Marlow Chemicals: A ₹72 Cr Transformation Case
Strategy
medium45 min0 submissionsFlipkart
Scenario
Marlow Chemicals is a mature-stage specialty chemicals business in India with ₹855 Cr of revenue.
The COO has proposed a ₹72 Cr digital transformation over 5 years. Roughly 49% of core operational processes are still manual or spreadsheet-driven. The business case claims 2.1% of revenue in annual run-rate savings once complete.
Complications the board is aware of:
- Two previous system implementations were abandoned mid-way
- Industry studies suggest 73% of transformations of this size miss their stated benefits
- The proposal assumes headcount reduction that no one has yet discussed with the affected teams
- The savings are back-loaded: almost none arrive before year 3
The CEO wants to know whether to approve it, shrink it, or reject it.
Supporting data
context
- prior failed attempts
- 2
- manual process share pct
- 49
- industry failure rate pct
- 73
financials
- revenue
- 855
- investment
- 72
- programme years
- 5
- claimed annual saving pct
- 2.1
derived hints
- annual saving
- 18
- simple payback years
- 4
Your task
Advise the CEO. Your answer should provide:
- Analysis — the business case on the numbers, including payback.
- Risks — what makes this fail, and how you would detect it early.
- Recommendation — approve, resize, phase or reject, with a specific first step.
State any assumptions you make.
Ready to move forward? Up next: Bluepeak Logistics Faces a Discount EntrantNext question
How you'll be graded
100 points, 60% to pass.
- business case25
- execution risk25
- recommendation25
- problem structuring25
Hint
Reveal suggested structure
Business case and payback; risk-adjusted return; phasing and gates; adoption as the constraint