Abstract

The case presents the entrepreneurial story of Raghunandan Kamath, Founder CEO of Kamath Ourtimes Ice-creams Pvt. Ltd., popular as Natural Ice Cream. Kamath’s story is that of a tough, determined, and focused individual who faced, withstood, and overcame numerous challenges on the journey toward becoming a successful entrepreneur. Kamath founded his first humble ice cream store amidst the glitz and glamor of Juhu area in Mumbai (the financial capital of India). For Kamath, the beginning was anything but smooth. But he managed to get through the clutter of risk, uncertainty, and hardship, Kamath to come up with an innovative product and a successful business model that made Natural stand out. The case presents Kamath’s passion toward product and process innovations and continuous improvements at Natural Ice Cream. The case also throws light on Kamath’s tough childhood and the crucial childhood episodes that helped him develop a focus toward what would become his business interest in the future. The case focuses on Kamath’s personal values and principles, which he relentlessly applied in his business without making any compromises. The case brings out his quintessential entrepreneurial characteristics like Visioning, risk-taking, decisiveness, continuous improvement, innovation, and Crisis Management.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand entrepreneurial initiative
• Exceptional entrepreneurial traits towards successful ventures
• Understand the Ice-Cream Industry in India
• Analyze the beginning, development, and growth of an entrepreneurial venture in the ice-cream industry

Keywords

Natural Ice-Cream, Value-centric approach, Innovation, franchise model, entrepreneurship, management style, sustaining a entrepreneurial venture