Café Coffee Day (CCD) is an Indian café chain. It is a subsidiary of Coffee Day Enterprises Limited. Coffee Day serves 1.8 billion cups of coffee annually in six countries. Founded under the name “Café Coffee Day Global Limited Company” is a Chikkamagaluru-based business that grows coffee in its own estates of 20,000 acres. It is the largest producer of arabica beans in Asia, exporting to various countries including the U.S., Europe, and Japan.

1. Cafe Coffee Day –
The Café Coffee Day (CCD) is an Indian café chain. It is a subsidiary of Coffee Day Enterprises
Limited. Coffee Day serves 1.8 billion cups of coffee annually in six countries.
Founded under the name “Café Coffee Day Global Limited Company” is a Chikkamagaluru-based
business which grows coffee in its own estates of 20,000 acres. It is the largest producer of arabica
beans in Asia, exporting to various countries including the U.S., Europe, and Japan.
Cafe Coffee Day Owner - H1
Under the visionary leadership of V.G Siddhartha Cafe Coffee Day Global Limited decided to open
cafe shops starting from Bangalore as a pilot project.
The first CCD outlet was set up on July 11, 1996, at Brigade Road, Bangalore, Karnataka. It rapidly
expanded to other cities in India, with more than 1000 cafés open across the nation by 2011.
The Leader:
Source: wikipedia.org
At the age of 24 he joined J M Financial Limited in 1983–1984 in Mumbai as a management
trainee/intern in portfolio management and securities trading on the Indian stock market.[5] After
two years he returned to Bangalore.

2. With capital given by his father, Siddhartha bought stocks worth Rs. 30,000 and started the
company Sivan Securities. In 1999, it was renamed Way2wealth Securities Ltd. Its venture capital
division came to be known as Global Technology Ventures.
He also served on the board of directors of Mindtree, GTV, Liqwid Krystal, Way2wealth Brokers,
Coffee Day Natural Resources, and Way2wealth Securities.
He was the first entrepreneur in Karnataka to set up a café in 1996 (Café Coffee Day, a chain of
"youth hangout" coffee parlors). By 2018, the chain had over 1700 cafés in India. His cafes attract
40,000 to 50,000 visitors a week.
The TragedyStrikes:
V.G Siddhartha Founder of CCD went missing on 29th July when he did not return back from the
walk that he was taking on the bridge of the southern coastal city of Mangaluru, Bangalore.
His driver reported him missing within a few hours.
His body was found by a few fishermen on 31st July marking the end of this Visionary who brought
Cafe drinking culture to India.
Business Lessons that we can learn from CCD:
Though it is a tragedy to lose such a leader it is important that Entrepreneurs like ourselves learn
from this case study
1. Learn from Peers Mistakes:
Cafe Coffee Day went into debt & huge loses when they went for IPO & could not make as much
money as they thought they would be able to.
We can not control market forces but since expansion needed to be continued they were in debts.
The same happened for “Starbucks” a few years ago when Howard Schultz placed the reins of
starbucks in somebody else’s hands, starbucks faced losses.
Howard Schultz came back & took back the control of his company. Starbucks had to close some
stores but Howard made sure the communication was clear to the world & his community of
Baristas regarding the specific reasons to close down some outlets.
Cafe Coffee Day went on the same route they could have very well studied Starbucks model &
either slowed down their expansion or closed down some outlets to cut down their losses.
: 2. Take TIME OUT to Unwind:
As Entrepreneurs we have this constant urge to keep ourselves busy with day to day operations.
We feel guilty if we are not busy in our work as we think we are slagging off.
But is slagging off so bad???
I urge each one of you to take some time out from your day to day operations not for holidays but
for “Strategising” .
Think about where you wanted to go & if it is still the right path to take. Sometimes market
conditions change so our previous decisions are not valid anymore. We might have to fast forward
our plans or postpone our plans & thats ok too.

3. You will come to this conclusion only if you have sometime to look at what’s happening in your
business from a distance so take sometime every quarter or so & go away to think about whether
the direction your business is heading is the RIGHT one for you.
source: timeout247.com
3. DONT Scale too Quickly:
Scale is what we look at as Businessmen & Women. We want to grow big but also quickly so we
can relax in our Fifties or Forties & enjoy life.
source:blog.kredx.com
But Businesses do not work like that. It takes 7 - 10 years for any business to sustain in the
market.
We keep getting bombarded about how a 21 year old is earning Millions. That may be accurate
only if he started working when he was 10 or 11 years old.
Even in today’s world where technology rules most of the businesses , it still takes proportionate
time for businesses to scale & sustain.
So be Patient.
When you look at Starbucks, even they did not launch in India with full force though they have the
backing to do it if they wanted to.
That is because they learnt their lessons in other markets.
So tread carefully & scale slowly for a sustainable business, remember the golden rule of business
is “Business Continuity” not “Becoming Crorepati in 2 years”.

4. Disclaimer: These are purely my personal views & I am in no way demeaning Siddhartha for the
decisions that he has taken for CCD. It is what is now because of him & we have nothing but deep
respect for him as an Entrepreneur.
Have a great week ahead.
Reach out to us for a discussion on “Crafting a Digital Strategy for Your Brand” by emailing us at
sirisha@brandingbypixels.com
Happy Marketing,
Sirisha Varma,
Founder, Chief Strategist,
sirisha@brandingbypixels.com
www.brandingbypixels.com