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Xaviers Institute of Business Management
Studies
Marks:
80
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Attempt all questions
1. Discuss how the
environment acts does as a stimulant to business. Analyze why business often does little for
the preservation of physical
environment despite the fact that it is significant for business activity. (10 Marks)
2. Explain the relevance of
ecological issues to business environment (10
Marks)
3.
What do you understand by Business Social Responsibility ( B S R
). How this can be used to improve the Business Environment. (10 Marks)
4.
Explain
how the business in an organization can be regulated with regard to the
Organization’s Basic Objectives.
(10
Marks)
5.
Describe
in detail the different role played by the Government towards enriching the
business Environment. (10 Marks)
6.
In the Business Environment context, explain how the Political and
legal Environment of business plays a vital role. Justify by bringing in
suitable examples. (10 Marks)
7.
Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of FDI. What is your
opinion on the role of FDI in the Retail Sector? Justify your views with
Xaviers Institute of Business Management
Studies
BUSINESS
STRATEGY
Marks: 100
NOTE:
I. Answer ANY FIVE questions.
II. All questions carry 20 marks each.
III. Total numbers of questions are EIGHT.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Q.1. Write short notes on ANY TWO of the following
a. Globalization
b. Task and processes in formulating business strategy
c. TQM Philosophy
d. Characteristics of well formulated corporate objectives
Q.2. Describe Vision and Mission statements with suitable illustrations. What
is the difference between vision and mission? How does business definition help
in articulating the Mission statement?
Q.3. Describe Porter’s five forces model to analyse competition with reference
to light commercial vehicle industry.
Q.4. Describe the GE multifactor portfolio matrix and state how the GE matrix
is superior tool Vis a Vis the BCG matrix.
Q.5. a) Describe Ansoff’s matrix
b) What is the difference between market penetration and market development?
Illustrate with suitable examples.
Q.6. What is “Best cost provider” strategy? What are the risks in pursuing this
strategy?
Q.7. What strategic options a firm could follow when the firm is operating in a
maturing industry?
Q.8. Describe the role of strategy supportive reward system with suitable
illustrations.
Xaviers Institute of Business Management
Studies
MANAGEMENT CONTROL
SYSTEMS
Marks: 80
Note: Attempt any five questions. All questions carry equal marks.
1. Explain the various components of control systems.
2. Explain the following models and highlight their
usefulness in formulating business unit strategies:
(a) The BCG Model
(b) General Electric (GE) Planning Model
3. Explain the boundary conditions in the context of
profit centre. Also explain the process of performance measurement of profit
centers.
4. What do you understand by Investment Centres?
Explain the methods used for measuring investment centre performance.
5. What do you mean by budgetary control system?
Explain the process of budgetary control in an organization.
6. Describe the criteria on which the incentives of
business unit managers are decided.
7. What are the various special control issues faced
by Multi National Corporations?
8. What are the characteristics of a project
organization? Explain how these characteristics affect the control system
design of a project.
Xaviers Institute of Business Management
Studies
MARKS : 80
SUB: Marketing Management
N. B. : 1) Attempt all Four
Case studies
2) All questions carry equal marks.
Case study 1
Case Study on
Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning
Profiles
Group is a leading interior decorator and designer in the country. Mr. Neerav
Gupta, one of the partners in the group has invested a good amount of money in
the business. The other two partners namely Mr. Pratham Gupta who is a distant
cousin of Neerav and Mr. Dev Suri are mainly into managing the firm’s
country wide operations. Mr. Stanley Pereira, who is more of a sleeping
partner, looks after the administrative and financial aspects of the firm.
Profiles
Group has around 44 service centers in the country including state capitals and
several developing cities. Since the firm’s inception in 1998, its progress
has been unstoppable. The clients include many reputed companies, hotel chains,
popular celebrities and even hospitals and commercial banks.
A brief
background of the Partners:
Neerav
Gupta had a family owned business that was into manufacturing wooden furniture
but Neerav‟s interest was more into
decorating. So, after completing a Master’s course in interior designing
from a reputed college abroad, he decided to start his own interior design
services. Meanwhile, the furniture manufacturing business was handed over to
Pratham Gupta due to property and family settlement issues. But, Pratham
decided to join Neerav and they both started a partnership firm.
Dev Suri,
a friend of Neerav who had been living abroad, sold out his real estate
business and had decided to settle on the Indian soil itself. He offered help
by providing additional capital and his knowledge of real estates did help the
firm although in a small way. Stanley Pereira, an experienced teacher and
consultant, had worked previously in leading interior designing colleges and
was instrumental in making required changes in syllabus structure and interior
designing courses. He has also written many books and articles on the topic. He
had retired early due to family commitments but landed up in Profiles Group as
a Partner through mutual contacts.
The
conversation:
All the
four partners are comfortably sitting face to face on a peach colored cushioned
sofa which is situated near the window corner inside Neerav’s
well-structured office.
Pratham
Gupta feels that since their firm has invested large funds, they must enter into
more market segments especially the smaller ones. And, regarding this issue, a
professional conversation takes place among the partners. The talks are as
follows:
Pratham:
“So, what do you think about expanding our market segments to smaller more ordinary
markets?”
Pratham:
“Listen guys, right now, we have 44 centers and competent people to work under
us, but when we see our customer base, it looks small and limited. What I mean
to say is that we also need to have those individual household customers who
are looking for service expertise in this field. Most household customers don’t
get the necessary information as to how to go about the interiors or how to
decorate their home/offices etc.”
Neerav: “I
agree with your points Pratham, but don‟t you think if we have to reach
the smaller segments of the market, we need a different approach to cater to
their needs. We would have to advertise and communicate to these segments in a customised
way. This will increase the promotion budget and our focus on the existing
customers may be compromised.” Dev: “I think we need to get a balance here.
Pratham‟s
points are valid enough and it will make Profiles group more productive. If
need be, we may have to take help of a service consultancy in order to
penetrate deeper markets.”
Pratham:
“What is that problem you are talking about,
Neerav: “I
do understand that point... But, that’s always the case in our
business. Interior decorations and designs are usually considered one-time
expenditure by household customers.... and as a matter of fact, that has not
affected the way we do our business or on our returns.”
Pratham:
“See, even otherwise it should not affect our firm because individual customer
segments are willing to pay or spend on interiors. If they need a good,
comfortable home along with a neat set of furniture then why don’t
we cater to that need, even if it’s a one time demand from a
particular customer? This is exactly what I meant earlier when I said, given
the expertise we have, why don’t we use it to expand our customer
base? Of course, we may have to develop suitable pricing strategies, promotion
strategies for these market segments which is according to me, not a big thing
to do.”
Dev: “Let’s
first consult with our marketing hero and ask their opinion or suggestions as
well”
Dev takes
out his cell phone to dial Mr. Sunil’s number and he immediately gets
the connection. Sunil is the head of the marketing section and he is very
efficient in his job. He also has an acceptable humour quotient. Dev asks Sunil
to come over to Neerav’s office.
Sunil
enters the office:
Sunil:
“What’s
up, Bosses?”
Dev gives
a brief explanation to Sunil about the potential market.
Sunil:
“that’s
a welcome sign actually... we have the necessary resources and we are available
to any customer at any given point... So, I think it‟s
a good idea that we update our customer profiles also... Only thing is we have
to make sure we are targeting and positioning our customer segment in the way
they feel comfortable to approach us...”
Pratham:
“Nicely said Sunil... You are our man in this task.... We rely on you to make
our markets bigger and customer segments broader...”
Sunil:
“Always thinking in the interests of Profiles Group, Mr. Gupta... Not to
worry... You tell me the confirmed plans and leave the execution on me...”
Neerav:
“Well, what can I say? If we are sure about managing the newer segments which
is existing out there, then our work is just to target them and position our
product as per the given requirements”
Dev:
“There is one important suggestion I would like to present here.... We need to
ensure that we properly differentiate our existing customers from the newer
ones so that we are not overriding one another or our customers don’t
feel compromised at any point.”
Sunil: “Me
too... Mr. Suri has stated an absolute theory... But, it’s
not that we can’t take the benefits from the two
and use it for our purpose... Somewhere, we can link the newer segments with
the existing ones and gradually Profiles Group will mean the same to every one.
That is however applicable in the long term... For now, we need to attend our
customer base on a one-to-one basis... So, we do it slow and steady”
Neerav:
“Sunil, I don’t understand, but whenever you
speak you visualize the big picture as well... I admire your quality and also
that you are very loyal to Profiles Group”
Sunil:
“Anytime Mr. Gupta, I am at your service....Just give the command and it will
be done”
All of
them laugh at that comment and decide to have an official meeting regarding the
Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning strategies for the potential market.
Within a month, the scheduled meeting is done with the involvement of key
people and various points are noted down for implementation.
The
marketing team after a brainstorming session also comes up with a collective
idea about introducing Re-decorating and re-designing to be offered as a
part of Profile’s group’s
services. This meant that clients or customers can think about re-designing or
re-decorating their homes/offices with the already available possessions and
existing furniture. This also meant less cost to the clients. This idea was
taken up seriously and plans to implement such services were already underway.
The
Progress:
The next
six months in the Profiles Group has made everyone busy with different tasks
and agendas to be accomplished. Sunil is the busiest person around and he is
actively engaged in marketing activities related to the targeting and
positioning of their product to the new customer base.
Very soon,
the results are noticeable in the Profiles Group. After a considerable amount
of planning and hard work, the subsequent months showed positive results as
given below:
The markets are segmented based on the income level of the household customers
Their needs, wants and demands are analyzed
These markets are targeted based on their desire, willingness and capabilities
to attain the required interiors and furnishings.
Sunil headed a separate section namely Re-designing and Re-decorating Services
at the firm’s main office. Sunil was
immediately involved in making special centers for Re-designing and
re-decorating services in different parts of the country.
Marketing section was taken over by a competent person - Ms. Sneha Agarwal who
has over 8 years of experience in interior designing. She was chosen on the
recommendation of Stanley Pereira as Sneha had been a merit student previously
and
Neerav had even managed to get some MNC‟s as the firm’s
clients.
Positioning of Profiles Group’s product and services was done
in three ways –
For the already existing customer base which include the corporate and business
houses, film industry and celebrities and other big units who spend huge
amounts on the interior decorations.
For the newer segments also termed as the individual household segments who
have limited spending abilities but have a desire for elegant interiors at
reasonable rates.
For the collective market – re-design and re-decor services were offered.
The structure of the firm’s web-site was made more
user-friendly and included several videos showing how proper layout and
interiors increased efficiency, easy movement, allowed more lighting and
ventilation and created a feeling of well-being and comfort.
A CD was
also launched which included these videos and the necessary information of the
Profile’s
firm with the contact addresses and numbers. The CD also included interview
with certain well-known clients who were highly satisfied with the firm’s
services. This established trust and good communication in the market.
Soon enough, the firm launches into environmental friendly interiors and
develops „Go Green‟ initiatives that uses more
re-cycled and renewable substances.
There
was a plan to begin annual contests and games which involved household customer
segments to give their ideas or suggestions for a well laid out interiors using
eco-friendly materials and “Go-Green‟ initiatives.
The
Partners and the interview:
It’s
been two years now since Profile’s Group had moved into individual
household segments.
All four
partners are seated on the sofa inside Neerav‟s office except this time the
sofa is of cream shade and a press reporter namely Namitha Goel is sitting on a
single sofa across them. Namitha Goel had scheduled this interview and later
will be published in the “Living Designs”, a new monthly magazine that
deals with interiors. She begins with a direct question to Neerav –
Namitha:
“Mr. Neerav Gupta, do you think the reason for the substantial increase in your
customer base is due to the Redesign and re-decoration services?
Neerav:
“Well, to a considerable extent, I believe it is so. Re-design is not about my
taste or your taste. It’s about working with what the
client owns and making them happy. Most people are good in re-arranging their
stuff but they don’t have time or energy to do it.
So, we offer them this assistance.”
Namitha:
“How come you got this thought about making these household segments as your
customers? I mean, your firm is associated with the influential clientele base
and considering that, why did you feel that these household segments would
prove to be a lucrative market for you?”
Neerav:
“The entire credit for making individual household segments as our customers
goes to my business partners here, my workforce and their efforts. Around two
and a half years back, we had just got into a conversation in this very same
office and Pratham suggested about tapping these markets with our available
resources. Let me clarify that we decided to target this segment not for
profits but we felt they too would benefit from our expertise in this field.”
Namitha:
“According to the market survey, it seems that there is no close competitor for
you in this business. So, your firm stands at the top like it’s
been from a long time. What do you say in this matter?”
Neerav is
about to answer but his cell phone rings and he attends to it quickly.
Neerav:
“Excuse me, Ms. Namitha.., I have urgent business call that can’t
wait..., Carry on with your questions and my team mates will answer. I have to
go now.” He addresses his partners and leaves the office in a hurry.
The
interview proceeds and remaining partners contribute their views. The interview
takes another 45 minutes and Namitha Goel is satisfied with her work as a press
reporter. She leaves the Profile’s Group office with a sense of
achievement.
The next
month’s
issue of “Living Designs” carries
the cover story of the Profiles Group with the partners‟
exclusive interview placed in the shaded column of the magazine pages.
Questions: 1
Examine the progress of Profile’s Group as a leading interior
designer and decorator.
Questions: 2 What kind of change was observed in the STP
strategy of the firm and how was it useful?
Questions: 3
Evaluate the working of Profile’s group with respect to the
Segmenting, Targeting and Positioning of markets. Do you have any suggestions
for the firm?
Case study 2
Determining the
Marketing 4 P’s
Any
business organization in order to be successful needs to have a clear picture
about the 4 P’s of marketing. This forms the basis on which business
functioning takes place. What are these 4 P’s and why are they important? Let’s
assume that we are interested to start up a small business enterprise and for
that we have the necessary capital, skills and people. And now, since we are in
the initial stage of enterprise formation, we need to answer the previous
question.
Marketing
mix comprises of the four basic elements or components which are termed
together as 4 P’s of marketing. They are:
Product:
what is it that we have to offer to the market? What can it include? In what
ways can it be modified, changed, expanded, diversified etc.? Will our products
be accepted in the market? If not, how do we create a market for our products?
Price: at
what value should the products be offered in the market? What should be the
returns? Will it be worth to the buyers? What variations, differences and
strategies can we adopt in order to earn a fair margin and also gain customer
satisfaction?
Place:
where must be our products available? How soon it’s demanded in the market? How
quick we can deliver it to the consumption points? Who do we need to involve in
the distribution of our products? How much will they charge for their services?
Promotion:
why do we need to promote our products? Will people be aware of our products if
we don’t do any promotion? If we need to promote our products, what kind of
message we should convey to the market? In what ways and methods we can carry
out the promotion?
Unless we
know the answers to the above questions, we cannot make our business function.
Therefore, after considering the strengths and weakness of our likely
enterprise and studying the market opportunities, we decide to manufacture wax
crayons.
The main
reason behind this decision is –
1.
We can come up with an effective 4 P’s either by marketing the crayons
ourselves and if not, we can take orders by being the suppliers to our clients.
2.
We know that our market mainly comprises of educational institutions, drawing
and painting classes/centers, artistes, even big companies use crayons
extensively.
3.
We realize the potential of wax crayons as we can offer variety in sizes,
quality, colors, price ranges, wholesale and retail prices etc. We can even
venture into related areas such as wax artic rafts, wax candles, oil colors,
paint etc.
4.
We can have direct contact with our clients and in the long term we can even
engage an agency to market the crayons.
5. We know
that promotion strategies can be based on the type of our customer segment and
we could easily do it through advertising on Television, newspapers, children’s
comics, notebooks, school notice boards, etc. We can even sponsor or conduct drawing
competitions, art exhibitions or we can have contractual agreements with the
stationery outlets, art schools etc. However, we are still apprehensive about
our marketing mix. We are yet to confirm about our marketing mix and until then
we are unable to finalize on our decisions or start with the implementation
process.
Question
1.How will you determine the marketing mix for our enterprise?
Question
2.Do you have any ideas to make our enterprise successful particularly by
enhancing or improving the marketing mix?
Question
3.What do you think will be the challenges in making an effective marketing mix
since our enterprise is a new one?
Case study 3
Good Publicity
vs. Bad Publicity
Roger
Twain walked as usual with a pleasant aura and at a leisurely pace to his
office. Roger is a PR Manager in one of the top FMCG companies of the world.
His office along with the PR staff was recently shifted from sixth floor to the
second floor of the building. The reason was simple enough. Top management did
not want external parties to wander around the whole building in the excuse of
meeting PR staff or the PR manager. Roger Twain in fact, welcomed this shift
and was glad that he didn’t have to wait for the lift as he could now very well
use the staircase. Roger has around 15 years of experience in PR and handling
Publicity related issues. He had worked with several companies as well as
non-business organisations and institutes.
Roger
currently in his 53rd year has achieved lot of success in his career as a
professional expert in the field of PR and Publicity handling. Although his
plans to start his own PR Consultancy firm didn’t work out the way he wanted,
he was actively involved in several worldwide workshops, seminars and
presentations. He even wrote articles on PR strategies and published some books
on PR. Roger’s ideologies as a PR professional was –
“No News is not good news…
You have to be in the news – good or bad. And, the objective should
be to convert bad news into good
news.”
“You cannot create bad news
about your company. At the same time, you cannot create a good one. You can
only communicate it in good or bad way.”
“PR is about being in the
news – time and date don’t matter much.”
“It’s not about being right
or wrong – it’s about being clear and sticking to the truth and using it
positively.”
“Everyone has a right to
express… But, a PR person should consider it as a righteous Duty”
“Your Company can show only performance. PR has to talk about it.”
A
few of his career achievements in the different organizations that he worked
for are as follows:
Problem
Situation 1: Some
of the cosmetic products of Jasper Ltd. were selling in the market
beyond its expiry date. A media report exposed and presented this story to the
public that Jasper Ltd. was desperate to increase its sales and did not
consider consumers’ interests or their well-being. This led to decrease in
sales volume even in the other product categories of the company. Due to
incorrect operations of some channel members and retail outlets, old stock was
sold to the consumers after the expiry dates. The outcome was Jasper Ltd.’s low
profit margins.
Challenge:
Roger’s
challenge was to make consumers more aware and responsible while purchasing the
company’s products without ruining the distribution channel relations and at
the same time making the company socially responsible.
Solution:
Roger suggested
to the advertising department to create a public awareness ad regarding the
importance of checking product expiry dates before buying. He advised the
management to take back old stock from the retail outlets and distributors by
offering a reasonable price and also prescribing the time limit within which
those products should reach the company. Roger’s view was that distributors
will mostly see their benefit and continue to sell the old stock. If they sell
it back to the company itself for a price, they would definitely make an effort
to get the new stock and sell those to the consumers. Roger’s logic was “it
is better to spend some money on getting back the old stock than let it sell in
the market at the risk of company’s reputation.” Meanwhile, consumers will
also be aware about expiry dates of cosmetics when they buy it.
Problem
situation 2: Acorn Seeds Company’s assistant
finance manager was involved in some fraudulent activity and was accused of
misappropriation of funds. This news became public and soon enough, company’s
investors and stakeholders began to question the integrity and trustworthiness
of the company. Company found it difficult to convince people that one person’s
immoral intentions does not mean that everyone in the company is beyond trust
and moral obligations. Furthermore, company’s products and services got
severely affected and consumers started opting for competing products. There
was bad publicity all around. Sales declined and situation got worse when
finance manager unable to handle pressure resigned. Even though finance manager
was not involved with his assistant, he was linked with him and given a bad
treatment from outsiders even including some of the employees. Media
accelerated this issue and created more hype than was necessary.
Challenge:
Roger’s
challenges in this situation was handling bad press, dealing with media people
with patience and uplift the company’s integrity with good reputation. He also
needed to make the financial department integrated with other departments and
boost the employee morale. At the same time he had to take care that company’s
products do not suffer in the situation.
Solution:
Roger suggested
to the top management to issue a public message in the newspapers/magazines and
also at the end of the Company’s product ads on TV. The message was - “We
value your trust in us as you value our commitment towards you.” Roger’s
view was that once the fraud was committed and was out in the open, there was
nothing much to be done but to move on accepting that such incident occurred
and will not happen again. Roger also advised for just one press conference
regarding this issue to put an end to this matter. The assistant finance
manager had confessed and was told to resign instead of being fired. Soon
enough, people forgave and forgot this issue, sales improved and company was on
the track once again.
Problem
Situation 3: One
of the women’s facial creams produced by Jasper Ltd. was severely
criticised by media and women. The belief was that the product contained acidic
substance causing harmful chemical reactions on the skin. This belief was
created when some women claimed that their skin discoloured/scalded after using
this facial cream. Media reports provided some facts related to the product that
made women who were using this cream more alert. As a result sales dropped
drastically.
Challenge:
First of all,
Roger had to study the product and know its constituents. Secondly, he
discussed with product research team as to why such claims could be targeted
towards the product. Next, he had to face the media and women consumers
addressing the claims and product’s safety.
Solution:
Roger collected
those facts provided in the media reports and sent them for verification with
the skin specialists, research team and for laboratory testing. It was verified
and proved that facts provided were immaterial in causing damaged skin. It was
also proved that the cream contained no acidic substance or any sort of harmful
chemical. Secondly, those women who claimed skin damage were questioned about
their application of the skin cream. Two women confessed that they combined
several other beauty products along with cream’s application. Others confessed
that they were interested in making some quick money if company provided any
compensation. Roger arranged a special press meet and provided all the relevant
facts and information regarding this issue.
Problem
Situation 4: Homely Anchor, a
charitable organisation that mainly looked after elderly people in several old
age homes was having a problem with its donations. There were anonymous
donations coming from several places that it was difficult to track the funds
and its allocation. The members of the organisation were themselves confused
with the amount collected and amount spent since proper records were not
maintained. There were gaps in the accuracy of the information and its updates.
Somehow, a magazine columnist/writer got to know about this state of affairs
and without much investigation published a small article in the magazine. The
article stated how Homely Anchor was unable to manage funds and money received
through anonymous donations remained anonymous. Although the article was not
accusing of fraud, it hinted the readers in that direction. Within a few months
of the article publication, some social activist groups and media started
questioning Homely Anchor. There were questions raised on who were the
anonymous fund raisers, amount of donations and what and how much was being
spent where.
Challenge:
Since Roger was
working as a part-time Public Relations officer in Homely Anchor, he had to
face the social activists and media on behalf of the organisation. He had to
protect the privacy of anonymous donation givers and assure them as well as old
age homes that funds are raised, managed and used for good intentions.
Solution:
He merely gave
open statements telling that a proper system will soon be in place that would
ensure the accuracy and safety of records related to donations and fund
raising. Shortly, he arranged for a small conference consisting of prominent
social activists, charitable workers and media representatives to discuss and
debate on the implementation of proper systems in charitable organisations.
This conference gained lot of popularity and free publicity for Homely Anchor
which resulted in more donations. An appropriate system was also implemented to
record the transactions.
Problem
Situation 5: The
research and production team at Sparkly Company had designed a new and
innovative technology of purifying water in their product – “Sparkler water
purifiers”. This system was tested and proved that it was safe and that it
purified water without destroying its minerals. Once it was approved,
production plants were ready to manufacture water purifiers in the newly
designed way. But, information had leaked to the rival competitor “Visor” Ltd.
who immediately took advantage of the opportunity. Visor Ltd. issued statements
in the press about this new technology of purifying water and that soon they
will be marketing these products. There was a commotion in Sparkly Company due
to this. Research and production teams began to accuse each other on the
information leakage. Somehow, management was not able to control the situation.
News spread about the rivalry issues and information leakage. Media was too
interested in finding out which company would come out with the product first.
Challenge:
Roger too found
this situation difficult to handle. There was definitely an information leakage
regarding the new method implemented in water purifiers. Roger’s immediate
tasks were to find how information was leaked out and who would have done it.
He knew the commitment levels of the company’s employees were not questionable.
Second, he had to ensure that Sparkling Company was the first to introduce this
technique and at the same time he could not accuse Visor Ltd. openly in public.
Solution:
Since acquiring
patents (exclusive rights) to the new technique in water purifiers was in
process, Roger decided not to talk about it. He then released a statement in
the press as “Sparkly Company’s dedicated effort towards manufacturing
Sparkler Water purifiers with new technology was a long time process. It
involved continuous research and lab experiments by the team. This technology
shows our expertise and we will never compromise on our products.” After an
internal investigation, Roger found that company’s certain e-mails were hacked
and through that, information had leaked to Visor Ltd. So, systems and networks
were made more secure. Roger made it clear in his public appearance in the
media that crucial information did leak out due to the insecure network and
computer systems. But, he was careful not to mention names or make any
accusations. Media turned their attention to Visor Ltd. questioning its
integrity, ethical and business values.
Questions:
1)
Identify the qualities of Roger as a PR professional and analyse his role in
the companies that he worked for.
2)
In the above problem situations, was there any other approach that Roger could
have adopted? If yes, suggest some approaches. If no, why do you agree with
Roger’s approach?
3)
List the PR tools and strategies that were adopted by Roger in dealing with the
problem situations.
Case study 4
Personal Selling –
Professional approach
Background Information:
“Keep Fit” is a
medium-sized outlet exclusively dealing in exercising equipments/machines and
fitness accessories and sometimes in sports equipments also. It has 27 sales
persons employed under it. Owners of the outlet – an active middle-aged couple
have several contacts abroad through which they place orders for the necessary
and required equipments. Once an order is placed for particular equipment, it
takes atleast 2 weeks for the equipment to reach the outlet. Secondly, the
sales force is involved in cold calls, constantly checking upon new orders from
the existing customers and getting new customers to place orders for these
equipments from in and around the city. Sometimes, they travel to other nearby
cities seeking orders and new customers.
Some of the equipments that Keep Fit sells are –
Cardio equipments such as
Treadmills, Stair climbers, Steppers, Bikes, Ellipticals, Rowers, so on.
Strength equipments such as
Weight benches, Power racks and varieties, different kinds of Weight machines
which is supplied as per customer’s requirements, lifting accessories, home gym
systems, and other machines.
Fitness accessories such as
pedometers, ankle and wrist weights, jump ropes, stretch mats, hand grips,
exercise balls, pull and push up bars, so on.
Sports accessories such as
soccer balls, volleyballs, basketballs, poles, boxing gloves, track pants and
such other stuff if at all there is customer demand or they have placed such
orders.
The owners have already realized the growth potential of
these equipments/machines after analyzing the following:
a) Since most people are
becoming health and fitness conscious, there is lot of demand but supply is
comparatively low.
b) Due to heavy work pressures
and IT related jobs that require people to sit in front of their computer
systems for long, it has resulted into high demand for creating and maintenance
of gyms in the companies and at the workplaces.
c) The affluent class or groups
especially celebrities and sports stars don’t mind purchasing and owning these
equipments in their homes, the objective being creation of a personal gym at
home.
d) Fitness centers, gymnasiums
and sports clubs are increasing in number and so is the demand for the
exercising equipments and machines.
e) Encouragement given to different sports requires the
sports men and women to use such equipments and therefore, they have to be
provided with such resources so as to participate in national or international
sports events like Olympics.
Two more salespersons were recently recruited and selected
by the owners. After the training and several exposures to the sales practices
adopted by experienced salespersons, these two salespersons were ready for the
actual job.
The first salesperson namely Mr. Jagan Das is hard-working
and efficient in his work. It was observed in the training programme that he
was alert to the situations and environment around him. But, at the same time
he had a weakness of listening a lot to other people’s opinions and not
contributing his thoughts or ideas. However, he was enrolled in a short-term
communication course to improve his language skills and expressing his
thoughts. The second salesperson namely Mr. Tarun Mehra is an enthusiastic and
determined chap. He likes to share ideas and given the time, he would talk his
way out. In the training programme, he asked lot of questions and after
receiving answers would again question about why and how of things. His only
weakness was his tendency to get over-enthusiastic about things and situations
that he would forget about existing situation or problem.
In the first few months, Jagan and Tarun were getting along
fine as they were assigned the same sales territory. Sometimes, they would go
together to collect orders and even dispatch orders to the customers. Together,
they were able to deal with complicated clients and achieve higher sales
targets than what was assigned to them.
Lately, the owners observed small fights happening between
Jagan and Tarun. They were not sure as to what caused the disagreements that
led to fights but eventually, the couple decided that the salesmen needed to
sort it out by themselves. On Jagan’s request, their sales territories were
separated and now, Jagan and Tarun had to deal with different customers at
different locations.
After Reading the Background Information, analyse the following two situations and answer the
questions given at the end:-
Situation 1:
Jagan is at the outlet’s veranda listening to how another
sales person handled a customer’s complaint. He receives a call from one of the
old customers of the outlet. The telephonic conversation goes as follows:
Customer: “From “Shape-up” Gym, I am Raghav speaking... Two
months back, I purchased this treadmill from you for our gymnasium located at
the city’s east and now it is causing some problem... till now whatever gym
equipments we purchased from you had no problems of any kind”
Jagan: “Please tell me your problem Sir...”
Customer: “See, actually I can fix the problem... I know
some people who can do it very easily... but that’s not my point... I need to
know why the machine caused problem.”
Jagan: “You tell me your problem Sir, and then we will fix
it for free...”
Customer: “I am not having a problem; your machine has a
problem”
Jagan: “I will come at your place Sir, tell me your exact
problem so I can note it down and solve it as soon as possible”
Customer: “I can solve the problem... I need to know
whether the treadmill comes with a guarantee period and why a brand new machine
is causing this problem”
Jagan: “I will come over there Sir and if it’s possible, I
will bring a technical member from my team along with me...”
Customer: “No Thanks for your help... I will speak to your
Boss about the treadmill’s inefficiency!”
Jagan: “Wait... let me know what I can do for... ...”
The call is dropped and Jagan is unclear as to what he must
do next. Should he call back the customer on the same number as appearing on
his mobile or should he find out if he can trace the customer information from
the sales records of the last two months or should his superior know about this
incident? The customer appeared to be in a hurry and didn’t even tell about the
problem. Jagan also wondered about how Tarun would react to this kind of call.
Situation 2:
Tarun is busy entering some information into the sales
records. He is asked to pick up a call from the superior’s office and following
conversation takes place:
Customer: “Is this Keep Fit?”
Tarun: “Good evening Sir, yes it is... May I know your name
Sir?”
Customer: “Who am I speaking to? ... I am Jonathan from
Lance Sports Club”
Tarun: “Mr. Jonathan, this is Tarun and I am a sales
executive at Keep Fit... you can tell me your concern Sir,”
Customer: “I had placed an order for 7 pairs of weight
plates, 6 pairs of dumbbells, and 2 exercising bikes – one upright and also 2
treadmills and volleyball”
Tarun: “I am listening Mr. Jonathan”
Customer: “Yes, good, now according to price-list, it says
3 treadmills, 3 exercising bikes, 6 pairs or weight plates, 6 pairs of
dumbbells.... the thing is number of items mentioned in the bill are completely
wrong”
Tarun: “Just tell me the Bill Number and I will get back to
you Jonathan... But, how many items have you received in actual numbers?”
Jonathan: “Well, that’s the problem... I have received the
same numbers as I placed in the order... but, the bill and the list says wrong
numbers... and only that volleyball is not received”
Tarun: “Okay.... Just see on the top left of your list...
you will find the Bill Number... please tell me that...”
Jonathan: “There is no Bill number in this...”
Tarun: “Please check it once again... there is a bill
number mentioned at the top left or top right or somewhere at the top...
Okay... tell me the date of the bill and your order placement date atleast”
Jonathan: “No, it’s alright, there must be a mistake... we
will sort it out during the payment”
Tarun: “Mr. Jonathan... Please co-operate and tell me the
bill number or the date so that I can verify it in the sales records and check
the invoices also”
Jonathan: “No, that’s okay... do not bother about it... we
will confirm later...”
Tarun: “Listen Mr. Jonathan, I can just.... ...” But,
before Tarun tells anything more, the customer has cut off the call. Tarun
feels uneasy about the conversation. He was being so helpful and wanted to
clarify the figures but it looked like the customer was not interested to do
so. Should he follow up on the customer after finding out the necessary details
or should he just keep quiet till the customer raises the issue once again?
Should he tell this to his superior? He tried to imagine Jagan’s way of
tackling these types of customers.
Note:
In both the situations, the salespersons have not met the
customers personally. In Situation 1, Jagan is dealing for the first
time with one of the old customers of the outlet. In Situation 2, Tarun
had spoken to some other member of the sports club previously.
Questions:
Question 1:- Identify the approach (plus points and
negative points) of the two salespersons in the above situations and make a
comparative analysis.
Question 2:- In both the situations, were the customers
satisfied with how the salespersons handled their queries? Analyse the sales
person’s and customer’s interactions in the above situations.
Question 3:- If you were a salesperson, how would you have
handled the above two situations? Do you have any suggestions for Jagan and
Tarun?