Case Study on Entrepreneurship

By: Arun Mishra, VNS Business School

Suman Ahuja and Neeta Chitre were very close friends since school days, every day they used to
accompany each other to the library and to health gym in the evening. There would always be a
competitive spirit among both of them while exercising in the gym and both matched each
others capability in every respect. One fine day during such routine it emerged that both of them
had a common interest of starting a venture associated with health and fitness.
Simultaneously, it was the time when average individual was becoming health conscious and
almost every third individual was either a member of a club or was involved in personal
discipline of exercise. Even corporates are now promoting health consciousness in their
employees, offering gymnasium membership or housing a fitness centre within the premises.
Suman and Neeta have now started brainstorming together and are in the process of considering a
business plan in context of starting a health and fitness centre of their own. When both of them
shared and discussed the idea with their parents, they were advised that a fitness Centre with a
beauty salon along with a facility for stress management could be the right combination to start
with.
However, it was obvious that going for such type of project would involve a huge capital
investment of nothing less than 1.5 to 2 crores. Fortunately, Suman has been offered a place by
her uncle at Andheri in his new residential building, on lease, and family and relatives may
gather a maximum of 75 lakhs, but balance would have to be raised from other sources. Now
both the friends are in dilemma about arranging the remaining amount of investment.
Questions:
1. As a consultant to Suman and Neeta you are required to prepare a detailed business plan
for their idea.
2. What sources of finance can they explore for remaining capital investment? Justify your
suggestion.
3. Design a Marketing Strategy for the venture.

Case Study: Ampere Vehicles Pvt. Ltd.

By: Arun Mishra, VNS Business School
Ampere Vehicles Pvt. Ltd. is one of the few names which have created a niche for themselves as
innovative technology creators in the Indian electric vehicle industry. The companys products
range includes ecycles, escooters, etrolleys (for carrying load) and special-purpose vehicles for
waste management and to cater to differently abled persons.
In 2007 Hemalatha Annamalai, an MBA from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,
Australia, and a bachelors degree in computer science and engineering from Government
College of Technology, Coimbatore, founded Ampere with of Rs 50 million investments.
Coming from a non-manufacturing background, doing this was one of the biggest challenges for
her. The idea for the company hit Hemalatha when she attended a conference with her husband in
Japan. One of the speakers there spoke at length on how electric vehicles will create ripples in
future.
Hemalatha turned entrepreneur at the age of 27. Her first few ventures were in professional
services, technology training, tours and ticketing and an international consultancy for talent
acquisition. As a serial entrepreneur, Hemalatha spent the last 15 years creating and driving
entrepreneurial ventures.
Research and Development has been the backbone of Ampere since inception, because the
startup claimed to be the first company in India to make their own chargers for e-vehicles. oday,
all the vehicles of Ampere Electric are run on motors and controllers designed by the R&D team.
The team has also created an intelligent battery chip which ensures that batteries do not bulge
and helps increase the usage life of batteries.
Though the electric vehicles industry is still struggling to find an independent identity for itself, a
couple of players have embarked into this space. With the government motivating the industry to
make products that suit the specific market conditions, the business opportunities are
humongous.
The market condition and the need to make adoption of electric vehicles affordable determine the
pricing strategy for Ampere. The ecycles are available in the range between Rs 20,000 and
30,000 and the escooters are available in the range between Rs 20,000 and 45,000. Ampere is
selling around 200 vehicles per month. When government has given interim subsidy for
escooters from 2010-12, the number went up to 687.
As a part of its growth strategy, Ampere aims to increase distribution from the current four States
to 10 within the next three years. The company also plans to launch two new models before the
end of this calendar year. Hemalatha is also planning to build an ecycle factory completely
operated by women in the next 3 years.
Questions:
1. Discuss how and why Hemalatha started new venture and what are her strategies to build
up the organization?
2. What are the future plans of Ampere?
3. If you were in place of Hemalatha, what strategies you will take for the future of the
company?