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After analysing this case study, students will be able to understand the relationship between compensation, reward management and gig workers’ behaviour; apply the theory of organizational behaviour related to compensation management to address the motivational issues; analyse the challenges in managing the gig workers’ expectations related to compensation; and design innovative ways of retaining gig workers, especially delivery partners among the gig workers.

In April 2022, Riya, who worked as a business development manager at a newly established food delivery app company named “Our Kitchen” (located in Hyderabad, India), attended a meeting where the chief executive officer expressed concern about the difficulty in retaining their delivery partners. The company provided food delivery services to the customers by procuring ordered food from partner restaurants in select Indian cities. The delivery partners of the company worked part-time and received a commission for the hours they worked. With the rising fuel cost, minimal career growth and negligible social security benefits, it was hard for them to continue in their jobs. As a result, there were high attrition rates in the food delivery company. This case study is about the attrition issue being faced by the company and explores various strategies through which Riya could think of retaining the delivery partners so that there was a win-win situation for both parties. The dilemma given in the case study would help in understanding the motivational theories and factors that encouraged delivery partners to work for these jobs.

The case study is ideally suited for discussing human resources concepts, especially problems related to the retention of delivery partners without reducing the profit of the organization. It will help in understanding the motivational factors leading to job satisfaction and how that will help in the retention of delivery partners. The case study can also be used to teach the executives in a management development programme. This will help them to understand the gig workers’ motivational factors and the causes of their attrition.

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CSS 6: Human resource management.

This case is designed to facilitate students to comprehend the challenges an e-commerce firm faces when it attempts to monetize data network effects. The challenges faced by Zomato are ideal for in-class debate and discussion. The following learning objectives can be fulfilled through this case: understanding the promises and issues raised by data network effects; comprehending the problems an e-commerce firm faces in re-configuration; illustrating the responsibility of an established e-commerce firm towards its stakeholders; and discussing how a firm should navigate its relationship with its stakeholders.

Zomato.com, the largest Indian food aggregator and delivery platform, was contemplating the launch of Zomato Instant, a 10-min food delivery. Currently, the company’s delivery model pivoted around delivering food within 30 min. Recently, Zomato acquired Blinkit, an online grocery shopping app that was positioned to deliver groceries in 10 min. Deepinder Goyal of Zomato felt that customers would soon be more discriminant in demanding quicker services, as they might not be comfortable with 30-min deliveries. Hence, Zomato’s business model must also be re-configured to provide 10-min deliveries. Armed with access to customer data, Goyal predicted items that could be prepared and delivered within 10 min from its dark stores and automated kitchens. Although the model seemed promising and the company was upbeat about it, Zomato Instant faced challenges on several fronts. From the human angle, the decision was criticized on social media, mainly around the violation of road regulations, road safety issues and pressure on the delivery personnel to perform. Many delivery personnel had fled this gig work to join their pre-COVID jobs. Even the Competition Commission of India had established an inquiry into Zomato’s anti-competitive practices using customer data.

This case is best taught as part of a curriculum in management programmes at the post-graduate level, in courses such as e-commerce, e-retailing, business models for electronic commerce and online entrepreneurship/new age entrepreneurship. In terms of the positioning in the course, this case could be used to demonstrate the challenges of re-configuration of an online platform.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

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Learning objectives are as follows: critically analyze the business model of the Instant Grocery Delivery Model like Zepto; infer the importance of competitor analysis in determining the success of a startup; and analyze customer complaints and develop a corrective action plan.

The focus of this case is the controversy faced by Zepto due to its aggressive 10-min instant delivery service. This case discusses the negative publicity and criticism faced by Zepto from various influential netizens like members of the parliament, a well-known industrialist and independent experts questioning the 10-min express delivery plan that could endanger the lives of its delivery partners. The case also discusses customer complaints and the negative publicity faced by Zepto in digital forums and social media. The primary focus of this case is the dilemma faced by Zepto’s young founders in resolving the criticism faced by Zepto due to its 10-min delivery model and due to mounting customer complaints regarding poor product quality and deficient service. The key managerial decision that the protagonists are facing is whether should Zepto continue to operate in the 10-min delivery model or should it increase the delivery time to 15 to 20 min.

Undergraduate students studying Marketing courses in Commerce and Business Management streams can use this case.

CSS 8: Marketing.

This case study provides students/managers an opportunity to learn about:▪ Learning objective 1: Critically analyse reasons for the disgruntlement of delivery partners of Zomato.▪ Learning objective 2: Evaluate Zomato’s moral obligations to gig workers in the absence of government regulations.▪ Learning objective 3: Analyse the drivers of well-being affecting e-commerce delivery partners.▪ Learning objective 4: Evaluate the welfare schemes undertaken by Zomato for its delivery partners and infer well-being measures that can be adopted to improve worker engagement.

The focus of this case was the crisis at Zomato as a result of the protests by gig workers engaged as delivery partners at the company. This case discussed the CEO’s dilemma in resolving the crisis. Zomato's business model was discussed to provide students an overview of the dynamics and challenges of online food delivery business; the company’s initiatives to enhance the robustness of its business model and the resulting media backlash questioning some of these initiatives that could endanger the lives of its delivery partners. In addition, this case explored the lack of regulatory provisions for gig workers in India. Finally, the options available to the protagonist to mitigate the crisis were discussed. The focal point was the well-being initiatives that the protagonist could consider implementing to address the concerns voiced by the delivery partners and encourage them to engage in Zomato's business with positivity.

The case is best suited for postgraduate and executive students studying Human Resources subjects in Commerce and Business Management streams.

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CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to understand and examine the strategies that help platforms fight competition and manage networks; to analyse the role of platform governance in the management of the networks and partners’ trust; and to evaluate the strategic risks of disintermediation and multi-homing firms face while trying to sustain profits and capture value.

The case presents the dilemma faced by Deepinder Goyal, the young founder and CEO of Zomato in formulating the growth strategy for its food delivery platform, struggling to retain its market leadership position amid intensifying competition and other challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Zomato has become a public company with an IPO announced in mid of July 2021. Therefore, there is growing expectation for profitability among its shareholders and investors considering tailwinds of COVID-19 crisis, which have given the push towards adoption of food delivery among the customers. This has also resulted in increased competition in the industry. On other hand, there is growing dissatisfaction among its restaurant partners who have been hit hard by COVID-19 and struggling for survival. CEO Deepinder has to find how he will ensure the long-term growth for Zomato to tap the growing food delivery market in India and regain its restaurant partner’s trust.

The case is intended for post-graduate courses (MBA, PGDM) on digital business strategy or strategic management of technology-oriented businesses. The case can be used to understand the nature of competition and different strategies for platform-based businesses in the digital world. The case can also be used to study the role governance can play in efficient value creation and capture on the platform by the partner entities. Finally, the case also highlights how are platform businesses are coping with the Covid challenge. There are no specific prerequisites but knowledge on basic strategy concepts and platform business concepts will be good for better understanding. Level of difficulty is medium.

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CSS 11: Strategy.

The learning outcomes of this case study are as follows: It presents an opportunity for the instructors to introduce the concept of decision-making on matters involving risk (like scaling the business) using in-depth market research techniques. The case’s central idea is to make the students understand the growth of the online service delivery model, with a specific example of home-cooked food that also improves social welfare. It is expected to provide the participants with an opportunity to understand the decision-making by the leaders in newly established companies. It enables future managers to analyze a venture’s pros and cons before deciding to expand.

Chef Junction is an online food delivery platform that allows customers to order hygienic home-cooked food prepared by handpicked home chefs in Bhubaneswar. This city in eastern India is one of the fastest-growing metros, is regarded as a study hub, and provides ample employment opportunities making it one of the sought-after destinations for the migrant youth population. The idea behind Chef Junction is to cater to the healthy food needs of the young by utilizing the culinary productivity of the home cooks, empowering the latter by opening up an extra source of income. These chefs prepare delicious healthy food, usually not listed for sale with online food delivery apps. Chef Junction earned revenues by adding an order-dependent commission on the price quoted by chefs and accepting a flat delivery charge from the customers. This offer was very lucrative for home chefs who could join the platform with zero investment and flexible working hours. The customer’s pockets were also handled when several offers and discounts were rolled out through an attractive pricing strategy. Chef Junction expected to improve its patrons’ health quotient by ensuring the nutrition of the home-cooked food, thus contributing to social welfare. With food being delivered from home to home amalgamated with social welfare and empowerment of home chefs, especially women, this case study is an apt example of a sustainable work-from-home model that has proved effective in crisis times. The pertinent question is: “How feasibly can CJ’s business model grow towards an expansion as the demand increases?”

This case study has been prepared keeping in mind the teaching pedagogy for graduate and postgraduate management programs in strategic management, operations research, entrepreneurship and marketing management. It is also expected to be useful for training courses such as management development programs, faculty development programs and executive programs, in discussing service operations in general and online delivery logistics, in particular for working executives and industry practitioners.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

In 2012 several retailers, including Amazon and Walmart, experimented with same-day delivery. Home delivery of pizzas had been a very successful model in the United States and had been copied all over the world. In contrast, home delivery attempts by companies like Kozmo and Urbanfetch had failed and both companies went bankrupt. The goal of this case is to build a framework that helps students identify the factors that influence the success or failure of home delivery models.

After analyzing and discussing the case, students should be able to:

• Build a basic framework identifying supply chain drivers that are influenced by a firm's decision to offer same-day home delivery

• Understand the tradeoffs that influence the success of a same-day home delivery model

• Identify qualitative factors to be considered when deciding between non-U.S. facility locations, including transportation time variability, consumer perceptions, and cultural differences

Build a basic framework identifying supply chain drivers that are influenced by a firm's decision to offer same-day home delivery

Understand the tradeoffs that influence the success of a same-day home delivery model

Identify qualitative factors to be considered when deciding between non-U.S. facility locations, including transportation time variability, consumer perceptions, and cultural differences

Padmanabhan A. 2017 “Civilian drones and India’s regulatory response”. Moushami P. Joshi and Jennifer E. Trock (2016) “India Moving Forward with Unmanned Aircraft Systems Regulations for Civil and Commercial Use” www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=6d596577-7a4a-4ecc-916e-83c4d37cc90c. www.indrones.com/2017/04/27/drone-industry-india/.Zeimpekis, Vasileios; Ichoua, Soumia; and Minis, Ioannis (2013), Humanitarian and Relief Logistics. Research Issues, Case Studies and Future Trends;Operations Research/Computer Sciences Interfaces Series. Springer Publications, www.springer.com/in/book/9781461470069.

The learning outcomes are to illustrate the concept and features of cost-effective and responsive supply chain, to explain the concept of hub and spoke and milk run methods used for delivery, to identify financial, operational and technological risks, to elaborate the importance of social dimension (behavioral dimension) in any technological change in an organization and to understand the concept of management of change in organizations.

The case deals with a typical challenge of periodical delivery systems, in this case specifically of The Topical, an Indian periodical. The service manager of the company, Sara Jindal, recognized a problem with customer retention. She explored the causes and found that The Topical, a 20-year-old company, was losing its popularity due to the untimely delivery of the magazines. To solve the problem Jindal, tried to gain an understanding of the operational processes and realized that there was no issue in the warehouse regarding inventory control, management or order pickup. However, she found that the magazines were parceled through book post and that there was no tracking policy in the company for the deliveries. Therefore, it was not possible to know whether the magazines got delivered on time. The matter was taken seriously and as a solution, the possibility of integrating drones into the delivery system came up.

Undergraduate and Postgraduate students.

CSS 9: Operations and Logistics

By analyzing and discussing the case, students should be able to identify macro environmental factors that impact business decision-making; apply Michael Porter’s five forces framework; evaluate sources of synergy; understand the concept of disruptive innovation; choose sources of competitive advantage; apply the value proposition canvas; and apply tenets of Blue Ocean strategy.

The grocery retail market in India accounts for nearly 70% ($608bn) of the total retail market ($883bn). The brick-and-mortar multi-tiered distribution network for groceries encompasses a million wholesalers and distributors and 12 million retail outlets. These retail outlets serve as customer touch points where bulk of grocery shopping is done. The online grocery industry is a miniscule $5.5bn. High incomes, change in purchase behaviour, inclination towards speed and convenience on the demand side and alacrity on the supply side have paved the way for new format, quick commerce. Trends and forecasts suggest that quick commerce, a high cash burn business, will grow exponentially. Zomato has jumped onto the quick commerce bandwagon with the acquisition of loss-making Blinkit. The case analyses the quick commerce industry through the lens of Michael Porter’s five forces framework and the Blue Ocean strategy. It elaborates the profitability drivers of the industry and also examines the sources of synergy from the acquisition.

This case is suitable for a class on strategy in postgraduate-level courses. It can be used in a session on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

“Originally as a business providing community life services since its founding in 2017, Dingdong (Cayman) has transformed itself into a fresh e-commerce company. After making adjustments to its business model and operating strategy for three times, Dingdong (Cayman) has completed the strategic transition from grocery surrogate shopping to comprehensive self-operation, and built its own commercial fortress. In 2019, the total revenue of the company was five billion yuan. Upon the outbreak of COVID-19, its monthly revenue exceeded 1.2 billion yuan in February 2020, and the year's total revenue was expected to hit 15∼18 billion yuan. To date, Dingdong (Cayman) has formed a supply chain fully based on digital operation and built a commercial fortress in the fresh e-commerce industry. Despite this, its future prospect is not free from challenge. This case mainly deals with the following questions: How about the strategic positioning and core competitiveness of Dingdong (Cayman) in its early days? In the process of rapid expansion, what are the advantages and problems in its business model? How can the digitally operated supply chain support its continuous expansion in the future?”