Mani, a farmer, saw business opportunity in processing and selling packaged water in a remote town that was deprived of potable water. The business was successful until too many players entered the small market. Faced with dwindling sales and accumulated losses, Mani had to quickly find a way to bridge the gap between demand & supply and regain the lost foothold to pay off his debts. In order to increase the sales and revenue, he had to decide between scaling up the operations and making additional investments to enter new product segments in water sales.

Mani, a farmer, saw business opportunity in processing and selling packaged water in a remote town that was deprived of potable water. The business was successful until too many players entered the small market. Faced with dwindling sales and accumulated losses, Mani had to quickly find a way to bridge the gap between demand & supply and regain the lost foothold to pay off his debts. In order to increase the sales and revenue, he had to decide between scaling up the operations and making additional investments to enter new product segments in water sales.

Reckitt Benckiser India decided to enter kitchen dish wash liquid category in 2013. While it had various options for branding this new product, it opted to use its flagship brand, ‘Dettol’. Contrary to the views of many critics, the risk that the company assumed did not backfire. The case explores the influences on this brand extension decision and how the company managed to leverage the power of ‘Dettol’ effectively. The alternate branding approaches that the company could have used and their possible match are examined in the teaching note.

The Tamilnadu based Aachi group has ambitious plans to diversify into establishing a chain of Chettinad restaurants buoyed by the success of its brand. The company is cautious in its approach in terms of its expansion plans. However, diversification has been Aachi’s forte as the company has never rested on its laurels. But the positioning of the restaurant business needs to be much more realistic. There are also challenges galore in a restaurant model that is more skewed towards South Indian flavours. If the group is competing against KFC and Marry Brown, then there is an inherent risk in terms of the product profile catering to select clientele. Though the company can leverage its existing distribution network and there are strong chances that the company will explore a retail format in the future, it remains to be seen how the firm will tackle the fierce competition in the restaurant business. Notwithstanding this, the company has made commendable efforts to stay on top of new product development strategy and adopting innovative business practices to grow the business. The company’s portfolio of products is too wide and this does not appear to be commensurate with the existing manpower resources that they have at the top management level. The case broadly looks at the diversification strategies of the Aachi group and portends the challenges that the group may face.

GMR Infrastructure Limited is a leading player of Indian Infrastructure sector. It has presence in power, airports, highways, SEZ etc. GMR has been growing fast in the last one decade and along with the growth, it has also faced many challenges. Major challenges came from the very basic characteristics of infrastructure industry such as high capital requirement and long gestation period. There were also challenges from political and policy environments. These are common for any player in infrastructure sector. But, managing the challenges, surviving and emerging successful, depends on the strategy development and implementation. This case deals with the specific strategies that GMR has embraced to pursue survival, stability and growth. In particular, the case focuses on how GMR managed its financial stability, so that, it could pursue growth unabated.

ABC Limited, a successful auto component manufacturer, of late, experienced declining sales and also faced several challenges in managing its sales force. Much to the surprise and displeasure of the Vice-President, the company’s star Sales Manager submitted his resignation during a discussion in the recent sales review meeting.

Rural Marketing in India has evolved over a period of time through various stages. Godrej’s ChotuKool signals a new approach based not just on ‘inclusion’ but also on ‘sustainability’. The product has all the ingredients to break the rural-urban divide by catering to the aspirations of both the segments of customers. Interestingly, this approach to Rural Marketing represents the antithesis of the first one – trickle down where the market trickles down from urban to rural areas. But in the current approach, the product meant for rural market bounces back to urban. In both the cases, economics is the underlying factor.

Partners of a small engineering unit seek the advice of a consultant. He wants them to conduct an in-depth and perfect analysis on the variable cost per product and take all possible actions to reduce the same to reach the targeted growth.

The case revolves around a dilemma faced by the protagonist, John Snow who is a famous film maker looking to enter the Indian Film Industry. He seeks expert guidance from Cyrus Ganguly who owns the film consultancy firm, ‘Right Move Consulting’ based in India. Snow has a reputation of taking informed decisions backed by strong statistical evidence. Hence, he expects to get relevant statistics related to the indigenous film industry in India in order to decide upon the details of his proposed film. Their discussion broadly revolves around possible revenue based on factors such as ticket pricing, time of release, genre, star cast, language, awards and marketing strategy. Snow hopes to achieve success as well as gain profits by following tried and tested strategies based on the historical data provided by Ganguly.

The case revolves around a dilemma faced by the protagonist, John Snow who is a famous film maker looking to enter the Indian Film Industry. He seeks expert guidance from Cyrus Ganguly who owns the film consultancy firm, ‘Right Move Consulting’ based in India. Snow has a reputation of taking informed decisions backed by strong statistical evidence. Hence, he expects to get relevant statistics related to the indigenous film industry in India in order to decide upon the details of his proposed film. Their discussion broadly revolves around possible revenue based on factors such as ticket pricing, time of release, genre, star cast, language, awards and marketing strategy. Snow hopes to achieve success as well as gain profits by following tried and tested strategies based on the historical data provided by Ganguly.