Reuters Market Light: Strategic Innovation at the Bottom of the Pyramid
Subject
Strategy and Entrepreneurship
Authors / Editors
Markides C; Winig L; Oyon D
Biographies
Abstract
This case is set in 2008 and examines the challenges facing Amit Mehra, Managing Director of Reuters Market Light (RML), a newly formed unit within Thomson Reuters, as he tries to grow the business amid organisational and market upheaval. RML represented a creative venture by Thomson Reuters to leverage its competences and make money at the bottom of the pyramid. Specifically, RML was set up in 2007 to offer customised, localised and personalised weather forecasts, crop prices and local agricultural news via short message service text messages on mobile telephones to rural Indian farmers. To do so, it had to develop an appropriate business model that allowed it to make money in rural India. The case is therefore a perfect vehicle to discuss three interrelated themes: (1) corporate entrepreneurship – how big established companies can grow new ventures next to the established core; (2) playing two games at the same time – how established companies can compete with dual business models; and (3) scaling up a new business – how to grow a new business while protecting it from rival attacks and internal politics.
Topic List
Business model innovation, Developing countries, Dual business models, Strategic planning
Industry
Agriculture; Mobile communications
LBS Case Number
CS-09-008
Location
India
Publication Notes
Available on ECCH
No
