CASELET-2: Hyper-competition in the Air-conditioner Industry: Dynamic Trans-Spatial and Trans-Temporal Strategies of Firms Two strategy consultants had a heated argument over several success and failure stories from the Indian air-conditioner industry and a critical excerpt from their discussion is as follows: Strategy Consultant (Deloitte): With the inspiration of success stories of Whirlpools Sensigerator and Su-Kams Inverters, Voltas and Daikin have started contemplating adoption of these promising benchmarks in the AC industry in their attempt to address the imbroglio of frequent power cuts by the electric grid in rural areas where industrial customers face acute shortage of electricity for longer time periods. Though most of these industrial units are located in remote rural areas, luckily, all these customers have grossly similar product or service requirements and can afford to embrace solutions prodigally given the proven value propositions, maturity of markets and related platitudinous technologies. Strategy Consultant (KPMG): On one hand, a glut of players like Air Command, Blue Star, Voltas and Videocon have already commoditized the Indian air-conditioner market. And on the other hand, with the advent of MNCs like General Electric, Electrolux, Whirlpool and LG Electronics into the Indian market, a larger level cannibalization has taken place in this market. It is interesting to see the zero-sum game strategies adopted by these domestic and international players in this market towards grabbing others customers whereby these firms continuously witness scintillating vicissitudes in their market shares. Q: What is your take on this whole scenario? Defend and substantiate your viewpoint with due support from pertinent sizzler and fizzler benchmarks, if any.