Maujan.pk: Nothing Ventured; Nothing Gained

Abstract

The case helps the students explore a capacity utilization problem faced by the CEO of Maujan.pk. The financial statements from the fiscal year 2013–2014 put the CEO, Tahir, in a difficult spot. According to these reports, his main business, which was online discount coupons, has been outpaced in growth by his side business, Facebook management. Tahir had launched the Facebook management business as an afterthought; his strategic business decisions never factored it as a major consideration. Now, Tahir is forced to reflect on this matter, especially because of resource constraints. Being a small company with six employees, he has had to share resources between the two businesses. Now that his side business has grown faster than the main business, Tahir finds himself understaffed. Meanwhile, the original business is slowing down, and few avenues of growth are forthcoming due to network congestion (network effects model). Keeping this in mind, a decision must be made to choose one of the two businesses or expand and continue them both. The expansion would mean significant logistic overhead and initial resource starvation. This is perplexing for someone like Tahir, who is a real hands-on manager. Eventually, inaction would lead him to these problems, as the business would continue to grow to further compete for the same resources. Each decision has its merits and demerits in a fast-moving Pakistani digital market where copycat businesses can spring up within days, and customer loyalty is mercurial at best.