Determination of Sustainable Business Strategies During Recession: An Indian Perspective

In the pursuit of global growth to enhance profitability, and a continual creation of interoperable synchronization of ambitious business strategies with sustainable business strategies, it is essential for the organisations to distinctively synergize the business in the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world. The financial recession of 2007-08, which started in US but encompassed most of the economies gradually has fostered the idea of formulating sustainable strategies which would safeguard the interests of the organization even during the times of economic meltdown. Although the recession has shook almost all the organizations, yet a handful of organizations were able to withstand the financial stress and have performed extremely well to witness growth and increased business even during those times of the financial turmoil. These business houses had efficiently cultivated global interfaces of the recession and brought in impactful alignments by deployment of pandemic ideas to reap benefits from the stress situation. For these business houses, recession was an opportunity to increase market share, acquire cheap assets, improve profitability and scrutinize the operations. In this research paper, we analyze the strategies adopted by four Indian companies- JSW steel, GCPL, HDFC and Future Group from 2008 to 2011 that helped them in reap benefits during the on the basis of comparative case based methodology. Analysis has been done on the basis of merger and acquisition strategies, investment strategies, market capturing strategies and operational strategies adopted by these firms during the research period. Innovation and diversification of business has emerged as a new tool for survival during economic slowdown. Suggestions have been made to the corporate world about focusing on those sustainable business strategies that make their fundamentals strong and help them in surviving even in economic slowdown on the basis of the findings of the analysis.