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Back to Newsletter Vol 2, Issue 02, May 2020
Leadership & Entrepreneurship
The mobile app enabled residential security business has been growing at a rapid pace in India. MyGate, a startup in this space, has also been growing due to its early mover advantage and its ability to attract private equity investment. However, in the recent past, the competition has picked up. Existing players have consolidated their positions with fresh rounds of funding and a very big player with financial muscle has recently entered the arena. Is it a matter of time before market consolidation happens where big players gobble up small ones or is it going to be the biblical ‘David vs. Goliath’ story where MyGate will emerge as the surprise winner fighting against all odds?

MyGate at the Gate: Digitizing Apartment Security in India
The case ‘CleanMax Solar – Promoting Clean Energy and Sustainability’ is about CleanMax Enviro Energy Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (CleanMax Solar), an Indian company involved in solar energy production. The case deals with the growth of the entrepreneurial venture, its funding, and the various challenges the company faced in its endeavors to provide clean energy and contribute toward sustainability and a clean environment. The case further discusses the state of the solar energy industry in India and its potential as the cleanest source of energy in the future. CleanMax Solar had won numerous awards and recognition and had many corporates as its clients. There were numerous solar companies in the Indian market and CleanMax Solar was one of the top companies providing clean energy solutions to corporates. The solar energy solutions of CleanMax Solar are discussed in detail. The case ends with the future outlook for the company and how CleanMax Solar planned to achieve its targets and contribute toward sustainability and a greener environment and to help the corporates reduce their carbon footprint.

CleanMax Solar – Promoting Clean Energy and Sustainability
On May 29, 2018, Forbes magazine placed ServiceNow first on its annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. It was the very first year ServiceNow had become eligible for the list. ServiceNow, a cloud-based software company based in Santa Clara, California, assisted corporate information technology (IT) departments to build internal applications. It also helped customers to automate non-revenue generating functions including human resources, legal, finance security, and facilities management. The case talks about the entrepreneurial journey of Fred Luddy in founding ServiceNow. It then sets out to describe how the company managed growth throughout the years under successive CEOs (Frank Slootman and John Donahoe). The case also explores the company’s innovative business model. The various innovative aspects of ServiceNow which paved the way for its eventual success are also explained in detail. The case ends with a discussion on whether ServiceNow will be able to continue its growth momentum without compromising on innovation under another new CEO, Bill McDermott.

ServiceNow: From Startup to World’s Most Innovative Company
The case is about the exponential growth of e-learning platform Byju’s (Think and Learn Private Ltd), based in Bengaluru, India. The EdTech start-up was the mastermind of Byju Raveendran, who worked in a UK-based shipping company Pan Ocean Shipping before launching his EdTech expedition. It took Raveendran 12 long years – from helping his friends crack the Common Admission Test for management courses in India to building Byju’s learning app in 2015. The main product of the company was a mobile app called BYJU’s – The Learning App, which could be downloaded on Android devices from Google Play Store and on iOS devices from Apple App Store. The app offered comprehensive learning programs for students from classes 6 to 12 in India and provided special programs for those appearing for competitive exams. Byju’s was started in 2015 and over the years, it attracted investments from the likes of Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Limited, among others. After witnessing a 100% annual growth for three years (2016-18), Byju’s became profitable in 2019, Its valuation increased to US$5.5 billion in July 2019, making it the most valued EdTech company in the world. With Byju’s all set to move into international markets, it remained to be seen whether the strategies that had worked in India would prove successful in other markets.

Byju’s: A Leader in EdTech
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