Mahindra War Room 2016

Group-wide Strategy Caselet

MAHINDRA GROUP-WIDE STRATEGY CASELET:

DEVELOPING A GROUP-WIDE ONE MAHINDRA LOYALTY PROGRAM
The Mahindra Group is a federation of over 100 companies, sharing common values,
purpose and principles, embodied in the Rise Philosophy. The Group operates in over
100 countries across 22 businesses, ranging from Mobility, Farm Equipment,
Information Technology, Financial Services, Clean Energy, Urban Lifestyle, B2B and
Defence. The Groups diverse businesses are served by the Corporate Centre, with
departments such as Group Brand, Finance, Human Resources and Strategy, among
others. This caselet pertains to the Group Strategy Office.

BUSINESS BACKGROUND:
Mahindras Group Strategy Office plays a significant role in supporting strategy and
synergy across the Groups businesses. The primary focus is on developing and
delivering expertise to enhance business capabilities in Strategy, Digitisation, Analytics
and Consumer Insights. The GSO also continues to provide insights on Performance &
Risk Management, through quarterly internal analyst views, Risk Assessment &
Mitigation, War Rooms and Customer as Promoter Surveys. GSO also works towards
creating mechanisms to leverage synergies across businesses, by sharing best
practices and leading synergy projects. In addition, the focus is also on driving
International growth, especially in US and Africa.
GSO works with the Groups businesses through Project teams, which lead or support
specific business projects with clear deliverables, timelines and resources.
LIVE CHALLENGE: DEVELOPING A GROUP-WIDE ONE MAHINDRA LOYALTY
PROGRAM
Mahindra Group today operates in 20 diverse business sectors, with operational
presence in over 100 countries. As a Group, Mahindras products and services cover
the entire lifecycle of a consumer. There is a significant overlap between the target
segments of Mahindras various Business-to-Consumer Businesses, such as
Automotive, Holidays, Finance, Realty and Retail. Operationally, however, Mahindra
Group is federal in nature - each sector and business operate completely
independently, with total freedom to strategize and implement in the best interests of the
company - without tight control from the Corporate Centre. The Corporate Centre plays
a supportive role, offering inputs that could be relevant to the business, drawn from
other group companies or global best practices.

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Mahindra War Room 2016

Group-wide Strategy Caselet

Is it possible that one or more of the Mahindra businesses are so focused on their
individual offering, that they miss out on the bigger picture, an opportunity to leverage
the true potential of the Group? The Mahindra brand is one of Indias highly recognised
and respected brands, having been around for over 6 decades now. The Rise
transformation journey undertaken by the Group showcased the core values that
Mahindra stands for - Accept No Limits, Alternative Thinking & Drive Positive Change.
Several studies around the world, over the last couple of decades, have ranked
Mahindra Brand as a powerful force - Forbes, for instance, ranked Mahindra among the
most admired brands.
Group Companies, most of which carry the Mahindra name in them, operate in an
increasingly dynamic marketplace, characterised by established brands vying fiercely
for customer and wallet share, challenged by new entrants. Existing loyalties across
segments are continuously challenged by fierce competition that leverage technology or
evolving market platforms. In such a competitive environment, can the Group create a
much deeper consumer connect by leveraging synergies in a way that transcends
categories and marks the Mahindra brand relevant to people at various stages of their
life? Such a strategy and approach, if executed well, could help the Group know and
serve customers much better, while helping achieve the stated intent of making Brand
Mahindra one of the most admired globally. While doing this, obvious paradoxes come
up - One is the consumerism paradox - the more we have, the less satisfied we are with
each of our choices. The other is the Federal Structure Paradox of choosing the best of
both independence and synergy. While the current framework of total Independence
guarantees higher autonomy, better accountability and faster decision-making, a
synergistic approach may provide better utilisation of resources, and a unified, better
view of a consumer and the role Mahindra plays in his or her life.
Bringing Synergy to even 2 consumer facing businesses, say for example Club
Mahindra and Mahindra Automotive, would require solving problems and resolving
strategic paradoxes: How should the Club Mahindra membership system interact with
the Group-wide loyalty system? How should the different businesses approach the
customer to ensure optimal response? How should it be designed so that the cost of
acquiring the new customer is reduced across both programs? How should the existing
loyalty programs run by some companies such as Purple Club for specific target
segments (premium vehicles in this case) align to the Group-wide program? Should all
the Groups loyalty programs be merged to create a single program, or should there be
a multi-tiered loyalty program with Group and Business tiers? How can a business offer
specific and targeted benefits that are more relevant to the customer segments, after
adopting the Group-wide loyalty program?

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Mahindra War Room 2016

Group-wide Strategy Caselet

Considering this background, design a comprehensive Group-wide Loyalty

Program for the Mahindra Group. What are the costs and benefits of such a
program - should the Group do this at all? If so, how should the Group approach
this? How can the market be innovatively viewed as one single whole,
addressable by the entire Mahindra brand? How can this loyalty program be more
than just another loyalty program, but a force that unleashes the power of the
Mahindra name in new and innovative ways across the Groups businesses, in a
way all of them win? Should the program have one or more tiers (for instance,
Group, Business tiers)? How should the systems be designed to implement them,
across businesses as diverse as resorts, to automobiles to even financial
services? What should be the shape and structure of the program, and the impact
on individual and corporate brands? What should be the look and feel of this
program, and how can the new digital technologies be innovatively used to
implement this? How should the current programs transition into, or connect to
the Group-wide program? How should the costs be shared and campaigns
managed, considering that the Group cherishes a federal structure?
Present your strategy for Mahindra to unleash the power of its Brand across
businesses, through a Group-wide Loyalty Program.

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