IndiGo: Cruising in Market but Crashing Within
Reeti Kulshrestha, Arunaditya Sahay , Subhanjan Sengupta
M. Damodaran,1 chairman IndiGo, has a lot on his plate, and the servings are not over yet. What happened on 26 April 2019, was just a precursor to what was eventually to follow. Aditya Ghosh,2 the longstanding director of InterGlobe3 for 10 years, resigned from his position, making way for Greg Taylor4 as president and chief executive officer (CEO). Rahul Bhatia5 became the interim CEO. This, ironically, happened when the airline had bagged in traffic rights to as many as 15 countries, including France, UK and Germany. The most ill-timed dispute between the two co-founders of IndiGo, Rakesh Gangwal6 and Rahul Bhatia, which had been brewing for about a year, came out in the open on 16 July 2019, at the most inopportune moment. Rakesh Gangwal alleged violations of corporate governance rule at IndiGo7 and requested the Securities and Exchange Board of India8 (SEBI) to intervene. The feud between the founders of Inter Globe Aviation Ltd. opened a can of worms, although Gangwal was not inclined to sell or raise his stakes. Analysts wondered about the timing of the complaints to SEBI: Why now? Will IndiGo be able to come out of this predicament or follow Kingfisher and Jet Airways’ footsteps?11 Will it be yet another episode of shallow vested interests? Will this lead to the downfall of IndiGo,12 or will it survive the turbulence and keep flying like a phoenix?
Published in: Asian Journal of Management Cases