Calcutta Walks: Creating Something from NothingEssay Preview: Calcutta Walks: Creating Something from Nothing1 rating(s)Report this essayCase 5 – Calcutta Walks: Creating Something from Nothing1. What is the reason behind the success of Calcutta Walks?The main reason behind the success of Calcutta Walks is its innovative conception of tourism in Kolkata: unique and personalized walking tours guided by a person who both knows and loves the city. By positioning his services as such, Iftekhar Ahsan differentiated Calcutta Walks from traditional tourist agencies and attracted a niche clientele. The other reasons pertain to Calcutta Walksâ philosophy and include: the founderâs strong belief in his project, focusing on the small-scale to provide a very high-quality service, creating new relationships between people from all over the world, humanizing the whole experience; and finally, networking and getting close to people.
2. What are the key resources of Iftekhar Ahsan?First, Iftekhar Ahsanâs main key resource is his passion and love for the city. He therefore has the knowledge and motivation to provide quality tours to customers but is also always coming up with new ideas because as he says himself he âfeels for the cityâ. His motivation keeps him entertained and enables him to always find new areas of diversification. Thanks to his background, he has a different vision than the existing tour guides which helped him develop a business with a different point of view and with a different positioning involving more his consumers. Also, Iftekhar, has two permanent trustworthy employees which he can rely on since he has managed a great repartition of the skills within his team. Iftekhar is a resourceful person and has therefore the ability to develop his own tools. His networking abilities also enable him to create smart partnerships and to always improve his offers. Furthermore, Iftekhar Ahsan has a great enthusiasm and energy for Calcutta Walks but also for other activities outside which continuously brings him new knowledge and visions of the city.
3. Should Calcutta Walks remain small? Can Calcutta Walks be competitive while being small?Calcutta Walksâs core competency since its inception has been quality service through a compact business unit. Iftekhar always believed that the essence of his business was using a âpull strategyâ and drawing customers towards the service by being the best at what they do for their targeted and niche markets. Therefore, we feel that Calcutta walks should remain small to avoid the dilution of brand equity and to maintain superior quality services. Iftekhar should use his connections furthermore, exploit the crowdsourcing techniques that have been used in the past, develop the ongoing discussions of a food tour, consider night tours and offer varied experiences to explore Kolkata and overcome competition. Also, they need to incentivise
3. To promote the business model of the Calcutta store system, is the Calcutta Walks sustainable? Calcutta Walks has a great history in terms of business model and in terms of operational development, especially in fiscal time, with good management and successful management, and better operational management. Some of the factors that are responsible for the success of the Calcutta Walks business model are its operational growth and efficient management, so it should be implemented even when the business model does not have adequate operational growth at the present time. Calcutta Walks should not create a vacuum, but rather serve as a place to develop in this context and it should not fall into such a trap. It should continue to remain a sustainable business model.3. What is Calcutta Walks’ aim? To be the second smallest and fastest growing business in the country, as it has emerged as a global pioneer in its markets.3)4) What is Calcutta Walks’ strategy to help you succeed and the success of the Calcutta Walks to you, is it to increase or decrease your customer base? In order to stay in front of the markets, to be successful and to become a well-known brand with customers, we have to make sure customer loyalty is at its highest level and to maintain a quality customer experienceâ on the whole. We know now that, for many business and government officials and many entrepreneurs, that is the case in the Calcutta area. Besides, Calcutta has shown its true ability to solve problems and achieve good results, and this is a unique and important objective to focus on in the next few years. This is particularly important at Calcutta.4) What is Calcutta Walks’ view on food? At this stage, we believe that we do not need to talk about food. Why should we discuss food that we don’t understand? When you talk about food, and in the restaurant industry, it’s hard to grasp the concept or the quality, but it’s essential to understand it, because we get along very well with the customer and with everyone I speak with. Why shouldn’t we talk about food from time to time? We want to understand the main features that are important, because we are friends of the customers, not because of the cost of such products we can buy or what they get. If somebody has a complaint about one of our products or service, we will try to take care of it.4)5) Are we not interested in getting involved in these public campaigns or private campaigns, especially with the private sector in this area to be part of the solution? Since we are based in Bengaluru, we do not need publicity at all. However, we do discuss the issues around the product and customer and we do promote Kolkata shopping through our channels as well. It is not a political agenda.5) If we continue on with business plan and direction, things will continue to move forward. As well as this, we can also work with people of industry like marketing for Calcutta to be able to raise awareness about food through its business. If this keeps up, Calcutsta could become a success on the market.5) How do you look for new partners during the business