‘As the battle for winning 10-minute deliveries heats up, so do the stakes. Pick one of five quick commerce companies. Determine what winning looks like. Write your solution’
That was the challenge we threw at some of India’s smartest, most ambitious and creative students from top business schools across the country.
Each team picked one among the five quick commerce platforms that have managed to completely change the way we shop – Big Basket, Swiggy Instamart, Blinkit, Zepto and Flipkart Minutes. They crafted strategies that were creative, yet rooted in the real world.
Welcome to 'One Billion in 10 Minutes', a mini series based on the first edition of The Ken’s Case Competition, organised in collaboration with Zerodha.
Over the last five episodes, you listened to ten bold and creative strategies for five real-world quick commerce platforms. You heard students from some of India’s best business schools define what winning in the rapid delivery space looks like to them.
In the grand finale, we find out who won the inaugural case competition and went home with the 10 lakh rupee prize.
Tune in.
One Billion in Ten Minutes is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe (https://the-ken.com/pricing/) for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
3 Feb 2025
Ep#5: Flipkart’s new identity — Dark-store AWS vs. quick-commerce Mcdonald’s
The two teams that made it to the top 10 of The Ken’s case competition (https://the-ken.com/case-competition/)for their billion dollar strategies for Flipkart Minutes could not have been more different. They have both played to Flipkart’s strengths, but in radically different ways.
Team Illuminaire from IIM Lucknow decided to flip the script completely. The team’s logic is simple. Flipkart Minutes is just too late to the game. So there’s no point for it to even try beating everyone else at rapid delivery. Instead they want every other platform to be dependent on them for what is essentially the lifeblood of quick commerce – dark stores. This team wants Flipkart Minutes to be the AWS of dark stores.
They are up against Kenspiracy Theorists from XLRI. This team, too, believes that Flipkart Minutes is late to the game. But their solution is amping up the aggression by burning the full 1 billion dollars over 12 months.
Which team will win?
One Billion in Ten Minutes is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe (https://the-ken.com/pricing/) for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
Team Kenvision from IIM Bangalore made a hard choice with their billion dollar strategy for Zepto during The Ken’s inaugural case competition (https://the-ken.com/case-competition/), organised in partnership with Zerodha. Their strategy was centred around acquiring the Indian e-pharmacy company, Pharmeasy.
But while hard decisions make for bold and exciting strategies, they can also be seen as impractical. The possibility of getting it completely wrong is usually much higher. Which is why some teams choose to take a different approach.
Like team Kenith from Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi. It approached the problem statement almost like a math problem. This team decided to go down the optimisation route and spend a certain amount on dark stores, a certain amount on category expansion, a certain amount on operations and logistics and so on.
Hard decisions vs optimisation. Which will win? Let’s find out.
One Billion in Ten Minutes is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe (https://the-ken.com/pricing/) for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
3 Feb 2025
Ep#3: Blinkit’s delivery schedule — Five minutes vs. four hours
In this episode, we dive into two drastically different strategies – one focusses on sustainability, while the other wants to amp up the aggression. In many ways polar opposite strategies.
On one hand, team TekKen from IIM Kozhikode wants to invest one billion dollars towards making five minute deliveries the new normal.
On the other, we have team Outliers from IIM Ahmedabad that came up with a three-pronged strategy to turn Blinkit into a sustainable business. A big part of their strategy involved launching a four-hour delivery arm for certain orders.
Five minutes vs four hours. Which one can help Blinkit keep from losing its edge as the reigning market leader?
Tune in.
Learn more about The Ken’s inaugural case competition. (https://the-ken.com/case-competition/)
One Billion in Ten Minutes is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe (https://the-ken.com/pricing/) for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
3 Feb 2025
Ep#2: Swiggy’s next offering — AI assistants vs. alcohol
In episode two, ROI Rangers from XLRI and Buzzolve from Messa School of Business go head to head with their strategies to make Swiggy Instamart ‘win’.
ROI Rangers proposes a tech-first strategy, complete with a Duolingo-inspired virtual assistant called Insty. Buzzolve, meanwhile, wants to play the optimisation game. They essentially say ‘hey, we have a billion dollars. We are going to spend a little bit towards everything – a certain amount will go towards dark stores, a certain amount will go towards AI, and then a certain amount will go towards category expansion.’
Which strategy will win?
Tune in.
Learn more about The Ken’s inaugural case competition. (https://the-ken.com/case-competition/)
3 Feb 2025
Ep#1: Bigbasket’s big break — The Tata edge vs. kirana tie-ups
We are kicking off this series with the two teams that chose Big Basket for The Ken’s inaugural case competition (https://the-ken.com/case-competition/), organised in partnership with Zerodha. Both teams want to leverage the Tata ecosystem, but in drastically different ways.
On one hand, Team Metamorphosis from IIM Ahmedabad isn’t just thinking about groceries. They want to throw medicines and ‘urban services’ into the mix too. On the other hand, Team Voldemort from IIM Kozhikode wants to use the trust that comes with the Tata brand to partner with kirana stores across the country.
Which strategy will win?
Tune in to find out.
One Billion in Ten Minutes is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe (https://the-ken.com/pricing/) for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
31 Jan 2025
The Ken's Case Competition 2024 — Introducing One Billion in 10 Minutes
'You are a quick commerce company. You have a billion dollars. How will you win?'
That was the challenge we threw at some of India’s smartest, most ambitious and creative students from top business schools across the country. Over six episodes, you will hear their ambitious and creative pitches – all rooted in the real world and centred around five quick commerce platforms that have completely changed the way we all shop.
Welcome to 'One Billion in 10 Minutes', a mini series based on The Ken's inaugural case competition.
Stay tuned. Episodes go live on Monday, February 3.
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