Flying machine: The turnaround journey

Abstract

In April 2016, Alok Dubey, CEO of Arvind Lifestyle Brands, found himself sipping his favourite coffee at the most famous coffee house of Bangalore city. He pondered upon the wealth of opportunities facing his brand Flying Machine and struggled to find strategies to take it to new heights. He took over flying machine when it was not doing well and turned around the fate of the brand. In order to make the company what it is today, Arvind and his team changed every aspect of the brand be it the Logo, Product mix, Price, Position, Place or Promotional strategy. Alok relaunched the brand in a way that suits the taste and needs of a new generation of Indian youth while simultaneously going for aggressive marketing to compete in the market. In the recent annual report, Flying Machine stood at a soaring sales of INR 350 crore, it has come a long way from its days of INR 3.9 crore loss in 2007. The management team of Arvind Garments aspires to take Flying Machine to a yearly sales revenue of INR 1000 crore annually from 350 crores with an operating margin of 15-20% from the current margin of 10-12%. Alok has been asked to provide a proposal sighting the path to achieve the goal but the question was: How? As he finished his coffee, he reflected on the past and brainstormed to find new avenues to cover in the future. He wondered what action plan could he generate for his team so that Flying Machine achieves the targeted profit. He also noticed that 40% of the product price was covered by discount or margin and thus he wants to make changes in the current distribution system to increase the efficiency of the system. He is planning on proposing the changes and discussing the strategies for the same with his team.