A

PROJECT REPORT

ON

CHANGE: to be or not to be

SUBJECT: Organization Development

Under guidance of: Submitted By:

Prof. Shikha Dwivedi Samreen Farooqui
Swati Gupta
Change Management:
Change management is the process of developing a planned approach to change
in an organization. Typically the objective is to maximize the collective benefits for
all people involved in the change and minimize the risk of failure of implementing
the change. The discipline of change management deals primarily with the human
aspect of change, and is therefore related to pure and industrial psychology.

As the speed of change continues to increase, change management is a

fundamental competency needed by managers, supervisors, Human Resources
staff, and organization leaders.

Need for change

 If an organization expects to succeed with such a comprehensive redesign,
it must have a clear and well-developed change-management plan that
supplements its Change strategy.

A Change Management effort very often crosses the entire enterprise,

setting a course for a new company direction. This usually requires a radical
change to mindsets, processes, technology and in many cases, personnel.
Firms must rethink how employees interact with customers, how products
and services are positioned both externally and internally, and how
employees are compensated.

 A successful Change Management implementation relies on input

throughout the firm to maintain up-to-date customer data and enable one-
to-one communications. Almost every employee in every department
needs access to the system -- sales, call center, marketing, finance,
production, logistics, etc. As a result, getting people to enthusiastically
comply with new system requirements is more critical for CRM-driven
changes than for other types of change.

The managers themselves conduct training, because they understand the

strategic and tactical consequences of the project, and could teach how to
balance the two. Also, while the focus previously was on daily tactical
 metrics, the company now plans to measure overall performance, such as
budget and customer-service scores that illustrate how to maximize
resources to deliver the highest quality customer experience.

 Sometimes change becomes necessary whenever some Government

implication occur or due to social point of view. One of the main reasons
for change is to transform with Technological Advancement.

 Technology makes Change Management possible, but it won't get the job
done by itself. Employees in every department deal with both customer
data and the customers themselves, so they may need to realign their work
habits to be more customer-centric. Resistance from employees to accept
change most important

Case Analysis – Change at Mebrisk India

The Case Study is about a Company Mebrisk India, which deals in both Fast &
Slow Moving Consumer Goods.

The Case is all about Difference of opinion of the two subsequent directors Mr.
Parthiv Vyas and Keven Mathais. The, first Director of Operations Mr. Parthiv
Vyas, came from commercially driven environment that existed in his previous
organization; Delaware. So, he introduced “Plan Revamp” with an investment of
Rs. 17 Crore – which was not a plan to Revamp or Renovate but it was altogether
a System Revamp; to reintroduce the structure of the company and to carry out
all the necessary changes had to be made in order to improve the overall system
and to prosper in future. The plan was successfully implemented and gave
profitable results. Employees, who were resistant to change, adopted the system
in their regular working.

But three years later Kevin Mathais joined the organization at same post and
questioned the authenticity of the Plan Revamp. According to him, 3 years and
investment of Rs.17 Crore was pointless. So he questioned Adip Arya; the Senior
Executive of company; who actually engineered and partly executed the entire
plan. Even Adip couldn’t find any fault with Kevin’s opinion. Then later, Adip
consulted the entire matter with Hemant Trivedi – General Manager (operations)
that whether the system actually fetched profits or was it a waste overall? – They
both came at a conclusion that change was required at that point of time in order
to grow and if they hadn’t; the company would not be at the stage of evolution,
as of now 2010.

Key Issues
 Before System Revamp, entire organization was highly disorganized. The
production plan was not at all synchronized with the sales plan. For E.g.
Demand for small packs were getting higher but factory was producing
large ones since, production of large packs was good enough for the sake of
their performance indication. In other words, factory was producing what
they desired irrespective of what market needed. If sales forecast didn’t
reach on time, factory used to produce on their own.

 So what Parthiv desired was paradigm shifts in organization i.e. shift of

entire system in Organization. He wanted to connect everybody so that the
gap that existed between sales forecast and production plan will be
removed. So, V-Sat Connections were set up & entire organization was
wired across the country so that factory should be aware of what they are
going to produce tomorrow and this will also help in removal of conflicts.
As a result, production planning cycle reduced to 1 day from 1 month.

 Further Zonal Stock Points (ZSP’s) were established in order to reduce

transportation cost as well as to reduce cost ineffectiveness of stockiest.
There are 15 stock points in the country. If the factory want to deliver
goods to these stock points than the transport logistics demanded that a
full truck be sent, that will create an excess stock to that particular
stockiest. So, to reduce these conflicts, ZSP’s came in existence where all
the stock can be stored and stockiest can directly consult it.

 Some other objectives like achieving Zero or negative working capital which
earlier was 33%, were fulfilled and successful implementation of Just-In-
Time (JIT) basis inventory strategy was also done.
 So, overall the plan was successfully executed and Parthiv’s vision – Everyday’s
production has to be planned, was strictly followed with the help of V-Sat
Connections. And finally, the data flowed in miraculously. Stocks were in
synchronization and the old tussle between sales and production stopped. In
short, the new supply chain system was a work of art.

But when Parthiv left, the new director of Operations – Kevin Mathais;
criticized the Plan Revamp. When he dragged his attention towards System
Revamp, he found out that

- Establishment of ZSP’s was pointless. Since, they are acquiring additional

space & moreover incurring extra cost. Therefore the produced stock
should be moved on to stockiest directly and hold it there only.

- In his opinion, production planning should be given back to the factory

and factory should have the right to decide what exactly is going to be
produced and in what quantity. Transport logistics can decide, the
dispatch mixes to be done.

- He also felt that Working Capital savings is an illusionary concept, it can

done in several ways but the way currently company is performing it,
simply results in, the amount saved in working capital is being wasted in
management & handling of ZSP’s.

So overall, according to him the entire System Revamp was a complete failure and
investment of Rs. 17 crore generated nothing, in particular for the company.
Arguments to justify Plan Revamp-
In response to the Kevin’s opinion about the System Revamp, Adip consulted the
whole matter with Gen. Operations Manager – Hemant. Then Hemant gave
certain arguments to justify the need of plan back in 1997 –

According to him-

- IT revolution occurred in the company due to successful

implementation of Plan Revamp. It is not the new system that is reaping
results, but a new way of managing via E-Commerce.

- Establishment of V-Sat Connections was extremely necessary in 1997, to

capture sales, stocks and churn out data so that; the generated data can
be put to useful and actionable information every day.

- Without plan revamp, learning would not have happened and the
company had remained unaware of the technological and strategic
change. As this plan has enhanced the comfort level of working by
making people aware of the step-by-step change.

- Even, it would have created serious losses to company because earlier

there was no synchronization between production & sales dept., so a
healthy network was essential to be introduced in business for its
prosperity.

Overall, he said that step by step changes are necessary to grow steadily as one
cannot reach level 3 without crossing level 1or 2. Therefore, if the Plan Revamp
period i.e. 1997-2000 had not happened then the company wouldn’t be at the
stage of evolution in 2000.
Conclusion
Since the case, depends basically on the conflict involving opinions of two
succeeding directors; there’s not an apparent evidence of proof that if the change
was actually essential or not.

Change is something which is essential in every organization; in order to expand

more. But there’s a general tendency that people resist to change, same is the
case with Mebrisk India. In the said organization, a virtual inertia was floating in
the system and it was required to be removed. Then only one can appreciate the
change and decide in which direction they want to grow. In other words, if you
are willing to enter the tide; then only you will have the power to choose but if
you stay at bank and wait for the tide to change; you are making lots of hurdles in
your way to prosper. Since environment is never static, you should adopt yourself
with the ever changing environment and contributing to new thinking.