Term 1 Quarter 1:
1) Managerial Economics: Microeconomics : Pindyck, Rubinfeld

2) Quantitative Techniques : Applied Statistics in Business & Economics : David Doane; Lori Seward

3) Corporate Strategy: Strategic Management A Dynamic Perspective : Carpenter Sanders;

4) Corporate Strategy: Strategic Management : Ireland; Hoskisson; Hitt

5) Management Accounting : Financial Accounting for Management : Ramachandran; Ram Kumar Kakani

6) Operations Research: Introduction to Management Science: William Stevenson; Ceyhun Ozgur

7) Marketing Management: Marketing Management:Kotler;Keller;Koshy;Jha

8) Leadership Workshop

IIMK offers

• PGP program – (Post Graduate Program) Admissions through CAT (Common admissions test)
• EPGP/EEPGM (eMEP) program – (Executive Post Graduate Program)Admissions through e-MAT (Executive Management Aptitude Test)
• FPM – (Fellow  Program in Management) Admissions through CAT/GMAT/GRE/GATE/UGC/CSIR-JRF
• MDP – Management Development Program
• FDP – Faculty Development Program

Differentiators:

• IIMK is the first institute in Asia Pacific to offer an Interactive Distance Learning (IDL) management program to working employees using satellite enabled technology in 2001 – 2002.
• IIMK was accredited to AMBA in 2011. It is the third such institute in India after SP Jain Institute of Management Research and MDI Gurgaon. AMBA certifies the MBA program as opposed to EQUIS and AACSB that certify the B School.
• IIMK promotes gender diversity the women intake is around 30% for the PGP program.
• IIMK believes in Value for Many and Value for Money.
• The IIMK campus manages all its requirement for water through rain water harvesting as the primary source of water.

The motto of the institute is “Yogaha Karmasau Kaushalam” ; – “Diligence Leads To Excellence”; The core purpose of IIMK  is  “Globalizing Indian Thought”.

The VISION of the institute is “The institute seeks to achieve excellence and a leadership position in management education and to become a major learning resource centre in the Asia-Pacific region.”

The MISSION of the institute is ” The institute seeks to inculcate a spirit of lifelong learning. It aspires to strengthen the capabilities of integrating concepts with applications and values. It aims to contribute towards the development of communities of dependable, capable, caring and fair-minded people.”

IIMK Kozhikode; Calicut; Vasco Da Gamma;

The annual cultural fest of IIMK is called Echoes; The cultural committee celebrates various festivals in the campus. The cultural fest includes events in the following categories Literary; Fashion; Music; Dance; Theatre; Workshops; Quiz

The flagship annual management event of IIMK is called Backwaters; It is a national level event and witnesses participation from over 150 B-schools. It includes events in business. The theme of backwaters is

• People
• Planet
• Profit

Other events which are part of the backwaters are Business Plan Competition, Unearthing the next CEO,Rural Nirmaan,Corporate Dinner, Green Initiatives, etc

IIMK Blackboard: This is the learning management system used by the EPGP participants.

IIMK Career Portal for PGP

IIMK Career Portal for EPGP

IIMK Alumni Website: The IIMK alumni committee builds long lasting relations with the alumni and organizes the annual alumni meet both at IIMK and at six different cities across the country.

I read the entire book in a couple of days. The book inspires confidence and instills a sense of pride in building world class brands from India and for India.

Future group is the parent company for all the retail formats such as  Value retail – Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, & KB’s Fairprice, Lifestyle retail – Pantaloon, & Central, Digital retail – Future Bazaar, Electronics retail – eZone, Home retail – Home Town. The corporate credo of Future group is “Rewrite Rules Retain Values”.

The book follows the entrepreneurial journey of Kishore Biyani from setting up a cloth retail store called Manz retail to building successful brands such as Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, John Miller, Bare etc.

Insights from the book:

Big Bazaar is positioned as a value retailer for India 1 (Consuming class) & India 2 (Serving class).  Many of the modern retail formats target the consuming class, which constitutes about 14% of the country’s population. India 1 comprises of Upper middle class, Middle class, and Lower middle class sections of the society.India 2 comprises of a section of the society which serves India 1. People such as cooks, house helps, and drivers fall into this category. India 2 constitutes about 55% of the population.  For every India 1 there are 2-3 India 2′s serving them. India 3 (Struggling class) comprises of people with hand-to-mouth existence. The needs of India 3 is met by the government of India and there are no existing business models to address their needs.

Emotions that drive shopping behavior: Greed, altruism, fear, and envy. GREED drives a customer to purchase more than what he or she needs. Wide range of options, better products, and lower prices generates increased desire to purchase. Often, a customer sees it as a good opportunity to buy more than what he or she needs and to GIFT others as well. Higher purchase is also driven by the FEAR that the current price may not be available for long and so the product has to be purchased right away. ENVY sets in when one sees others buying and making the best out of a deal.

The consumption-led economic growth is driven by the current generation. The CONSUMPTION results from the CONFIDENCE & CHANGE (3-C theory) . Increase in consumption is driving manufacturing, thereby creating more jobs and income for the entire population.

The theme of Big Bazaar was inspired from Saravana stores. Saravana stores works on a simple philosophy : Low margin & High turnover. It is located close to the railway terminus and heart of Chennai. The store stocks everything right from appliances and groceries, to clothes, jewellery, toys, and eyeglasses. Its textile and garment section has Kancheepuram silk sarees, and bedsheets. Its vessel section has loads of steel utensils. It even has a separate block for fast food and delicacies. It has about 120 people just to manage the crowd inside. One does not get the best customer experience within the store, though many customers love it and approve of it with their frequent footfalls. Saravana operates on multiple floors. Bags are sealed at checkout so that people can enter and exit the stores multiple times.

Traditional shops will provide a lot of advantages to the customer, that organized retail will not be able to match anytime soon.

1) Personal relationship with every regular customer.

2) Offering credit, home delivery, & customised services.

3) Cost of operations is far far lower than organized retail stores. The kirana stores do not own costs such as rent, salary, and overhead costs.

Customers go to a hypermarket for their monthly needs and go to the kirana stores for their top-ups and their daily/weekly needs.

Rising real estate prices in Metros represents a challenge. On one hand consumers have lower disposable income to spend on shopping , since a large chunk of the money goes into servicing mortgages and home loans. On the other hand , high real estate prices increase the operational costs of running a large store. Ideally, real estate costs should be less than 5% of the total sales of a store to provide maximum benefit to the customers. At the current rates, it can be as high as 15% to 20%.

Indian market is an extremely diverse and fragmented one and the ‘mass market’ is essentially the ‘market of niches’. The 720 million consumers in rural India living across 6,27,000 villages – of which 17% of the villages account for 60% of rural wealth. Even aiming for half of the rural opportunity means to establish presence in at least 1,00,000 villages. Villages are separated by large distances and are thinly populated. Therefore, the number of customers that a single retail can attract in rural India is significantly low, making existing modern retail formats unviable.

Few of the USP’s of Big Bazaar

1) Cheapest prices for various goods.

2) Indianised design of Big Bazaar (Shout selling, Chaos, Narrow lanes and by-lanes, staples sold loose – giving a bazaar feel to the retail hypermarket)

3) Reduce the fixed cost of operations by identifying real estate properties in cities before the prices of real estate go up

4) Deep insights and understanding of the Indian customer

5) Not following the concept of Predatory pricing. The goods are not sold at a cost below the cost at which they were purchased.

6) No single product or service which can be called the core competency of Future group. The world today expects ideas and imagination to drive organizational success. Indian economy today provides numerous opportunities in almost any business. The notion of core competency therefore, can no longer be defined in terms of a single product or a service. It has to be defined in terms of knowledge, ideas, and intangible assets. Core competency lies in understanding and delivering to Indian consumers.

7) Every initiative, every concept, or format that was launched, followed from a prototype phase. 1) Build it on a small scale and open it to a customer interface. 2) Watch and learn how customers react before scaling up.

SWOT Analysis is a strategic management tool that can be used to analyse a Business, a team or a Person’s career

SWOT stands for Stregth/Weakness/Opportunity/Threat

Strength & Weakness may be attributes which are internal to a company or represents traits in the present moment of a team or an individual. Opportunities and Threats may be attributes which are external to a company or represents possibilities in the future of a team or an individual.

Strengths are talents and abilities that must be used to one’s advantage;Strengths must be maintained.

• What advantages do you have that others don’t have (for example, skills, certifications, education, or connections)?
• What do you do better than anyone else?
• What personal resources can you access?
• What do other people (and your boss, in particular) see as your strengths?
• Which of your achievements are you most proud of?
• What values do you believe in that others fail to exhibit?
• Are you part of a network that no one else is involved in? If so, what connections do you have with influential people?

Weakness must be remedied, stopped or corrected;

• What tasks do you usually avoid because you don’t feel confident doing them?
• What will the people around you see as your weaknesses?
• Are you completely confident in your education and skills training? If not, where are you weakest?
• What are your negative work habits (for example, are you often late, are you disorganized, do you have a short temper, or are you poor at handling stress?
• Do you have personality traits that hold you back in your field? For instance, if you have to conduct meetings on a regular basis, a fear of public speaking would be a major weakness.

Opportunities must be seized or leveraged to one’s advantage;Opportunities must be prioritized, skills & competencies needs to be built for the future;

• What new technology can help you? Or can you get help from others or from people via the Internet?
• Is your industry growing? If so, how can you take advantage of the current market?
• Do you have a network of strategic contacts to help you, or offer good advice?
• What trends (management or otherwise) do you see in your company, and how can you take advantage of them?
• Are any of your competitors failing to do something important? If so, can you take advantage of their mistakes?
• Is there a need in your company or industry that no one is filling?
• Do your customers or vendors complain about something in your company? If so, could you create an opportunity by offering a solution?

Threats must be avoided, eliminated, minimized, or managed; Threats are again futuristic. Threats hinder the opportunities

• What obstacles do you currently face at work?
• Are any of your colleagues competing with you for projects or roles?
• Is your job (or the demand for the things you do) changing?
• Does changing technology threaten your position?
• Could any of your weaknesses lead to threats?

SWOT helps in guiding and making career decisions by stating Where you are now and determining Where you want to be in the future.

Example SWOT analysis

Strengths: 1. Communication skills 2. Quick learning ability 3. Teaming skills 4. Breadth of knowledge 5. Adaptability 6. Positive attitude 7. Problem solving skills 8. Resourcefulness 9. Organizing 10. Planning                                                      

Weakness: 1. Procrastination 2. Time management 3. Prioritizing skills 4. Core competency 5. Domain skills 6. Persuading skills 7. Interpersonal skills 8. Team management

Weakness and Threats should have an ACTION PLAN to remedy the weaknesses with a TARGET DATE.

ACTION PLAN

• Read Hillary Rettig’s The little guide to beating procastrination and make use of strategies mentioned in the book
• Create a daily plan and a weekly plan for activities and monitor deviations from the plan
• Go through 7 habits of highly successful people and understand the four quadrants urgent, important etc and apply the strategies accordingly.
• Read through techniques of Time management by Randy Pausch and apply strategies accordingly.
• Work closely with the supervisor to get a prioritized list of tasks whenever there is a new addition of task
• Discuss with supervisor to identify core skills and competencies to build and strengthen core competency required to perform job at the optimal level
• Attend trainings on life sciences, and pharma related topics to build knowledge in the domain.
• Apply negotiation techniques, collaborate with other teams and aim for WIN-WIN situation.
• Discuss with supervisor and find out skills required for team management and continuously hone the skills required.
• The necessary art of persuasion by Jay A Conger - HBR

Opportunities: 1. Team staffing/Interviewing 2. Project managemet 3. Presentation 4. Mentoring 5. New learning opportunities/Attending Trainings 6. Consulting 7. Software development 8. Networking 9. New roles within team/company 10. Decision making

Threats : 1. Working under a bad supervisor/manager 2. Changing domain 3. Downturn in economy and layoffs 4. Competition among colleagues from a similar background 5. Over work/Stressful work 6. Quick obsoletion of skills

Strengths and Opportunities have to be matched and Weakness and threat have to be converted to strengths.

1) Careful preparation

2) Proper framing of arguments

3) Presentation of vivid supporting evidence

4) Finding the correct emotional match with the audience

Ineffective persuasion features the following steps

1) Most people think persuading is a straight forward. They strongly state the position.

2) Outline supporting arguments followed by a highly assertive data based exposition

3) Enter a deal making stage and work towards a close.

Persuasion involves a learning process and a negotiating process. There are phases of discovery, preparation, and dialogue involved. Persuasion may take weeks or months of planning as you learn about the audience and the position you intend to argue.

Factors which need to be addressed during persuasion

1) Time, Money, & Effort – Resources required to accomplish what the persuader is trying to recommend

2) Strength of supporting evidence

3) Choice of alternative positions that need to be examined.

A dialogue has to be established both BEFORE and DURING the persuasion. A dialogue before is used to learn about audience’s opinions, concerns, and perceptions. A dialogue during the persuasion helps to debate on the merits of position and offer feedback and alternative solutions.

Effective persuasion is all about testing and revising ideas in concert with colleagues’ concerns and needs. Persuasion demands and involves compromise. Persuaders are open minded and non-dogmatic.

Four essential steps in persuasion:

1) Establish credibility: Credibility in workspace grows out of two resources

a) Expertise

b) Relationship

High expertise can be demonstrated by

i) Sound judgment

ii) Proven knowledge in his/her field

iii) Well informed on proposals

For e.g. to persuade on a product idea, it is important to demonstrate

i) Thorough understanding of the product specification

ii) Knowledge of the target market

iii) Customers

iv) Competing products

Strong relationship can be demonstrated with

i) Strong emotional character and integrity

ii) Honesty and being steady

iii) Reliability

iv) Trustworthyness

Questions to ask oneself on expertise:

i) How will others perceive my knowledge about strategy and product or change.

ii) Do I have track record in this area that others know about and respect?

Questions to ask oneself on Relationship:

i) Do those I am hoping to persuade see me as helpful, trustworthy, & supportive?

ii) Will they see me as someone in sync with them emotionally, politically, & intellectually.

Weakness in expertise & relationship can be managed by

i) Addressing it through formal or informal education

ii) Conversations with knowledgeable individuals

iii) Asking to get assigned to a team that would increase insight into particular markets or products.

iv) Hiring someone to bolster your expertise – recognized expert or an industry consultant

v) Utilizing outside sources such as respected business/trade periodicals, books, reports, & lectures by experts.

vi) Performing Pilot projects to demonstrate expertise and value of ideas.

vii) Making concerted effort to meet one on one with all key people you plan to persuade

viii) Involving like minded coworkers who have strong relationship with your audience

2) Frame goals to identify a common ground: Few people jump on board a train that will bring them to ruin or even mild discomfort.Persuaders are adept at describing their positions that illuminate their advantages. Frame benefits of taking a journey. It is a process of identifying shared benefits in work situations. It is critical to first identify objectives and tangible benefits to the people you are trying to persuade. Heart of framing lies in solid understanding of audience. Use meetings, conversation and other form of dialogues to gather information so as to solve issues that matter to colleagues.

3) Reinforce position using vivid language and compelling evidence : Use of languge in a particular way. Supplement numerical data with examples, stories, metaphors, and analogies. Stories and vivid language leave an impact. Cite similar examples which worked.

4) Connect emotionally with audience : Good persuaders are aware of the primacy of emotions and are responsive to them in two important ways

i) Emotional commitment to position they are advocating – Emotion in heart and gut.

ii) Have a second sense of how colleagues have interpreted past events in organizations and how they will probably interpret a proposal. Good pulse on mood and emotional expectation of those about to be persuaded.

Strategy is involved in both presenting the position and in the position itself.

Four ways not to persuade

1) Attempt to make the case with an up-front hard sell.

2) Resisting compromise – persuasion is not a one way street. Persuasion involves give and take.

3) Thinking that the secret of persuasion lies in presenting great arguments.

4) Asuming persuasion to be a one shot effort. It is rarely possible to arrive on a shared solution on first try.

Persuasion involves listening to people, testing a position, developing a new position, more testing, incorporating compromises, and trying again.

The railroads are in trouble not because the need was filled by others (cars, trucks, airplanes, and even telephones) but it was their own myopia in not filling the need. The railroads business assumed that they are in the railroad business rather than the transport business and let others take customers away from them.

Hollywood defined its business as the movie business rather than entertainment business and allowed TV’s to take away a number of customers from them.

A thoroughly customer oriented business can keep a growth industry growing , even after the opportunities have been exhausted. Example – Nylon : E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company, Glass: Corning Glass Works. These companies have succeeded because they are both product or research oriented and customer oriented. It is the constant watchfulness for opportunities to apply their technical know-how to the creation of customer-satisfying uses which accounts for prodigious output of successful new products.

OBSOLESCENCE

Each major industry assumed that its strength lay in apparently unchallenged superiority of the product and appeared to be no effective substitute for it. e.g. Dry cleaning before the invention of garments made from synthetic fibers and chemical additives, Electric utilities before the invention of fuel cells, solar energy, and other power sources.

The RULE of survival is for the industry, which is currently experiencing GROWTH to PLOT its own OBSOLESCENCE. The grocery store chains went out of business when consumers turned towards supermarkets, which had established distribution and merchandising methods. In truth, there is no such thing as a growth industry. There are only companies organized and operated to create and capitalize on growth opportunities. The history of every dead and dying “growth” industry shows a self deceiving cycle of bountiful expansion and undetected decay.

Four conditions that guarantee the above cycle:

1) Belief that growth is assured by a more affluent and expanding population. (Population Myth)

2) Belief that there is no competitive substitute for the industry’s major product. (Idea of Indispensability)

Oil has never been a continuously strong growth industry. It has grown by fits and starts, always miraculously saved by innovations and developments not of its own making.

Kerosene lamps that made use of crude oil were killed with the invention of Incandescent lamps. Had it not been for the growing use of kerosene in space heaters, incandescent lamp would have completely finished oil as a growth industry. Successful development of coal-burning domestic central-heating systems made the space heater obsolete. When the industry reeled again, along came the magnificent boost yet – the internal combustion engine, also invented by outsiders. When the expansion began to level off in 1920s, along came the miraculous escape of a central oil heater. Once again, the escape was provided by an outsider’s invention and development. And when that market weakened, wartime demand for aviation fuel came to the rescue. After war the expansion of civil aviation, the dieselization of roads, and the explosive demand for cars and trucks kept the industry’s growth in high gear. Unless an industry is especially lucky, as oil has been until now, it can easily go down in a sea of red figures.

Motorists strongly dislike the bother, delay, and experience of buying gasoline. People actually do not buy gasoline. They cannot see it, taste it, feel it, appreciate it, or really test it. What they buy is the right to continue driving their cars.The gas station is like a tax collector to whom people are compelled to pay a periodic toll as the price of using their cars.

3) Too much faith in mass production and in the advantages of rapidly declining unit costs as output rises. (Production Pressures) Profit lies in low-cost full production. Economies of scale. e.g. Ford motor company

The difference between marketing and selling is more than semantic. Selling focuses on the need of the seller. Marketing focuses on the need of the buyer. Selling is preoccupied with the seller’s need to convert the product (output) into cash. Marketing is preoccupied with the idea of satisfying the needs of the buyer by means of the product and the whole cluster of things associated with creating, delivering, and finally consuming it. Marketing-minded firm tries to create value-satisfying goods and services that consumers will want to buy. Marketing offers on sale not only the product, but also how it is made available to the customer, in what form, when, under what conditions, and at what terms of trade. The seller takes cues from the buyer in such a way that the product becomes a consequence of the marketing effort, not vice versa.

The profit lure of mass production obviously has a place in the plans and strategy of business management, but it must always follow hard thinking about the customer. Ford invented the assembly line because he had concluded that at $500 he could sell millions of cars. Mass production was the result, not the cause of this low prices. The new price forces the costs down. The more usual way is to take the cost and then determine the price; and although that method may be scientific in the narrow sense, it is not scientific in the broad sense. What use is it to know the cost if it tells you that you cannot manufacture at a price at which the article can be sold? The low price forces everybody to the highest point of efficiency. The low price makes everybody dig for profits. More discoveries in manufacturing and selling are made under this forced method than by any method of leisurely investigation.

4) Preoccupation with a product that lends itself to carefully controlled scientific experimentation, improvement, and manufacturing cost reduction.

Another big danger to the a firm’s continued growth arises when top management is wholly transfixed by the profit possibilities of technical research and development.

Engineer-managers believe that consumers are unpredictable, varied, fickle, stupid, shortsighted, stubborn, and generally bothersome. Nobody seems as interested in probing deeply into the basic human NEEDS that the industry might be trying to satisfy as in probing into the basic properties of the raw material that the companies with in trying to deliver customer satisfactions. The view that an industry is a customer-satisfying process, not a goods-producing process, is vital for all businesspeople to understand. An industry begins with the customer and his or her needs, not with a patent, a raw material, or a selling skill. Given the customer’s needs, the industry develops backwards, first concerning itself with the physical delivery of customer satisfactions. Then it moves back further to creating the things by which these satisfactions are in part achieved. how these materials are created is a matter of indifference to the customer, hence the particular form of manufacturing, processing, or what-have-you cannot be considered vital aspects of the industry. Finally, the industry moves back still further to finding the raw materials necessary for making the its products.

Building an effective customer-oriented company involves far more that good intentions or promotional tricks; it involves profound matters of human organization and leadership. Organization must learn to think of itself not as producing goods or services but as buying customers, as doing the things that will make people want to do business with it. The first requisite of leadership is unless a leader knows where he is going, any road will take him there.

Many a times when the product is too complex, the situation produces salespeople who know the product more than they know the customer, who are more adept at explaining what they have and what it can do  than learning what the customer’s needs and problems are. Sellers said “We have to provide service”, but they tended to define service by looking into the mirror rather than out the window. They thought that they were looking out the window at the customer, but it was actually a mirror – a reflection of their product oriented biases rather than a reflection of their customers’ situations.

Reuter Market Light : A solution positioned at the convergence of the news/information industry (Thomson Reuters) and the mobile industry (Idea Cellular/Airtel).

Problem :

1) At what price should I expect for my crop?

2) Where and when should I harvest and sell my crop?

3) What is the likely weather condition in my district?

4) How can I boost my productivity?

Service : Aids in informed decision making by sending timely, accurate, and relevant personal information to farmers on when (Crop cycle) to sow seeds, (Markets) price at which to sell the produce etc. This directly impacts the farmer by producing better yields and fetching better prices for his/her produce.

RML operates in 12 states in India and covers over 250 crops and varieties with more than 1000 markets (mandis) and 2000 weather locations across these states.

Price of service : $5 /quarter (INR 200/quarter)

The Intuit Fasal service goes a step further. There is no registration cost for receiving the messages on the mobile phone. The farmer is required to call the local language call center. The service covers the states of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

It helps a farmer to

• Determine whether a price is fair and negotiate more effectively.
• Determine where and when to sell so that they get the best price for their product
• Determine who will give them the best price for their produce
• Timely negotiations while goods are of high quality

The company earns its revenues through advertisements on the mobile phone. Few of its customers who advertise are P&G and Godrej agrovet.

Nokia Life Tools : is an SMS based, subscription information service designed for emerging markets which offers a wide range of information services covering healthcare, agriculture, education and entertainment.

The Mullaperiyar dam is a dam on the Periyar river. The dam is located in Idukki district of Kerala on the western ghats. The dam is fully owned by and located in Kerala.The dam was built by the British government to divert the water of the Periyar river flowing into the Arabian sea to flow east and provide water for for the arid region of Madurai in Tamilnadu.  The water is diverted based on the lease deed that was signed in 1886 between the then Travancore princely state & the then British presidency   to divert all the water of the Mullaperiyar to Tamilnadu for 999 years. The lease agreement lapsed after India got its independence as both the entities became nonexistent.

However, in 1970 the Kerala and Tamilnadu government renewed the lease agreement almost completely. The dam provides a larger benefit for Tamilnadu. Tamilnadu gets both water and power through the Idukki hydroelectric project.

Risk:

Dams are built with a definite lifespan. The Mullaperiyar dam was designed for a lifespan of 50 years. The dam has outlived its lifespan and by twice the designed lifespan.

The dam faces a threat of collapsing in the event of a seismic activity, torrential rainfall, floods, overflow of the dam, or a landslide.

Impact:

1) Floods downstream causing loss of human life and property.

2) Destruction of wildlife, flora, and fauna.

3) Impact on Idukki dam

4) Loss of crops that depend on the water of Mullaperiyar for irrigation, water for domestic use, and power generation in Tamilnadu

DocSuggest:

Service : Booking appointment for doctors in Bangalore and Hyderabad on internet;

Revenue model: 15% of the revenue generated of doctor or hospital.

MediAngels:

Service : Medical appointment, Labtests from the comfort of your home, Second opinion platform, Diagnosis over the internet; Has 350 doctors and specialists from over 20 countries.

Revenue model : Fee charged for Long term consultation and one on one advice.

Challenge : Validation of doctors’ credentials , doctors’ communication on internet

HealthKart:

Service: Delivering genuine nutrition, healthcare, beauty, and personal care products on the internet at your doorstep with free shipping. The products are competitively priced.

A case method is a business simulation or a real situation in business wherein the student has to put himself in the shoes of the protagonist or the decision maker faced with a business problem, analyze the problem, think of various solutions possible and suggest/recommend a course of action.

The case method enhances classroom participation. Case method draws from the experience of a wide section of the participants. It gives an insight into different ways of thinking and approaching the problem. It provides an opportunity to apply theoretical frameworks and models learned in MBA course.

A case analysis refers to the performance of an organization – either the whole of the organization or some of its divisions – over a period of time. It provides information on the organization’s history, operations environment -internal and external, and the events and circumstances surrounding a managerial situation. The presentation normally includes the products and services of the organization, the facilities, the market conditions, the skills of the managers, the organizational structure, the financial and quantitative data with respect to marketing, production, and personnel etc

A good case should present to the students a realistic situation by which they are exposed to decision making practices. Real world managers face the problem of making decisions under uncertainty, and often, inadequate information. They are also constrained by limited scope and opportunity for study and interaction.

Objectives of the case method:

• Acquire skills to apply theoretical knowledge to practice. This is an important objective because managers succeed because of what they DO and not because of what they KNOW.
• Getting into the habit of diagnosing the problem, analysis and evaluation of alternatives and formulation of action plan.
• Learning independently to find the answers to practical problems.
• Gain exposure to a variety of organizational and managerial situations.

These skills cannot be acquired by reading books, articles, and listening to lectures. Case study allows learning by doing. While analyzing case studies it has to be accepted that there may be several solutions to a particular situation. Important point is to diagnose the problem and recommend a solution rather than discovering the right answer.

A case analysis requires conscientious preparation from the student. It encourages the student to do most of the talking, solicit participation from other students and guide discussion. The teacher acts as a catalyst for the student’s thought process. The student should not expect the teacher to tell him or her “This is how you do it and this is the right answer”.

How to prepare for a case?

i) READING

The first step is to READ the case thoroughly. The case may require at least two to three rounds of READING with different objectives.

The first round is to PREVIEW the case material and understand how the case is organized and structured. After the first round you should be fairly comfortable to jump to different pages to locate sections of interest easily.

The second round is to SKIM through the material to pickup important issues, and major ideas. After the second round you should be able to answer such questions as

1) What is the business the protagonist is into?

2) What is the information available through the case?

3) What is the issue at hand?

4) What are few of the questions that come to your mind?

The third round is to READ through the material at a comfortable pace to pick up the finer details. This is the main reading of the case. After this read you should be able to answer the following questions.

1) What is the main issue/problem at hand?

2) What are the different approaches to solve the problem?

3) What are the pros and cons of each approach?

4) What is the solution you recommend ? How do you defend the solution recommended?

ii) TAKING NOTES

Make notes on dense portions of the passage to aid in comprehension.

iii) SUMMARIZING

Summarize the case study within a few minutes touching upon the MAIN IDEA.

iv) IDENTIFYING THE BUSINESS PROBLEM & THE CRITICAL ISSUES

Cases may involve several problems or at least one problem. The problems may pertain to marketing, human resources, supply chain etc. Symptoms of a problem should not be confused with the cause for the problem.

v) ANALYZING

Think of the different types of analyses which will aid in converging on a solution or recommendation. The analyses could be either quantitative or qualitative or both. Build a picture of what the end outcome should look like. Case analyses and other assignments help in discovering concepts and applying what is learned. Decisions will be made similar to a managerial situation.

vi) ORGANIZING INFORMATION (Facts, Inference, & Assumptions)

Try to base analyses on facts as far as possible. If you make use of any assumptions to arrive on a conclusion state the assumption explicitly. Assumptions are information that are not explicitly stated. Classify information into relevant, irrelevant, and missing.

Prioritize issues and identify issues that are interdependent.

vii) DEVELOPING SOLUTIONS, CHOOSING A SOLUTION & DECIDING ON IMPLEMENTING THE SOLUTION

Develop as many approaches and solutions as possible. Weigh out the different approaches for their merits and demerits. Recommend the solution that is well grounded on facts and the steps to implement the solution.

viii) PARTICIPATING IN CLASS ROOM SESSIONS

Listen, Contribute (understand the roles in a role play, speak & articulate your point, support statements with evidence, engage peers – challenging views, perspectives, go wrong/fail- There is no one correct answer to a case analysis , build relationships with peers), & Learn – Note down the key takeaways. Case analyses aids in improving Critical thinking skills, application of conceptual frameworks to real situations, analytical & problem solving skills, and communication & presentation skills.

Benefits of CASE STUDY

• Aids in clear thinking in complex situations
• Devising consistent, rational and creative action plans
• Application of quantitative knowledge
• Recognizing the value of information
• Group communication
• Better written communication
• Applying personal values to decision-making process

Developing a case study

Case study in marketing and strategic management should have the following aspects:

• Origin/History and growth of the company over time. A company’s past strategy can be analyzed by charting the critical incidents in its history, i.e. events that were unusual but essential for the development of the company. These events must have taken place due to the vision of the founder, the initial product, new product/market scenario and functional competence of the firm. One can also look at new businesses and shift from the main line of business.
• Organizational analysis – Strengths and weaknesses . After completion of the previous stage, one can embark on a SWOT analysis of the firm. The events charted out can help in developing an account of the company’s strengths and weaknesses that have emerged historically. This can help in examining the current situation. It may be useful to trace these strengths and weaknesses to functional areas such as R&D, production, marketing etc.
• Nature of the external environment Here, the opportunities and threats are identified based on macro and micro-environments. Further, Porter’s model of competition and life-cycle model can be used.
• SWOT analysis An evaluation of the strength and weakness, opportunities and threats, identified in the previous stage is done here. A balance should be struck between strengths and weaknesses, and opportunities and threats. For a company, a good SWOT analysis is the key to all other analyses that may arise.

Internal strengths:

1. Many product lines?
2. Broad market coverage?
3. Manufacturing competence?
4. Good marketing skills?
5. Good inventory management?
6. R&D?
7. Information systems competencies?
8. Good human resources?
9. Brand equity?
10. Cost advantage?
11. Appropriate organizational structure?
12. Appropriate control systems?
13. Ability to manage strategic change?
14. Well-developed corporate strategy?
15. Good financial management?

Internal weaknesses:

1. Narrow product lines?
2. Rising manufacturing costs?
3. Poor marketing plan?
4. Poor materials management?
5. Inadequate human resources?
6. Loss of brand name?
7. Lack of corporate direction?
8. Lack of corporate control?
9. Poor financial management?
10. Inappropriate organizational structure and control systems?
11. High conflicts?
12. Politics?

Potential environment opportunities:

1. New markets/businesses?
2. Cost or differentiation advantage?
3. Profitable new acquisition?
4. Brand name capital in new areas?
5. R&D skills in new areas?
6. Vertical integration – forward/backward?
7. Diversification?

Potential environment threats

1. Attack on core businesses?
2. Increase in domestic competition?
3. Increase in foreign competition?
4. Change in customer taste?
5. New forms of industry competition?
6. Barriers to entry?
7. New or substitute products?
8. Takeovers?
9. Slowdown in economy?
10. Lower market growth rates?

• Present corporate strategy To analyse the present corporate strategy, it is necessary to define the company’s mission and goals. If the information is not readily available, it has to be gathered. This helps in identifying the merits and demerits of a corporate strategy. This can also provide an opportunity to analyse the past strategies of the company as well as the changes that have taken place and the rationale behind them.
• Present business strategy The completion of the previous stage should lead to the development of the business strategy. If a company is in a single line of business, then its business and corporate strategy will be identical. If a company has multiple businesses, then each business will have its own strategy. This stage provides an opportunity to critically apply the different elements of Porter’s model to determine whether the business strategies are competitive or otherwise.
• Organizational structure and control systems – In this stage, one has to evaluate the appropriateness of the strategy with the structure of the company. One can bring to bear the ideas gained from the different elements of the 7-S matrix. This can provide an appropriate mesh between strategy and structure.
• Recommendations – These are based on individual’s analysis of the case. Recommendations should help in solving strategy problems faced by the company.It should logically flow from the different stages.It has to be borne in mind that these are specific to each case and generalizations are usually not possible.