About Bata:

The business that became the Bata Shoe organization was established on August 24,
1894 in Zlin, Czechoslovakia by Tomas Bata, and included his brother Antonin and sister
Anna. Although this business was new, the Bata name had been part of a tradition of
shoemaking for eight generations, spanning three hundred years. It was one of the first
modern-day shoe ‘manufacturers’, a team of stitchers and shoemakers creating footwear
not just for the local town, but also for distant retail merchants. This departure from the
centuries-old tradition of the one-man cobbler’s workshop was a brand new concept,
creating an entirely new industry. The Bata enterprise revolutionized the treatment of
employees and labor conditions. Tomas consistently maintained a human focus, creating
opportunities for development and advancement, and added compensation for
employees based on achievement. As the enterprise prospered, so did the communities
where it operated. Tomas believed that a focus on people and public service was critical
for business success. The enterprise built housing, schools and a hospital near the
shoemaking plant in Zlin. It provided food and inexpensive rent during very difficult times.
Bata companies later provided rail services, construction, insurance, publishing and a
tannery in Zlin.

“The Bata System” devised by the Zlin team, and later applied in other Bata Shoe
Organization companies, organized operations into autonomous workshops and
departments (“profit centre”), allowing employees to contribute ideas and stimulate
production, and contributed significant breakthroughs in footwear technology. By 1938
Bata Shoe Organization had established a unique and widespread presence, designing,
producing and marketing footwear in more than 30 countries. The Bata Shoe
Organization regarded itself as a ‘Multi-Domestic’ rather than multinational enterprise,
making it a priority to contribute to the economy in any new markets it entered.

During the 50s, 60s and 70s the Organization redoubled its focus on retailing excellence,
international footwear branding, advanced manufacturing techniques and extensive
employee training, another Bata tradition that dated back to the Organization’s earliest
years. The Organization continued to expand its retail operations, production facilities and
moved into new countries of operation. Thomas J. Bata, and son Thomas G. Bata,
continued to lead the Organization with the traditional philosophy ensuring that each
operation focused on customer satisfaction. As the world-manufacturing base for
footwear shifted to developing countries. New business strategies have been guided by
the founding principles of focusing on customers,marketing and employees. Branded
products, innovative retail store concepts, lifestyle merchandising, non-footwear products
and participative retailing have been introduced. In 1992, the Organization and family
were invited to return to the Czech Republic, where Bata had remained a symbol of
national pride and achievement.

Bata is one of the world’s widest reaching companies, with operations in 68 different
countries. Bata companies strive to listen to the customers in their local markets and
clearly identify their footwear needs, and then to provide products that exceed their
customers’ expectations in terms of quality, style and value. Bata operating companies
are grouped into four business units based on similarities in markets and business issues.
Each group benefits from synergies specific to their requirements, such as product
development, sourcing and marketing support. Each business unit is entrepreneurial in
nature, and can quickly adapt to changes in the marketplace and seize potential growth
opportunities.

Normally, there are four main functional areas in an organization, involving marketing, human
resource, operations and finance. They are working as a whole, and they are interrelated and
interacted during the course of the operation of an organization. It is argued that Strategic
Management is concerned with ‘The Whole Organization’. The whole organization includes four
main functional areas, which are marketing, operations management, finance and human
resource management.
Each functional area requires strategic thinking, which is thinking for the future. What a whole
organization needs is to make strategic decisions and put the strategy into action. According to
the sixth edition of ‘Exploring Corporate Strategy’ (2002), it says a strategy is ‘the long-term
direction of an organization’. This essay is concerned with the strategic management of a whole
organization, the relationships of different functional areas and the implementation of the
strategy in an organization.
Here are the strategic management of Bata in different functional areas:
(1) Strategic management in Marketing :
Marketing, which is an essential department of an organization can affect on the business very
deeply. speaking, marketing which is concerned with identifying customers’ needs and wants
drives the whole organization. The marketing department is an internal area with regard to
research, analysis, supervision and so on. Furthermore, it is related to the external environments
as well. Thus, the marketing department plays important roles in both external and internal
environments. What the marketing department is supposed to do is to notice every change with
regard to the outside world and predict the kinds of products or services the clients may want.
Moreover, marketing also has to cope with other departments of the organization with the aim
to get them realized the objectives of an entire organization.
The relationship between marketing and other departments As far as the internal environment of
the organization is concerned, the four main functional areas are integrated as a whole. They do
not work alone, but work together towards the overall aim to plan for the future.
Penetration to new & targeted market segments through introduction of shoe lines as per life styles
with supportive promotion activities. Defined number of lines, assortment & quantity for each
store according to merchandise classification & store profile in order to increase efficiency in
distribution. Identification of loopholes in cost structure to increase production efficiency. Detail
analysis of price points of entire shoe line in order to achieve maximum margin. Detail analysis of
departmental work flow & bringing necessary changes for efficiency better coordination with other
departments. Promotion strategies are concerned with the planning, implementation, and control
of persuasive communication with customers. Clear-cut objectives and a sharp focus on target
customers are necessary for an effective promotional program. As Bata is a established brand here
in Bangladesh they think that they should go on with more and more retail outlets rather than
intense advertising. The physical distribution starts when the raw materials send to the factory and
the manufacturing process starts there in Tongi and Dhamrai factory. From there the end products
send to the CDC (CentralDistributionCenter) in Tongi factory. After they receiving the end
products then and their packaging has been done and according to the requirement of different
stores, Agencies, dealers and wholesalers the goods has been transferred directly to the distributors
through company owned vehicle. There is separate process for own agencies and stores against the
wholesalers and dealers. The goods for agencies and stores gone straight to the store headquarter
and goods for others gone to the 13 depots around the country from where they collect the goods.
In retail, BB operates through a chain of exclusive own andfranchise stores. BB‘s stores are
located in prime locationscountrywide. 70% of Bata‘s sales are from its own retail outlets.
Besides there is a network of about 500 exclusive wholesalers who service about 300 retail stores
all over the country. Bata has showrooms, wholesale depots and distribution centres across the
country. To improve the sales and profits, BB is planning to increase penetration by setting up
more retail outlets and taking space in shopping malls across the country. Existing retail stores
would be upgraded even as wholesale depots would be set up in smaller towns and semi-
urbanAreas. BB‘s main efforts will be to streamline the wholesale business. BB’s thrust is on
becoming marketing driven firm from a manufacturing oriented company.
Marketing Mix of Bata analyses the brand/company which covers 4Ps (Product, Price,
Place, Promotion) and explains the Bata marketing strategy. The article elaborates the
pricing, advertising & distribution strategies used by the company.
Let us start the Bata Marketing Mix:

Product:
The product strategy and mix in Bata marketing strategy can be explained as follows:
Bata is one of the most popular brands in the shoe industry having a wide variety of
footwear for all age groups. The main products in its marketing mix are general category
of casual shoes, formal shoes, sandals, kids’ shoes, men and women collection, sports
shoes etc. The product line gets upgraded with time and new fashion in market. Bata has
specially known for its brand value and quality product. Indian customers have always
been price sensitive issue and ‘Bata’ has maintained startegy of minimumn prices
according to Indian customer requirement. Bata have more other brand under
control.Some of the brands under BATA Hush puppies, spark, Sandak, North Start,
Comfit, Mocassino, Bata. Bata’s product has recognisation in indian market due to its
quality according to their prices.
Price:
Below is the pricing strategy in Bata marketing strategy:
Bata offers its products at an affordable price especially at the high cost it offers. Mass Marketing
pricing is main strategy of Bata brand to maintain its low proices for all its brand products.
Production of mass products leads to lower operating costs resulting in less product
costs.Henceforth in India BATA have managed to maintain lower prices. Price of Rs.10. is kept as
Rs.9.90 where BATA follows psychology of consumer to lure and attract more customers towards
its pricing. Hence, in India Bata is consider as quality brand of affordable cost. Main competition
for BATA in India is Red Chif, Wood, Nike, Puma and Reebok.
Place:
Following is the distribution strategy of Bata:
The placement of products of Bata was done after an extensive market research. The company
has positioned itself as an Indian brand which provides reliability at a budget friendly price. It
completely relies on its distribution network. All the foreign markets were studied for their
cultures, needs, economic conditions and responsiveness. After that a substantial distribution
network was established. The strength of Bata lies in the Tier-2, Tier-3 and small towns of India.
They accepted the tag of being the Tier-2 brand in footwear so they positioned themselves in
these areas very strongly. Even small towns and big villages have outlets of Bata and this
availability has become a great source of promotion of the brand.
Promotion:
The promotional and advertising strategy in the Bata marketing strategy is as follows:
Seasonal Sales, discounted days are some strategies to grab more attention of customers.Bata
have consistently targeted all segments of the market varing its product costing range. Hence for
promoting all this, Bata has also followed traditional method for targeting Indian festivals for its
discounts. During non seasonal time, Bata had focused to go advertising (Print and Media) also
nowadays they are also focusing over social media marketing. Digital marketing is main part of
campeign of BATA. With wide varity of products for diffferent age groups and different segment
of society, BATA has specific strategy. Hence this gives an insight in the marketing mix of Bata.
Plan for the future :
Strategic Management includes understanding the strategic position of an organization, strategic
choices for the future and turning strategy into action.
(2)Managers and strategic planning:-
2.1 The macro environment and micro environment :
The whole organization relates to many different fields, such as macro and micro environments.
Macro environment is equal to the external environment which can be defined as PEST. PEST
embraces four parts: Political, Economic, Social and Technological elements. Micro environment
is concerning customers, competitors, industries, markets, etc. Both macro environment and
micro environment are likely to have impacts on the business, due to their frequent changes. So,
managers are required to be highly aware of the changes which occur gradually and always think
for the future in order to lead the whole organization to success. The changing environment is
the very reason why an organization needs to make a contingency plan as well. On the other
hand, a good manager must know ‘letting go’, namely, how to delegate rather than do everything
themselves.
2.2 Organizational culture and mission statement :
As far as an organization is concerned, organizational culture as well as mission statement is
crucial for the whole organization. Culture can be identified in the internal environment of the
organization. Deal and Kennedy examined hundreds of companies and find four generic cultures:
tough-guy macho, work hard/play hard, bet your company and process.
(Claire Capon, 2000) From above-mentioned organizational cultures, we see these cultures could
assist the managers to supervise the company more efficiently.
In addition, mission statement is the schedule of duty and aim of the organization. It is
indispensable for any organization to have its own mission statement which is aiming at the
future.
Srategic management in the whole organization:
As far as the whole organization is concerned, each functional area has its own strategic
management. Strategic management penetrates into different functional areas and help the
whole organization to enhance its own competitive advantages. The application of the unique
strategic management leads the organization to the final success. Accordingly, it is essential for
an organization to choose proper strategies in each functional area in order to form a corporate
strategic plan.
(3) Strategic management in operation :
Strategic management in operations management is very essential in an organization as well.
Bata a successful shoes store, the layout for the whole site reflects a lot of strategic. In addition,
they always put the profitable goods on the middle shelves where customers can reach quite
easily. Therefore, to choose proper strategic management in operations management can help
the organization lead to success more easily. Research and Development (R&D) is the necessary
step of marketing, which has a relationship with operations management about making decisions
on the design of products or services and the resource inputs need. Then, costs and the sales
price could be decided by operations management. Finally, marketing and operations
management work together and come to a final decision on making profits according to the cost
and the price.
(4) Strategic management in finance :
As far as the whole organization is concerned, to think strategically is significant for the growth
of an organization. Bata as for finance, the capital is a very essential element of a certain
organization. Hence, it is a good idea to issue ordinary shares to raise the capital in order to think
for the future. Bata is concerning raising capital for the operations and ensuring sufficient
revenue is generated to cover the cost of any finance raised. Likewise, finance has a very close
relationship with marketing and operations management as well. The finance department is
required to make sure that there is enough money for the whole organization to run properly.
On the other hand, operations management is responsible for producing the goods considering
the costs. Furthermore, marketing should bring the products to the market and do the best to
sell enough goods in order to make large profits for the whole organization.
(5) Strategic management in HRM :
The recruitment of employees is crucial to an organization as well. The staff with skills and
abilities can provide customers with satisfactory products and services. The recruitment of
employees also helps the organization achieve its strategic goals efficiently, because recruitment
process selects appropriate applicants to work together in order to realize the objectives towards
the strategic direction of an organization. As for the introduction of the new products or services,
it is necessary for HRM department to know about it. Once the new products or services are
introduced, marketing has the responsibility to inform the HRM department punctually and
sufficiently. The information for HRM department should be concerned with the new skills and
experience needed for the new workers at present. In other words, HRM department should
make a strategic plan in training, recruitment and selection of new staff.