Case Analysis II: Srikrishna Motors—Using Data to Manage Dealership Performance

Srikrishna Motors, set up in Bengaluru, Karnataka, was the authorized dealership of Loadmaster, the third largest truck manufacturer in India. Mr Singh, a first-generation entrepreneur, had set up the dealership in 1987, and in 2019 was operating out of three showrooms. Loadmaster had two major products—Light & Medium Duty and Heavy Duty (HD). Srikrishna Motors was dealing solely in the latter category of products. Since Loadmaster was a late entrant to the HD category, its products were relatively difficult to sell. The showrooms were located in three cities in South India, Bengaluru, Vijayanagaram and Chennai, to serve the states of Karnataka (KN), Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Tamil Nadu (TN), respectively. Srikrishna derived its revenues from sales of trucks and the services provided to existing and new customers. In addition to vehicle sales, revenues also accrued from sale of insurance and financing products, after sales service, sale of accessories, spares and annual maintenance contracts. Ravi Krishnan, the CEO of Srikrishna Motors, had to evaluate his direct reports who were the three branch managers (BMs) responsible for each of the showrooms. The three markets were quite different in their characteristics and the performance of the branches was also quite different. The challenge for Krishnan was to relatively assess the performance of the BMs despite these differences.