‘Twas a piece of cake!

KOCHI: The case study of the startup 'Ohmycake' incubated at Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology Incubation Centre has been registered in the IVEY Case Repository.This achievement will be another feather to the crown of Kerala Startup Mission as well those who had recently bagged the honour of Top Performer in the national level annual start-up 2018 ranking. Harvard and IVEY are the leading case study repositories in the world and all leading business schools across the world follow them. IVEY case studies can also be accessed through the Harvard case study repository. 

“I am happy to see the story of a startup from Kerala becoming a study material in the global arena. As one of the few ecosystems in the world to adopt a 'ground up' approach for startup ecosystem development, stories of successful startups like Ohmycake is not only inspirational but also provide a rich learning experience for the global audience,” said Kerala Startup Mission CEO Saji Gopinath.

With this, Ohmycake’s case study has gotten into the elite league which is normally the privilege of large and established organisations. "The story of the startup's experience and hardships can be a guiding lamp for budding entrepreneurs and business administrators,” said Rev Dr Mathew Vattathara CMI, director of Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology.

“We never thought our names will be the topic of discussion in a classroom session in any business school,” said Thomas Murickan, founder and CEO of Ohmycake.B-Schools use case studies for analysis and critical thinking. This case study will primarily be used in the academic curriculum related to entrepreneurship sessions such as business strategy, operating strategy and decision strategy.

“We have the process and tools which captured the micro level details of more than 25,000 orders we delivered in the past three years, and this data itself is a pool of knowledge for any research on this industry,” said Rijin John, co-founder and COO of Ohmycake, who is also the COO of the Centre for Social Innovation and Incubation at Rajagiri.

Started by professors Nobin Thomas and Abhilash Namboothiri by mid-2017, the case study took multiple iterations and fine tuning to get into IVEY case repository. The case study starts with Thomas’s initial journey in setting up Ohmycake, along with the different business models he tried, and then how Rijin introduced the technology to streamline operation and process, and then the case ends with a question for the students by giving a particular critical operational scenario.

Students will discuss or debate on what the co-founders of that venture would or should have done in the given scenario, along with its supporting arguments. The faculty will evaluate students' reasoning based on the teaching note provided along with this case study.