Abstract

The case discusses how LEAD, an edtech company, developed an integrated system to provide quality and corporate style education to students in rural and small private schools in the towns of India. It also describes the edtech industry in India, the business models, and the unicorns catering to different segments. The case describes the co-founder Smita’s experience with the Anganwadi system and how she found that the system was inherently designed for low outcomes. The case discusses how the founders took up curriculum development and teaching innovations at their first school, Shantiniketan English School (SNES) and later developed a multi-modal learning approach and also introduced a program called ELGA to improve students’ proficiency in English. The founding team decided to make use of technology to scale up the start-up under the LEAD Schools brand by developing the Lead Integrated System in 2017. The company also focused on building a collaborative and cooperative yet competitive workforce, focusing on both personal and professional development. Despite catering to over 6,000 schools, LEAD’s ROCE and EBITDA margin was at -104.30% and -72.62%, respectively in FY23’. The question was, would LEAD be able to transform the K-12 education sector with its superior technology solutions? How will the company scale up in order to become EBITDA positive and turn profitable?

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Identify the role of understanding learning methods for effective student assessments and learning outcomes
• Discuss the importance of hands on learning and experience for entrepreneurs before they take the leap into a particular market
• Describe the benefits of having a tech based learning and management system for schools
• Examine requirements a startup with a subscription based business model requires to become profitable
• Evaluate the need to create an organizational culture suitable for scaling up

Keywords

Social Innovation; Social Entrepreneurship; Startup; Scaling a Business; Organizational Culture; Multi-modal Learning