A

REPORT
ON THE CASE

SAS REAL ESTATE: TO FIRE OR NOT TO FIRE

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF
THE WAC COURSE

SUBMITTED TO:
PROFESSOR AMRITA JOSHI
IIM INDORE

SUBMITTED BY:
GROUP-6
SECTION G
PGP-1, BATCH 2015-17

ON 16-OCT-2015

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT INDORE

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GROUP-6

Letter/Memo of transmittal

To:
Professor Amrita Joshi
IIM Indore
Indore
Date: 15 October 2015
From:
Group No. 6
Section G
PGP-I Batch
IIM Indore
Indore

Dear Maam,

Subject: Analysis and solution to the problem faced by SAS real estate
With reference to the dilemma faced by Haider Ali, owner of SAS real estate,
regarding the course of action to be taken in the light of recent event of theft
at the company, we present a report that analyzes Haider Alis situation and
the various courses of action that can be taken to resolve the dilemma. Of
the courses of action presented in this report, we propose that Haider Ali
should not fire Tanveer Shah but should reduce his authority and control over
the companys financial documents and simultaneously hire an assistant to
Shah and start his training process.

Thanking You,
Group No. 6

2 | I N D I A N I N S T I T U T E O F M A N AG E M E N T I N D O R E , M A D H YA
PRADESH

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GROUP-6

Executive Summary
This report analyzes the dilemma faced by Haider Ali who is the co-founder
of SAS Real Estate, a real estate company, operating in the small town of
Sadiquabad. A pre-signed cheque of 7.5 million is stolen from the company
and fraudulently cashed in the name of the company. Since Tanveer Shah,
the accountant, was the only employee present in the company the night the
cheque was stolen, Haider Ali has a strong suspicion that the act was
committed by Shah. Various courses of action surrounding whether Shah
should be removed or not have been presented in the report. The courses of
action presented have been evaluated on various parameters with
appropriate weightage assigned to each parameter according to its
importance. The evaluation of the options has led to the conclusion that the
best course of action for Haider Ali is to not fire Tanveer Shah but reduce his
authority and control over the companys financial documents and to
simultaneously hire an assistant that could replace him if Tanveer Shah is
found guilty.

3 | I N D I A N I N S T I T U T E O F M A N AG E M E N T I N D O R E , M A D H YA
PRADESH

S A S R E A L E S TAT E : F I R E O F N O T F I R E ?

GROUP-6

Table of Content

Sr.
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Topic

Page No.

Situation Analysis
Problem Statement
Options
Criteria of Evaluation
Evaluation of the Options
Recommendation
Action Plan and Implementation
Contingency Plan

Situation Analysis:
4 | I N D I A N I N S T I T U T E O F M A N AG E M E N T I N D O R E , M A D H YA
PRADESH

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GROUP-6

Sufi Abdul Samad is a Real Estate company in Sadiqabad, a small tehsil in

Pakistan, established by Haider Ali, Rahim Khan and Nusrat Amjad in 2008
under a partnership of 50 percent, 25 percent and 25 percent respectively.
Though the company had a slow start it has been able to manage a strong
position in the highly competitive real estate market, which has rural and
urban divisions of market operations consisting of agricultural, commercial,
industrial and residential property transactions. The first project Rao Town
Housing Scheme of Sufi Abdul Samad was launched in 2009 on 18 acre of
land that brought healthy profit in spite of easy contractual terms offered to
the developers. Two more projects by the name New Chandrami Town that
aimed at low-income farmers were started in 2010. With a good start the
company has shown a steady growth with the customer base expanding at a
favorable pace due to which the credibility of the company has strengthened
among the investors.
The growth and expansion of the company has posed serious issues of
human resource management. To cater to the growing demand Haider Ali
has tried various things such as hiring part time and full time employees for
financial sections, replacement of manual book keeping process with an
accounting software and computerized databases for sales and purchases.
The accounting software requires the user to undergo an extensive training
program for a period of one year. This training process is time-consuming
and costly so there is a heavy reliance of the company on the existing
employees. As Ahmed Shahbaz is the only effective person to handle this
software, Haider Ali feels the need to have another person for the job to
replace Ahmed Shahbaz in case of his stand down. Tanvir Shah is hired in
2009 as an assistant to Ahmed Shahbaz. Relieving Ahmed Shahbaz in 2011,
Tanvir Shah becomes the sole operator of the software.
On March 3, 2014 a pre-signed check worth 7.5 million Pakistani Rupees that
had expired six months ago goes missing. Tanvir Shah is the only one who
stayed back in the office on the same day in spite of it being Eid. This along
with having keys to the drawer has made him the prime suspect in the police
investigation. However due to the blurry image of the person in the banks
camera during the transaction, the court does not have enough evidence to
convict him. At the same time the company is about to launch a new large
project soon and firing Shah without evidence would most likely tarnish the
repuatation of the firm, something the firm cannot afford at this point of
time. So Haider Ali is now facing the dilemma regarding what course of
action he needs to take.

5 | I N D I A N I N S T I T U T E O F M A N AG E M E N T I N D O R E , M A D H YA
PRADESH

S A S R E A L E S TAT E : F I R E O F N O T F I R E ?

GROUP-6

Problem Statement:
What would be the best course of action given the circumstantial evidence
against Tanveer Shah coupled with the imminent launch of the new project,
the complex nature of the accounting software and significant rehiring costs?

Options:
1. Fire Shah and hire a new accountant
2. Fire Shah and rehire Ahmed Shahbaz (the previous accountant) at a
higher salary
3. Dont fire Shah but reduce his power and hire a new assistant for him
4. Maintain status quo till the successful launch of the new project and
then fire Shah
5. Wait and watch, let law take its course

Criteria of Evaluation (along with weights):

1.
2.
3.
4.

Maintaining the companys reputation among the customers (30%)

Ensuring timely launch of the new project (25%)
Minimizing rehiring and training costs for Shahs replacement (20%)
Eliminating the possibility of a lawsuit against the company by Shah
(15%)
5. Ensuring organizational justice and fairness (5%)
6. Minimizing threat of reoccurrence of such a theft (5%)

Evaluation of the Options:

Criteri
a
1
2
3
4
5
6
Score

Weigh
ts
30%
25%
20%
15%
5%
5%
100%

Option
1
0.3
0.5
0.1
0.2
0.1
1
32

Option
2
0.3
0.5
0.4
0.2
0.1
1
40.5

Option
3
0.9
1
1
1
0.9
0.5
90

Option
4
0.9
1
1
0.8
0.8
0
88

Option
5
0.9
0.7
0.7
1
1
0.9
82

6 | I N D I A N I N S T I T U T E O F M A N AG E M E N T I N D O R E , M A D H YA
PRADESH

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GROUP-6

Recommendation:
Based on the weights assigned to each criteria and the resulting scores, we
recommend that the ideal course of action would be to not fire Shah but
reduce his power and hire a new assistant for him.

Action plan and implementation:

As we have decided not to fire Tanveer Shah, it is our responsibility to ensure
that such an incident does not happen again. The control of companys
finances is currently in Tanveer Shahs control. Down the road we need to
ensure the control does not lie solely with one person. The major books can
be bought directly under Haider Alis control. As for the new project, having
Tanveer Shah on board would ensure a smooth run, but in order to avoid
such a situation in the future, a new assistant for the accountant should be
hired. Hiring someone with prior accounting know-how would reduce the cost
of training the new hire considerably. Hiring an assistant would also cause
Tanveer Shah to operate under the fear that he could be replaced any day
and thus reduce the risk of him committing any fraud or theft.

Contingency plan:
In case Tanveer Shah gets convicted for the theft or if he chooses to leave
the firm of his own accord before the training for the newly hired assistant is
complete, then we can rehire Ahmed Shahbaz at a higher salary for some
period of time.

7 | I N D I A N I N S T I T U T E O F M A N AG E M E N T I N D O R E , M A D H YA
PRADESH