2013

[STRATEGEM STRATEGEM CHAPTER TWO] TWO

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It was a late evening when Rakesh Venkataram, Regional Business Head, Kerala was just getting to the parking lot of his company thinking about the how they would survive in Kerala. They needed to reshape their strategy to suit the geography with its own eccentricities and challenges. The parent firm, Gogolia Inc. had decided in August 2012 that they would enter into Kerala Market with two of their major businesses: Restaurant Chain (AnandaBhavan) and Apparel Stores (Thomas Thomas Britain). Their finance team had predicted that they would make a positive cash flow from the business by April 2013 but they had not broken even until 15th July. The management was getting really restless and wanted answers, actions and most importantly results. AnandaBhavan was a chain of 28 high high-class class vegetarian restaurants spread across the Tier-I and Tier-II II cities. The Gogolias had a brand reputation of serving the best veg food in the country but in Kerala their employees were only driving the flies away from plates. The problem was clear when the manager of the Restaurant drove around in his Brio around in Kochi, he found that wherever he saw the word: Vegetarian it was always pre-fixed with a Non-. . Such was the state of demand for vegetarian food in the city. Still Rakesh was determined to find out how to tackle this issue and his logic was that they have very less competition in the current scenario; this was the main reason why this industry dustry seemed attractive when Rakesh was in Delhi. Thomas France was an apparel brand which contributed to 50 % of sales revenue for the Gogolias. . This brand was present in all the malls and also had separate retail outlets spread again in Tier-I and Tier-II II cities. In Kerala, they had opened 17 stores in August. 7 in Kochi, 4 in Trivandrum, 3 each in Kozhikode and Trissur. They primarily sold Western ern attire and did not sell the traditional attire of Kerala: the monde and sarees. The figures eternally seemed to be in the Red and the bottom bottom-line line bled badly showing no signs of improvement. Rakesh now has 2 days to think of what he would do to get thi things ngs up in Kerala region and make suggestions to the Brand CEOs of Gogolia in Delhi. Rakesh pondered over
Case Writers: : Vamsi Krishna and Sidharth Jain All Copyrights Reserved

2013

various options such as changing the entire perception in the Food Industry about Vegetarian Food and creating demand for it. On the other hand, he als also o had to assess if the decision of entering Kerala was right and should they exit or should they start selling traditional attire. He was immersed in all these thoughts when he heard crazy honking from the car behind his, the signal had changed but Rakesh hadnt moved the car. He gathered himself and decided to get a good nights sleep before he had to think of new options and analyze them financially to put his case in Delhi. The presentation in Delhi will be a difficult one this time since they were last in the Region wise sales revenue list. Thinking of his extremely successful previous role in Bhopal Bhopal, , Rakesh wondered if he really wanted the promotion so much now and slipped into sleep. Expectations You are a group of consultants and are required to suggest how Rakesh should get out of the red. Rakesh is guy who loves creative solutions and would not be hesitant to implement your crazy solutions but he is looking for financial analysis backing for the option, which you suggest. You should develop a strategy for promoting behavioral change campaign in Kerala (Substitute for Mund Mundus s and promoting vegetarian food) Since Kerala is a vast and educated market, it provides lot of scope.

Rules 1) The PPT should be of 7 slides excluding the introduction and thank you slides. Only the names of the team members and the section must be mentioned on the introduction slide 2) You will have 7+2 +2 minutes for presentation

Case Writers: : Vamsi Krishna and Sidharth Jain

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