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• Supplement | HBS Case Collection | 2013 (Revised from original 2013 version)

  Equitas Microfinance (C): Advent of Regulation

  V.G. Narayanan, V. Kasturi Rangan and Vidhya Muthuram

  Keywords: business model; for-profit firms; Micro Finance; growth and development strategy; corporate social responsibility and impact; Social Enterprise; India;

  Citation:

  Narayanan, V.G., V. Kasturi Rangan, and Vidhya Muthuram. "Equitas Microfinance (C): Advent of Regulation." Harvard Business School Supplement 113-006, May 2013. (Revised from original March 2013 version.)

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• Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2013

  Improving Store Liquidation

  Nathan Craig and Ananth Raman

  Store liquidation is the time-constrained divestment of retail outlets through an in-store sale of inventory. The retail industry depends extensively on store liquidation, not only as a means for investors to recover capital from failed ventures, but also to allow managers of going concerns to divest stores in efforts to enhance performance and to change strategy. Recent examples of entire chains being liquidated include Borders Group in 2012, Circuit City in 2009, and Linens 'n Things in 2008; the value of inventory sold during these liquidations alone is $3B. The store liquidation problem is related to but also differs substantially from the markdown optimization problem that has been studied extensively in the literature. This paper introduces the store liquidation problem to the literature and presents a technique for optimizing key decision variables, such as markdown, inventory, and store closing decisions during liquidations. We show that our approach could improve net recovery on cost (i.e., the profit obtained during liquidations stated as a percentage of the cost value of liquidated assets) by 2 to 7 percentage points in the cases we examined. The paper also identifies ways in which current practice in store liquidation differs from the optimal decisions identified in the paper and traces the consequences of these differences.

  Citation:

  Craig, Nathan, and Ananth Raman. "Improving Store Liquidation." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13–096, May 2013.

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2013 (Revised from original 2010 version)

  Equitas Microfinance: The Fastest-Growing MFI on the Planet

  V.G. Narayanan and V. Kasturi Rangan

  Founded as a for-profit microfinance company, Equitas had acquired nearly a million clients in the short two years since it was founded. The founder, Vasu, and his management team wished to accelerate the already impressive spurt to three million clients in the next two years. The case describes the company's business model, which attempts to integrate microfinance with social development, and provides students with the opportunity to discuss the scaling options and challenges facing the founder.

  Keywords: Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Microfinance; Growth and Development Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Enterprise; Financial Services Industry; India;

  Citation:

  Narayanan, V.G., and V. Kasturi Rangan. "Equitas Microfinance: The Fastest-Growing MFI on the Planet." Harvard Business School Case 510-104, April 2013. (Revised from original March 2010 version.)

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