Indri Single Malt: Raise a Toast or Face Testing Times?

Tulsi Jayakumar

Product #:W48710

Supplier:Ivey

Discipline:General Management, Organizational Behaviour/Leadership

Setting:India, 2025

Details:Case (PDF) • 12 pages • 2026-05-07

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In September 2025, Harvinder Singh Chopra, the chair of the board of Piccadily Agro Industries Ltd., a listed, promoter-led company, faced an unconventional challenge. The firm’s award-winning premium whisky, Indri Single Malt Indian Whisky (Indri), had achieved rapid global success, winning more than 65 awards and selling over 100,000 cases within two years. Yet some stakeholders questioned the brand’s legitimacy and called for a boycott due to the promoter’s past criminal conviction. Chopra needed to decide whether and how the company should respond. Should Indri’s strong market performance and global recognition be allowed to speak for themselves, or should the board intervene more actively to reshape leadership visibility and brand governance to mitigate reputational risk?

Learning Objectives

This case is best positioned in courses or modules on corporate governance in family or promoter-led firms. It can also be used in courses on reputation management and ethical leadership. It works particularly well mid-course, after students have been introduced to stakeholder theory and governance basics. It can also be used before or alongside discussions on reputational risk; environmental, social, and governance framework; or legitimacy. The case works particularly well as a bridge case—moving students from rule-based governance (compliance, disclosures) to judgment-based governance (legitimacy, moral evaluation, long-term stewardship). The case is intended to be compact and decision-focused, making it suitable for a 75-minute class discussion. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:

Understand the distinction between legal compliance, commercial performance, and ethical legitimacy, and why success in one domain does not automatically confer credibility in others.
Analyze reputational risk as a governance challenge, especially when it stems from personal histories rather than operational failures.
Assess strategic options for managing leadership visibility and brand governance, and the ethical trade-offs associated with silence, distancing, or values-based engagement.

Indri Single Malt: Raise a Toast or Face Testing Times?

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Learning Objectives