1

BANGLADESH UNIVERSITY OF PROFESSIONALS

An Internship report on “The impact of COVID-19 on Organizational Control: A Study

on Panacea Live Ltd”

Prepared by

Name: Sagor Saha

ID: 18241061

Supervised by

Dr, Sumyya Begum

Bangladesh University of Professionals

Date of Submission: 18 April 2022

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The Impact of COVID-19 on Organization Control: A Study on Panacea Live Ltd.

Sagor Saha

Department of Management Studies, Bangladesh University of Professionals

Internship

Dr. Sumyya Begum, Associate Professor

18 April 2022
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Declaration of Authorship

It Is Hereby Declared That

1. The Internship Report Submitted Is My/Our Own Original Work While Completing Degree At
Bangladesh University of Professionals.

2. The Report Does Not Contain Material Previously Published Or Written By A Third Party,
Except Where This Is Appropriately Cited Through Full And Accurate Referencing.

3. The Report Does Not Contain Material Which Has Been Accepted, Or Submitted, For Any Other
Degree or Diploma At A University Or Other Institution.

4. I Have Acknowledged All Main Sources Of Help.

Student’s Full Name & Signature

Sagor Saha

ID: 18241061
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Acknowledgement

This report’s main function is to represent the present state of the tech industry during the pandemic.
I am truly honored to receive such support, cooperation and encouragement from the people of
Bangladesh University of Professionals and Panacea Live ltd. This report would not have been
possible without their support and help.

Firstly, I would like to thank my Supervisor Dr. Sumyya Begum, Associate Professor, Bangladesh
University Professionals, for her continuous support through this entire 3 months of my internship
program. Not only did she help me with the guidelines of completing the report, but also dedicated
her precious time in consultation hours and gave feedback via zoom calls and emails.

I was recruited as a Sales Associate in the marketing department of Panacea Live ltd at Banani,
where my supervisor was Abdullah Md. Taqi Ud-deen. He assisted me in completing the report by
providing all the necessary information that I needed. Moreover, I also get help from Md. Soumik
Aswad (CEO) for providing the additional information which I needed to complete my report.

At the end, I would like to thank my parents who made me capable enough to stand where I am
now at this point and my fellow peers who were there for me whenever I needed them since the
start of my undergraduate life. Without their love and support I would not have been able to finish
my graduation and gotten this far.
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Certificate of Organization
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Certificate of Supervisor

This is to certify that Mr Sagor Saha has worked under my supervision in preparing the
internship report entitled “The Impact of COVID-19 on Organizational Control: A
Study on Panacea Live Ltd” submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the award of
the degree of Bachelor of Business Administration in the Department of Business
Administration, Bangladesh University of Professionals. This report is prepared with
sincerity and dedication carried out by Mr. Sagor Saha alone and to the best of my
knowledge.

Supervisor

Date : ……………………………………………..

Department of Business Administration

Faculty of Business Studies

Bangladesh University of Professionals

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Executive Summary

Tech business in Bangladesh was in a blooming state. As the number of people entering e-
commerce increases, so does the need for technology to stay increases. Also people needed
upgraded technologies to transform their ideas into real life which made their
communication easier for them during the pre-pandemic days. But when the pandemic of
COVID-19 hit the country it completely changed the scenario of the business sector. This
report aims to present the position and conditions through which the tech industry is coping
up with this pandemic and how they are moving forward and its impact on the management
control. The report not only represents the scenario of Bangladesh during the pandemic but
also highlights its impact on a global scale. It shows which particular sector has been
affected in the short term and makes predictions of what can happen to that particular
branch in the long run for the technological sector. In this report I have scrutinized the
underlying effects and its possible outcomes on organizational control. The rise of the
sector is shown in details.

The research is pure qualitative that shows how a particular company and at large the entire
tech industry sector in the country has been positively affected by the pandemic. The report
portrays that the situation of the tech industry in the country is better as they have
experienced a boom in the tech world as flow of cash has increased in some cases. Many
new IT projects have started due to the lockdowns in places as people were working from
home. In short the pandemic did not only positively affect developing countries like
Bangladesh but also bought the tech industry throughout the world.
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Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 13
Background of the Study ........................................................................................................... 13
Purpose of the Study .................................................................................................................. 14
Primary Objective: ................................................................................................................. 14
Specific Objective: ................................................................................................................. 14
Problem Statement .................................................................................................................... 14
Significance of the Report ......................................................................................................... 15
Scope of Study ........................................................................................................................... 15
Overview of the Organization ........................................................................................................ 16
Brief history ............................................................................................................................... 16
Company Profile: ....................................................................................................................... 17
Organizational Structure: ........................................................................................................... 17
Organizational Hierarchy Chart ............................................................................................. 17
Introduction of all the departments: ........................................................................................... 18
Marketing and sales: .............................................................................................................. 18
Credit Realization Department: ............................................................................................. 18
Human Resource Management: ............................................................................................. 18
Comments on the organizational structure: ............................................................................... 18
Product Introduction .................................................................................................................. 19
What is Live Check? .............................................................................................................. 19
Counterfeit Scenario in Bangladesh and Why Live Check .................................................... 20
Industry Analysis: ....................................................................................................................... 24
PEST Analysis ....................................................................................................................... 24
SWOT Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 25
Market Analysis: ........................................................................................................................ 28
Marketing research................................................................................................................. 28
Market trends ......................................................................................................................... 29
Competition............................................................................................................................ 29
Market Segmentation ............................................................................................................. 30
Target Market......................................................................................................................... 30
Strategic Marketing:............................................................................................................... 30
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Internship Duties and Responsibilities........................................................................................... 34

Leanings/Experiences from Internship program ............................................................................ 36
Literature Review & Theoretical Framework ................................................................................ 38
Literature Review....................................................................................................................... 38
Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................................. 41
Organization Control Process ................................................................................................ 41
Methodologies ............................................................................................................................... 46
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 46
The Research Design ................................................................................................................. 46
Research Philosophy .............................................................................................................. 46
Research Type........................................................................................................................ 46
Research Strategy................................................................................................................... 46
Time Horizon ......................................................................................................................... 46
Sampling Strategy .................................................................................................................. 47
Data Collection Method ......................................................................................................... 47
Primary Sources of Data ........................................................................................................ 47
Secondary Sources of Data .................................................................................................... 47
Data Analysis Technique ....................................................................................................... 47
The Methodological Limitations................................................................................................ 48
Concluding Summary ................................................................................................................ 48
Analysis ......................................................................................................................................... 49
IMPACT ON OPERATIONS CONTROL ................................................................................ 49
IMPACT ON FINANCIAL CONTROL ................................................................................... 51
Findings, Conclusion, Limitation and Recommendation............................................................... 52
Findings ...................................................................................................................................... 52
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 60
Recommendations ...................................................................................................................... 60
Limitations ................................................................................................................................. 61
References ...................................................................................................................................... 62
Appendix A .................................................................................................................................... 65
Appendix B .................................................................................................................................... 70
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List of Tables

Table 01 Service Charge of the 31

product

Table 02 Gender Demography of 52

Population

Table 03 Age Demography of 52

Population

List of Figures

Figure 01 Organizational Hierarchy 17

Chart

Figure 02 Generic Product Design 19

Concept

Figure 03 News About Counterfeit 20

Figure 04 News About Counterfeit 21

Figure 05 Purpose of Control 41

Figure 06 Levels of Control 43

Figure 07 Steps of Control Process 44

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Figure 08 Product Logo 50

Figure 09 53

Figure 10 53

Figure 11 54

Figure 12 54

Figure 13 55

Figure 14 55

Figure 15 56

Figure 16 56

Figure 17 57

Figure 18 57

Figure 19 58

Figure 20 58

Figure 21 59

Figure 22 59
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List of Acronyms

SAAS – Software as a Service

PEST – Political, Economic, Social, Technological

SWOT – Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats

WFO –Work from Office

WFH – Work from Home

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Chapter One
Introduction

Background of the Study

During the initial outbreak of COVID-19, enterprises were unable to operate normally,
resulting in a decline in revenue, increased pressure from rising costs, and cash flow
difficulties. During the mitigating period of the epidemic, enterprises must still confront
issues stemming from restricted operating factors and insufficient implementation of
prevention and control measures, and may continue to face operational difficulties in the
long run and other dangers to their sustainable development. When an organization faces
change, negative/positive, it can be adopting new strategies or approaches, it may initiate
as deemed fit by the hierarchy, otherwise, may have there been some natural change in the
environment caused by disasters or anything, organizational control always plays the
pivotal role in shaping the organization according to the change. In that way, employees
adopt new changes and delves into the newly shaped/developed culture. This is true for a
Tsunami hit area or the latest COVID-19 pandemic, they all brigs changes and it is the
control mechanism of the organization that shapes how the organization and their resources
should behave at the time of crisis

The impacts of COVID-19 are having a big impact on the technology market, impacting
the availability of raw materials, disrupting the value chain of electronics and generating
an inflationary risk for goods. More positively, the disruption has caused remote work to
intensify, and a fast emphasis on assessing and de-risking the end-to-end value chain. The
demand for developers and engineering expertise is likely to grow as businesses pursue
business solutions to fix remote work, social distancing and the need for in-store
alternatives. It will be necessary to retain top talent. On digital channels, misinformation
proliferates. Sharing the inventory of the economy takes a blow.
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This report aims to bring forth the extent of the impact that covid-19 has brought upon the
SAAS industry, how and in what ways it has affected. The changes are visible in this report
and how organizational control helping to cope up with the change.

Purpose of the Study

Primary Objective:
The objective of the report is to learn about the current scenario of the Panacea Live Ltd.
in Bangladesh, know how Panacea Live is affected by the COVID-19 situation, discuss the
impact of this pandemic on organizational control in Panacea Live and gather
comprehensive knowledge about Panacea Live's strategies regarding operational and
financial control amid COVID-19 and post COVID-19 as a startup.

Specific Objective:
 To explore the impacts of COVID-19 on Organizational Control in Panacea Live?
 To demonstrate the changes in operational control in Panacea Live?
 To sketch the changes in financial control in Panacea Live?
 To understand how the employees reacted to these changes in organizational
control?

Problem Statement
Organizational control was always there to establish new norms, values, strategies
throughout the organization. When an organization faces change, organizational control
always plays the pivotal role in shaping the organization according to the change. In that
way, employees adopt new changes and delves into the newly shaped/developed culture.
There were changes bought on organizational control of Panacea Live Ltd due to COVID-
19 by higher management both in their Operational and Financial Control and whether the
impact was positive or negative in terms of profitability, liquidity, and HR management.
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Significance of the Report

The significance of writing this report is to find out how and in what ways the pandemic
affected Panacea Live Ltd. The aim is to point out the reasons why this change took place
and to what state the company is standing right now to where they were before the
epidemic. After interpreting and analyzing the data, possible suggestions will be given
which will help the company and what they should do in order to minimize the impact of
the situation. This research will provide an insight on their possible threats from rivals and
their opportunities in the possible future. Due to the pandemic the tech business has gone
through a positive change. So this piece of writing will put an idea on how to move in the
straight direction in the midst of the pandemic furthermore.

Scope of Study
As a Sales Associate in the sales & marketing department I had access to the strategic
information of the company which made the job of writing this report a bit easier since I
had to do the swot and had to be involved in making decisions of how to move forward in
this situation. But then since I was in their B2B sales operations the access to information
of the company was somewhat limited and constrained. It is impossible to cover all the
departments in this short span of time, therefore major focus of this paper is sales where
Backend Development and Accounting departments remained unattended.
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Chapter Two
Overview of the Organization

Brief history

Counterfeit has always been a problem for the consumers. To solve this issue, two young
brothers initiated a technology called Live check. Panacea Live is a software as a service
company with two unique services. First, protecting consumers from goods that are
counterfeit. Second, recording your warranty information digitally. Both have the same
principle theme which is a unique identity for each unit of product. The situation turned
around and eventually in the modern era, and this sector proved to be one of the most
rapidly booming sectors in the tech industry. The Aswad brothers, both in their early
twenties, came up with the idea as they were troubled by an “alarming” infiltration of
counterfeit medicines in the market and the potential life threatening impact on consumers.
Having developed the idea into a full-fledged business plan, the brothers set up a company
called Panacea in 2014.

Since then, the company has won many awards including the first prize at TIE Next Big
Bang Challenge, Bangladesh; Second prize at GIST Startup Boot Camp, Bangladesh; first
prize at Reconnect Startup Boot Camp, Nepal; and second prize at StartUp Open,
Washington, DC in the US.

While awards are satisfying, the real test comes in trying to execute a business plan
successfully. To this end, the Aswad brothers solicited the support of pharmaceutical
companies in Bangladesh, and Renata limited volunteered to help. There were big
challenges at the very outset. A plethora of information is already printed on the blister
foils and the additional printing requirement of the unique code created a new problem.
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Company Profile: Panacea Live is a technology company, they build software for
enterprises to enhance their customers' purchase experience. With their product Live
Check customers of the brands can distinguish an authentic product from counterfeits.
Allowing for greater confidence as the distribution of their products grows. With Live
Warranty, customers of enterprise can receive showroom experience from emerging retails
channels across Bangladesh. They are working with economically impactful clients
including the 4th largest pharmaceutical brand in the country and the №.1 eye-wear brand
in the world. They are redefining the purchase and after-purchase experience of consumers.

Panacea Live is a SAAS company operating in Bangladesh. They provide product

authentication service to the modern brands using our flagship product named Live Check.
Currently, they are providing services to renowned brands such as Essilor's Crizal, Varilux
and more, Renata Ltd.'s Maxpro, Rolac and more. They also provide other innovative brand
enhancement solutions to big brands such as Dr Rhazesh, Vita D3, etc. Most recently they
Launched "Live Check Pro" A dynamic QR Code based service that allows end consumers
to verify the authenticity of a product during purchase and are the only providers of such a
service in Bangladesh.

Organizational Structure:
Organizational Hierarchy Chart

Panacea Live is a small aspiring startup. It consists of 12 people. Panacea live’s main office
is in Banani, Dhaka.

Full Stack Software

Product Associate
Engineer

Executive,
CFO
Administration
CEO
Executive, HR

Executive, Sales Associate, Sales

Figure 01: Organizational Hierarchy Chart

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Introduction of all the departments:

Marketing and sales: Their job is to do campaigns and promote the company and their
products. So far the marketing team has been successful enough since they have earned a
good reputation among the clients in only five years of their establishment. They do fierce
promotional campaigns which also include the old fashion.

Credit Realization Department: They have to keep track of all the records invoices, any
dues or pre-paid. And keeping track includes proper documentation of the papers and
receipts, putting everything into the organizations server, following up with the clients.
One of the most important jobs in any organization is dealing with the clients and staying
connected with them, their needs and solving their problems and this department does so.
They try to solve any problems stated by the clients, any concerns raised by them regarding
the information about the plots or even if they file an extension for late payment approving
them an extended timeline.

Human Resource Management: Their job is to do the recruitment for the company and
provide work to employees most suitable for that job. They also train employees. The HRM
department plays a huge role in there in fact the most important role, moreover they have
to keep track of the employees’ performance and award them for their work and rectify or
expel the employees in extreme circumstances depending on the situation.

Comments on the organizational structure: The CEO of the company sets the objective
of the business, strategic planning is also done by him. He is also responsible for keeping
tracks of all the business dealings and projects.

Sales team is responsible for the day to day activities and the implementation of strategic
plans. There are a total of 12 members in the organization all well trained and dedicated to
work for the betterment of the company and fulfill its vision.
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Product Introduction
What is Live Check?

Live Check is a service by which customers can distinguish an authentic product from fake
and grey channel products.

 Every unit product gets a unique identity

 Codes can be verified only once
 2nd verification will flag the product to the customer. Mass copying of one package
becomes useless because
 One copy for every package is unprofitable
 Mass counterfeiting is deterred

Live Check Pro: Provides QR code and text verification instruction and information on the
medicine foil, IFC, hologram, sticker, neck-tag, etc. QR
codes provided on each foil, IFC, hologram, sticker, neck-tag,
etc. will be unique and associated with one unique identity, it
can be verified by a single customer/retailer with smartphone,
feature phones, SMS, messenger, and web.

Figure 02: Generic Product Design Concepts

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Counterfeit Scenario in Bangladesh and Why Live Check

From the morning till night, counterfeit products we daily encounter includes Faucets,
toothpastes, Shoes, Lenses, Engine Oil/Lubricants, Medicine, Makeup and Skincare
Products and what not.

Counterfeiting has a damaging impact on enterprise, the financial system and the overall
populace. Fundamental consequences
are given underneath:

Proper economic pastime loses out.

Purchasers who knowingly buy

counterfeit products are not going to
have purchased actual equivalents and
regularly do so due to the fact the
counterfeit variations are plenty
cheaper. Aside from the ones too many
people are unaware of the overall
quantity of the effect of counterfeit
goods on brands.

Figure 03: News About Counterfeit

KEY influences OF COUNTERFEITING:

 Stealing sales with the aid of undercutting prices.

 Destructive genuine manufacturers' recognition.
 Leaving businesses to cope with the fallout of counterfeits.
 Harming the lengthy-time period consider constructed with commercial enterprise
partners.
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 Forcing brands to spend money and time fighting fakes.

 Loss of income.

Starting easy, in case you are promoting a product, and a counterfeiter competes with you
through presenting clients a copy of your own product at a lower rate, you lose a few
income to these less expensive items. Not long in the past, clients had been better capable
of perceive fakes and knew what they had been getting whilst presented with counterfeits.
However, inside the on line global the traces between real and faux are much less clear.
Counterfeiters are capable of operate very efficaciously online, by using stealing a
corporation’s designs and branding and even through blending their knock-off goods with
their on line product evaluations. The snap shots used of the product are every now and
then the logo owners’ actual snap shots, leaving the patron gambling a guessing recreation
among what's real and pretend. Counterfeits have emerge as real competitors, and this
hassle extends throughout a large number of sectors.

Another facet-impact of counterfeiting is that companies take a hit to their popularity.

considering many clients are unaware that the product of their arms is a faux, while the
knock-off item fails to work efficiently, or it falls aside fast, or it doesn’t meet their
expectancies, then the client will blame the actual organization. Phrase of mouth is, as we
recognize is considered one of the most powerful kinds of advertising. So, whilst those
customers get hold of poor
copies of a product, word
can spread that it's far the
real product that isn't as
much as scratch.

Clients may also go away

terrible evaluations on-
line, further cementing this
new popularity disaster
and furthering the idea that
the real logo makes low-
Figure 04: News About Counterfeit
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exceptional goods. This does two times as an awful lot damage on Amazon; with their
mixed listings device, a purchaser should buy a knock-off from the reliable listing, and
come lower back to the same web page to share bad critiques. Those on line critiques are
used as public signs for brand fine, so the impact can truly resonate. Dealing with returns
proves to be a real headache for organizations too. They acquire faulty copies in their
merchandise which don't have anything to do with the goods they themselves make and
which they haven’t warrantied. Or, inside the case of beauty Blender, the customers can
anticipate the counterfeit charge is the normal price.

If an organization have a price agreement with distributors or shops, and that they see
listings on online platforms which give the product at a decrease charge, their first instinct
is often to suppose they’re being ripped off by way of the organization itself. Why might a
distributor buy a product wholesale if an emblem regarded to definitely undercut them on
price?

Whilst a corporation discovers they’re being focused by counterfeiters, they normally want
to combat again. However that is time-consuming and may be extremely highly-priced.
Sources get pulled away from product development, advertising and anything else the
corporation may additionally had been excited to invest in, and alternatively ought to fund
lawyers and complaints to defend their intellectual assets and protect their copyrights.
Valid groups are pressured to spend loads of hundreds of dollars a year, trying to pressure
back a tidal wave of counterfeits sold on places like Amazon, eBay and Alibaba. CEOs,
innovators and employer founders should spend their time reacting against those
infringements, rather than leading their businesses into the future.

The impact of counterfeit goods on an organization run deeply, and might purpose long-
lasting damage. Manufacturers will see an income hit as soon as the trouble will become
considerable, due to the fact counterfeiters are capable of undercut them on fee. Their
popularity is likewise under hazard, when you consider that clients will equate their logo
with the possibility of purchasing a counterfeit. Purple factors' studies has proven that,
when made privy to widespread counterfeiting of a brand, most purchasers will see that
emblem as much less perfect.
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Once a patron has bought a fake, if they don't realize the character of the product, many
will go back to the actual brand for a solution. This leaves the logo in a state of affairs of
cleaning up a counterfeiter's mess, for none of the praise.

The moves of counterfeiters can also damage a logo's value within the eyes of vendors and
other partners. Exclusivity deals can basically be voided by the actions of criminals, and
may go away valid organizations on every side of a settlement upset.

We believe our unique digital authentication service will become a popular SAAS
company in Bangladesh.

I. Easy to access: It is easy to access to get our service. This service industry is fully
based on online and can be done by SMS as well. So when the customer gets any
trouble with the medicine he/she can verify through our service from any place.
They need to just SMS or use our website platform or send a text in the messenger.
There will be an immediate response for her/ him.
II. Quick response: There are many initiative like us but they take hours to response
and technology behind those are antediluvian. Live Check service provides
response instantaneously. It takes only seconds to get the response.
III. Strong Technology: We can support heavy volume of products. Monthly 30 lacs
different and unique codes are generated through our technology.
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Industry Analysis:
PEST Analysis

PEST stands for political, economic, social, and technological. This analysis will reveal
the overall scenario of Bangladesh of these mentioned factors.

 Ø POLITICAL FACTORS

Political Turmoil:

Bangladesh has always been under some sort of political unrest and recently with the
interim government; the situation has taken a violent downturn. Political instability is one
of the biggest barriers in Bangladesh for any business venture. Sound political situation
helps to grow sound business condition. In our country Political situation is not good at all.
It always inhibits the growing of business. In this case we can face problems to run our
business due to politically unfriendly environment. As our business provides digital
counterfeit solution service, we diminishing the counterfeit market and political big fish
behind the scene may jeopardize our business.

 Ø ECONOMIC FACTORS

GDP and the Income Growth:

Bangladesh has been maintaining a good GDP rate over the last few years and the GDP of
7.9% growth rate as was in 2018 may get dropped due to Corona Pandemic. This is a
negative indicator for our business because a decrease in GDP usually lowers the standard
of living of the people. Therefore, decreased GDP impacts on investment decision. We
may found less deal closing due to low investment.

Ø SOCIAL FACTORS

As Bangladesh has a booming economy, the overall social structure has been changed
dramatically. Now Bangladesh has a strong middle class who has enjoying a stable
economic life. They are more educated and aware of the counterfeiting scenario. They
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really appreciate our service and wants to sustain our action. We think that our service has
already created positive impacts on the society

Ø TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT:

Technological environment has a huge impact on this industry. Due to the technological
advancements, SAAS industry is flourishing in Bangladesh. People are getting
technologically more advanced than ever. Again, being a technology driven company we
have confidence in technological advancement as it grows will bring greater good for our
company as well as our services.

SWOT Analysis

The primary tool used to make sense of the information is a SWOT analysis, which stands
for strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats. The strengths and weaknesses are
internally focused and the opportunities and threats lie in the external marketing
environment. The idea is to leverage the strengths and opportunities and address the
weakness and threats, which is how the key problems and opportunities are identified. The
SWOT analysis of Live Check service will give us the overall profit potential of this
Business.

The SWOT Matrix

Strengths:

 Well educated and trained management sector

 Goodwill
 Exponential growth is sales and profitability in an expanding market
 Technologically advanced compared to their rivals
 Their software service prices are less and more attractive compared to their rivals
 Strong marketing campaigns through social media, client based
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Weakness:

 Very strong competition in the industry

 A newcomer in the industry
 Communication problem between the top management and the employees

Opportunities:

 Authenticity has become a priority for the consumers

 As the counterfeit problem of the country is increasing, businesses will need a
solution for it.
 Purchasing power of authentic product of people are increasing

Threats:

 The biggest issue is the pandemic hovering over the entire business world
 Continuous changing of worldwide pandemic situation
 Strong competitors as it’s a tech company
 The country’s unstable political condition

How Panacea is dealing with threats?

Bargaining power to supplier:

Many a time local dealers cannot provide all instruments in time because of capital
constraints and small group of supplier never help our local dealers to get products within
due time. This is very unpleasing news.

Bargaining power to customers:

As our service is unique to its core and a flexible subscription fee with no setup cost, our
service is worth our price tags.
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Threat of substitutes:

As science always doing hard work to come up with unique and simplified form of any
job, so it assuming that within a short time it will invent newer form of authentication
servicing technology.

Competitive rivalry:

There are no competitions right now in for startup business. Although many tried to come
up with modern and new technology for this sort of service, they failed to do well.

Threat of new entry:

There is potential for the entry of new entrants in the industry but in practice whether they
will enter or not will depend after considering the various forces that will influence entry.
The main objective for doing this one is to provide instant solution available to the public
while they are facing problem with counterfeit solution.

The switching cost for the industry is quite high as it takes a lot of investment to start the
business. Also there is no feasible alternative once they are subscribed to our service. Also
it takes certain level of expertise and knowledge to provide smooth and reliable services to
the corporate clients and this is also unique in the industry. So it will be difficult for new
entrants to enter and take away our business.
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Market Analysis:
Marketing research
Counterfeiting is trillion greenback trouble. The counterfeiting existence-cycle can fast
spoil income volumes. The satisfactory protection strategies also growth customer believe
and supply fantastic blessings like improved sales and emblem equity.

The upward thrust of Counterfeiting

These days counterfeiting is a primary international industry, a substantial risk for any
emblem or business. As era, develops, so too does the sophistication of counterfeiters to
replicate merchandise.

The Devastating outcomes of Counterfeiting

The results of counterfeiting show up in lots of approaches which include:

 Lack of sales and income margin.

 Over production expenses.
 Fraudulent product warranty claims.
 Product legal responsibility claims.
 Logo and product reputation damage.

The Lifecycle of Counterfeiting follows an ordinary over 4 stages:

1. Entry – counterfeiting is at small scale as counterfeiters input the market

generating counterfeit items in small scale. The small extent of counterfeit
production is commonly not detected and lets in counterfeiters to obtain an entry
point from which to scale up.
2. Growth – at this degree the counterfeit product is being produced on a larger scale
and will become extra good value for counterfeiters to similarly scale their
production. By way of now the sales quantity of the genuine product start to gradual
as counterfeit substitution starts off evolved to attain scale and traction.
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3. Critical – increase of the counterfeit product expands hastily to reach an important

scale in which the extent of counterfeit products starts off evolved to noticeably
displace the real product ensuing in declining sales volumes and decline in profit
and marketplace percentage. By using this stage the trouble is in epidemic
proportions and the counterfeiters have hijacked a massive share of the genuine
product’s market percentage. Moreover, purchasers are now aware of the life of
counterfeit products and might forestall purchasing the product which similarly
compounds the declining income quantity.
4. Fatal – Now the counterfeiting trouble will become so big and entrenched that the
genuine product is dropping large income and profit such that it will become
unprofitable. The brand popularity has been damaged such that purchasers no
longer accept as true with the product or company and the situation becomes
untenable.

Moreover, counterfeiting frequently involves a number of factors of a business deliver

chain version which makes it very tough to both detect and defend towards counterfeiters.
In lots of cases the perpetrators are from within the company deliver chain and therefore
have inside

Market trends

As we know consumers’ minds changes over time about new service, and there is hardly
any new service innovation for counterfeit solution market to fulfill those changes and keep
the customers satisfied. Customers want the quick response and quick service. Therefore,
we think our service will be able to meet new trend of customer’s preference and provide
the leverage to our business partners to uphold their brand image.

Competition

At present, there are couple of solution service to the counterfeit solution. They are our
main competitors where they have served customers blindfolded service such a long time.
Although our business idea is new, we come in this service industry with a new concept
where we can serve the customer as immediately as possible. But our business is fully
 30

serving the customer as soon as can, which we called live check solution. We will give
customer platform like Messenger, Web portal and SMS for verification through our
service. They want quick service. For that reason we think that there have little portion of
competitors against us. We will get a good feedback and we can sustain our business for
long run.

Market Segmentation

We emphasize on different major variables those are used in segmenting consumer market
such as- geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral variables. Mostly high
value products and market players are qualified when filtered by our qualification metrics.

Target Market

Through market segmenting evaluation, we find out target market segmentation-

differentiated marketing. In our market coverage strategy, we look at several market
segments and design separate offer according to market segments. Our service is for
corporate clients.

Strategic Marketing:

Product (Service): Live Check is a service by which customers can distinguish an authentic
product from fake and grey channel products.

 Every unit product gets a unique identity

 Codes can be verified only once
 2nd verification will flag the product to the customer. Mass copying of one package
becomes useless because
 One copy for every package is unprofitable

Pricing: Price (Savings): Pricing is such a crucial factor in marketing of a product/ service.
We also faced the same problem when our team was working on it. We have to consider
that as it will be a subscription fee per month, if the price goes high people will refuse to
take our service. To attract our potential business clients pricing is a very important factor.
 31

As we are a startup company and also our target market is specified so to establish better
relation with our target market we will follow the skimming pricing strategy. As per our
analysis, collected data and our service cost we have decided to offer our service in
different category prices which given below:

Service Charge chart:

Live Check features 0 unit 1 unit - 1 1 - 5 lakh 5 - 10 10 - 30 Live Check

lakh unit unit lakh lakh unit Pro
unit

All plans include Bangla BDT BDT BDT BDT BDT + Additional
SMS, Dedicated Keyword BDT 29,000
19000 29000 49000 79000 99000
and optional masked SMS
/month /month /month /month /month /month

SMS Verification

Code Generation

Dynamic QR Code with a

unique identity

Auto Input Verification

Analytics
 32

Dedicated messenger
platform

Dedicated website

Table 1: Service Charge for Live Check

Place (Space):

We are currently working in shared working space in Banani and our major target
companies have their office nearby.

Promotion (Support):

It’s a new concept in the country. Our company is a new company in market with a new
idea for this reason we are enough careful to make strong company fame, brand recognition
and loyal customer. The following types of promotional approach we will take to promote
our business.

Personal Selling:

Personal Selling is an effective way to manage personal customer relationships. We have

a part-time undergrad student as our sales associate and immediate subordinate of a sales
executive. These sales persons act on behalf of our company. They make appointments
with potential companies and get done with the meeting. Then they let them know about
our services and persuade the companies to close the deal.
 33

Brochure:

We will use brochures for our promotion too. We will print brochures and will distribute
those in companies of our targeted areas. And we will distribute those to some popular
chain shops and vendors with connection to our potential business clients.

Gifts:

We will gift Table calendar, Diary with our company illustration as promotion tool as well
as disinfectant of our existing customer. Basically we will give those tokens when we go
to a company or organization for corporate deals. And we will give those things to our
loyal customers too.

Website and Social Media:

We have our own website, Facebook page, LinkedIn page for online marketing and SEO
optimization for our website is another tool for our strong online presence.
 34

Chapter Three
Internship Duties and Responsibilities

Sales Function

 Brainstorm lead channels: Find out companies from specific industries or sales
channels to analyze from different platforms such as Google, social media,
newspaper, articles etc.
 Identify potential customers: Identifying potential clients that match the
qualification matrix set by the founders and then redeveloped by myself.
 Prepare and pitch services to brands that are fit to be pursued: Prepare PowerPoint
presentations according to the unique solution that is developed for companies and
conduct outbound sales with the executive to pitch our service.

Product Functions:

 Ideate and conceptualize innovative solutions: Participated in product innovation

process. Where we had to locate a problem that can be solved by software and
record the brainstormed data and aspiring software functionalities.
 Helped with building and documenting software products that may be useful for
potential customers/TG of Panacea.

Pharmacy Function:

 Educated myself with basic understanding of the pharmaceutical industry, active

ingredients in pharmaceutical products, etc. to deliver valuable insights to the sales
team.
 35

Others:

1. Documentation: Preparing CRM documentations, database development, and

campaign plan documentation.
2. Preparing reports: Had to prepare monthly, quarterly sales report at the end of the
mentioned time span.
3. Writing meeting notes and summaries: Each visit to TG is a valuable information
earning time. Therefore, after returning from a visit had to prepare meeting notes and
summarize the communication that took place for future reference.
4. Research: Intensive research for customers’ need and product innovation was a day
to day operation.

On site — at the office

 Research each company against our qualification metrics
 Find out which companies are qualified targets from the final score
 Brief the rest of the sales team on analysis
 Call companies when needed to find information
 Help the team to find specific information

Off-site Perform channel visits -

 Visit retail/sales channels to penetrate further with more brands
 Go scouting for retail/sales channel suitable for the company to pursue, discovery
and communication,

Prepare -
 Find out the corporate contact information of qualified targets
 Try to find references or acquaintances within those companies using Google,
Facebook, LinkedIn and other web services for this step.
 Call selected companies according to the script and schedule a meeting with the
executives.
 36

Chapter Four
Leanings/Experiences from Internship program

As an employee in Sales team and diversified learning opportunities from working in a

startup environment, I feel privileged to be able to gain knowledge and understanding of
different departments of a company. I brainstormed about various lead channels to find out
companies from specific industries or sales channels to analyze from different platforms
such as Google, social media, newspaper, articles etc. I have gained a solid capability of
conducting intensive research for customers’ need and product innovation was a day to day
operation. I can now set different qualification metrics to find out a good lead and find out
which companies are qualified targets from the final score easily. I can conduct cold calls
and achieve a formal visit to any company I may deemed fit and carry out a corporate
meeting. I know outbound visit to retail/sales channels to penetrate further with more
brands and scouting for retail/sales channel suitable for the company to pursue, discovery
and communication. My strong sense of design and elegance enabled me to prepare pitch
presentations for any corporate occasion/deal. I developed my professional PowerPoint and
excel skills so that I can carry out day to day operations in a corporate setup at ease and
maintain efficiency.
Developed strong problem solving capabilities and can ideate and conceptualize innovative
solutions in product innovation process. Educated myself with basic understanding of the
pharmaceutical industry, active ingredients in pharmaceutical products, etc. to deliver
valuable insights.
Learnt preparing CRM documentations, database development, and execution of
marketing campaign plan, developing month end reports to defend my activities.
Then again, apart from core functional work, I have developed my decision making,
financial forecasting, business development, strategic marketing, expenditure
management, HR activity execution capabilities as well so that in future no matter in which
 37

organization I work for, I can prove my versatility and knowledge of diverse functionalities
in an organization.

Aside from all these technical skills, it was a great learning experience from the founders
of Panacea Live, the Aswad Brothers. They are the great example of establishing a
successful startup. From them, I gained the capability to see market insights, learned how
to penetrate market, how leadership can change an organizational environment to a positive
dimension. The knowledge I gained from the Panacea’s employees is like gold mining. I
learned in every steps as part of Panacea live. My communication skill have improved. My
leadership skills shines bright. The fear of taking initiative works no more for me.
Punctuality is a virtue that I learned in this practical setup. Time management, multitasking,
critical thinking, analytical skills have been improved to a great extent. I was able to
observe how visionary leadership can change an organization to a high-ambition zone. The
eloquence of my line manager is top notch, and it’s a dream that I am working every day
to become capable of delivering a speech/presentation worth remembering in front of
people I have just met. I developed a keen sense of design that makes me able to compare
among various design works and choose the best one. Every occasion is unique and every
customer has their sets of opinion, is what I practically experienced. I have a
comprehensive knowledge now about corporate industry, their norms and values, cultures
and traditions. I can make myself fit in every corporate setup and work as professionally
as possible to deliver my best in company’s interest. I understand what attracts investors,
clients, customers, each have their own set of variable likings and hence, different sets of
outreach is required. I believe, what I learnt from Panacea, is hardly possible to express
fully thorough writing. Words will fall short!
 38

Chapter Five
Literature Review & Theoretical Framework

Literature Review

Throughout the years, individuals have gathered to discuss and learn about methods of
gaining influence over an organization. Some of these norms have been made explicit in
codes, principles, rules, adages, edicts, and maxims—the discursive artifacts that
individuals employ to exert political power as well as claim moral authority—as a result
of encounters like these (Sitkin et al., 2018.). To explain how an organization exerted
power at a certain time and location, individuals have produced tales that link the facts to
behavioral norms and institutional circumstances. People's perceptions of organizational
control have evolved through time, and these perceptions have had an impact on the tales
they have shared (Zomerdijk and De Vries, 2013).

Henri Fayol coined one of the first definitions of control in the organization in 1916, and
it has been widely used since. Making sure that everything is done in line with the agreed-
upon plan, the provided instructions, and the established principles is an essential part of
managing a business. Its goal is to point out errors so that they may be fixed and avoided
in the future. Pre-determined criteria and plans are used to guarantee enough development
and good results, says EFL Brech. Measurement and adjustment of performance in order
to make sure that the goals and strategies for achieving them are met is referred to as
controlling. Managing, according to Stafford Beer, is a career that focuses on control. One
definition offered by Robert J. Mockler encompasses a broader scope of organizational
control: organizational control is a kind of torture used by companies as a means of
ensuring that their human and other corporate resources are being used as efficiently and
effectively as possible in the pursuit of their goals and, if necessary, to correct any
inconsistencies that may be found.
 39

To begin, let's look at one of the rare cases when current organizational researchers have
explicitly addressed the substance of this profound human legacy. Furthermore, the ancient
Chinese exploited concepts of agency connections to devise new methods of exercising
control over organizations, as described by Rindova and Starbuck (Flamholtz, 1996). On
to eighteenth-century Europe and then America to see how organizational control was
exercised across Western civilization. We go into detail about the rise of industrial
bureaucracy and the ways in which workers frequently rebelled against the restrictions
imposed by these structures. We look at how this opposition produced initiatives to make
organizational governance more responsive to human needs and more democratic (Ouchi,
1977).

Organizational control was always there to establish new norms, values, strategies
throughout the organization. When an organization faces change, it can be adopting new
strategies or approaches, it may initiate as deemed fit by the hierarchy, otherwise, may have
there been some natural change in the environment caused by disasters or anything,
organizational control always plays the pivotal role in shaping the organization according
to the change. In that way, employees adopt new changes and delves into the newly
shaped/developed culture. This true for a Tsunami hit area or the latest COVID-19
pandemic, they all brigs changes and it is the control mechanism of the organization that
shapes how the organization and their resources should behave at the time of crisis.

The Covid-19 Covid spread has unfortunately borne out disadvantage situations to
worldwide economy and individuals' exercises. China is the principal country recorded the
spread of the infection with in excess of 80,000 individuals contaminated and World Health
Organization (WHO) had announced Covid-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020
(Congressional Research Service, 2020).

The infection flare-up has spread quick and expected to keep spreading to all pieces of the
world. Presently, in excess of 140 nations have detailed around 735,000 nauseated cases
(Legislative Research Service, 2020; Craven et al., 2020) and the cases are expanding
dramatically in United State of America, Italy, Germany, France, Iran and different nations
(Segal and Gerstel, 2020). All things considered, the states, organizations, people actually
 40

have significant capacity to control the infection's movements through a few explicit
activities (Craven et al., 2020; Smith-Bingham and Hariharan, 2020). Development
control, lockdown, constrainment and social removing are among the state run
administrations' work to shield exceptional general wellbeing and financial reactions
(Cowardly et al., 2020). The Covid may not swing back completely once the episode has
yielded (Craven et al., 2020). The pandemic circumstance and ensuing effect of COVID-
19 have turned into the focal point of scholastic exploration as the main horrendous recent
development. In general, the flare-up of COVID-19 significantly affects the large scale
economy: initial, a "bluff downfall" in friendly interest happened; second, a huge adverse
consequence on speculation, commodity, and utilization request was noticed; and third,
social business and cost levels varied fundamentally (Nicola et. al., 2020). For endeavors,
the proceeded with spread of the plague has limited the populace's opportunity of
development, enormously decreased customers' excitement for utilization, and pointedly
diminished the market request (Chen et al., 2021). Far and wide closure and planned
operations control are as of now blocking the stock of unrefined components and items
along the whole modern chain, which influences creation supply for the whole society.
Atalan et al., 2020 accepts that a specific level of noninterventionist strategy has made
many endeavors stay in semi-closure or keep up with low-level activities for a significant
stretch, and creation and tasks have thusly gone up against outrageous troubles.

According to Passetti et al., 2021, The management control systems additionally

empowered to monitor and survey the COVID-19 lockdown's monetary ramifications. The
lockdown-related financial situation and its perplexing future patterns enhanced the
outcomes controls' everyday significance contrasted with the typical manner by which the
enterprises conducts its business analysis. Cost information and business pointers, for
example, the average of clients' expense, items' sales financial plans, sorts of items sold,
working edge and variable expenses started to be observed all the more rapidly for the
directors to comprehend the monetary impacts of the lockdown and the changed utilization
propensities.
 41

Theoretical Framework
Organization Control Process
Control is the regulation of organizational activities to keep some focused element of
performance remains within acceptable limits. Without this regulation, organizations have
no indication of how well they are performing in relation to their goals. Control keeps the
organization moving in the proper direction and provides an organization with a
mechanism for adjusting its course if performance falls outside acceptable boundaries.

The Purpose of Control

Adapting to Environmental Change: In today’s complex and turbulent business environment,
all organizations must cope up with the change. If hierarchy could establish goals and
achieve them instantaneously, control would not be desired. But, between the times a goal
is established and the time it is reached, many things can happen in the organization and
its environment to disrupt movement toward the goal or even to change the goal itself. A
properly designed control system can help managers anticipate, monitor, and respond to
changing circumstances. In contrast, an improperly designed system can result in
organizational performance that falls far below acceptable levels

Limiting the Accumulation of Error: Petty mistakes and errors do not often seriously damage
the financial health of an organization. Over time, however, small errors may accumulate
and become very serious.

Figure 05: Purpose of Control

 42

Coping with Organizational Complexity: When a firm purchases only one raw material,
produces one product, has a simple organization design, and take delight on constant
demand for its product, its managers can maintain control with a very basic and simple
system. But a business that produces many products from myriad raw materials and has a
large market area, a complicated organization design, and many competitors needs a
sophisticated system to maintain adequate control. When large firms merge, the short term
results are often disappointing. The typical reason for this is that the new enterprise is so
large and complex that the existing control systems are simply inadequate.

Minimizing Costs: When it is practiced effectively, control can also help reduce costs and
boost output. Effective control systems can eliminate waste, lower labor costs, and improve
output per input.

Types of Control
Areas of Control: Control can focus on any area of an organization. Most organizations
define areas of control in terms of the four basic types of resources they use: physical,
human, information, and financial. Control of physical resources includes inventory
management, quality control, and equipment control. Control of human resources includes
selection and placement, training and development, performance appraisal, and
compensation. Relatedly, organizations also attempt to control the behavior of their
employees, directing them toward higher performance, for example, and away from
unethical behaviors. Control of information resources includes sales and marketing
forecasting, environmental analysis, public relations, production scheduling, and economic
forecasting. Financial control involves managing the organization’s financial obligations
so that they do not become excessive, ensuring that the firm always has enough cash on
hand to meet its obligations but does not have excess cash sitting idly in a checking account,
and ensuring that receivables are collected and bills are paid on a timely basis. In many
ways, the control of financial resources is the most important area, because financial
resources are related to the control of all the other resources in an organization. Too much
inventory leads to storage costs; poor selection of personnel leads to termination and
 43

rehiring expenses; inaccurate sales forecasts lead to disruptions in cash flows and other
financial effects. Financial issues tend to pervade most control related activities.

Levels of Control: Just as control can be broken down by area, it can also be broken down
by level within the organizational system. Operations control focuses on the processes the
organization uses to transform resources into products or services. Quality control is one
type of operations control. Financial control is concerned with the organization’s financial
resources. Monitoring receivables to make sure customers are paying their bills on time is
an example of financial control. Structural control is concerned with how the elements of
the organization’s structure are serving their intended purpose. Monitoring the
administrative ratio to make sure staff expenses do not become excessive is an example of
structural control. Finally, strategic control focuses
on how effectively the organization’s corporate,
business, and functional strategies are succeeding
in helping the organization meet its goals. For
example, if a corporation has been unsuccessful in
implementing its strategy of related diversification,
its managers need to identify the reasons for that
lack of success and either change the strategy or
renew their efforts to implement it Figure 06: Levels of Control

Responsibilities for Control: Historically, managers have been responsible for overseeing the
wide array of control systems and concerns in organizations. They decide which types of
control the organization will use, and they implement control systems and take actions
based on the information provided by control systems. Thus, ultimate responsibility for
control rests with all managers throughout an organization. Larger organizations also have
one or more specialized managerial positions called controller/coordinator. A controller is
responsible for helping line managers with their control activities, for coordinating the
organization’s overall control system, and for gathering and assimilating relevant
information. Many businesses that use an H-form or M-form organization design have
several controllers: one for the corporation and one for each division. The job of controller
 44

is especially important in organizations where control systems are complex. In addition,

many organizations are also beginning to use operating employees to help maintain
effective control. Indeed, employee participation is often used as a vehicle for allowing
operating employees an opportunity to help facilitate organizational effectiveness

Steps in the Control Process: Regardless of the type or levels of control systems that an
organization needs, each control process has four fundamental steps.

Figure 07: Steps of Control Process

Establishing Standards: The first step in the control process is establishing standards. A
control standard is a target against which subsequent performance will be compared.
Standards established for control purposes should be expressed in measurable terms.
Control standards should also be consistent with the organization’s goals. Control
standards can be as narrow or as broad as the level of activity to which they apply and must
follow logically from organizational goals and objectives. A final aspect of establishing
standards is to identify performance indicators. Performance indicators are measures of
performance that provide information that is directly relevant to what is being controlled.

Measuring Performance: The second step in the control process is measuring performance.
Performance measurement is a constant, ongoing activity for most organizations. For
control to be effective, performance measures must be valid. Daily, weekly, and monthly
 45

sales figures measure sales performance, and production performance may be expressed in
terms of unit cost, product quality, or volume produced. Employees’ performance is often
measured in terms of quality or quantity of output, but for many jobs, measuring
performance is not so straightforward

Comparing Performance Against Standards: The third step in the control process is comparing
measured performance against established standards. Performance may be higher than,
lower than, or identical to the standard. In some cases, comparison is easy. Because this
standard is clear and total sales are easy to calculate, it is relatively simple to determine
whether this standard has been met. Sometimes, however, comparisons are less clear-cut.
If performance is lower than expected, the question is how much deviation from standards
to allow before taking remedial action. The timetable for comparing performance to
standards depends on a variety of factors, including the importance and complexity of what
is being controlled. For long run and higher-level standards, annual comparisons may be
appropriate

Considering Corrective Action: The final step in the control process is determining the need
for corrective action. Decisions regarding corrective action draw heavily on a manager’s
analytic and diagnostic skills. For example, as health-care costs have risen, many firms
have sought ways to keep their own expenses in check. Some have reduced benefits; others
have opted to pass on higher costs to their employees. After comparing performance
against control standards, one of three actions is appropriate: Maintain the status quo,
correct the deviation, or change the standards. Maintaining the status quo is preferable
when performance essentially matches the standards, but it is more likely that some action
will be needed to correct a deviation from the standards. Sometimes, performance that is
higher than expected may also cause problems for organizations. Changing an established
standard usually is necessary if it was set too low or too high at the outset. This is apparent
if large numbers of employees routinely beat the standard by a wide margin or if no
employees ever meet the standard. Also, standards that seemed perfectly appropriate when
they were established may need to be adjusted if circumstances have since changed.
 46

Chapter Six
Methodologies

Introduction
The paper discusses the impact of this pandemic on organizational control in Panacea Live
and gather comprehensive knowledge about Panacea Live's strategies regarding
operational and financial control amid COVID-19 and post COVID-19 as a startup. For
answering the objective questions mentioned in chapter one, a descriptive research was
carried out through interviewing the employees of Panacea Live Ltd.

The Research Design

Research Philosophy
The research is based on the philosophy of Interpretivism where the author tried to focus
on qualitative research through participating as a part of Sales force in Panacea and
observing the people’s belief and culture about the targeted organization.

Research Type
The research conducted in Inductive research methodology through gathering data and
taking an exploratory approach. Qualitative data has been collected for the research
purpose.

Research Strategy
An ethnographic research strategy has been taken to develop this paper where author
observed and captured the experiences and perceptions of the employees of the Panacea
Live Ltd.

Time Horizon
The data is based on cross-sectional time horizon where the data is collected at one point
of the time.
 47

Sampling Strategy
Target population was the employees of Panacea Live. We could establish contact with
only 8 employees out of 11. Their response served as the data.

Data Collection Method

Qualitative data were collected by interviewing the employees of panacea Live. A
Questionnaire was developed through google form and is given in Appendix A.

Sources of Data
Information and data collected for the purpose of writing this research paper were from
both Primary and secondary sources. All the data were also collected as objectively as
possible.

Primary Sources of Data:

 Written Document of the company such as brochure, facebook page, website etc.
 Informal interview with the CEO & Executive, B2B Sales and CFO of Panacea
Live.
 Phone Calls to ex-panacea employees
 Personal Experience of the author.

Secondary Sources of Data:

The secondary data has been collected from the vast number of websites, research papers
and articles whose authors have worked or researched on subjects that Studied on the
Organization Control implementation on Tech Industry, COVID Impacts on Business and
Peoples psychology. All theoretical knowledge has been gathered from secondary sources
and our textbook named Management Principles and Practices- Ricky W. Griffin.

Data Analysis Technique

With all the qualitative data gathered from primary and secondary sources, the approach
taken for the analysis is the content analysis through establishing relations between theory
and findings using graphs/charts etc.
 48

The Methodological Limitations

The study is conducted as comprehensive as possible. But, there will always be some
limitations. In this case the limitations were the time taken for completing the study, lack
of knowledge of conducting comprehensive research design, lack of experience etc.

Concluding Summary
This chapter sketches the research design – the approaches taken in different steps to carry
out a solid paper and how the data were collected- the methodology taken. This section of
the paper talks about the limitations and techniques of the report’s background.
 49

Chapter Seven
Analysis

COVID-19 has affected business tasks gigantically and new companies have been going
to lengths to adjust to the difficulties introduced by the pandemic. New startups are testing
at an extraordinary rate to stay aware of the Covid-19-initiated difficulties with strategy
changes and changing functional dynamics. Even regulators taking measures to relieve the
effect of the pandemic on organizations' everyday activities. The focal point of these
activities has essentially been on compliances and that too as a makeshift plan. To the
extent that changes which would have expansive results in re-forming the manners in which
business activities are organized, the main basic viewpoints have been the accentuation on
digitization, diminishing the number and level of compliances and ramifications for not
gathering the compliances.

IMPACT ON OPERATIONS CONTROL

One of the four levels of control practiced by most organizations, operations control is
concerned with the processes that the organization uses to transform resources into
products or services. Organizational Control was greatly affected by COVID-19.
According to the employees of panacea, the scope of control was better offline as when the
organization adopted online working, it was hassling to cope up with control dynamics.
The three forms of operations control, preliminary, screening, and post-action occur at
different points in relation to the transformation processes used by the organization.

Preliminary Control: Preliminary control concentrates on the resources such as financial,

material, human, and information, the organization brings in from the environment.
Preliminary control attempts to monitor the quality or quantity of these resources before
they enter the organization. Due to covid-19 the major challenge for Panacea was to sustain
existing revenue turn over monthly to continue operations. According to the CEO of
Panacea, they have seen growth in terms of financial resources. They had their paycheck
 50

coming from their clients as well as new clients were onboarding. Although, they had to
shift from WFO to WFH during the pandemic situation but that actually saved the office
expenditure and they were able to maintain their HR well. All information management
system went online. It was already a tech startup, their majority of activities is done through
online/software platform. WFH setup didn’t hamper the business, except their sales
function was going nowhere without physical meetings, that was left standstill until
lockdown was eased. Panacea’s HR control was top notch as it was evident that the
employees are cross trained and they could perform multiple departmental activities when
in need.

Screening Control: Screening control focuses on meeting standards for product or service
quality or quantity during the actual transformation process itself. Screening control relies
heavily on feedback processes. More and more companies are adopting screening controls
because they are an effective way to promote employee participation and catch problems
early in the overall transformation process. At panacea, the employees were well trained to
perform remote working and the company provides infrastructural support when needed to
carry on the work even though they are online. Although there seems to have some
supervisory complexity in online office, Panacea came out just fine with the highly
motivated employees. At the time while others were tackling the COVID-19, the demand
of Live Check service increased. Although with more and more improvements from the
counterfeiters’ end, it was only a matter of time that the service has to be re-innovated.
Based on this need, Panacea’s Live Check went on the innovation phrase and became Live
Check Pro with better service and accuracy.

Figure 08: Product Logo

Postaction Control: Postaction control focuses on the outputs of the organization after the
transformation process is complete. After Panacea developed Live Check Pro, the major
 51

challenge was the implementation. At that time our major client was and first client to take
on the new service was Renata’s most running and successful brand Maxpro. The newly
developed product took quite a time due to the ups and downs caused by the COVID-19
and finally successful implementation was done after a long awaited seven months. It was
post lockdown scenarios when Panacea was running short in liquidity as their clients were
facing severe short in liquidity due to the huge economical backlog caused by the COVID-
19. Panacea developed liquidity crisis countermeasures through spending from owners’
equity. Post-lockdown office rejoiced with different new campaigns, mostly marketing
centric, and the sales team got new targets to fill up quota missed in the lockdown. The
work days increased by one day. Better monitoring on the performance were established
when things returned to offline.

IMPACT ON FINANCIAL CONTROL

Financial control is the control of financial resources as they flow into the organization,
are held by the organization, and flow out of the organization. Businesses must manage
their finances so that revenues are sufficient to cover costs and still return a profit to the
firm’s owners. There is one term that is always true for a company, Growth is always
expensive. Panacea was seeing steady flow of their existing revenue, whereas this is true,
on the other hand, this pandemic is also slowed the overall economy. It is crucial time for
Panacea. The growth period of startup needs marketing budget, HR budget at the minimum.
While, maintaining existing employee base and expenditure for operations, was at par with
the revenue coming from the clients, to ensure growth fresh money push was also needed.
There was marketing cost for the new product, customer conversion costs, employee
detainment cost, office rents, miscellaneous cost, new employee enrollment cost etc. that
actually was tough to maintain at the moment as the number of clients wanted to onboard
afresh was facing some financial crisis temporarily and the dealings were continuously
getting delayed. It was soon after the lockdown was eased, the expenditure was increasing
while the income was at the status quo. Down the road panacea had to leave two of their
employees to cut cost.
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Chapter Eight
Findings, Conclusion, Limitation and Recommendation

Findings
Total population size = 8 (Panacea’s Employee). Among them 5 are males and 3 are
females. The study is conducted from gender neutral position, although the portion of
male is higher (62.5%) compared to female’s (37.5%).

Gender Demography of the Population

Male Female

5 3

Total population: 8

Table 02: Gender Demography of the Population

The team panacea is made up of some young, energetic individuals aging from 22-30 years.
From the table below it is crystal clear that the majority of the population (50%) is aged
25-26. 25% respondents are 28+ and 12.5% each for 22-24 and 26-28 age group.

Age Demography of the population

Male Female Total

22-24 1 1

25-26 1 3 4

26-28 1 1

28+ 2 2

Table 03: Age Demography of the Population

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Total eight respondents participated in the interview. The questions were very thoughtfully
developed so that we can have a comprehensive idea on the impacts. Among the
participants there were 75% who joined 2 years ago and 25% joined 4 years ago. This is a
trend in panacea that employees work here for maximum of 2/3 years and then leave for
better positions in better organization. All the employees are well learnt and yields value
of great extent. But it can be otherwise be comprehended as the managerial lacking to keep
the HR committed.

Figure 09

Next question was asked if they think the COVID-19 pandemic had impact on the
organizational control. It seems everyone affirmed positive about impact. There is
undoubtedly a great impact on the Panacea’s organizational control. They took their
operations online after the first lockdown and took necessary measurements to tackle the
pandemic.

Figure 10
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After going online, they faced a number of challenges in terms of organizational control.
There were little scope of control in online operations. With all the unfortunate incidents
happening, the emplyoees were tensed, lacked knowledge of online working as it was a
new concept back then. All sales operations were to shut down in the lockdown. About
62.5% employees believe that the scope of control is better in offline setups than online,
whereas 37.5% employees think it is other ways around.

Figure 11

About 75% employees believe that in an online set up, there is huge constraints and
limitations to control. But 25% still believes that offline control has its limitations and
constraints to.

Figure 12
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Another problem regarding control is the supervisory complexity. When asked 62.5%
employees responded that the complexity arises in terms of supervising is higher in online
office as it is very much easy to bunk regular office works and supervising through online
media is not always yields value. Although 37.5% believes they did not have any problem
to supervise in online set up rather offline supervising was not up to the mark as it is tech
base company, things to teach is all online.

Figure 13

When asked if the workplace controlling changed in regards to the pandemic and shifted
towards remote working, there was 75% positive response and 12.5% said no and 12.5%
was indifferent about the change.

Figure 14
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When asked about the change in performance measurement standards, about 75%
employees confirmed that there was a change in the measurement standards due to the
change in work style. About 12.5% seen no change and 12.5% was not sure of the change.

Figure 15

As COVID-19 increased absenteeism, it greatly effected organization control as HR

management in this time of crisis was not an easy deal. As panacea is a small startup, 62.5%
employees thinks with more than 25% absenteeism Panacea cannot function properly.
Though 25% people believe it can and 12.5% says they do not know.

Figure 16
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Again, there was mixed reaction when asked if there are high absenteeism, can the rest of
the employees perform multiple duties. About 62.5% was neutral and 12.5% disagreed.
But 25% agrees that they can perform cross departmental duties easily.

Figure 17

There is positive response when asked if they can now work remotely in a proper way.
About 87.5% people agrees they can. Rests 12.5% are not sure if they can or not. This a
good sign and proves the change control is well adopted by the employees and prepared
themselves for the pandemic.

Figure 18
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Not only the HR approves remote working but also the company can provide the
infrastructure support needed to shift to an at-home workforce. About 87.5% agrees with
question at hand whereas 12.5% disagrees.

Figure 19

Panacea has a crisis management team to manage short-term liquidity impacts and initiate
appropriate countermeasures. The team is consist of CEO and Executive, Enterprise Sales
About 87.5% agrees and 12.5% disagrees. This shows the visionary leadership in the
organization.

Figure 20
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The pandemic made a shift in the controlling method of budgeting or allocation of

resources. About 62.5% claims that this shift is positive. 12.5% disagrees and 25% are not
sure of it.

Figure 21

Another dimension of operational control is performance management, when asked in

which state the control over performance management was better, about 75% voted for
offline and 25% voted for online.

Figure 22
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Conclusion

The effects on the organization were existent but not downright disastrous. The company
did close down during the lockdown but was among the first companies to implement the
work from home strategy. They quickly adapted to the situation and shifted their work
entirely online. The transactions were done on a timely basis and the operations were
carried out smoothly. But if we look into the financial part of the company, this is where
they took a blow. During the lockdown period and this ongoing pandemic, no Live check
services were brought and the company could not get clients for its core services. But the
company bought new services to adapt the pandemic effect. They made a website
containing COVID-19 updates. However, the company’s cash flow was disrupted as
predicted. Their income stayed the same while their current liabilities increased. The
company also had to pay taxes on that small income which added to the misery of the
situation. The aim of this report is to have a clear picture of how the Panacea’s
organizational control has been affected by the COVID-19 situation. We are now seeing a
multitude of ways in which technology has stepped up to help individuals and businesses
survive a situation that is otherwise disastrous. Thanks to remote work, jobs are being
saved. Thanks to video chat, human linkage persists. Any of their vital programs can be
continued virtually and safely by doctors and mental health practitioners.

Recommendations

(i) The company’s ordinary shareholders / board members should inject

money from their own pockets as equity to keep the current assets and
fixed assets stable and come out of the liquidity crisis.
(ii) Since with the lockdown everything is shifted to work from home, the
leaders need to rethink their strategy. They need to invest in
technological tools so that the online work environment gets easier and
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it improves productivity. With this they can be able to survive in the

competitive tech market.
(iii) Since the clients are unable to pay for new product, the company can
introduce payment installment plans where they will be able to pay the
money slowly and in long term plans.

Limitations

Limitation of time: With more time, I could have been more comprehensive with the data.

Lack of data: Most of the data were collected from primary source and as there was lack
of secondary material on the topic, I could not be able to collect more data for comparing
with that of in global setup.

Information disclosure issue: This is the most widespread problem that all the interns face
and I was not any different. With the fear that any type of sensitive information might get
leaked, according to the company policy all the data were not disclosed. I could not get the
financial data of the company due to this issue
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Appendix A
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Appendix B
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