuting to New York City from New Jersey for her corporate job. In the ensuing years, her business picked up to the extent that she was making a reasonable income from it. She was due to become a first time mother in July 2007. Her impending motherhood made her realize that she would not be able to work long hours in her one-person business after the birth of her child. She had started a webbased business that was set up to sell wedding invitation accessories (such as boxes, ribbons, etc.) procured from various vendors. This business was expected to take less of her time as compared to the custom business, but the custom business made better use of her creative talents. Heather now had to make a decision whether to emphasize the web-based business to compensate for the likely decrease in revenues from her custom business (because of motherhood) or to just continue her custom business in a scaled down form.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to understand how organizations can leverage the built-in brand equity; outline the challenges of extending a strong brand; and ability to think about the core-essence of the brand impact and its perception among customers before deciding to extend.

JML was a 74-year-old company and was a No.1 player in the domestic market and No. 4 globally. It maintained this leadership position through a robust product portfolio and serving new needs and opportunities. Customers associated JML's products (buses and trucks) with high-quality performance, sturdiness & reliability. JML had a well-established brand – “Callisto”, in the heavy bus segment but saw an opportunity in light buses, which could be used within the city and for school and office commute purposes. They launched Callisto Lite, a variant of successful Callisto buses, in 2015 for cashing this opportunity. Though initially, the brand showed positive signs but soon lost the novelty value and saw low returns on marketing investments. Callisto Lite was also diluting the strong brand equity of the successful parent brand. The management was undecided as to what to do. Should they move out of the segment or continue? Each had its own pros and consequences, and the decision was not easy.

The case can be used in an undergraduate or a post-graduate management program to teach the core concepts of branding and brand extension. The case can be used in an introductory marketing course or elective courses like Brand Management and Marketing Strategy.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Organizational behavior, leadership, strategic management.

This case can be used at Master's level management students as well as for executive education programmes. The case can be used to teach courses like organizational behavior, leadership and strategic management.

Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) had been established with a purpose of catering the rail transportation requirement of Mumbai, the economic capital of India. After its establishment in the year 1999, commuters were hopeful but very less development and improvement was reported for six years. Mr P.C. Sehgal took over as Managing Director of MRVC in the year 2005. The primary task of Mr P.C. Sehgal was to implement the rail development plan proposed by Mumbai Urban Transport Project within the deadlines. Implementation of the given plan had various challenges and required high degree of coordination with different stakeholders (like Government of Maharashtra, Central Railway, Western Railway, etc.). It also required taking important decisions to move work fast and dealing with media and public pressure.

The case would instigate students to delve on the aspects of leadership and how the leader brings about change. The students would also get to know the challenges a leader face when he takes charge of an underperforming but critically important organization. Further the students are also exposed to the context of organizational management where the organization is trapped in a web of relations with conflicting stakeholders.

Teaching note.

Human resources management, international human resources management.

The case is suitable for undergraduate or graduate/training programmes specialised in international dimensions of HRM.

The study aims to evaluate the experiences of hotel employees at the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok's new employee centre. This centre, called the “O-Zone”, is an example of the hotel's commitment to the well-being of its staff. On a larger scale, it is an illustration of a method to maintain employee motivation and commitment in the luxury hotel industry. The case is particularly useful to investigate as the hotel has created a unique approach to employee well-being in a large urban setting where employees experience a stressful living environment, including long commutes. This is supported by studies in the literature which reveal that burnout and stress are important factors to consider for hotel employees.

The case study allows students to discover the following key learning points: an example of a well-being initiative for employees of a luxury hotel in the Thai context; an investigation of the need for employers in luxury hotels in Thailand to attract and retain talent; and an understanding of the use of incentives at work for employee motivation in the Thai luxury hotel industry.

Teaching notes are available; please consult your librarian for access.