In January 2025, Kabeer Biswas—the founder of Dunzo, India’s first hyperlocal delivery platform and an early mover in the quick-commerce segment—joined the new quick-commerce vertical of Flipkart Pvt. Ltd. (Flipkart), Flipkart Minutes, which was backed by Walmart Inc. (Walmart). Dunzo’s business had just unravelled under financial strain and operational missteps, despite early traction and marquee investors such as Reliance Retail Ltd. (Reliance) .....more

Teaching note for product W46129.

In November 2024, the chairman and chief executive officer of the Railway Board, Ministry of Indian Railways, India, was preparing for a critical strategy meeting with the Union Minister of Railways. Just hours earlier, the minister had announced in parliament that 97 per cent of the Indian Railways broad gauge network had been electrified, bringing India close to its ambitious 100 per cent electrification target set in 2018. The milestone was aligned .....more

Teaching note for product W43477.

On June 16, 2024, the chief executive officer (CEO), founder, and director of V21 Group of Ventures (V21), a real estate conglomerate based in Pune, India, was preparing to meet with members of a housing society in Mumbai to finalize the agreement for a residential reconstruction project. While the CEO had successfully built five real estate ventures, this was V21’s first project in the challenging field of real estate development, and it presented .....more

Teaching note for product W41515.

In December 2024, Amazon India entered India’s booming quick-commerce market with the launch of Tez, a 15-minute delivery service. The announcement came at a time when the Indian market was already dominated by aggressive incumbents, including Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, Flipkart Quick, and BigBasket Now. With over 2,500 dark stores across major metros and strong consumer recall, these early movers had set high benchmarks for speed, scale, and .....more

Teaching note for product W44762.

In March 2025, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Google LLC, Sundar Pichai, was faced with a sobering reality: Gemini, Google’s generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) chatbot, was struggling to stand out in an increasingly crowded and commoditized market. A podcast featuring the CEO of a competing AI company highlighted the diminishing differentiation among GenAI chatbots, noting that even early innovations were being quickly replicated. Google .....more

Teaching note for product W44325.