Tesla Enters India: Can it Crack the Price Sensitive EV Market?
Arijit Bhattacharya, Sanjib Dutta (2025; The Case Centre, UK. Ref no. 525-0110-1) https://www.thecasecentre.org/products/view?id=210942
The case puts the students into the shoes of Tesla's India Country General Manager, Prashant Mehta, who has to decide on a 12-18-month go-to-market plan for Tesla India under policy and pricing constraints. Tesla must reconcile its premium global positioning and capital expenditure with India's realities: a price-sensitive market, high import duties on completely built units, charging-infrastructure gaps, and strong mid-market EV rivals.
Rajesh’s Market Segmentation Dilemma at FreshWaves
Arijit Bhattacharya, Sanjib Dutta (2025; The Case Centre, UK. Ref no. 525-0087-1) https://www.thecasecentre.org/products/view?id=209187
FreshWaves Beverages, a fast-growing player in India's health beverage market, is facing a slowdown in sales due to rising competition and changing consumer preferences. With only one quarter left before annual reviews and a limited marketing budget of INR20 million, Marketing Head Rajesh Kumar must urgently take a relook at the company's broad-based strategy to choose one of three sharply defined target segments - Urban Health Enthusiasts, Active Seniors, or Eco-conscious Millennials - each presenting unique opportunities and challenges. His strategic choice will significantly influence FreshWaves' future positioning, investor trust, and competitive advantage.
India’s Pet Care Brand Heads Up for Tails (HUFT): Growth Story
Pritee Saxena, Arijit Bhattacharya, Sanjib Dutta (2024; The Case Centre, UK. Ref no. 524-0103-1) https://www.thecasecentre.org/products/view?id=201680
Launched in 2008, Heads Up for Tails grew into India's largest pet care company by 2023, offering 5,000 products through an omnichannel model. Targeting millennials and young couples, it focused on premium products and tier II city expansion while addressing challenges in shifting pet ownership perceptions and managing high pet care costs.
Oyo Hotel’s Expansion Spree– Too Much, Too Fast?
Arijit Bhattacharya (2024; Asian Journal of Management Cases; ABDC-C, Scopus, UGC-CARE) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09728201231222070
Established in 2013, Oyo Hotels & Rooms, an Internet startup in the Indian hospitality sector, experienced an astonishing journey, culminating in a valuation of USD 5 billion by the end of 2018. The remarkable success of Oyo left many observers astounded. This meteoric rise was attributed to Oyo’s innovative business model, strategically targeting the fragmented budget segment of hotels beset by inefficiency. Oyo addressed these challenges by providing access to hotel rooms in prime locations, ensuring standardized services and offering affordability to customers.
Over the years, Oyo gradually diverged from its core business as a mere aggregator of hotel rooms. It ventured into leasing hotels in the mid and premium segments, tapped into the Indian wedding segment, acquired companies and expanded its footprint into numerous foreign markets. This case aims to scrutinize whether this accelerated growth strategy could compromise the fundamental service promise of standardization. Additionally, it investigates whether the financially robust company, particularly after securing a USD 1 billion investment in September 2018, risks losing touch with reality as it becomes entangled in various controversies.
Debt Fund Crisis at Franklin Templeton – Can it Bounce Back?
Pritee Saxena, Arijit Bhattacharya (2023; IBS-CDC, case id: ITF0042) https://www.thecasecentre.org/products/view?id=190060
Franklin Templeton India, the Indian arm of leading asset management company, Franklin Templeton, took a drastic decision on April 23, 2020, at the height of the COVID pandemic that affected millions of Indian investors. On that day, it announced the closure of its six of its debt mutual funds citing abnormally high redemption pressure and a highly illiquid bond market scenario. The sudden, unprecedented, and unilateral decision proved to be a nightmare for the investors and distributors of these schemes in the short-term and had legal and ethical ramifications in the long-term for both the company and the mutual fund industry participants. Was the sudden closure of the funds dictated by unfavorable macroeconomic conditions, or did the company deliberately expose its investors to unnecessary risks by investing in high-risk assets to chase short-term gains? Did the company's management discharge its fiduciary duty to its investors or did it put self-interest ahead of investor interest? Thanks to a Supreme Court ruling, the company had started to return investor money. However, many were still skeptical and suspicious about the company's intent.
Credit Suisse-Greensill Saga: A Case of Risk Management Failure
Arijit Bhattacharya, R.R. Reddy (2022; Global Business Review; ABDC-B) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09721509221117369
This case has focused on Greensill, the financial technology start-up, till its untimely closure in March 2021. Greensill’s original business model was built on providing traditional supply chain finance to business, but additionally, it packaged and sold these loans as ‘safe’ investments to various institutional investors through Credit Suisse, the 165-year-old Switzerland-based private bank. In order to grow at an exponential rate to support its high valuation, Greensill adopted various high-risk, questionable business practices. But its principal partner during this journey, the veteran bank officials of Credit Suisse, was either blissfully unaware of the wrongdoings or chose to ignore it. As Greensill collapsed, the bank paid a high price for this oversight in terms of monetary and reputational damage. The case has chronicled how the bank’s top officials in order to pursue the bank’s ‘integrated bank platform strategy’ chased short-term profit and turned a blind eye to all rules of due diligence and risk management. Though the bank made superficial changes in its process and appeared retrospective after the debacle, it remains to be seen whether its measures would translate into something concrete to make the supply chain finance domain safer and sustainable.
Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale – Creating Sweet Memories through Continuous Innovation.
Pritee Saxena, Arijit Bhattacharya (2023; IBS-CDC, case id: MM0084) https://www.thecasecentre.org/products/view?id=177881
In 1950, Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale, a small family-owned sweet and savory snacks shop, was founded in Pune, India. In 2020, the fourth-generation members of the owner's family ran the business but the small local shop had become a prominent brand in India and abroad. In the highly competitive Indian sweets market, where many powerful Indian and international players were present, the brand was successful due to its focus on product quality and product innovation, efficient supply chain management, and process automation. The company had chalked out an ambitious growth plan for the future too. This case study chronicles the growth of the company, pinpoints its success factors, and analyzes its present growth strategy with respect to its business environment.
‘Google Classroom’: The India Challenge
Mohan M, Pritee Saxena, Arijit Bhattacharya (2021; IBS-CDC, case id: MM0083) https://www.thecasecentre.org/products/view?id=175633
Google Classroom is an education product which amalgamates all of Google's core offerings like Meet, Forms, Doc, and Sheets into a single platform for teachers and students. The focus of the product is to reduce administrative and operational tasks for teachers and offer them a platform so that they can spend most of their time on teaching. The company had observed a massive surge in the use of Classroom in the first six months since the lockdown. However, there were notable challenges observed in the market which had to be addressed. The progress made by the company and the challenges it faced hold valuable learnings which can be discussed as a case to learn critical management concepts.
Byju’s Learning App: An Indian Edutech Startup’s Growth and Future Challenges
Arijit Bhattacharya (2020; IBS-CDC, case id: MM0082) https://ibscdc.org/Case_Studies/Marketing/Marketing%20Strategies/MM0082.htm
Byju Raveendran founded the eponymous ‘Byju’s Learning App’ in the Indian education technology sector in 2015. The app primarily targeted K-12 (kindergarten to standard 12) school going children in Indian metro cities and later the smaller cities and rural areas. It positioned itself as a viable alternative to classroom-based teaching. Within a short span of time, the startup became a great success story. As a result, it attracted private equity investments from top-notch foreign firms and went on to become a ‘quadricorn’ (more than $10 billion valuation) in 2020. The present case study chronicles the background of the promoter, the early days of the startup, the growth strategies it adopted to become the market leader, and the challenges it faced
MyGate at the Gate: Digitizing Apartment Security in India
Pritee Saxena, Arijit Bhattacharya (2020; IBS-CDC, case id: ENT0027). https://www.thecasecentre.org/products/view?id=169616
The mobile app enabled residential security business has been growing at a rapid pace in India. MyGate, a startup in this space, has also been growing due to its early mover advantage and its ability to attract private equity investment. However, in the recent past, the competition has picked up. Existing players have consolidated their positions with fresh rounds of funding and a very big player with financial muscle has recently entered the arena. Is it a matter of time before market consolidation happens where big players gobble up small ones or is it going to be the biblical 'David vs Goliath' story where MyGate will emerge as the surprise winner fighting against all odds?
Rupa’s Dilemma: What Communication Strategy to Adopt for Premium Men’s Innerwear Brands?
Pritee Saxena, Hemant Purandare, Arijit Bhattacharya (2020; IBS-CDC, case id: MM0076) https://ibscdc.org/Case_Studies/Marketing/Marketing%20Strategies/MM0076.htm
The men’s innerwear category in India had traditionally adopted the celebrity endorsement route for brand communication. In this context, the present case study tracks the product category, its business environment, key players, and the communication mix. However, with the advent of the digital marketspace and change in consumer preferences, the case describes the dilemma the players in this category face, as exemplified by Rupa, an Indian male innerwear brand: should the brands adopt the traditional celebrity investment route or not, especially for its premium-end products?.
Patanjali – A ‘Trust’ Based Brand
Arijit Bhattacharya, Pritee Saxena (2017; Won second prize in IBS, Gurgaon case study competition)
LinkedIn – The Leader at a Crossroads
Arijit Bhattacharya (2017; ET Cases. Case id: STG-1-0054, STG-1-0054A)