Product Overview

The case tracks Dineout’s evolution into a full-scale tech solution provider for restaurants. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world. Several countries, including India, implemented complete lockdowns to control the spread of the virus. Stringent measures to ensure social distancing, night curfews and restrictions on social gatherings continued, which were a severe blow to the restaurant industry. The restaurants’ revenue streams dried up as the diners avoided dining out and preferred food deliveries, which was against Dineout’s core business model. The case ends with the questions on how Dineout should wade through the pandemic when its entire business model was being challenged.

Learning Objectives

To understand the service excellence pillars for a platform business. To understand how platform design can impact different parts of the service profit chain. To analyse the impact of a black swan event on a platform’s business model. Discuss the different strategies the platform could adopt when it faces a black swan event such as the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand how the acquisitions can be a way to scale a business and outmanoeuvre the competition if they align with the platform’s core service objective.