LINKING PERFORMANCE TO THE BOTTOM LINE: THE APPROACH OF MONO

INDIA

The Mono India, an Indian conglomerate with more focus on FMCG products, operates globally
with 59,000 workforces in their payroll. The company manages each product line as strategic
business units (SBUs) . For absence for commonality in product lines, SBUs do not compete
with each other. The company follows a matrix structure, making each employee reportable to
two bosses. FMCG SBU head, Mr.Pratap, has a high reputation for achieving the consistent
growth for last 5 years. Mono India strategically locates their manufacturing units keeping in
view the market proximity. Accordingly, the company located their 16 Indian units spread across
14 states and 2 union territories are controlled from manufacturing units that are close to them.
Confectionary Division of Mono India is the sole FMCG product line that enjoys more than
50%of the market share in India. The corporate strategic plan of the company envisages annual
incremental growth of not less than 5% in a fiercely competitive confectionary market in India.
Mr.Pratap literally needs to develop a performance plan with a participative approach and shared
vision of ‘do or die’. As SBU head, he manages all activities of the confectionary division. Every
employee of the SBU clearly understands what they need to achieve and why. Mr.Pratap
understands that achieving a 5% market growth can be only possible when employees at their
individual level deliver a minimum of 10 percent more. In the confectionary business, Mono
India strategically follows a 6-month product life cycle with two primary objectives : to prevent
aping by the competitors and to remain ever competitive with product differentiation. Mono
India’s operation team has a great market demand. Competitors hire them with an increased
salary primarily to ape the formulations. The R & D unit of the company targets a minimum of
10 acceptable flavours of Tiffin cakes and biscuits. Every new item comes with value addition
without price increase. To customers it becomes a winning steal.
The marketing team always endeavour to create news in the market. A new product launch is
preceded by road shows, school functions and shelf space occupying in retail outlets. This is to
create a compelling pressure for consumers to buy the product. With smart adaptable workforces,
Mono India is able to sustain in the competitive marketplace. The winning zeal of the employees
is rewarded to perpetuate the process of high performance. New Vice-President marketing at the
corporate level, however, now critical about this approach of making employees just preoccupied
with hitting the numbers to meet their performance objectives. His major concern is that the
company is unable to sustaining the befitting culture, which often flouts the on-the-job behaviour
of employees. Analysis of customer complaints revealed that the marketing team hardly attends
the low-profile retailers, obviously for their small order bookings. Segmentation analysis could
cluster the retail outlets, showing an alarming representation of the company’s products in small
retail outlets, resulting in less visibility of the company’s new biscuits and cakes. These small
outlets sell their competitors’ products. Alternative biscuits and cakes at the customers’ end are
still accepted when they do not get the choice of selecting Mono’s range of products. Moreover,
many Indian customers are not informed buyers of biscuits and cakes. Many buy it out of
impulses. They buy it as they see it.
Vice president marketing now desires to bring changes in the performance planning process,
making it clear that reaching the bottom-line results alone cannot help the company to sustain in
the long run. He expects every employee of Mono India to drive home this message that
effective performance achievement is possible when a balance is struck between linking
employees objectives to the corporate strategy and developing appropriate behaviours. He
suggests the following steps to facilitate the new process of performance planning: \
1. Define the corporate culture as a driving force for the growth of organisations
2. Determine the expectations from the employees, including the way they should do their
jobs, serve their customers , deal with their peers and so on.
3. Determine which performance behaviours are important to the organizational success
4. Understand how employees’ performance will be measured
5. Prioritise employees performance objectives
6. Align employee performance objectives horizontally to develop a sense of collaboration
7. Design a performance plan that incorporates the following concepts:
a. Employee surveys
b. Individual development plan
c. Regular performance reviews
Question: Critically evaluate the line of action of VP-marketing of Mono India.