In B-schools, we teach Harvard case studies and Amazon’s supply chain. But every festival season, just outside our college in Hyderabad, a different kind of supply chain comes alive. It is fast, sustainable and inclusive, and no MBA runs it.
I am talking about the festival markets of Bathukamma and Diwali. Our students should not see these festivals only as holidays. They are a live management lab.
The zero-waste supply chain we forget to teach
In the days before Bathukamma, flowers arrive at Hyderabad’s markets before sunrise. Marigold comes from farms, while tangedu and gunugu come from fields and roadsides across the region. Many women sort the flowers by hand and tie them into small bundles. By morning, they are in every colony.
From what I have seen, the journey from grower to buyer takes only a few hours, usually without cold storage or app-based delivery. In my experience, very little is wasted, because the product is made for one day. After that, it goes back to nature.
In Operations classes, we teach the circular economy with European examples. Our grandmothers were already practising it. Bathukamma flowers are worshipped and then immersed in lakes and ponds, mostly without harming the water, unlike the Plaster of Paris idols used in some other festivals.
Women-led entrepreneurship without funding
During Bathukamma, the real entrepreneur is not on Shark Tank. She is the woman in our neighbourhood who makes Bathukammas on order.
By my rough estimate, one such woman in Kukatpally brought in Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 20,000 in nine days last year. She spent nothing on marketing. WhatsApp status and word of mouth brought her customers, who were her neighbours. Her working capital was about Rs. 500 a day for flowers bought in the morning and sold by evening.
Diwali tells a similar story. Potters in Hyderabad make thousands of diyas in just a few days, with no loan and no startup pitch.
When we talk about women’s empowerment and Atmanirbhar Bharat, we should document this. It is not just seasonal labour. It is seasonal entrepreneurship, where the profit stays with the woman and her community.
Demand without advertising
No company spends crores to make people buy flowers for Bathukamma or diyas for Diwali. No influencer is needed.
Why does the demand return every year? Kotler tells us that culture shapes what people want. Here, culture does it better than any campaign. A grandmother teaches her granddaughter how to stack the flowers. Schools ask girls to wear traditional sarees. The community becomes the marketing department. This is community-led branding, something B-schools now talk about as the future of marketing.
Even our campuses and corporate offices set up their own Bathukamma. They know that culture connects people more than strategy does.
What we should do in our curriculum
Along with the usual cases on Zara and Starbucks, let us give students one festival project:
Map the Bathukamma supply chain in Hyderabad over three days. Interview a flower seller, a farmer and a woman who makes Bathukamma on order. Calculate her daily profit and loss.
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In one festival, students will learn costing, supply chain, marketing and sustainability.
Festivals are not just holidays on the academic calendar. They are India’s original management schools: sustainable, profitable and women-led. Perhaps it is time our B-schools learned from them.
India’s festivals offer more than cultural celebrations; they provide powerful lessons in sustainable business, entrepreneurship and community-driven marketing. By bringing Bathukamma and Diwali into management classrooms, B-schools can connect traditional wisdom with modern business practices and inspire future leaders to build enterprises that are inclusive, profitable and environmentally responsible.
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