PVR Ltd. , India’s largest multiplex chain and among the select FIELD Global Partners for Harvard Business School (HBS) in India, welcomes the students of Harvard Business School to study PVR’s business model and develop a case study on “Developing a new luxury cinema experience for families in New Delhi”. A team of six students from varied backgrounds and industry expertise would analyse PVR’s current model and would present their final recommendations to the management. PVR Ltd. is one of 156 FIELD Global Partners of Harvard Business School spanning across 13 countries around the world. This programme is spread across a span of eight days from the 5th- 12th January, 2015 as part of a required first-year course at Harvard Business School called FIELD, which stands for Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development.

With globalization and a shrinking world, PVR believes that innovative ideas are the key to any progressive business model. As a global partner, PVR is providing these students a real-world learning experience to expand their expertise on-ground while testing their ideas with local customers. In this duration, PVR shall ensure on-site orientations, assist the team in conducting field research with consumers around the city and the students shall share a final presentation of the study findings to the senior leadership.

Being an alumnus of Harvard himself, Mr Ajay Bijli, Chairman and Managing Director, PVR Ltd, said, “It feels great to be associated with such a prestigious name as Harvard Business School. The entire programme is a two way process for students as well as for us while the know-how of the processes comes from our company and learning from them simultaneously. The students are very bright and are open to learn as well as present innovative ideas/concepts for our business. We believe that PVR will prove to be a wonderful case study for the students to understand the dynamics of India and its audience. We look forward to incorporating their ideas into our frame work.”

PVR would specifically focus on its two current challenges PVR-Expansion and Experience along with its Revenue model. The company is expanding rapidly and has future plans of reaching the 1000 screens milestone by or before the year 2018. This is an ambition the management has to manage with the existing team. PVR would look forward from the students to share the best US practices adopted by the companies that have brought in innovation on team, expansion and consumer management through quality and experience. Also, PVR would look forward to a comprehensive business strategy to multiply the revenue along with the limitations and challenges faced by the retail entertainment industry. Students will be encouraged to also suggest synergistic revenue models that can be sustained and scaled.

Professor Tony Mayo, the faculty head of FIELD, acknowledges that this thorough on-ground learning would not been possible without the support from PVR, among their Global Partners. “We are extremely delighted to work with PVR and hope that they are as excited as our students are. The students will benefit immeasurably from this experience and we hope the partner organisations do as well.”

The eight day programme, FIELD has three modules that run through the entire first year of the two- year MBA program. The first module focuses on developing individual leadership skills through team feedback and self-reflection. The second focuses on developing global intelligence by immersing them in a foreign country to develop a new product or service in country for their Global Partner organization. The final module brings all the lessons together by challenging students to develop and launch their own micro-business as part of a small team back in Boston.

PVR’s journey has been one that started froma single screen to now 454 screens and becoming the country’s leading multiplex chain with a presence of over 100 properties across 43 cities. PVR has also transcended to various other verticals like hospitality with its two high-end restaurants Mistral (New Delhi) and Mr. Hong (Bengaluru); becoming an integrated and complete retail entertainment company. PVR’s growth and expansion model will make for an interesting study on market segmentation and evolving customer dynamics catering to multiple audience sets and providing the best cinematic experience.