MBP Case Studies

Case Study-1
The stereotypical view of a CEO – tough minded, dominant, and hyper aggressive – may be
giving way to a more sensitive image. Nowhere is this shifting standard more apparent than at
General Electric. There may be no CEO more revered for his leadership style than former CEO
Jack Welch, a “tough guy” in his own words. Yet his hand-picked successor, Jeff Immelt is
remarkable for his very different leadership style. Whereas Welch was intense, brash and
directive, Immelt was described by Financial Times as “unshakably polite, self-deprecating
and relaxed”. In an Interesting contrast to Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli, Chrysler President Jim
Press (formerly president of Toyota of America) embraces “Servant Leadership” and says one
of his main functions is to “get out of the way” and support those who work with him. A recent
study of CEOs seems to suggest that this trend is spreading. The CEOs in its sample scored 12
points below average on tough-mindedness. Yes, that’s below average. As one observer of the
corporate world concludes, “The Jack Welch approach appears to be on the fade”. Many
research studies in recent times share the same view. You might think that a kinder, gentler
approach works only for Fortune 500 CEOs, whose very job security might rely on glowing
press coverage. It is perceived that the nice approach to leadership is taking momentum with a
spreading assumption that the central part of the CEO’s job is “showing them you care”.
Questions:
i. Do you think the kinder, gentler leader image is just an emerging trend or that it will
help us to transform people and organizations better? Justify your answer.
ii. Servant leadership style works better for few organizations and may not be suitable for
all organizations? Discuss.

Case Study-2
PMTC in the business of metal cutting tools and metal forming tools, is engulfed in competition
with national as well as international players.Its products are used by capital goods and other
engineering industries.The business is cyclical in nature,dependent on capacity utilisation level
in user industries. Gyan Chand the MD had been urged by the distributors in recent meeting,
to introduce high tech metal cutting tools and new models using the latest technology.They felt
that this would help them to fight the dumping of cheap second hand machinery and increase
the domestic as well as export market share.Gyan realized the implications of the distributors
suggestions.This would increase the R&D budget tremendously. A fully automated production
line would put pressure on finances. A greater variety of tools, models and would require
inventory space.Mechanics need to be trained again, especially in running the latest fully
automated robots and gadgets. Reflecting on previous staff meetings, Gyan realized the
marketing people always wanted a variety of models but never appreciated the huge financial
burden such a decision would imply. PMTC, after all, carried its operations all along with just
a few models quite successfully. In such a scenario Gyan felt that there is no need to go in for
new models. Instead , he thought the focus should be on improving existing models and
reducing the cost and price.The customer now-a-days is more interested in getting value for
money. However ,to be on the safe side, he sought the opinion of a consulting firm also.
Questions:
1. Do a SWOT analysis?
2. To be successful an organization must be an open system.... Explain this in the above case
Case Study-3
Bhatkaav Enterprises is facing huge losses. The owner of the company is an MBA pass out.
Even then many things in the organization are happening which are indicative of lack of proper
management in the company. First of all there is no specific sharing of work and any time any
employee is asked to do anything. This has led to wastage of efforts. Further due to negligence
in proper work sharing there has been no specialization development in the nature of the jobs
done by the employees. There are no clear and fair agreements between the workers and the
management. This has led to a lot of frustration in the workers. Management has quite often
been found to be ignorant of not fulfilling promises done by it. There are also no strict rules
and regulations binding on the conduct of the workers. The departmental heads who are the
middle level managers in the company and hold key positions always favor their relatives. They
quite often don’t turn up for job on time. They are always looking for special relaxations from
the top management. This has led to feeling of resentment among the employees who are also
demanding special favors and threatening strike in the coming days.
1. Identify the three principles of Fayol violated in the above case.
Case Study -4
Sri Krishna Paper Mill was established at Karnataka in 1984.The company was located there
due to availability of raw material. But the company was facing a problem of security of
workers. The company recruits the supervisory staff from outside and labour and technical staff
from the local people owing to illiteracy rate. Mr.Mohan was appointed as the HR manager.
He possessed the quailities of a good leader and motivator. He worked in a dedicated way and
always took suggestions from co-workers in all subject matters. The Management and workers
were satisfies with his performance. Since there was no other competitor the company earned
huge profits and shared it with its employees and provided them various benefits so that the
employees were satisfied. In 1990 one more paper mill Sri Rama paper mills was established
and it had two more branches in other states. The Rama paper mill also faced the problem of
security of employees. The company started to create dissatisfaction among the employees of
Sri Krishna paper mills. They announced higher wages and more benefits for their employees
for the same job and they were ready to take in local people for higher posts too. This created
dissatisfaction in the employees of Sri Krishna mills. And they started demanding higher wages
and more benefits. Sri Krishna Paper mills suffered huge losses that year due to high
absenteeism, tardiness, low employee performance etc. Now there are two options for the
Management either fulfill the workers demand and incur losses or let the employees go and
shut down the company.
1. What is the responsibility of the HR Manager in this case? 2. What are the other options
available to address this issue?
Case Study-5
Subhash Chandra knows a thing or two about struggles. His father started a store on JC road
Bangalore in 1974 to sell gramaphone records and small appliances including mixie, radio,and
fan. He named it 'Sangeetha' or music. The shop was small and having lost his wife early on
his father did not feel the need to get another home in a city where he worked with a Chennai
company named Vijay Home Appliances. " For four years both of us slept in the store" recalls
Chandra. They had all meals at the kamat near Minerva Circle. Chandra ironed his clothes and
did his homework on the store's counter. The store did not do well,even thouh it was, along
with the HMV stores in the city, quite hot among music lovers. Sangeetha was put up for sale.
But nobody came forward to buy it. " My father's friend used to say that he was too straight
forwarded to be in business. So Chandra barely 17 then, decided to step into his father's shoes.
His father rejoined Vijay Home Appliances in Chennai. Chandra added Television and
cassettes to mixie. And as TVs became a household neccesity, the business gradually turned
around. Then came computers and Pagers. And in the late 1990s mobile phones were then sold
mostly in the Burma Bazzar grey market because of the huge customs duties. Chanda says he
was the first in the City to start selling these phones with a bill and warranty the margins on
SIM cards then where huge which helped us to subsidize the phones be convinced people to
buy a phone and SIM card together we also bought stocks in bulk to get better prices he says.
Many celebrities in the city would buy from him. Bulk orders from Corporates followed such
as Oracle, Sun microsystems, Infosys, Microsoft Etc. Oracle bought from us for all the
requirements across India in 2001. Sangeeta became a mobile only Store Chandra believes he
was among the first in India to start and Insurance Scheme and EMI on phones. Within three
days I would pay the insurance amount he says these had a dramatic impact on this Sangeeta
brand. Today, Sangeetha mobiles has an annual turnover of about Rs1500 crores 500
showrooms across 8 states and 2500 employees. It sells 1.4 million phones a year making it
one of the largest offline mobile retailers in India. But even the mobile journey had several
troughs and challenges. In 2002 Chandra launched a mobile brand on the CDMA platform but
CDMA collapsed and so did this initiative. A decade later seeking the success of Micromax
and Karbonn Chandra launched a brand called WHAM but even that fizzled out in 3 years We
lost a lot of money a brand is a difficult business we need to set up a manufacturing plant says
Chandra. Perhaps the biggest challenge came four years ago from online retailers like Flipkart
and Amazon with their massive discounts and ready availability of a vast range of phones.
Sangeetha as sales grew just 5% in 2014 -15 and then fell by 20% the following year. They
almost killed us through berserk pricing he says. But things have improved in the last one year
as online retailers because of government regulations and pressure to cut losses have forced to
raise prices. Sangeetha's prices are no higher than the online ones foremost princes and models
and Chandra has continue to innovate. He is particularly proud of its price drop production
scheme under which if the price of the phone drops within 30 days of our customers purchase
the customer is reimbursed the difference. The scheme started 3 years ago has seen the
company return Rs12 crore to 1,22,000 customers till date. Such schemes have drawn people
back to the store Sangeetha's sales grew 79% last year and Chander is drawing up major all
India expansion plans.
1. What has made Sangeetha's a leading market retailer?
2. Will Sangeetha be able to sustain its current position, suggest two innovative ways to keep
up its market share.
Case Study-6
Ajanta Biscuits , Bengaluru is in the field for little over six years. During this time, they have
consistently increased their sales. This was possible mainly due to the good quality of biscuits,
a good distribution network and promotion policy. The company has shown innovative ability
by bring out variety of biscuits to cater to various tastes in the consumer market. A study done
on the biscuit industry by the Indian Biscuit Manufacturers Association highlighted that out of
the total consumption of biscuit, almost 24% are consumed by children below the age of 11.
The management of Ajanta biscuits decided to develop special biscuits to develop to cater to
this segment. After working out different possibilities it was finally decided that biscuits made
in different animal shapes would be introduced which would certainly appeal to the younger
generation. As such samples were prepared. The company carried out a small exercise in test
marketing the biscuits in their hometown. A sample size of 1000 was selected for this purpose
majority of the sample consumers show their interest and informed that children have like the
products. With a lot of publicity the company introduced this range of biscuits in four
metropolitan towns of Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and New Delhi besides Bengaluru. The
results for the first six months was highly encouraging. However from the 7th month the sales
started declining. The total sales of this type of biscuits were reported only at 25% of the peak
reached. The quality was maintained, the price right from the beginning was 10% higher than
other types for the same weight. The sales executive told about the competition and the retailers
incentive should be increased by 5% but the GM marketing was not ready for it. The product
manager Mr. Ashish Kapoor was not able to understand the reasons for the sales decline.
1. Do you think that the price was the rime consideration in the sales decline?
2. Do you think advertisement towards the product should have been increased? Justify your
answer
Case Study-7
Raman is the Sales Manager of a reputed corporation.He has 25 employees in his
department,and all are paid commission on their sales in their respective territories.For the past
three years the market for the company's goods has been growing steadily and majority of
Raman's staff have met this growth with increased sales.However, one employee in particular,
krishnan has not kept up with the pace. Krishana had been for 20 Years and is 56 years old,
friendly and is liked by his peers and those to whom he sells the company's products on a
regular basis. He was considered dependable and loyal.Through the years he has been counted
as an asset to the company, but at the age of 56 he has gone into a state of semi-retirement.
Krishnan's sales has not increased as others have and he does not have the determination to
acquire a significant increase in sales. Raman wishes to change the situation, he wants to
motivate krishnan in increasing his sales to match that of his younger peers. To accomplish this
Krishnan must begin to do more than put in his time, but Raman is not sure, how to go about
trying to motivate him. unlike the majority of the new employees Krishnan is an old man, who
within a few years will reach the age of retirement.
1. If you were Raman what would you do?
2.Would you threathen to fire him from Services Yes/ No Explain
Case Study-8
The CVA of Ramada Jarvis provided for the owner to either take the hotel back or accept a
much reduced rent. The rent reduction was not at an acceptable level and did not in the investors
view fairly reflect the hotels potential to generate rental profits. The hotel is well known in the
city and although it was in need of capital investment it was trading at a reasonable level,
however, revenues and profits had been on a downward cycle for a number of years. Both the
owner and Focus believed that the hotel would benefit from a full review of the existing
branding and the capital required maintaining that branding going forward. In addition, Focus
reviewed all suitable available brands to establish if an alternative brand would better protect
the business long term. Focus agreed to buy the existing lease with a new arrangement on rent
and with terms similar to a management contract and acquired the hotel lease from the
administrators and took over the management in October 2011.The objective was to get the
hotel trading profitable enough to cover rent payments as a minimum, as set in the original
lease and to maintain and improve on this in the medium/long term. Following the takeover of
the hotel, Focus implemented a full review of the business to understand how the existing
performance could be quickly improved without significant capital and once that was achieved
to review the long term development of the business. This review looked at all aspects of the
business with an emphasis on the current state of the property, the branding, the management
team, revenue and sales management and general operating efficiency. The review established
that there was a good on-site experienced management team, who understood their market and
had been trading well, but were losing room rate and some market share to their better and
newer competition. All revenue decisions were made off site at the group central office with
little local management involvement. There was a significant level of complaint about the
quality of the beds since did not deliver well primarily due to the relationship with the owning
company and the hotel was tired but was clean and well maintained. The hotel had a loyal
following which was declining or else rate was being discounted to retain it. Following this
review, Focus proposed that the new brand should be Doubletree by Hilton, a new brand to the
UK. This would better position the hotel in the 4 star markets and would provide the best long
term returns. Conversion to this brand involved a full refurbishment of all areas of the hotel
which is a significant investment given the existing market. Focus projections justified this
investment and this was fully supported by the investor and funding provided to the full amount
requested. New beds and new mattress toppers were provided which immediately addressed
this fundamental issue. Focus immediately installed a new revenue management, sales and
reservations team based at the hotel supported by Focus’s central revenue and sales teams.
Focus provided all the necessary yield tools and training to enable the new team to manage
their rates and availability and compete fully in the local market. Focus, in addition to the yield
tools provided, developed a revenue and yield culture within the operational teams, enabling
the hotel to compete effectively with its competitor set.
Questions
1. Analyze the managerial functions based on the findings of the business review done by
Focus.
2. Analyze the proposals of Focus and its effects on the hotel brand in this case
Case Study-9
The history of McDonald’s dates back to the late 1930s, when two brothers, Richard and
Maurice McDonald, started a hotdog stand called Airdrome in California. Later, in 1940, they
opened a barbeque restaurant in San Bernardino and called it McDonald’s Barbeque. In 1948,
they streamlined the business, incorporating new strategies that would enable quick service at
low prices. This in turn was expected to help them sell larger volumes. Inspired by the
automobile industry, they started to take an assembly line kind of approach to prepare food at
the new restaurant. After implementing the new system, they were able to sell hamburgers at
15 cents (earlier they cost 30 cents) and French fries at 10 cents. For several decades,
McDonald’s had been synonymous with fast food, but after 2010, customers started looking at
it differently. People started showing an interest in outlets serving food which they perceived
to be wholesome and made of healthy ingredients, while McDonald’s become synonymous
with cheap and greasy food made of unhealthy ingredients. According to Mike Donahue,
former chief communications officer at McDonald’s US, “McDonald’s) has become the
symbolic scapegoat for anyone wanting to use a generic word to describe obesity or health
problems. Anyone that wants to be a critic for food or health issues, their mind Spell Check
inserts McDonald’s, and that’s a major problem if you want to bring in more customers. In
several international markets where McDonald’s had a presence, it was slowing down too. In
the third quarter of 2014, the global same store sales dropped by 3.3%. International operations
were affected by challenges in several markets in Europe, Latin America and Asia. The heavily
franchised business model put forth by Easterbrook was expected to generate more stable
revenue and cash flow streams. The structural changes and ownership were expected to result
in savings in the bottom line and spur future growth. McDonald’s planned to deliver US$ 300
million in savings in general and administrative expenses through restructuring, refranchising,
and focus on spending on quality improvement of healthy ingredients.
Questions:
1.Analyze the context of Mc Donalds on its managerial decision making process .
2.Explain the innovative approaches of Mc Donald's new business model

Case Study-10
Located at opposite ends of the country, Northwest Center for Families (NCF) and South east
Social Services (SSS) are local government agencies specializing in family, child, and school
social work in rural areas. After attending a conference on performing social work in small
communities, the directors of both organizations return with plans to address the issue of dual
relationships, relationships in which social workers maintain both social and professional ties
with clients. Each director takes a different approach to the issue. NCF’s director sends out a
memo to employees stressing that dual relationships are a conflict of interest prohibited by the
organization. In the memo, she states that a dual relationship could be grounds for employee
termination and encourages employees to report any non-sanctioned interaction between social
workers and their clients. The NCF director’s plan also includes the construction of a new
employee lounge, with the understanding that employees will eat their lunches in the office,
rather than off campus. The director of SSS holds a meeting with his staff to discuss the
organization’s role and purpose in the community. He shares what he has learned at the
conference: The potential to improve people’s lives outweighs any other social or professional
interaction that could derail the organization’s purpose. The SSS director explains that he will
make it his personal mission to solve the problem of dual relationships and asks employees for
their input and participation in overcoming this obstacle. The leader explains that all employees
must work together to reform the organization in order to better serve the community.
Questions
1. What type of leadership is practiced at NCF? Substantiate your answer with appropriate
reasoning.
2. What type of leadership is practiced at SSS, Explain
3. Which style of leadership would you recommend for a human service organization? Explain
your answer
Case Study-11
Two iconic American brands parted ways: McDonald's and Heinz, which had supplied red
goop to the golden arches for 40 years. Heinz's new private equity owners had installed
Bernardo Hees, formerly CEO of Burger King Worldwide and currently still a board member,
as the company's new chief executive. It's not an unprecedented food fight: When Pepsi Co
owned fast food brands like Taco Bell, other franchises engaged in proxy wars by allying
themselves with different soda companies. A few fascinating facets of the now-ruptured
relationship is that Heinz and McDonald's have been through this before. Back in the early
1970s, Heinz supplied most of McDonald's ketchup. But in 1973, a tomato shortage struck, and
Heinz prioritized its glass bottle customers over its bulk fast food accounts. McDonald's
abruptly terminated their agreement. "From there on after, we've been on the outside looking
in," a Heinz executive told the Wall Street Journal in 2006. Indeed Heinz's investors pressed
the company to sell more to McDonald's, before it was purchased by a partnership of Berkshire
Hathaway and Burger King's parent company, 3G Enterprises (some analysts predicted that
would create problems with the world's biggest fast food chain). Heinz could be hit hardest
overseas. U.S. burger eaters probably won't notice much of a difference, since McDonald's was
only using Heinz ketchup in its Minneapolis and Pittsburgh markets; the rest is private label. It
will, however, lose out in emerging countries, where McDonald's has 66 percent of its sales,
and where Heinz had had more success in working with it. North America makes up only 40
percent of the Heinz company's total sales, and it's looking overseas for more growth in
Ketchups & Sauces which it estimates is a $110 billion business and being cut out of the
McDonald's business could hinder it. "This category represents the past and future of Heinz
and we possess numerous competitive advantages, including rapidly growing businesses in
Emerging Markets, upside potential in Developed Markets and our unique, proprietary Heinz
Seed capabilities, which deliver superior, great-tasting tomatoes for Heinz Ketchup & Sauces,"
reads its 2012 annual report. McDonald's was still a small part of Heinz's business. McDonald's
won't give out numbers for the amount of ketchup it consumes globally, but in 2006, it
reportedly used 250 million pounds of the stuff in the U.S, only a small fraction of which came
from Heinz. For a rough comparison, today Heinz says it sells 650 million bottles per year
worldwide, which works out to 569 million pounds without including bulk sales to fast-food
restaurants. Ketchup isn't even most of Heinz's business as they have grown far beyond its
horseradish roots. Ketchups and sauces are the company's largest core category, but not ketchup
itself; the company now has licensing agreements with restaurants like T.G.I. Friday's, owns
lines of food like Ore-Ida potatoes, and makes diet foods like Smart Ones. The loss of one
ketchup customer isn't going to hurt too badly.The rivals aren't that huge either. In fact
McDonald's in-house ketchup may be the second biggest one: While Heinz says it did $5 billion
in sales for all ketchups and sauces in 2012 ConAgra's Hunt ketchup only did $69.5 million
between May 2011 and May 2012, and has 14.6 percent market share.
Questions
1. Analyze the business scenario of ketchup of McDonald’s and Heinz.
2. Describe the competitive advantage of both Mc Donalds and Heinz in this case study.
3. Mention any two strengths each of both the brands
Case Study-12
Ms Perfectionist", "Domestic doyenne" and a role model for any business woman, is the
'second' most written about woma in the world. This well-known entrepreneur of the United
States, who turned the art of home-making and keeping into a billion dollar business - Martha
Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc (MSO), encountered hard times when she was convicted in a
scandal. She was convicted for her actions, which are considered to be less harmful in a
corporate world that witnessed more serious scandals. Her case called for a rethinking of certain
basic notions in free-market economies - ethics in business, the role of government regulation,
and more importantly the perils and promises of personal branding.Coming from humble
moorings, Martha Stewart owed her culinary and gardening skills to her parentage in a
working-class family in New Jersey in the 1940s and 1950s. She was one of the first few
women who entered the Wall Street in 1968 as a stockbroker with the New York Stock
Exchange. She took to catering business in the 1970s, and honed her skills in keeping kitchen,
arranging parties, designing interiors - the 'Martha Stewart way'. She made her way into
publishing with her first book, Entertaining in 1982, and produced a variety of books,
videotapes, CDs, and television specials. Martha launched her renowned magazine, Martha
Stewart Living in collaboration with Time Warner, in 1990, and a television series by the same
name, in 1993. Her regular appearance on television made the 'Martha Stewart way'. She made
her way into publishing with her first book, Entertaining in 1982, and produced a variety of
books, videotapes, CDs, and television specials.Martha launched her renowned
magazine,Martha Stewart Living in collaboration with TimeWarner, in 1990, and a television
series by the same name, in 1993. Her regular appearance on television made her a household
name in the US. The MSO expanded when it went public on the NewYork Stock Exchange in
1999. The enormous edifice of the company stood on four business segments – Publishing,
Television,Merchandising, and Internet/Direct Commerce, with eight core content areas –
Home, Cooking and Entertaining, Gardening, Crafts, Holiday,Weddings, Pet Keeping, and
Baby and Kids. At 62, Martha states, "I am an individual, but I'm a business; Martha Stewart
the individual has become Martha Stewart the brand."But, it appeared as though all her
perfection was not infallible when, perhaps in her bid to 'just have more' , Martha went 'penny
wise'.
Questions:
1. Analyze the leadership style of Martha.
2. Describe Martha's achievements
Case Study-13
Southern Manufacturing Company has been engaged in the production of color television sets
which have a greater demand in the market. The company finds difficulty in meeting the
demand in terms of giving timely delivery. Amit joined the Southern Manufacturing Company
Ltd. two months ago as a GM. He was forced to take suitable measures to see that sales delivery
schedule is to be followed strictly. He had to examine the facts in the company to see the causes
for delay in delivering the products. Amit finds that the manufacturing department shows a
picture of rising costs, failure to meet delivery dates and increasing number of quality
complaints. At once, he called the works manager Mr.Bhuvan for discussion to analyze the
facts so as to have a solution to the problem. Bhuvan admitted to poor performance but said
that his failure to meet the delivery schedule is due to the fact that the sales department makes
unrealistic promises and does not bother to check manufacturing schedules. He attributed most
of the quality problems to the incessant flow of engineering changes that come without warning
and with no time to work out the production problems present in all new products. Amit himself
admitted that he had approved the last set of engineering changes. As a sequence, Amit called
Deeran, the engineering manager, to his chamber for discussion. He explained to Deeran the
problem of implementing the approved engineering changes into production. Mr.Deeran
explained that the engineering changes with the approval of the top management comes to him
one after another with a gap of five days and hence, there is difficulty in implementing them
altogether. Amit asked Deeran to put all the approved changes into production immediately so
as to enhance production to meet the time schedule of the sales department. In the course of
problem solving exercise, Amit called Mr.Nair, the sales manager, who is the man responsible
to adhere to the sales schedule for discussion. In the task of following sales schedule strictly,
Mr.Nair admitted that he had no knowledge of the manufacturing schedules. He also made a
complaint that the engineering department had changed product specifications many times
without consulting and informing the sales department. He also made a further complaint that
the finance department tightened the credit requirements without giving previous intimation to
the sales department which caused delay in delivering the goods. Amit again realizes that it is
the same engineering change which caused trouble for the sales department and made obsolete
the existing stock of replacement parts. He also finds that at his request due to an unusually
short cash position the finance department tightened up the credit requirements. Please follow
the prescribed format for writing the case study analysis. Marks would be awarded on the basis
of the format.
Questions:
1. Define the major coordination problem faced by Amit.
2. What caused the problem?
3. How can coordination between different departments of the company be maintained?
Case Study-14
Ben is the plant manager for Rose printing company, a medium sized printing firm with 300
employees that publishes regional editions of magazines. The plant runs three shifts a day, five
days a week and the organizational structure is composed of senior management staff of 6
people who work the day shift and 20 supervisors and 60 lead operators who are split among
the three shifts. Each lead operator has 4 to 10 employees directly under his or her supervision.
Recently Ben listened to a speech on management by objectives at the local university by a
renowned lecturer and management consultant. He was inspired by management by objectives
and returned to the plant intent on installing such a system at Rose. He was confident it would
make performance evaluation easier and improve employee productivity. He spent several days
working on the overall output goals he wanted the company to meet for the year and then called
in his senior management team. He issued written copies of the goals in each functional area
to each management member and requested that each person review the goals, ask questions
for clarification and then prepare specific operational plans strategies, and quotas for her or his
respective departments, supervisors and lead operators. Please follow the prescribed format for
writing the case study analysis. Marks would be awarded on the basis of the format.
Questions:
1. Is this a workable management by objective system?
2. What would you do differently? Why?
3. If you were Ben, what goals would you set for the company?
Case Study-15
Zenith Electrical Ltd is true to its name the leader among comparable companies in the industry.
Since its formation, the company has progressed aggressively. The excellent performance of
the company is mainly due to its managing director who is widely respected for his qualities
of head and heart. His deputy is no less. An ex – army officer,he is known for his meticulous
planning and dogged determination to accomplish. Ever on the look out for moves to close or
narrow the gap between the objectives and possibilities of their accomplishment, the managing
director hired a management consultant to suggest ways and mean's of increasing the return on
investment. The consultant made the following report. To my mind there are three ways in
which the company could increase return on investment. One is to increase the sales volume,
this can be done by 1. Introduction of new products 2. Improvement of the existing products 3.
Modification of the price structure 4. Improvement in distribution and after sale service 5.
Effective training to sales personnel 6. Intensive advertising 7. Increase in production capacity
The second way to increase return on investment is to increase profits. This can be achieved
by 1. Increase in prices 2. Cost reduction 3. Elimination of unprofitable products 4. Extension
of credit facilities to customers 5. Reduction in investment on inventories The third way is to
reduce assets (as also capital) while maintaining the current profits so that the rate of return on
investment moves up. Please follow the prescribed format for writing the case study analysis.
Marks would be awarded on the basis of the format.
Questions:
1. Discuss the cost – benefit implications of the various alternatives.
2. As a managing director yourself, what set of alternatives would appeal to you the most and
why?
3. What set of management principles and practices can you adapt to analyze this case?
Case study -16
As work has become more global, companies are realizing the benefits of composing teams of
employees who not only have different cultural backgrounds, but who have lived in different
countries. These multicultural, multinational teams are extremely diverse, allowing companies
to leverage widely different points of view about business problems. One company known for
using multicultural, multinational teams is IBM. Although at one time IBM was famous for its
written and unwritten rules – such as its no-layoff policy, focus on individual promotions and
achievement, expectation of lifetime service at the company and requirements of suits and
white shirts at work – times have changed. IBM has clients in 170 countries and now does two-
thirds of its business outside the United States. As a result, it has overturned virtually all aspects
of its old culture. One relatively new focus is on teamwork. To foster appreciation of a variety
of cultures and open up emerging markets, IBM sends hundreds of its employees to month-
long volunteer project teams in regions of the world where most big companies don’t do
business. Al Chakra, a software development manager located in Raleigh, North Carolina, was
sent to join GreenForest, a furniture manufacturing team in Timisoara, Romania. With Chakra
were IBM employees from five other countries. Together, the team helped GreenForest become
more computer-savvy to increase its business. In return for the IBM team’s assistance,
GreenForest was charged nothing. IBM firmly believes these multicultural, multinational
teams are good investments, because they help lay the groundwork for uncovering business in
emerging economies. IBM is not the only company to use multicultural, multinational teams.
Inter Corp., for example, has teams of employees located in the United States, Israel and
Ireland. To manage these types of teams effectively, leaders must possess certain
characteristics. These include obvious factors like openness to cultural diversity and cultural
intelligence. And according to a survey conducted by Miriam Erez, a faculty member at the
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, it is better for leaders to have a global rather than a
cross-cultural perspective. What’s the difference? A global perspective means integrating
culturally different and geographically different individuals into a single, unified team. Leaders
with a global perspective develop a global identity in addition to their local or national identity,
while leaders with a cross-cultural perspective do not perceive themselves as belonging to more
than one culture.
Answer the following questions.
1. Multicultural project teams often face unique problems. How do you think these challenges
can be handled?
2. If you calculate the person-hours devoted to IBM’s team projects, they amount to more than
180,000 hours of management time each year.
3. Do you think this is a wise investment of IBM’s human resources? Why or Why not?
Case study -17
Mr Kapil Malhotra, a brand manaqer with a leading textile company in Calcutta, came to
Mumbai to attend a seminar. Among other participants he met his old friend Anil Madan,
currently with a pharmaceutical company in ·Sangalore and decided to spend a day with him.As
they discussed their office and work Kapil suddenly said, "Actually our biggest regret is that
my sincere work and efforts are never appreciated nor my superior performance is given due
credit. In our organisation, only the right connections can give you rewards". Anil replied,
"That happens in every organisation, though I am fortunate to have a boss, for whom the work
and efforts are more important than our mere submission to her views. Our boss, Mrs. Reena
Jain is one of the most capable person in the pharma industry today: Kapil was, however not
impressed. He said, 'I, for one, am sure that women at top positions are very dernandinq and
complexed. Its quite strange that men in your organisation are comfortable with her, as men
find it very humiliating and a blow to their ego to take orders from women bosses." Further, he
added, "Not only men, even women prefer male boss as and find women bosses a pain in the
neck". His opinion is neither unique nor isolated but a typical mindset of majority of
professionals, who view women bosses as a direct threat and incompetent. Its so common a
perception that often a woman has to prove §It every step that she is capable and as competent
as any man in her position. Anil then shared his own experiences of having a female boss. "I
feel she is as competent and capable as anybody else. She is highly qualified and mature with
no over-zealous need to prove herself or outperform other men to prove a point. She is perhaps
the best negotiator and has an amazing ability to see things from our perspective. She has
promoted team-participation and involvement at all levels of the organisation. A stickier of
quality and commitment herself, she impresses even her critics at senior levels. Empathy,
listening and team-building comes naturally to her. One thing I, now, truly believe is that the
fact that she is a woman has brought a unique perspective to her style: Kapil remembered, an
article on participative management, that says that autocratic managerial style is giving way to
people oriented style. The article also said that women are more likely to succeed in the role of
such leader.
Questions
(i)What difference does it make, if you work under a female superior?
(ii)Abilities and not gender make a boss good or bad. Discuss.
(iii)What in your opinion, are unique and additional qualities a woman superior shows and
brings in the organisation

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