LokSuvidha, Converting Non-customers to Customers: The Saga of Organizational Growth Through Technology

Abstract

Emerging economies like India has been characterized with a substantial ‘bottom of the pyramid’ (BOP) population. BOP has also been one of the most promising market segments for business growth. Firms serving specifically the BOP customer segment was thus engaged in serving a social cause as well because BOP consumers (a weaker segment of society) got benefited because of their consumption of products or services offered by the business firm. In India, a large section of BOP customers who were economically progressing and becoming the new middle class used two-wheeler automobile to commute for personal as well as business needs. Two-wheeler automobile was lifeline for millions of rural and urban Indians. Two-wheelers were used for both consumptions as well as asset building purposes by Indian consumers. Affordability of two-wheeler had been a big challenge for this section of society. Borrowing from Indian credit institutions has been a very potent method towards owning two-wheelers for this segment. There was a section of BOP customers who were beyond the umbrella of the traditional Indian banking and financial sector. Since the decade of mid-2010s, the Government of India had been working hard to include this part of society into the banking system and had floated multiple social schemes to achieve banking inclusion. LokSuvidha, an Indian financial services start-up was founded by Mr Nimish Laddhad and Mr Kamlesh Laddhad. LokSuvidha developed an unique business model for providing credit to this part of society. LokSuvidha had also deployed cutting-edge technology solutions to build a scalable, profitable working model. However, the founders of LokSuvidha were in a dilemma regarding whether to expand LokSuvidha further in scale or scope or to concentrate only in the extant market base of its operations. This decision was paramount for the founders to be answered to shape the future of LokSuvidha in terms of both market reach and organizational span.