HRM480 GROUP E

A talk by Feroz Rahim, the Managing Director of Rahimafrooz, Bangladesh at the Indian School of Business, Conference on Family Business, 6 - 8 February 2008 at Hyderabad

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen Good afternoonand Best wishes from Bangladesh! I was given a few questions to cover in my talk, from my own experience. Thus, I shall try to cover these points within the time allotted.

Like most family businesses, the founder worked very hard and was preoccupied in building foundations and making a success of his business. He had a long term vision to achieve a good stable business position and took steps accordingly within his constraints for business continuity. By mid 1990s, though sales registered some growth annually the Company was found to suffer loss and at times cash crunch. To the Owner Board it was not clear which segment was really the culprit as the account reports were not segmented and fully reliable. Business growth consequently became stagnant. The focus was to put the Group on a sustainable growth track. The Company was restructured creating SBUs, Corporate Centre and a new culture of openness and transparency. With new initiatives in the last five years, the Group turnover was growing at an average of 39% per annum. Managing family business is a continuing challenge. Our new issues are: sustaining growth & profitability, creating a formal family constitution and succession planning.

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History of Rahimafrooz
Rahimafrooz is one of the respected and reputed business houses in Bangladesh. It has just crossed 50 years of operation. Rahimafrooz has endured turbulences of the last 50 years and has been able to transform itself from a small trading company into a leading diversified business house. This is, indeed, a milestone, which Rahimafrooz has achieved with trust, support and dedication of all stakeholders, past and present, most importantly, its customers. Rahimafrooz began its operation as a trading company in 1954. Today Rahimafrooz has diversified in many areas from storage power solution to automotive aftermarket to retailing.

Rahimafrooz operates in three broad domains: automotive after market, power and energy, and retail chain. It sells tyres, batteries, lubricants, emergency power products, diesel as well as gas generators, lighting products, electrical accessories, solar systems, energy solutions using compressed natural gas, and power rectifiers. The Group also runs 'Agora' the first retail chain in Bangladesh. The Groups portfolio includes international tyre brands Dunlop and Kenda, and its own brand RZ Tyre. Rahimafrooz is the exclusive franchisee of the full range of worlds leading lubricant brand Castrol in Bangladesh.

Through Rahimafrooz IPS, UPS and Voltage Stabilizer, the Company enjoys clear leadership of the emergency power products market. The Company brings to Bangladesh leading gas and diesel generator brands Pramac as well as Mitsubishi. It also markets home and industrial lighting products from General Electric USA (GE) and electrical accessories from Hager France. Rahimafroozs Renewable Energy division has been providing Solar solutions in collaboration with British Petroleum (BP). The Company, in recognition of its solar efforts, received the McGraw-Hill Platt Global Energy Award in 2004 and the Global Ashden Award in 2006. Rahimafrooz also offers comprehensive solution provider for CNG refueling, conversion, conversion centers, and maintenance. Rahimafrooz is also endeavoring into tyre retread, besides manufacturing and marketing emery cloths and abrasive papers. In a joint venture, the Group has enterprised into the first ever fibred optical commercial networking backbone in Bangladesh in the form of Metronet Bangladesh Ltd. (MBL).

Rahimafrooz, in 2001, made a breakthrough in the urban lifestyles by launching the first retail chain in the country Agora. One of the SBUs of Rahiamfrooz Group, Rahimafrooz Renewable Energy Ltd. distributes solar home systems to underdeveloped rural regions of Bangladesh. For that, the company received the Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy in 2006. The Group has strengthened its market leadership at home while reaching out to international markets. Ranging from automotive after market products, energy and power solutions, to a world class retail

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chain the committed team at Rahimafrooz is determined to ensure best in class quality standards and living the Groups four core values:

Integrity

Excellence

Customer Delight

Innovation

VISION
Be an enterprising Group of Taka 2,000 crore by the year 2010 with a diversified business portfolio focused on dynamic growth, excellence, innovation, customer delight in enriching our world.

QUALITY POLICY
Rahimafrooz as a team are totally committed to customer delight through intelligent effort and continuous improvement.

ASPIRATION
To be the most admired and trusted organization through excelling in everything Rahimafrooz do, following ethical business practices and adding value to stakeholders.

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VALUES
Integrity in all their dealings Excellence in everything they do Total commitment to customer satisfaction Thinking ahead and taking new initiatives

TEAM
Rahimafrooz foster en environment of learning and reward, taking pride in who they are and what they do.

OUR COMMUNITY
Rahimafrooz strongly believes that doing good business means being good corporate citizen. The company always takes pride in serving the stakeholders and community in multifaceted ways.

Global Compact Rahimafrooz is a signatory of the Global Compact, a UN

initiative that sets standard on Human Rights, Labor Relations, Environmental and Ethics.

Environment
Environment Management System (EMS): They have taken comprehensive measures

to protect environment, complying not only to local requirements but also with ISO 14001.

Safe Disposal and Recycling of Used Batteries: Rahimafrooz has undertaken a

nation-wide campaign to promote safe battery disposal and recycling of used battery.

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Community Services Rahimafrooz regularly contribute personal, monetary and

medical help to people disadvantaged by natural calamities and serious illness. Rahimafrooz also makes significant contribution to leading diabetic and cancer hospitals.

Historical Background of Rahimafrooz

1954 Incorporated as a trading company

1959

1960

Entered into collaboration agreement with LUCAS, UK for setting up manufacturing and distribution system of Lead-Acid automotive batteries at Dhaka Established battery factory at Nakhalpara

1978

Appointed as exclusive distributor of Dunlop tyres and launched Dunlop tyres in the market Completed acquisition of Lucas Services (BD) Ltd. and renamed it as Rahimafrooz Batteries Ltd Introduced "dry charged" plastic case battery

1980

1982

1984

Established exclusive nationwide distributorship for automotive aftermarket Extended manufacturing capacity and semi-automated production

1985

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1986

Started assembling and marketing industrial batteries

1990

Established independent Lead-Oxide plant

1991

Completed acquisition of plant and technology for industrial battery manufacturing from Electrona, Switzerland
Entered into manufacturing collaboration agreement with Chloride group, UK Make it's first export of battery to Singapore Introduced Instant Power System (IPS) for power back-up

1992

1994

1995

Undertook a management and organizational re-structuring to reorganize Group business operations into strategic business units (SBUs) Attained ISO 9002 certification for battery manufacturing. Introduced own brand RZ tyre and launched in the local market Received business Award as "Enterprise of the Year". Export to UAE. Opening of Nepal Business Office in Kathmandu Introduced PCM range economy battery for commercial vehicle segment Received business Award as "Enterprise of the Year". Export to UAE. Opening of Nepal Business Office in Kathmandu Established the first grocery retail chain superstore called Agora

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

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2010

Launched MetroNet Bangladesh Ltd, a fully digital fiber optic based metropolitan data communication network, as a joint venture with Flora Telecom. Launched new automobile battery Spark for taxi-cab

2012

Launched Volta Maintenance Free battery

SBUs and Affiliations

Rahimafrooz Batteries Limited Produces all kinds of automotive and industrial batteries and one of the largest battery manufacturers in the SAARC region; exports batteries in more than 19 countries.
Maintains nationwide distribution network with more than 400 outlets covering entire Bangladesh; distributes mainly automotive and appliance battery, tyre, IPS, UPS and lubricants.

Rahimafrooz Distribution Limited

Rahimafrooz Superstores Limited

Emerges as leading chain superstore in Bangladesh, mainly covering Dhaka Metropolitan City area; carries more than 25,000 varieties of product.

Rahimafrooz CNG Limited

Involves in setting up CNG stations; facilitates establishing CNG conversion centers; converts automobiles into CNG and provides technical solution and support. Provides uninterrupted and clean power and a fast growing power services company; establishes with objective to meet country's growing demand for power.

Rahimafrooz Energy Services Limited

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Excel Retread Limited

Retreads all types of tyres from cars to buses/trucks; one of the leading tyre retread centers.

Grey Fab Limited, Asia Tex Limited, Core K, Metronet

Others

The Above SBUs Contribution to Group Sales along with the Bangladesh, India and World Network is shown in the Appendix of the case.

Organizational Culture
The organizational culture is the integral dimension of success for Rahimafrooz. Organizational culture is an important factor of driving Rahimafrooz as an market oriented organization in this field which encompasses tangible elements such as behaviours and artefacts, and intangible elements, such as values, beliefs and norms. Customer orientation as a set of beliefs which puts customer interests first. Rahimafrooz focuses greatly on customer needs information which are more deeply rooted values and beliefs that are likely to support customer focus and permeate Rahimafrooz.

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Customer Focus
Rahimafrooz is focusing on customers and is getting closer to the customers everyday, Rahimafrooz associates directly with distributors, retailers and also buyers to know what drives customer satisfaction, identify customer needs, and use those needs to target markets where the business can achieve a sustainable and significant competitive advantage in this field. Rahimafrooz understands customers preferences and requirement and offering superior value products.

Rahimafrooz develops a centralized Customer Feedback & Query (CFQ) CELL: Total commitment to customer satisfaction is one of their values. Listening to what customers say in a continual systematic way is a key tool to comprehend their needs and requirements and to satisfy them achieving excellence in their products and services accordingly.

All individuals of Rahimafrooz Group interact with customers and members of the public everyday and do hear, receive, or learn about their comments, complaints, views, etc on the products, services, and dealings of the company.

A systematic and organized way of managing these feedbacks and queries will surely strengthen their total commitment to customer satisfaction.

Rahimafrooz and Customer Satisfaction

Rahimafrooz is customer-driven and is constantly monitoring and analyzing customer satisfaction. A key objective is identifying the product/service attributes that influence customer satisfaction. Rahimafrooz successfully competed with other global competitors in Asia by designing durable and quality batteries to meet specific users' requirements. Rahimafrooz targets specific customer groups. The company is very service oriented and quick to respond to customer needs.

Rahimafrooz engages in accurate tracking of the needs and wants of all participants in the entire distribution chain, including suppliers, manufacturers, middlemen, and end users. All members of the Rahimafroozs distribution network is striving to satisfy the individual or organization that ultimately consumes the product or service. Teamwork is playing the significant role in Rahimafrooz to meet buyers' needs. An important part of the monitoring task is identifying buyers' future needs. Within the organization, marketing professionals of Rahimafrooz are evaluating the changing requirements of end users and channel members. For these they involve all personnel in contact with customers to evaluate activities. However, the company lacks proper

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customer interface tracking facilities and moreover their R&D Sector is also very weak and is ceasing to exist. This is why the company wants to improve customer satisfaction in terms of product/service delivery system, performance of the product/service, the image of the company/product/brand, customers' perceived pricevalue relationship of the product/service, employees' level of performance, and study of competitors' advantages and weaknesses.

Rahimafrooz also pursues a model which drives them to the customer market orientation. This model is illustrated below:

Customer focus Strategic deployment

Internal integration

Knowledge management Market Orientation Organizational infrastructure

Customer interface

Organizational culture

Organizational Structure
Organizational structure refers to the way that an organization arranges people and jobs so that its work can be performed and its goals can be met. Organizational structure allows the expressed allocation of responsibilities for different functions and processes to different entities such as the branch, department, workgroup and individual. This structure depends entirely on the organization's objectives and the strategy chosen to achieve them. Rahimafrooz mainly follows the centralized and bureaucratic organizational structure.

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In centralized organization the process of transferring and assigning decision making authority to the higher level.

Rahimafrooz is using centralized structure to controlling the public image of the entire corporation. It would prove beneficial for Rahimafrooz over a long-term outlook.

Rahimafrooz is using centralized structure to closely control the operations, provide a uniform set of policies, practices and procedures throughout the organization.

The companys individual actions are also better aligned with management's prescribed policies to follow this structure. On the other hand Rahimafrooz strictly follow the bureaucratic organizational structure. A bureaucracy is a form of organization based on logic, order, and the legitimate use of formal authority. Bureaucratic organizations are usually mature structures that have been around a while, and are easily identified by a strong centralized authority. Because Rahimafrooz is one of the respected and reputed business houses in Bangladesh, so their organizational structure already at a mature stage. Rahimafrooz also maintain a stable environment worked well under a bureaucracy. Rahimafrooz is using bureaucratic structure to supervise their highly specialized and tightly supervised tasks.

Rahimafrooz strictly follows the rules and procedures.

They also respond to changing and innovative environments according to the organizational structure.

Rahimafrooz under the bureaucratic structure directly responsible to the leadership that creates it, such as a government executive or board of directors.

The Organogram is as follows-

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Departmentalization
Departmentalization refers to the development of grouping activities into departments. Usually the first step in the organizing process is departmentalization after reviewing the plans. Departmentalization is the basis on which work or individuals are grouped into manageable units.

Rahimafrooz departmentalization base on these methods; function, process, product, geographic and customer and at the end it basically follow the matrix departmentalization.

Functional departmentalization: Departmentalization by function organizes by the Grouping activities by functions to be performed. It can be used in all kinds of organizations. The functions reflect the nature of the business. It reducing problem for management because each individual in the same department will acquire the same work experiences or training, communication and coordinating.

Rahimafrooz always maintain these methods to reducing work duplication communication and coordination by creating highly skilled specialist and use of resources in the organization. The Functional departmentalization that Rahimafrooz

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follow depends on the goals that they want to achieve. . Its allows work to be carried out by individuals who are qualified and skilled in the area concerned. Rahimafrooz pursue economies of scale by placing employees with common skills and knowledge into departments for example human resources, production, finance, marketing, and engineering.

General Manager

Production department

Finance department

Marketing department

Human resource department

Head of Engineering & Technology

Process departmentalization: Like product departmentalization Process departmentalization is grouping activities on the basis of product or service or customer flow. Because each process requires different skills, process departmentalization allows homogenous activities to be categorized. Rahimafrooz product might need to go through several departments namely validation, licensing and treasury, before entering the market. Each service is administered by different departments. Below show one of the process structures that Rahimafrooz might follow:

Chief Operating Officer

R&D Accounts & Administration

Purchase

Production

Sales

Paper

Printing

Packing

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General Manager

Product development process

Order fulfillment process

Customer and account management process

Product development teams

Order processing teams

Sales teams and customer service teams

Product departmentalization: Departmentalization by product assembles all functions needed to make and market a particular product are placed under one executive. In Product departmentalization managers and workers are specialize in one area of expertise. It makes easier for top managers to assess work-unit performance. Rahimafrooz major department stores are structured around product groups. All the grouping activities decided by product line and tasks are group according to their specific product or service. Each major product area in the Rahimafrooz is under the authority of a senior manager who is specialist in, and is responsible for, everything related to the product line. They follow this method to make Rahimafroozs decision making faster. The product structure that Rahimafrooz accumulators Ltd. follow is shown below:

Rahimafrooz Accumulators Ltd.

Telecommunication Power station Electric vehicles Solar power systems Buoy lighting Ships

Railways Forklifts UPS Inverter

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Geographic departmentalization: Geographic departmentalization is an arrangement of department according to the geographical area or territory serve. In this organization structure people performs all the activities for a firm in given geographic area report to one manager or a regional operating manager.

Rahimafrooz follow the Geographic departmentalization to work well for the international business. Because Rahimafrooz is the leading industry of Bangladesh so this approach is generally use by them to expend their business internationally. Each manager of the different country can better serve the needs of unique geographic markets and handle the issue those raise in different geographical area.

General Manager

South Asian Countries

African Countries

Local

Customer departmentalization: It groups jobs on the basis of common customers. Departmentalization by customer groups jobs according to whether it is serving private sector, public sector, government, or not-for-profit organizations. Jobs may be grouped according to the type of customer served by the organization. The assumption is that customers in each department have a common set of problems and needs that can best be met by specialists.

Rahimafrooz follow this customer departmentalization to access their industrial and home products department. This group is chosen from different functions to work together across various departments to interdependently create new products or services. For example, a cross-functional team consisting of managers from accounting, finance, and marketing is created to prepare a technology plan.

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General Manager

Industrial products department

Home products department

Matrix departmentalization: Matrix departmentalization is a hybrid structure in which two or more forms of departmentalization are used together. The most common matrix combines product and functional forms of departmentalization. At the end of these two methods Rahimafrooz specifically follow the matrix departmentalization. In Rahimafrooz the employees report to the director or the product manager. In this method Rahimafrooz lead to much more cross-functional interaction than other forms of departmentalization. The functional and project managers of this company maintain a significant synchronization to fulfill the high level of cross-functional interaction. According to this departmentalization Rahimafrooz managers have the complex job of tracking and managing the multiple project and functional demands on employees' time.

Competitive Position of Rahimafrooz

Rahimafrooz is playing a sort of monopoly role in the market of batteries and IPS, UPS and having the advantage of pure monopoly in the sectors of battery recycling and solar battery production. Their intra-type competitors for batteries, IPS and UPS are Navana, Aftab, Grameen, BRAC, Energypac, Intraco etc. Walton, Honda, Genpower, Power Sonic, Apollo etc. are some foreign competitors. The inter-type competitors are as follows in respect to Rahimafroozs individual product lines.

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Global Power Company Ltd

Rahimafrooz Batteries Ltd

Biason Battery Company Limited

Global Power Company Ltd

Rahimafrooz Globatt Ltd

Biason Battery Company Limited Hussan Tyre Navana Group

Tyres

Lubricants

Divine Oil Company Ltd Ecom-Trade Holdings Private Ltd Walton

Electronics

Rahimafrooz IPS

Rangs, Philips, Singer

Rahimafrooz UPS

Rangs, Philips, Singer

Rahimafrooz CNG Ltd

Navana CNG Ltd

Rahimafrooz Energy Ltd

Rangs Group

Rahimafrooz Renewable Energy Ltd

Mobidik Solar Energy Ltd

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Meena Bazar, Nandan

Rahimafrooz Superstores Ltd (Agora) Metronet

Asknet

Agribusiness

Pran, Square, Ahmed

Core-K

1st time in Bangladesh. No competitors yet

Excel Resources Ltd

Global Power Company Ltd Biason Battery Company Ltd

Competitor Intelligence
A market-oriented organization Rahimafrooz recognizes the importance of understanding its competition as well as the customer.

The key questions ofRahimafrooz management are which competitors, and what technologies, and whether target customers perceive them as alternate satisfiers.

Rahimafrooz believe superior value requires that the seller identify and understand the principal competitors short-term strengths and weaknesses and long term capabilities and strategies which make the Rahimafrooz market leader in the market.

Distinctive Capabilities of Rahimafrooz

The resource-based view of the firm has seen an increased emphasis on competing on capabilities, both tangible and intangible. Capabilities have been defined as: complex bundles of skills and collective learning, exercised through organizational processes that ensure superior coordination of functional activities. Distinctive capabilities are the basis of companys competitive advantage. According to the

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new resource-based view of the company, sustainable competitive advantage is achieved by continuously developing existing and creating new resources and capabilities in response to rapidly changing market conditions. Among these resources, capabilities and knowledge represents the most important value-creating asset. The Distinctive Capabilities of Rahimafrooz are as follows-

Core Competencies

Sustainable Competitive Advantages

Superior Value Creation

Capabilities

Technical Capabilities

It has different technical collaboration agreements with Lucas Battery Company, U.K, Technical support Group (TSG), Hawker Batteries, UK, Invensys, UK, Hawker Batteries, UK, Eltek Norway, AEES France to ensure the quality of battery which make them market leader in Bangladesh and also doing business in more than 24 countries. It also completed acquisition of plant and technology for industrial battery manufacturing from Electrona, Switzerland.

Strong Brands Rahimafrooz is a strong brand in our business arena. They are also able to establish separate brands for products like Lucas. Under Rahimafrooz corporate umbrella, they already establish some other SBUs successful like Rahimafrooz CNG Ltd.

Financial Capabilities Rahimafrooz are focusing on improving financial management. The Rahimafrooz Financial Leadership Team (FLT) is attempting to cut operating costs by 20% against budget with the same top line target by eliminating unnecessary expenses. They have financial resources by which they are entering new markets, expanding their business and acquiring new technologies. Rahimafrooz Group achieves and sustains continuous growth for more than 6 years - at a "natural" rate of 26% per annum.

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Marketing Capabilities Rahimafrooz has own distribution networks named Rahimafrooz Distribution Limited (RDL) involves in the marketing and distribution of a wide range of products through its nation-wide distribution network. RDL markets three major brands of automotive batteries: LUCAS, VOLTA, VOLTA MF (Maintenance Free) and SPARK in Bangladesh. The strong distribution networks make the Rahimafrooz market leader in this market.

Teamwork Business Process: Rahimafrooz makes an effective cross-functional team which help the management to take decision and also making facilitates diagnosis and coordinated action. They make a GITC team who are working tirelessly to put in place a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to help them get closer to their customers for both acquisition and retention programs.

Strong Organizational Culture: Rahimafrooz is emphasizing on improving their corporate governance to sustain our Group's continued focus on group health and group growth. For this, they separate Management from Ownership. All individuals ofRahimafrooz Group interact with customers and members of the public everyday and do hear, receive, or learn about their comments, complaints, views, etc on the products, services, and dealings of the company and they discuss within the company and managing these feedbacks and queries surely strengthen their total commitment to customer satisfaction. Now with a combination of leadership at various levels, employees drive and dynamism, managing change successfully, good corporate governance and with Vision 2010 focus they achieve growth at the higher rate of 40% plus this year through Skillful Integration.

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Rahimafrooz: Is it a Visionary Market Driven Organization?

Producing and marketing for international markets are established activities for many companies. This also considered by Rahimafrooz because they are doing business in foreign countries. However, both the changing scope and composition of international markets and the emergence of new organizational forms are creating pressures for evaluating strategies for existing markets and entering new markets. The global is a new concept for competing in world markets. Rahimafrooz considers the whole world as their competitive arena. It helps them to keep in touch with technology and market trends all around the world. For this, Rahimafrooz is making collaborative agreement with key players like collaboration agreement with LUCAS, UK for setting up manufacturing and distribution system of Lead-Acid automotive batteries and also acquiring of some competitors like Yussa Bangladesh Limited which will turn them to market leader and become as market driven organization in business arena. The key challenge is learning how to design and implement strategies in a rapidly changing business arena. For this, Rahimafrooz wants to develop effective management system for coping with the dramatically changing world. Strategic capabilities enhanced by:

1. Scanning and understanding customer, suppliers, demographic, and technological trends. 2. Setting a vision that forms a direction for their organization. 3. Establishing more adaptive and flexible organization practices. 4. Encouraging a strategic unity between the organization and its external stakeholders by involving customers and suppliers in organization practices.

Rahimafrooz: Market Sensing Capabilities

Market-driven companies have effective processes for learning about their markets. Sensing involves more than collecting information. It must be shared across functions and interpreted to determine what actions need to be initiated. For this Rahimafrooz develop an effective market sensing capability which identifies various information sources and develop processes to collect and analyze the information. For this Rahimafrooz build a centralized information system in market sensing activities. Different business functions have access to useful information and need to be involved in market sensing activities.

Rahimafrooz: Customer Linking Capabilities

Rahimafroozs management believes that creating and maintaining close relationships with customers are important in market-driven strategies. These relationships offer

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advantages to customers and also Rahimafrooz through information sharing and collaboration. As a result, Rahimafrooz reduces the possibility of a customer shifting to another brand. According to Rahimafrooz, Customers are valuable assets. All individuals of Rahimafrooz Group interact with customers and members of the public everyday and do hear, receive, or learn about their comments, complaints, views, etc on the products, services, and dealings of the company. A systematic and organized way of managing these feedbacks and queries will surely strengthen their total commitment to customer satisfaction.

Rahimafrooz: Aligning Structure and Processes

To become market driven,Rahimafrooz changed the design of the organization. In 2010,Rahimafrooz undertook a management and organizational re-structuring to reorganize Group business operations into strategic business units (SBUs) where in each SBU there is cross-functional coordination and involvement and also redesigned processes like sales and marketing, customer relations, order fulfillment, and distribution.

Rahimafrooz Distribution Limited (RDL)

Rahimafrooz Distribution Ltd. (RDL) is the distribution wing of the Group, having a present nationwide distribution network of 172 Dealers, 263 Retailers and 102 Lubricant Dealers and carrying over ten national and international brands. It is the clear leader in the local automotive industry after market and emergency power products category.

RDLs portfolio includes international tyre brands Dunlop, Kenda and Apollo while it also carries its own brand RZ Tyre and battery brands Globatt, Lucas and Spark. RDL is the exclusive franchisee of the worlds leading lubricant brand Castrol. Through Rahimafrooz IPS, UPS and Voltage Stabiliser, the company enjoys clear leadership of the emergency power products market. In addition, it also runs eight automobile service centres in Dhaka and Chittagong. Recently the company has entered the electronic goods market. It distributes and markets various household appliances and electronic goods through RDLs newly inaugurated electronics retail chain, Ureka and its numerous sales outlets.

Factors affecting Rahimafrooz

In order to profitably satisfy customer needs, the firm first must understand its external and internal situation, including the customer, the market environment, and

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the firm's own capabilities. Furthermore, it needs to forecast trends in the dynamic environment in which it operates.

Internal Factors
The internal situation analysis provides a description of what the organization currently is. It really details what the organization is about, what it has accomplished in the past, what it is currently trying to accomplish, and what resources it has to utilize in order to accomplish it.

The internal situation analysis tends to provide constraints on the decision making that occurs later in the plan. It also provides value statements that will tend to provide many of the evaluative criteria useful in evaluating alternative courses of action.

1. Integrity in all their dealings: The Rahimafrooz team never compromises on ethical business practices. They set high standards of ethics and moral virtue for themselves. Their commitment to integrity shall never be compromised for the sake of business goals or anything. They firmly believe in religious, ethical, social and legal righteousness and we strictly adhere to those. They are also a firm believer in meaningfully contributing to the community and giving back to the society.

2. Excellence in everything they do: Their pursuit for business success has thrived on a very simple yet powerful philosophy quality comes first! They have maintained highest quality standards in our operations, processes, products and brands, always keeping in mind that they cant afford to be anything less than the best. In all their operating segments and in all their work areas, they strive for quality excellence and continuous improvement.

3. Total commitment to customer satisfaction: It takes months, years, in some cases decades, to win a loyal customer. But it takes only a few seconds to lose one. Rahimafrooz thrives on winning loyal customers through best quality products and service. Most importantly, it believes in keeping its customers loyal though sustained quality, amazing service performance and superior customer relations. Every single decision they make, every single behavior they demonstrate, must be meant for the satisfaction of their customers.

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4. Thinking ahead and taking new initiatives: They have always tried to stay ahead in terms of thinking, decision making and competition. Their product development, business investment, people processes, technology utilization etc. stand testimony to this fact. They believe in being creative, innovative, and intelligent risk takers. Challenging the conventional is encouraged in their organization as long as it is meant to add value to the business and meant to bring positive results for the organization.

5. Managing Technology within the Organization: Compliance with the ISO elements virtually ensures product conformity to standards in the case of Rahimafrooz. Rahimafrooz in seeking continuous improvement emphasizes on participation, harmony, cooperation and the quality principle.

Rahimafrooz has developed clearly defined roles and functions of a quality circle organization consisting of steering committee, facilitator, circle leader and QC members. Each of the 24 QC circles of Rahimafrooz consists of 8-10 members who solve problems through participation.

Rahimafroozs quality assurance, besides the maintained standard comes from the empowerment of employees and its continual improvement sequence of Plan, Do, Check and Act.

6. Human Resources:

Rahimafrooz is a company grown from small trading concern into the regional player that is today. Rahimafrooz is poised for new phase of dynamic growth. Today

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Rahimafrooz is striding into the 21st century with a vision for growth and diversification. Their corporate strategy aims for international partnerships and a path of dynamic growth: they intend to transcend national borders and evolve into a globalize business group.

Rahimafrooz believes that attracting and retaining talented employees is the key to long term success. Employee retention involves a two-pronged approach of creating development opportunities for key employees and providing incentives (through compensation) that strengthen loyalty. Also Performance appraisal and Handling Grievances are two key factors in employee retention.

Of all the changes a company can make in order to improve morale, decrease human resources costs, limit personnel liability, none is more effective than focusing on hiring the right person for the job. The hiring process of Rahimafrooz consists of three distinct processes:

1. Human Resource Planning (HRP); 2. Developing Analysis, Description and Specification of the job for which hiring is performed, 3. Recruiting and Selection.

External Factors
A business does not function in a vacuum. It has to act and react to what happens outside the factory and office walls. These factors that happen outside the business are known as external factors. It is also called influences. These will affect the main internal functions of the business and possibly the objectives of the business and its strategies.

To run a business properly it is important to know the external factors of the business. Without knowing external factors, there is much information that is unknown to the business. This information affects the business and its objectives and strategies or also the internal functions of the business firm. It also affects in the productivity and the prices of the products, import and export sides. So, to run the business properly, it is very important to know the external factors of the business.

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1. Customer: Rahimafrooz has the largest number of battery customer in Bangladesh including both individual and business customers. IPS, UPS, batteries for IPS and UPS, automotive batteries etc are the products for individual customers. There are also business customers for these products but their main business customers are for VRLA batteries.

2. Competitor: Rahimafrooz is playing a sort of monopoly role in the market of batteries and IPS, UPS and having the advantage of pure monopoly in the sectors of battery recycling and solar battery production. Their intra-type competitors for batteries, IPS and UPS are Navana, Aftab, Grameen, BRAC, Energypac, Intraco etc. Walton, Honda, Genpower, Power Sonic, Apollo etc. are some foreign competitors. But most of the domestic competitors do not have a mentionable market position that could challenge Rahimafrooz. A few inter-type competitors are there who are the producers of generators are. So they are not the direct competitors but indirectly they are giving them a sort of competition.

3. Government Attitude: Now a days government is taking some major steps to improve facilities and life styles of the citizens. Government is keen to expand industry base and encourage both domestic and foreign investment in the sector. As a leading battery industry, Rahimafrooz is taking the full advantage of this. Rahimafrooz is the pioneer in producing industrial batteries, solar power and IPS in the country. Government has taxation system and according to that system Rahimafrooz pays 37.5% regularly. Government has been supporting Rahimafroozs green marketing and is now encouraging to expand the eco friendly sectors. With the permission and full support of Government, the company with a market leadership at home is exporting its products to more than 44 countries around the world. Among these the major countries are- India (70-80% of the total export), Dubai, Thailand and some African countries. It manufactures about 200 different varieties of batteries for automotive, motorcycle, IPS and other applications.

4. Infrastructure of the society: Infrastructure deficiencies are the primary deterrent to economic growth in Bangladesh. Long years of under-investment has taken a toll and resulted in poor access to basic infrastructure for a large part of Bangladesh's population. Since Bangladesh opened its gas and power sectors for private investment, there has been a strong response from international energy developers. Bangladesh is now in the process of conducting international procurement for large solar power plants.

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5. Culture: Rahimafrooz Company is not a culture based company. The products and services of this company have no direct relation with our culture. But these products are impacting our culture in some ways. These products and facilities improve our lifestyles. Deficient supply of electricity has been one of the major problems of our country which is growing day by day. The demand and use of IPS, UPS and solar power system are increasing rapidly with this growing problem. Due to this situation, these have become a prior need for many of the urban people and some of the rural people which is bringing in a revolution in our culture. Even their promotions and other programs are also held as per our culture.

6. Technology of the country: Technology of our country is not at all up to date with the advanced world. The need for faster technological development is increasingly felt in Bangladesh. Development plans of Bangladesh have emphasized science and technological research to develop technologies through adoption of imported technology as well as development of indigenous technologies. As the country is heavily dependent on imported technologies, proper planning is required for its effective transfer through acquisition, assimilation and adoption.

Product Lifecycle

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Rahimafrooz 5 years back was in Growth Stage. But towards the end of 2010 they have entered into Shakeout. They are facing immense competition by the local companies. Rahimfrooz has a very strong position in the market in regards to market share and quality but still a big threat is the local manufacturers.

HRM Practices at Rahimafrooz

At Rahimafrooz HR is seen as a key driver of Group. Rahimafrooz focus on capability based growth, more than position based growth. This is giving edge over competition. More then 2,000 employees are working at Rahimafrooz Group. Job grades are 1 to 4 non management and 5 to 12 management employee. Grade 8 to 19 Manager Grades and Grade 11 to 12 are functional heads and COOs. Groups HR policies are formulated from the Corporate Center (RACO), by the Bard HR and Compensation Committee. Recruitment, performance appraisal, rewarding, employee development processes are reasonably structured and closely supervised and monitored by RACO HR team. SBU HR team is responsible to ensure execution policies and programs in respective SBUs. Entire HR programs activities from recruitment requisition to employee exit interview - like pay slip, leave application, performance appraisal, training and development, talent management, etc is done through IT based software RAPID. This is helping in making speedy decision making and smooth HR management.

However, human resources also have been a major challenge to Rahimafrooz. The Company faces difficulties at all levels of the hierarchy because of a relatively less trained and under skilled employee base. Although Rahimafrooz is now able to recruit and retain people according to their strategies and objectives, sustained effort is required to instill the communication skills and people friendly attitude necessary in service industries. At a higher level, management challenges remain an issue.

Use of IT
Rahimafrooz has dedicated and skilled IT professionals to have a smooth IT system from the backend every PCs to front end customer interface. Rahimafrooz has a very structured IT policy. Group IT is managed from RACO the corporate center as a shared service to SBUs.

Use of technology in doing business is a key focus. All offices in Dhaka and throughout the country are connected through LAN, MAN, and WAN.

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There are various IT systems used by functions like, IBM software IMAS is used as the main ERP system covering financial to manufacturing to customer invoicing to planning and forecasting etc. RAPID is used for Human Resources management. FLEXIB is used retail business management. Each management employee is connected by MS Exchange for internal and external communication. Besides there is few customized software in use for various critical activities - customer services etc.

The group has web page with Group and SBUs product, services profile and intranet for internal employee communication and business policies software availability to the users.

The Change Process at Rahimafrooz

A renowned leader was recruited through head hunting, followed by a highly qualified HR professional from British American Tobacco (who just came from an overseas assignment).

Together they formed a winning combination and started their immediate plan of action as per follows:

Existing personnel department, was replaced with HR professionals, who had first hand hr experience to work the best multinationals in the country with strong drive to achieve results The new HR department under leadership of the HR Director and CEO conducted a company wide HR audit and matched people VS. Position competency mapping. The old hierarchical structure was replaced with a business focused flat (3 level structures, junior, mid level, senior management) structures. Based on HR audits, incompetent personnel were let go (at that time, this was a headline in the news and was criticized). New organization structure, with market competitive salary structure was designed to attract the right talents from the market. Target oriented performance management system with linking reward Finally, states of art recruitment drive to fill up the best talent for KEY POSITIONS to rest (Top Down).

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As of today in 2012, Rahimafrooz made a Turnaround with successful HR action plan to a successful group of companies with double digit sales growth year to year for the past 10 years. Rahimafroozs corresponding HR Goals is illustrated as follows-

Recruitment process:
The conglomerate pursues a four-step process in hiring people for entry-level positions.

First, it issues a job vacancy circular on online job portals such as bdjobs.com and prothom-alojobs.com. Second, the HR department screens the resumes and shortlists candidates. Then, the HR and line manager conduct an in-depth preliminary interview to access the candidate's abilities. Finally, candidates are hired after a final interview.

For mid-level positions, the group generally hires people through head hunters. It generally hires people through an assessment centre for senior positions. Candidates

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passing the assessment are interviewed by top officials of the company including board members and then offered a position in the company.

Training Types:
Rahimafrooz tries to facilitate training to its employees based on either of the two types -

Type- 1: Leadership, Soft Skill, Communication, Time Management and Presentation Skills. Type 2: Functional Management, Talent Management and Supply Chain Negotiation Skills.

Also an US based company SENSEI gives T&D amenities to Rahimafrooz employees from senior to junior executives whenever called on by Rahimafrooz authorities. In addition there is also a community building session for Rahimafrooz management called I+10. Product training is also provided when new employees join the company.

Monitoring Performance:
Rahimafrooz Group performance monitoring is done through sets of processes and forums like few review meetings like at SBUs level Executive Committee (EC, comprises of SBU COO and top team members).Meeting during first week of each month, and Group level Corporate Executive Committee (CEC, comprises of Group Board members, SBU COO, Corporate Center Functional Heads, Finance head is the secretary of the committee) within tenth of each month. Group Board Meeting is taking place in each month. Board committees are active and assist Board in making policy decisions like, compensation, finance policies, investment and financing decisions, risk and control etc.

Performance is monitored against Annual Business Plan (ABP) which is developed in each year keeping Vision 2010 in full focus. Performance monitoring tools: along with traditional financial statements we use Balance scorecard, Project Management tools. Stake in the Ground (SITG), Project Management Office (PMO) is in the process of introduction. At SBU finance department is responsible for performance reporting, analysis and raising flags in case of deviation which is dealt with at EC meeting. At Group level Group Finance team is consolidating the SBU performance and analyzes the result and present financial performance in the CEC. IN CEC meeting SBU COO present business performance financial and operational and

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outlook market competition, major business matters on sourcing to customers, regulatory issues etc. Key business decisions are taken at CEC based performance.

There is quarterly Business Review Session (QBR) for each SBU focused session at SBU HO with Board and Corporate team vs. SBU EC team. This is a detailed oriented discussion and deliberation session on SBU performance. This gives the ground level understanding to the Board and top executive team.

In each of the above performance monitoring sessions specific action plans are developed in case of any deviation from plan and follow up action are taken and updates are given in the next meeting.

Employee Performance Evaluation

The evaluation process of Rahmafrooz is very competitive and a very interesting one. They use a number of Techniques for evaluating their employees. From the Survey, it was evident that Rahimafrooz usually follows 5 common Techniques of Performance Evaluation and those are-

1. 360 degree feedback- The appraisal may be any person who has thorough knowledge about the job done by contents to be appraised, standards of contents & who observes the employee while performing a job .He should asses the performance without bias . The appraiser are supervisors, peers, subordinates employees themselves users of service. Performance appraisal by all the parties is called 360degree appraisal.

2. The organization used behaviorally anchored rating scale- This a new appraisal technique which has been recently developed .It provides better results as compare to other techniques .The BARS is usually consist of five steps.

Generate critical incidents: with knowledge of the job to be appraised are

asked to describe specific illustrations of effective performance behavior.

Develop performance Dimensions: These people then cluster the incidents into small set of performance dimensions. Each cluster must be defined.

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Reallocate Incidents: Any group of people who also the job then reallocates the original critical incidents. They are given clusters definitions & critical& asked to redefine each incident to the dimension

Scale of Incidents: The second group is generally asked to rate the behavior described in the incident as to how effectively or ineffectively it represents performance on the appropriate dimensions.

Develop Final Instrument: Subsets of incidents are used as behavior anchors for the performance dimensions.

3. Simple rating system- This is the most commonly used method of performance Appraisal. In it one of the each person is rated on a continuous scale. These factors are employee characteristics & employee contribution which includes qualities such as initiative, leadership, cooperativeness, dependability, industry, and attitude.

4. Assessment Center Method- The assessment center concept was initially applied to military situations in the Germany army in the 1930 .The purpose of this method was and is to test candidates in social situations using a number of assessors & a variety of procedures. The most important feature of the assessment centre is job related simulations. These simulations involve characteristics that managers feel are important to the job success. The evaluators observe & evaluate participants as they perform activities commonly found in these higher levels of jobs.

5. Management by objective (MBO) - method for performance evaluation- It is potentially a powerful philosophy of managing and an effective way of operational sing the evaluation process. It is defined as a process whereby the superior & subordinates managers of an organization jointly identify its common goals, define each individuals major areas responsibility in terms of results expected of him & use these measures as guides for operating the unit & assessing the contributions of each of its members.

Problems in Performance Appraisal System

Rahimafrooz is not totally careful about ensuring the performance appraisal system within their organization. Some of the problems at this level includes-

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Bureaucracy of employees performance appraisal.

The Performance Measures are sometimes difficult to be understood by the employees. Therefore employees do not accept their performance results and there is riot and other industrial disturbances within the company.

Rahimafrooz do not measure employee accomplishments.

They dont use any of the qualitative and quantitative measures.

Sometimes, there is lack of information provided to the supervisors for correct and transparent evaluation.

Promotions, annual performance bonus, training, increments by performance appraisal results are all missing from the HR Department annual plans.

Human Resource Locus

HRM is fairly new for Rahimafrooz since the company started its HR department in the year 2009. With a range of HR Challenges, it is also worthwhile to mention that the company does also possess some good benefits and incentives to provide the people of the company. Rahimafrooz provides the employees facilities like Eid bonus, Profit Sharing, Performance and Group Insurance Provision, Personal Loans, Hospitality Loans for Parents, Spouse and Kids (up to 21 years). Despite this number of benefits, employees of the organization are not satisfied with their work in the company. Many of them have complained on the absence of their personal development and career development from Rahimafrooz and the fact that there is breach of communication between the superiors and the subordinates makes work difficult and more time consuming. The company maintains complain box for employees, customers and team members alike, but it comes of little significance since most of the time the complaints that gets into the box are not addressed by the top authorities, hence at the end of every month no letters are found in the box because of its continued inefficiency. But nevertheless, Rahimafrooz is constantly trying to boost up its employee morale by recently announcing the best annual performer of the year. The deserved employee is then presented a crest and Tk. 3000

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as bonus. The best performing Rahimafrooz outlet is given the Star Award and Tk.5000 bonus to each employees of that outlet starting from the superiors to the subordinates. There are also Annual cultural programs, Sports, Indoor Games and Cooking competition arranged for the employees. The question thus arises that to what extent can Rahimafrooz better utilize the array of facilities that it is currently providing to the employees, so that a feeling of corporate citizenship arises in the minds of the employees and they feel motivated to contribute positively to the success of the company.

Marketing Locus
Rahimafrooz Practices same marketing concepts and combinations for its different products. For instance, Rahimafrooz IPS is a combination of product concept and marketing concept for providing better quality to the customers than the competitors do. However in doing so, price becomes higher and sometimes sales are way lower than forecasted. In terms of Rahimafrooz Battery, there is also a combination of product concept and marketing concept for durability concerns. However, in this sector continuous effort is required by the company to develop its products and cope up with the change in the automobile sector. Rahimafrooz Tyre also goes with the same combination of product and marketing concept, and this product- marketing combination helps Rahimafrooz the best in its Tyre lines. Greatest contribution is achieved in this sector with good quality. For the superstore Agora, Rahimafrooz recently changed its focus from the usual product and marketing concept to selling and marketing concept, whereby they decided to make the price of their offerings reasonably competitive and increased their product line in the store and is making continuous effort to increase sales through promotion and by offering the customers the products mostly desired by them. Rahimafrooz strictly prohibits itself to cater to a broad range of Marketing Promotions, whereby just the company cost increases, without corresponding proportionate increases in sales. Therefore, Rahimafrooz resorts to in-house promotions through leaflets, pamphlets and brochures which gets distributed to the customers every time they visit Rahimafrooz showrooms. The top management of Rahimafrooz believes that since they do not wish to engage in heavy promotions of their market offerings to the customers, they always resorted to using the same marketing concepts for each of their products because it minimizes the risk of dilution of their product lines.

Thus the top most alarming question in this sector remains whether it is worthwhile to play by the old rules of the game and maintain homogeneity in terms of their marketing locus for each of their product lines at the cost of creating monotony, stagnant growth and no innovation and R& D for each of Rahimafroozs product lines, despite knowing it might be difficult to survive in the future in this rapidly changing competitive environment with piles of competitors lining up in a queue.

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Management Dilemma
The Top Management of Rahimafrooz is concerned about the future existence of the company in the market. The company immediately needs another turnaround success to reach its 2015 vision. According to Arif Shahriar, chief operating officer of corporate division and group head of human resources at Rahimafrooz, We want to become a billion dollar company by strengthening our existing businesses and investing in new segments within the next four years. Rahimafrooz, with annual sales of around Tk 1800 crore, is growing at 29 percent in the last few years, Top Management of Rahimafrooz realizes that they should have started their HR department from the very first year of the companys operation rather than setting it up in 2009.The conglomerate is recently working on strategic management systems in the group, based on a framework pioneered by Dr David Norton, a renowned strategy management guru, and Dr Robert Kaplan, to achieve its vision in the stipulated time. However, the extent to which management can successfully implement the balance scorecard method is doubtful, since the company lacks a lot of infrastructure to correctly execute the method within their company. Moreover, there can also be resistance form the employees and the customers alike.

Norton has already held a session with Rahimafrooz's top management in Dhaka to share his insight on how to build an effective strategy management system. Norton, which holds a doctorate from Harvard Business School USA, is considered an expert in the fields of business strategy and leadership. The balance scorecard concept was selected by Harvard Business Review as one of the most influential management ideas in the past 75 years. Now the question arises in front of Rahimafrooz that whether the same 75 years success milestone can create another round of success for this company too. Rahimafrooz should carefully design its strategies and actions in the next 3 years time to reach its vision of 2015 through the new concept.

To join the billions club, the company has to focus on the best human resource practices in terms of recruitment, talent development, and succession planning and performance appraisal. To what extent can all these issues be addressed and sorted out is another very big question for Rahimafrooz to successfully complete their 2015 vision of achieving another turnaround success in their company after the year 2000.

Growing Problems
It is very much evident that since Rahimafrooz has a monopoly power in the market, they lack competition and hence there is no innovation of up gradation of their resources in the company which restricts rational consumer choices of products from Rahimafrooz and hence no R& D options. Moreover, the company is highly centralized which reduces

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employee morale and individual empowerment of decision making which can lead to bottlenecks in the future. Competitors are emerging rapidly to cater to the same customer base; hence Rahimafroozs product line is becoming sluggish in the market taking its products lifecycle to the shakeout phase as mentioned earlier in the case. The biggest threat is the dumpage of cheap Chinese batteries, tyres and lubricants in the Bangladeshi Market which is recently hampering Rahimafroozs market share significantly, since quality remains an issue from both the providers, so according to customers perception they naturally go for the cheaper commodity that they can avail. With increasing customer expectation from the company after creating milestones after milestones in the last 10 years, it would be difficult for Rahimafrooz to uphold the same trend provided that there is now absence of proper HR policy and performance appraisal system, R& D facilities and the long array of its future challenges. The corresponding reduction in Customer Satisfaction Index and Employee Productivity Rate as of 2010-2012 in Rahimafrooz is graphically illustrated in the Appendix Section of the case.

Future Challenges
Despite Rahimafroozs overall operational success in the past few years, the company now faces a new line of challenges which should thus be addressed immediately.

Supplier Management: Although initial efforts were geared towards an alignment of philosophies with suppliers, this has been difficult to achieve. Suppliers are known to be short-sighted and have been historically accustomed to a different manner of doing business, and it is taking time to adjust their objectives and operations to meet Rahimafroozs vision. Specific challenges regarding suppliers in Rahimafroozs Retail chain Agora include inconsistent supplies that result in frequent stock outs, ineffective quality control mechanisms that cause increased monitoring costs to ensure high quality products, packaging defects, non-use of expiry dates and bar codes, and tampering with products. Agora is trying to help suppliers understand that they dont have to compromise on quality in order to sell their products. It is a challenge for the company to realize that while suppliers are improving, significantly more time will be required to complete the desired transformation the company needs by 2015.

Human Resources: Human resources have been another major challenge to Rahimafrooz. The company faces difficulties at all levels of the hierarchy because of a relatively less trained and under skilled employee base. Although Agora is now able to recruit and retain people according to their strategies and objectives, sustained effort is required to instill the communication skills and people friendly attitude necessary in service industries. At a higher level, management challenges remain an issue, Rahimafrooz cannot continue to have a centralized management if it wishes to achieve the 2015 vision by Balance Scorecard approach.

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Competitive Positioning (Branding): This problem is mainly visible in Rahimafroozs retail chain Agora. Initial research suggested that consumers associated higher prices with modern supermarkets but nevertheless demanded competitive prices in order to be convinced to shop at them, particularly for daily necessities and commodities. After 11 years in operation, results appear to be mixed. New and occasional customers feel Agoras prices are higher than competitors, while existing customers do not complain about prices. The attempts to differentiate Agora from its competitors seem to be causing some of the confusing results. Successful communication regarding Agoras superior service seems to be reinforcing consumer associations about higher prices and limiting the number of new customers. Successfully delivering superior service, on the other hand, seems to be generating satisfaction among those customers who have chosen to shop at Agora. The challenge then is to develop strategies to attract large numbers of new customers who will continue to shop at the stores. Advertisements that feature prices for specific product seem to generate more traffic from new and occasional customers, but featuring product prices tends to undermine positioning the Agora brand along non-price dimensions. This positioning dilemma is creating uncertainty, particularly in the advertising decisions being taken to increase customer traffic volume.

Another related issue is the definition of competition. Agoras strategic position is to differentiate itself from the local Kaccha bazaars on all dimensions except price. Since Agora built its first supermarket at Dhanmondi, the industry has seen several changes, including the appearance of other supermarkets offering products in environments similar to Agoras. It is not clear whether the target markets definition of competition is the same as Agoras strategic definition of competition. There did not appear to be any consistent pattern in the behavior of customers who seem to be floating from one store to another. The challenge is to successfully position Agora along relevant competitive dimensions.

Global versus local strategy: The continuous upgrading of local operational software will provide the data necessary to make these adjustments on a timely basis; the managerial challenge is thus to determine how to balance the global and local strategies. As Rahimafrooz wishes to expand its operations to Dubai, America and India, these challenges will increase in magnitude. One consideration is the management structure and allocation of responsibility for global vs. local strategies. Currently the human resource constraint has created a centralized decision making system. Future success will depend on ways in which the management structure is able to balance the two levels of strategic implementation.

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Rahimafrooz is one of the largest business groups in Bangladesh. It is a trading company with diverse product lines for its valued customers. However, the company is striving to make its employees and customers satisfied. The Employee Productivity Rate reduced by 20% roughly, while the Customer Satisfaction Index also showed a reduction of around 10% throughout the years of 2010 to 2012. There is inadequate Performance Appraisal Feedback and employees are not satisfied with their work in the company. Many of them have complained on the absence of their personal development and career development from Rahimafrooz and the fact that there is breach of communication between the superiors and the subordinates makes work difficult and more time consuming. Moreover, Rahimafrooz Practices same marketing concepts and combinations for its different products making its product line stagnant and less attractive to customers. Also the companys strategy of resorting to minimal promotion of its products to cut costs also creates less awareness and magnetism for its products in the customers minds. In addition, the companys centralized management system, lack of competition and innovation gives the company no R& D options to ponder on. Cheap Chinese Batteries in the market also causes the problem of dumpage, along with Supplier Chain Management problems and Human Resource problems which creates obstacles for reaching the 2015 vision foreseen by the company. The company is also striving to retain and attract existing and new customers while expanding the companys operations to Dubai, America and India. The biggest managerial challenge for Rahimafrooz is to determine how to balance the global and local strategies for future success.

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What Strategic Initiatives can be taken by Rahimafrooz to achieve its 2015 vision of executing Balance Scorecard Method to instill Corporate Citizenship in the minds of its employees so that the company is able to uphold its market share despite the dumping of the cheap Chinese products in the local market and hence focus on the best human resource practices in terms of recruitment, talent development, succession planning and performance appraisal to retain and attract existing and new customers while supporting their expansion plans for 2015?

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Below the diagram summarizes in a tabular format the HRP Model. The Check Points outlines the existence of the Consideration and/or Techniques of Forecasting Demand or Forecasting Supply as per the case and the Cross Points show its absence in the case.

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Strengths:
1. Rahimafrooz develops a centralized Customer Feedback & Query (CFQ) CELL

Rahimafrooz develops a centralized Customer Feedback & Query (CFQ) CELL Total commitment to customer satisfaction is one of their values. Listening to what customers say in a continual systematic way is a key tool to comprehend their needs and requirements and to satisfy them achieving excellence in their products and services accordingly.

In order to suvive in competition, businesses need to learn on how to cater to their customers needs. They must strive to find out all time on how to satisfy those needs in order to to achieve their trust which will lead to larger market share. One way of doing this will be to find out what the customers want through feedbacks and quesries. Customers feedbacks and their queries will act as a base to implement a process to satisfy the needs. Rahimafrooz did just that having a Customer Feedback & Query (CFQ) CELL.

Integration with the HRP Model: This relates to the area of HRP model where they show Technology and Organizational Growth under Forecasting Demand- Consideration.

Justification of Integration: This area is related to the model because the CFQ Cell is able to tap the total commitment to customer satisfaction. Since Rahimafrooz is a trading business house it is crucial for the company to maintain and sustain a cell that will look after the requirements, needs and wants of customers in the market in order to achieve sustainable Organizational Growth. Moreover, with the entrance of several competitors in the market and with the availability of cheap Chinese commodities in the market, it is essential for Rahimafrooz to utilize this Technologically equipped Cell to create its own distinctive competency in the customers minds. In order to ensure growth and to run this Cell properly Rahimafrooz with the array of its new future challenges needs to review its human resources, balancing the supply and demand of personnel so that a proper HRP is obtained and facilitated throughout the organization for future success.

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2. Employee retention involves a two-pronged approach and hiring process consists of three distinctive steps: Human Resource Planning (HRP), Developing Analysis, Description and Specification of the job, Recruiting and Selection. Employee retention involves a two-pronged approach of creating development opportunities for key employees and providing incentives (through compensation) that strengthen loyalty. Also Performance appraisal and Handling Grievances are two key factors in employee retention. Of all the changes a company can make in order to improve morale, decrease human resources costs, limit personnel liability, none is more effective than focusing on hiring the right person for the job which is done by three distinct processes: Human Resource Planning (HRP), Developing Analysis, Description and Specification of the job for which hiring is performed, Recruiting and Selection.

Strengthening human resources provides an organization with strong workforce. Firms need to find out ways on how to bring out the best from its existing employees and how to train the new recruits to match with the organizational culture and principles. By providing benefits and opportunities to employees Rahimafrooz is capturing the loyalty of its employees which in turn makes the company strong enough in the long run.

Integration with the HRP Model: This relates to the area of HRP model where they show Organizational Growth under Forecasting Demand- Consideration.

Justification of Integration: This area is related to the model because with such tight screening of employee selection and then with Rahimafroozs two-pronged approach of retaining the selected employees, shows that the talent of the organization remains with it throughout the years, thus facilitating less bottlenecks and delays in operations. This will therefore lead to organizational growth of Rahimafrooz coupled with a strong workforce. However, with the new line of problems and challenges for the company in the future it is essential that Rahimafrooz looks into its HRP Model to review its balance of supply and demand. With its 2015 vision of implementing balance scorecard method, the company might find it beneficial to look for and review the shortages of employees with the correct skills for the visions implementation and thereby go for recruitment as full time or part time as convenient for the company. In case of employee surplus with inadequate skills to adapt to the new change, the company should consider reductions in terms of Layoffs, Terminations, Demotions or Retirements, thereby balancing the supply and demand of human resources in the company.

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3. Managing technology within the organization through the compliance with ISO standards and creating Quality Circle (QC) teams to provide best quality products to customers. Compliance with the ISO elements virtually ensures product conformity to standards in the case of Rahimafrooz. Rahimafrooz in seeking continuous improvement emphasizes on participation, harmony, cooperation and the quality principle. Rahimafrooz has developed clearly defined roles and functions of a quality circle organization consisting of steering committee, facilitator, circle leader and QC members. Each of the 24 QC circles of Rahimafrooz consists of 8-10 members who solve problems through participation.

Rahimafroozs quality assurance, besides the maintained standard comes from the empowerment of employees and its continual improvement sequence of Plan, Do, Check and Act. This in turn unites the firm strongly to achieve the single goal of fulfilling the customers needs and establish a strong position in the market.

Integration with the HRP Model: This relates to the area of HRP model where they show Product/ Service Demand and Technology under Forecasting Demand- Consideration.

Justification of Integration: This area is related to the model because ensuring that the customers are getting good quality products will retain the companys product/service demand in the market. With new competitors emerging, it is definitely a forte for Rahimafrooz to ensure compliance of technology with ISO standard and prevent any forms of outmoded equipments, facilities and other amenities which might halt the companys operations. Therefore making full use of technology will keep Rahimafrooz very much tuned in with the global market and hence help its expansion plans further to Dubai, America and India. For doing so Rahimafrooz will have to review its supply and demand of human resources in the company so that a proper HRP is assisted both in the local and global context, with the right people at the right time and in the right place to bring about organizations success in the long run.

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Weaknesses:
1. Lack of competition and strong monopoly limits the knowledge of Rahimafrooz about future competitions and therefore resulting in no up-gradation of strategies for future use. The main weakness of Rahimafrooz is that there is no particular competitors existing in their market and as a result of this they do not know where they are in the market. Monopoly often keeps a company in dark from many other probable improvement or up-gradation and many more salient features do not come out of dark. Because, without knowing the actual market place of the company, it cannot target to the extensive upgradation of the products.

Strong market position gives the mentality of not considering other competitors as a threat. As a result the firm will not be willing to take any strategic measures to safeguard themselves against future problems and competitions. Therefore when a new competition rises, posing threat, the company will suffer.

Integration with the HRP Model: This relates to the area of HRP model where they show Product/ Service Demand under Forecasting Demand- Consideration.

Justification of Integration: This area is related to the model because without any upgradation of its market offerings in the future Rahimafrooz will not be able to survive since it is already in dire need of better strategies to overcome its growing problems and future challenges. In addition with more competitors coming up and the dumping of cheap Chinese products in the Bangladeshi market consumers now have more rational options to choose from. Therefore with such lack of competition and with no innovation Rahimafroozs product/ service demand will level down, reducing its market share and monopoly power in the future. It is crucial that Rahimafrooz re- considers its HRP Model so that supply and demand of human resources in the organization is brought to equilibrium. The current employees work lapses, idleness and low morale is not contributing to Rahimafroozs success anymore. Therefore a review of further recruitment of employees and reduction of unproductive employees will greatly pay back the company and is hence vital to bring it forward to the companys consideration.

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2. As no initiatives are there for strategy upgradation and as they hold the market share, they might not feel the need for R&D, therefore offering lack of variety to customers Research and development helps the firm innovate new ideas and technology in order to provide better service to the customers. Through this the firm can experiment whether a product will be successful or not. R&D also leads to other benefits such as techniques to reduce cost, ways to increase market share and others. In todays world of strong competition continuous R&D is a must which will ensure continuous improvement.

Rahimafroozs mentality of not feeling the need for a proper R&D will lead to losing market share in the future. It will not be able to foresee the future change in consumption and demand patterns of the economy. Thus they will stick to their stereotypical and traditional way of fulfilling customers needs which will definitely turn backdated with the course of time. As a result the new competitors will gain the upper hand because they are the firms of modern times and therefore has the updated technique on their side.

Integration with the HRP Model: This relates to the area of HRP model where they show Product/ Service Demand under Forecasting Demand- Consideration.

Justification of Integration: This area is related to the model because with new emerging competitors in the market, it would be difficult for Rahimafrooz to survive in the market without coming up with innovative and distinctive products for the customers. The companys major drawback of not having R&D Department might lead to reduced demand for its product in the future since, the products will lose its competence as new and improved commodities from the competitors come up at cheaper prices. This matter should be immediately dealt by Rahimafrooz, whereby in order to establish an R&D Department the company has to refer to its HRP model to find out its shortages and surplus of qualified employees and bring the supply and demand balance of employees through new recruitment or old reduction of workers, so that the R&D Department is effective to bring about new changes for the company.

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3. As the operation is centralized, communicating with the headquarters is always a necessity. So, multiple SBUs, operating at wider scale spreads the management and communication process to a great extent therefore resulting in improper monitoring and occasional mismanagement in operations. Centralized companies need to have a strong communication link with the headquarters. All the decisions are approved by the headquarters so delay in communicating with them brings a halt to the whole process thus disrupting production.

Rahimafrooz needs to find ways to establish effective communication bridge between the branches and the headquarters. Multiple SBUs, operating at wider scale spreads the management and communication process to a great extent therefore resulting in improper monitoring and occasional mismanagement in operations. So, Rahimafrooz might be unable to monitor the process of its SBUs properly which will lead to occasional mismanagement. All of this indicates to the need of strong communication chains across the organization.

Integration with the HRP Model: This relates to the area of HRP model where they show Organizational Growth under Forecasting Demand- Consideration.

Justification of Integration: This area is related to the model because with the management system of Rahimafrooz being centralized, it is always the top management who provides their final verdict before any decision is implemented or before an operation progresses. All this makes the decision making and implementation process very time consuming, reducing empowerment for the lower level employees who would be eventually carrying out the work. This greatly affects the Organizational Growth of the company since more holdups and tail backs are observed within the company. Rahimafrooz should therefore decide on to delegating more work to its lower level subordinates not just to build up their morale but also to speed up operations among the company. In order to do so Rahimafrooz will have to resort to a comprehensive HRP Model where the company has to review its shortage or surplus of deserving employees under who work can be delegated with complete trust and freedom. So it is essential for the company to bring a balance of demand and supply of such employees for its future success.

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Opportunities:
1. Rahimafrooz can explore the area of a R&D department in order to continuous innovate and develop products. Research and development helps the firm innovate new ideas and technology in order to provide better service to the customers. Through this the firm can experiment whether a product will be successful or not. R&D also leads to other benefits such as techniques to reduce cost, ways to increase market share and others. In todays world of strong competition continuous R&D is a must which will ensure continuous improvement.

As an opportunity for growth, Rahimafrooz should strictly think of upgrade the Research and Development department so that it can up innovation and up to date technology and also facilitate thorough research. Detailed research with new ideas will help broaden their business further through the results of providing best quality to customers and maintaining an upper hand in the market.

Integration with the HRP Model: The aforementioned opportunity can be integrated with the models Product/ Service Demand under Forecasting Demand- Consideration.

Justification of Integration: This area is related to the model because the company would otherwise not survive in the heavily competitive market. Rahimafrooz should exploit more opportunities of innovation and technology not just to cut cost but also to increase its employee productivity. It is only after the establishment of R&D Department that Rahimafrooz can secure its demand for its products in the market. In order to do so, Rahimafrooz has to recruit more qualified and technologically captive employees who would be able to sustain technological changes and thereby adapt to such global variations fast. Rahimafrooz should therefore conduct a human resource planning where the company decides which workers to keep and which to reduce so that only deserving and qualified people are present in the company contributing to Rahimafroozs positive success whereby combating the growing problems and future challenges of the company. Therefore it is fundamental to derive an equilibrium balance between the supply and demand of such human resources in Rahimafrooz.

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2. Rahimafrooz can go for more technology based process leading to mass production which will help them to achieve economies of scale and offer products at cheap price thus tackling the competition from China and other local minor competitors. If a company wants to offer its products at a competitive price then going for mass production is one of the important ways. To bring about mass production in the short run, efficient and effective use of technology is a must. Technology speeds up the whole process and therefore leads to more units being produced within the time previously used. The more the firm will produce the more its production costs will spread over resulting in economies of scale and competitive selling price per unit.

If Rahimafrooz wants to offer its products at a competitive price then they should be for mass production. To bring about mass production in their short run, efficient and effective use of technology is a must. Technology will speed up their whole process and therefore will lead to more units being produced within the time previously used. The more Rahimafrooz will produce the more its production costs will spread over resulting in economies of scale and competitive selling price per unit.

Integration with the HRP Model: This relates to the area of HRP model where they show Product/ Service Demand under Forecasting Demand- Consideration.

Justification of Integration: This area is related to the model because utilizing the Technology properly signifies that the product offered by Rahimafrooz in the market would be satisfying the customer needs and wants since the products will have its own distinction in the market. This means that mass production can be facilitated which will save cost and increase productivity, in return a very competitive and economical pricing can be done for each of Rahimafroozs products. This will therefore also provide a head on challenge to the cheap Chinese products overflown in the Bangladeshi market. However, in order to do so Rahimafrooz needs to first attain a balance between its supply and demand of human resources in the company for which the HRP model is essential. This model will thus facilitate the company by identifying the shortages or surplus of employees who are capable or non- capable to be with the organization and accomplish the 2015 vision, with such shortages and surplus identified; Rahimafrooz can go for corresponding reductions and recruitment benefiting the company as a whole in the future.

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3. Continuous training process should be carried out by the HR department in order to train the staff in maintaining constant better performance, effective communication and motivate in portraying loyalty to the company.

In order to maintain a strong workforce, continuous training should be provided so that they can be trained to suit the organization needs. Training will result in better performance which will come in the form of increased output, communicating effectively with other employees. Also the employees should be motivated enough and should be taught about ethics to portray loyalty to the organization.

Rahimafrooz should consider the above thought in order to maintain a strong workforce. Continuous training will train them to suit the organization needs. Training will result in better performance which will come in the form of increased output, communicating effectively with other employees. Also the employees will be motivated enough if they are taught about ethics to portray loyalty to Rahimafrooz. Integration with the HRP Model: This relates to the area of HRP model where they show Labor Mobility under Forecasting Supply- Consideration.

Justification of Integration: This area is related to the model because it has been mentioned in the case that the employees of Rahimafrooz are intensely suffering from low morale and they depict no sense of corporatism for their companys success. The reason can be because Rahimafrooz is highly centralized with no empowerment to lower level management. Moreover, employees feel that from the company they will have no personal or career development. Rahimafrooz will have to change this perception by providing training opportunities to the employees, which will in return instill a sense of belonging and loyalty of the employees towards the company. In addition the company will achieve Labor Mobility and Job Rotation options can be facilitated to each of the employees, since training in the primary level will include mass knowledge of all job levels at Rahimafrooz. In order to do so, Rahimafrooz will have to refer to the HRP Model whereby, the talents who will be able to provide positive benefits to the company will be identified, and only those deserving employees will be trained. A proper balance between the supply and demand of such employees can be attained by deciding on future recruitment and reduction of employees for the company. Only after doing this can Rahimafrooz be successful to retain the assets of the company.

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Threats:
1. Although it has a monopoly sort of market share but still new competitors are coming up in the market and they might penetrate the market anytime.

Market for any sort of goods and services is everchanging. New firms take entry and unsuccessful old firms go out of the business. Some of the new firms lose their way in the middle while others continue to survive among the big competitors. These new firms in the future consists of every sort of potentiality to posses as a threat to the existing firms.

As a precaution it is always advisable for big companies like Rahimafrooz to adopt some strategies so that they can tackle these unwanted new threats which keep cropping up. If necessary measures are not taken at the right time these strong competitors will soon prove as a barrier for them to retain its larger market share.

Integration with the HRP Model: This relates to the area of HRP model where they show Government Policies under Forecasting Supply- Consideration.

Justification of Integration: This area is related to the model because with new competitors lining up in the Bangladeshi Market and the dumping of cheap Chinese commodities, Rahimafroozs products not only have to be competitively priced but it also has to have a quality factor in its product attributes. With government policies supporting less barriers of entry into the market, the company should bear in mind that more new competitors are in the queue. In order to tackle such fierce competition in the future Rahimafrooz should essentially review its HRP Model so that the implementation of the companys balance score card method to manpower planning and its 2015 vision is feasible, Rahimafrooz requires exceptionally committed employees for its company so that adaption in terms of changes, variations and technology is easily molded by the companys personnel. Rahimafrooz should therefore re-consider its recruitment and selection process and take another two pronged approach in reducing its number of non-capable employees from the company. Only then Rahimafrooz will be able to view the bright light of success again.

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2. Chinese products are available in Bangladesh at cheap rates which make Rahimafrooz losing its market share at least to the extent of cheap pricing by China. China has entered the world market with dominance through their products. There products come in handy and most importantly cheap. As they are offering the products at a cheap rate, their products are being brought more frequently than any other brands. Due to their competitive pricing in the foreign market, the importing country cannot maintain their price competitively so they end up charging higher price leading to reduced sales.

Rahimafrooz needs to be aware of the above mentioned fact. In Bangladesh, Chinese products are accepted with open arms because they are cheap. Although there can be questions with quality but majority goes for saving rather than spending. So Rahimafrooz being a Bangladeshi company offering quality products may lose its market to China mainly because they are being able to offer their products at the same competitive pricing.

Integration with the HRP Model: This relates to the area of HRP model where they show Product/ Service Demand and Organizational Growth under Forecasting Demand- Consideration.

Justification of Integration: This area is related to the model because with the availability of cheap Chinese products in the market, it is evident that customers are more inclined to purchase those inexpensive Chinese commodities rather than Rahimafroozs product lines. This reduces the demand of Rahimafroozs products in the local market and also makes the companys organizational growth stagnant. Rahimafrooz should now venture itself into creating an R&D Department immediately and also utilize its technological prospects to modify and make its products more competent in the market. In order to do so Rahimafrooz has to conduct a comprehensive HR Planning in its company which will bring about a proper balance between the supply and demand of competent employees for Rahimafrooz.

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3. As it is a well known brand and an established company, Rahimafrooz is always under pressure to maintain its quality in order to satisfy its customers and maintain the larger market share.

First impression lasts long. Rahimafrooz created an image for itself among the consumers minds by offering quality products and at a greater variety. As the consumers know that this is a very big company so they expect Rahimafrooz to constantly maintain the quality that it has showed at early stages.

This puts Rahimafrooz under pressure because they need to work continuously to maintain that positive image. Too much of pressure would create stress on the company and as a result they might lose their way and start creating a mess in their process in order to catch up with peoples expectations.

Integration with the HRP Model: This relates to the area of HRP model where they show Organizational Growth under Forecasting Demand- Consideration.

Justification of Integration: This area is related to the model because with Rahimafroozs brand image comes its greater expectation of excellence. The company is striving to maintain its goodwill and diverse product lines despite putting forward new offerings in the market. Customers expectation from this business house is so demanding that the company is under immense pressure to uphold and retain its market share. Such expectations can halt organizational growth provided that Rahimafrooz is encountering growing problems and many future challenges to combat. In order to overcome such challenges Rahimafrooz needs to review the HR Planning Model to correctly balance the supply and demand of Human Resources in the company who can ensure quality assurance along with technological adaptation and build on individual levels of corporatism for the companys success. Therefore the recruitment and reduction criteria should be modified to fit in with the future challenges of the company.

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Human Resource is an essential part of an organization. An organization will feel helpless without a Human Resource Department. The main agenda of this department is to acquiring, hiring, training and compensating employees. It helps companies dealing with the fast changing business environment and help employs to deal with the situation. HR is also important for to maintain good quality for long period. It also explains how a company can retain good employee by giving incentives, bonuses, reward, and great compensation to sustain its quality service.

After going through the case we have found that some significant HR issues that already exist in Rahimafrooz , like how they structure their organization, how they are recruiting their employees, how they satisfy their customers and so on. But we also identified some problems which can be regarded as HR issues.

The staffing process of Rahimafrooz is not effective in bringing new talents who can add significant value to the organizations success.

Rahimafrooz has always talked and did about employee development. They have always thought about employees as employees are their main power factor and they have to make the organization more successful in the long run. So employees development is really very talked issue in Rahimafrooz and they are very much concern about the issue. But currently the availability of specific skill in the market is very short and Rahimafrooz is facing problems for that. New recruits often failed to cope with the hectic working condition because of low job attractiveness. Those who stayed needed lot more time to socialize with the industry and thus are not adding as much value as expected. Due to unavailability of potential candidate in the external sources, Rahimafrooz relies heavily on employee referrals and promoting within which were also not very successful. So they have to take employees from the other organizations. Sometimes the output is too late from the employees because they are unable to understand the situation. They could not cope up with the existing nature of the business. Rahimafrooz should follow standard procedure HR maintenance in their organization. They should establish a learning institution to train on retail-specific skills. External candidates should also get this chance to do course here through paying a certain amount of course fee. Rahimafrooz can attract a lot of external candidates by using organizational image and providing job placement service. This will make their internal pool strong. Availability of the external candidate will also increase.

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Rahimafrooz does not have a Performance Management System through which they can look after their key employees and take care of the underperformers.

There is no structured performance measurement system. Rahimafrooz fails to sort out the good and underperformers. No performance improvement initiative has been taken to develop the underperformers. All the employees sit with the supervisor and set the objectives for the next one year. They set the plans what they are going to do for the next one year. But business always does change. They have every sixth month review system but that is not effective. Sometimes supervisors lost the monitoring and the objective. And this lack of monitoring ended up with a lost result. Workers worked well at the beginning of the year become backdated and lost his track. Key performers become dissatisfied and this has caused brain drain. So at the end managers gives an overall rating to all the employees. And as a result, sometimes under performers get appraise but the over performers even do not get any value. So Rahimafrooz should come up with a good performance management system. They have to can identify the key performers and reward them. They should come up with a system will increase the satisfaction level of the top performer.

Inefficient leadership for which the organization fails to implement their strategic initiatives.

Due to ineffective recruitment system efficient leaders could not be brought in and absence of PMS let the inefficient managers to takeover higher roles. These have created vacuum in the lead roles which triggered the other problems. Top level managers do not communicate the strategic decisions well enough to the next levels. They do not consider the insight of the operational level while taking the decisions. As a result of these, the employees do not feel aligned with the strategies. This has caused organization to fail to adopt new technologies and strategic plans as overall organizations commitment was absent. So they need to come up with a good leadership policy. All line managers need to objectively evaluate their team members. If the employees are not aware of the situation how to handle the potential customers in the market recession period, they do not emphasize on necessity of companys strategy to resolve the problem. In this time representatives or the leaders has to use highest convincing power to satisfy the employees. So that employees can attract more customers rather than its competitors and make them a loyal one. Performance management system should be developed with consultation with all line managers.

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New ventures are entering the market and attracting the employees of Rahimafrooz with the best compensation packages

Rahimafrooz is playing a sort of monopoly role in the market of batteries and IPS, UPS and having the advantage of pure monopoly in the sectors of battery recycling and solar battery production. Their intra-type competitors for batteries, IPS and UPS are Navana, Aftab, Grameen, BRAC, Energypac, Intraco etc. Walton, Honda, Genpower, Power Sonic, Apollo etc. are some foreign competitors. But most of the domestic competitors do not have a mentionable market position that could challenge Rahimafrooz. A few inter-type competitors are there who are the producers of generators are. So they are not the direct competitors but indirectly they are giving them a sort of competition. And to cope up with the market, they are offering handsome amount of money to the employees of Rahimafrooz to switch their job. It is a big HR challenge as the company is losing its potential employees. So they have to come up with the best compensation packages. To create the satisfaction of the employee or to earn the best work it is essential to make the employee first to be with the company and make them feel like a part of the company. Then the employees will work as team member to complete the goal of the company.

They are not following overtime policy because they are trying to cut the costs. Also for the heads of Rahimafrooz, only every Friday and every 2nd and fourth Saturday will be off but no 1st and 3rd Saturday leave.

Employee satisfaction and retention is vital tool for a company. A proper compensation plan will encourage and motivate them to be efficient in their work and increase sales instantly by convincing loyal and potential customers. And compensation is part of HR practices. Though sometimes it causes harm to the company itself, it has been successful most of the time for the employee to bring the higher return for the company and sustain in the long run. . In Rahimafrooz for 1-7 grade employees, if they work on Friday or Saturday overtime, they will have 1 day salary according to the company policy, but 8 and above have no overtime salary. But now they are not following overtime policy because they are trying to cut the costs. Also for the heads only Friday and every 2nd and fourth Saturday off but no 1st and 3rd Saturday leave. So the company has to come up with a good overtime policy. The HR department should draw a better overtime schedule for the employees so that the employees would be motivated to do the overtime works.

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ALTERNATIVE 1: DO NOTHING
Rahimafrooz which was incorporated in the year 1954 as a trading company has now become one of the largest business group in Bangladesh that provides its customer with diverse products to meet their needs. With the help of human resource department introduced in 2009, Rahimafrooz has been one of the dynamic company that has gained competitive advantage over its competitors and became market leader in batteries industry with most market shares as well has attained significant market share in other sectors it operates. By following the alternative of Do Nothing, Rahimafrooz can focus on existing operations in the same way it did over the last 50 years achieving one milestone after another, thus maintaining its competitive position.

Pros of Alternative 1: Do Nothing

Saves Money:

Rahimafrooz can continue its existing operations in the same working environment that existed since its inception without incurring any further costs. This helps Rahimafrooz to save money that can be invested in the future.

Saves Time: By following the alternative of Do Nothing Rahimafrooz can focus on its existing operation maintaining its operations efficiency, workflow. This will allow Rahimafrooz to save time.

Saves Effort

Making changes in an existing organization requires a lot of effort so that the people in the organization can adapt to the change and improve their performance. Some people show resistance to changes and become dissatisfied. Rahimafrooz follows the strategy of Do Nothing; it does not have to put in extra effort and still can maintain its operations efficiency and effectiveness.

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Cons of Alternative 1: Do Nothing

Existing Recruitment & Selection program fails to attract right people with right skills in right position at right time:

Rahimafrooz recruitment process needs to be restructured to include appropriate recruitment sources for each job to attract appropriate candidate required for the job which will in turn help Rahimafrooz to develop a talented workforce through proper screening and selection. However, existing recruitment process fails to identify the appropriate recruitment sources for each job and hence cannot make optimal use of the sources to attract a talented pool of candidate. Moreover, Rahimafrooz does not make proper use of transitional matrix to forecast labor movements in the industry and hence fails to understand from where they can find proper candidate with adequate skills when required.

Absence of appropriate performance management system leads to inefficient managers that lacks leadership qualities which is detrimental to Rahimafrooz existence:

There is no structured performance management system for which Rahimafrooz fails to sort out the good and underperformers. Due to lack of proper monitoring and performance management system, all employees often receive similar ratings. Sometimes inefficient manager are chosen over good performer due to improper performance appraisal system to take over higher roles. This is detrimental to Rahimafrooz success in the long run because inefficient manager fails to communicate the strategic decision properly for which Rahimafrooz cannot adopt new strategy or technology.

Lack of proper, cost effective compensation package will be detrimental to organizations success as it lowers employees morale and productivity, increasing turnover:

The existing compensation package that exclusively focuses on recognition plan fails to properly balance the incentive plans, bonuses, benefits and salary for which the compensation package is costly but fails to attract and retain existing, highly skilled employees and loses them to competitors. Moreover, the overtime policy is not applied properly as Rahimafrooz is focusing on cutting costs which in turn lowers employees morale, reducing their job productivity, satisfaction, organizations commitment and increases chances of absenteeism and employee turnover that ultimatelyleads to lower profit for organization in thelong run.

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Lack of proper succession planning and development program is a major drawback:

There is no scope for existing employees to move up the hierarchical order due to lack of proper succession planning and proper development program that will help existing employees to acquire the required skills, knowledge and abilities needed for employee growth and promotion. Thus, lack of proper succession planning and development program might demotivate the existing, highly experienced employees causing them to leave their job in search for better paid jobs.

Rahimafrooz maintains homogeneity in terms of marketing locus for each of their product lines that will threaten Rahimafrooz existence in near future:

Rahimafrooz practices same marketing concepts and combinations for its different products for which prices become higher and sales become way lower than forecasted. Since Rahimafrooz is not employing different marketing concepts which are distinctive to each of its core products and is not supporting each product with proper promotional activities to ensure proper positioning in the mind of consumer, Rahimafrooz is running the risk of loosing its market share to the competitors in the long run. Moreover, it has no research and development department that are responsible for coming up with new, innovative products and meets customer needs and delights them. This might hamper Rahimafrooz competitive position in the long run because competitors will eventually come up with new, improved and innovative product and beat Rahimafrooz to competition.

Rahimafrooz lacks proper infrastructure to support balanced scorecard that can be the key driver to achieve the vision of 2015:

Rahimafrooz needs to reach the consensus between its strategy and vision before it can implement the balanced scorecard. Rahimafrooz wanted to establish a management system where organization vision, strategy and execution can be effectively linked so it attempted to build an integrated strategy management system based on Execution Premium Process TM and balanced scorecard. But Rahimafrooz lacked proper infrastructure to support the balanced scorecard and customers as well as employees were unwilling to change that can be a deterrence of becoming a billion dollar company by 2015. Lose customers, market share and suffer losses:

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The employee productivity rate reduced by 20% roughly while customer satisfaction Index also showed a reduction of around 10 % through out the years of 2010 and 2012 due to the existing problems at Rahimafrooz for which Rahimafrooz has lost sales. If nothing is done about this, then Rahimafrooz will lose customer, market share and also suffer losses.

ALTERNATIVE 2: RESTRUCTURE THE ENTIRE HR PRACTICES AND POLICIES IN ALIGNMENT TO SUPPORT BALANCED SCORECARD AS WELL AS PROMOTE CULTURE OF CORPORATISM IN RAHIMAFROOZ
The employees at Rahimafrooz is dissatisfied with the existing HR practices of compensation, lack of proper succession planning, lack of proper training and development program needed for employees growth, inappropriate performance management and performance appraisal system. So it is quite necessary that top management makes a review as well as complete restructuring of the existing HR department, upgrade its HR policies and ensures that new HR practices are properly implemented in order to achieve success and growth in near future and uphold its competitive position. The main focus should be to restructure the entire HR practice starting from succession planning, recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation and performance management system in such a way that it aligns with the balanced scorecard and organizations strategy. In order to ensure proper implementation of HR practices, the HR director must be empowered and given authority regarding decisions in HR practices. Moreover, to improve operation efficiency, customer service, the HR Department must be integrated properly with other departments. Moreover, Rahimafrooz should also attempt to promote the culture of corporatism by effective and efficient promotional activities to attract and retain highly skilled, qualified and educated people in order to develop a talented workforce.

In the next page, there is a flowchart showing the overview of entire alternative 2

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Figure: Overview of Alternative 2

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Pros of Alternative 2: Restructure the entire HR practice and policies in alignment to support balanced scorecard as well as promote the culture of corporatism at Rahimafrooz
The HR manager should be empowered so that he can make effective recruitment and selection process to acquire the right people with right skills at the right time and optimal utilization of appropriate recruitment sources will lead to a talented workforce:

The HR Director, when empowered, will ensure the proper implementation of recruitment and selection. The HR Director can hire the proper candidate with adequate skills, knowledge, abilities, experience, qualifications and leadership qualities through proper screening. Moreover, the new recruitment process can attract a talented pool of potential candidate by utilizing the appropriate recruitment sources fully and forecasting the labor movement in Bangladesh properly using transitional matrix.

A proper, cost effective and balanced compensation package will motivate the employees:

Rahimafrooz can retain its highly skilled, experienced people using a proper, cost effective and balanced compensation package, eliminates the risk of losing the talented employees to competitors and also attract talented employees from other organization. This will help lift employees morale, thus increasing job productivity, satisfaction, organizational commitment and increased profits.

Proper succession planning and development program provided to the right, experienced person to acquire the adequate skills, knowledge and abilities needed for growth which will further motivate employees reducing voluntary turnover:

Succession planning by top management will help screen the right person in terms of skills, seniority and experience for supervisors post and a development program must be designed to ensure that the selected person has the adequate skills and leadership qualities needed for job. The advantage of internal job posting and succession planning instead of hiring outsiders is that the existing employee is familiar with the organizations culture and this also reduces the costs of hiring a new employee from outside. Efficient leaders taking up higher roles will communicate strategy effectively and efficiently to line managers that will help Rahimafrooz to adopt new strategy and technology.

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Opening new training center for Rahimafrooz employees and modifying the performance appraisal system would be beneficial: The existing employees performance appraisal system must be improved to eliminate the chances of bureaucracy and effectively as well as efficiently must identify the good and underperformers. Once the underperformers are identified, they can be trained at the new training center by providing specific, separate training skills knowledge, and abilities which will help them improve their performance and maintain the workflow, operation efficiency at Rahimafrooz which will result in higher job productivity, higher satisfaction, lower absenteeism and lower turnover which in turn will lead to increased profits, greater customer satisfaction achieved through superior service and hence more market share.

Rahimafrooz will earn more profit, gain market share and customer loyalty by successfully implementing balanced scorecard and achieve vision of 2015:

Rahimafrooz by properly implementing balanced scorecard by having proper infrastructure to support it will earn more profits, gain more market share and customer loyalty as well attain the vision of 2015 of becoming a billion dollar conglomerate, thus increasing their brand awareness. Moreover Balanced scorecard will help Rahimafrooz to manage its supply chain management properly thus eliminating problems of stock outs, maintain inventory stocks to optimal level, thus maintaining work flow and operation efficiency.

By promoting culture of corporatism Rahimafrooz will become a favorable organization for existing and new employees to work for:

The existing employees and new employees will be motivated to be a part of Rahimafrooz and by promoting corporatism; it can attract, retain and develop a highly skilled, talented workforce that will help Rahimafrooz to gain competitive advantage over its competitors. Rahimafrooz will become a favorable employers brand in perception of fresh graduates, new and existing employees.

Cons of Alternative 2: Restructure the entire HR practice and policies in alignment to support balanced scorecard as well as promote the culture of corporatism at Rahimafrooz
It is very time consuming:

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Making necessary changes in HR practices requires a lot of time as HR managers has to conduct job analysis thoroughly, conduct pay surveys, devote more time in proper screening and selecting of individuals, designing effective and efficient training and development program for all level of employees, designing proper, flexible, cost effective, balanced compensation package which includes custom fitted benefits, incentive plans, recognition plans and overtime policy in right proportion for all employees. Moreover, modifying performance management system and monitoring employees performance also requires a lot of time.

It takes a lot of effort:

Making changes in an existing organization requires a lot of effort. The HR department first has to review the existing HR policies, identify the loop holes by conducting thorough analysis which requires a lot of effort than usual to design a perfect HR practice system that is consistent with Dhaka Sheraton Hotels goals and mission

Some of the existing employees will be resistant to technological change and will not want to participate in T&D plan because they will feel that they are discriminated compared to higher performers:

Some employees might not want to participate in training and development program and can show resistance to change in their current work setting. This might demotivate them as they will feel discriminated being underperformer, thus causing them to leave their jobs.

It is costly:

Designing appropriate performance management system, separate, specific training and development program, opening training centers, modifying recruitment process and aligning the entire HR process with balanced scorecard as well as promotional activities regarding culture of corporatism across Rahimafrooz is expensive.

ALTERNATIVE 3: THE MARKETING TEAM SHOULD DEVELOP APPROPRIATE, DISTINCTIVE STRATEGIES BY FOCUSING ON EACH CORE PRODUCT TO ENSURE PROPER POSITIONING BACKED UP BY APPROPRIATE PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES AS WELL AS COME UP WITH

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GLOCAL, INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS TO SERVE NEW CUSTOMER BASE

The marketing team of Rahimafrooz is following the same marketing concepts and combinations for its products. For example Rahimafrooz is following combination of product and marketing concepts in Rahimafrooz IPS in order to provide better quality of products to customer compared to its competitors. However, Rahimafrooz is also following product and marketing concepts in Rahimafrooz battery for durability concerns. Rahimafrooz is following the same homogeneous concept for all its product lines for years which eventually lead to higher prices and lower sales than expected. But it is high time for Rahimafrooz to differentiate each of its marketing strategy that best fits its product line in order to ensure proper product positioning with the use of proper marketing tools, promotional activities and uphold competitive position in the long run and expand its customer base by coming up with glocal products at competitive prices i.e. products that are made and available locally but can meet the needs of global consumers demands.

In order to do so, Rahimafrooz must ensure that it has the right people with adequate skills and competencies in the marketing department by following proper recruitment and selection process, training and development, compensation and performance management system. The HR department should develop team based training for each marketing team of each SBU. The marketing department with the assistance of HR managers will set up an individual, separate team for each of its core product lines. The team for each product lines would be responsible for conducting extensive surveys from time to time to keep updated with the market and also conduct research and utilize opportunities to come up with new product ideas and improved version of existing products. The HR manager can help the marketing department to set up brainstorming session with appropriate tools. The main focus of extensive market surveys and brainstorming is to come up with glocal product ideas. Once the new product ideas get selected by top management, the HR department must integrate the finance department, production department and marketing department to ensure the feasibility of the new glocal products. The marketing department has to ensure proper positioning of new, innovative, glocal products in the perception of targeted customers mind to capture a significant market share and expand through increased sales, thus earning profits.

In the next page, there is a flowchart showing the overview of entire alternative 3

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Figure: Overview of alternative 3

Pros of Alternative 3: The marketing team should develop appropriate, distinctive strategies by focusing on each core product to ensure proper positioning backed up by appropriate promotional activities as well as come up with Glocal, innovative products to serve new customer base
Increase market share, brand awareness, customer base through better market penetration:

Appropriate distinctive strategies of each existing core products would ensure more proper positioning in the minds of customers regarding the products value, thus ensuring that the customers buy more existing products. Moreover, new glocal products will help to attract new customers, thus increasing customer base. People from foreign countries will rely on glocal products that are produced locally but meet glocal needs, thus increasing brand awareness of Rahimafrooz. This will definitely

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ensure increased sales, greater market share and increased customer loyalty and brand awareness.

Cost effective way of coming up with new products compared to setting up of R&D department or moving overseas for operation:

The cost of coming up with new products to capture market share and attract new customer as well as retain existing customer is less costly compared to opening a research and development center because Rahimafrooz will need proper technology, infrastructure and needs to hire more skilled, talented people which will incur additional costs. Moreover, opening a new production facility in foreign location is also expensive.

Greater customer satisfaction because new products will be globally competitive:

The glocal products that are produced locally will meet all the needs of the consumers around the globe. So the new products that produce the maximum benefits to customers by fulfilling the global consumer needs and are produced locally at an affordable price will delight all the customers by providing them with superior quality. So customers will choose Rahimafrooz products over competitors because of greater perceived benefits from it at an affordable price that leads to greater customer satisfaction.

Cons of Alternative 3: The marketing team should develop appropriate, distinctive strategies by focusing on each core product to ensure proper positioning backed up by appropriate promotional activities as well as come up with Glocal, innovative products to serve new customer base
Requires time, money and effort:

Developing appropriate, distinctive strategies for each existing core products to ensure perfect positioning of the products and coming up with new, innovative, glocal products is time consuming, requires a lot of effort and is expensive as well.

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Imperfect execution of strategy can backfire due to poor forecast and market research that is detrimental to Rahimafrooz future growth:

There are chances that this strategy if executed improperly could backfire and all the effort, time devoted and money invested in implementing the strategy would have zero effect. This might happen due to poor forecast of demand that led to development of wrong strategy. As a result, it would negatively impact Rahimafrooz productivity, profitability and future growth prospects.

Alternative 4: The HRD Department of Rahimafrooz should now cooperate with the research and development department of the company since it wants to expand to new business sectors such as textiles and in new locations, in order to achieve successful expansion in attaining the 2015 vision.
In order to fulfill the vision of 2015 of becoming a billion dollar conglomerate and achieve yet another milestone, it is very important for Rahimafrooz to open a research and development department in the organization. The research and development department would be responsible for conducting extensive market research to find out about customers needs, wants and demands and also would be responsible for conducting a feasibility study for expansion in new industrial sectors such as the textile sector of Bangladesh and expansion of existing business sectors to other countries such as U.S.A, Dubai and India. In order to implement this strategy as quickly as possible, the HR department has to play a major role.

The HR department would have to set up a research and development department by employing the proper infrastructure, technology and resources required for setting up a research and development center and hire the right people with adequate, cross functional skills, knowledge, abilities, leadership qualities using geocentric approach to hire the best candidate available at a reasonable cost. Moreover, the compensation package must be restructured in a cost effective manner that includes balanced proportion of salary, custom fitted benefits, incentive plans, overtime policies, leave policies as well as appropriate expatriate remuneration packages in order to attract and retain the best people. Moreover, Rahimafrooz must provide sufficient training and development program followed by performance appraisal system and feedback to motivate the people to acquire the required skills, adapt to Rahimafrooz organization culture and hence develop a diversified, talented workforce that works effectively and efficiently to achieve organization goals.

Once the research and development department is set up, it is accountable to the top management. The members of the research and development are responsible to

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conduct extensive market survey to keep updated with customer needs, wants, and demands, seek opportunities and develop new products and improved version of existing products. Moreover the research and development department must also conduct feasibility study regarding expansion to the new industrial sector such as textile sectors of Bangladesh and expansion in new country. The feasibility study must then be submitted to top management who will review it and take the decisions. If for example top management decides to open a textile garments industry in Bangladesh at some point in future then, the HR department must integrate with other department and communicate the strategy effectively. The finance department would be responsible to seek appropriate investment and use the right mix of debt and equity to finance expansion in new sectors. The HR department must ensure that they have right people and adequate resources. If Rahimafrooz decides to expand in new location regarding products of existing industry, then Rahimafrooz should decide how which mode of expansion will benefit Rahimafrooz based on the feasibility study.

In the next page, there is a flowchart showing the overview of entire alternative 4

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Figure: Overview of alternative 4

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Pros of Alternative 4: The HRD Department of Rahimafrooz should now cooperate with the research and development department of the company since it wants to expand to new business sectors such as textiles and in new locations, in order to achieve successful expansion in attaining the 2015 vision.
Setting up R&D will help Rahimafrooz to expand through proper strategic planning, coming up with new innovative product consistent with customer and expanding effectively into new sector and location:

Opening a new research and development center with proper strategic planning will help Rahimafrooz expand properly in new location and in new line of business effectively and efficiently. This will help Rahimafrooz to achieve growth and reduce risks by diversifying its portfolio geographically and by expanding into new business sectors, thus targeting new customer segments, increasing its customer base and in order to achieve its 2015 vision of becoming billion dollar conglomerate within the adequate time, this is a very crucial step.

Using geocentric approach to recruit best employees available globally backed by proper compensation and training for R&D department that gives competitive edge:

If Rahimafrooz follows geocentric approach then it can attract and hire qualified individuals as well as R&D specialists from around the world. Following geocentric approach has certain advantages. One can attract talented people from large number of multiple sources and select the best people at affordable price. Moreover, this will reduce the existing staffing problem and ensure both local and international employees get equal employment opportunities as focus is to choose only the best people. In addition using proper compensation and support in the form of training such as multicultural training, language training and diversity training will help to retain R&D specialists by motivating them, thus increasing job productivity, satisfaction, organization commitment and reducing absenteeism and turnover.

Increased market share, brand awareness and customer loyalty:

If Rahimafrooz expands properly into new line of business or into a new location with existing products, then Rahimafrooz can expand its existing customer base, capture new customer segments and earn more profits through increased sales. This will eventually help Rahimafrooz to increase their brand awareness among customers, thus gaining more market share and increasing customer loyalty.

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Cons of Alternative 4: The HRD Department of Rahimafrooz should now cooperate with the research and development department of the company since it wants to expand to new business sectors such as textiles and in new locations, in order to achieve successful expansion in attaining the 2015 vision.
Requires time, money and effort:

It is time consuming, requires a lot of money and is very expensive to set up a research and development center and to run the research and development effectively and efficiently.

It is questionable to what extent Rahimafrooz can handle the transformation of HRM to IHRM since it is expanding abroad:

Rahimafrooz has started its HR department in the year 2009 but now if it wants to expand in a foreign location, it has to transform from Human Resource Management to International Human Resource Management. When compared to Human Resource Management, International Human Resource Management is quite challenging as it requires more involvement into employees lives, requires constantly changing perspective, require more heterogeneous functions and greater risks. The extra activities of International Human Resource management are taxation, relocation, recruitment and selection, expatriate remuneration, cross cultural training, repatriation, increased complexities in the form of currency fluctuations, foreign government and HR laws and practices in foreign country, career management, diversity, increased risk etc. So it is a very challenging question whether Rahimafrooz can transform effectively and efficiently within such a short period of time.

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We chose Alternative 2 as a probable solution.Our alternative 2 was Restructure the entire HR practice and policies in alignment to support balanced scorecard as well as promote the culture of corporatism at Rahimafrooz Rahimafrooz currently lacks succession planning and career development plans for its employees, lacks proper development program, compensation plan and existing performance appraisal system is problematic and existing recruitment process is ineffective. So Rahimafrooz needs to restructure its entire HR practices to solve existing problems and then possess the proper infrastructure needed for the implementation of balanced scorecard in alignment with the new HR practices. The HR head must be empowered to ensure proper application of the new, improved HR practices and policies. Moreover, Rahimafrooz needs to promote culture of corporatism to attract talented individuals from other organization and fresh university graduates by convincing them that Rahimafrooz is a great place to work through effective and efficient promotion, making Rahimafrooz one of the most favorable employers brands in the mind of employees.

The reason we chose Alternative 2 is because proper HR practices will help Rahimafrooz to attract and retain new, existing employees and thus developing a talented workforce by motivating the employees, increasing their productivity, job satisfaction, organizations commitment, thus reducing turnover and absenteeism. This will eventually lead to increased profits, more market share, and greater customer satisfaction. In addition to this, Alternative 2 solves most of the existing problems and if followed correctly will lead to more growth and profits than the rest.

The reason for not choosing Alternative 1 is because an incompetent, demoralized workforce due to existing bad HR practice will lower customer satisfaction, profits, lose market share, customers to competitors and lower existing level of operation efficiency and products as well as services.

The reason we did not choose Alternative 3 is because instead of coming up with new products it is better to focus on existing products and move them from shakeout phase in the product life cycle to the maturity stage. Moreover, any imperfect execution of this strategy due to poor forecasting of consumer demands hampers with Rahimafrooz ability for future growth. The reason we did not choose Alternative 4 is because setting up and running an R &D department is way too expensive and risks of dealing with International Human Resource Management. In addition Alternative 4 focuses more on future growth rather than dealing with existing problems.

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Now, after recommending the best alternative, its time for us to explore the implementation phase of this recommendation. No recommendation can be decided as fruitful until it has been implemented. Because, this is only through proper implementation, we can achieve the desired results. If the desired result is not achieved, then at least it will reveal the lapses which caused the problems so that these loopholes can be rectified in the future or we can go for the next alternative and go through the same process of implementation.

We will go through two phases of implementation for Rahimafrooz according to the following diagram:

Phase1

General Implementation

Phase 2

Functional Implementation.

The General Implementation in Phase1 will be the overall implementation process and Functional Implementation in Phase2 will consist of: Marketing Implementation Financial Implementation Operational Implementation Human Resource Implementation

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Rahimafrooz is one of the respected and reputed business houses in Bangladesh. It has just crossed 50 years of operation. Rahimafrooz has endured turbulences of the last 50 years and has been able to transform itself from a small trading company into a leading diversified business house. This is, indeed, a milestone, which Rahimafrooz has achieved with trust, support and dedication of all stakeholders, past and present, most importantly, its customers. Their vision is to be an enterprising Group of Taka 2,000 crore by the year 2010 with a diversified business portfolio focused on dynamic growth, excellence, innovation, customer delight in enriching our world. Rahimafrooz is focusing on customers and is getting closer to the customers everyday. Rahimafrooz associates directly with distributors, retailers and also buyers to know what drives customer satisfaction, identify customer needs, and use those needs to target markets where the business can achieve a sustainable and significant competitive advantage in this field. Rahimafrooz understands customers preferences and requirement and offering superior value products.

Rahimafrooz needs to find ways to establish effective communication bridge between the branches and the headquarters. Multiple SBUs, operating at wider scale spreads the management and communication process to a great extent therefore resulting in improper monitoring and occasional mismanagement in operations. They have to come up with a proper solution to establish a good communication system within the organization.

Also Rahimafrooz should strictly think of upgrade the Research and Development department so that it can up innovation and up to date technology and also facilitate thorough research. Detailed research with new ideas will help broaden their business further through the results of providing best quality to customers and maintaining an upper hand in the market.

Rahimafrooz needs to be aware about the current market situation. In Bangladesh, Chinese products are accepted with open arms because they are cheap. Although there can be questions with quality but majority goes for saving rather than spending. So Rahimafrooz being a Bangladeshi company offering quality products may lose its market to China mainly because they are being able to offer their products at the same competitive pricing. So they should come up with a good pricing policy to attract the larger market share.

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Rahimafrooz is customer-driven and is constantly monitoring and analyzing customer satisfaction. A key objective is identifying the product/service attributes that influence customer satisfaction. Rahimafrooz successfully competed with other global competitors in Asia by designing durable and quality batteries to meet specific users' requirements. Rahimafrooz targets specific customer groups. The company is very service oriented and quick to respond to customer needs.

So to implement the identified alternative, they need to restructure the existing HR department, upgrade its HR policies and ensure that new HR practices are properly implemented. And to do that, they need to hire some fresh HR graduates who will do the HR jobs effectively. In that case they need to apply some marketing strategies to implement their HR policies in order to attract some fresh HR graduates.

Rahimafroozs management believes that creating and maintaining close relationships with customers are important in market-driven strategies. These relationships offer advantages to customers and also Rahimafrooz through information sharing and collaboration. As a result, Rahimafrooz reduces the possibility of a customer shifting to another brand. According to Rahimafrooz, Customers are valuable assets. Main thing a service organization do is to satisfy their customers and the main thing now a day is happening in the modern day of organization is the post purchase commitment. If any company manufacturing or servicing is aiming to attract the concentration on their customers by giving them gift by reminding them that they are with their customers and they will be. It will create a good impression and the organization will not be any position to lose their customers and the customer will be loyal.

So to do their marketing properly, the first thing they need to ensure is service quality. They need to implement a good marketing policy. They need to come up with some new marketing strategy by hiring some fresher who are skilled and experienced. Producers will also have to improve efficiency, reduce lead-time and improve handling capacity. They need to implement their marketing strategies effectively.

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How to implement?

To do the marketing implementation, the first thing they need to do is promoting. They need to promote their organizational culture more and more so that they will be able to attract more and more qualified employees for the organization to implement their strategies. The promoting activities can be done through advertising, bill boards, positive word of mouth, head hunting, campus recruitment. And this can be done through arranging a training session where the employees of the organization will be able to apply the marketing strategies.

Who will implement?

The whole marketing program should be designed by the marketing department with the approval of the CEO and the marketing program should be conducted by the specialists of the IT department, as they are ones who carries out research with new technologies.

Where to implement?

It should be implemented in all the branches of Rahimafrooz, so that the whole organization can get some effective employees who will give their best to get the best outputs.

When will it be implemented?

For the smooth operation of businesses, the presence of HR department is essential. So, this department should be established as soon as possible. So that, necessary steps can be taken whenever HR related issues needs to be solved.

Develop Integrating Marketing Communication (IMC) Plan

To build an Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) Plan Rahimafrooz must follow the following development steps:

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Review of marketing plan Analysis of promotional program Budget determination Develop integrated marketing communication program Implement marketing communication programs Monitor, evaluate and control the program

The communication medium

Centralized companies need to have a strong communication link with the headquarters. All the decisions are approved by the headquarters so delay in communicating with them brings a halt to the whole process thus disrupting production.

Rahimafrooz needs to find ways to establish effective communication bridge between the branches and the headquarters. Multiple SBUs, operating at wider scale spreads the management and communication process to a great extent therefore resulting in improper monitoring and occasional mismanagement in operations. So, Rahimafrooz might be unable to monitor the process of its SBUs properly which will lead to occasional mismanagement. All of this indicates to the need of strong communication chains across the organization.

Team work can be encouraged through providing effective training and development program along with compensation plan that reward team work, in order to facilitate efficient communication and free flow of information.

How to implement?

Appropriate training session needs to be arranged where training will be giving about how to work in a group. And also employees need to be identified who require those training.

Who will implement?

These training sessions will be designed by the HR department and HR personnel will be providing those trainings. And also experienced teachers from outside can be hired who are experts at imparting knowledge through extensive group work.

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Where to implement?

These training programs can take place inside Rahimafrooz or outside Rahimafrooz, at selective training institutions.

When to implement?

As working being a team has great impact in commercial customer services so it is necessary to teach the employees to learn how to work in team as soon as possible.

The resource-based view of the firm has seen an increased emphasis on competing on capabilities, both tangible and intangible. Capabilities have been defined as: complex bundles of skills and collective learning, exercised through organizational processes that ensure superior coordination of functional activities. Distinctive capabilities are the basis of companys competitive advantage. According to the new resource-based view of the company, sustainable competitive advantage is achieved by continuously developing existing and creating new resources and capabilities in response to rapidly changing market conditions. Among these resources, capabilities and knowledge represents the most important value-creating asset.

So to implement these resources, they need to come up with some good operational implementation. They need to provide superior top class services, they have to have an effective communication within the organization, they need to apply the right person to do the right job, need to recover all the poor services.

How will it be implemented?

A new department would need to be opened called operational department. To run this they would need specialists and graduates in the field of operation which will be done through a recruitment process. This department will also deal with the prospect of expanding into the foreign market by fully studying the countrys demographic and socio-graphic structures.

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Who will implement it?

The HR department will conduct the selection process, hiring candidates appropriate for the department. The top management will create a selection committee which will have the final say in selecting the most worthy candidate.

Where will it be implemented?

It will be implemented in the head office of Rahimafrooz. Later on when the business expands into abroad, they will set up a separate operational department for that country along with other departments.

When will it be implemented?

They need to set up this department as soon as possible, if they eagerly want to start business in the foreign market right away. And when they set up the office in USA, they need to establish the operational department right away.

The financial condition of a firm indicates how the firm is performing in the competitive market forces. The financial condition of the firm determines the external condition surrounding the firm. And the financial condition actually reflects the firms performance in the external environment and also its internal productivity. Rahimafrooz has monthly target to fulfill. If they cannot achieve the target in a given month, they try to adjust it in the following month. That is, there is always a target ahead of them. If they cannot reach their targeted profit margin in one month, they try to exceed their target in the following month.

Rahimafrooz is a strong brand in our business arena. They are also able to establish separate brands for products like Lucas. Under Rahimafrooz corporate umbrella, they already establish some other SBUs successful like Rahimafrooz CNG Ltd.

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Rahimafrooz are focusing on improving financial management. The Rahimafrooz Financial Leadership Team (FLT) is attempting to cut operating costs by 20% against budget with the same top line target by eliminating unnecessary expenses. They have financial resources by which they are entering new markets, expanding their business and acquiring new technologies. Rahimafrooz Group achieves and sustains continuous growth for more than 6 years - at a "natural" rate of 26% per annum.

The planned implementation will need a certain amount of financial resource diversity. This is important because the financial resource diversity will fuel all the other implementations steps that have been discussed above. Once again it has to be understood that the financial resource management has to be efficient as the outcome will directly effect on the profitability of Agora.

Secondly, financial implementation has to be made to support the additional marketing and training and development. This would include human resource cost and also cost of other resources needed for the execution of the process.

So to implement the selected alternative, it is necessary to restructure the existing HR department, upgrade its HR policies and ensure that new HR practices are properly implemented. They need to offer better compensation package in terms of employee benefits needed to motivate employees, and make the entire organization more efficient as well as effective.

How to implement?

Attractive benefit and incentives packages needs to be introduced which have the capability to meet and satisfy the demands and meets of the employees. A proper system with strategies needs to be implemented to ensure salaries for the employees. This system will create an environment of equity in the minds of the employees and motivate them to put their best in their work.

Who will implement?

The implementation process should be done by the Human Resource Department as they have the knowledge and expertise about human compensation and knows best about designing a pay- package.

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Where to implement?

The implementation will take place in all the branches of Rahimafrooz.

When to implement?

In order to provide highest customer satisfaction one needs to offer best services which can be achieved by strongly motivating employees. So for this it should be implemented as soon as possible.

Our recommendation for Rahimafrooz is to restructure the entire Human Resource (HR) practices and policies in alignment to support balanced scorecard as well as promote culture of corporatism in Rahimafrooz.

In this case, therefore, the company needs to give high attention on its Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM). Strict use of Human Resource will ensure a greater degree of power to be used by Rahimafrooz and thus make it a strong establishment in the market competition.

The implementation phase of the recommended alternative will follow a process cycle. The objectives outlined in this cycle will actually be reflected in the building blocks of the implementation. Below the diagram represents the process block to be followed:

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Finding the right category of employees with appropriate skills

Evaluate the total process Allocating different training sessions to the employees

Make promotional and communicational strategis

Monitor employees' performance after training

Arrange different benefit programs to motivate employees

Hire new skilled employees/ set targets to the existing ones

To bring about the desired result from the strategic human resource implementation, with the above objectives, Rahimafrooz would be a shown a systematic building block. The diagrammatic representation below summarizes the process blocks for the HR implementation for Rahimafrooz.

Obtain the required employees & workers

Compensation and benefit management Evaluate Performance

Improve skills and qualifications

Integrate HR with other departments

Fig: Building blocks of HR implementation for Rahimafrooz

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Now we will look at each of these building blocks of Human Resource implementation in detail.

Obtain the required employees & workers

This is the first step of the HR implementation building block. This building block will fulfill the first objective of the process cycle: Finding the right category of employees with appropriate skills. In order to do this, Rahimafrooz needs to undertake the following activities:

Job analysis:
It will identify the skills and expertise required to perform the work, in this case maintaining a strong communication with the employees and providing valued benefits. A broadly done job analysis will provide the bank authority a work related rationale for task differences through two critical uses: Establishing similarities and differences in the content of jobs Establishing an internally fair and aligned job structure

The procedure to be followed will be standard with a thorough research on the assigned job, job area and job responsibilities.

Job descriptions:
This will contain the written summary of the bank job, including responsibilities, qualifications and relationships. The job description provides a wide picture of the job. Steps to develop Job Descriptions for the bank employees will be:

Gather the appropriate people for the task. Assess the job analysis results. Write the job description. Review the job description periodically.

Recruitment and selection

After the two important tasks of Job Analysis and Job Descriptions, Rahimafrooz needs to go for the Recruiting and selection which should be very effective and efficient. Based on this criterion the possible recruitment and selection processes are:

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1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Construct a employment planning Build a pool of candidates Initial screening Use selection tools Select appropriate employees

A plan and structured way of obtaining employees will ensure that quality employees are being hired which will result in the decline of training and development costs.

So in order to make it more effective, Rahimafrooz should go through a step-by-step approach to implement the necessary recommended implementation. A certain set of guidelines can be followed which is shown below:

How will it be implemented? Who will implement it? Where will it implemented? When will it implemented?

How will it be implemented?

Any solution will be fruitless, unless one knows how to implement the solution. The implementation process for the solution for obtaining workers would begin by: Job Analysis Job Description Recruitment and Selection

Who will implement it?

The top level management will take the decision on the steps on how to proceed with it while the existing head HR department will actually implement those decisions. He can take his subordinate into this matter and work towards it.

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Where will it be implemented?

This will be implemented in all the Strategic Business Units (SBUs) of Rahimafrooz and more specifically in its HR department as the HR departments are being restructured again.

When will it be implemented?

To achieve the full objective of the recommended alternative, it needs to be implemented at the right time. In this it would be from the starting of the recruitment as that is the stepping towards the obtaining of required employees and workers to restructure the HR department.

The possible way to integrate all the above tasks to fulfill the first building block can be shown through a systematic diagram in the following page

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Compensation and benefit management

Compensation and benefits Strategy Compensation and benefits are the most influential motivators for the employees to strive for success. A person carries out his or her work in the hope the he or she will be rewarded appropriately. The way the person is being rewarded whether monetarily or non-monetarily will determine whether that person will give the same level of performance in the future or change the level of performance. This is both in the case for positive and negative views.

Compensation of employees is such a thing which can motivate people a lot more than other instruments. And as this is a restructuring of the HR department of Rahimafrooz, the HR head and directors of Rahimafrooz can come with some measures to identify the actual amount of payment for the HR department. These possible measures are:

Do a survey for analyzing the situation in Rahimafrooz for the HR challenges Verify the data Constructing a market pay line Combine internal and external pay structure Develop pay grades

In order to run the HR department efficiently different set of packages need to be introduced for different set of employees of the SBUs of Rahimafrooz. The division will be accordingly: Head of the HR department, Deputy, Executives.

For the Head of the department following benefits will be provided:

Fixed pay Profit sharing Pension incentives Employee stock ownership plans Payments for holidays Incentives for medical, transport, housing and recreation Employment insurance Long term disability pay

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Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) For the Deputy, following benefits will be provided:

Fixed pay Health and transport incentives Profit sharing Pension incentives Short to long term disability pay Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA)

And lastly for the executives, the following benefits will come into effect:

Performance based pay Health insurance Short term disability pay Overtime Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA)

Other sort of compensation and benefits for all level of employees can be: motivational strategy, career counseling, and career specific information & employment opportunities.

So in order to make it more effective, Rahimafrooz should go through a step-by-step approach to implement the necessary recommended implementation. A certain set of guidelines can be followed which is shown below:

How will it be implemented? Who will implement it? Where will it implemented? When will it implemented?

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How will it be implemented?

Any solution will be fruitless, unless one knows how to implement the solution. The implementation process for the solution for obtaining workers would begin by: Doing a survey and verifying data Constructing pay lines for different categories of workers Other benefit programs

Who will implement it?

The top level management will take the decision on the steps on how to proceed with it while the existing head HR department will actually implement those decisions. He can take his subordinate into this matter and work towards it.

Where will it be implemented?

This will be implemented in all the Strategic Business Units (SBUs) of Rahimafrooz and more specifically in its HR department as the HR departments are being restructured again.

When will it be implemented?

To achieve the full objective of the recommended alternative, it needs to be implemented at the right time. In this it would be right after the employee has started to work.

The possible way to integrate all the above tasks to fulfill the second building block can be shown through a systematic diagram in the following page.

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Improve Skills and Qualifications

After obtaining employees and setting pay rates, it is necessary to make these employees perfect at their workplace. There is no use of a restructured department if the employees of the department themselves are inefficient are ineffective to perform their designated tasks. Desired results are within the grasp only and only if the employees are skilled and qualified enough and when an effective evaluation is in place.

Effective evaluation will give the employees feedback about their work and output. It will keep them on a regular check. The employees will understand areas to develop on and areas on which they are good but should work hard to be better. Evaluation will also help the authorities to decide whom to keep and whom to fire.

The activities that need to be carried out for the effective improvement of skills and qualifications and evaluating performance are:

Training under expertise: The technique of managing people would require the employees and workers to learn the job quickly, hence the employees needs to be trained by people who are good at this people and resources handling. Job instruction training (JIT): The lower level employees of the HR department can be trained by this method. In this way they will be given a list of instructions, which they will follow while managing the HR department. Simulation training: This could be another very effective method to train up a huge number of employees who will be handling labor related issues. In this method of training a trainer would show how to handle a labor dispute or drawing up a compensation plan which may arise due to any sort of conflicts or confusions. Workshop: The HR department would arrange workshops for the HR executives for better knowledge, sharing new ideas and being more compatible in the industry. Workshops would be a better option for the departments middle and lower level management employees.

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So in order to make it more effective, Rahimafrooz should go through a step-by-step approach to implement the necessary recommended implementation. A certain set of guidelines can be followed which is shown below:

How will it be implemented? Who will implement it? Where will it implemented? When will it implemented?

How will it be implemented?

Any solution will be fruitless, unless one knows how to implement the solution. The implementation process for the solution for obtaining workers would begin by: Doing a survey and verifying data Constructing pay lines for different categories of workers Other benefit programs

Who will implement it?

The top level management will take the decision on the steps on how to proceed with it while the existing head HR department will actually implement those decisions. He can take his subordinate into this matter and work towards it.

Where will it be implemented?

This will be implemented in all the Strategic Business Units (SBUs) of Rahimafrooz and more specifically in its HR department as the HR departments are being restructured again.

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When will it be implemented?

In this it would be from the starting of the recruitment as that is the stepping stone towards the obtaining of required employees and workers to restructure the HR department.

The possible way to integrate all the above tasks to fulfill the third building block can be shown through a systematic diagram:

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Evaluating:

Evaluate performance

This building block fulfills the objective of monitoring the employees performance after training and then adjusting the employee base by hiring new skilled employees or set target to the existing ones. This adjustment will be based on the outcome that will be generated after the training evaluation of the employees.

HRM evaluation Rahimafrooz should use its HRM department to use the 360 degree approach for doing the evaluation of the middle and lower level employees. And for the top level management employees HR department can rate them on the basis of implication of intelligence in the work along with other terms like controlling power. The following skills and achievements will need to be monitored from the outcome of the training process. Good communication skills and productivity will be achieved if the following skills are acquired.

Accomplishments Service and relationships Dependability Adaptability and flexibility And decision making or problem solving.

Performance appraisal The most popular methods used in the performance appraisal process include the following:

Management by objectives 360-degree appraisal Behavioral observation scale Behaviorally anchored rating scales

After applying the methods of performance appraisal the HR department would come with a plan which would specify the ways of judging an employees performance, a development phase where the ways of judging performance would be determined and

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designed, the execution of the ways of judging performance of the employees, result of the judgment assessed by the HR experts, and lastly experts opinion on the judgment and the ways to improve performance.

So in order to make it more effective, Rahimafrooz should go through a step-by-step approach to implement the necessary recommended implementation. A certain set of guidelines can be followed which is shown below:

How will it be implemented? Who will implement it? Where will it implemented? When will it implemented?

How will it be implemented?

Any solution will be fruitless, unless one knows how to implement the solution. The implementation process for the solution for obtaining workers would begin by: HRM Evaluation Performance Appraisal Post appraisal activities

Who will implement it?

The top level management will take the decision on the steps on how to proceed with it while the existing head HR department will actually implement those decisions. He can take his subordinate into this matter and work towards it.

Where will it be implemented?

This will be implemented in all the Strategic Business Units (SBUs) of Rahimafrooz and more specifically in its HR department as the HR departments are being restructured again.

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When will it be implemented?

In this it would be right after the recruitment process and while the training program is going on because that would be the right time for the employees to point out their mistakes.

The possible way to integrate all the above tasks to fulfill the third building block can be shown through a systematic diagram:

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Integrate HR with other departments

Now we are going to integrate our recommendations with Rahimafroozs internal and external environment to prove that the plan will solve the existing and upcoming problems with its positive sides. In the integration process we are dividing the environment into two parts which are internal environment and external environment. Here we will also describe the way of solving the problem.

Internal environment: Rahimafrooz needs to follow a specific strategic planning which is suggested in the recommendation part. Mostly the HR department of the Rahimafrooz would take the initiatives. The initiatives Rahimafroozs HR department can take in the internally are:

Assigning to right Department:

Hiring the right person for the right job is always an important HR activity. The companys core success depends on that specific activity. For that we need to know what kind of people we need to do that specific job. Its an important factor and to become successful we need to screen out about the employees skill and companies need. The prerequisite of that is to find out what types employee that specific job need.

Taking 360 Degree Feedback:

360 degree feedback is a method and a tool that provides each employee the opportunity to receive performance feedback from his or her supervisor and four to eight peers, reporting staff members, coworkers and customers. Most 360 degree feedback tools are also responded to by each individual in a self assessment. 360 degree feedback allows each individual to understand how his effectiveness as an employee, coworker, or staff member is viewed by others. select the feedback tool and process, select the raters, use the feedback, review the feedback, and

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manage and integrate the process into a larger performance management system

External environment: In case of the external environment HR department would be integrate with the corporate social responsibilities. Also it can play major role in developing relationship with the government and with the key persons of the big companies.

So in order to make it more effective, Rahimafrooz should go through a step-by-step approach to implement the necessary recommended implementation. A certain set of guidelines can be followed which is shown below:

How will it be implemented? Who will implement it? Where will it implemented? When will it implemented?

How will it be implemented?

Any solution will be fruitless, unless one knows how to implement the solution. The implementation process for the solution for obtaining workers would begin by: Internal Environment Assigning to right department Taking 360 degree feedback External Environment

Who will implement it?

The top level management will take the decision on the steps on how to proceed with it while the existing head HR department and other functional departments that is marketing, financial, operational; will actually implement those decisions.

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Where will it be implemented?

This will be implemented in all the Strategic Business Units (SBUs) of Rahimafrooz and more specifically in its HR department as the HR departments are being restructured again together in other functional departments: marketing, financial and operational.

When will it be implemented?

In this it would be right from the very beginning of the restructuring of the HR department. An effective integration among the functional departments will help the HR department monitor the employee performance of other areas and this integration will help Rahimafrooz run smoothly.

The possible way to integrate all the above tasks to fulfill the third building block can be shown through a systematic diagram:

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