Intuition. Perception. Perfection.

     Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, there lived a mighty King who reigned supreme over a massive and wealthy kingdom. The UB empire, powered by beer and booze, was one of India ’s most successful, powerful and valued conglomerates but its King was not content. For, the King harboured a dream of giving his empire a pair of wings. So, in the year 2005, he launched his most ambitious venture till date. It was an airline that was named after his flagship beer brand, Kingfisher. However, after a turbulent flight that lasted seven long years, Kingfisher Airlines metamorphosed into the entity that turned out to be the King’s undoing. An unsustainable business model, an expensive acquisition of the loss-making low-cost carrier Air Deccan, a much-too-early debut in the international skies and an over-ambitious plan to be the King of the skies all combined to send Kingfisher Airlines crashing down. But this tale does not end with the King living happily ever af...

     The year was 2007. Greed and euphoria had gripped the markets and the bourses were rising to the sky. In the midst of an ebullient equity market, the M&A (mergers and acquisitions) space was really heating up. Deal Street was witnessing deals worth billions of dollars, as alliances and takeovers were consummated. However, even as the economy was surging and the automotive sector booming, one particular auto giant was hurtling towards financial disaster. Ford, the American giant, was losing millions of dollars and it was in the process of implementing a do-or-die turnaround plan christened ‘One Ford’. The order of the day at the Detroit headquarters was to cut Ford’s excess flab, jettison the unprofitable divisions and strengthen the arms of the business that held some promise for the future. After months of deliberation, Ford decided that it needed to get rid of Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover.      When Ford turned to the task of divesting i...