Calcutta Walks: Creating Something from Nothing

Case 5 - Calcutta Walks: Creating Something from Nothing

1. What is the reason behind the success of Calcutta Walks?

The main reason behind the success of Calcutta Walks is its innovative conception of tourism in Kolkata: unique and personalized walking tours guided by a person who both knows and loves the city. By positioning his services as such, Iftekhar Ahsan differentiated Calcutta Walks from traditional tourist agencies and attracted a niche clientele. The other reasons pertain to Calcutta Walks’ philosophy and include: the founder’s strong belief in his project, focusing on the small-scale to provide a very high-quality service, creating new relationships between people from all over the world, humanizing the whole experience; and finally, networking and getting close to people.

2. What are the key resources of Iftekhar Ahsan?

First, Iftekhar Ahsan’s main key resource is his passion and love for the city. He therefore has the knowledge and motivation to provide quality tours to customers but is also always coming up with new ideas because as he says himself he “feels for the city”. His motivation keeps him entertained and enables him to always find new areas of diversification. Thanks to his background, he has a different vision than the existing tour guides which helped him develop a business with a different point of view and with a different positioning involving more his consumers. Also, Iftekhar, has two permanent trustworthy employees which he can rely on since he has managed a great repartition of the skills within his team. Iftekhar is a resourceful person and has therefore the ability to develop his own tools. His networking abilities also enable him to create smart partnerships and to always improve his offers. Furthermore, Iftekhar Ahsan has a great enthusiasm and energy for Calcutta Walks but also for other activities outside which continuously brings him new knowledge and visions of the city.

3. Should Calcutta Walks remain small? Can Calcutta Walks be competitive while being small?

Calcutta Walks’s core competency since its inception has been quality service through a compact business unit. Iftekhar always believed that the essence of his business was using a ‘pull strategy’ and drawing customers towards the service by being the best at what they do for their targeted and niche markets. Therefore, we feel that Calcutta walks should remain small to avoid the dilution of brand equity and to maintain superior quality services. Iftekhar should use his connections furthermore, exploit the crowdsourcing techniques that have been used in the past, develop the ongoing discussions of a food tour, consider night tours and offer varied experiences to explore Kolkata and overcome competition. Also, they need to incentivise