Selected Cases - Cover - Final - 2020 PDF

A Book of
Vol. XXV
Cases Sourced through :
ANUBHAV : The Management Case Study Development Contest

Organised by In Association with
NHRD
N E T W O R K
Ranchi Chapter
A BOOK OF SELECTED CASES
Volume XXV
STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA LIMITED

Management Training Institute
An ISO 9001 : 2008 Institute
Ranchi - 834 002 (Jharkhand)
Copyright © Management Training Institute
Steel Authority of India Limited
Ranchi - 834002 (India)

June 2020
Cases sourced through : ANUBHAV - The management Case Study Development Contest
(The details of contest & finals are available on the following link - http://nhrd-ranchi.
blogspot.com/2020/02/8th-anubhav-management-case-study.html)
Cases have been prepared for learning through discussion. They are not designed
to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of situations. Where Teaching
Notes have not been included they can be sought separately from editor. Suggestions
/ feedback on this issue of “A Book of Selected Cases” may be sent to nhrdnetwork.
ranchi@gmail.com, anubhav@sailmti.com
Editor
vrqy JhokLro
funs'kd (dkfeZd)
Atul Srivastava
Director (Personnel)
Message
All leading Management & Business Schools have had a strong tradition
of using Case Study methodology for driving understanding about different
managerial competencies. It is heartening to see managers & technocrats
participating in equal measure with academicians from leading business
schools of the country this year in the Anubhav - the management case
study development contest organized by Steel Authority of India Limited in
association with National HRD Network.
Major progress and advancement of human civilization often emanate from
our ability to reflect on our experiences and share the insights with others to
enable them to further improve. This is undoubtedly the main spirit behind
this case study methodology being used for driving management lessons.
I am sure both, the students of management and the practicing managers
from different sectors, will find the cases very much useful in drawing out
their management lessons and also in better understanding of the dynamics of
business decision making and handling complex managerial issues.
I would also like to congratulate the team of Management Training Institute
of SAIL for bringing out this 25th edition of "A Book of Selected Cases".
(Atul Srivastava)
dkek{kh jkeu
dk;Zikyd funs'kd (ek-la-fo-)
Kamakshi Raman NHRD
N E T W O R K
Executive Director (HRD) & Ranchi Chapter
President – NHRDN, Ranchi

Chapter
Introduction
This year we are publishing the 25th edition of “A Book of Selected Cases”
the contents of which are curated from the entries received in the 8th edition
of Anubhav – the management case study development contest.
The very fact that more cases for this case book has come from corporate
managers than the academicians indicates towards the narrowing of the so
called gap between industry and academia.
As done in the previous year the participants were given the option of either
submitting solved cases documenting their corporate experiences (Format
‘A’) or submit in conventional case format i.e. presenting the cases with
teaching notes to be solved by learners (Format ‘B).
The cases published in this case book affords its readers an in-depth insight
into different managerial competencies namely - Customer Orentation,
Business Acumen, Strategic Orentation, Execution Excellence, People
Management, Change Management etc., apart from, functional competencies
such as HRM, Finance Management, Projects Management, Operations
Management etc. These shall enable the readers to develop a deep perspective
of these competencies and help them better understand and handle managerial
challenges and find solutions to the same.
I hope readers will find it highly useful in applying the cases for their personal
development..
(Kamakshi Raman)
ED (HRD) SAIL & President National HRD Network Ranchi
A Book of Selected Cases
Volume XXV
CONTENT
Can HR Be A Business Partner

1. 1
Ankur Bhadury, Kadar Mani
Dilemma Turning into Reality: Odyssey of Success

2. 24
Rohit Toppo, John Purty
Safety Culture: Analysing Workers Safety Perspective

3. 33
Santosh Kumar P, Himanshu Verma
ZENSAR - A Billion Dollar Transformation

4. 56
Darshan Shukla, Rukhsar Chaudhary, Girija Dey
Get API or get out : Marketing of API grade

5. 67
Anindya Chakladar
GO DESi: Scaling Up Challenges of a Social Enterprise

6. 83
Mathew J Manimala, A. Satya Nandini, V. Srividya
Emerging Human Resource Challenges in a Pandemic World

7. 102
Chinmoy Kumar
The Rise of ‘THE EMPIRE’

8. 126
Subhra Dhara, Digvijay Singh
CAN HR BE A BUSINESS
PARTNER
Abstract
H
uman Resource department is one of the major departments of an organisation
which impacts the overall organisational health. In steel industry, HR is known
to be more involved into recruitment, administrative work, Managing Unions,
Industrial Relations, maintaining discipline at workplace but with changing dynamics and
fierce competition, HR function is also evolving. Now, HR is playing the role of strategic
advisor and tactical implementer in business too. This is leading to a change in approach
of employees as well as senior leadership towards HR and they are acknowledging HR
as a business partner.
Magadha Iron & Steel Company (MISCO) was distressed from sky-rocketing Production
Cost, stiff market competition and fluctuating prices of raw materials. This resulted in
making operational losses. It was inevitable for the company to reduce its operational
expenses, optimise their techno-economic factors. Under the transformational leadership
of Sri Chandragupta-Managing Director, MISCO, an arduous task of cost optimization
was initiated through HR interventions. Team of Chandragupta &Chanakya, Head of
Learning Development aligned the entire workforce of MISCO for “Achieving a Shared
Mission” .Through effective communication exercises, transformational leadership and
using HR as a business partner; the duo transformed the consciousness of the employees
so to achieve profitable operations required for Market Survival.
Key words: Transformational Leadership, HR as a Business Partner, Effective
Communication
Introduction
“Until each department made a commitment to how exactly it would contribute towards
cutting cost by Rs 3700 a tonne, no one was allowed to leave the workshop. The workshop
started at 4 PM and lasted well past midnight”. That was the measure of how serious
Managing Director, Shri Chandragupta was about slashing costs.
Business models of the 21st century are getting complex day by day and in present age
all businesses are getting difficult to manage. This is more apt full particularly in case of
century old businesses like Steel production, wherein the mammoth size infrastructure,
extensive capital infusion and masses of workforce is involved. This was mainly the
reason that steel industry got restricted only to business conglomerates or State owned
enterprise. Being a highly engineered sector, this industry demands proficiency in
AnkurBhadury, SAIL-ISP, Burnpur

Kadar Mani, SAIL-ISP, Burnpur
1
metallurgy, mechanical, electrical, automation, HR, finance.

Although growth of any realm is closely associated with the growth of Iron and Steel
Industry, still the demand for steel is cyclic in nature. Due to this fluctuation in demand,
prices of steel vary drastically over the time. On the contrary, this sporadic variation of
demand does not depend much on input cost of the raw-materials and such variations
in prices of the raw materials are to be borne by the manufactures. Globally, present
condition of this market place have more producers than the consumers, hence stiff
competitive markets prevails.
Similar was the situation faced by Magadha Iron & Steel Company (MISCO), a state-
owned Steel Giant of the country. After a massive investment of Rs. 17000 crores, a
green field plant of 2.5 MTPA was commissioned and was continually thriving to achieve
its rated capacity. This plant had inexperienced but talented and young work force that
was combating their naive corporate exposure with their technical know how. The plant
was designed to be operated using latest equipments and automation systems. This posed
a serious challenge for workforce who consisted of either recent college graduates or
traditional steel makers. They had no prior experience in operating these latest machinery
thus leading to frequent machinery failure leading to increased the dependency on their
respective Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).Annual Maintenance Support
from such OEMs were too costly and it significantly affected the profitability of the
plant. Exhibit 1 shows the planned vs. actual performance of different units of MISCO.
It portrays the inability to utilize different production units.
Exhibit 1: Planned vs. Actual Performance of Various Shops.
2
Cost of steel production majorly depends on the prices of raw materials like coal, iron
ore, limestone etc. MISCO had an advantage of owning captive iron ore mines which
cushioned this plant from interruption in supply or price variations of the iron ore. But
for supply of coal, company had to depend on its imports. Recent trend of coal prices
was discouraging as prices of imported coal were surging due to geo-political issues. As
expenditure on coal contributes the major chunk in cost of production of steel, it was
always reason of misery for the managing director of MISCO, Shri Chandragupta. This
got further aggravated when steel prices went abnormally low, while the cost of one of
the major input, coal kept on mounting. Such situations severely affected the balance
sheet of the company and company was forced to sell products at much lesser price or to
scale down its production to reduce the loss margins.
If one considers the cost bifurcation of steel manufacturing, there are two major
components i.e. fixed cost and variable cost. Fixed cost components include cost of
manpower, interest, depreciations etc. The variable cost constitutes the prices of raw
materials, energy consumption, logistic charges for import of natural resources, cost
of dispatch to warehouse or customer .Study of the cost components suggested that
there is not much scope to lower down the fixed cost. Hence for surviving the market
competition MISCO had only option, to control the variable cost. Exhibit 2, 3 &4 shows
the opportunity cost incurred by the company due to failure in optimum utilization of the
machines.
Item ABP Actual %FF ABP
Wire Rod Mill(WRM) 244 193 79%
Bar Mill(BM) 407 286 70%
Universal Structural Mill(USM) 240 102 43%
Semis 298 368 124%
Total Saleable Steel 1189 950 80%
Exhibit 2: Details of Percentage Fulfilment of the Production Target of Rolling Mills
Particulars WRM BAR Mill USM
Rolling Rate (T/Hr.) 72 131 89
NSR of F. Steel (Rs./T) 37500 37850 38100
VC of F. Steel (Rs./T) 26533 26338 27981
Contribution (Rs./T) 10967 11512 10119
Mill-wise Contribution (Rs./Hr.) 7,89,624 15,08,072 9,00,591
Total Mills Contribution (Rs./Hr.) 31,98,287
Exhibit 3: Lost Opportunity Cost/Hour of Rolling Mills
3
Particulars Caster-I Caster-II Caster-III

Casting Rate (T/Hr.) 107 107 69
NSR of Semis (Rs./T) 30800 30800 30800
VC of Semis (Rs./T) 24347 24347 24347
Contribution (Rs./T) 6453 6453 6453
Caster-wise Contribution(Rs./Hr.) 690471 690471 445257
CCP Contribution (Rs./Hr.) 18,26,199
Exhibit 4: Lost Opportunity Cost/Hour of Continuous Casting Plant.
Shri Chandragupta (CG) along with Shri Bindusara Amitraghata (BA), Chief of
Finance performed deep dive investigation of major Cost Components.
CG: Our losses are increasing endlessly. If it continues, survival of Magadha will be
at stake.
BA: Yes Sir, our major cost contributors other than raw materials include salary and
wages which is 7% but again our labour productivity is best in the industry.
CG: Our human resource is the best of the industry, now we have to focus in the right
direction and show a path to this workforce.
BA: Sir, our analysis suggests that around Rs. 3700/TSS of cost reduction is required
for our market sustenance. Sir can we go for long terms contracts with Seleucus Coal
Trading Co. for firmed up cost of coal and uninterrupted supply of coal. This will
shelter us from the problems of coal unavailability and last minute escalated prices
for Coal.
CG: Yes definitely that’s a good suggestion, further a suggestion scheme could be
floated for more innovative proposals. But most important is we must have to work on
our techno-economics.
4
Exhibit 5: Fish bone Diagram of the issues faced by MISCO
Outcome of the meeting with Chief of Finance was the first stepping stone towards
improvement of the Techno-economics of the plant which required efforts of the entire
MISCO workforce. It was urged by Shri Chandragupta (CG) to every divisional head i.e.
Works, Finance, Projects, Materials Management & Human Resources to come up with
intervention to tackle this grave issue. Each and every department was trying their best
to resolve this issue.
HR department was one the major department of MISCO which impacted the overall
organisational health. In MISCO, HR was known to be more involved into recruitment,
administrative work, Managing Unions, Industrial Relations, maintaining discipline at
workplace but with changing dynamics and fierce competition, HR function needed
to evolve. Now was the time when HR had to play the role of strategic advisor and
tactical implementer in business too. This new dimension of HR would lead to a change
in approach of employees as well as senior leadership towards HR and they would
5
acknowledge HR as a business partner.

It was time for Shri Chanakya (CK) (Chief of L&D) to play his part. Shri Chanakya
had recently joined MISCO, as Head of L&D. Earlier he was working in a reputed
Central Training Institute, where he was a renowned faculty in Strategic Management
along with other management subjects. At that time, the management was facing issue
of low Net Sales revenue and tough competition in market. Keeping in mind, the Dave
Ulrich HR model and its most important role i.e. HR as business partner, Shri Chanakya
keenly observed this whole scenario. After gathering the necessary inputs Shri Chanakya
sketched a plan and met MD of plant Shri Chandragupta (CG) to share his idea:
CK: Sir, as we all are aware that organisation is going through a tough time and our
focus is on cost optimisation.
CG: Yes. But I haven’t received any major intervention or plans from technical division
nor from Projects or any other divisions to tackle the issue of Cost. Do you have
something?
CK: Yes Sir. I would suggest that this complex issue has HR solution. I think inter-
departmental communication and regular coordination with all the blocks of this
chain can definitely solve the issue.
CG: Ok. Elaborate your plan.
CK: Sir, We can organise a cross-departmental workshop inviting departmental heads
across all divisions i.e. Works, Materials Management, Projects, Finance & HR. Prior
to workshop, they shall be briefed about the aim of this workshop i.e. to reduce the
production cost by 3700/TSS. We will also brief about expectations of top leadership
from respective departments i.e.contribution of respective departments in optimising
cost by Rs. 3700/TSS.
CG: It seems a good plan. Organise this workshop by next week. I will also attend this
workshop.
CJ: Thank you, Sir.
Shri Chandragupta, who was a technocrat and an HR patron too, agrees to the idea and
advised for arranging a Workshop on Cost Reduction titled- MISSION MORYA (MORYA:
MISCO`s OBSTRUCTIONS REQUIRE YOU-NICHE ACTIONS). A monumental task
was done within a short span of time. Workshop was designed and all the departments
were briefed about the expectation of Top leadership and target to optimise Cost by Rs.
3700/TSS. All the departments prepared their action plans for the D-day.
6
The D-Day (Day of MISSION MORYA Workshop)
With all the infrastructural arrangements, MISSION MORYA workshop started at 4 pm.
All the departmental heads along with their teams were present in the workshop with
their action plan. CG welcomed the participants and briefed them about the aim and need
of this workshop. Turn by turn, each major production department presented their action
plans. The outcome of the workshop was stupendous and the commitments of respective
departments were as per Exhibit 6.
S.No. Department Cost Reduction Commitment
(in Rs/Ton)
1 BLAST FURNACE 1550.5
2 SMS 1358.85
3 SINTER PLANT 261.53
4 RMHP 100.16
5 REFRACTORY 5.52
6 BAR MILL 51.2
7 MATERIALS MANAGEMENT 70
8 COKE OVENS 350.58
9 SERVICES 25
10 Utilities 20
11 Total 3773.34
Exhibit 6: Cost Reduction Commitments given by different departments
Hiccups & Solution
After the presentations, house was open for discussion. Now the communication was
across departments/stakeholders. The departments needed support of allied departments
to achieve the optimized cost in their department but allied departments showed their
inability to support them. They opined that if they provide inputs as per requirement
of Customer department, their Techno-economics will suffer. This led to a chaos and
every department was reluctant to change its action plan as per requirement of allied
department. Shri Chanakya could easily understand that as per Bruce Tuckman’s team
development model, after forming stage now departments have moved to storming stage
and to move them to next stage i.e. Norming, it is the high time to intervene. Being a
mechanical engineer and with more than 25 years of work experience in Steel Sector,
he was able to understand the concern of the departments and their Techno-economic
concerns. Shri Chanakya cross questioned some departments and gave some suggestions
too. As Shri Chanakya was a neutral person and had a rich experience of academics, so
acceptability for his questions and suggestions was excellent within departmental heads.
Again departments were given some time to discuss and modify their plans. After cross
7
departmental deliberations, they agreed to modify their respective action plans which
were for improving techno-economics of allied department too. It was a win-win situation
for each department. It was evident with presentations and modified action plans that
team has entered into third stage of Tuckman`steam development model i.e. Norming.
CG appreciated the efforts of the departments and assured the Heads regarding
unwavering support from top leadership. He also urged departmental heads to implement
these action plans at the workplace as early as possible. For the first time in history of
MISCO, workshop lasted past midnight and all the departments put in their blood and
sweat to reduce the cost maintaining Techno-economic parameters.
Main inferences of the workshops were optimum utilization of installed infrastructure
up to the designed capacity and at some instances more than the designed parameters.
For achieving such targets, shops had to ensure optimum availability of machines by
maintaining best technological practices. People were supposed to be sincere,smart,abiding
the rules of an ideal teamwork.
To percolate the message of the MISSION MORYA & to instil cultural change, Shri
Chanakya organised a series of communication exercise where Shri Chandragupta
interacted with the young managers. In this communication drive, all the young managers
were covered and were motivated to perform their level best for reduction in per tonne
cost of the saleable steel.
To reduce the variable cost, plant had to achieve its best techno-economics parameters
and this required meticulous planning, careful operation of machineries. To achieve
the reduction in the cost of production particularly in the variable cost, cent percent
contribution of the workforce was desired. Hence an employee suggestions scheme was
launched by L&D Centre to involve people in the decision making process. MISCO being
a gold mine of grey mattered workforce involved its folks for ideas of improvement. Apart
from the pride of designing the destiny of the company, employees were also motivated
by the group award scheme of LAGAAT ME KAMI. Under this scheme the departments
which implemented the best cost reduction measures were rewarded with recognition
and a sumptuous community lunch with the MD. Over all a good suggestion scheme is a
win-win situation. Suggestion schemes already existed, but the same lacked priority and
seriousness of implementation. Due to past experiences, there was hesitation among the
employees regarding the importance of this scheme. To dispel this fear, regular feedback
sessions and facilitation of the suggestions was done publicly by Shri Chanakya himself.
This exercise increased people participation significantly and was aligning the company
in the right direction towards achievement of the target.
Technical Turnarounds
As per the commitment of the workshop different departments implemented various
measures as presented below and the results of MISSION MORYA workshop are
8
presented in Exhibit 7. This chart compares the cost of production for Aug’19 & Oct’19
(i.e. before and after the MISSION MORYA workshop) it shows the reduction in cost of
production of the plant due to implementation of the following measures.
• Lowered its imported coal consumption.
• Reduced its steam and energy consumption & increased TAR
yield.
Coke Ovens
• Coordinated regularly with the coal suppliers for the right input
material. Consistency in Oven Pushing was maintained followed
by maintaining Free Space temperature, Ensured Packed Charging
• Reduced coke rates to 345kg/thm.
• Increased consumption of nut coke.
Blast Furnace • Silicon reduction in the Hot Metal was done followed by
conversion of higher proportion of Hot Metals from the input raw
materials.
• Rolling Mills reduced their cobbles by 40%.
• Reduced lubricant & water consumption
Rolling Mills
• Reduced sp. energy consumption by optimum operation of the
furnace.
• Issued tender for disposal of old mill structures and BF#2, LDCP
Kiln.
Materials
• Obtained approval of sales price for rolling stock.
Management
• Generated revenue through selling of Sinter fines of 1000 tons.
• Exported refractory bricks, lime and dolomite stones from LDC
• Took necessary measures for minimum guaranteed life of
Refractory refractory materials.
Department • Reduced use of costly sets from 70% to 46%.
• Performed regular hot inspection of refractory lining.
• Increased productivity by reducing return of fines by 3%.
• Increased the machine speed by 0.1 m/min and decrease the speed
Sinter Plant of cooler fan.
• Improve RDI, TI of sinter and reduce BF return fines generation
by 2%.
• Decreased consumption of metallic input, flux (lime), Flux
(dolomite), and electrode.
Steel Melting
• Reduced arcing time for Ladle Hearth.
Shop
• Increased replacement of iron ore by scrap during casting, and
increase the sequence length of close casting.
9
Particulars Aug` 19 Oct` 19

Input Material Cost 28037 26333
Operating Cost 1746 877
Fuel &Sevices 2397 1251
Repair & Maintenance 369 150
Overhead Expenses 731 378
Interest (Wc) 1341 1388
Interest (Cc) 2232 1587
Depreciation 4193 3281
Credits 682 644
Cost per Ton of Saleable Steel 40366 35245
Exhibit 7: Comparison of the Cost per Ton of Saleable Steel before
& after MISSION MORYA
During brainstorming session in workshop, two brilliant solution evolved due to out of the
box thinking. Two of the areas which came into focus where plant could obtain enormous
savings were in Utilities & Traffic Department. The high impact projects identified in the
two departments were Zero Procurement of CBM & Zero Demurrage.
Towards Zero Procurement of Coal Based Methane (CBM)
Coke Ovens Department had two functioning batteries namely COB#10 & COB#11.
Previously Battery 8 was also in use but due to obsolete technology; this battery was not
in operation. However, there was plan to revive the dilapidated battery and hence battery
heating was in process. Heating of battery 8 required a significant amount of Coke Oven
(CO) gas which was being supplied through the COB#10. Even after repeated attempts,
the battery could not be revived; on contrary significant amount of CO gas was getting
exhausted in maintaining the refractory life of the rickety battery.
On the other side, in Rolling Mills, billets were required to be reheated before rolling.
For heating the same there was a reheating furnace wherein billets were heated up to
a temperature of 900-1100 deg C using Coal Based Methane (CBM) gas. CBM was
supplied by Nanda Gas Corporation (NGC)and was a very costly fuel with a high
calorific value. NGC was having a monopoly over the mining and extraction of this gas.
Prices of the gas kept on fluctuating and MISCO was bound to agree with the suppliers
conditions. NGC was creating trouble for management as it demanded payment release
at the earliest and with very harsh payment conditions. Particularly during this situation
of cash crunch, outflow of liquid cash severely affected the balance sheet of the company.
Often, there were situations when the former refrained from supplying CBM gas for
various reasons thus hampering the Mills production at MISCO. NGC, having a market
monopoly, restricted MISCO with noalternate CBM supplier.
10
CO Gain Terminated The CBM Pain
As a part of the MISSION MORYA, management decided for final closure of the battery
8 and ceased any further investment in its revival. This was a golden opportunity for
Shri Ajatshatru (HOD-Utilities) to exercise his plan for cost reduction. Being a Head of
central functioning department and a vast experience of 33+ years, he had an overview
of all the processes of the MISCO. He could immediately identify the issue of excess CO
gas used for battery heating, which was now supposed to be bleeded into the environment
after the decision for closure of the battery.
Concept of best out of waste could not be better utilized than what Shri Ajatshatru did.
After due discussion about the utility of the CO gas and its calorific value, it was proposed
for utilization of the same in Rolling Mills replacing the CBM gas. Energy study showed
that calorific value of CO gas is nearly half of that of CBM; hence the former would be
required twice in volume of that of CBM gas. But this would again save the company
from spending noteworthy portion of liquid cash outflow. Decision was immediately
accepted by top management for charging of the CO gas for the reheating furnace of the
Rolling mills.
For Shri Ajatshatru the war of conquering this gas was about to get commence. Target
was to lay a pipeline connecting COB# 10 and Rolling Mills. This was supposed to be
a Capital Expansion Project (CAPEX), but such projects are time taking and usually
take more than 2 years for completion. Need of the hour required immediate action. But
execution of such projects at departmental levels requires cross –functional efforts. Hence
a cross Functional Team was formed with experts from ODPL, Oxygen plant, Design,
Material Management, Energy Management, Coke Ovens, Safety, Civil Engineering and
Central Mechanical Maintenance Department. Conditional Leadership is a significant
teaching of Management Schools. It was time for implementation of such learning,
wherein experts of the cross-functional teams exhibited their roles and lead the team
for accomplishment of this project. Design study was conducted to explore the shortest
route, selection of right sized pipe after calculation of the volume, flow rate and other
technicalities of this gas line. Time was a constraint hence a Gantt Chart of 16 weeks
was planned for completion of the project. Team laid all efforts for timely execution of
the project. Essence of this project was such that Shri Chandragupta himself reviewed
the progress of the project on daily basis. A workshop on this project was organized
by Shri Chanakya for all the front line executives of the associated departments for
briefing them with the project details. Shri Chanakya who was a mechanical engineer
by qualification got another chance to relive his first love for machines. This project
required high coordination as parallel activities like procurement, timely availability of
materials, soil testing and preparation for foundation of pillar, obtaining site clearances
and permit to work for commencement of erection job followed by fabrication of the
pipes were getting executing simultaneously. Material Management team coordinated
11
with suppliers to avail the materials on time. Construction of the pipeline was completed
on time followed by testing and commissioning which got completed exactly as per
the planned Milestone Chart. Timely completion and well execution of this project,
communication and coordination across cross functional departments played a major
role. Utilization of the generated CO gas of COB#10 in reheating furnace of the Rolling
Mills saved MISCO from buying around 3000 m3/hr of CBM which leads to savings
of more than Rs. 60,000/hr and an annual saving of Rs. 50 crores. Further this assured
uninterrupted availability of fuel for the furnace of Mills and making it self-sustained.
Zero Demurrage
Almost all the Steel Plants across the globe require proximity of Railways for its
operation. So did MISCO required for transportation of raw materials and finished
products. Geographical location of MISCO was such that its transportation requirements
were met by two of the Railway Zones i.e. Eastern Zone and South Eastern Zone.
Eastern Zone catered to Damodar Yard used for unloading of Coal, Coke, Iron Ore, Lime
& Dolomite etc. South Eastern Zone catered to North Yard & South Yard for unloading of
Coal and to West Yard for dispatch of Primary and Secondary products. Such proximity
of two zones had both advantages of better connectivity as well as the challenge to
handle the complex system and coordinate two zones. Plant faced several penalty of
Demurrage Cost which a cause of cry for the leadership of MISCO. Demurrage fee is a
charge levied by the transporter (in this case is Indian Railways) due to delay in release
of their transport carrier/wagon from the scheduled time slot. Free time and Demurrage
cost varied as per Zone, type of material, type wagons, type of circuit etc. Details of the
Demurrage Charges are appended in Exhibit 8 & 9.
Area Wagon Type Rake Size(No. of Free
Wagons) Time(Hrs.)
Damodar Yard BOBS 53-55 2
BOXN/NS 58-59 5
BOST 43-45 5
South Yard/ North Yard BOXN 58-59 18
BOST 43-45 18
Exhibit 8: Chart: Free Time / Demurrage Charges at Unloading Circuit
Wagon Type Rake Size Free Time Demurrage
( No of ( Hrs) Charges
wagons)
12
BOST 45 – 43 36
< 43 24
BOST-BRN/BFNS 43 – 41 34
< 41 24
Rs.150/- per wagon
BRN/BFNS 43 – 41 36
per Hr beyond Free
< 41 24
Time.
BOXN-BOST/BRN/BFNS 45 – 43 34
< 43 24
BOXN 59 – 58 36
< 58 26
Exhibit 9: Free Time / Demurrage Charges at Dispatch Circuit
This was a complex problem and required more of a managerial way out than a technical
solution. As per the workshop, improvisation of the communication and coordination
activities was the only solution to achieve zero demurrage. Bottlenecks of the problems
were identified as appended below:
Problems on Unloading Side
a. Demurrage cost due to detention of Boiler coal rakes
Boiler coal getting unloaded at South Yard through 55 rakes cars with 18 hours of available
free time. It took more than an hour to clear a wagon thus incurring a demurrage penalty
of 37 hours per rake.
b. Poor Approach Of The Unloading Team
There was an observation of yard executive that workmen’s involved in unloading the
wagons had a very casual approach leading to delay of the unloading job.
Solutions for the Loading Side
After studying the routes and infrastructural limitation of dumping yards, Shri Ashoka
(HoD-Traffic) found that hefty demurrage charge cannot be reduced even after optimised
operations of the unloading points. An alternative thinking was required i.e. to increase
the unloading points. MISCO had a well distributed railway network within the plant.
Hence an out of box approach was applied by exploring the unutilized places in different
locations of plant and finally locating an unutilized location in North Yard for unloading
the Boiler Coal. It was decided that later boiler coal can be transported to desired locations
using the internal wagons.
Now, with addition of three new unloading locations, Traffic department managed to
unload 27 extra wagons in 8 hours and covered journey of unloading 8 wagons per
shift to 35 wagons per shift. Within a month of this action plan, demurrage cost due to
13
unloading detention reduced drastically which was earlier seen as a dream only. Exhibit
10 detailed the monthly Demurrage incurred by the plant till Sept’19 i.e before the month
of cost reduction workshop.
Load Received Load Released Unloading Loading Total Demurrage
Date Time Date Time Detention Detention Detention (in Rs.
lakhs)
1 15.01.19 14:00 19.01.19 09:20 54 40 94 4.25
2 13.02.19 19:35 17.02.19 04:15 67 16 83 7.70
3 15.03.19 18:00 18.03.19 23:45 62 18 80 6.37
4 29.04.19 12:15 04.05.19 01:00 75 30 105 9.82
5 22.05.19 21:45 26.05.19 21:30 77 21 98 10.35
6 28.06.19 10:45 03.07.19 02:30 102 12 114 16.99
7 09.08.19 11:00 15.08.19 13:45 131 18 149 24.69
8 15.09.19 09:00 18.09.19 00:45 32 34 66 3.18
Total 83.35
Exhibit 10: Details of monthly Detention / Demurrage for Unloading of Boiler Coal
Connect with Foremen
Concern of the front-line executive about casual approach of the unloading team sought
Shri Ashoka for an informal chit-chat with the workmen. After this meet, ShriAshoka
could conclude that the blue-collared personnel were not conscious about the sensitivity
of their job. Hence with the help of finance and L&D Centre, a Communication exercise
was organised to make the foremen sensitive to cost as they were unaware of factors like
demurrage cost, free time, targets etc. Outcome of the workshop and timely follow-up of
foreman`s by shift in-charges led to increase in wagon unloading from 20 per shift to an
average of 35 per shift. Moreover, shift changeover delays reduced drastically from 45
min to 20 min.
Such remarkable results of the communication exercises were being discussed in allied
departments like RMHP, CHP (unloading circuit) and Mills & PCM area (loading circuit).
L&D along with finance, conducted communication exercise in these departments too
and it made employees cost sensitive and connected to target. Communication exercise
across allied departments further helped in reducing the demurrage cost.
Problems on Loading Side
a. Rake To Rake Acceptance Of Empties For Dispatch Of Steel Rakes:
BOST & BRN wagons were used for TMT Bars & Wire Rods respectively for the purpose
14
of despatch. Sometimes due to urgency, wagons from two different rakes were distributed
in Mills area. This arouses issues of accounting and management of the rakes thus further
increasing the delay. Details of the Average Detention of Wagons are presented in Exhibit
11.
Exhibit 11: Avg. Detention ( Hrs ) Fy 18-19 & FY 19-20 at West Yard for
Steel Rake Dispatch
b. Over Indenting Of Rakes
Traffic department indents wagons from railways as per order received from Marketing
Department. Many a times it happened that the order was placed by Marketing, but Mills
could not deliver the materials on time leading to incurring demurrage charges. Details
of the Demurrage incurred by the West Yard i.e. the Loading/ Dispatch Yard is presented
in Exhibit 12.
Exhibit 12: Demurrage Fy 18-19 & 19-20 (Billed Amount) at West Yard –Dispatch circuit
15
Solutions For The Loading Side

a. Rake To Rake Acceptance Of Empties For Dispatch Of Steel Rakes
The distribution of wagons from two different rakes made the task of accounting and
managing wagons cumbersome for traffic department. This matter was brought to
knowledge of Shri Ashoka. He decided to target on reduction of Average Detention to
Zero. Decision was taken that there shall be systematic wagon distribution; further only
single rake shall be used for dispatch. Traffic department could foresee the resistance of
implementation of this step but over the time those issues got resolved.
b. Over Indenting Of Rakes
To tackle the issue of over indenting of Rakes, Traffic department proactively coordinated
with Marketing department, Mills department and accordingly indented rakes from
Railways. This led to reduction in stranding of empty wagons and it reduced demurrage
cost at loading circuit. These actions taken by Traffic department took demurrage cost to
zero in dispatch circuit in the month of September`19.
Target of Demurrage reduction involved coordination of multiple departments.

Performance Improvement Workshop for Demurrage Reduction taught people of
MISCO that “Communication is important for people to Act”. During the workshop
there were attendees who were not aware of the fact that delay at their end could
lead to such severe financial crisis to the company. Consciousness of the employees
solved half of the issue and remaining was cracked with proper multi-departmental
coordination and communication.
WhatsApp Group was created for information sharing amongst department and it kept
the entire team updated. Such steps were very helpful especially when diverse groups
are working together for a common cause. Team, learnt that “Excess communication
is not bad. We assume people know but most of the time they don’t.”
Conclusion:
Magadha Iron & Steel Company (MISCO) was facing a tough time due to decreased NSR
and increased Cost, affecting the financial health of the company. MD Shri Chandragupta
along with Shri Bindusara Amitraghata (BA), Chief of Finance analysed that we need to
decrease our production cost by Rs. 3700/TSS to sustain in this competitive market. Newly
joined Head of L&D, ShriChanakya utilized this opportunity, played the role of Business
partner and proposed a workshop MISSION MORYA to which MD Chandragupta
readily accepted. During workshop, the departments chalked out their action plans and
the leadership of CG instilled the confidence in departments regarding support from
top leadership for implementation of action plans. For cultural change, Shri Chanakya
also organised series of communication exercise with support from MD. All these HR
16
intervention facilitated departments in implementing their action plans. ODPL Collective
and Traffic department in particular did wonders by reducing the cost considerably using
internal resources. This collective effort bore fruit and the cost was optimized by Rs
3461/TSS and further reduction in coal prices also supported the situation contributing
a total of Rs 5000/TSS which was much higher than the target. Exhibit 13 represents
the effectiveness of the workshop in achieving cost reduction. The role of L&D Centre
and ShriChanakya as Business Partner was well appreciated by the top management
and L&D was given Group Award for unique intervention towards cost leadership. This
intervention changed the outlook of employees as well as top management towards HR
and now HR is being acknowledged as Business Partner.
With these results and the role played by CG as a leader and Chanakya as Business
Partner and change agent, it is assured that what challenges may come, Collective effort
of HR and Technical departments will always find a way to conquer them.
Exhibit 13: Graphical representation of cost comparison of the

month of Aug`19 & Oct`19
17
Managerial Theories and its Linkage to Mission Morya

Dave Ulrich is known in Human Resources as a “Management Guru” with great ideas
for everything from company leadership to corporate growth. He is called the first and
foremost father of modern HR.
Dave Ulrich, in his book “Human Resource Champions”, came up with advice for HR
professional to modify approach from "what I do" to "what I deliver". Ulrich’s HR Model
doesn’t build a Human Resources department around function first, but rather around
roles. He identified four distinct roles that human resources manager must assume in
order to make the transition:
1. Strategic Partner
2. Change Agent
3. Employee Champion
4. Administrative Expert
Exhibit 14: Dave Ulrich Model for HR Roles

1) HR as Strategic Partner is about alignment of HR activities and initiatives with
the business strategy and it is the task of the HR to translate business strategy into
action. Job of the HR as Business Partner is not about doing the work of HR, such
as building purpose and belonging, but is about doing work that helps the company
win in the marketplace.
2) HR as Change agent: When an organization is required to expand, evolve, or
otherwise alter its goals or objectives, the role of change agent is to be played by
18
Human Resources. They serve as catalysts for change, facilitators of change, and
designers of systems for change. They have to plan their training and development
activities in such a way that it makes employees readily acceptable to change &
transforms the employees of the organisation.
3) HR as Employee champion listens and responds to an employee’s personal needs
and puts them first. As an employee advocate, a HR manager needs to provide
a working environment in which workers choose rather than feel forced to be
motivated, productive and happy at work. HR manager makes opportunities
available to employees to help them improve their talents and skills on the job
which results in increased employee commitment and better workplace relations.
4) HR as Administrative expert improves processes applies the principles of
reengineering business processes to human resources processes. Role of HR
manager is to rethink value creation, rethink how work is performed and to measure
human resources results in terms of efficiency in terms of cost and effectiveness in
terms of quality.
HR as Business Partner
The job of HR as Strategic Partner/Business partner is to help the organisation in winning
market place which was well justified by Shri Chanakya, the Head of L&D by his actions.
He suggested the way to MD, Shri Chandragupta to achieve this uphill task of reducing
cost by Rs 3700/TSS. He organised a workshop and played an active role there and
intervened when it was needed. He also led the departments towards a win-win situation
and moved them towards norming stage of Team building. Initiative and efforts of Shri
Chanakya as Business Partner reduced the cost by Rs. 5000/TSS which was beyond the
target.
HR as Change Agent
HR playing the role of Change Agent started by series of communication exercises
carried by MD & Head of L&D for cultural shift in the company and to make employees
feel responsible for their own destiny. Cost consciousness drive was taken to make the
workforce understand their contribution in the Net Sales Revenue (NSR) of the products
of the company. Daily targets were presented and compliance of the same was being
monitored by the top management. These activities led to a cultural change in company
which resulted in cost conscious, task oriented and motivated workforce.
Bruce Tuckman's 1965 Team-Development Model
Psychologist Bruce Tuckman first came up with this model and the memorable phrase
"forming, storming, norming, and performing" in his 1965 article, "Developmental
Sequence in Small Groups." This model is an elegant and helpful explanation of team
development and behaviour. Tuckman's model explains that as the team develops maturity
19
and ability, relationships establish, and the leader changes leadership style. Beginning
with a directing style, moving through coaching, then participating, finishing delegating.
The four stages of Tuckman`s Model are:
1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing
Exhibit 15: Tuckman’s Model of Team Development

Here are the features of each phase:
Stage 1: Forming
In this stage, most team members are positive and polite. Some are anxious, as they
haven't fully understood what work the team will do. Others are simply excited about
the task ahead. As leader, you play a dominant role at this stage, because team members'
roles and responsibilities aren't clear. This stage can last for some time, as people start to
work together, and as they make an effort to get to know their new colleagues.
Stage 2: Storming
Next, the team moves into the storming phase, where people start to push against the
boundaries established in the forming stage. This is the stage where many teams fail.
Storming often starts where there is a conflict between team members' natural working
styles. People may feel overwhelmed by their workload, or they could be uncomfortable
with the approach you're using. Team members who stick with the task at hand may
experience stress, particularly as they don't have the support of established processes or
strong relationships with their colleagues.
20
Stage 3: Norming
Gradually, the team moves into the norming stage. This is when people start to resolve
their differences, appreciate colleagues' strengths, and respect your authority as a leader.
Now that your team members know one another better, they may socialize together,
and they are able to ask one another for help and provide constructive feedback. People
develop a stronger commitment to the team goal, and you start to see good progress
towards it.
Stage 4: Performing
The team reaches the performing stage, when hard work leads, without friction, to the
achievement of the team's goal. The structures and processes that you have set up support
this well. As leader, you can delegate much of your work, and you can concentrate on
developing team members. It feels easy to be part of the team at this stage, and people
who join or leave won't disrupt performance.
Exhibit 16: Tuckman’s Team Development Model

Chanakya as a Team Leader
In this case, Chanakya played the role of Team Leader and moved the team to stage of
Performing. Right from beginning i.e.Forming stage, he briefed about the aim of the
workshop i.e. reducing cost by Rs. 3700/TSS and expectation of top leadership. During
workshop when the departments were not ready to work as per action plan of allied
department and there was a situation of conflict, Chanakya intervened and successfully
moved them to Norming phase where departments changed their action plans as per
allied department and team work was evident. He also facilitated the departments to
move the team from Norming stage to Performing stage by facilitating and organising
communication exercise for better sharing between MD and young managers.
His overall efforts and outcomes reflect that he had emerged as a Team Leader.
21
Leadershiptheories
Exhibit 17: Leadership Theories
22
MD Chandragupta as Inspirational Leader
An excellent team is formed by an excellent leader. So is the team lead by Shri Chandragupta
who led a transformational leadership job wherein the leader with his vision for reduction
in production cost aligned the entire workforce to toil for this cause. He envisaged and
finally executed cultural change in the organization, increased the consciousness for cost
in the company. Being a technocrat he equally values the importance of HR and utilized
the potential of Shri Chanakya thus developing people competence. This shows how a
good leader develops good leaders. He is an example of how LEADERSHIP CREATES
A SHARED MISSION.
Communication
As we know, communication is vital to organizations—it’s how we coordinate actions and
achieve goals. 50% to 90% of a manager’s time is spent communicating. Communication
fulfils three main functions within an organization, including coordination, transmission
of information, and sharing emotions and feelings.
MISSION MORYA workshop is an epitome of these three main functions of
communication. The basic essence of the workshop was to seek action plans from
departments and by establishing coordination and transfer of information among
them, achieve the desired results. The communication exercise for cultural change was
conducted by Shri Chandragupta & Shri Chanakya to share emotions and feelings for
this company and to write our own destiny.
The project led by Shri Ajatshatru to connect COB#10 to Mills for CO gas supply, involved
cross functional group. The success of this task entirely depends on the coordination and
transmission of information across many departments like Energy Management, ODPL,
Materials Management, Safety etc.
In the second project, “Achieving Zero Demurrage”, communication was improved in
unloading and loading circuit by better coordination and information sharing with allied
departments as well as foremen. Through communication exercise, cost sensitivity was
inculcated across departments by which workers were able to feel responsible to the
financials of the company. These incidents show the significance and application of
communication.
References
1. https://www.hrtechnologist.com/articles/payroll-administration/new-expectations-from-hr-
professionals/
2. https://www.efilecabinet.com/human-resources-dave-ulrich-model-and-
document-management/
3. https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_86.htm
4. https://destinymiracle.com/video?hop=stingnexus
5. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-orgbehavior/chapter/8-2-understanding-communication
23
DILEMMA TURNING INTO REALITY:

ODYSSEY OF SUCCESS
Abstract
I
n 2019, the estimated youth unemployment rate in India was at 10.51 percent.
According to the source, the data are ILO estimates. For the past decade, India’s youth
unemployment rate has been hovering around the 10 percent mark. As per recent
studies, we can say quality education and required skills set are key hindrance in securing
meaningful jobs. Hence, as per new framework the National Apprenticeship Promotion
scheme (NAPS) was launched by Government of India in 2016, to promote the apprentice
program in India. The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) had
launched skill certification scheme for large number of youth to take up industry relevant
skill training that will help them in securing a better livelihood. Apprenticeship has been
identified as one of the effective tool of developing skilled manpower utilizing existing
infrastructure and training centers available in the establishments. The Apprenticeship
program is fine amalgamation of both theoretical teaching and on-the job learning at the
workplace. It helps the apprentice to acquire requisite skills and knowledge, safety rules
and regulation of workstation, handling of machinery and tools.
The present case study gives insight about new apprenticeship program getting
implemented in one of the biggest Steel manufacturing Company of India. Since, inception
it can be seen the HR team had negligible knowledge and expertise on this matter. But
with the positive approach and inquisitive mindset the team was able to tide the upcoming
barriers in a very quick time. The case study will also help to understand behavioral and
new emerging HR terminology such as Knowledge Management, Learning from each
other (LEO), Decision Making, Problem Solving Approach, Agile HR etc. At the end,
this apprenticeship program has been able to create identity and platform to stand for
thousands of youths in small vicinity of the town located in Eastern Mining belt of India.
Introduction:
Synergy Iron Ore Mine (SIOM) was one of Mining Unit of Raw Material Division
(RMD) running its operation under Miracle Steel Limited (MSL).There were another
03 Iron Ore mines under operation of Raw Material Division(RMD) namely Versatile
Ore Mine (VOM), Generous Ore Mine (GOM) and Mega mind Iron Ore Mine (MIOM).
The unit had 5.1 mtpa of iron ore production annually, which was in turn used in making
finished steel products catering to the needs of crores of citizens through out the nation.
We can say “MSL spreading happiness among others”. It was located in pristine nature
of “Talagirih Forest” in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. The unit was having
Rohit Toppo, SAIL-RMD, Kiriburu
Shri John Purty, SAIL-RMD, Kiriburu
24
township consisting of 1400 approx quarters. The other amenities included Hospital,
Schools, Police Station, Banks, Post Office and limited no. of Markets. Being very
remotely located there was persistent problems with the mobile communication (Low
internet bandwith) and poor electricity. Also, very limited no. of job Opportunities were
for the local villagers.
In January’2019, Synergy Iron Ore Mine (SIOM) was laid with the new task of engaging
apprentices in its Mines as per the Apprentice Act’1961. There are no previous records of
SIOM, that it has ever engaged apprentices in its unit. Also, the Raw Material Division
(RMD) headquarter being located 350 kms away in Bhubaneshwar had very negligible
knowledge with the term “APPRENTICE”.
A immediate meeting was called by Mr. Swaminathan, the Head HR (SIOM) among its
team member to address this issue. The purpose of the meeting was to gather information
from its staff, if anyone had any clue on this new terminology. Thus, brain storming
sessions started among the staff and following problems and issues were listed:
1. What are the Ministry (GOI) guidelines on engagement of Apprentices.
2. Deciding on number of Apprentices to be taken for the calendar year.
3. What mode of engagement was to be followed.
4. What is amount of stipend to be paid to apprentices.
5. Terms and condition of the offer of Contract.
6. Classroom training and on-the job training mechanism.
Thus, based on above mentioned problems, a team consisting of 2 members namely Mr.
Alex and Mr. John were constituted immediately to work on apprentice project. The
deadline for implementation of project was set for 1st July’2019. Accordingly, the
team started gathering resources and data from all the Govt. Portals, Company’s Portals,
Apprentice Acts, previous approvals documents etc.
The Approach:
After researching on available information the team started with following step by step
approach:
1. Deciding on no. of Apprentices: The Apprentice Act, 1961 was followed on
deciding no. of Apprentice to be engaged. The present act laid down instruction to
engage minimum 2.5 % of the entire workforce engaged in the unit. It was gathered
from the monthly manpower records that at present there was 1320 employees
(includes 100 Executives, 500 Non Executives and 720 Contractual Workers till
date). Accordingly, the calculation came to engagement of 33 apprentices for the
given year.
25
2. Trade in which apprentice were to be engaged: The following trades was

decided in which apprentices were to be engaged. This was based on research of
these 02 records:
a) No. of Industrial Training Institute (ITI) passed candidates (The trades)
b) The present job market trend (Job Profiles).
Thus, these were trades that were finalized for engagement:
Sl. No. Trade Seats
1. Fitter 8
2. Electrician 13
3. Plumber 4
4. Welder 8
G. Total 33
3. Reservation Roster to be followed: Being Public Sector Undertaking (PSU)
organization, Presidential directives in matter of Reservation roster was to
be strictly followed in process of engagement. There was lot of confusion and
ambiguity over the matter of reservation. Seeing the situation, Mr. Sawminathan
called a centralized workshop among Head HR’s of other Raw Materials Division
(RMD) units namely Versatile Ore Mine (VOM), Generous Ore Mine (GOM) &
Megamind Iron ore Mine (MIOM) too on matter of reservation roster at its Training
center. All Head HR’s shared their knowledge and understanding on the said topic.
Thus, they decided to strict by guidelines being mentioned in Apprentices Act,
1961. Also, it can be seen that they were trying to learn from each other on this
topic.
4. Registering Company Profile on the Apprentice Web Portal: Synergy Iron Ore
Mine (SIOM) made most of the Ministry (GOI)Technological development work
i.e web based. Thus, Mr. Swaminathan registered the Company’s account on the
given web portal. The idea was to invite all the candidates’ applications online
from the country. The following benefits were:
a) Candidates did not have to travel to the unit office for submission of hard copy
of application.
b) On-Line payment fee by the candidates.
5. Apprenticeship Advertisement: After this, Mr. Swaminathan gave the notification
inviting the application in online mode from the candidates across the county for
the apprenticeship program in month of February’19 giving time duration of 01
26
month. Also, he listed some of the essentials documents to be submitted. It gave
wide publicity in the township and nearby peripheral villages.
6. Short listing of the Candidates: Accordingly 350 numbers of applications
were received from candidates all over the country. But the constraint with the
management was do short listing keeping 02 crucial things in mind:
a) Accommodation to be provided during the training period
b) Local engagement/intake from nearby peripheral villages.
Therefore, Mr. Swaminathan decided to consider the candidates from Synergy
Township and its local peripheral villages that came under Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR). Accordingly, the list came down to 94 number of candidates
for due consideration. Further, 02 members Committee consisting of Mr. Sriram
and Mr. Yogi was formed on April’19 for scrutiny of the 94 applications.
The Committee finalized and submitted it report to the management on May’19
citing following remarks:
• 42 nos. of candidates were rejected due to non-compliance with the eligibility
criteria listed out on the notification/advertisement.
• From the rest, 52 nos. eligible candidates, it was seen that except 01, all
the applications were having varied degrees of discrepancies like mismatch
of names, incomplete profile etc. Any such discrepancies will hamper the
generation of offer and Contract from the online portal, thereby rejecting the
candidature by Regional Directorate of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship
(RDSDE), Ranchi. As, such it was imperative that, before further processing
all these discrepancies were needed to be addressed.
• The reasons for such discrepancies might be candidate’s lack of knowledge
and poor network (Internet) in the area.
*Regional Directorate of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (RDSDE),
Ranchi was competent govt. authority to approve the online generated apprentice
contract.
Going through the committee report, it was not possible to reject all these
applicants, as Synergy Iron Ore Mine (SIOM) was to engage 33 Apprentices as
per stipulations of the Apprentice Act. Thus, Mr. Swaminathan decided to give
further time period extension of another 02 weeks to the 51 applicants to address
these discrepancies.
7. Preparation of merit list of Candidates: After taking considerable period of
time and addressing the individual discrepancy of candidates, the committee of
27
Mr. Sriram and Mr. Yogi came out with the merit list of candidates in month of
June’19. The following was the merit list of candidates vis-a vis trades.
Sl. No. Trade Sanctioned Posts Merit lists
1. Fitter 8 8
2. Electrician 13 13
3. Plumber 4 0
4. Welder 8 2
G.Total 33 23
Also, panel list consisting of wait listed candidate were prepared in case merit list
candidates did’nt accepted the offer of contract. The panel list was valid for period
of 45 days.
8. Medical examination and generation of offer of Contract: All the 23 nos. of
selected candidates was sent for medical examination in December’19 and process
was initiated for online generation of offer of contract. At the same time department
wise placement list was also prepared according to the trades and requirements.
The contract was generated for period of 01 year.
9. Stipend for the Apprentice: The sum of Rs. 7,700 /- was decided to be paid to
the apprentices as per the latest Apprentice Act, 1961. Accordingly, bank account
details of the candidates was taken and verified with the respective banks.
10. Induction Programme and placement: All the 23 nos. of apprentices had
induction program at its training center. The facilitator gave brief history and
functioning about the organization. The brief outline of the Apprenticeship training
program was also explained to the candidates. Further, keeping the safety aspect in
mind PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) was also distributed to the Candidates.
Thus, finally the Apprentice engagement started on 03rd January 2020.
Bottlenecks:
It can be seen from the above, that as planned the project didn’t met it time deadline
and the project got delayed by duration of 06 months. The bottlenecks in launching the
Project came to the following areas. The same can be more understood in depth with the
help of following fish bone diagram:
1. Lack of Process knowledge on the subject matter on the part of (SIOM) Unit.
2. Major part of project was technology based.
3. Un-Availability of resources (Computer terminals, internet connectivity) due to
poor socio-economic condition of applicants.
4. Proper System was not there for the engagement of apprenticeship program at the
unit.
28
Solutions/Initiatives:
Keeping above problems in mind, the organization took firm bold steps in addressing
these problems at every step of the Project.
1. Apprenticeship Information workshop: A two day basic information sharing
workshop was organized in month of March’2019 for the local candidates at its
Regional Training Center. Approx 130 candidates came from nearby areas as
mentioned in the notification for the workshop. The salient feature of the workshop
were:
• The guidelines about how to register candidates on Govt. Apprenticeship
Website.
• Road map on how to apply (online) themselves for Apprenticeship program at
SIOM.
• The compliances as per the Apprenticeship Act,1961.
• The benefits that apprentice would be receiving during 01 year stint with the
organization.
• The amount of stipend the apprentice would be receiving.
29
• The Mandatory forms to be submitted while applying for the program.

2. Information Technology (IT) help Desk: An IT help desk was established by Mr.
Alex and Mr. John formed at Training Center for period of 15 days in the month of
March’2019. IT help desk facilitated in registering candidates in apprentice profile,
as well as applying themselves for apprenticeship program. Thus, helped the
candidates to solve various issues, which they were facing due to these limitations:
• Most of the candidates were not computer literate
• The candidates did’nt had computer systems at homes.
• The candidate residential areas/villages had low internet bandwidth.
3. Communication with the local Trade Union and villages sarphanch: As
the implementation of Project Apprentice got delayed, due to technical issues.
Localities residing in township and peripheral villages started questioning the
management about the implementation of the project. To address this, HR deptt.
under leadership of Mr. Swaminathan started communicating about development
of the project with Local Trade unions and Villages sarpanch in its monthly
meetings. This pacified the anxiety of the locals to certain level.
4. Un-Blocking Company Registered ID: In the month of June’2019, the offer of
contracts for the candidates could not be generated through the web portal due to
some technical snag. It showed a following message “company Registered ID
has been blocked due to non-completion of verification process in due course
of time”. To address this issue, the team member contacted RDSDE, Ranchi for
unblocking of the Company’s ID. But due to newly inducted office setup provided
less help at the given point of time. With only alternative left, the team of Mr. Alex
and Mr. John started chasing up head Office based in New Delhi for addressing
the issue. But after finally taking 1500 kms journey to capital of the India from
such a remote place, the team was finally able to resolve this issue in month of
November’19. And Offer of Contract was generated in Decmeber’19.
Key Learning’s and Benefits:
Some of the Key learning’s and benefits the HR Team had in whole project implementation
can be seen as follows:
1. Knowledge sharing platform: Initially, the unit had very less knowledge on the
subject matter. Also, very few documents and data were available internally in
the organization. Thus, the team tried to pool in resources from other units of
Raw Material Division (RMD). This can be understood with the help of following
model as given below:
30
SECI Model of Knowledge Dimension
Tacit to Tacit (Socialization) – The working on web portal in Apprentice
a)
Website was imparted to Synergy Iron Ore Mine (SIOM) by Versatile Ore
Mine (VOM). It is pertinent to mention here that, VOM had little expertise on
technology aspect. Therefore they had little knowledge on working on web
platform. The session included practical information sharing i.e creation of
company profile, explanation of website infrastructure, Generation of offer of
contract, filing timely returns etc. This was sharing mainly the technological
expertise within units.
Tacit to Explicit (Externalization) - After gathering practical exposure on
b)
working at Apprentice website, a standard operating procedure (Booklet)
was designed by Synergy Iron Ore Mine (SIOM) and circulated to other Raw
Materials Division (RMD) units. This helped in curtailing the expenses and
need to travel to Synergy Iron Ore Mine (SIOM) for understanding the given
issues,
Explicit to Explicit (Combination) – In the meantime, Generous Ore Mine
c)
(GOM)came with healthy discussion on Reservation roster that was key
guideline needed to be implemented while engaging apprentice. Also, other
essential points like deciding on stipend amount according to various govt.
notifications and Apprentice Act, 1961 was shared.
Explicit to Tacit (Internalization) – At last, all the theoretical knowledge
d)
gathered from the other units were used to conceptualize the ideas. And, a
system of Apprentice engagement was launched on 3rd of January 2020 by
Synergy Iron Ore Mine (SIOM). It became first unit of Raw Material Division
(RMD) to do so. The system was very advanced and robust. Everything could
be tracked online with very less paperwork involved.
It could be gathered from the above diagram, the organization created vicious loop
of knowledge Circle in due course of time. The knowledge that was informative
and evolving in nature.
31
2. Skilled Manpower in future: At present, the Apprentice was engaged for the
trainings in various trades. i.e Welder, Electrician, Plumber and Fitter etc. They
underwent rigorous training at the workplace (on-field experience and theoretical).
Though the program was for 01 year only, but they can be seen as skilled
manpower resources to be recruited in near future. Already, these candidates had
gone acquiring various skill sets to do the specified job. Therefore, if they will be
recruited full-time in the company, very less finance and time will be involved
in their training program. Also, they will already be accustomed to their existing
workplace.
3. Digitalization of records: Apprentice engagement program comes under Ministry
of skill development and entrepreneurship (MSDE). The ministry already
provided dedicated web platform for registration and receiving application of the
candidates. Thus, keeping up the same synchronization with the ministry, the unit
also maintained all the documents and application (contract copy, filing returns
etc.) in digital format. Only, mandatory form was maintained in hard copies for
record keeping purpose. Overall, the idea of Paperless organization was inculcated
in the thought process of the staff members.
4. Local Youth engagement: Most of the candidates applied and then engaged under
apprentice program were from local nearby peripheral villages. Previously, they
had done 02 years diploma program from government/private(Industrial Training
Institute) ITI. Synergy Iron Ore Mine (SIOM)being only major industry in this
mining belt was a source of livelihood to the residents and villagers. Hence, this
apprenticeship program acted as a mechanism for attaining skilled training and
earnings in this remote location. Also, the other local issues raised by the local
villagers from time to time regarding land displacement, recruitment etc. became
very less.
References:
1. Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) Website.https://
apprenticeship.gov.in/.
2. Apprentice India website. https://apprenticeshipindia.org/.
3. Apprentice Act,1961
32
SAFETY CULTURE: ANALYSING WORKERS
SAFETY PERSPECTIVE
Introduction
T
o aim for an accident-free working environment is everyone’s responsibility.
Workers in the steel-manufacturing industry face many safety risks due to the nature
of the job. How well safety procedures and regulations are followed within an
organization is considered to be influenced by the reigning culture of the organization. The
aim of this study was to investigate and describe the impact of employees’ safety culture
on organizational performance by exploring workers’ experiences and perceptions of
safety and risks. It defines employees’ safety culture as a product of individual and group
values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behaviour that determine
the level of commitment, style and proficiency of an organization’s safety management
system. It assumes that inculcation of employees’ safety culture on the workforce at every
organizational level using behaviour-based safety culture approach (enforcement and
education) has an influence on employees’ safety performance as well as on company
performance which causes enhancement of productivity, profitability, reduction of
accident/incident rate, efficiency, quality products and good corporate image. The
generic questionnaire is used as a tool to analyse safety culture by developing specific
questionnaires based on industry characteristics, assessing safety climate, employee
perceptions by administering the questionnaire to staff members of the shop, and then
further investigating safety climate through exploratory factor analysis. The material
was analysed inductively using observations and qualitative content analysis.
Organizational Culture
Just as society has a culture, so has an organization. Organizational culture has been
called “A Corporate Soul with the spirit and the ethos” that percolates all aspects
of organizational behaviour; and, like societal culture, cannot be seen directly. It has to
be inferred by peeling out the most external, tangible, and hence visible sheaths of an
organization to the most central and invisible values, beliefs, and assumptions regarding
how and why people work (or do not work) and relate (or do not relate) with each other
within an organization.
Organizational culture consists of the following five layers:
1. Organizational mission, vision, goals, objectives, strategies, and the underlying
philosophy of management.
Santosh Kumar P, SAIL-BSP, Bhilai

Himanshu Verma, SAIL-BSP, Bhilai
33
2. Organizational structure, systems, work forms, technology, capital structure, and

other physical features of an organization.
3. Group characteristics such as power and authority structure, group dynamics,
leadership, and forms of work and social relationships.
4. Work and non-work practices and behaviour
5. Assumptions, beliefs, values, and norms regarding work as distinct from non-work
domains such as family, community, leisure, religion, etc.
The Core of Organizational Culture

Values are the bedrock of any corporate culture. As the essence of a company philosophy
for achieving success, values provide a sense of common direction for all employees
and guidelines for their day to day behaviour. These formulas for success determine
(and occasionally arise from) the types of corporate heroes, and the myths, rituals,
and ceremonies of the culture.
Exhibit 1 : Organizational Culture Nested in Societal and Global Management Culture
34
Safety Culture
Safety Culture: What is it?

“Safety culture is a sub-element of organizational culture and can be defined as the
core values and behaviours resulting from a collective commitment by leaders and
individuals to emphasise safety over competing goals, to ensure protection of people
and the environment.”
Organizational accidents have been associated with a poor safety culture. The cost of
accidents and unplanned losses can drive a seemingly successful business out of business.
But what can be done to eliminate or control accidents and losses? After all, accidents
just happen—or do they? The answer to that question is simple: Accidents don’t just
happen; they happen for a reason. Or, more accurately, they happen for a whole lot of
reasons. Most people think very little can be done to prevent work-related accidents,
but—to put it bluntly—they are wrong. A lot can be done to prevent accidents. The road
to accident prevention may not be cheap, easy, or fast, but it is the right road to be on.
This road is the development of safety culture. How do you know that a culture gap
exists? One main indicator is accident occurrences.
Employees are the engine that powers your company. If you have a well maintained, high
performance team, it can endure challenges, go the distance, and help you stay ahead of
the competition. A poor performing team can hold you back and cause you to lose profits.
Years of experience have shown that many companies suffering from production and
profitability issues also suffer from a significant number of workplace injuries. And
conversely, the most productive and profitable operations have fewer injuries.
Exhibit 2 : Organizational Culture and Safety Culture

(subset of Organization culture) relation
35
What prompted the interest in assessing safety culture?

Are We lacking a true safety culture? Assessing a safety culture means admitting that we
don’t know everything, that errors are possible. We should acknowledge our knowledge
gaps, also admitting that everyone has a personal and collective responsibility. Assessing a
safety culture means introducing perceptive analysis of the workers. It means introducing
the unforeseeable and the unknown, and consequently adding a “probabilistic” approach
to the “deterministic” approach in all of our work.
With increasing number of accidents that are occurring in bhilai steel plant (bsp),
management is giving more priority to prevailing Behaviour Based Safety (BBS)
which "focuses on what people do, analyses why they do it, and then applies a research-
supported intervention strategy to improve what people do".
Mishaps occurred in Bhilai Steel Plant
Exhibit 3 : Fatalities in SAIL and BSP
36
There were many surveys done to capture the behaviour (visible part) of the group/
departments in Bhilai steel plant where as very few regarding perceptions (invisible part)
of the organizational culture. Our case study is focused on capturing this invisible part
(mental models, perceptions, beliefs and values).
Ways of doing (visible) and Ways of thinking (mindset) influencing safety culture
The individuals that make up the organisation are diverse, and each, based on their
history, has developed ways of doing and ways of thinking that are specific to them. As,
there is a visible part and an invisible part to the organisational culture
The visible part includes:
• An organisational structure (an organisational chart, formal rules, procedures,
processes) that is reflected in the technical systems and artefacts,
• a range of shared behaviours, rituals,
• stated and espoused values.
The invisible part is composed of accumulated knowledge, beliefs, shared values that
are active but not stated,implicit assumptions, which are not written down anywhere
but which influence the ways of thinking (mindset) and the ways of doing. This part is
the most difficult for an outside observer to perceive and it is also the most difficult to
change, which is why we want to analyse the invisible part (ways of thinking) by our
questionnaire method.
37
Each individual’s ways of doing and thinking are therefore influenced by the ways of
doing and thinking that are shared within the organisation, the groups to which they
belong, and society. Also, it is important to note that the ways of doing and ways of
thinking influence one another.
The safety department of bhilai steel plant (bsp) conducted many surveys to measure the
safety climate in the shops and overall unit with the objective of identifying behaviours
and actions leading to safe or unsafe conditions. Whereas, the aim of the present study
was to investigate and describe safety culture and risk-taking in the steel-manufacturing
industry by exploring workers’ experiences, perceptions,feedback and improvements
of safety and risks to improve safety culture by understanding the invisible part of a
workers persona by analysing perceptions, beliefs, values and mental models which
would affect the safety culture in organization. This case study is to show that invisible
part (perceptions, beliefs, values and mental models) plays an equal or more portent role
in safe or unsafe conditions in a unit or shop.
Safety culture is a good leading and lagging indicator of occupational accidents, as it
serves both the alert and tracing function. It is a label that represents the relationship
between visible (behaviour) and invisible (perceptions etc) as a basis for unsafe attitudes
and behaviour. There are two safety beliefs. First one is the belief that it was important
to rely on personal experience in assessing the evidence’’ and therefore to systematically
discount the reports of others, and the second is ‘‘a culture of denial, an elaborate set of
beliefs which held that ‘it could not happen here’’.
In contrast to this, three of the most important cultural expressions for achieving an
adequate safety culture have been found to be ‘‘looking for errors, not keeping out of sight
when difficult situations arise, and resolving conflicts constructively’. Management’s
commitment to safety stands out among earlier findings as a key factor associated with
positive safety culture, positive employee safety behaviour, and positive employee safety
attitudes. Norms shared by employees have been shown to predict perceptions of safety
as well as risk behaviour. Workers’ belief in the safety values of the management has
been linked to predicting worker risk behaviour. The concept of risk is defined as ‘‘the
possibility that something unpleasant or unwelcome will happen,’’ and as a verb, risk
means to ‘‘expose (someone or something valued) to danger, harm, or loss’’. Other key
factors that have been shown to be associated with an organizations’ safety culture are the
employee involvement and personal actions for safety and the quality of employee safety
training and the safety management system.
38
Exhibit 5 : Different elements in a safety culture
The Current Case Study

As a high-risk and manpower-intensive industry, the steel industry is in urgent need of
a method to deal with frequent occupational accidents. The focus of the present study
is to examine safety culture and risk-taking in the steel-manufacturing industry. This
information could be applied to improve workplace safety in an efficient manner and
protect employees from occupational hazards. Our study of safety culture put much
effort into building theory, methodology, and conceptualizations of constructs. The
purpose of this study was to test the applicability of a questionnaire survey to accesses the
perceptions of a worker. Also, the data revealed meaningful variation between different
hierarchy in a single company also in the same organization, there are still differences in
safety culture between levels and sections with in a company. Observations from various
workers perspective provided us with the purview of improvement in organizational role
towards safety.
Methodology
A questionnaire survey methodology considered as suitable when investigating cultural
values and group norms is focus group surveying. Culture is a complex phenomenon
to study. With perception surveys (questionnaires) it is possible to study safety culture
39
from one viewpoint; with an interview and feedback study approach it is possible to do
it from another, enabling a more detailed and in-depth description, which can be done
inductively. It has been suggested that the concept of safety culture is best suited to
be understood in a specific context. There is a need to improve the safety of the work
conditions for steelworkers. One way to achieve this is to improve the understanding of
safety culture and risk-taking in this context. Safety rules and regulations at the workplace
are formalized norms, and officially expressed. Compliance with rules is a certain kind
of communication—it is a request. The more compliant workers are with safety rules,
the better the safety culture is thought to be. The purpose of this study focuses on values
and norms of safety that are not written down, not officially expressed, informal norms,
but which—socially, in any case—influence safety actions and behaviour. All items in
the questionnaire used a five-point Likert scale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to
“Strongly Agree” with higher scores representing stronger agreement with a statement.
Study design
The present study was designed to be a questionnaire study, with an inductive and
explorative approach with the aim to explore cultural values and group norms, by
identifying shared knowledge and experiences within groups. Survey content analysis
was used in the analysis of data. The department was chosen as study context, since
it represents a work place with a variety of internal risks because of the nature of the
industrial work. The work in a steel industry is often heavy and demanding on the body,
and it is a hot, sweaty, and sooty environment. In some SMS-2 of Bhilai Steel Plant the
steel is hot and the risk for burns is present. So, we separated our questionnaire into
various parts so that we can accesses our research on various factors such as policies and
procedures, participation and understanding of occupational health, safety awareness,
management and self-inspection and safety culture elements like human factors,
system, behaviours, environment and organization/individual leadership qualities. The
questionnaire was handed over individual workers, also explaining the purpose of the
research, the content of the questionnaire, and how to complete it. We collected their
opinion and feedback with the filled questionnaire paper.
Participants and Data collection
A sample of participants from the SMS-2 department at the Bhilai Steel Plant was used to
achieve maximum variation. Questionnaire guide was developed for the present study. A
total of 176 people was surveyed from different hierarchy and departments in an SMS-2
of Bhilai steel plant (BSP).
40
Table 1 Participants from SMS-2 Department
SN Department Employee Participants
Divisions
1 Converter Executive 25
Non-Executive 33
Contractual labour 13
2 Continuous Caster Executive 21
Non-Executive 24
3 Ladle Bay & SRU Executive 11
Non-Executive 17
4 Supporting units and office staff Executive 11
Non-Executive 2
Total Participants 176
Data Analysis
Reasons for risk-taking were observed during the analysis, in which text segments with
explicit reasons for risk-taking were identified. The analysis resulted in five categories
that describe the safety culture and reasons for risk-taking, and how they were perceived
and experienced by employees. The categories are:
41
 Acceptance of risks
The employees and workers considered risks to be everywhere. The workers use shortcuts
on the job that make the work riskier, which is perceived as acceptable, if one masters
them. Despite one’s own safety awareness, one is always dependent on others in the
workplace, and how they act. A stressful work place is dangerous but hard to avoid,
which is accepted and handled. The workers also expressed fatalistic beliefs that one
accepts how safety is, and that some things cannot change. The workers believe that an
accident-free and healthy workplace would be achievable.
 Individual responsibility for safety
Employees expressed that the individual worker, through common sense, has responsibility
for safe practices. One needs to do that oneself, because safety rests on the judgment and
decisions of the individual during a work task: ‘‘No one else can take that responsibility,
the individual has the largest responsibility’’. One’s own common sense was perceived to
be crucial: ‘‘It is all about knowledge and common sense’’, and ‘‘One has to think before
acting’’. One should take responsibility for one’s own safety during work; no one else
can do it for you: ‘‘Personal responsibility—everybody needs to see the risks’’
 Low company commitment
The company does not manage the safety procedures as much as it could. ‘‘Sometimes
there is nonchalance about what we think and what we say is dangerous’’, and ‘‘They
spend more time on finding ‘scapegoats’ than on fixing problems’’. If something acute
happens concerning safety, a severe near miss or an accident, the company acts quickly
42
to implement improvements. The workers perceived that it is good that the company then
acts quickly, but that it is too bad that something needs to happen before measures are
taken: ‘‘When one reports things that they need to fix, they do not take care of it, and then
when something happens, yeah, then they take care of it’’.
 Trade-off between productivity and safety
Trade-off exists between productivity and safety as they are conflicting entities. The first
subcategory was management expectations, that one perceives expectations from the
management that productivity has priority over safety. The workers perceived that there
is an expectation from the management that, even though there is less manpower one
day, it should not result in less productivity. The workers’ experiences show that when
manpower goes down, accidents go up. As the workers explained, they need to find
temporary solutions and work with tools that are not appropriate for the job, or to work
with equipment that is broken or does not work properly. Temporary solutions were
perceived as necessary to get the production running.
 Importance of communication
To think about safety, that it is important to have continuous safety training and to learn
how to ‘‘think safety’’. The employees and workers believe that safety training has a
major emphasis on working safe in their workplaces, and they believe that adequate staff
should be present for providing the proper safety training, ‘‘One has to know what one is
doing’’ so safety training is important.
Communication and collaboration between colleagues at the workplace are important
for safety. The workers experienced the possibility of communicating as very important
for safety at the workplace. The use of walkie-talkies is more efficient than using body
language and gestures, which often still are used. They considered that pointing out
someone’s risk behaviour is the right thing to do, but also a sensitive matter, and that one
needs common sense in approaching the colleague who has made a mistake or taken a
risk. Otherwise, one can be faced with the attitude that ‘‘No one should tell me how to do
my job’’ and ‘‘Mind your own business, and I’ll mind mine’’.
Reporting incidents, that one should report incidents, even though there may be obstacles
to doing so. The workers stated that they know that it is important to report incidents
(risk observations, near misses, and accidents), but still, the incident reporting is often
ignored. They experienced writing incident reports as time consuming, and there was
uncertainty about how to do it. It was related that, ‘‘If we were to report everything that
happens, we would have to write the whole time’’. Embarrassment is another reason not
to report incidents, embarrassment about being foolish and making a mistake.
43
 State-of-the-day and external conditions

New employees take more risks, because they are less experienced: ‘‘Experience is
lacking; they just rush in and do not think about where they are going’’, and ‘‘When
someone is new, they do not see the dangers, which one learns about over the years’.
Tiredness, that being tired results in more risk-taking. The workers described that tiredness
can be influenced by amount of sleep, time of the day because of shift work, the hot work
environment, and slumberous sounds from machines. ‘‘Perhaps one is tired and does not
think before acting, being poorly prepared for work’’
Nonchalance about the safety risks results in more risk-taking and was the third
subcategory. The workers experienced that nonchalance toward risks is a common
problem: ‘‘A bit of nonchalance is pretty common’’. A more experienced worker may
be more nonchalant, being unobservant or underestimating risks. Nonchalance was also
described as being present because of laziness or because one wants to minimize the
work effort.
Working on routine and being ‘‘blind to flaws’’ results in risk-taking. The steel-industry
workers described being ‘‘blind to flaws’’ as meaning that one follows certain routines
during work, becoming blind to risks that one should see: The employees and workers
believe that routine job might miss the emphasis of following the preventive safety
measures ‘‘It is routine. One gets accustomed to being out in production, and one does
not think.
Low staffing, that too few staff to do the job results in more risk-taking. The workers
experienced that low staffing on a shift team is bad for safety, since the workers have to
take more risks because of the extra workload.
High pace, in that to stress, hurry, and work faster in order to save time results in more
risk-taking. They described that stressing and being in a hurry might occur because of the
demand to meet a deadline. ‘‘Being under stress is when one starts to use shortcuts’’, and
‘‘If one can solve it quickly, one gets less work, and one can relax”.
Table 2 Mean Score
SN Department Employees Divisions Mean Score
1 Converter Executive 25.25
Non-Executive 23.50
2 Continuous Caster Executive 23.75
Non-Executive 23
Contractual labour 20.75
44
3 Ladle Bay & SRU Executive 22.50
Non-Executive 21
Contractual labour 24.25
4 Supporting units and office staff Executive 25.75
Non-Executive 23.25
Contractual labour
Mean acceptable score 23
Using the individual as the unit of analysis Results varying between Most Critical to
Most Optimistic range between (14-27) and a mode of 22 is obtained. Thus, an employee
with lower scores on group level safety survey is at high level of risk while at work.
Compared with organizational-level safety climate, individual-level safety focused more
on perceptions of safety causing safe and unsafe behaviour. The frontline operators
were typically more closely in contact with direct supervisors and might be more aware
of group-level policies and production processes and had less clear understanding of
policies and strategic decisions of top managers. In this study, group-level safety climate
was significantly correlated with occupational accidents. Based on this result, individual-
level safety was likely a stronger indicator of occupational accidents. Especially using
department as unit to compare the mean score could detect which departments were
under risk. Then the company could put more attention on the focused department, took
positive actions such as enhancing the supervision level and set the appropriate safety
program. Therefore, the company could use the limited resource to raise the company's
safety level in most efficiency way.
45
After all, the results of the safety culture survey could point out safety issues in the
organization. Those issues could be good starting points to enhance both safety climate
and safety management system in the steel industry.
Discussion
As an overall finding, it can be summarized that responsibility and actions for a functioning
safety performance was perceived to rest on the individual, whereas the work environment
and priority of productivity constitute constant obstacles. This showed to be experiences
of the workers that were prominent throughout the analysed material. The results concern
expectations and boundaries: partly the expectations the workers have of themselves and
the expectations they experience from managers, and partly how the organization and
the work environment set boundaries as to how it is possible to act in different situations.
The results therefore fit rather well with the concept of human-technology-organization
(HTO), where there are interactions between each of the three components in systems, as
well as mutual interdependence between them. Thus, our results in relation to the HTO-
concept show that the workers (human) operate within the boundaries set by the physical
environment and the machines (technology), as well as under the expectations set by
managers and conventional working procedures (organization). The experiences of the
workers showed that it is partly individual factors (human) and partly external factors
(technology, organization) that contribute to risk-taking at work. Workers’ expectations
of themselves, and expectations of managers for the workers, constitute a culture that
governs how it is possible to act (behaviour). That culture matters for behaviour in the
context of safety has been demonstrated by, in that norms shared by employees predict
perceptions of safety as well as risk behaviour.
There are different schools of thought on organizational safety and why incidents occur:
person as cause, system as cause, or system–person sequence as cause. The latter is
in line with the HTO-concept. The HTO-concept is a variant of classic socio technical
systems theory that acknowledges that there are interactions between social and technical
factors in organizations and thereby a need to review the whole of a system in order to
improve performance and ‘joint optimization’.
The three aspects of the results. First is the trade-off between productivity and safety,
where production targets and production pressures are perceived to get priority over safety
procedures. Through the worker’s descriptions it was made evident that an important
incentive for employees to risk their safety, by, for example, taking a short cut by not
using the appropriate tools, was to get the production running again as soon as possible
if a stoppage occurs. This illustrates the cultural expression that there is a constant and
ongoing trade-off between productivity, on the one hand, and safety, on the other.
At the same time, human innovation, creativity, and problem-solving are often mentioned
as important prerequisites for working safely,as they permit the worker to adapt to
46
situational challenges that arise. The tension between productivity and safety is an
example of how compliance or non-compliance with safety rules become visible. The
workers of the present study stated that common sense is important during their work. It
is concerning that safety often seems to have to take a backseat to productivity, and that
rules are violated to get the job done. The justification for trade-offs between productivity
and safety appears to be circular reasoning. The workers may be able to justify trade-
offs, but at the same time they also perceive to carry much of the responsibility for safe
working procedures.
Second, the responsibility for safe procedures rests to the largest extent on the individual.
The workers experienced that a functioning safety performance at work is up to the
individual, depending on oneself, and that one actually cannot count on either colleagues
or the manager when it really comes down to it. Earlier studies have also found the
responsibility for safety to rest on the individual. This finding can be explained by the
fact that individual responsibility is quite important in shift work, since there are periods
during a day when there is no manager present, only workers. Another explanation
could be that the organizational structure of the present company is fairly flat and not
strictly top-down, and therefore, the responsibilities are divided. The main principle of
safety culture is that ‘‘the responsibility for safety is devolved to every employee in the
organization.’’
Third, the cultural circumstances surrounding the socialization of new employees.
According to the workers of the present study, a newly employed person can seethe
workplace with ‘‘fresh eyes’’ and is not yet ‘‘blind,’’ and can therefore see things that
the experienced workers cannot see,which was valued as a good thing. However, as the
years pass by, the newly employed will become ‘‘blind to flaws,’’ just as the others in the
organization have. This is an interesting paradox: that a fresh view of the organization
is a valued matter, but that, at the same time, putting the fresh view to use is considered
as an unwanted behaviour within the team. This could be explained by underlying status
differences between newly employed and experienced workers. Amount of experience
matter in the work team, which influences roles and relationships between the workers.
What also takes place is that new employees are instructed by the experienced workers
on how the work should be done, but then the experienced workers do not follow that
work protocol themselves, which results in contradictory information to the new workers,
which is need to be changed.
Conclusion
An overall finding was that responsibility and actions for a functioning safety performance
was perceived to rest on the individual,whereas the work environment and priority of
productivity constitute constant obstacles. The steel-industry workers perceived that the
risks that are present in their work environment have to be accepted, since there is not
so much to do about it than to make the best of the situation. They also experienced that
47
a functioning safety performance at work is the responsibility of the individual, and

that one actually cannot count on either colleagues or the manager when it really comes
down to it. The workers reported that there is a constant and ongoing trade-off between
productivity, on the one hand, and safety, on the other, and that they are conflicting
entities, wanting to produce as well as wanting to work safely, with practical obstacles to
working safely sometimes. The workers experienced that the possibility to communicate
is very important for safety at the workplace. They also described interplay between one’s
state-of-the-day and the external work environment conditions at the workplace, which
results in the individual taking different risks. The findings of this study are interpreted
to be in line with the analytical concept of human-technology-organization(HTO), and a
socio technical understanding of safety culture and risk-taking.
Recommendations for industry
New employees are acclimatized into a safety culture at work. The workers of this study
pointed out about how new employees often have a fresh view of the organization, which
is quite valuable,but that using these fresh perspectives often is considered as a nun wanted
behaviour by the more experienced workers within the team. Managers in industry could
be aware of this and make an effort to put a fresh view of the organization to use before
the new employees become ‘‘blind to flaws.’’A socio technical understanding of safety
culture and risk-taking was supported by the present study.
Future research
For future research it is suggested that more qualitative descriptive studies of safety culture
be undertaken in other occupational contexts. Basic research of this kind can support
further development of safety culture theory-building and contribute to refinements of
quantitative instruments that measure safety culture. Were commend that a sociological
definition of safety culture be used in future research, returning to the roots of the concept
of culture. We also propose that, in moving forward, the theoretical development of
safety culture should focus more on shared values, norms, and attitudes of safety, than
on de facto safety management compliance in organizations. More statistical data can be
analysed using the statistical tools like Cronbach’s alpha “α” to get a better mean data to
interpolate
48
ANNEXURE I
Survey for Anubhav-The Management
Case Study (2020-21) SAIL
A Case Study on Safety Culture: Analysing Workers Perspective
in S.M.S-2 of Bhilai Steel Plant
Dear Sir/Madam
This questionnaire is a part of the survey undertaken by our team to capture the perception
of the employees on some of the organizational aspects of our Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP).
Your valuable and sincere feedback will make a significant contribution. Fill the details
as requested:
Name: Age:
Dept: Designation:
Part A: Workplace policies and procedures

Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly Can’t
agree disagree Say
1 Everyone receives the necessary workplace
health and safety training when starting a
job, changing jobs or using new techniques
2 There is regular communication between
employees and management about safety
issues
3 Systems are in place to identify, prevent and
deal with hazards at work
4 Workplace health and safety is considered
to be at least as important as production and
quality
5 There is an active and effective health and
safety committee and/or worker health and
safety rep
6 Never Perform work tasks, or use work
methods, that you are not familiar with
7 Never Interact with hazardous substances
such as chemicals, flammable liquids and
gases
49
Part B: Occupational health and safety awareness

agree disagree Say
1 I am clear about my rights and responsibilities
in relation to workplace health and safety
2 I am clear about my employers’ rights and
responsibilities in relation to workplace
health and safety
3 I know how to perform my job in a safe
manner
4 If I became aware of a health or safety
hazard at my workplace, I know who (at my
workplace) I would report it to
5 I have the knowledge to assist in responding
to any health and safety concerns at my
workplace
6 I know what the necessary precautions are
that I should take while doing my job
Part C: Participation in occupational health and safety
agree disagree Say
1 I feel free to voice concerns or make
suggestions about workplace health and
safety at my job
2 If I notice a workplace hazard, I would point
it out to management
3 I know that I can stop work if I think
something is unsafe and management will
not give me a hard time
4 If my work environment was unsafe I would
not say anything, and hope that the situation
eventually improves (reverse scored)
5 I have enough time to complete my work
tasks safely, am not in a hurry
6 I am satisfied with the safety and health
standard of the company
7 I am aware of different safety and health
standard of the company
50
Part D: Safety Culture
agree disagree Say
1 Are You satisfied with the job and
organization
2 Does Productivity have more importance in
your shop than safety
3 Does shortage of staff Is causing you not to
attend the safety training
4 Lack of Communications and collaboration
in the shop is hindering the safety practices
5 Your shop has a proper Reporting system
6 Do you consider employee nonchalant
attitude is causing the incidents
7 Do you consider individual error causes
safety violations and incidents
8 Safety culture of our organization needs
improvement
9 Your company is committed to prevent
unsafe conditions
10 Tiredness is one of the reasons for the unsafe
behaviour
11 Shortage of staff is causing work pressure
12 Does management listens to the improvement
in practices you suggest
13 Certain aspects of the social environment
(for example, local regulations, short-
term employment contracts, etc.) have
consequences on the entity’s safety culture
14 Does work practices already ensure a good
level of safety
15 Is safety a recognised aspect of
professionalism?
16 There are signs of “employee silence”
regarding safety
17 Are certain business constraints or other
forms of productive pressure conflicting
with safety
18 Does societal culture influence organizational
culture
19 I believe that most adverse events occur as a
result of multiple system failures and are not
attributable to one individual’s actions
51
20 I receive appropriate feedback/review about

my safety performance
21 Management/leadership does not knowingly
compromise safety concerns for productivity.
22 Briefing personnel before the start of a
shift is an important part of patient safety.
(Briefing is defined as informal/formal
communication regarding unit specifics, in
order to plan for possible contingencies)
Part E: Miscellaneous
agree disagree Say
Supervisor Safety Attitudes
1 My supervisor encourages people to work
safely
2 We are encouraged by supervisors to raise
safety issues and hazards
3 My supervisor regularly discusses the
hazards of our work and the precautions we
must take
4 My supervisor knows when someone is
working unsafely
Myself
5 I believe that working safely is as important
as getting the job done
Measurement
6 Our safety performance is measured
Management
7 Management takes prompt action when
safety issues are raised
8 Management consistently holds people
accountable for safety breaches
9 Management cares about our safety at work
10 Our safety equipment is well maintained
11 Our safety training is relevant and useful
12 Our safety equipment is adequate and
appropriate
13 Safety training is taken seriously in our
company
52
ANNEXURE II
Discussions were carried out regarding the below issues with the workers:
• How to communicating better, keeping informed about safety issues
• How to encourage employees to take safety seriously
• How to employ the right people with the right attitude
• How to take action when safety issues are raised
• How to improve our work practices and operating procedures
• How to stop the culture of blame: focus on fixing the issue
• How to set clear goals to improve safety
• Why provide us the right safety equipment (Personal Protective Equipment)
• How to promote a culture of safety
• How to make people accountable for safety
• How to hold regular safety briefings/ provide more feedback
• How to offer more training so I know how to do my job safely
• How to value safety over production
• How to promote stronger management commitment to safety
• How to provide more and/or better risk assessments
• How to make the Safety Committee more effective
• How to encourage supervisors to promote safety discussions
• What could be improved regarding safety at your workplace
Questionnaire for discussions
• How does an individual is responsible for his or her safety in a workplace?
• Does less manpower is affecting the safety measures in a workplace?
• Is Juggad technology really necessary to meet the production targets?
• How to achieve zero accident in a workplace?
• What is the role of Work load and tiredness in the safety of a workman?
• What are the disadvantages and ignorance in safety measures of a routine job?
• What is the responsive reaction for an unsafe practice reporting?
• How important is the response time of management in handling the accidents?
53
ANNEXURE III
Methodology for Calculation of Scores
Questionnaire survey calculation
Calculation is done by using the applying the Likert scale (basic structure to achieve a
measurable data for analysis)
Weighted marks
Strongly agree- +2
Agree- +1
Can’t say- 0
Disagree- -1
Strongly disagree- -2
Mean Score = Weighted average of response of all respondents/(Total no of responses)
References
 Safety Culture: From Understanding to Action, “Safety Culture” working group
Publication coordinated by Denis Besnard, Ivan Boissières, François Daniellou
and Jesús Villena
 Culture and Organizational Behaviour by Jai B. P. Sinha SAGE Publications India
Pvt Ltd
 Maximizing Profitability with Safety Culture Development by Clifford M. Florczak
Butterworth-Heinemann Publication
 Safety culture and reasons for risk-taking at a large steel-manufacturing company:
Investigating the worker perspective by HasseNordlöf , Birgitta Wiitavaara , Ulrika
Winblad, Katarina Wijk , Ragnar Westerlingaelseveirsafety science publication
 Improving Safety Culture: A Practical Guide by Dominic Cooper published by
ABS (UK)
 Creating and Sustaining: A Quality CultureRanjit Singh Malhi* Journal of Defence
Management
 Bhilai Steel Plant Safety department website& safety department reports
 SMS-2 Safety Department
 Practical application of safety climate: A case study in the Taiwanese
steelindustryYu-Ling Chen, Kang-Hung Liu, Chien-Chi Chang∗Department
of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, National Tsing Hua
University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ROC
54
Definitions
Behaviour: Human activity includes an observable part (movements, posture, speech,
etc.) and a non-observable part (the processing of information by the brain, the biological
phenomena associated with emotions, beliefs, values, etc.).Behaviour is the observable
part of the activity
Belief: A belief is an idea that is held as true without there being objective proof to
support the conviction. For example,“systematically punishing any rule breach is the
only way to achieve a high level of compliance” is a belief.
Perceptions and mental models: are mental constructs that partially reflect reality
and guide actions. They are influenced by the information available within the working
environment, by the person’s own history, their duties,and the groups to which they
belong.
Value: A value, for an individual or an organisation, is what is considered essential and
must guide action. There is a distinction between “explicit values”, which are stated or
espoused (but not necessarily embedded in practices), and “active values” or core values
which effectively influence actions without necessarily being explicitly stated.
Norms: Norms are regarded as collective representations of acceptable group conduct as
well as individual perceptions of particular group conduct.
Mental model: A mental model is an explanation of someone's thought process about
how something works in the real world. It is a representation of the surrounding world,
the relationships between its various parts and a person's intuitive perception about his or
her own acts and their consequences.
55
ZENSAR -
A BILLION DOLLAR TRANSFORMATION
Abstract
Z
ensar Technologies is one of the leading IT solutions firms that has a rich history
of survival, growth, and downfall, pushing it to the verge of bankruptcy. The
fate of a disaster struck company was turned in as low as six months and the
transformations that followed led to a dream of becoming a billion-dollar firm by the
year 2016. The striking and motivating factor from Zensar is that it’s one of the unique
companies that took courageous decision to shun its traditional hardware business and
embrace the changing world of software’s and emerge triumphantly. Many strategic
decisions went into making this rag to riches story. Still, in this case, we cover those initial
phases of the company where the newly appointed CEO with his level 5 leadership skills
completely overhauled the current organization structure and redesigned an excellent
working culture.
Introduction
Since the inception of tabulating Manufacturing company in the western city of Pune
under Britishers in 1922 till rising to supremacy in domestic hardware, the story of Zensar
technologies is genuinely the one from rags to riches. From a small Indian start-up to a
global IT success, its journey has been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. Zensar
is truly a relationship-based organization that is flexible, creative, and innovative-and
above all, it has a customer-first mindset. In this project, we study the first ten years of
Zensar Technologies and how dreamed of being a billion-dollar firm.
The successful journey of Zensar can be attributed to the change in leadership by the
appointment of new CEO Ganesh, who proved to be a level 5 leader. He not only turned
fortunes of Zensar from a loss-making firm to a profitable firm in six months but also
maintained it through the years with double-digit growth. Further, his changes improved
the system and introduced new ways to motivate employees, bringing inclusive culture
in the organization and removing biases.
Evolution of ICIM
International Computers Indian Manufacture Ltd (ICIM) was a partly owned subsidiary
of International Computers Limited (ICL) settled by a British firm to establish its
presence in the Indian market. ICIM manufactured the equipment designed by ICL for
Darshan Shukla, Indian Institute of Management Visakhapatnam

Rukhsar Chaudhary, Indian Institute of Management Visakhapatnam
Girija Dey, Indian Institute of Management Visakhapatnam
56
the overseas market. It captured the Indian mid-range computer industry in 1977 as
then global leader IBM exited the market. ICIM was known for its ICL 1901 and 2904
computers. It launched the range of personal computers competing with early movers
such as HCL, WIPRO, DCM, and PSI.
In a decade, ICIM started seeing its downfall in the Hardware business due to various
internal factors and external reasons for competition and price-wars. Even the existing
top-level employees were switching to the competitor’s company — the internal factors
where self-conceit due to previous successes and the troubles in high-level leadership.
In 1991, ICIM decided to set up ICIL, a subsidiary to build software and services. The
fact that the local manufacturing market in India is declining and the future lies in the
software and services was recognized very late, and that is when the US office was also
set up. During the first decade, the management was having a conflict whether to pull
back the hardware industry or not, due to which much attention was not given to the
software services.
By 1996, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. It was just 15 days away from
filing bankruptcy when Vice Chairman of ICIM, MR A. T. Vaswani was given the
responsibility to stabilize the situations. The major investors, RPG and Fujitsu denied
investing any further in the company, that is when the company started looking for new
investors and brought Electra Partners, the new investor who invests in the company till
date.
The tough decision of shutting down the hardware industry and the manufacturing plant
in Pune led to the disinvesting of Fujitsu and ICL.
In the early ’90s, ICIM was obsessed with revenue growth and big turnovers. Still,
unfortunately, this pulled it away from its core skills of systems integration and strategic
account management, which resulted in cash-flow going down. This situation made the
company step out of the Hardware industry and focus on the profit of the company.
Hence in 1996, ICIM sold its business to Accel.
Rise of Zensar
The new goals were set, but ICIM was given different brand names such as ICIL-III and
Fujitsu-ICIM. It was necessary to build a single brand name for the company.
Zensar was the new name that came up during the rebranding exercise, which was derived
as the essence of knowledge. The name itself states that the company has seen a lot and
possess the knowledge it gained from previous experiences. The company was renamed
on Valentine’s day in the year 2000.
Zensar had three significant problems in 2001:
1) A flawed business model.
57
2) A gap in the leadership team.

3) Poor selling and delivering of offshore services.
The initial steps taken by the new CEO were already tested by him, where he built a
connection with the employees, motivated them to speak up and, encouraged to share
innovative ideas. Over 100 people were separated, and it was the first time that such an
act was contemplated. The changes were continued inexorably.
The company was returned to profitability, and the new challenge was to understand
the industry, ambitions and integrate it into the management of Zensar. To achieve these
targets, a few aggressive “breakthrough thinking” workshops were hosted.
Bold decisions were taken to stop staff augmentation business and ensure that a genuine
offshore model was created with a primary focus of developing a different point of view
for existing and prospective customers.
It was difficult to point out exactly when and where the Zensar management decided it
would compete to enter the top tier of the Indian IT sector.
The 5F Model
Zensar primarily believes in Six Core values of Customer, People, Community,
Transparency, Innovation, and Passion for excellence. The company has been the pioneer
of employing the 5F Cultural framework to shape, develop, and retain the above core
values.
This 5F cultural framework consists of the following components: Fast, Focused,
Flexible, Fun, and Friendly.
FAST: Zensar believes in being quick and speedy in everything they do.
o
Zensar’s fast culture includes responding as soon as possible to its customers’
calls or e-mails, speediness in responding to the changing external or internal
business environment, or even to the growing needs and concerns of its
stakeholders.
FOCUSED: Zensar strongly believes in sticking to its roots and hence takes
o
pride in saying that despite venturing into new business lines, territories and
domains, Zensar stays hooked to its chosen business strategies and goals and
gets back to them eventually.
FLEXIBLE: Zensar always believed in making the best use of the opportunities
o
available and think ahead of its competitors. So, it focused on reinventing and
reorienting its strategies to stay ahead in the game.
FRIENDLY: The organization, Zensar, has been built on the philosophy of
o
love and continues to thrive on that philosophy till now. According to many
58
surveys, FRIENDLY is the very and the first word that is used to describe the
organization by many stakeholders, be it partners, customers, etc.
FUN: It is a known fact that a perfect work-life balance is essential for keeping
o
the productivity of the employees on and going. Therefore, Zensar believes
in celebrating every critical aspect of the customers’ and organizations’
lives. Zensar understands that an all fun-no work environment can kill an
organization. At Zensar, fun entails celebrating every aspect of being a part of
the organization, and this is manifested in spontaneous celebrations as well as
pre-planned celebrations.
Even as the organization has been going strong for over one and a half-decade, this 5F
Cultural framework has provided it a strong foundation. Collectively, these frameworks
described make Zensar a large enough organization to deliver on its promises but also
make sure that the organization does not get complacent about its success and satisfies
the needs and wants of the customers every time.
Leadership
It was the fateful day of Feb 28, 2001, when the newly appointed CEO, Ganesh, spoke
to the assembled 500 employees at the old Pune campus. In his speech, he motivated
the employees to forget the disasters of the past 12 months that saw ominous losses and
downfall of the company. He encouraged people towards building a new mission and
vision that will take Zensar right to the top of IT championships in India.
Ganesh was no ordinary leader. He had a proven track record of great success in training
company Aptech, having led it in just under a decade to heights of being listed in London
and Bombay stock exchanges and led the company to grow 50 times in terms of revenue.
The very first time he was allowed to address his employees in Zensar, he nailed it with
a very motivating and empowering speech to his employees. Further, he wasted no time
building a network to engage with Zensar employees, discuss and encourage ideation
through all the levels that transcend the community letting everyone have a say in the
future of the company. This encouraged the members to not only speak up but also come
up with ideas. He further continued to meet consultants and find a solution to the existing
issue the company was entangled in. His efforts led to reforms inside the organization
that helped in cost savings. The company within six months was back into a profitable
business and delivered dividends to stakeholders.
The very first significant decision taken by Ganesh that proved to be tough but very
aggressive was a layoff of 100 employees that where on the bench, but this was not
the end as the management had deep issues as well where some senior managers were
very cynical and not ready for change. So, the next impactful decision was to include
new blood in leadership roles and have “Breakthrough Thinking” workshops that led
to the exit of that cynical senior management. The mantra put forward was clear, sales
59
aggression and customer-centricity, coupled with the inclusion of employees at all levels.
This made managers with sincere intent and hope to change the fate of the organization
rejuvenate and march towards the coming glory. During 2001-2002 Ganesh transformed
an organization and took many serious but string decisions that involved complete
changing of management where experience goes hand in hand with a fusion of young
blood, creation of a concrete offshore model rather than just augmentation of onshore
business, focus on innovation for existing customers and prospects. Thus, the leadership
of Ganesh was genuinely inspiring and pivotal in changing the fortunes of a drowning
organization under losses.
Secret sauce:
The success of Zensar is because of many small but essential factors which act as the
ingredients to make this Secret Sauce, Let’s see what the ingredients are:
Philosophy of Love
Zensar truly believes in love, and it has been the key to building a unique culture at
Zensar that is great respect for both people and performance. Their conviction has always
been and continues to be that a caring organization nurtures happy people who are most
motivated to give their best to the organization. The philosophy of love gives them a
competitive edge, and it’s the center of everything they plan. They are immensely proud
that they have been able to sustain this culture over the last 15 years to become a global
organization across 15 nationalities and 22 countries, including five global acquisitions.
Attract-Enable-Retain Continuum
Their talent management framework has three dimensions of attracting, enable, and
retain, bringing innovation to the way they spot external talent, develop internal talent,
as well as engage with them.
Attract
They have always stayed connected with ex-Zensarians through their powerful alumni
network, rehiring many of them at all levels, they call this ‘Boomerang Hiring.’ With the
connectedness powered by social media now, they include them in all their celebrations
and keep them updated on the story of Zensar. Another is the ‘Zenrich’, their employee
referral program with over 35% of hiring happening through this referral program, and
this includes senior hires too. At Zensar, any candidate who accepts the offer, immediately
becomes a part of the family, way before they come on board. They have a dedicated
team that engages with all the potential hires all through the offer-to-joining period,
helping them with all the support they may need in moving to Zensar. This all things are
the reasons behind attracting innovative external talent.
60
Enable
The focus of Zensar is always to build a robust internal talent pool and an excellent
professional. To achieve this purpose, they provided soft skill and technical skills
training through applied learning. There were forums such as the vision community,
iZen, JUGNU, where many of the successful leaders were active. Because of this, most
of the trainees grew in their careers and became managers and leaders in the organization,
so they are proudly referred to as made in Zensar.
Leadership development is a very serious and rigorous process in Zensar which is
developed through, Organization Management Review robust and comprehensive
framework for succession planning and leadership pipeline development and other
essential HR practice was to find the critical talent and hype potential employees to
understand their strength, weakness, career aspiration and plan for their career growth
and opportunities. This was done through conversation and feedback with managers
and was handled with high sensitivity and maturity as they have a significant impact on
motivation and morale of associates. To counter the biases, the managers were given the
training to equip them with skills for these conversations through the training programs
on “Crucial Conversation and Appreciative Enquiry” The other significant programs run
inhouse was Leadership Development program and Management Development Program
delivered entirely by senior management of Zensar.
Retain
Zensar has always enjoyed talent-retention levels much higher than the industry peers.
Their philosophy is that happy people give their best to the organization is the cornerstone
61
of our people-retention framework. They famously call this the “Different Strokes for
different folks” framework because they believe the needs, wants, and expectations of our
associates at each level in the organization are very different. Hence, their engagement
framework needs to be also aligned to their needs and wants.
Growth and Success by Participative Management

Zensar targeted at building excellent teams and not just exceptional individuals. This was
done through initiatives such as iZen and JUGNU, which were open forums were critical
organizational initiatives and decisions were taken by involving over 500 Zensarians.
This led to a culture that promoted participation from employees joining incremental,
continuous, innovative, and improved ideation of strategies and execution at all levels in
the organization.
Employee Value Propositions
The philosophy of Zensar is built on strong value statements as follows:
• Sensitivity towards diversity- of gender, age, nationality, and tenure.
• Culture of inclusiveness, transparency, and integrity in all their practices.
• Fairness, respect, and dignity for all stakeholders.
• Leadership from within driven by strong personal leadership.
• Opportunity for continuous learning and growing.
• Freedom to explore and experiment without the fear of consequences.
62
Towards Billion Dollar Zensar
The change in leadership on Feb 28, 2001, could be termed as an event that changed
the fortunes of the company that had fallen in the abyss and the rise indeed a heroic tale
to tell. The Company has reported a 21% CAGRover the past 10 years (from 2004-05
to 2013-14); and a profit growth of close to 20% over the same period. With a strong
cultural foundation laid Zensar targeted to become a Billion Dollar Firm by the year
2016. The foundation was laid under the leadership of Ganesh, and the next agenda was
to build “One Zensar.”
The Need for One-Zensar- A strong internal ambition to do more and set a new vision
to take Zensar forward to more heights of success led to the formation of the list “One-
Zensar.” This was done after the company had a fantastic year with a nearly 14% rise
in the financial year 2014-2015. This new agenda was created through two forces- the
capability pushes and customer pull. The main idea here was to make the customer the
center of Zensar universe and understand their changing needs so that Zensar could
deliver what customers want through every product, service, and procedure.
• One Zensar- The process- To meet the agenda, a series of meetings across
all geographies to discuss, brainstorm, enter conflicts and debates to come up
with a new vision, mission, goals, and strategies for “One Zensar.”
• One Zensar- Vision– The new vision was set to define success by quantifying
the value addition or savings done for customers.
• One Zensar- The Mission- A new mission was designed that encouraged the
employees to think differently and to think out of the box. The focus was to
come up with innovative solutions for clients.
• One Zensar- The values- The most crucial parameter of Zensar that defines
is how they work. The vales have been articulated with a strong set of beliefs,
principles, ethics, and standards that starts from the individual, team, and
finally transpires to the organization. This is to guide them to correct actions
and decisions.
• One Zensar- The Goals- The prominent billion-dollar dream but with very
concrete and tangible targets to achieve them.
• One Zensar- The Strategy- Thestrategy is defined as specific steps and
crucial pillars and approaches that will help Zensar to realize its dream.
• Through these vigilant efforts, Zensar has come up a long way, maintaining
its double-digit growth and marches fiercely towards its dream. This success
can be attributed to all the points mentioned in this report and is a part of
organization behavior.
63
Questions:
1. Was it/Is it a good idea to leave your traditional business of hardware in tough
times and change to new software business?
2. How much impact can a culture change have in the business?
3. Can senior management be a significant factor for company’s downfall?
4. Is it a good idea to drastically change the company's senior management?
5. How can you improve the retention of employees?
6. What strategies of newly appointed CEO transformed a bankrupt organization?
7. How Zensar leadership changes company’s fortunes?
8. Discuss Zensar’s secret sauce/Discuss Zensar’s secret to Employment retention/
Discuss Attract-Enable-Retain Continuum of Zensar?
References:
Book: From Start-up to Global Success- The Zensar Story by Ganesh Natrajan &
Prameela Kalive
1. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/ICL-Building.
jpg/280px-ICL-Building.jpg
2. http://www.ourcomputerheritage.org/T3_ICL_1901_computer.htm
3. https://mitchamhistorynotes.com/2019/09/10/icl-2904-computer-at-downs-
surgical/
4. https://www.zensar.com/about-us/media/news/zensar-tech-aims-enter-billion-
dollar-club-2016
Exhibits:
ICL
64
ICL 1901 computer ICL 2904 computer
Zensar growth post changes in higher management
65
Zensar Journey Map
Zensar social support
Zensar initiative # Humans of Zensar
66
GET API OR GET OUT :
MARKETING OF API GRADE
“Make in India, a type of Swadeshi movement covering 25 sectors of the Indian
economy, was launched by the Government of India on 25 September 2014 to
encourage companies to manufacture their products in India and enthuse with
dedicated investments into manufacturing.”
(Whenever you pray Allah (God) ask for luck, do not ask for knowledge or
intelligence, because I have often seen a knowledgeable person working under a
lucky person- Hazrat Ali. In business despite all efforts sometime you
just need to be lucky)
Abstract
T
his case examines and discuss a situation faced by Hindustan Steel, who has
Government as a majority stakeholder, is being asked by ministry to enter into API
segment of steel, so that country requirement is shouldered by a government entity
in majority. However since Hindustan steel has been doing business in other segment
for about 50 years in its existence, did not ever venture into API due to its exclusivity,
and find this situation a challenge that would stretch their ability beyond present limits.
They do their internal discussions amongst various verticals and find a lot needs to be
done, in facility and competency that could destabilize their existing plans. The case lays
threadbare discussions eliciting the shortcomings and challenges. The situation faced
calls for extraordinary application of principles of leadership, value based engineering,
salesmanship, teamwork and strategy.
Scene 1: Ministry of Steel: Udyog Bhavan ( Aug 2019)
As a matter of grievance and redress of the industry the additional secretary steel has
invited several pipe manufacturers from the oil and gas industry where a few steel
makers’ representatives are also present. The broad issue is following API specification in
making pipelines for transportation of oil and Gas, from exploration to refinery and then
Anindya Chakladar, SAIL-CMO, New Delhi
67
onto product distribution lines. In the aftermath of “Urja Sangam 2015”, the country had
earmarked a reduction in import dependence from 77% to 67% by 2022, by increasing
production of Oil and gas ensuring energy security by the country. Under the present
production including exploration and distribution scheme, the country already has, state
company Indian Oil operating a network of 14,189 km long crude oil, petroleum product
and gas pipelines with a throughput capacity of 94.79 million metric ton per annum of
oil and 9.5 million metric standard cubic meters per day of gas. With HPCL,BPCL, OIL
and others the total length will be approximately 20,000 Km long. As of February 01,
2019, Gas Authority of India Ltd. (GAIL) has largest share (70.32 per cent or 11,410 km)
of the country’s natural gas pipeline network (16,226 km). If we convert these pipeline
length figures into tonnage of steel consumed, this will be thousand million ton, all in
API specifications and about 84% of which is imported. Does this mean Indian steel
producers cannot make API steel? Or is it less margins in API for manufacturers and
more profitable for pipe makers to import?
Under the prestigious policy of “Make In India”, the manufacturing sector has been
asked to reduce import dependence and utilize products including raw materials produced
domestically more. Under DMI&SP policy which mandates to provide preference
to domestically Manufactured Iron & Steel Products (DMI&SP), in Government
Procurement, the pipe manufacturers who supply to all government exploration and supply
networks have approached the ministry with approving exemption to their requirement
of API steel due to limited capacity by Indian manufacturers which will ultimately lead
to delay in all project implementation, if API imports are not allowed. Another reason
was the complaint by several project owners like GAIL, who have stated the API pipe
prices have been abnormally increased by 27-31% due to increase in international API
steel prices. In the present meeting, all domestic steel manufacturers are asked to provide
their API making capabilities, supply till date and future supply plans looking at the huge
demand in this segment.
Scene 2: Marketing head quarters , HINDUSTAN STEEL (Kolkata
Sept 2019)
A preparedness meeting is called today to discuss the scenario emerging out of the
DMISP meeting at the MoS office a month before. The meeting is chaired by EDs of sales
marketing, plant heads, R&D teams with a few marketing and sales head of the country.
Mr Mittal who is nominated GM(Mkt) to look after API business of the company is
making a presentation which is also attended by few from western regional office and
Northern regional office where the pipe manufacturers are mainly located, those can
manufacture API.
“So , why are we lacking in API production?”, is mainly the research question that shall
be discussed in the day’s meeting. “The presentation and discussions , when thematically
68
discussed can be presented here based on the broader issues given below”.
1. What is API specification and how does it differ with other grades with respect
to commercial production?
API5L is a specification of American Petroleum Institute for welded and seamless pipes
for use in oil and gas sector. The institute has issued 46th edition to be applicable from
2018. As per the slides made by Shri Mittal for all the audience, two basic levels of
standard technical requirements for line pipe expressed as two product specification levels
(PSL 1 and PSL 2). Level PSL 1 provides a standard quality level for line pipe. Level PSL
2 has additional mandatory requirements for chemical composition, notch toughness and
strength properties and additional NDT. API is the international specification for oil and
gas industry for their pipelines and is being followed by all like EIL, IOCL,OIL,ONGC
etc including private sectors.
Pipeline industries which is a major sector for steel consumption, can grossly divided
into water and Oil& gas segment. “While HINDUSTAN STEEL is a major supplier to
water line pipes (about 36% of its flat product goes to this sector) the presence in Oil &
gas pipelines is close 1% of its flat product and almost negligible in API market. This
is despite the fact that sales realisation from API products can be about 20% more than
base grade in terms of value addition.” Explaining Mr Mittal need not have to elaborate
why HINDUSTAN STEEL did not cater to this market, in this meeting with marketing
honchos of the company.
“ I know you all are aware of the reasons why we cannot do that”? (mainly technology
and discipline)
2. What is the present demand situation in API steel?
“ It is not that there is a sudden spike in demand in the country. After 73 years of
independence the country today India’s refining capacity is 247.57 MMTPA at present
with the capacity additions in BPCL Kochi, HMEL Bhatinda & RIL (SEZ) Jamnagar
refineries. Presently the country has 10327 Km of crude oil, 13776 Km of product line
and 12633 km of gas pipeline all in API grades. While the majority of the steel was
imported in past, HINDUSTAN STEEL has negligible contribution in all these. The
country presently has developed steel producing in API grades in mostly private sector
and this could be close to 2-3 lakh mt per annum. Presently the major spike in the demand
is (given in Annexure 1) along with “Make in India” drive from the government is asking
us to reconsider our product line realignment and rethink about API production in form
of hot rolled coils and plates. ” It is also pertinent to say that API coils and plates that
fetch about Rs 5-10K more realization than the base grade, and future demand close to
3-4 lakh ton (Annexure 2), it is incumbent on HINDUSTAN STEEL to start producing
the grade and sell.
69
“But why have we waited so long ?”

3. What is our present capability and track record?
The General manager (steel) Mr Sarkar, from R&D team chipped in here for the
information. “As regards history of API production , we did make HR coils in various
API grade at our plant B. API X 70 PSL 2 HR coils were indeed produced in 2012
for 2 rake loads for a customer. But when the first rake reached their plant at Gujrat,
they first complained of surface problems at edges. However they went ahead with pipe
manufacturing. But upon testing of those pipes they too failed in pneumatic tests. The
party rejected the entire second rake. The party was asked again to place a rake order on
2014. But that too was unacceptable to them. Lastly we supplied about 2700mt of coils in
API X52 to M/s Sunlight in 2018. But that was also got rejected as the coils surface has
slivers problem.” The pipe plant he added, “ At works R we also did produce API X46
PSL 1 grade, way back in 2010 but they were not accepted by the industry. This plant is
able to supply in API 5L gr B but not in PSL 2 grades because of higher fracture test and
lower Sulphur and phosphorus required by the standard”. Mr Mittal added a rejoinder
here “Sirs, there is a very less demand in PSL 1 specs and now the whole industry has
moved toward PSL 2. We need to build capacity required or innovate else we lose out on
opportunity” (Annexure 3).
“If that is so why our new product development team from R&D had to wait for input
from marketing for so many years and now had to budge by a stimulus from DMI&SP”?
Quipped executive director R&D of Hindustan Steel.
4. What are the issues in supplying ? production facility and marketing ?
API specifications spell out a procedure of production of raw materials as well as pipes.
This in addition to some specific tests, separates them from regular steel grade specs
like BIS(Indian), ASTM( American), EN (European),GOST (Russian) etc. But while all
the grades just specify the chemical and mechanical property ranges in which steel coils
are to be made, API mentions the mills as well as pipe manufacturers to be audited and
licensed to produce. “Presently,” clarified Mr Mittal” Plant B is licensed by IOCL to
produce coils upto 11.7mm thickness and Works R to produce plates from 13.3mm to
23.8mm by MECON who is consultant to Oil industries.”
However the issue in marketing is a little complex than what it seems by the bare eyes.
The majority of demand at present is in the range of pipe thickness 5mm to 9.1 mm
which can be produced only in Plant B. But Plant B is not equipped with secondary
refining facilities in steel making. Secondary refining is a process where the molten steel
in a converter is thoroughly rinsed producing vacuum where by all the metallic or non
metallic impurities are oxidized and removed out in form of slag or CO. This helps in
controlling Sulphur level of PSL 2 as well as clean steel have properties to pass through
all strength tests without failure. Works R which is situated about 400 Km apart from
70
Plant B has this facility but it has a plate mill which is licensed to produce from 13.3mm
to 23.8mm. However only trans-country large pipelines where oil and gas are transported
at very large pressure require pipes of these thicknesses of Works R. The other unsaid
issue is the cartel of present pipe manufacturers. After burning their fingers in 2012-18
almost all of them are convinced that HINDUSTAN STEEL does not have capability and
hence they either import or rely on private producers.
“ The industry have no doubts about our capabilities, but they are skeptical of our intent
to produce API.” Mr Mittal was short of lamenting that even after the best efforts that
yielded no luck, pipe makers have no faith on Hindustan steel.
“ Are we just unlucky, or we still need some more understanding of API” was thought
running everybody present.
5. What do we do now? How do we reply the ministry?
“That is precisely we are here now.” Mr Mittal started his conclusion with this sentence
to start a freehold discussion. The ED marketing of HINDUSTAN STEEL chairing the
meeting cut sharp the task to be taken up following the discussions before drafting a
reply. “ We need to understand our capability and our comfort level”. Mr Mittal further
asked the producing plants and R&D team with their inputs on the whole issue.
Scene 3: Conference room R&D center Ranchi (Oct 2019)
A high level expert team inhouse of HINDUSTAN STEEL has been summoned today,
to discuss the technical aspects of making API steel. Opening the discussion the General
manager Incharge Iron and Steel Shri Sarkar said “ It is an area with considerable chequered
history for the organization. Within the organization API X46-X65 is not very difficult
to make. Steel making technology would not be very different from the high tensile steel
we already make upto E450BR and E550A, where yield stress is as high as matching
X70 or higher specification.” The challenge in making this specification could be easily
understood by all members present in the meeting as all were qualified metallurgist.
For specific plant and works the challenge was making high tensile steel without post
heat treatment of rolled coils pr plates just by microalloying and also decreasing the CE
(carbon equivalent) for weld ability into pipe making. Pipe testing also has additional
tests like DWT (drop weight test) which is not done on normal high tensile steel. “Why
did our steel fail, for supply in 2012-14 period?”. Dr Sharan who was in the fact finding
committee at that period was chairing this meeting today as ED. “ We did an investigation
for the supply, we had made a report and submitted to the HINDUSTAN STEEL board
for the failure then. Many colleagues sitting here know the reasons unofficially. I also
submitted that all organization goes through learning curve. Most of the reasons can be
avoided with strict discipline and following SOPs in production and we would not repeat
those mistakes if we get order now. Even for the first rake, I suggested pipes could be
made with edge cutting. But that additional expense of operation, or delay in production
71
due to our products and some additional loss of mechanical strength post welding made
them reject not only total HINDUSTAN STEEL supply but also unofficially blacklist
us from all future supply”. Today HINDUSTAN STEEL is in position to theoretically
supply anything upto API 5L X45-X56 from Plant B and upto X70 from works R. But
marketing says orders are mostly in X70 but in thicknesses that can be produced only in
Plant B that is less than 10mm.
Scene 4 : Internal meeting Plant B and Works R by video conferencing
( Oct 2019)
A virtual meeting attended by respective ED works of both plants, Control Lab , mill
HOD with personnel from planning and marketing local officials. The meeting has a
preclusion that Plant B has license by GAIL & IOCL to produce API grade hot rolled coils
upto 11.3mm thickness and grade upto X70 or lower. However “ We have problems in
taking up X70 orders”. Senior GM Shri Raju is briefing the conference community, “ We
failed long back in our earlier orders in X70. The reason is primarily absence of Vacuum
degassing facility at our steel melting shop. Control of sulphur and phosphorus , the grade
demands cannot be achieved seamlessly with present coal blend and de-sulphurising
unit. The last order of edge cracking could be arrested with secondary refining. However
we can produce the lower grades X45 to X56. Also presently all the furnace linings will
have to be changed and we may have to lose on productivity”. Mr Dasgupta, counter
part of Shri Raju from works R added “ Besides there is a definite testing and production
procedure for API. It requires high level of discipline right from hot metal upto rolling.
We require a highly motivated and dedicated team for this and manpower planning is
one issue. Presently we have certificate for producing X70 from MECON from our plate
mill from 13mm to 23mm. It is possible since we have secondary refining , unlike Plant
B. However we lack proper experience and planning this grade. The plates we roll when
welded into pipe, were found unsatisfactory in DWT testing. It clearly means we need
to produce plate at much higher strength such that they do not fall locally where welding
takes place. We also do not have modern laboratories and testing facilities required by
specification at present. We should be able to make it provided we do process innovations
like scarfing of slabs before rolling etc and we get orders and also better prices than
present grades we have our mills loaded”. But the marketing counterparts are giving a
classic dilemma :
There are orders that are in size range of Plant B but in grade X70 which this plant has
difficulty to produce. Works B can produce X70 but thickness ranges for plates start from
13mm where there is less orders.
Scene 5 : Marketing Headquarter Kolkata Dec 2019
The inference is clear and conclusions can easily be drawn. But the challenge is to decide
what needs to be done. There is an imperative instruction from the ministry to start
72
supplying API grade coils and plates immediately. So immediate that HINDUSTAN
STEEL do not have time or money in upgradation or putting additional facility like
secondary refining at Plant B or high strength hot rolled mill at works B for lower
thickness. Another problem as per Shri Mittal is all the pipe makers who are capable of
making API pipes are not willing to put any orders on HINDUSTAN STEEL , given
their past records and existing infrastructure. Without saying “No” to the ministry what
should HINDUSTAN STEEL do now?
Executive Director of HINDUSTAN STEEL was addressing the motley group of key
salesperson and marketers of the company today. “Friends, this is a unique situation
but we have faced similar issues umpteenth times. I will revoke your two qualities now,
empathy and drive( Mayer & Greenberg,HBR,1964). You need to empathise with our
capabilities and our customer’s dilemma, why to give order to us when they do not have
a supply issue. Presently the supply issue is hampered with import restriction. Hence let
us take a two pronged approach :
• Work on product quality : It is proposed that API order slabs are made at works
R where we have secondary refining to have a better control on chemistry and
cleaner steel. We can transfer these slabs to Plant B by rail by adding the cost,
because Plant B has hot rolled mill which can roll thickness less than 11mm where
maximum demand is lying and projects are on anvil. Meanwhile we continue
to track those tenders where trunk lines require pipes from plates which can be
produced at Plant B only.
• Sales men will now use all their skills in their armor to interact with pipe
manufacturers and try to know what needs to be done to get orders from them in
respect of prices and services. We may establish a good rapport, adaptability (John
Does 2015) with these pipe manufacturers who gets tenders, try to know what are
the qualifying criterion they have for feed materials and do the needful there on.”
“Given our current situation and context, what is the best course of action to take
us to the future we desire at this point in time?” is the concluding statement from
ED to HINDUSTAN STEEL think tank.
“Sir,” the marketing team responded rhetorically, “ We need a plan to go ahead
and another plan to make it work. Notwithstanding all bravado we show, we need
a little luck we shall make it happen”. And what is the plan to hit bull’s eye?
73
Teaching Notes
The case is about a management decision where a major steel producer did not enter into
a high value segment due to plant and process deficiency. For HINDUSTAN STEEL with
old plants and process, business was usual catering to construction, infrastructure, defense
sector etc for which it had requisite qualification. API was segment that was lucrative
but required more investment so was left mostly to imports or other domestic players that
had modern technology for steel making and rolling mills. But with Government new
policy to stop profiteering by importers and incentivize local production HINDUSTAN
STEEL is now incumbent to service part of huge demand. Not only market was ready but
also margins were high, only problem was making superior steel with existing resources.
Also another challenge was to build customer confidence towards HINDUSTAN STEEL
capability. The case not only require innovation, strategy and marketing but also elicit
leadership, planning, execution, change management and orientation all unique to
competitiveness in manufacturing sector.
This case is a work in progress case meant for classroom exercise. The case is intended
to be an exercise oriented material aimed for working managers or strategy management
students. This case suits top level managers in corporate training, who can lay out plans,
form task force , functional teams and act. The teaching case is not about end of an issue
but means of how to meet an end. The intended outcome which indeed can be subjective,
for the case discussion is:
1. What steps to be taken? What kind of teamwork action can be planned?
2. What work to be done by each member of cross functional team?
In order to solve the above problems additional data and tools are suggested below:
Suggested discussion outline :
Solution Oriented Questions
1> Should HINDUSTAN STEEL jump into API segment on the requirement of the
country, considering it has already positioned in a different segment?
A: Additional data grid can be supplied for analysis:
Cost in Rs Time in year
Prices of Normal HR coils 40000 pmt
Prices of API X 70 coils 54000pmt
Cost of Normal HR coils 37000pmt
Cost of API X70 HR coils 48000pmt
Additional VAD unit 200Cr 1
Additional rolling mill 2000Cr 2
Monthly HR rolling cap 150000mt all sold
Monthly plate rolling cap 75000mt all sold
74
calculation need to be done with above information along with Annexure 1 for
additional realization for producing API coils/plates vis-à-vis cost
The pipe makers of API specs always prefer HR coil as a feed material
because it suits the LSAW welding technology. If the design thickness goes
upto 15mm and both coils and plates are available as feed material, preference
would HR coil over plates. For Plant B comfort of coils is upto 10mm and can
be stretched upto 12mm at most. Works B can produce plates from 12mm and
have license upto 23.3mm by MECON. But majority of demand (Annexure
1) is suiting Plant B, that lacks VAD facility for X70 grade but can make upto
X56 with existing facility. Competitors like JSW, TATA, Essar are capable of
making coils upto 15mm easily.
Pipe makers like Jindal SAW, Welspun and Maharastra seamless are sister
companies of JSW. Jindal India prefer TATA as supplier due to proximity of
their plants. Similarly Maan & Ratnamani have pipe plants very near to Essar
plant. Distance between these pipe makers in Western India and plant B or
Works R is close to 2000Km. Surya Roshni had rejected last order placed on
Plant B for quality reasons in 2018.
2> What are the things HINDUSTAN STEEL has to do with minimal investment?
A: There are multiple options and similar hindrances in all of them. The first
requirement is empanelment for which the plants need to be audited by
consultant firms as well as pipe manufacturers. For API a different level of
discipline is required right from the stage of steel making to rolling and testing.
The standard operating procedures are stricter compared to other grades, thus
requiring a specialized approach. Secondly modernization also required in
existing Laboratory facility not only in terms of some new equipments but
also in skill development and training on same. In order to reduce rejection
a technical, procedural and monitoring plan has to be in place beforehand.
A little extra awareness in terms of requirement of pipe manufacturing and
testing has to be acquired by plant executives as API pipe making also differ
from normal waterline pipes in terms of welding or testing for strength like
fracture tests etc. VAD slabs can be made at works R and rolled at plant B at
an additional cost of Rs 500 pmt.
To address all of the above concepts of value engineering, manufacturing
quality plan, cost optimization, Six sigma, lean manufacturing etc would be
required to be put.
75
The management issue with all the above would be leadership, role playing,
domain expertise, team building , communication, etc.
3> What should be HINDUSTAN STEEL response to ministry either ways like to go
for API or not with proper justification?
A: The analysis should be foolproof if HINDUSTAN STEEL is to propose a
turndown to ministry request. It has to be backed with solid argument with how
further investment and time required for taking new modernization project
could lose the demand cycle, enough capacity by alternate other producers if
they can solely concentrate on this segment leaving HINDUSTAN STEEL to
cater others etc. A refusal would also risk HINDUSTAN STEEL getting any
help from ministry in other policy related or getting government investments
etc. HINDUSTAN STEEL in such case should not only have a plan for
profitability in place but also show that pipe making and steel making existing
capability can always manage the demand of oil and gas infrastructure in
coming years.
So in very unlikely to above discussed situation, if the decision is to agree than
a proper road map is to be drawn and proper help required is to be prepared. This
will entail the SWOT analysis of API and principles of strategic management
viz:
76
The present dilemma is to be sorted using strategic leadership principles (Terry
Quong and Allan Walker,2010). As per the principle HINDUSTAN STEEL
needs to take a position based on 7 principles of strategic leadership and they
are :
● be futures oriented and have a futures strategy;
● base their focused leadership actions and their decisions on evidence, and
invest in and be led by research;
● get things done, which means to have the reputation as a person(organization)
of action and achievement, someone who can be relied upon to deliver
outcomes;
● open new horizons, which mean to be innovative, receptive to initiatives and
to be a leader of transition;
● ensure that they are fit to lead, which is all about planning and working on
their wellbeing – fit leaders’ are resilient and reliable in times of stress and
rapid change;
● know how to be good partners and be seen by staff to be good people to
partner with in dealing with issues and in moving into the future; and
● do the ‘next’ right thing, which means to be ethical and values driven and to
have a reputation for leading a school that instills values in children.
Based on the above principles the response of HINDUSTAN STEEL has
to be positive to ministry. However to implement they need to have a solid
convincing plan.
4> What strategy can HINDUSTAN STEEL marketer adopt to break the existing pipe
manufacturer’s dilemma?
A: It would not be easy to change pipe manufacturer’s dilemma overnight and
without some solid backend operations within the manufacturing as well as
marketing setup. The answer to the above question will subjective based on
different types of plans any organization (like HINDUSTAN STEEL here).
Obviously there would be variety of qualitative plans in place. The plans to be
drawn needs to be based on several theories some are discussed here :
77
1. Principles of lean manufacturing :

Precisely specify value by specific product (Value is defined by the customer
and is only meaningful when expressed in terms of a specific product which
meets the customers' needs at a specific price and at a specific time,product
line analysis of steel coils vs API steel coils),
Identify value stream for each product (The value stream is all the steps and
processes required to bring a specific product from raw materials to finished
product in the hands of the customer. Analyzing the entire flow of a product
will almost always reveal enormous amounts of waste and nonvalue-added
sequences)
Make value flow streams ( from raw material to delivery before pipe is made)
Let customer pull value from producer, here how pipe manufacturers can save
on cost from manufacturer’s product.
Pursue perfection.
2. Using Toyota principle of Science TQM : This consist of , five core principles:
Total Development System (TDS), Total Production System (TPS), Total
Marketing System (TMS), Total Intelligence Management System (TIS)
and Total Job Quality Management System (TJS), which will contribute
systematically and organically to solving quality management problems by
strategic use of ‘Science SQC’ (Amasaka 1999a, 2002c).
78
3. Developing a task force to implement the plans which employs several
principle of team building and effective team working. Empowered teams and
related concepts, such as autonomous task groups, self managing groups or
self-organization have received a lot of attention in theory and in practice
(e.g., Dumaine, 1990; Manz, Keating and Donnellon, 1990; Mohrman, Cohen
and Mohrman, 1995; De Sitter, Den Hertog and Dankbaar, 1997; Stewart and
Manz, 1995). Self-managing teams are seen as a solution for organizational
problems and are often introduced with the objective of simultaneously
improving an organization's productivity, as well as the employees' quality of
working life (Manz, 1992). In general, the model strives to empower teams
through job enlargement (stage 1), job enrichment (stage 2), teamwork (stage
3), “self improvement” and boundary management (stage 4). The focus is
successively on (1) primary processes, (2) the control structure, (3) team
building and internal communication, and (4) developmental learning and the
management of team environment.
4. This one could be a classic instance of formation of a buyer group (Doyle &
Han, 2012) by the pipe manufacturers (annexure 3) for regulating the input
cost which can protect the margins and the payoffs while output price can be
regulated in a competitive environment. The HINDUSTAN STEEL marketing
team will have to work into the group of pipe makers to understand the existence
of formation of buyer group formed within them and act according to the stage
of group they are in. This case is application of “buyer group” syndrome which
have it’s characteristic vertical restraints and contracting terms – exclusivity
provisions, minimum purchase clauses, and rebate schemes. The technical and
marketing should incorporate these exclusivity clauses and work out supply
terms.
ANNEXURE 1: EXECUTION OF API PIPELINE PROJECTS GOING ON AT
PRESENT IN INDIA
Row Labels X-46 X-52 X-56 X-60 X-65 X-70 Grand
Total
Bengal Gas Company 7090 3175 10265
Limited
6.4mm 7090 7090
7.1mm 979 979
8.7mm 2196 2196
BGRL 14059 11736 25795
6.4mm 7323 7323
7.1mm 4413 4413
9.5mm 14059 14059
79
GAIL GAS 3654 3654

6.4mm 3654 3654
IGGL(Indradhanush Gas 64936 64936
Ltd)
7.1mm 881
881
9.5mm 155
155
10mm 39900
39900
12.7mm 23550
23550
14.27mm 300
300
17.48mm 150
150
IOCL(Indian Oil) 36903 36078 18877 103080
194938
6.4mm 21528 21528
7.1mm 36903 14550 18877 26312 96642
7.9mm 76768 76768
Grand Total 36903 46822 3175 32936 11736 168016 299588
Figures in metric tons, grades in Columns and thickness of coils/plates in rows.
ANNEXURE 2: UPCOMING PROJECTS THAT REQUIRE API PIPES IN INDIA
Sl No Project Head Name of project Length in KM
1 GAIL Haldia –Dhamra 240
2 GAIL Angul Srikakulam 690
3 GAIL Kochi-Kanjrikkod-Mangalore-Bangalore 1114
4 GAIL Mumbai –Nagpur Jharsguda 2500
5 H-Energy Haldia-Kukrahati-Bangladesh 500
6 Indradhanush Guwahati-Numaligarh
Guwahati-Dimapur
Guwahati-Kohima
Guwahati-Imphal
Guwahati-Shillong
1656
Guwahati-Silchar
Guwahati-Aizawl
Guwahati-Agartla
Guwahati-Itanagar
Siliguri -Gangtok
7 IMC Ltd Kakinada-Nellore 600
8 BPCL Bina- Kanpur 350
9 BPCL Coimbatore Bangalore 315
10 BPCL Krishnapatnam Hyderabad 450
11 IOCL Kandla-Gorakhpur 2757
80
12 IOCL Haldia – Barauni 550
13 IOCL Paradip – Santraganch 300
14 IOCL Paradip –hyderabad 1100
15 IOCL Chennai – Tutucorin 1700
16 IOCL Raipur –Nagpur 500
17 IOCL Solapur –Hyderabad 500
The total length of pipeline can be converted into grade wise tonnages only after designs
finalise for pipe wall thickness.
ANNEXURE 3: API PIPE MAKING CAPACITY AT PRESENT IN THE
COUNTRY
Name Type of Pipe Range Capacity Input API5L API5L API5L APIX60 APIX70 Grand
GrB X46 X52 PSL2 PSL2 Total
Welspun LSAW/HSAW/ 1.25”to 2.55 HRC/ 849 13743 14593
ERW/HFW 16”ERW(2 to million Plate
12.7mm wt) ton
16”to 60”LSAW(
6 to 65mm)
18”to 140”
HSAW (5 to
27mm)
Jindal Saw LSAW/HSAW 16”to 60” LSAW 2.2 HRC/
Ltd (max wt 50.8mm) million Plate
18”to 156”HSAW ton
(max wt 25.4mm)
Man LSAW /HSAW 16”to 56”(wt 6 to 1.5 HRC/
Industries 55 mm) million Plate
Ltd 18”to 140”(wt 6 ton
to 25.4mm)
Maharashtra ERW 6”to 20” (wt 3.2 200000 HRC 171 269 4376 75 9573 14463
Seamless to 12.7)
Ratnamani LSAW/HSAW/ LSAW 12”to 200000 HRC/ 6681 501 116 7297
Circumferential 48”(wt 5.0 mm to Plate
seam welded 38.1mm)
SAW HSAW 16”to
144”(Wt 5 to
20mm)
C SAW 32”to
150”(5 to 65mm)
Surya ERW/Spiral ERW 0.5”to 1.1 HRC 34 8214 8248
Roshni 16”(1.6 to million
12.7mm) ton
Spiral (18”to
105”)
Jindal India ERW Up to 20” (wt up 600000 HRC 3868 3868
to 14.3mm)
TATA BSL ERW 3”to 24”(wt up to 550000 HRC 905 24123 25028
25mm)
81
Abbreviation”
IOCL : Indian Oil Corporation Ltd API : American Petroleum institute
HPCL : Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd ERW : Electrical resistance welded
BPCL : Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd LSAW :Longitudinal submerged arc welding
OIL : Oil India ltd HSAW :Helical submerged arc welding
GAIL : Gas authority of India Ltd HFW : High frequency welding
MECON : Metallurgical and Engineering consultant
DMI&SP : Domestically manufactured Iron & steel products.
Bibliography
1. T Quong, A Walker - International Studies in Educational …, 2010 - researchgate.
net
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Management: An …, 1998 - emerald.com
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82
Go DESI: SCALING UP CHALLENGES OF
A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
Abstract
G
ODE Siaconfectionary brand inspired by Indian flavours was founded by Vinay
Kothari in 2018. GODESi aims to make an impact on the lives of the farmers,
by bringing the forgotten traditional confectionaries that were made in the
rural kitchens to the urban market. The idea was to produce and source the products
from the farm gates that would lead to increased share in the entire value chain for the
farmer producers. Within two years of inception the firm made an impact ,witnessed
good turnover and increased margins leading to two rounds of financing from venture
capitalists. The case deals with the challenges of a social enterprise in scaling up, finding
a trade- off between value creation and sustainability.
Introduction
Vinay was on cloud nine. One of the products of his company, the lip smacking “Imli
pop” reached the targeted sales of 5 million within a short span of two years. This
overwhelming response to the product, literally coming right from the rural kitchens
was quite promising and rewarding. It was all about re-discovering and preparing the
native foods using the ingredients from the place it was grown. Vinay was able to give
shape to the nostalgic moments in every one’s lives. The traditional snacks made by
grandmothers in the rural kitchens had become a dream due to the life style changes
and rapid urbanisation. It was his own experience that made him understand what we
had missed - the natural traditional snacks that were replaced by urban snacks. Vinay
is the founder of GO DESi, a confectionary brand inspired by regional flavours and
formats. During one of his travels in the Western Ghatsin the midst of a career break,
he came across some of the traditional snacks that were yummy, tasty and so regional in
nature. That left him wondering why such good products were neglected and not made
available in the retail markets. This was where he picked up the idea for his new venture.
He visualized the possibility of realizing the neglected positive externalities through his
social enterprise GO DESi,and started procuring the products through rural self-help
groups and farmer co-operatives. Within a period of 6 months, they were able to reach
a decent level of selling in 150 outlets in Bengaluru, which slowly grew, to the current
level of 1500 outlets. Now the major challenge for the promoter was to scale up and get
Mathew J. Manimala, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore

Dr. A. SatyaNandini, BMS College ofEngineering, Bangalore
Dr.V.Srividya, PSG Institute of Management, Coimbatore
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the products listed in multiple locations and retail outlets in order to provide sustainable
long-term jobs in the rural areas.
Background of Vinay and the Eureka Moment
Vinay Kothari was born in Udaipur, Rajasthan. After his post-graduation,his association
with rural India began with his first job in ITC. He had an opportunity to work with
the e-Choupal project, where he under stood the procurement of commodities and its
distribution in the rural areas. With eight years of corporate experience, he resigned his
job in pursuit of his entrepreneurial aspirations.
It was during early December 2017, when Vinay was on a trek in the Western Ghats along
with his friends when the team stopped by for tea, he stumbled upon some delicious jack
fruit bars. The bars were not only tasty but also gave them a quick shot of energy. Vinay
wondered why these products were not found on a departmental store aisle in Bengaluru.
It was healthy, natural, free from preservatives and he had every reason to want to eat it
again. Even after many days, he could not stop thinking or talking of the jackfruit bars
that also brought back nostalgic memories of an era gone by. On enquiring, he found that
the fruit bars were made by ‘farmer producer organizations’, who did a great job with the
product, but unfortunately lacked the skills or capability to access retail market. This was
the eureka moment that marked the beginning of the GODESi journey. Vinay wanted to
test his idea. Therefore, he purchased 30 kgs of local and regional products to be sold
later at a stall in a flea market at the Chitrakala Parishath in Bengaluru. He had booked
the stall for three days but,to his surprise, the products were sold out in the first half of
the first day itself. This was an indication of the potentially great demand for traditional
regional products among urban consumers, and GO DESiemerged as a packaged food
brand that created treats inspired by regional flavours.
Creating A Sustainable Ecosystem
The traditional snacks, which Vinay sourced, were made by farmer co-operatives. Vinay
had read a lot about farmer co-operatives. In one of the books called “Poor Economics”
authored by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo (who were later awarded Nobel Prize
for this book),he had read that, there were thousands of rural entrepreneurs who took up
some sort of small businesses like operating kirana shops, undertaking small painting
contracts, etc. to make a living, out of necessity and not by choice. According to the
authors,one of the proven ways to eradicate poverty was to create long-term sustainable
jobs in such areas. This inspired Vinay, as he was able to see the bigger picture. On one
side, he was able to see the demand for traditional snacks in the urban markets and, on
the other side, there was a need for the rural entrepreneurs to scale up. That was how the
business model of GO DESi evolved as a platform to create long-term sustainable jobs
among the farming communities by connecting the rural micro entrepreneurs to urban
markets through various channels. Vinay did not want GO DESito be an Amazon for
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rural products, but wanted to makea deep impact on the micro entrepreneurs. The idea
was to buy substantial volumes of products from them and give them the confidence
that,with the support of GO DESi, they will be able to get a stable income every month.
Origin of Godesi: Micro Entrepreneurs And Products
With this background,Vinay founded GO DESiMandi Pvt Ltd. on 18 January 2018. The
company operated with 8 people including 3 core team members. Among the core team,
two were the promoters, viz. Vinay Kothari and his sister Raksha. The seed capital for
the company was INR 0.2 million invested by Vinay. The third key employee was Akhil,
an operations graduate from the University of Auckland. The team decided their products
and identified the micro-entrepreneurs in the rural areas with the help ofrural NGOs,
charitable foundations and cooperatives.
GO DESi thus emerged as a packaged confectionery brand inspired by local, regional
formats and flavours entirely manufactured at micro units set up by women entrepreneurs,
farmer cooperatives and Self-Help Groups. GO DESi’s products were made and packed
by the farmers (micro-entrepreneurs) who grew them. GODESi supported them with
training, setting up of the manufacturing unit, quality control, Food Safety and Standards
Authority of India (FSSAI) certification, connecting to funding agencies, etc. The
company committed and purchased a minimum volume of specified products every
month irrespective of their sales. This commitment acted as a security/guarantee for the
micro-entrepreneurs to get financial support. Trust was built over time, and it gradually
deepened as the entrepreneurs started benefiting from this association. The company
(GO DESi)started earning regular revenues from 1st April 2018, but was yet to break-
even as on 30th Sept 2019.
Initially the company started with five products viz., imli pops(tamarind pops), jackfruit
bars, lemon chaat, dried banana bites and amla (gooseberry) candies. Two mango snacks
were added recently viz.,desipopz real aam (mango) and kaccha aam (raw mango).Refer
Exhibit 1 for details. Production started with six micro units situated in the rural and semi
urban areas of Karnataka. Among all the products, the bestselling one was the imli pop.
Vinay claimed that they have recently touched a sales-volume of 5 millionimli pops. The
demand for this product was so high that three out of the six micro-units manufactured
only imli pops. This has also encouraged the company to start their own unit for making
imli pops at Sira near Tumkur.
The company has a godown and a packaging unit in Bengalure. The products from all
the micro units were received at the Bengalure godown for final despatch. In the product
portfolio, the highest sale was for imli pops with 65%, followed by lemon chaat with
15%,while all the remaining products together constituted 20%. According to Vinay, imli
pops had a viral reach with huge demand, and they were able to place it in multiple outlets
at a very fast pace. It was found to have very good potential for further growth, and so
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they invested their money and efforts in this product. Currently GO DESi products were
sold in 1500 retail outlets in Bengalure,to name a few, Namdhari’s, MK Retail and the
canteens of many offices and schools. They were also sold through their own website and
Amazon. Imli pop recently became the fastest selling confectionary brand on Amazon.
Within two years, GO DESi was working with 8 micro entrepreneurs, who earned a
profit of almost 25 to 30 per cent. Vinay was not interested in introducing more products
because he felt it would not create any additional impact at this stage. Even though the
number of micro entrepreneurs were less, GO DESi wanted to create a deep impact on
them by procuring large volumes. Vinay said, “Apart from taking our consumers back
to their roots, we also aim to be the slingshot for rural entrepreneurs manufacturing
traditional products and thereby enable them to scale up.”
Funding For Further Growth
In the first year of its operations, GO DESi raised INR 10 million in funding led by the
Lead Angels Network. This helped the company to aggressively expand its sales and
distribution into other metro cities as well as strengthen the back-end supply chain. Later,
in February 2020, GO DESi raised INR 45 million from Delhi-based Rukam Capital, to
expand its operations, launch a larger portfolio of products and spread geographically.
Go Desi business Model
According to Vinay, his concern about the prevailing system of procuring and distributing
farm-products was the multiple levels a product had to cross to reach the end user or the
consumer. In that system, the farmers' share of the retail price paid by consumers was
lower than 10%. This was primarily because of the multiple levels of intermediaries.
However, these intermediaries played an important role in aggregating and converting
the farm-produce into useful products and making them available to the end consumers.
Vinay envisioned moving the conversion of the raw material into products back to the
farm gate (instead of the traditional system of moving the raw materials to the conversion
centers in the urban areas). By doing so, he increased the realization of the farmers’
revenues by 3 times. With this model, the farmers received around 30% of the price
consumers paid for their products.
Social Issues Addressed By Go Desi
The idea behind GO DESi was to provide stable income to the farming communities
by creating a sustainable ecosystem for their operations. Buying the converted products
directly from the farmers gave them a higher realisation of revenues. As the rural people
were involved in the raising of the crops and making the final products, a larger chunk
of the entire value was captured in the rural economy. The GO DESi model does not
dis-intermediate at the retail level because the role of retailers and distributors were
required to scale up the sales of the products. Instead, the model dis-intermediated at
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the manufacturing level by making the farmers themselves the manufacturers. Through
this model, Vinay wanted to create a blue print for home-based manufacturing activities
that can be adopted by other farmers/ entrepreneurs for various products in different
locations.
Go Desi’s Accomplishments
As their products were made in rural areas and were close to the farm, GO DESi’s biggest
accomplishment was that, they were able to support the development of several micro
entrepreneurs,especially women. It started with 2 Micro entrepreneurs and went up to
8. They also provided direct and indirect jobs both in rural and urban areas. The total
procurement value was initially INR 0.14 million. It gradually increased to INR 0.813
million during Feb 2020. Refer Exhibit 2 for more details.
Sumithra was the first micro entrepreneur who started making imli pops by herself from
her home. Within 3 months, she employed 5 other women and scaled up the volume of
her production and made regular supplies to GO DESi. Sashikala, another rural micro-
entrepreneur, who made lemon chaat(a savoury confectionary made of dried lemon, salt
and spices), initially prepared it for her children. She said, “We didn’t know how to
market this. Then I attended an industrial training in Karwar and learned to mass-produce
the item in an identical manner and supplied it to GO DESi.”
Challenges
According to Vinay, there were challenges on both the supply side as well as the demand
side of GO DESi’s operations. On the supply side, the main issue was that of scaling up
the manufacturing in a micro enterprise within the framework of rural empowerment
and employment-generation. As of now, the supply of goods was not able to catch up
with the demand. One possible method of quickly increasing the manufacturing output
is to introduce the mechanized mass-production system. However, this would adversely
affect the home-based manufacturing and substantially reduce the need for labourers,
which would come in the way of achieving the social mission of equitable distribution of
income among all the members of the rural farming communities. On the demand side,
the main problem was that GO DESi was not able to fully satisfy the urban markets that
were used to standardised products. The products made by different micro-units may not
have the uniform features. Although the company knew very well that organic products
made by home-based entrepreneurs/ labourers cannot be fully standardised, they found
it difficult to convince the urban consumer about it. While it is possible to intensify
the publicity campaigns to present the non-standard features of the products as a virtue
rather than as a limitation, the other option is to provide training to the entrepreneurs/
workers and help them to adhere to the pre-specified standards. The immediate challenge
before Vinay, however,was to reach a volume of 200 million imli pops as well as the
quantity targets (although much lower) on other products. As for the long-term vision
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of the company, Vinay summed it up in the following question:“How does GO DESi

become the Amul of confectionaries, as a brand, as a business?”
Exhibit 1: Desi Snacks From Go Desi.

Jack fruit bar, Banana Bites, Imli pop, Lemon chaat, Amla Bites.
Source: Company website
Desipopz Real aamDesipopzKuchaaam

Source: Company website
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Metrics Direct Indirect Jobs in Jobs in No. of micro Total
Jobs Jobs Urban rural/ entrepreneur Procurement
area small supported (In Rs. Lakhs)
town
18-Apr 2 4 3 3 2 1.4
18-May 2 4 3 3 2 0.9
18-Jun 3 5 4 4 4 1.5
18-Jul 4 6 4 6 4 1.9
18-Aug 7 8 7 8 5 1.6
18-Sep 10 10 9 11 6 1.9
18-Oct 13 16 12 17 6 3.5
18-Nov 20 25 13 32 6 2.8
18-Dec 22 19 13 29 6 4.27
19-Jan 27 17 18 26 6 3.26
19-Feb 31 30 21 40 7 3.31
19-Mar 31 30 21 40 7 4.29
19-Apr 35 33 33 35 8 4.35
19-May 39 33 37 35 8 4.01
19-Jun 41 33 39 35 8 4.675
19-Jul 40 24 26 38 8 4.6875
19-Aug 40 30 36 34 8 5.05
19-Sep 41 30 37 34 8 4.26
19-Oct 44 30 38 36 8 5.06
19-Nov 44 30 38 36 8 4.26
19-Dec 46 19 28 37 7 6.72
20-Jan 50 19 30 39 7 6.77
20-Feb 58 16 32 42 7 8.13
20-Mar 65 16 36 45 7 5.72
Exhibit 2: Go Desi’s Accomplishments
Source: Primary data collected from Mr. Vinay Kothari, Founder of GO DESi
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Teaching Note
GODESi, a packaged confectionery brand inspired by ‘natural snacks made in the rural
kitchens’, was founded by Vinay Kothari in 2018 to bring localized flavors to the urban
markets. The products were entirely manufactured at micro units set up by women
entrepreneurs, farmer cooperatives and Self-Help Groups, and GO DESi provided the
retail market access to the rural entrepreneurs through urban outlets and online platforms.
GO DESi was founded to make a large-scale impact on the farming community by creating
a sustainable ecosystem for their operations and was not limited to providing a livelihood
option. Equipped with a firm understanding of the procurement and distribution of rural
farm produce from his experience of working with ITC’s E-choupal,Vinay had cut down
the intermediary costs for the rural manufacturers and assured direct procurement of
fixed volumes, thus improving revenues for farmer-producers and also guaranteeing
continuous employment to farm labourers, with the result of providing a stable income
to the rural communities. The micro entrepreneurs were also supported through training
in food-processing, food safety and quality as well as in the procurement of funds.
The exponential increase in demand for two of the five products introduced by GO
DESi within two years of the company’s inception made Vinay euphoric but at the same
time contemplate about the challenges in scaling up. There were challenges in scaling
up production by the farmland micro units on the supply side, and in convincing the
urban consumers, who were used to standardized products, of the quality of the natural
confectionaries, on the demand side.
Learning Objectives
GO DESi is facing challenges in scaling up. The biggest challenges for social enterprises
are in procuring long term capital and continuing to create and maintain social impact.
GO DESi has been profitable and made a social impact in the short period of two years
from its inception, which has attracted two rounds of venture funding (of INR 1 crore and
INR 4.5 crore respectively), which can be used for scaling up its operations. Thus, the
company does not face any challenge about the long-term capital. The test would be to
maintain the social impact as the company is scaling up. In order to cater to the growing
demands for GO DESi products in the cities, it is necessary to significantly increase the
manufacturing output, for which the easiest solution is to introduce mechanized mass-
production systems. That would, however, reduce the role of farmers and farm-labourers
in manufacturing the products and thereby reduce the social impact that the company
wants to create. This issue highlights a major challenge being faced by social enterprises,
which is the challenge of balancing the business and social goals.
The key learning objectives of discussing this case include:
1. Understand the need and relevance of social enterprises.
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2. Identify the similarities and differences among commercial enterprises, social
activist agencies/ philanthropic organizations and social enterprises, so as to
appreciate their roles in and contributions to the economic system.
3. Understand the concepts of negative or positive externalities (cost or benefit
incurred or received by a third party, who has no control over the creation of that
cost or benefit) and their role in stimulating the creation and operations of social
enterprises.
4. Distinguish between value creation and value appropriation and explain how these
are carried out in commercial and social enterprises.
5. Appreciate the challenges faced by social enterprises in carrying out their
operations, especially in terms of balancing their social and commercial goals.
This case can be used in an introductory session on social entrepreneurship, to explain
the conceptual foundations and operational legitimacy of social entrepreneurship as a
business format. Such a session will be suitable for (under)graduate or post-graduate
courses in commerce, management or entrepreneurship as well as for executive
education programs (as a major focus of the session is on the conceptual foundations of
business formats). The difference between commercial enterprises and social enterprises
can be highlighted using this case, and in the process explain the need and relevance
of CSR initiatives by commercial organizations. While focusing on such distinctions,
the instructor would also be able to help the participants appreciate how the ‘neglected
positive externalities’ could become the distinct domain of social enterprises.. The case
has sufficient material to discuss the challenges faced by social enterprises, as it can be
used to explain trade-off between value creation and value appropriation and the need
for social enterprises to have a clear strategy to balance profitability and social impact in
the long term.
Suggested Teaching Plan
A tentative teaching plan (along with the time frame for each subtopic) for discussing
the case in the class-room is shown in Table TN1.
Table TN1: Tentative Teaching Plan for GO DESi
Activity Instructional Duration
Strategy (Minutes)
Introductory remarks on social entrepreneurship Faculty Resources 10
and the case
Case facts including the background of the Student 20
founder and the business model of GO DESi Presentation/
Discussion
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Discussion on the concept of social enterprise Class Discussion 10

and the theory of the continuum from Economic
to Social through Socio Economic formats
Analysis of the differences between Economic Class Discussion 20
Enterprises Vs Social Enterprises Vs NGO, in
terms of their purpose and goals
Challenges of GO DESi, and their linkages with Class Discussion 10
the SE-Format
Alternatives available to GO DESi to address Class Discussion 20
the challenges, and their evaluation highlighting
their relative merits and demerits as well as
recommended actions
Concluding Remarks Faculty Resources
Total Time 90
Discussion Questions
1. Discuss the types of value creation in a social enterprise using the GO DESi case.
2. Under what circumstances do commercial enterprises fail to act, but social
entrepreneurs can play a role? Elucidate.
3. How did GO DESi address the neglected positive externalities? What lessons can
social enterprises learn from this?
4. What are the challenges faced by GO DESi? Suggest measures to address them.
5. How do you differentiate Social Enterprises from NGOs on the one hand, and CSR
of commercial organizations, on the other? Illustrate with the policies and actions
of GO DESi.
Suggested Answers based on Case Analysis
1. Discuss the types of value creation in a social enterprise using the GO DESi
case.
Entrepreneurs are those having the ability to move and convert resources from lower to
higher area of productivity and yield. Entrepreneurs can therefore be characterized as
those ‘who create value’. Since enterprises are created with different types of Mission,
Vision and Values, it is but natural that they would differ in the types of values created
through their operations. On the one end of the typological continuum, there are the
Commercial Enterprises that create value for the next level of their value chain, which
can generally be quantified. On the other end, there are the Social Enterprises that create
value to the lives of individuals or the society as a whole, which are not often amenable
to quantification. Socio-Economic Enterprises are those that borrow the ideology of
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‘quantifiable values’ from Economic Enterprises and apply it to the cause of Social
Enterprises, and create ‘Value to Society’. Therefore, it is possible to measure some
direct but not all of the values created by Socio- Economic enterprises. The difference
in quantifiability of outcome is, as we have noted above, in addition to the difference
in value-appropriation, which is mainly for its stakeholders in the case of commercial
organizations, whereas it is mainly for the third-party individuals/groups and the society
at large in the case of social organizations.
The value creation process for social entrepreneurs occurs simultaneously in a continuum
ranging from purely economic, to socio-economic to social. Thus, social enterprises can
follow a spectrum of models, ranging from profit to not-for-profit. Social enterprises, like
any other businesses, use resources to create social value as output; however their main
aim is not to create wealth for themselves but to create a positive impact for the society
or community they serve. Social enterprises also need to be financially sustainable
businesses and resort to using business strategies and techniques for reducing operating
costs and increasing sales, similar to other economic/commercial enterprises. But the
differentiating factor is that social enterprises provide sustainable solutions to social
issues, even as they earn profits from their operations.
GO DESi created a platform for the farmer-producers who had amazing products
but unfortunately lacked the skills to market their products and had no access to retail
markets. The intervention of GO DESi brought the natural goodness of traditional snacks
to the urban markets and at the same time helped in developing micro-entrepreneurs in
the rural areas, who would provide long term, sustained employment for the members
of the farming communities and income for the farmer-producers. Thus, GO DESi can
be classified as a social enterprise. as it has created value to all concerned, both on the
demand and supply sides. The value created is not completely quantifiable, but can be
assessed through the anecdotal data on the improvements and benefits experienced by
the individuals and communities in farming areas. The success of GO DESi can be
observed in the social impact it has created, some of which are briefly outlined below.
Retail Avenues to Farmer Producers: By selling the natural products and delicacies
from the farmlands in the urban markets, GO DESi has provided retail access to farmer-
producers and thereby helped the farming community to have an additional source of
regular income.
Elimination of Intermediaries: The direct procurement by GO-DESi successfully
eliminated intermediaries in the entire supply chain saving costs and paving way for
redistributing a higher share of revenue to the farmer producer.
Women Micro Entrepreneurs: GO DESi’s initiatives in identifying rural entrepreneurs
and supporting them with training and contacts with financial sources were particularly
helpful to women entrepreneurs, who had their constraints about moving out of their
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home-bases. The company’s interventions helped these women to expand their traditional
home-based operations into micro-enterprises, which provided an alternative source of
regular income and livelihood to them.
Sustainable Rural Jobs: With the assured procurement of standard quantities of farmland-
products/ confectionaries on a regular basis by GO DESi,the micro entrepreneurs have
become employment generators for the local communities.. Thus, GO DESi has become
instrumental in creating employment for rural people.
Improving the Standard/ Quality of Life: The entrepreneurial activity and the consequent
job-generation in the rural communities have led to the availability of stable income for
the farmer-producers and the employees, who would otherwise have been dependent on
sporadic rural farming jobs or government employment schemes. Regular employment
and income have contributed to improvements in their standard of living, which in turn
had a multiplier effect on their health, education and empowerment.
Healthy Snacking for Urban Consumers: By promoting and popularizing the natural,
organic and tasty confectionaries (with no added preservatives) in the urban areas, GO
DESi has provided an alternative for junk foods that are harmful and lead to life style
diseases for the urban consumers. GO DESi has thus brought value to its urban consumers
through the offering of a healthy snack.
2. Under what circumstances do commercial enterprises fail to act, but social
entrepreneurs can play a role? Elucidate.
Commercial enterprises are driven by their objective of value appropriation (profit
maximization). Their motivation to appropriate value will drive them to explore new
areas, markets, processes or models that will deliver more value for the organizations
and their stakeholders rather than for the society. They may not be interested in those
areas where the value for society is far greater than the value for the enterprise and its
stakeholders, which would often result in market failures or inequalities.
These failures or inequalities have to be tackled by the government through actions that
will redistribute resources to reduce the inequality. Many a times the government fails to
solve such problems due to lack of political will or to scarcity of resources. Governments
may not be motivated at times when it does not involve a public good and is in the interest
of only a small powerless group, especially when they need to spend public funds for
reducing the inequalities. These areas neglected by the commercial establishments and
the government, if rectified, may have visible or invisible positive benefits to the society.
This is where the social entrepreneurs have a major role to play.
Social entrepreneurship is about exploring opportunities for value creation that were
neglected by other institutions, developing and validating sustainable solutions to
problems that often have a local expression but global impact. This process involves
innovation and leading by example.
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There are a number of farmer cooperatives like: National Cooperative Development
Corporation, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India,
Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Ltd, Cooperative
Rural Development Trust, and NABARD (National Bank For Agriculture & Rural
Development),to name a few, initiated by the government to support the rural community
especially the farmers. These agencies support the rural folks in farming, education,
training, financing, production, processing, storage and marketing, including import and
export of agricultural produce. Their support may not be extended to a private good like
confectionaries, which may be perceived to benefit only a small community of farmer-
producers. It is this gap which was identified and filled by GO DESi.
3. How did GO DESi address the neglected positive externalities? What lessons
can social enterprises learn from this?
Enterprises, irrespective of their type or legal form, undertake activities that create
value to the parties involved. When the benefits accrue to third parties in addition to
the value created for the stakeholders, they are called ‘positive externalities’. If there
are costs accruing to third parties because of the operation of a business (as in the case
of automobile pollution), these are called ‘negative externalities’. Positive externalities
occur due to under-provision or under-consumption of resources by the parties in the
enterprise, as their objective is not to appropriate the full value. (Positive externalities
occur when the society benefits more than the gains of the producer, who is therefore
appropriating lesser than the social value.)
Enterprises have to be aware of the externalities caused by their actions and address them.
Economic enterprises in their pursuit of value appropriation may ignore the externalities.
It then becomes the onus of the government to tackle these issues. Governments ,
especially the democratic ones, do have the motivation to provide equitable, balanced
and justifiable opportunities and benefits for all, but may be constrained for resources,
capabilities or attention in the absence of widely articulated societal grievances, and hence
may neglect these externalities. Neglected positive externalities is a fertile domain for
social entrepreneurs such as GO DESi, who substitutes the role of ineffective/ resource-
constrained governments or the greedy and irresponsible commercial organizations.
Governments have promoted cooperative institutions and SHGs to support activities/
products that have wider implications for larger sections of the population such as food
grains, agricultural crops, cash crops, etc. Food processing units of the micro category
have the support of SIDBI and other agencies;however, the indigenous confectionary
manufacturing in the ‘farmer-producer niche’ is yetto be discovered by the government.
A small section of the confectionary producing farmer producers may not be in the
interest-group of the Government, as the extent of positive externalities may not be
comprehended by the larger public at this stage. GO DESi has identified the fragmented
farmers and producers of rural confectioneries, trained them to produce quality products,
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thus creating a few successful micro-entrepreneurs. By providing a platform to sell their

goods consistently in large volumes, it has enabled income-generation and sustained
employment to the rural women. By providing long term sustainable jobs for the members
of the rural farming communities, GO DESi has assured stable income to them, which
has not only eradicated poverty but has also helped the beneficiaries to plan for their
future, to invest in their health, plan the education of their children.
In general, the GO DESi business model has helped the farming communities to improve
their standard of living, and their quality of life, while empowering the rural women.
Although the impact currently created is only on a small section of the rural population,
it is likely to have long-term implications for the society through the general improvement
of the standard of living, lesser reliance on public funds/ subsidies, conservation of
indigenous plants, preservation and popularization of the traditionally manufactured
healthy and organic confectionaries, transfer of skills to related industries, and so on.
The short-term impact of GO DESi interventions are illustrated in the case-study by the
stories of a few women beneficiaries.
4. What are the challenges faced by GO DESiat this stage of its growth? Suggest
measures to address them.
It may be noted that even social organizations that work with the primary motive of
providing benefits to the under-privileged sections of the society need to make some
level of profits for ensuring its sustainability and growth. Commercial organizations
working with the objective of maximization of profits for its stakeholders will also need
to create value for the society so as to be perceived as relevant and therefore sustainable
in the long run. In other words, for every organization there is a trade-off between
creating value for the society and making profits for the sustenance and growth of the
organization. The relative priorities for these may vary for different types of organizations
at different stages of its growth, which have to be clearly articulated to avoid ambiguity
for the doers, the beneficiaries as well as the observers.
GO DESi is now at the cross-roads and has to clearly define its motive: should its
main objective be to create a deeper impact on the farmer-producer communities? Or,
should it maximise utility to its consumers, funding agencies and other stakeholders by
standardising the products through mass-production and generating profits to sustain the
business as it scales up.
These are many questions that Vinay has to find answers to, some of which are listed
below:
1. What scaling up strategies would be suitable for GO DESi?
2. What are the challenges he would face if he expands his product range?
3. How would he create brand loyalty? (Will the consumers favour the new products
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also for the reason that it is from the GO DESi brand)?
4. What kinds of partnerships should he establish: with the farmer producers so
that they are the single group (although dispersed as several micro-enterprises) of
suppliers of standardized products? with the buyers in the urban areas (who are used
to more sophisticated snacks from internationally renowned brands)? with angel
investors and funding agencies (who would have their legitimate expectations/
demands for profits from their investments)? and with his team (who have to work
in remote and marginalized villages and promote unsophisticated products to high-
end markets in urban areas?
5. How can long term sustainability be achieved under the self-imposed constraints
of value-creation for the poor and marginalized segments of people?
GO DESi, a social enterprise started with an objective of creating value for the farming
producer communities, will have to continue to enhance its social impact. In order to do
so, GO DESi has to identify methods to expand its business both in terms of its areas of
operation as well as the number and variety of products. In other words, it will have to
expand its sales as well as procurements to new geographical areas, introduce new and
different products native to the new regions it is getting into, and enlarge the network.
It has to employ strategies to achieve the targeted revenues without compromising on
the social impact. It is important for GO DESi to be financially viable so as to continue
to be able to make the social impact, as they carry on with the business. Some of the
strategies that may be considered are listed below.
• Develop a marketing plan: A marketing strategy to create awareness about the
product and respect for the brand in the minds of the consumers, which can convert
the non-standardised nature of organic products as the Unique Selling Proposition
(USP) of GO DESi, should be in place. For this, they may engage celebrities as
brand ambassadors to vouch for the authenticity, quality and organic nature of the
products and/or processes. The company could also try to obtain and advertise a
Technical Quality Certification from the competent authorities.
• Introduce new products: GODESi has to scout for new products from different
states/ regions and expand its product portfolio. While their most popular
products like Imli Pop and Lemon Chaat may continue to be popular in other
regions also, it is important for the company to identify and promote local flavours
while expanding to other regions. Currently there are only five products in the
company’s portfolio, which are quite inadequate for a company that proposes to go
national.
• Standardize the products: One of the problems with the system of getting the
products manufactured by different micro-entrepreneurs in their traditional ways
is that the products may come out in different shapes, sizes and weights. While it
97
is possible to highlight these differences as a sign of authenticity (as pointed out

above), there may be some customers who may become aggrieved about getting
‘different products’ for the same price. Hence it would be a better strategy in the
long term for the company to standardize the products by providing appropriate
training to the micro units.
• Strengthen the core team/ support system: As the micro-entrepreneurs are not
professionals trained in any particular trade but have learned their tasks by regular
practice, they need support not only for standardizing their products but also for
increasing their output with the help of modern production facilities. GO DESi
should develop a dedicated team to offer training and ‘consultancy’ support to
the micro entrepreneurs on a continuous basis. Besides they should also have
competent people to look after important functions like marketing and R&D,
especially when implementing the plans for scaling up. It is therefore necessary
for the company to strengthen its core team of employees.
5. How do you differentiate Social Enterprises from NGOs on the one hand, and
CSR of commercial organizations, on the other? Illustrate with the policies
and actions of GO DESi."
Organizations differ from one another on various dimensions such as their mission, values,
systems, processes, etc. needless to say that such differences are quite prominent among
commercial organizations, social organizations and activist organizations (NGOs). A few
such differences are highlighted in Table TN2 below.
Table TN2: Commercial, Social and Activist Organizations – A Comparison
Basis of Commercial Social Enterprises NGOs/ Activist
Comparison Enterprises Organizations
Core Objective Do business mainly Do business mainly Initiate actions
to make Profits to make a Social to solve social
Impact problem(s)
Focus on Value-creation and Value-creation Providing equal
appropriation for and equitable opportunities and
self and partners distribution to the ensuring equitable
concerned social distribution of
segments resources/ benefits
Funding by Promoters, Promoters, partners/ Donations, grants
shareholders, shareholders, and/or fund-raising
operating income operating income,
and external angel investors/
financiers funding agencies
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Business Model Sustainable, Sustainable, often Unsustainable without
with occasional with difficulties external support
difficulties
Operational Goal To satisfy their To satisfy To address social
stakeholders stakeholders and problems and
create third-party inequities
benefits
Social Optionally address Create positive Remove negative
Orientation some negative externalities externalities
externalities
through CSR
activities
Outcome Creation of wealth Redistribution of Bringing about social
wealth change
Measurement of Well-defined, Customised Observational
Outcomes quantified metrics metrics like SROI measures of
(like ROI), focusing (Social Return intangible benefits,
mainly on financial on Investment), focusing on social
performance. focusing mainly on changes created.
the social impact
created.
Market failures offer different opportunities for different businesses. The CSR activities
of profit oriented enterprises usually try to correct the negative externalities. It is more
like a self regualting mechanisim to correct the impact of their actions on the society,
especially when they are negative. NGOs also try to correct negative externalities,
especially when they are beyond the heavy hand of the government or self regulating
corporates. They try to force either the corproates or the government to set right the
market failure. NGOs may not always provide a solution but initiate, force or influence
an action to address the problem, so that the agents can change their behaviour and
internalise the negative externalities (that is, compensate/ pay for the negative impact).
Governments are expected to take an active role in penalizing/ mitigating the negative
externalities (harmful effects on third parties) and promoting the positive externalities
(benefits accruing to third parties) so as to redistribute the wealth in an equitable manner.
Corporate CSR initiatives are also attempts in the same direction. Although these are
expected to be voluntarily initated by commercial organizations, many of them fail to
do it, and so governments tend to force it on them by making it mandatory. In spite
of all these, there are failures on the part of the governments as well as commercial
organiations. It is in this gap that social enterprises find their domain of action.
99
Social enterprises find innovative ways or combine different business models innovatively
to find solutions to social problems/ issues. GO DESi used the combination of two
apparently non-compatible business models (one from the rural and the other from the
urban setting) to create an innovative business model of selling the traditional flavours
from the rural farmlands in the sophisticated urban markets, with obvious benefits to both
the groups. The urbanites could enjoy the traditional organic products (with no added
preservatives) of their ancestral communities, while the farming communities of the rural
areas started getting sustainable income and thereby could improve the quality of their
lives. GO DESi has succeeded in creating income generating activities and providing
employment opportunities for a marginalized group of farmers turned producers, thus
making them self-sufficient. This has also made them feel empowered,provided them
visibility within the community and reduced their dependence on public funds.
Viewed as a social enterprise, GO DESi has many achievements to its credit, such as:
identifying a neglected product for its nutritional value;recognising the need to provide a
stable income to farming communities for alleviating poverty through uninteruppted access
to urban retail markets; eliminating intermediaries in the supply chain to pass the benefits
to the farmers; providing support services like training for the entrepreneurial activites
of the rural poor; and so on. Obviously, there are many positive externalities (benefits)
accruing to the farming communities from the business operations of GO DESi. CSR of
commercial organizations may also make an impact on some sections of the society, but
it is voluntary and sporadic, and so may not be sustainable, especially because the social
mission is tangential to the corporate mission. Social activists and NGOs are strong on
their social mission, but will have constraints due to limited availability of finds, as they
do not engage in income-generating activities and are dependent on donations and grants.
Besides, they normally try to address the social problems created through negative
externalities. GO DESi has identified a business opportunity with positive externalities,
through which it is able to provide sustainable benefits to the farming communities in the
rural areas.
References
• Manimala, M.J.,1999. Entrepreneurial policies and strategies: The innovators
choice. Sage publications.
• Manimala, M.J.,2016. Entrepreneurial Ecosystem. Springer,India.
• Roy,Rajeev.,2011, Entrepreneurship, Oxford University Press.
Suggested Reading
• Abhijiu, B., and Ester, D., 2011, Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the
way to fight global poverty, https://ssir.org/books/reviews/entry/poor_economics_
abhijit_banerjee_esther_duflo
100
• Angarika, G.,2019, https://www.thebetterindia.com/192419/start-up-jackfruit-
snacks-online-desi-local-rural-snacks-women-imli/
• Apurva.P.,2020, https://yourstory.com/2020/02/funding-foodtech-startup-go-
desi-rukam-capital
• Confectionary brand GO DESi raises seed funding led by Lead Angels Network,
others ,2018, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/
confectionary-brand-go-desi-raises-seed-funding-led-by-lead-angels-network-
others/articleshow/66460627.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_
medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
• Filipe, M,S., 2009, A Positive theory of Social Entrepreneurship,Working Paper
series, INSEAD
• Gregory, J.D, 2017, Types of value creation in social enterprises, https://
redfworkshop.org/learn/value-creation-in-social-enterprises/
• Heather, T., 2018, Entrepreneur Spot light, https://www.upayasv.org/blog/go-desi-
spotlight
• Neil C, C ., and Virginia L.L.,1983, The five stages of Small Business Growth,
https://hbr.org/1983/05/the-five-stages-of-small-business-growth
• Priyanka, A., 2017 Social Entrepreneurship- A Modern Approach to Social
Value creation, https://www.gyanvihar.org/journals/index.php/2019/02/07/social-
entrepreneurship-a-modern-approach-tosocial-value-creation/
• Tejaswi, S., 2018, https://qrius.com/godesi-homegrown-confectionery-brand-iim/
101
EMERGING HUMAN RESOURCE CHALLENGES IN

A PANDEMIC WORLD
“As a leader, you have to be very intentional and deliberate with providing channels
for your teams to connect and build deeper relationships virtually.” - Leslie Deutsch,
Director of TEK systems1
Introduction
As the Covid-19 virus swept through the planet it inflicted a progressive lockdown
all across. Schools were closed, businesses were stopped and the cities had come to a
standstill. There was no traffic on road, no activity at most workplaces – only emergency
services such as medical care, police, banking and a few more were allowed to operate
on certain standard operating norms.2 The coronavirus outbreak – Covid-19 – as it was
called, was the first serious outbreak ever since the deadly Spanish flu swept across the
globe in 1918 killing no less than an estimated 17 million3 people4. While the total
number of confirmed Covid-19 cases worldwide was 580 with 17 deaths as on 22 January
2020, the cases had jumped to a staggering 2,480,503 with an equally huge death toll at
170,397 on 20 April 2020.5 Covid-19 was declared a “pandemic” by Dr Ghebreyesus,
the head of World Health Organization (WHO) during his afternoon address on March
11, 2020.6 According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the virus was expected
to severely impact the economy of more than 170 countries and trimming down the
global GDP by nearly 3% by the end of 2020. This was something that was not seen even
during the Great Depression of the 1930s.7
Considering the prolific growth rate with which the virus spread across the globe and the
fact that the existing medical care had no vaccines and the wherewithal to cope with the
pandemic, the governments all over the world realized the importance of lockdown and
“social distancing” as the two most effective measures to temporarily halt the growth of
the virus.8 This gave the “corona warriors” – the doctors, the nurses, the policemen, the
bankers, the people on ground working to provide the essential services (including the
community volunteers) some more time to reinforce and buttress the preparations for a
longer fight.9
The restrictions on the movement of people as a result of global lockdowns (for weeks
together) had hit the agriculture, the manufacturing and the service sectors badly, and
in particular, important verticals such as hospitality, tourism, retail trade, recreation
and transportation, to name a few. Businesses lost revenue, oil prices kept falling,
unemployment rose and as the world economy reeled under the lockdowns, there was a
simmering fear that the short-term supply side shock would soon transform into a much
Chinmoy Kumar, Institute of Management Studies, Ranchi University
102
bigger and wider demand side shock from the consumers.10 The prolonged lockdown
was beginning to show its spill-over effects across economies and it was apparent that
a sharp decline in the consumer spending in the developed countries would have a
more detrimental impact on the developing ones. The pandemic was also damaging the
livelihood of millions of low wage workers in unorganized establishments and industries
across the globe with lopsided or almost no protection of labour laws.
In the emerging downturn scenario, several companies such as Make My Trip, Cleartrip
and hospitality chains like Fab Hotels imposed salary cuts on their employees. Layoffs
were also commonly seen. For instance, a prominent insurance company Acko had
laid-off nearly 50 employees from customer service, operations, sales and marketing
segments. The company’s founder Varun Dua said, “These are unprecedented times and
we have to be prepared for a situation where the world is not normal for a long time.”11
While harsh measures were commonplace, there were also companies who despite all
hassles resolved not to allow the trouble pass on to employees. Chairman and CEO of
Visa, Alfred F. Kelly Jr. assured his employees that the company would not remove
anyone in the year 2020. Kelly said, “There is enough sadness in the world and already
too many families impacted by job losses. I have no interest in contributing to that.” 12
Amidst all these downbeat developments, there were companies like Zoho, Slack, Go To
Webinar and many similar others that offered tools for collaboration and remote working.
These companies witnessed an unexpected jump in the demand and usage of their
services. While the lockdown had a deflating and a decelerating impact on most of the
companies – it turned out to be a boon for these companies who offered employees new
ways of collaborating over the internet and simultaneously establishing new corporate
paradigms based on virtual meetings, web conferences and remote engagement. Zoom’s
CEO Eric Yuan in an earnings call said that his video conferencing software Zoom would
dramatically change the landscape of future workplace. 13
A Brief on Covid-19
Covid-19 was a communicable disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease cropped up in December 2019 in Wuhan,
the capital of China's Hubei province, a flourishing animal and sea food market, and
had since spread globally, resulting in the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic. An article
published in CCDC Weekly (Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) stated
that the earliest group of patients suffering from “pneumonia of unknown cause”14
arrived on and from 21 December 2019. The report further said that the disease had
greater prevalence in older patients. On 31 Dec 2019 the World Health Organization was
informed about this novel strain of coronavirus by the Chinese government and it was
subsequently christened, SARS-CoV-2.15
An article published in the weekly medical journal, “The Lancet” on 24 January 2020
103
revealed that the earliest laboratory confirmed case of Covid-19 was in a man whose
symptoms had already emerged on 1 December 2019. Further, from the initial group
of 41 patients who were confirmed with Covid-19 disease, 27 had made a visit to the
seafood market in Wuhan. While there was a lot of ambiguity in regard to the provenance
of this disease, a report by the South China Morning Post on 13 March 2020 suggested
that one middle–aged man could have been infected with Covid-19 as early as on 17
November 2019.16
With all these developments, the Hubei based Wuhan Institute of Virology remained
at the centre of a raging controversy concerning its dubious role in the genesis of the
virus. From various conspiracy theories ranging from lopsided operating procedures of
the research lab to allegations of artificial re-engineering, the institute invited volleys of
criticism, condemnation and infamy all along the journey of the SARS-CoV-2. These
charges, however, were repeatedly and vehemently denied by the virology centre and the
Chinese government.17
Soon after the epidemic emerged and was noticed, the Chinese scientists started sequencing
the genome and made the data available to researchers all over the world. This facilitated
rapid collaboration on a global scale with several other research institutions teaming up
to study the genomic sequence and explore the origins and evolution of the virus.18 While
the bats (cave species) were primarily suspected to be the reservoir19 of the virus – the
palm civets and pangolins were equally suspected to be the carriers by scientists. It was
speculated that the palm civet could have served as an intermediate host between bats
and the first human cases. On February 7, 2020, a virus veri similar to SARS-CoV-2 was
discovered in pangolin. Several epidemiologists conjectured that with 99% of genomic
resemblance pangolins could be more likely reservoir of the coronavirus than bats.20
However, Prof Stanley Perlman, a leading immunologist at the University of Iowa, while
suspecting on Pangolins as a more likely cause cautioned that they were “not proven to
be the key intermediary”.21 Several scientists also refuted the idea of the virus being
artificially reengineered in a lab. "By comparing the available genome sequence data for
known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through
natural processes," said Kristian Andersen, PhD, an associate professor of immunology
and microbiology at Scripps Research.22
Fever, cough, shortness of breath, muscle pain, abdominal pain, fatigue, sore throat and
diarrhoea were some of the common symptoms of Covid-19. Besides, a lost sense of
smell and taste was also witnessed in several cases. While most cases exhibited mild
symptoms, few escalated to viral pneumonia and multi-organ failure. The diseased
was declared a “pandemic” by World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020,
subsequent to it being declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern
(PHEIC) on 30 January 2020. The local transmission of the disease was witnessed in
almost every country. As of 22 April 2020, more than 2.56 million cases were reported,
104
with more than 177,000 deaths. More than 686,000 people recoveries were claimed by
22 April 2020.23
The Impact of the Pandemic
On 23 January 2020, in an effort to control the sudden outbreak of Covid-19, the Chinese
government imposed a lockdown24 in the city of Wuhan (disgracefully hailed as the
epicentre of the pandemic) along with 15 other nearby cities in Hubei. This later came to
be universally referred to as the "Wuhan lockdown." The lockdown in the Hubei cities
affected nearly 57 million people – WHO called the move “unprecedented in public
health history”.25 In the subsequent weeks several countries such as Iran, Italy, Spain,
UK, Switzerland and India imposed national lockdowns. Various other countries like US,
Thailand, Philippines, Canada imposed localised lockdowns at various places in their
country. By the end of March 2020, more than 100 countries had imposed a national or a
localised lockdown impacting the lives of billions of people.
United States, Italy, Spain, France, UK, Belgium, Iran and Germany suffered more
casualties than China as the pandemic progressed. US alone witnessed many times
more casualty than that in China. Italy, badly mauled by the devastation caused by the
pandemic had the second most casualties after the US. A nationwide lockdown was
imposed on the country on 10 March 2020. This halted the activities of all businesses and
institutions except hospitals, groceries and pharmacies and few other emergency public
services. Even in such cities or places where strict lockdowns were not imposed and only
official recommendations on preventive care and social distancing were issued – such as
Stockholm (Sweden) – there too the movement of the public had reduced by more than
a half.26
In India, the Indian government had imposed a nationwide lockdown on 24 March
2020, bringing the daily social and work lives of more than 1.3 billion population come
to sudden halt. Approximately 500 people were suffering with the virus at the time of
imposition of the lockdown. The initial lockdown of 21 days was to end on 14 April
2020 and on the same day the government announced extension to 3 May 2020, with
conditional relaxation after 20 April 2020 for such places and regions where the spread
was adequately contained.27
The purpose of national or localised lockdown was to contain the growth of the virus
that had spread exponentially through person to person and surface to surface contacts.
Many observers believed that the lockdown was effective in tapering the growth curve
of the virus and allowing the state machinery of various countries to acquire some time
and prepare for emergency medical care. In India, for instance, the growth curve of the
virus slowed down from a rate of doubling every three days earlier to rate of doubling
every six days by 6 April. “In January, we had just one lab for testing coronavirus, today
we have over 220 such labs. The global experience shows that for every 10,000 patients,
105
around 1,500-1,600 beds are needed. In India, today we have an arrangements for over
1 lakh beds,” remarked the Indian prime minister in a widely televised public address.28
The lockdown in Wuhan was officially lifted on 8 April with certain local caveats.
However, as May approached more and more countries were contemplating to lift the
lockdown partially or completely. The countries had a Hobson’s choice. While the
lockdown was a necessary evil, the global economy was faltering and the governments
had to take firm decision to bring the same back on track. More than 100 countries had
closed their national boundaries and stopped almost all kinds of trade and commerce.
The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs opined that the virus was disrupting
the global supply chains and estimated that the global economy could shrink by nearly
1 percent due to the pandemic. The disruption to the manufacturing and the services
sector, enhanced use of resources to fight the pandemic together with the disruption in
transportation and logistics raised concerns not only about supply side issues but also
caused anxieties in regard to the fallen global demand. There were widespread reports
about supply disruptions in pharmaceuticals and grocery. The stock markets witnessed
steep declines that were never seen after the 2008 financial crisis. The pandemic had an
adverse impact on several industry verticals excluding a few such as online education
and training. Several stock exchanges around the globe saw drastic declines in their
market capitalisations. Unemployment hit high records in almost all countries, including
United States, the world’s largest economy at the time.29
The economic impact of the pandemic in India was no less disruptive and disturbing.
India’s growth forecast for the fiscal year 2021 was downgraded by World Bank and other
credit rating agencies with the lowest numbers since the country’s economic liberalization
in the 1990s. The imposition of the lockdown resulted in a daily loss of nearly US$4.5
billion. Only a quarter of the country’s economy was operational during the period and
nearly 53% of the businesses were significantly affected.30 Low-pay and daily-wage
workers in the informal sectors suffered severe hardships. Similar threat loomed before
millions of farmers who grew perishables and faced severe difficulties in finding markets
for their produce. Hotels, airlines and such companies in the travel and tourism segment
were badly mauled and were cutting salaries and laying off employees. Well entrenched
companies in India such as Larsen and Toubro, UltraTech Cement, Grasim Industries,
Aditya Birla Group, Tata Motors and Thermax had temporarily suspended or significantly
reduced operations. Amazon and Flipkart stopped sale of non-essential items in India
so that they could focus on essential deliveries only. Raghuram Rajan, the former RBI
honcho remarked that it was the "greatest emergency since Independence".31 With all
the negative developments, the International Monetary Fund’s projection of GDP growth
for India for the financial year 2021-22 stood slightly optimistic at 1.9%, which plausibly
was the highest among G-20 nations.32 According to a survey conducted by the World
Economic Forum (WEF) retail, mining, manufacturing and automobile industries had
106
the worst impact due to the global lockdowns.33
While the growth of coronavirus was proliferating – though at a slower rate by the end
of April, it was expected to survive and flourish until suitable vaccines were developed
for prevention. While several research labs worked on the development of a suitable
vaccine the pace of research was unprecedented. Seven vaccines were already in human
clinical trials. In the existing order of things, the workplaces across verticals envisioned
the dilemma of a new normal that prioritised additional workspace, better sanitation
measures and flexibility with remote engagement.
The New Normals at the Workplace
The term VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) was often used to depict
the highly competitive global scenario all around where unpredictability was rampant
and business decisions had to be taken with lot of due diligence, insight and competitive
research. This term was brought in by the Army War College of United States during
the Afghan War in 1987 to describe the unpredictable and volatile scenario that existed
in the war region. However, the sudden onslaught of Covid-19 in the end months of
2019 gave an entirely new dimension to global VUCA and brought a sudden disruption
non only in business activities but in several other concerns like working environments,
processes, routines, work policies, operating procedures, leave rules, travel guidelines
and so on and so forth. Drastic transformations were being anticipated as regards how
people worked, exercised, shopped, learned, communicated, and none the least, where
they worked. According to a Gartner research report released on 19 March 2020 around
88% of the organizations world over encouraged their employees to work from home.34
"Covid-19 has effectively become a tipping point for remote workers," said Shawn
Dickerson, senior vice president of marketing at KeyedIn.35 "Many of us in the tech
industry were already familiar with the tools and techniques for working outside an
office, such as video conferencing, social messaging, cloud file sharing, etc. But this
pandemic has forced workers in almost every sector to adopt those tools and techniques,
which I believe has forever changed the dynamic of work,” he said.36
Many industry observers felt that the impact of the pandemic on future workspace
would have both positive as well as negative ramifications and it was imperative for
organizations to stay agile and adapt to the changing requirements and needs of the
future. There was perceptible feeling that the future workplaces would be highly supple
and agile in nature and the inflexibility of an office-only based environment would not
hold ground any more. Organizations would need to prepare for a significant and nearly
permanent transition to more remote working environment. "We'll definitely see some
shifts in attitudes and workplace culture that will ultimately result in organizations being
more flexible and accommodating of different work styles," Chris Kozup, CMO at Aruba
Networks.37
107
While remote working was emerging as a new norm, in certain cases it was making
employees stay glued to laptops and desktops for relatively unstructured – long, staggered
hours from their homes. This raised serious health concerns by counsellors and fitness
experts. Work at home – as a novel paradigm – required a sound balance between the
obligation towards the family and the obligation towards the job. The anxiety of being
“always available” raised serious concerns about health and wellness. Remote work
did permit reduction in stress related to commuting; but it had to be used more wisely
and productively without affecting the subtle balance between work time and family
time. Agile collaboration and agile teams emerged as another trend in the pandemic era.
Collaboration over the internet made it easier for people and teams to cross connect
beyond the rigid boundaries of product line or sales function and form more agile groups
to solve problems and help one another. In a way it made collaboration more democratic
and organizational hierarchies more informal and flatter. Agility allowed formation of
self organizing teams with greater independence emerging out of people from across
departments and specializations. One more aspect of the contemporary workplace,
particularly in the service sector, was that it had workers from different generations – the
traditionalists, baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Z. For the older generations that
had more experience than the younger ones, the emerging order of things such as work at home,
enhanced leave, staggered schedules etc. had wider significance than higher pay packages.
While the new-age service oriented companies were increasingly adopting remote
working and flexible work culture the economy did not run with only software. The
manufacturing and the agriculture based businesses that had strong linkages with
production of perishable and non perishable products the physical presence of employees
at workplace was an essential requirement which could not be replaced with “work at
home” rules. For the workers in these sectors there were several challenges which could
not be overcome simply through a virtual private network. Rajeshwar Tripathi, the chief
HR officer at Mahindra & Mahindra, said “Work from home is not actively encouraged
and only if an employee is found to be sick, is it allowed.”38 Shilpa Kabra Maheshwari, the
country head (HR) of Siemens India said that functions like assembling electrical parts
and ensuring stringent quality checks on shop floor required controlled environments
in which physical human intervention was indispensible and non-negotiable.39 The
pandemic had refrained several companies from engaging in any kind of production
forecasts. The future seemed highly volatile and challenging and the leaders felt that the
best strategy they could adopt in the existing scenario would be the one based on down-
to-business contingency and scenario planning, for the short as well as the long term. For
the employees on the other hand, their health, family, career plans, children’s education,
financial resources, workplace safety etc. became even more important.
HR Challenges
In a survey conducted by the online web portal Human Resources Director and published
108
in the month of April 2020, it was revealed that 70% of the HR leaders considered “crisis
management” or “business continuity planning” as their primary challenge during
the outbreak of the pandemic. 42% of the leaders said that they were only somewhat
prepared to face the HR challenges while only 8% said that they were suitably ready.
5% respondents conveyed that they were poorly equipped. Covid-19 had effectively
demonstrated how HR still had to learn many new rules of the game in downsizing risks
and charting effective course of survival. The Exhibit – 1 shows the relative importance
of several challenged faced by the HR during the outbreak.40
In the difficult times businesses strove to find ways to keep their employees safe,
comfortable and productive. Many HR leaders felt that the pandemic gave them a reason
to conduct a thorough health check of their organisations and better assess the risks and
opportunities. In the months of uncertainty that was to follow it became imperative on
HR function to identify and implement effective employee policies that could get the
best of the both worlds – employee welfare and business continuity. Many observers felt
that businesses needed to carefully perform a SWOT testing and communicate closely
with suppliers, customers and their employees. The challenges were not only based
on several parameters such as company’s location, size, sector and industry but also
had varied ramifications and contexts depending upon the individual positioning of the
business (refer Exhibits 2 and 3). Communication was considered very vital at this point
of time and a test of true leadership. Those in leadership roles were expected to clearly
communicate to their employees, customers, partners and suppliers leadership roles their
short term and long-term plans and evince a clear commitment to employee health and
business sustainability. Some of the questions that emerged were:
 What policy changes need to be made to align the business with new realities?
 What new communication strategies should be followed?
 What new paradigms for appraising the performance should be brought in
considering the remote-work rules?
 How to describe the new job structures considering part-time and full-time work?
 How would the organization monitor and enforce attendance?
 What would be the new dimensions of discipline?
 How shall the HR adapt to the new needs in talent acquisition m, benefits and
compensation?
While challenges were universal across sectors, they were more pronounced for production
and manufacturing intensive companies. In Mumbai, for instance, automobile, textile
and engineering industries, and several similar others, depended primarily on outstation
employees for working at their factories many of whom had returned to their native
places or were stuck during the lockdown. There was also a looming fear that the return
109
of these migrant workers would not be welcomed by the local landlords during the course
of the pandemic and this might further impact the local industries. The chairman of the
Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra, grumbled about the disrupted supply chain which
he said was primarily due to lack of loaders and unloaders who were primarily migrant
workers. “This pandemic has shown us that they are key elements of our ecosystem,”
Mahindra said. “We never paid them much attention; we now need to respect them as key
support pillars of society.”41
Many experts from the manufacturing and production feared that work from home policy
would not be easy to adopt in their functions due to various kinds of infrastructural
and operational bottlenecks. K.E. Raghunathan, past president, All India Manufacturer’s
Organisation opined that the paradigm of work from home was irrelevant for the micro,
small and medium enterprises sectors.42 Aditya Narayan Mishra, CEO of staffing firm
CIEL HR Services, remarked, “Work from home is not an evolved model and organisations
do not have monitoring IT tools. Since the concept is not widely practiced in non-IT
sectors, the change may take some time.”43
The Survival and Sustenance Strategies
While the cataclysmic spread of Covid-19 hampered life and businesses all around,
the corporate leaders from across verticals, markets and regions unanimously gave top
priority to employees' safety and wellness – physical, financial, psychological, social and
emotional. Several companies in India and outside had come up with checklists, safety
guidelines (refer Exhibits 4 and 5) and other compassionate initiatives ranging from
“work at home” to “doctors on call” to keep their employees motivated and engaged.
1. Lessons from Singapore: This country had shown proactive planning and
response mechanism in its fight against the pandemic. After the SARS outbreak
a decade ago, the country had learnt an important lesson and several companies
based in the country had effective risk management and mitigation plans in place.
Emergency meetings and discussions had started taking place even when there
were no cases in the country. For instance several companies had started issuing
personal thermometers to employees, ensuring no log-in into the system without
reporting of body temperature, mandatory travel declarations, physical barricade
plan for health screening before entry into the premises etc. Several companies had
centralized communication systems to effectively communicate to the employees
and other important stake-holders important messages without any conflict or
ambiguity. Another initiative in Singapore was that the companies proactively
used the best technologies in contact tracing. Most companies used a combination
of manual tracking (for instance sign in to meetings, restaurants, etc.) along with
digital tracing (such as badge swipes, security cameras with facial recognition,
etc.). This made it easy to call people instantly and let them know that they were
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potentially exposed and that they should self-quarantine until the testing results are
confirmed.44
2. Employee Upskilling - The pandemic made several forward-looking companies
scale up the employee upskilling activities and provided them deeper engagement
through online courses and certifications. It was one of the several ways to make the
employees stay engaged and feel appreciated. This not only made the employees
feel valued but was also instrumental in bridging the knowledge gap. According
to a report by Deloitte, the “inability to learn and grow” was one of the principal
reasons behind employee disenchantment and attrition.45 Axis Bank, for instance,
offered online courses and virtual meetings of team members. Similarly, Air Asia
offered 2,42,500 hours of learning in the month of April 2020 averaging 4 hours
per employee every day. Anjali Chatterjee, head-people and culture, remarked,
“Engagement has always played a big part at AirAsia, but during the lockdown it
has become a higher priority for us.”46
3. Personalisation – Another emerging area was the offering of more personalised
benefits to employees by way of customised courses, personalised financial
suggestions, HR self service, psychological counselling, medical advice etc. The
idea was that providing a wide array of options would suit the unique needs of
employees from any background and in any stage of their careers. It permitted
deeper level of engagement with employees and was instrumental in building trust
and confidence. Moreover, many employees wished to keep a degree of privacy and
personalisation in the multitude of interventions around. The primary assumption
to personalisation was that every employee’s voyage was unique and a “one-size-
fits-all” approach did not produce great results.47 For instance the Virgin Group
had extensively used personalisation as a tool to ensure that through its behaviour
change technology the employees developed positive habits, better engaged with
colleagues and improved their health on an ongoing basis.48
4. Corporate Wellness – The arrival of the pandemic made the employers focus more
on the holistic health of the employees. Several companies attempted to mitigate
employees’ concerns and anxiety by proactively talking about good health practices
and sharing the government guidelines for precaution and prevention (refer
Exhibit 6). Many companies kept constant communication with their employees as
regards their mental and physical health. Empathy and concern for safety was the
new buzzword that symbolized several companies during the pandemic. Online
psychological counselling, doctor-on-call, health and nutrition tips were some of
the many services that were offered by a plethora of companies.
5. Emergency Response: Well entrenched companies endeavoured to ensure that they
had proper emergency response systems in place where each and every employee
was aware of the exact role to be played and the standard procedures to be followed
111
at all appropriate levels. Few companies like Tata Autocomp came up with detailed
standard operating procedures for the guidance of employees and other important
stakeholders. Several companies had introduced intensive checklist to ensure
foolproof response to the pandemic and safety and security at workplace.
6. Location-independent Workplace – A flexible workplace landscape was not
uncommon even before the onset of the pandemic. However, Covid-19 redefined
the significance of a flexible workplace and made several employers have a relook
at their existing work at home policies. “We’re being forced into the world’s
largest work-from-home experiment and, so far, it hasn’t been easy for a lot of
organizations to implement,” said Saikat Chatterjee, Senior Director, Advisory
at Gartner.49 While remote work reduced physical and mental stress it was also
showing significant impact on environment due to reduced commute, reduced
transportation, reduced pollution, reduced in-office energy consumption and
reduced carbon footprint.
7. AI-driven Technology – In their bid to reduce costs, employers looked towards
artificial intelligence as an upcoming trend that would significantly impact how HR
operates and functions. Few employers had AI systems in place to autonomously
screen candidates and move prospective hires through the application process.
Although organizations had inexhaustible employee data they often struggled to
identify important insights for improving engagement. “Sentiment analysis” was
among the emerging applications of AI wherein the leading companies endeavoured
to understand the overall sentiment and feeling of employees based on various
transactional interactions with them. Google had voice and facial analysis tools in
place, and IBM had implemented sentiment analysis to gain a better understanding
of the employees and their needs.
8. Office Hygiene – Creating and maintaining a healthy working environment was
one of the top concerns for HR leaders and the pandemic gave them several reasons
to reorient their energies in ensuring safe and healthy workplace. For instance, in
the hospitality industry the hotel staff was more vulnerable to the disease because
of frequent travelling visitors. “The training for the line managers has scaled up.
As a matter of fact, there is a session every day. The hygiene manager is actively
involved in keeping the employees aware and developing mechanisms to stay safe,
in line with the guidelines from WHO,” remarked Rishi Tiwari, cluster director-
HR, Hilton Hotels.50 Several other companies offered training and development to
establish better hygiene regulations.
9. Strong Communication Mechanism – The pandemic also made HR leaders
realise the importance of effective communication strategy that used multiple
channels and sent across a single, unified and unambiguous message to all
important stakeholders. “You are looking at bulletins, sticking posters on the wall,
112
emails, chat groups, town hall, infographics, videos, and any mode of media that
could help to effectively communicate the message to all employees,” said Adrian
Tan, a veteran HR practitioner and APAC leader of PeopleStrong, an India-based
Enterprise HR SaaS platform.51 Policies concerning confidentiality, Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQ) documents became more pronounced.
10. Security and compliance – The workplace disruption and the ongoing work at
home gave tremendous loads on the Internet infrastructure. While remote work
had its own advantages it also raised heightened concerns on cyber security and
safety. "Cyber criminals are exploiting the COVID-19 outbreak as an opportunity
to send phishing emails claiming to have important updates or encouraging
donations, impersonating trustworthy organisations," the Computer Emergency
Response Team of India (CERT-In) observed.52 Many companies formulated well
defined and structured security and compliance policies so as to ensure risk free
operations.
11. Inclusive Culture devoid of Bias, Discrimination, and Exclusion- The pandemic
aside, the world simultaneously witnessed varying degrees of xenophobia, religious
bigotry and racism at various places. Several events occurred that had parochial
and racial overtones. In such a delicate scenario it became exceedingly important
for the HR leaders to stay attentive, empathetic and impartial towards their co-
workers and fully ensure professional camaraderie and equity. An environment
free from mistrust had become much more important than anytime in past.
The Way Forward
The scale and size of the disorder and disruption was unprecedented. Covid-19 had
emerged as a “black swan” – an abrupt event whose arrival, growth, scale and even
departure was unpredictable. Its impact was beyond the comprehension and scope of any
disaster management model – no one had foreseen that a seemingly localised virus could
proliferate so fast globally and could so severely impact the global economic and social
order.
Nitin Nohria, the dean of Harvard Business School and also the George F. Baker Professor
of Administration, in his article53 published in the Harvard Business Review opined that
the most successful businesses in a VUCA world would be the ones that have “continuous
sensing and response capabilities”. He compared two different types of organisations
(refer Exhibit 7) and suggested that just like Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest,
the second type of organisation with more agile response would be better able to deal
with and thrive in the complexities created by the pandemic.
Despite all the bad news, gloom and despair, there was also a small crowd of positivists
who felt that the pandemic would bring constructive changes in the world. Josh Bersin, a
prominent HR thought leader commented, “The CEO is now the Chief Empathy Officer.
113
And this is really happening. 63% of HR professionals believe their organisational

culture has improved, 59% believe their employee wellbeing has improved, and 55%
believe their employee experience has improved.”54
It remained to be seen how the global pandemic would redefine and reshape the global
economic, social, cultural, political, business and cognate ecosystems in the longer
term. Will the world be able to see cleaner environment, greener practices, empathetic
leadership, better governance, greater respect to flora and fauna and more sustainable and
humane ways of living and working? The broader ramifications of the pandemic stayed
under the veil.
Exhibit 1 - Relative Importance of Several Challenges Faced by HR

during the Pandemic
Source: HRD, “COVID-19: HR's main challenges revealed”
https://www.hcamag.com/us/news/general/covid-19-hrs-main-challenges-
revealed/218599, Accessed on Accessed on 22 Apr 2020
Exhibit 2 - Top Concerns before HR Leaders (as on 7 Apr 2020)

Source: Bersin, J., “COVID-19: The Pulse of HR – What Is HR Doing Now?”
https://joshbersin.com/2020/04/covid-19-the-pulse-of-hr-what-is-hr-doing-now/,
Accessed on 1 May 2020
114
Exhibit 3 - Top Issues in Employees Minds (as on 7 Apr 2020)
Source: Bersin, J., “COVID-19: The Pulse of HR – What Is HR Doing Now?”
https://joshbersin.com/2020/04/covid-19-the-pulse-of-hr-what-is-hr-doing-now/,
Accessed on 1 May 2020
Immediate Near-Term Long-Term
(1) Maintain business continuity
q Review, update and implement a q Monitor external and q Conduct a post-crisis
business continuity plan internal developments; review of policies
q Set up a dedicated cross-function model impacts on the and actions taken
response team to monitor all workforce q Modify business
developments q Review effectiveness continuity and risk
q Identify critical roles and stakeholders of initial actions management plans to
for response communications. and correct course if incorporate lessons
q Start conducting “what if” scenario needed learned
planning to have mitigation plans q Develop recovery time q Update workforce
ready and available if needed and recovery point planning models
q Consider leadership’s focus, caring objectives
and commitment
(2) Deliver clear, frequent communications
q Test emergency communication q Provide a channel q Conduct a post-
channels for real-time updates crisis audit of
q Identify key resources top monitor as the situation ommunications
credible sources of information; progresses effectiveness
identify and communicate updates q Point to relevant q Institute changes as
about issues that impact the workforce programmes, tools needed
q Arm employees with information they and benefits already
need to keep themselves safe now and in place to support
as the situation unfolds employees
q Provide any new working guidelines
(e.g. travel restrictions, take laptops
home every night)
q Provide additional guidance to support
line managers communicating directly
with employees
115
(3) Maintain employee health at work

q Institute enhanced work-site hygiene q Evaluate potential q Assess impact of
practices (e.g., social distancing, extra facility closures, shutdowns
workplace cleaning measures) staff rotations, q Review policies to
q Provide guidance to employees on and temporary identify opportunities
what to do if symptomatic reassignments for permanent
q Modify travel policies q Provide quarantine changes to employee
q Modify visitor policies at all places guidelines health and wellness
q Specify return-to-work programmes
policies
(4) Review employee paid time off policies
q Assess existing paid time off (PTO) q Model various staffing q Assess impact of
and time off policies scenarios, including policy changes and
q Refer to country / state / local reduction in work adjust as needed
regulations to ensure that changes to hours, furloughs and q Closely monitor
time-off plans are compliant layoffs ongoing changes in
q Define alternative provisions, i.e. q Develop contingency staffing needs
adding or extending sick leave, plans to prepare for q Determine feasibility
enabling time off to care for sick possible alternative of permanently
family members (if not already solutions modifying absence
allowed) q Where possible, and PTO policies.
consider paying
employees for
completing training if
unable to work
(5) Expand virtual working
q Evaluate the feasibility of remote q Plan communication q Assess results
work arrangements protocol and policy q Identify opportunities
q Determine any role-specific for work from home to update policies
restrictions employees and practices
q Expand policies for those who can q Provide guidance for
work remotely managers leading
q Assess payroll tax implications newly remote teams
q Determine collaboration / productivity q Monitor closely for
tools required and work with the IT productivity issues
organisation to ensure such tools are and provide needed
available support
q Document a formal policy for q Stay on top of
approvals and any eligible expenses employee engagement
q Review / adjust
policies as needed
116
(6) Maintain essential HR/payroll operations and legal compliance
q Provide mobile access to pay and q Use technologies such q Institute permanent
time and attendance information and as optical scanners changes to payment
functionality and robotic process methods and polices
q Review electronic payment automation (RPA) to address gaps made
capabilities for the organization to digitize manual visible during the
q Implement a mandatory electronic processes crisis
payment policy , where allowed by q Encourage employees
law to sign up for
electronic payment
q For employees
without bank accounts
consider pay-cards or
on-demand pay
Exhibit 4 – 6-Step HR Checklist with Critical Actions for “Crisis Leadership”
Source: Boulineau, M., DiRomualdo, A., & Osle H., “6 steps to protect employees,
manage business risk and maintain engagement” https://www.thehackettgroup.com/
blog/an-hr-checklist-for-dealing-with-the-coronavirus-crisis/, Accessed on 29 Apr 2020
Exhibit 5 – Workplace Safety Guidelines (Illustrative Chart for Employers)

Source: Smarp, “The Ultimate COVID-19 Crisis Management Checklist for
Employers”, https://blog.smarp.com/ultimate-coronavirus-crisis-management-
checklist, Accessed on 30 Apr 2020
117
Company Employee Welfare Measure (illustrative only)

Accenture Disability Support
Apple Activity Tracker / Tools / Apps
Axis Bank Online Learning
Centillion Solutions HR Helpline
Comcast Leadership Calls
Eastman Chemical Co. Personalised Financial Advice To Employees
Essar Group Learning TV And Learning Radio
GoJek( Indonesia) Crisis And Risk Team
Google COVID-19 Fund
Harvard University Updated HR Policies
IBM Sentiment Analysis
Infosys Doctor On Call
Johnson & Johnson Revising EAPs And Health Plans
Malta Public Transport Fumigation of Buses Everyday
Microsoft Extended Paid Leave
Multi Commodity Group Cover Covid-19
Exchange
Philips India Sleep Awareness
RPG Nutrition Advice
Salesforce Virtual Meditation
SAP Labs India Online Fitness Sessions
Starbucks Therapy Sessions
Tata Autocomp Detailed SOP
TCS Online Education
Tyson Foods Temperature Screening
Vedanta Psychological Counselling
Walmart New Hiring during the Pandemic and Extra Bonuses
Exhibit 6 – Measures adopted/carried forward by companies during the pandemic
(Source: Compiled from online resources by the author)
118
Organisation 1 Organisation 2
Hierarchical Networked
Centralised Leadership Distributed Leadership
Tightly coupled (greater interdependence Loosely coupled (less interdependence)
among parts)
Concentrated workforce Dispersed workforce
Specialists Cross trained generalists
Policy and procedure driven Guided by simple yet flexible rules
Exhibit 7 - Which Organisation Will Fare Better?
Source: Nohria, N., “What Organizations Need to Survive a Pandemic”,
https://hbr.org/2020/01/what-organizations-need-to-survive-a-pandemic, 30 Jan 2020
(Accessed on 1 May 2020)
119
Teaching Notes
The case discusses the coronavirus outbreak or Covid-19 that emerged in the end of the
year 2019 in China and subsequently spread across the world creating havoc everywhere.
There were a staggering 2,480,503 patients suffering with the virus with 170,397 fatalities
as on 20 April 2020. The numbers kept increasing every day. Covid-19 was declared a
“pandemic” by WHO on March 11, 2020. According to the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), the virus was expected to severely impact the economy of more than 170 countries
and severely impact global GDP by nearly 3% by the end of 2020. This calamity was not
seen even during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The virus was growing rapidly and
the existing medical care had no vaccines to cope with the pandemic. The governments all
across the globe enforced “lockdown” and “social distancing” as the two most effective
measures to temporarily halt the growth of the virus. The restrictions on the movement
of people as a result of global lockdowns had hit the agriculture, the manufacturing and
the service sectors badly, and in particular, the verticals such as hospitality, tourism, retail
trade, recreation and transportation. The case in its second part, “Brief on Covid-19”
provides a brief discussion on the origins and growth of the coronavirus pandemic. It
subsequently discusses the impact of the pandemic in the third section. The fourth section,
“New Normals at the Workplace” discusses the sudden disruption the pandemic brought
not only in business activities but in several other concerns like working environments,
processes, routines, work policies, operating procedures, leave rules, travel guidelines
etc. Remote work, agile collaboration, social distancing, enhanced concern for wellness,
lifelong learning emerged as the new paradigms in the changing order of things. The
fifth section discusses the challenges being faced by the HR leaders in the changing
landscape. The sixth section discusses some of the survival and sustenance strategies
adopted by the companies to stay relevant and competitive.
Learning Objectives
The case is targeted at corporate executives, academicians and students. It will fall
under the category of an illustrative or a business environment case study. The Covid-19
pandemic emerged as a “black swan” event about which no one had any inkling about.
The management executives could use the case to better understand the difficult and
unpredictable extraneous situations that may arise and may lead to a complete topsy-
turvy of the existing business model. The business leaders must understand that certain
scenarios in business are totally unpredictable and it is always safe to have a worst-
case scenario disaster management plan. The case brings forward some of the best
practices adopted by HR leaders in ensuring sustenance and survival of their businesses.
The academicians and students can discuss the various ways in which a company could
frame employee friendly strategies that are sustainable and profitable. The case provides
an overview of the existing business environment across the globe, in general, and in
India in particular, and how companies could devise employee friendly policies to stay
competitive and relevant.
120
Target Audience
Corporate Leaders and Managers, Officers, Consultants, Teachers and Students
Case Questions
1. What is a “black swan” event? Why would you consider this pandemic as a black
swan event?
2. Enlist some of the industries that were adversely impacted by the pandemic.
Provide suitable reasons.
3. Enlist some of the industries that were favourably impacted by the pandemic.
Provide suitable reasons.
4. Do you think that “work at home” would continue to remain an important paradigm
in future employments? Substantiate your answers.
5. How do you see the manufacturing industries adapt their work processes in the
changing business landscape?
6. Share some of the HR good practices you know that have perennial relevance
across industries.
Suggested Assignment
1. Suppose you are the HR head of a mid-size plastic factory. Provide some of the
initiatives you would take in the event your company confronts the same scenario
as discussed in this case study.
2. Prepare a disaster management checklist for your organization.
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34 Gartner, “Gartner HR Survey Reveals 88% of Organizations Have Encouraged or Required
Employees to Work From Home Due to Coronavirus”, https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/
press-releases/2020-03-19-gartner-hr-survey-reveals-88--of-organizations-have-e, Accessed
on 19 Apr 2020
35 KeyedIn Solutions was a business software company headquartered in UK.
36 TechRepublic, “5 ways the future of work is changing, due to coronavirus”, https://www.
123
techrepublic.com/article/5-ways-the-future-of-work-is-changing-due-to-coronavirus/, 21 Apr
2020
37 Ibid.
38 Philip, L., “Covid-19 Impact: For manufacturers, work from home doesn't work”, https://
economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/covid-19-impact-for-
manufacturers-work-from-home-doesnt-work/articleshow/74569188.cms?from=mdr,
Accessed on Apr 20, 2020
39 Ibid.
40 HRD, “COVID-19: HR's main challenges revealed”, https://www.hcamag.com/us/news/
general/covid-19-hrs-main-challenges-revealed/218599, Accessed on 22 Apr 2020
41 Chaliawala, N., “Manufacturing sector anticipates severe workforce crunch post Covid-19”,
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/manufacturing-
sector-anticipates-severe-workforce-crunch-post-covid-19/articleshow/75084233.
cms?from=mdr, Accessed on 23 Apr 2020
42 Kotteswaran, C. S., “Job loss threat looms over MSMEs, say industry sources “,https://www.
dtnext.in/News/TamilNadu/2020/03/20022757/1220951/Job-loss-threat-looms-over-MSMEs-
say-industry-sources-.vpf, Accessed on 20 April 2020
43 Vijayakumar, S., “COVID-19: Work from home, a difficult strategy for non-IT companies to
adopt”, https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/covid-19-work-from-home-a-
difficult-strategy-for-non-it-companies-to-adopt/article31098241.ece, 23 Apr 2020
44 Dewey, S., “From Sars to Covid-19, what lessons has Singapore learned?”, https://www.
scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3052120/sars-covid-19-what-lessons-has-
singapore-learned, Accessed on 24 Apr 2020
45 Deloitte, “Introduction: Leading the social enterprise—Reinvent with a human focus”,
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/human-capital-trends/2019/leading-social-
enterprise.html, Accessed on 21 April 2020
46 HRKatha, “Air Asia India employees together clock 2.43 lakh hours of learning in April”,
https://www.hrkatha.com/features/learning/air-asia-india-employees-together-clock-2-43-
lakh-hours-of-learning-in-april/
47 Kumar, C., “Emerging Paradigms in Corporate Wellness”, Human Capital, Vol. 2, No. 11,
April 2019.
48 Virgin, This is the secret to activating your organisation’s potential, https://www.virgin.com/
entrepreneur/secret-activating-your-organisations-potential, Accessed on 28 Apr 2020
49 Martello Blog, “Is Your Organization Ready for Remote Work?”, https://martellotech.com/
blog/ready-for-remote-work/, Accessed on 29 Apr 2020
50 Bothra, P., “Superior employee practices can keep Coronavirus at bay”, https://www.hrkatha.
com/employee-health/superior-employee-practices-can-keep-coronavirus-at-bay/, Accessed
on 24 Apr 2020
124
51 Saxena, A., “Coronavirus Outbreak: Best Business Practices to Implement Right Now”,
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/345759, Accessed on Apr 30, 2020
52 ET, “COVID-19: CERT-In says spurt in cyberattacks on personal comps since 'work from
home' protocol began”, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/covid-19-cert-
in-says-spurt-in-cyberattacks-on-personal-comps-since-work-from-home-protocol-began/
articleshow/74849119.cms?from=mdr, Accessed on 29 Apr 2020
53 Nohria, N., “What Organizations Need to Survive a Pandemic”, https://hbr.org/2020/01/what-
organizations-need-to-survive-a-pandemic, 30 Jan 2020 (Accessed on 1 May 2020)
54 Bersin, J., “COVID-19 May Be The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Employee
Engagement”, https://joshbersin.com/2020/04/covid-19-may-be-the-best-thing-that-ever-
happened-to-employee-engagement/, Accessed on 29 Apr 2020
Additional Reading
1. Taleb, Naseem Nicholas, “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable”,
Penguin Randomhouse
2. Business Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist prepared by the Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), USA, https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/pdf/
businesschecklist.pdf
3. KPMG, “Workforce, Workplace and HR Reshaping during Covid-19 pandemic”,
https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/in/pdf/2020/04/workforce-worplace-and-
hr-reshaping-during-19-pandemic.pdf
4. Kentucky Association of Manufacturers, Covid-19 Human Resources Checklist,
https://www.foundationshr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/FHRC-KAM-
COVID-19-HR-Checklist.pdf
5. SHRM, “COVID-19 Back-to-Work Checklist”, https://www.shrm.org/
resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/hr-forms/pages/covid-19-back-to-work-
checklist.aspx
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The Rise of ‘THE EMPIRE’

Introduction
It was the best of times! The last few years had seen enormous growth in the domestic
construction sector and therefore there was a burgeoning demand of Thermo-Mechanically
Treated (TMT in short) bars for house building. It was the worst of times because of
this demand pool had been highly sought after by the numbers of indigenous TMT
manufacturers, both in primary and secondary sectors, to enhance their market share.
It was also the age of wisdom because producers had implemented innovations in their
products and services, to attract retail consumer. Thus, a grim battle was fought in the
industry which had the potential to draw blood from most or all the players!!
Steel India Limited (SIL) the country’s one of the largest steel maker, had been producing
TMT of various sizes of good quality for long. Though its market had traditionally been
concentrated mostly in infrastructure projects, but in 2005 they also started selling to
individual customers through retail dealers spread across India. Unique to the marketing
fraternity, SIL had been successful in both managing project sales (B2B marketing) and
retails sales (B2C marketing).
It was in 2018, Mr. Sanjeev Kapoor an experienced Regional Manager (East) of SIL
TMT Retail Group started facing the heat of the competitive market. Its retail market
share had been constantly dwindling, eaten up by two primary producers TSL and JSL,
and many secondary producers (local champions). The hard-working Sanjeev Kapoor
had personally visited the number of distributors, dealers, and customers of SIL retail
TMT and had identified number of root cause problem and issues; which otherwise
practiced by different TMT manufacturers. This comprehensive study clearly gave the
feel of shift in market priorities and preferences. But the main towering issue in from of
him was whether following the market demand and market preference will bring the SIL
its lost glory? Or he has to be done something different........
It was a stroke of luck that Sanjeev met Prof. Venkatesh, faculty of Marketing, IIM
Ahmedabad during one of his official tours. Sanjeev took the opportunity to discuss
with Prof. Venkatesh about the challenge at hand. The discussion gave Sanjeev a key
insight and contemporary marketing strategies. The Indian TMT market was typically
a competition ridden red ocean market, in which ﬁrms were forced to compete within
themselves. He inspired Sanjeev to create another curve for SIL TMT retail selling.
Sanjeev had thought out in that line and created a new brand that had to emerge from the
shadows of SIL TMT. A brand with a new promise! A brand that carried Hope, Strength,
and Dreams. A brand that would erase the bitter taste that SIL TMT had left, in the
Subhra Dhara, SAIL-RDCIS, Ranchi
Digvijay Singh, SAIL-MTI, Ranchi
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memories of a vast retail segment. A brand that would be a King in customer service,
in quality, in availability, in innovation and acceptability!!. …..What could be the better
brand than ‘The Empire’!!.
It was January 7th, 2019, happened to be the biggest day in Sanjeev’s life. He had presented
the strategy canvas of ‘The Empire’, competitor’s analysis, and most importantly his
master plan of offering superior value innovation to individual customers by creating new
brand-named ‘The Empire’, to be sold exclusively through retail channels. Fortunately,
the plan got a ‘go-ahead’ from the SIL board.
In May 2019, SIL supplied the first lot of retail TMT under the brand name ‘‘The Empire’’,
at first in Eastern India followed by Northern states. Within months, to everyone’s
surprise, ‘The Empire’ had created a market niche and further increasing the market
share of SIL steadily.
For “The Empire’ it was Veni Vidi Vici.
The success had inspired SIL to plan for pan India roll out and try out newer markets. On
other side the success had raised a strategic challenge in front of competitors and makes
them to lose their sleep.
His rival, Mr. P K Das, CEO of TSL planning ferociously to launch a counter-strategy to
oust SIL from the retail TMT segment market- a master move for becoming single largest
retail TMT supplier. Before the “The Empire”, TSL was leader in the retail TMT market
and again Mr Das wants to rule the market with TSL in his quiver.
So, one thing was sure, competition would be stiffer and any challenger would act on the
principle “Live and Let die”, but for Sanjeev ‘The Empire’ had no time to die!
Chapter-1
The quarterly marketing review, Steel India Limited,
January 06, 2020, Monday, 09:00 AM
It was a chilly January morning and Kolkata’s short winter was at its peak. Mr. Sanjeev
Kapoor, who was very particular about time management, was present in the giant
conference room at Marketing Headquarters, SIL, Kolkata, well before 9 am. A little
bit of anxious yet charged with enthusiasm, and why not? The day was scheduled for a
quarterly marketing review meeting of SIL, India’s largest steel company. All the who’s
who of SIL, including chairman with all executive board members and senior members
of SIL marketing division was present. Heads of different verticals of SIL marketing
division would be presenting their achievements for the last quarter and their future
plans. Sanjeev Kappor, Regional Manager (East) of SIL’s retail marketing network (retail
marketing network presented in Fig. 1) would be presenting on behalf of TMT retail.
The meeting would be a grill for the marketing people and hence Sanjeev was a little bit
nervous too.
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Sanjeev was brushing his presentation slides and sales figures for the past quarter, and the
more he reviewed the figures he was seemingly more confident and charged. Q3 was a
very-very successful quarter for SIL’s retail TMT bars, sold under the brand name ‘‘The
Empire’’, which was launched just 8 months back. Market share of SIL in India’s bars
and rod segment had increased to a great height of 7.3% (Table 2), ‘The Empire’ had
become a much sought-after TMT brand for retail customers, specifically in eastern and
northern India.
Coffee was being served. The steaming liquid brought a smile onto Sanjeev’s face. Sipping
into the energizer mesmerized Sanjeev from the present to 2005, when SIL decided to
start TMT retail. SIL had been supplying TMT bars of bigger sizes i.e above 20 mm in
bulk quantities (>1000 tons) to project customers viz. bridge, dam, infrastructure projects,
etc. Then in 2005, it decided to go to the retail market and appointed a countryside
dealership network including increasingly rural dealers. Historically TMT retail drew a
higher NSR than project sales, and hence numbers of manufacturers, both primary and
secondary steel makers have entered the high margin retail segment, within a short span
of time. With time, the market share of SIL TMT in the retail segment was increasingly
eaten away by competitors, and then there was the launch of ‘The Empire’, SIL’s answer
to the competitors.
Exactly at that moment of reminiscence, video conference started and Chairman started
with a satisfied tone, ‘Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen, I am happy to tell you that
‘‘The Empire’’ TMT, which we launched in May 2019, a product which was a notch
higher in its class in terms of various quality and safety aspects have earned a great
market demand. SIL has continued the streak of sales growth consistently, especially
from the third quarter of FY 20 where its sales grew by 26%. ‘The Empire’ has helped
SIL to regain its market leadership position in bars and roads segment, with 7.3% market
share (Table 2). It is ‘The Empire’ which resulted in a substantial jump in quarterly sales
figure (Table 3). We can see, the eastern regions and some part of the northern region,
where ‘The Empire’ had been supplied, had seen great enhancement in sales figure (Table
4). I congratulate all of you and commend your wholehearted efforts in making ‘The
Empire’ a brand loved by customers’.
What followed was a round of applause after which Chairman resumed ‘Now I would
like to hear from you, how to achieve further penetration?’
Sanjeev, started his presentation, ‘Sir, till now we have captured the markets of eastern
regions and to some extent northern region. We thought to earn incremental NSR of
Rs. 1200 per ton over and above the project TMT sales, but till now we could only
touch Rs. 800 per ton of incremental NSR (Table 5). It is a great opportunity for the
whole of SIL to concentrate on selling ‘The Empire’. Seeing at the price comparison of
‘The Empire’ vs. competitors (Table 6), products of primary TMT manufactures are way
costlier than ‘The Empire’; whereas ‘The Empire’ is cost competitive to most secondary
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players. However, we could snatch customers of secondary suppliers, as our products
offer customers ultimate savings in terms of 15-20% less usage per construction. ‘The
Empire’ is economical to customers. We could establish ‘The Empire’ brand TMT as
the safest TMT for house building. Our tagline ‘No Worry’ has so far well resonated
with customer sentiments. We empowered retail customers with publishing real time
Recommended Retail Price (RRP) in our website. As we can see, our 8 mm and 16 mm
TMT bars are mostly in demand; main demand centers are Kolkata, Guwahati, Patna &
Bhubaneshwar regions (Table 7). Our sales projection team has also mapped monthly
average demand of ‘The Empire’ and 8 mm section is having the highest rate of growth
in demand, 25% closely followed by 16 mm size (Table 8). In northern states, Delhi &
Faridabad regions are creating lion’s share of demand, but mainly for 16 mm size (Table
9). So I propose that, our first priority in the coming months should be to launch ‘The
Empire’ in western and south India. In addition, I thought of hiring Mr. Sushil Kumar,
Indian Olympic medalist wrestler endorsing ‘The Empire’……’
Flashback-1
Quarterly Marketing Review, Steel India Limited,
October 12, 2018, Friday
It was the same conference room and SIL’s market share in bars and rod segment
was dwindling in every quarter, from 6.4% to 6.3% to 6.1% (Fig. 2). Steel had been
considered a commodity; market share was a critical parameter for preserving the
company’s bargaining power in the market. As expected, Executive Director (Marketing)
Ms. Bhattacharya was furious and scolded the whole of Retail Group. Sanjeev Kapoor,
Regional Manager (East) was given the task of presenting quarterly achievements and
future plans for TMT retails sales across India. On seeing the dismal facts and figures, Ms.
Bhattacharjee's anguished comment was “Mr. Sanjeev, I have seen enough of bloodshed
for today. You are adding to my bruises. Retail TMT segment had been created years back,
and our dealership network had been our pride. Dealership in each and every district in
India especially rural dealership is very strong, our product is also world-class and I
haven’t heard of any trust issue so far. But losing retail market is definitely a mystery. I
don’t know why? But now I want a SOLUTION from you, a concrete ACTION PLAN
to turn the tide not the problems anymore.”
Her concluding words were emotional “Not as Executive Director, but as a senior
colleague Sanjeev, I want some practical action points from you. I AM COUNTING ON
YOU”
That was the defining the moment for Sanjeev’s life for the months to come.
At that time, Mr. P K Das, CEO TSL, Primary Steel Manufacturer supplying TMT,
the main competitor of SIL, is reviewing H1 progress report for 2018-19, the market
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share had been steadily increasing for TSL but total quarterly sales figure shown some
considerable dip (Table 2 & 3). Das was most characteristically happy with the loss of
SIL TMT market. It would eventually, lead to a fragmented industry in which TSL and a
small group of companies will supply TMT to retail customers, and it would definitely be
easier for TSL to dominate the market.
‘Let SIL TMT die out of the market’ Das said in typical competitive manner.
Flashback-2
Period of Introspection, SIL Marketing Headquarter, Kolkata,
October 15-29, 2018
That weekend was one of the toughest for Sanjeev, as he himself tried to chalk out a plan
for the task given by Executive Director. Being into retail marketing of TMT for long,
he earlier thought that he knows the Retail Marketing dynamics very well. The more he
thought about the challenge; he was more and more get involved into it.
For sales to increase, Sanjeev had to think from the customer perspective. What did they
want? Why did they alienate themselves from SIL TMT?
What could be the pain points of dealers? Why they not able to sell our product? Why
they alienated too? Why they had not taken sincere efforts for gaining market share?
Is there any serious technical issues? SIL had a well-established complaint resolution
procedure.
Whether the root causes buried somewhere deep in technical details at shop level?
All these factors were intertwined and needed exhaustive efforts to untangle the cord
from its curls; he finally decided to feel the pulse himself by meeting all the stakeholders
in person.
Das had specially assigned his marketing team to further penetrate SIL strongholds,
eastern & northern region. ‘If SIL is ousted of the market of these regions, they will never
be able to bounce back. Give me proposals to make SIL’s big dealers of these regions
to change their side, approach architects to choose ours over SIL, and flood the market
with hoardings. I want every visible space to be out of hold from SIL-Das was cunning
in his objective.
Flashback-3
Day of Market Research and Feedback, M/S Laxmi Steels, Burdwan,
October 30, 2018, Tuesday
Sanjeev choose to hear directly from the horse’s mouth about the ground realities of retail
TMT and chose to personally meet Mr. Sajjan Agrawal, steel market king at Burdwan,
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West Bengal. Sanjeev had been to Burdwan during his early days of marketing career and
hence knew many TMT dealers personally. Burdwan steel market was the second biggest
wholesale market in West Bengal, controlling the whole of the TMT market and demand-
supply chain across western and northern districts of Bengal. In addition, Burdwan was
the nearest to secondary TMT manufacturers, so it was replete with local secondary TMT
manufacturers and sellers as well as the primary one.
At around 11 AM, Sanjeev visited the shop of M/s Laxmi Steel. Before stepping inside
the shop, Sanjeev could feel the omnipresent ‘Eagle’ brand TMT in the whole of the
steel market as well as inside the Laxmi steel shop. Everywhere there were big banners,
hoardings, festoons, and a big welcome gate in front of M/s Laxmi Steel. Laxmi Steel
had been the biggest dealer of SIL TMT in this region, bust since last few years they had
been selling only bare minimum quantity of SIL TMT. Sanjeev was mindfully staring at
a big poster of ‘Eagle’ TMT. At that particular moment, Mr. Agrawal appeared from his
storeroom in the backyards and greeted Sanjeev with a jovial hug.
‘Hello! Kapoor Saab, after so many years! How’re you? What about your family and
health? All is O.K.?’ asked Mr. Agrawal.
Sanjeev replied in a witty manner, ‘Perfect, Mr. Agrawal, not as good as your grand
‘Eagle’ brand’.
Agrawal was smarter enough to sense the grudge of Sanjeev’s and replied, ‘Not that Saab.
To be with ‘Eagle’ is business, and as a businessman shouldn’t I should lean towards the
more profitable one?’
That initial friction was smoothened within time. Mr. Agrawal served hot tea with tasty
snacks. Mr. Agrawal, I have come to know what happened to yours. Why have you
stopped retailing our SIL TMT? Was it ‘Eagle” is the reason? We had long partnership;
we can resume that at once. I would request you to reconsider your position Mr. Agrawal’
Agarwal replied ‘Sir, market demands TMT bars of 8-12 mm size of a specified length,
with free delivery at the construction site. Small customers don’t have time or money to
wait for SIL TMT. Monopoly days are over, now people have choices, believe me, SIL
TMT is nowhere near your retail customer expectations. Most of them even don’t know
SIL TMT, they directly ask for TSL TMT. Saab upper se aap jante he ho -jo dikhta hai
vho bikta hai.
In the meantime, a customer entered the shop and asked for 8 mm TMT bars, required
for his house extension at Burdwan town. Sanjeev saw a golden opportunity and asked
him to go for SIL TMT, but astonishingly the customer asked “SIL? Do they sell for
individual customers too? I thought they produce for big shots. Anyway, I need 40 nos.
of 8 mm bars tomorrow at my place of construction, tell me how much I have to pay Mr.
Agrawal?’ Agarwal replied, “Sir, SIL TMT does not come in the piece, but I can cut and
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give you your required quantity at Rs.40,000/ton within 3 days (sizing of SIL TMT were
done by service contractors, it generally took 3 days, depending on the queue). I can give
you ‘Eagle’ TMT 40 pieces at Rs. 288/piece and local TMT 40 pieces at Rs. 251/piece,
both are available in 12 m length which is standard”.
As obvious, in front of Sanjeev, a customer booked for ‘Eagle’ TMT and left the store.
Sanjeev, taken leave from Agrawal and followed the customer for more lead.
Das had specifically targeted M/s Laxmi Steel. Das gave golden advice to his retail head
“Mr. Agrawal is the big fish I want to catch him. Offer him to be our exclusive dealer and
snatch him from JSL ‘Eagle’ and keep him away from SIL. If he is solely with us, I can
tell you, we will be only having small local suppliers as competitors. Offer Agrawal for
10% commission and company advance to rent a big stock house for our TMT. I know
his space limitation in cramped Burdwan market and he must be craving for the bigger
area” Retail head raised a little concern over the burgeoning cost to the company which
may lead to mandatory cost hike of TSL products, but Das became very adventurous
“And what if we are the only primary supplier in the market? Imagine a market, in which
only we will be delivering quality TMT under our national brand and competing with
only local names? Broaden your horizon and focus on the long term market position”
Flashback-4
Day of inquisitiveness, Roadside tea stall, Burdwan market,
October 30, 2018, Tuesday
Sanjeev persuaded the customer for a cup of tea at one of the famous roadside tea stalls
and asked a few questions about his house specification and requirement. The customer
was extending his house, for opening up a grocery store for his son, which he expected to
be operated for 50 or more years. Sanjeev asked, “Sir, 50 or more years’ of construction,
do you know the corrosiveness of damp environment and seismic risk of this location
demands for higher quality TMT bars than you have just booked?” The customer replied
“Sir, I don’t know about the technical terms, I only saw advertisements of ‘TIBAR’ and
‘Eagle’ and many other brands. I asked my friend Sujoy, who is a civil contractor and he
advised me go for national brands like JSL or TSL because of their best customer service
and reliable quality. There are other brands also which seems to be good. They are having
lucrative schemes like “Mithan” is promising to give “Mithan 600 TMT” bars, at the
same cost of 500 grade TMT bars, “SRB” is offering ‘most affordable’ TMT, “Leader
600” is giving up to ‘Rs. 1 lakh’ cash back offer for every purchase. Sir, you must have
seen their posters in the Burdwan steel market. But I choose ‘Eagle’, because I feel safer
with national brand TMT bar.”
Mr Sanjeev thought SIL’s product offering was same or even better than those products
but how to explain him that 500/600 figures were tensile strengths of TMTs, but larger
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value was not always better as other technical parameters needs to be compared.
After completion of tea, the person thanked Sanjeev for the offering and concluded
‘Sujoy had just finished construction of his house last month and I really like the finish.
Your know, he is so well coordinated the supply of raw materials, that his construction
didn’t halt for a single day on account of raw material unavailability. My time is limited,
I don’t want to chase builder; I don’t want that hassle”. Over and above they are cheaper
than SIL.
Late afternoon on October 30th, 2018, Mr. Agrawal received a personal call from the retail
head of TSL TMT and was given the lucrative proposals that they are interested to supply
their TMT products in Burdwan and nearby markets. It will be a golden opportunity for
M/s Laxmi Steel to sell TSL TMT products to individual customers in this area, in return,
they will provide him financial support to hire a big warehouse and appoint him as their
sole stockiest. Das made an offer to Agrawal, which he could hardly ‘refuse’.
Flashback-5
Day of inquisitiveness, Durgapur Guest House,
November 1, 2018, Wednesday
It was 8:00 AM and Sanjeev had invited 4 biggest dealers of SIL TMT in Burdwan-
Durgapur area for breakfast at SIL guest house. Incidentally all of those big dealers
had drastically reduced SIL TMT selling to bare minimum quantity. The previous day
of Sanjeev at Burdwan was hectic but quite perplexing, and he needed some more
information to have a complete picture.
Mr. Agrawal (M/s Laxmi Steel), Mr. Goenka (M/s Durga steel), Mr. Singh (M/s Singh
traders) and Mr. D. Jain (M/s Jain steel sales) were present over the table, and hot
puri sabji were served. Sanjeev broke the ice ‘Sir, you are the biggest dealers of SIL
TMT, however retail sales combined of you don’t touch the target. The market is there,
competitors are flourishing; only SIL is losing. You haven’t given specific feedback about
our deficiencies in the dealer interaction program. Tell me openly, what’s the problem? I
don’t understand what’s missing?’
Agrawal replied firmly “The problem is with the dimensions and the weights of SIL
TMT. Each piece of your TMT varies in length and weight. (8-12 mm TMT were
produced in coil form by SIL plants and were further cut to TMT bars of required length
by contractors. Local processing often had its own technical limitations which lead to
non-uniformity in sizes)”.
Mr. Jain added further points “Saab, your pricing policy and logistics are very cumbersome.
Look at K TMT, (secondary TMT manufacturers having wider presence), they have 55
franchises. Even in Burdwan, they have two franchises. Their daily selling prices we get
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by WhatsApp at around 11 AM, book order by 4 PM and order confirmation by 6 PM in

email, next dawn we get ordered quantity delivered at our doorstep via road. No haste
of order booking, lengthy process, and paperwork.” But Sanjeev asked, “Jain Saab, you
know the K TMT is a secondary producer i.e. producing TMT from scrap, uses steel re-
melting process, their property can’t be reliable and hence the durability of customer’s
construction is at stake. Why don’t you make customers understand the risk of lower
quality at the lower cost?” “Saab”, replied a smiling Jain, “people bother first about the
comfort and service at doorstep, and nobody is building a Taj Mahal. Quality is rocket
science to most, but the cost is understood by masses”. Here comes another round of tea,
which perhaps freshens up the mood of the discussion. Enthusiastic Agrawal continued
further “Saab, talking about quality and reliability, people have their trust on JSL ‘Eagle’
in their own way. Sir, JSL supply their ‘Eagle’ TMT bars at Rs. 51000 per ton, with such
a high brand value, But yours is at Rs. 56000/ton, customers expect something special
while paying the extra Rs 5,000 per ton?”
Mr. Goenka picked up conversation and continued ‘In my opinion SIL is still in the mood
of license raj. Have you thought of marketing and promotion seriously? You tell us to
advertise SIL TMT and pay us only at Rs. 100/ton rate; do you really know the market
rates? We are traders; do we have the time for the campaign? Your marketing should be
under your area. Look at ‘TIBAR’, they promote so aggressively, that literally everything
from morning newspaper to most popular TV soap opera contained their commercials.
Mr. Singh, the most extravagant of the lot, broke his long silence and told ‘Saab, ‘Eagle’
sent me to Bangkok last month as the highest revenue generator”. (As a 5 star dealer in
the region, ‘Eagle’ TMT sponsored Singh’s family vacation to Thailand, which Singh
tells everyone proudly). “SIL has not even considered me for small cash prizes. Saab in
your case, I had to be the nation’s top ten dealers in sales figures within a year to earn
some cash rewards.”
Sanjeev was perplexed with such rapid-fire sessions. He still uttered in his defense ‘The
main strength of SIL TMT is our quality and reliability. We can assure consumers, about
the safety of their beloved buildings, even in case of natural calamities. Does any of the
secondary producers claim that guarantee?’
Mr. Agrawal, being the senior-most replied ‘Saab, when will calamity come nobody
knows, aur roj- roj calamity to aate nahi hai. Their primary concern of common man
is to build a house at the competitive price, they need TMT bars as per size requirement
and hassle free delivery.’
Jain added ‘Saab, repeatedly I had to say 8-12 mm SIL TMT were unavailable in the
required quantity. Also, I couldn’t tell them any expected date of availability, because SIL
never kept its promises of committed delivery. What do you expect? Whether Customers
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to stop his construction and wait for the 8 mm SIL TMT to arrive? There are numerous
suppliers near my shop, they simply move on to next, Saab’. Uncertain availability of
most useful 8-12 mm TMT was a chronic issue for the past several years. and Sanjeev
had been trying for long time to resolve the issue.
The breakfast session ended, and Sanjeev was literally devastated with lots of complaints
of SIL TMT retail. The task of SIL TMT turnaround was seemingly more difficult, so
obviously Sanjeev had to think about multi-pronged solutions. But Sanjeev was still very
puzzled, implementable action plans as this time game was not easy and so he had to
think something out-of-box. He had to come up with some radical ideas.
Anyway, the next day Sanjeev had a plan to visit to Bokaro, and discuss it with another
group of dealers there.
Late afternoon on November 1st, 2018, Mr. Agrawal called the retail head of TSL TMT and
agreed to the proposal. Das was enthusiastic, as this deal would ouster all other primary
TMT producers including SIL from the Burdwan circle. Das further called his retail head
and asked for giving the same deal to the biggest retailers in Bokaro, Bhubaneshwar, and
Patna. The dealers of these cities influence TMT retail sales in nearby places also which
will lead to SIL out of these markets. He further instructed that he want every media,
be it FM channel, prime time TV channels or news-times, all to wire the information
of M/s Laxmi Steel being our sole dealer in Burdwan region. Das was sharp in giving
instructions to his retail team.
Flashback-6
Knowledge gathering from field expert, Bokaro Marketing Office,
November 3-4, 2018, Friday-Saturday
Sanjeev visited the local retail market at Chas with Bokaro branch head Mr. S Ghosh. The
information received from Bokaro dealers was not very different from that of Burdwan
dealers.
The next two days were scheduled for more dealer meets at Hazaribagh, Giridih and
Ramgarh, The journey was hectic, yet no new direction gathered from these places.
While returning from Ramgarh to Bokaro, Sanjeev asked Mr. Ghosh ‘I have spent on
reading every literature available on TMT bars, even contacted some of the key retired
employees. Secondary manufactures are by virtue of their small size can maintain super
resilience, but I am unable to find how primary producers, our competitors JSL, JSS, or
TSL maintained their resilient supply chain? What’s in their secret?’
Ghosh, had been raised to the position of branch head from a very low background, he
started his carrier as a salesperson. His experience was richer, and he started giving some
reflection on the retail value management of primary manufacturers. “TSL followed a
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very aggressive marketing policy for TMT retail; they simply approached the biggest
dealers of TMT bars in each district of India to be their exclusive dealers. They offered
them 10% of dealer margin, way higher than the prevalent 2-3% dealer margin, assured
to supply required TMT sizes directly to them by road and other benefits. Thus, TSL
‘TIBAR’ could be made available to retail customers at Rs. 51000/ton rate, cheaper by
Rs. 4000/ton than earlier selling rate. Direct road delivery from plant to dealers would
not only eliminate the intermediaries but also provided better margin to dealers. It was a
typical win-win-win situation, customers get a lower price for premium TMT, exclusive
dealers got maximum margin and TSL enjoyed ever increased retail revenue. Each bar
had fixed 12 m length; hence ensured efficient fabrication and least wastage. They also
supplied section-wise TMT in convenient pre-packed bundles with fixed numbers of
pieces per bundle, thus removing the hassle of weighing and delivered by the dealer to
work site for free of charge. TSL introduced Recommended Consumer Prices for better
transparency, displayed at all dealer outlets.
Ghosh continued, ‘JSL launched a new retail TMT brand “Eagle” in India on 5 August
2013 for independent house building customers. JSL also offered stirrups and ready-to-
use cut-and-bend TMT bars through market-based service centers. Customer-centricity
is a major focus area for Eagle, emphasizing on ‘On-Time-In-Full’ delivery. Further
initiatives for differentiated customer service by ‘Eagle’ included branding of all dealer
shops under JSL’s unique ‘Retail Identity Programme’. The USP of ‘Eagle’ was educating
the customer before selling, material selling on per piece basis to avoid wastage and
any ambiguity that may occur in case of weighing, well defined, transparent and fixed
monthly prices, free home delivery’.
‘Sir, their service is an experience for individual customers, they let them feel empowered
which I feel SIL had been lacking since inception. While focusing on business customers,
we lacked the focus to retails customers.’
Das was convening a meeting with the retail strategic team, “Focus on retail branding
and promotions, all-time availability of all sizes free at doorstep and meeting safety
standards, these three will be our key point of selling our TMT. Keep the order in mind;
this will be the order of importance. Focus on these as per the order and teach our would-
be customers. I want every head should turn to our offerings and ask for our products
from dealers. SIL’s key weak point is their non-availability of retail sizes, highlight
through billboards so that people need not even bother to wait for a little for them. Let
them forget their safety advantages and ask for better services”
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Flashback-7
Day of argument, SIL Marketing headquarter, Kolkata,
December 15, 2018, Tuesday
Monday morning, the first hour Mr. Sanjeev went to his reporting officer Ms. P Rosario
General Manager (Retail) and briefed about his visit. He said “Madam, I studied the
different dimensions of the challenge and in my opinion, we lack in terms of cost
competitiveness and service terms. When our competitors are increasing the pace of
marketing and promotion day by day, SIL is still in the mode of a toddler with a casual
approach. In order to gain the market, we have to take head-on with our competitors.
We must deliver a product at competitive prices, offer more value-added services like
free consultancy of architects for designing homes to individual customers. Review of
underperforming dealers is the need of time.”
Further, he presented all his findings to the GM.
GM took a deep breath and said “Definitely you have done a great job and your findings
are worth. On implementation, these would definitely help us improve the performance
but Sanjeev you know that these are not a new thing; these are already been done by our
one or other competitor.”
Rosario then took Sanjeev to the cafeteria and said warmly “Look! Sanjeev I never
consider you as my subordinate I always see my younger brother in you. I appreciate your
passion, your ideas, and your intellect but think deeply and tell whether these changes
would make us a leader in the market, whether they would make us to secure a larger
share of the market- definitely no.”
Mr Sanjeev did not answer. In the meantime, Coffee was served and they sipping of
coffee in guarded silence.
Rosario talked “I was thinking since long to talk to you actually I have a sincere advice
for you.” She further advised him to relocate himself in other promising and upcoming
areas-areas like defence market and over and above area where new requirements were
coming through government initiatives like ‘Make in India’.
Rosario said “These are promising areas and I want a person like you to take the charge,
this would not only help to widen your horizon and but also give boost to your carrier.”
Further she said “We would definitely implement your suggestions for that we have team
of young managers, who have joined SIL few years back and for any suggestion they
would consult you”.
Sanjeev, spent 20+ years in TMT marketing, and had a kind of emotionally connect to it.
Being a veteran sportsman, it was against his principle to give up the field of competition.
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Sanjeev thought for a few minutes and said, ‘Madam, as directed by Chairman, we have
to propose a plan in the next meeting scheduled in Jan 2019. This is an issue of our
prestige, our department prestige over and above prestige of our company. If we do not
take them head-on with our competitor today, they would destroy us, they would beat us
in the game in which we have excelled since long”. He requested “I would like to ask just
3 months from you and let me think and deliver the presentation in Jan 2019 with new
ideas. Beyond that date, Madam, I would be happy to take any assignment given by you.
But for 3 months, please give me an opportunity to try”.
GM sensed the sentiment behind the argument and also knowing the passion of Sanjeev
for a challenge….she nodded positively.
December 20th, 2018, TSL released a TV commercial depicting a confused person named
as ‘Verma Jee’, awaited in front of dealer shop and asking for 8 mm size TMT bars of
safest quality. Commercial ended with TSL supplying ‘TIBAR’ at the doorstep and made
him happy. Das was more than happy seeing this predatory advertising, ‘this will be a
big kick to SIL’
Flashback-8
Journey of enlightenment, Howrah Ranchi Shatabdi Express,
December 20, 2018, Thursday
Shatabdi Express departed from Durgapur station at 7:55 AM and it took 10 mins time
for Sanjeev to settle down in his seat. Sanjeev’ co-passenger was not there at the time of
boarding.
Tea and snacks were served by onboard catering staff, and in the meantime Sanjeev’s co-
passenger arrived. ‘Excuse me, are you Sanjeev? Sanjeev Kapoor….from St. Xavier’s,
Kolkata?’ Sanjeev was literally caught in surprise by the question and replied ‘yes,’ after
a mindful look, Sanjeev recognized him ‘Venki! Oh my god! after so many years. Where
have you been? How are you?’ Sanjeev was literally engulfed with emotion, seeing his old
schoolmate Mr. S. Venkatesh. Sanjeev knew from his social media group that, Venkatesh
is now a professor at IIM, Ahmedabad in marketing and renowned academician in the
field of marketing in India. The initial excitement was followed by lot of reminiscence of
the past and the longtime gap seemed to ease out between those two old school buddies.
It was stroke of fate when Prof. asked his old friend “Sanjeev, how’s about marketing of
STEEL? It is the least discussed subject in our classes, typical commodity mentality, you
know it very well. If you are not offended, I would like to know little bit of present steel
marketing practice in India.”
Sanjeev just catch the opportunity and opened up about his present challenge of dwindling
market share of SIL TMT, most importantly his confusion about the road to turnaround.
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Especially, yesterday’s meeting highlights, fresh to his mind; he uttered the same to
Venki.
Ventakesh took some pause, as the train just reached Asansol Junction and as usual chaos
of passenger de-boarding and boarding broke his concentration. With minutes past, the
dust settled and Venki opened up ‘Sanjeev, I understand you are fighting a bloody war
with your competitors. It has become a competition ridden Red Ocean in which firms are
forced to compete within themselves. The result is an increasing numbers of suppliers,
supply exceeds demand, accelerated commoditization of products, increasing-price wars,
and shrinking profit margins.’
Sanjeev was literally kept in awe; Prof. Venki had just summarized his month-long hard
learned findings in few sentences.
Train continued its journey and just reached Dhanbad Junction. Sanjeev asked Venki
for fresh tea, which he couldn’t refuse. Two earthen cups of tea, typically from station
compound freshened up the minds.
With train departure, Venki again continued ‘My friend, I suggest, instead you create
uncontested new market space that make the competition irrelevant. I came to know
about your products’ superior technical capabilities, use it as a unique value offering
and appeal to a whole new group of customers. You know, value innovation occurs only
when companies align innovation with utility, price, and cost positions, to create blue
oceans, pursue differentiation and low cost simultaneously. Define value curve with
focus; the company cannot diffuse its efforts across all key factors of competition. The
shape of your value curve must diverge from the other players. Create new value for
money offered to customers, drop all unnecessary spending, literate customers about
your products and search for unexplored segments’.
The discussion had to be cut short by Sanjeev, as the outer signaling point of Chandrapura
was visible, Sanjeev had to get down there to visit his plant, while Venki would continue
his journey to Ranchi, to attend a seminar at IIM Ranchi the next day.
Venkatesh just concluded ‘Sanjeev, you must design a good tagline for your products.
When you build up a powerful marketing phrase it gives a precise picture of what your
product is about, what its qualities are and what the customers can benefit from it. Catchy
slogan and the brand name are the key components of brand identity. Based on the tone
and language of the slogan, your brand will be positioned in the targeted market. It creates
a unique identity of your brand which lasts in customers’ mind. They can identify your
brand with the slogan.
With these fruitful discussions, friends were separated with the promise to keep in touch
over social networking sites. Sanjeev gained a lot food for thought; a future action plan
was started emerging in his mind. Sanjeev had gained hands-on information about the
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steel retail business, and the commodity retailing in general.

Das arranged to publish an interview in ECONOMICS TIMES, on the TMT market in
India. In the Q&As, he categorically mentioned the key advantages of TSL ‘TIBAR’
over local manufactures, stating the product quality and value-added services e.g.
delivery schedule. A general mass education exercise through an article, but Das eyed
the interview to raise customer expectation about standard quality of TMT bars, the
unique selling point that TSL would enjoy after systematic removal of SIL TMT and other
primary producers from the market.
Flashback- 9
Days of Inquisitiveness, Steel Plant, SIL,
December 20, 2018, Thursday
SIL had been producing TMT from one of the established mills and all production units
for producing steel from raw materials; the plant Mr. Sanjeev visited had commissioned
brand new TMT rolling facility. There he met with General Managers and various other
technocrats, but the particular words of a dynamic senior manager (quality control) Mr.
S K De, he revered the most.
Mr. De pointed out, “SIL TMT bars pose a unique combination of higher strength
with better ductility that surpass the specific levels mentioned for this class by BIS.
Characterized by the best UTS/YS (Ultimate Tensile Strength/ Yield Strength) ratio
of 1.8 in this class, these bars can absorb more energy when stressed beyond yield
points without any catastrophic failures, required to tolerate sudden occurrence such
as earthquake/ tsunami etc. Processed through advanced manufacturing process, this
combination is achieved through automated and sophisticated cooling and following
stringent process control so that optimum ratio of softer core and harder outer ring with
uniform ratio is always maintained. Resultantly higher uniform elongation is achieved.
Highly clean steel for our TMT bars are made by primary steel making followed by
secondary refining process resulting in lower levels of Sulphur and phosphorous as well
as gaseous content (enhanced resistance to cold and hot cracking and enhanced internal
soundness). Prominent and uniform rib pattern, provide stronger bonding with concrete.
Moreover, superior bendability allows easier bending with less effort, easier for on-site
structural application.”
Mr. De’s critical value factor was even more highlighting “Sir, SIL TMT is technologically
superior to competitors. If a customer chose SIL TMT over our competitor’s products,
they would have to use only 80-85% of TMT for house construction. It ultimately saves
in his building cost.”
TSL had released many print media campaigns depicting the earlier released TV
commercial, and shown how confused ‘Verma Jee’ was made happy with TSL ‘TIBAR’.
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Flashback-10
Judgment days, Quarterly marketing review, Kolkata,
January 7th, 2019, Monday
It was the biggest day in Sanjeev Kapoor’s 20+ years of the career of selling TMT. He
was about to present the action plan for reviving the retail market share of SIL TMT.
Video conferencing started at 9:15 sharp which was unexpected for SIL marketing division.
After the initial briefing and customary well-wishing, Executive Director (Marketing)
Ms. Bhattacharya directly urged Sanjeev to start the day with his presentation. Sanjeev
felt that he was not the only person who is excited that morning.
‘Good Morning respected ED Madam, all the GMs, and my colleagues of SIL marketing
division’ Sanjeev tried to soften up his tension under a calm welcome ritual.
Ms. Bhattacharya showed a little impatience over this customary greeting, ‘Sanjeev can
we directly come to your action points? I am eager to implement them at once.’
‘Madam’, sensing the market pressure taking a toll on ED’s patience Sanjeev continued,
‘we need to devise a second curve and implement aggressively’. Sanjeev tried to put as
much emphasis as possible on his next words, ‘My proposal is to produce and market our
TMT in Fe 500D category under entirely new retail brand ‘‘The Empire’’. It would be
our game changer, beating our all competitors and create a niche market’.
ED was literally kept in awe, ‘Sanjeev, do we have sufficient market for an entirely new
brand? What about the demand?’
A momentary pause engulfed whole of the marketing division hearing the conversation,
and Sanjeev continued after the initial awe, ‘Madam, at first I would like to discuss
predicted demand of TMT in India. MGI projections show India’s urban population
soaring from 340 million in 2008 to 590 million in 2030. And this urban expansion would
happen at a speed quite unlike anything India has seen before. MGI projects that, to meet
urban demand, the economy would have to build between 700 million and 900 million
square meters of residential and commercial space a year. As we all know, recently the
government has announced a target of 11.8 million urban houses by 2022 under the
“Housing for All” initiative, known as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. The main objective
of the PM Awas Yojana Scheme is housing that is affordable for all by the year 2022.
These would require a huge amount of TMT bars’.
‘Madam, I would like to give you another perspective on the increased requirement of
home safety. United Nations and World Bank estimate that by 2050, 200 million city
dwellers in India would be exposed to storms and earthquakes. If we take the seismic
map of India (Fig. 3), 54% of land in India is vulnerable to earthquake and large parts fall
within the highest probable earthquake areas (Zone 5), High Damage Risk Zone (Zone
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4) and Moderate Damage Risk Zone (Zone 3). Concrete reinforcing with TMT induce
desired ductility and bond characteristics to absorb tensile forces. Good quality TMT has
high ductility and resistant of earthquake. Fe 500D considered as the best TMT for India
because it provides the right mix of strength and flexibility.
ED seemed a bit hasty, ‘Demand would be for TMT, and how SIL exclusively would
benefit from it?’
Sanjeev continued, ‘Madam, presently 70% rebars in India manufactured by local players
using the crude process from scrap melting in Induction Furnace route, followed by
manual rib cutting and processing. The main issue with all of the secondary producers
is quality and consistency. To further delve into the matter, EPC World had collected a
total of 44 samples of 8 mm and 16 mm TMT bars of 25 brands and tested. The products
collected from the primary players passed out with flying colors, but most of the secondary
players failed to meet the required parameters’ (Table 10).
ED saw a faint but clear sunlight at the end of the tunnel. ‘Sanjeev, primary steel makers
TMT conforms to standards, that means secondary producers literally supply under-
specified?’
Sanjeev ‘Exactly Madam, that’s the point. A common man generally invests his lives’
biggest savings into building a house, it’s a dream home not only a house. And he can
change paints/interior/decorations as frequently as he fancies, but the TMT is something
he can’t change during his lifetime. Secondary players just keep them deprived of safety
and longevity through bluffing them with a low cost or free home delivery, or with giving
free bounty e.g. announcing the lucky draw for buying TMT.
GM (Retail) intervened, ‘Sanjeev, sorry for the interruption, but we had been producing
and selling Fe 500 D grade TMT for long. All our competitors manufacture Fe 500D
grade TMT bars and sell. What is so special in telling that for SIL now?’
Sanjeev, ‘Madam, exactly that’s my point, that everybody including we sell that grade in
the market through retail and project channels, along with all our other TMT grades e.g.
Fe 415 & Fe 550’.
Sanjeev suggested enthusiastically “Madam, We have to carve out a separate category,
which will exclusively cater retail buyers, by creating a brand ‘The Empire’, through
which will give all the offering both in term of technology and services required by
retails buyers. .
‘Madam, I have prepared a strategy canvas for the brand ‘The Empire’ I propose (Fig.
4). I have identified 15 key attributes that are mutually exclusive collectively exhaustive,
prevailing in the retail market segment of TMT. A comparison of ‘The Empire’ vis-à-vis
competing brands clearly show that price, free doorstep delivery, detail size availability,
and availability as a single piece are the attributes offered almost by all competitors, be
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it from primary or secondary players. Retail brand and properties are something that
only primary players excel, and secondary tries to match but are generally way behind.
‘The Empire’ brand would provide all these as per the market benchmark, but in addition
we would deliver more value to our retail customers e.g. uniform properties, BIS
standardization, Mill Test Certificate, ease of bending, fulfilling safety standards, defined
retail price, Seismic resistant, Ultimate cost economy, and Fire-resistant TMT bars. We
would brand ‘The Empire’ TMT bars primarily focusing on these 11 key attributes, and
mentioning the first 4 attributes as our co-value proposition’.
ED finally saw something to count upon, and urged Sanjeev to elaborate further.
Sanjeev, ‘Madam, ‘The Empire’ TMT would focus on our technological advantages
like consistent quality along with uniform grades, dimensions, and tolerances. It also
would come with superior stability, higher durability, and easy workability. The bars
could be bent to the exact angle desired by the design around mandrels unlike ordinary
rebars and bending angle would be much smaller in diameter than what is specified in IS:
1786, which would be a genuine advantage for easier onsite works. ‘The Empire’ TMT
would require 15-20% less usage than TMT from local manufacturers for same work.
This would result in an overall saving of 15-20%. ‘The Empire’ TMT would have 100%
rib coverage, non-uniform fatigue strength, much higher fatigue resistance to dynamic/
seismic loads due to its higher ductility. ‘The Empire’ TMT with carbon content less
than 0.25% could be used for butt and other weld joints without a reduction in strength
at the joints, would not require pre or post welding treatment. We would highlight
low P and S content in ‘The Empire’ which ensure no cracking either in hot or cold
condition. The energy dissipation would be almost the same for each cycle, uniformly
maintained ductility throughout repeated stress cycles. This would give higher strength
to the structure and hence a longer life. Greater rib depth and closer rib spacing of ‘The
Empire’ would ensure a better grip with concrete, to form the strongest bond. Our TMT
process gives these bars anti-corrosive properties. Higher elongation would enable ‘The
Empire’ to accommodate plastic deformation without necking, thereby resisting ultimate
failure and providing higher safety. ‘The Empire’ TMT bars would boast of high thermal
stability and could resist temperatures ranging from 400 to 600 degrees Celsius.
GM (Retail) was a bit skeptical about Sanjeev’s plan, ‘Sanjeev all the technical things
you would like to highlight is already present in SIL TMT. How would you differentiate
‘The Empire’ to make it leading brand”.
Sanjeev expected this question and completed his homework ‘Madam, the main
difference between SIL TMT and ‘The Empire’ would be the customer value proposition,
vis-à-vis competing products (Table 11) and its strategic positioning through branding.
The Empire’ would offer a Reduction in (i) Steel impurities e.g. S & P content below
specific BIS norms, (ii) overall TMT requirement and building cost as offering stronger
TMT (iii) customer hassle by offering TMT by piece than prevailing practice of selling
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TMT by weight (Table 12) and free doorstep delivery, (iv) chance of catastrophic failure
in the event of natural calamity (v) insecurity about the quality and property of TMT
customer paid for. Though ‘The Empire’ brand we would Create (i) Customer awareness
about seismic quality and earthquake/fire resistant TMT (ii) safety standards and govt.
specification of TMT (Table 14). ‘The Empire’ would Raise customer expectation e.g. (i)
TMT with higher strength with better ductility (ii) importance of UTS/YS ratio and urge
to get best in the class ratio of 1.18 (‘The Empire’s) (Fig. 5) (iv) longer life of individual
homes. (iv) Better transparency in price, we would be changing our pricing policy, from
present practice of declaring recommended retail prices (RRP) in Rs./ton format we will
be declaring RRP in Rs./piece format (Table 13) through our website. The ‘The Empire’
TMT would Eliminate certain competitive factors prevailing in TMT market e.g. (i)
lowest cost concept (ii) practice of selling anything e.g. QST bars or cold twisted bars
in the name of TMT (iii) traditional paper work with latest IT tools (iv) hefty secondary
bounty offerings e.g. lucky draw coupons. There are number of player especially in
secondary market which flouts government specified specification to get cost advantage.
But as usual we will also follow government specified specifications and encash our tag
of most ethical company in the steel sector.’
Madam, ‘The Empire’ would not only compete with the existing TMT brands in the
already hyper-competitive TMT market on customer service turf, but also create its own
turf and make competition irrelevant. We would be the first to deliver something that the
customers haven’t experienced yet and be the only one to quench their thirst’.
ED (marketing) Ms. Bhattacharya was impressed with these propositions. It was
ultimately she, who had to present something tangible to the Chairman and board, for
SIL TMT turnaround.
Sanjeev further confirmed,’ Madam, I have visited our plant and had an extensive
discussion with frontline people. We have all capabilities that I claimed and we would
deliver them’.
ED replied ‘Sanjeev, I am not doubtful about our technical capabilities and I also believe
that, in the coming days technological advantage converted in customer value offerings
would only rule the market. Your hypothesis fits that concept. One of the key focus areas
of the marketing efforts of SIL in future is to increasingly move towards selling Brands.
Now, I am more inclined to think about the branding of our advantages to the customers’.
Sanjeev, thanks to his meeting with Prof., he also has prepared ‘The Empire’ brand
manual. He confidently tackled the question ‘Madam, '‘The Empire’' which would be
sold only through the retail channel across the country. I have prepared a brand manual
of ‘The Empire’. This Manual would aim at promoting the Brand '‘The Empire’' by
creating a strong brand identity. The branding of '‘The Empire’' TMT Bars would put into
the hands of the ultimate retail consumer the power of taking an informed decision: the
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decision to purchase a quality product from the stables of SIL, a product that would offer
peace of mind to the consumer having secured savings of one's lifetime’.
Our employees and channel partners i.e., the distributors, the dealers, and their sales
force would the brand ambassadors for our brands. ‘The Empire’ stamp on every meter
of the bar and ‘The Empire’ strip on every bundle would prove the genuineness of our
TMT Bar’.
Sanjeev continued with a passionate voice ‘We would advertise ‘‘The Empire’’ TMT
through all the presently available channels; above the Line (ATL) including radio,
TV and out of home advertising e.g. billboards, lampposts, etc., below the Line (BTL)
targeting at the point of sale, like a roll-up banner, sales sample, shelf stopper, brochure
distributed in-store, etc. Besides, we would promote ‘The Empire’ through On the Line
(OTL): i.e. through communication done online via various websites of mass use e.g.
IRCTC’.
ED (marketing) interrupted the passionate marketer, ‘Sanjeev, what have you thought
about the products tagline?’
Sanjeev replied, ‘Madam, the tagline of ‘The Empire’ would be ‘No worry’, it reflects
the safety assurances that ‘The Empire’ TMT would offer uniquely to our customers’.
GM (retail) herein asked ‘Sanjeev, what about the supply logistics? What’s your
proposition?’
Sanjeev answered to his quarry, ‘Madam, we would continue prevailing 2 tier networks of
distributor and dealers for supply. Distributor would facilitate ‘The Empire’ brand products
manufactured by our plant reaching to the Dealer. Dealer for a particular area would be
selling ‘The Empire’ brand products, would be appointed only upon recommendation
of Distributor of a particular region. A dealer primarily would be involved in selling
‘The Empire’ brand products to the ultimate consumer. ‘The Empire’ products would be
delivered to the dealer through the Distributor from the stock house. Since a dealer would
be only authorized to sell ‘The Empire’ brand products, he would enjoy the brand image
of the company by receiving advertising support as well as incentive schemes.”
‘Madam’, Sanjeev uttered with mere confidence, ‘I target to gain Rs. 1200 per ton of
higher NSR than Fe500D TMT sold through projects channels.
The presentation ended with unified applauds and ED (Marketing) herself declared
Sanjeev as ‘The Empire’ brand in charge, with direction to plan the micro-details. ‘I will
convince respected chairman sir and board members to launch ‘The Empire’. This is
going to be our game-changer.’
Further to his aggressive policies, Das called his C&IT team for a meeting ‘USP for TSL
‘TIBAR’ is customer ease, I want you to develop a customer portal and mobile app so
that our customers can order from home convenience and get the ordered quantity home
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delivered within 48 hours. I want to empower our customers, more with service features.
Go and get it done, I want to launch that in next year.
Flashback-11
Action day, Kolkata,
May 7th, 2019, Tuesday
Following 5 months were most hectic for Sanjeev and the whole team of retail marketing.
‘The Empire’ launch was first targeted for Eastern region. Advertisements were aired
in FM for 8 States through 11 FM Stations, TV Advertisement in a news channel,
Advertisement in local newspapers with Dealer Name and contact were published. Bulk
Printing of ‘The Empire’ Product Brochures (including those in vernacular Language),
completed and distributed. ‘The Empire’ launched workshops organized in 5 Distributor
clusters viz Howrah, Patna, Kolkata, Siliguri and Guwahati (Table 15) with many smaller
interactions held simultaneously. Unique promotion through influencer management
schemes for Masons, Engineers & Architects, Mediclaim for Masons. Sponsorship offers
for the Education of Mason’s ward was organized. Distributors were arranged for Plant
visit for process knowhow (From Steelmaking to TMT Production). The training session
for use of Tally by Dealers was organized. For ensuring delivery of fresh materials,
covering with Tarpaulin in Wagon/ Transit and Covering of materials in the yard with
Tarpaulin sheets was ensured. Dealer margin was increased slightly, and deliveries to all
dealers irrespective of Distance were ensured.
Sanjeev remembered the day May 7th, 2019; when First consignment of ‘The Empire’
flagged off from plant to distributor stockyard. The event was chaired by the chairman
himself, instilling confidence on the whole team of the brand ‘The Empire’.
On April 1st, 2019 TSL had announced a mobile app for customer order booking and
online payment, a similar platform like online marketing sites. The portal was inaugurated
by CMD of TSL from the corporate office, Mumbai, and its grand launch was created
a media buzz around the country. Primarily the services were limited to eastern and
northern selected locations, with the vision to implement nationwide. Das finally devised
a master stoke to blow off all competitors, especially SIL TMT in the weakest point of
availability and customer comfort.
Chapter-2
Retail strategy meeting, TSL,
January 06, 2020, Monday, 09:30 AM
It was an urgent meeting called by CEO, TSL himself with his marketing people. The
dwindling market shares of TIBAR has been a constant headache, and increasing market
presence of SIL ‘The Empire’ had primarily been the reason for it. CEO, Mr. P K Das
146
had been known to be a taskmaster, with strong technical background supported by a
marketing MBA degree from XLRI, Jamshedpur. He knew both technical capabilities,
and market dynamics, however the consistent defeat of TSL TMT had not yet been
stopped and he was literally annoyed to this marketing team. His position is at stake too,
because all the decisions for ‘TIBAR’ marketing he took.
‘Good morning gentlemen, as I have already conveyed, this meeting has the sole purpose
to formulate a killing strategy, to regain our TMT retail market share and I don’t want
to lose even a single inch more to ‘The Empire’. They have redefined the competition; I
want an actionable strategy from your collective immediately. Do anything to make “The
Empire” to fail”
‘Yes, ignite your spark, light your fire. Burn the ‘The Empire’ down, burn it all. I
wish the ‘The Empire’ ground to ashes’.
I want rise of ‘Our Empire 2’! HOW? WHEN?
Teaching Note:
Steel India Limited (SIL), the country’s largest steelmaker had been producing TMT for
long. The Company had been producing the complete range of TMT and occupied the
seat of market leader. Though conventionally supplied through B2B marketing channels
catering to the projects customers, SIL had been one of the country’s first company to go
for TMT selling through retail channels. Its quality was beyond doubt.
SIL had been successfully managing project sales (B2B marketing) and retails sales
(B2C marketing), simultaneously. But the retails TMT segment of India had seen
entry of many manufactures, some being the primary manufactures (national players)
and secondary manufactures (regional champions). With presence of more and more
suppliers, market share of SIL TMT in retail segment was dwindling over the last few
years. Given the competition, SIL had chosen the path to fight back and Sanjeev Kapoor,
Regional Manager (RM) (Retail marketing, East) had been given the responsibility of
formulating strategy to bounce back with force.
The hard-working and passionate Sanjeev Kapoor studied the issue through different
angles and levels, to have the comprehensive feel of the situation. Sanjeev Kapoor
had contacted different distributors, dealers, customers, and meets the people at the
production level. He had identified many a root cause e.g. uncertain availability of retails
sizes (8, 10, 12 & 16 mm in particular), internal competition between retail and project
sales of its own brand, absence of a retail brand, and specific marketing strategy etc. The
enlightened discussion with Prof. Venkatesh, faculty marketing, IIM Ahmedabad had
given Sanjeev a key input. The Indian TMT market was typically a competition ridden
red ocean market, in which ﬁrms were forced to compete within themselves. SIL had to
create another curve for TMT retail selling, define new turfs of competition and make the
147
whole competition irrelevant.

Sanjeev had convinced SIL management to launch a new brand ‘The Empire’ for retail
TMT marketing. He had identified 15 strategic points, which was focused through
branding strategy. The unimportant features were eliminated, some common offerings
were reduced, customer awareness was strategically raised and come new market
demands were created. ‘The Empire’ had been marketed under brand new tagline ‘No
Worry’, focused on entirely new value proposition for the customers. ‘The Empire’
offered both economical products with highest quality standards.
‘The Empire’ had been successful in creating a market niche and its market share has
been increasing since its launch. The success had inspired SIL to plan for pan India roll
out and try out newer markets.
This success had raised a strategic challenge to the competitors who woke up to the
new Brand in the market, and they also started putting in place their strategy to compete
aggressively with ‘The Empire’.
Learning objective
This case has been developed to give a glimpse of real competitive market place to
the learners. Situations and contending viewpoints represent the classic dilemma of
competition ridden red-ocean market. The inquisitive journey of the protagonist can
be followed by every turnaround manager. The strategy canvas concept should be the
guiding principle for every strategic decision making. This case discusses how to brand
of a commodity and created market niche by offering unique value to customers. It is
also important to make customers aware about the unique features of products offerings
and henceforth to create uncontested market space. Contrary to the conventional view,
simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost strategy can be implemented as
discussed in this case. The case allows students to make decisions while dealing with
situations pertaining to completion and decline in market position. The major expected
learning outcomes of the current case include
• Understand the retail TMT sector in India
• Identify the major challenges faced by TMT manufacturers
• List down key strategy issues in any enterprise
• Analyse strategies that can be adopted to deal with market challenges
• Construct a strategy for market turnaround
Whatever be the strategy, it is sure that this will be challenges with counter strategy
and hence the process of business reinvention must be followed continuously by every
enterprise.
148
Learning from the Case study:
This case is true Indian case study with issues and challenges for the production
organization of India. This case study touches number of facets of business in today’s
context. This case has a strong potential to use as a teaching tool to show the application
of a theory or concept to real situations. The case study presents learners with problems
and challenges based on real-life situations and drive them to make difficult decisions
based on the evidence given. The case is designed to raise questions and to present just
enough argument to stimulate/engage learners to find their own answers.
One side Blue Ocean Strategy has been used to study the company strategy. The only
way to beat the competition is to stop trying to beat the competition. In blue oceans,
competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. ... another
side, the dilemma of a frontline marketing manager has been discussed. The major issue
it touches is the branding exercise of steel products and establishing it in the market as
the leader of the product. The case study gives a comprehensive idea of how the various
strategies and small initiatives impact the market of the product.
The reasons for failure of an enterprise are hidden inside the minds of all stakeholders,
including channel partners, agents, field employees and most importantly customers.
Beyond the formal report and presentation, informal discussion on the spot reveals the
business loopholes.
Strategy canvas is a great tool, for identifying the key controlling factor of any business.
A good strategy canvas itself present faults of present strategy and automatically derive
to a newer strategy plugging the loopholes.
Academic learning is developed for the real situation; industry academia partnership
often brings new perspective of analysis the present crisis from an outsider.
When everyone in the market place fights for enhanced customer service, shifting to new
direction i.e. highlighting technology and safety in this case, can be a game changer.
Branding should be focused on unique products offerings, backed up with oriented
tagline.
Competition is omnipresent in the market; hence continuous reinvention is key to
sustainable survival for every business.
Case Analysis
In today's environment most firms operate under intense competition and try to do
everything to gain market share. When the product comes under pricing pressure there is
always a possibility that a firm’s operations could well come under threat. This situation
usually comes when the business is operating in a saturated market, also known as 'Red
Ocean'. When there is limited room to grow, businesses try and look for verticals or
149
avenues of finding new business where they can enjoy uncontested market share or 'Blue
Ocean'. A blue ocean exists when there is potential for higher profits, as there is now
competition or irrelevant competition. The strategy aims to capture new demand, and to
make competition irrelevant by introducing a product with superior features. It helps the
company in make huge profits as the product can be priced a little steep because of its
unique features.
SIL enjoyed the market leadership position in India since long, however it was more
familiarized with B2B marketing. Though TMT retail selling was initiated, always there
had been a secondary approach from SIL’s management side. With the advent of many
primary and secondary players in TMT retail, market share of SIL TMT had steadily been
declining. Higher NSR of retail market seemed attractive to SIL management off late,
and that was followed by a series of inquisitive voyage by Mr. Sanjeev Kapoor. Inputs
from stakeholders pointed to key lacunas of SIL retail marketing, which was somehow
lost in the formal feedback sessions.
Mr. Sanjeev proposed to launch SIL TMT under brand name ‘The Empire’, solely for
retail sale. The strategy canvas was dran and unique value proposition of ‘The Empire’
were highlighted to customers, through focused branding and promotion activities. most
importantly various safety and ‘built as per specification’ features were highlighted
through concentrated branding efforts. Supply chain logistics were corrected as per retail
market requirements, hassle free customer experience was ensured,
‘The Empire’ successfully implemented both cost and differentiation strategies, it
was economical for customers to use ‘The Empire’ than TMT bars from primary and
secondary manufactures, it had been market leader in offering safety to buildings against
any accidents. ‘The Empire’ reduced extra features (those with no additional value to
customer) of erstwhile SIL TMT, eliminate a few non-essential features, raise customer
awareness and craving for safer TMT and create new competitive features, necessary for
building longevities.
Case Discussion Questions
1. Which are the key factors, controlling the market share of your organization?
2. If you had been at the helm of an organization like SIL, would you have supported
Sanjeev Kapoor to tackle the market challenge? If not, then explain your approach.
If yes, why?
3. Where TSL failed actually? Where are the areas Mr. Das should look into, in short
and medium term?
4. Being the retail heads of TSL TMT, what would be your suggestion to Mr. Das and
how would you convince him for course correction?
5. What strategy SIL should adopt for capturing the Pan India market?
150
6. What strategy Mr. Das can adopt to counter SIL’s growing ambitions?
7. What strategy the secondary producers can adopt, as in the competition of bigger
player their existence is in dark?
8. If international behemoths choose to enter Indian retail TMT sector, what
suggestions would you like to give to Mr. Kapoor for maintain the growth?
9. If you were Mr. Das, the CEO of TSL, what would be your strategy for regaining
the market share?
Suggested assignments
1. Develop branding strategy for ‘The Empire’ for pan India launch? Please discuss
marketing focus, promotion channels and taglines etc.
2. Propose a turnaround strategy for Mr. Das, what should be his key priorities and
actions? Discuss what value innovation he must offer for gaining market share
3. Develop strategy canvas for TSL ‘TIBAR’, JSL ‘Eagle’, JSS and secondary
players, highlighting their key strategic factors.
Additional reading
“Blue ocean strategy: how to create uncontested market space and make the competition
irrelevant” authored by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. HARVARD BUSINESS
SCHOOL PRESS, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ISBN 1-59139-619-0
Acknowledgment
The authors are highly thankful to Shri Pritam Saha, GM, Railway Coordination Group,
CMO, SAIL, Kolkata for his guidance and support with necessary information.
References
1 https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/urbanization/urban-awakening-in-
india
2 Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, pmaymis.gov.in
3 "Indian cities under threat of storms & earthquakes by 2050: World Bank & United
Nations". The Times Of India. 2011-12-09.
4 https://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/wcee/article/WCEE2012_4924.pdf
5 EPC World November – 2018, page 27
6 https://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/india/seismiczone.htm
151
Exhibit 1: Organization chart of SIL Marketing division
152
Table 2: Percentage market share of Bars & Rods segment in India
SIL TSL JSS JSL Secondary Import
Q4, 17-18 6.4 8.7 7.6 3.3 61.8 0.4
Q1, 18-19 6.3 8.9 7.6 4.1 65.6 1
Q2, 18-19 6.1 9 6.9 3.5 64.5 0.9
Q3, 18-19 6.1 9.2 8.3 3.9 63.5 0.9
Q4, 18-19 5.9 10 8.6 5.6 65.2 1.1
Q1, 19-20 4.5 10.2 6.9 5.5 67.7 1
Q2, 19-20 4.8 10.3 5.7 4.8 70.3 0.8
Q3, 19-20 7.3 9.2 7.7 4.4 61.2 0.3
Table 3: Quarterly sales of Bars & rods in India, in 000 tons
SIL TSL JSS JSL Secondary Import
Q4, 17-18 610 1047 725 309 5871 34
Q1, 18-19 465 790 671 365 5805 90
Q2, 18-19 552 819 624 316 5872 80
Q3, 18-19 543 803 721 339 5532 81
Q4, 18-19 618 914 787 516 5052 98
Q1, 19-20 451 839 689 554 6780 102
Q2, 19-20 446 814 600 505 7345 86
Q3, 19-20 696 880 741 475 5850 32
Table 4: Region wise sales of Bars & rods produced by SIL, in 000 tons
ER NR WR SR
Q4, 17-18 171 203 142 140
Q1, 18-19 108 165 108 78
Q2, 18-19 131 171 120 114
Q3, 18-19 132 189 115 93
Q4, 18-19 174 208 144 130
Q1, 19-20 103 163 102 76
Q2, 19-20 109 164 88 85
Q3, 19-20 191 231 172 102
153
Table 5: Cost advantage of ‘The Empire’ over SIL TMT

Avg. Selling price, Rs./T Avg. NSR of ‘The Empire’ higher by, Rs.
‘The Empire’ SIL TMT, Project Target Average
43,755 42,825 1200 800
Table 6: Comparison of average price of different TMT bars
TMT Primary suppliers Secondary suppliers
bar Empire TSL JSL JSS Secondary Secondary Secondary Secondary Secondary
size 'TIBAR' 'Eagle'
I II III IV V
Rs./pc Rs./pc Rs./pc Rs./pc Rs./pc Rs./pc Rs./pc Rs./pc Rs./pc

8 mm 280 293 294 292 286 282 284 271 271
10 440 445 448 445 440 430 435 432 416
mm
12 625 638 632 637 622 617 624 502 593
mm
16 1110 1135 1129 1133 1107 1098 1109 1071 1054
mm
20 1750 1774 1766 1771 1731 1716 1752 1635 1692
mm
Table 7: Average monthly sales of ‘The Empire

TMT BARS, Tons TMT COILS, Tons Grand Total
16 mm 20 mm 8 mm Total 10 mm 8 mm Total
BHUBANESHWAR 393 - 146 539 - 502 502 1040
BOKARO 162 103 38 302 - - - 302
DURGAPUR 448 - - 448 - - - 448
GUWAHATI 652 50 702 321 321 1023
KOLKATA 1034 - 88 1122 189 192 381 1503
PATNA 431 123 - 554 64 95 159 714
ROURKELA 154 25 - 179 172 181 352 531
Total 3273 300 272 3846 425 1290 1715 5561
154
Table 8: Monthly average demand of ‘The Empire’, size wise
Monthly demand, ton
S.NO. Branch Location 8 mm 10 mm 12 mm 16 mm 20 mm TOTAL
1 Guwahati Ne 500 300 200 500 200 1800
Siliguri 300 200 200 300 0 1000
2 Kolkata Howrah 550 400 450 450 300 2700
Kolkata 400 200 200 350 200 1504
3 Rourkela Sundargarh 300 300 300 300 40 1240
4 Patna Patna 450 450 350 350 200 2000
5 Bokaro Bokaro 275 325 425 375 350 2263
Cuttack 800 350 900 700 150 2975
6 Bhubaneshwar
Behrampur 800 600 300 400 100 2220
7 Durgapur Durgapur 600 250 350 400 250 2000
TOTAL Er 4975 3375 3675 4125 1790 19702
% Wise Break-up---> 25 17 19 21 9 100
Exhibit 2: Quarterly market share of bars &

rods market segment in India
Exhibit 3: Seismic map of India, 2019

[6]
155
Table 9: Monthly demand of ‘The Empire’ in Northern region

Name of Location Total 8 MM, ton 10 MM, ton 12MM, 16MM,
ton ton
Allahabad 256 128 128
Agra 0 0 0 0 0
Chandigarh 320 64 64 64 128
Delhi 832 128 128 128 448
Ghaziabad 576 128 64 64 320
Faridabad 832 128 128 128 448
Jammu 0 0 0 0
Kanpur 640 128 64 64 384
Ludhiana 320 64 64 64 128
Total requirement 3776 640 640 640 1856
156
157
Exhibit 4: Strategy canvas of SIL ‘The Empire’ vis a vis competitor TMT
Table 11: Value offering comparison of ‘The Empire’ with secondary
TMT manufacturer
‘The Empire’ You get Secondary (local) You get
products
Steel making from Controlled property, Scrap melting Uncertain
fresh raw material, Highly clean & process, with little properties &
with precision homogenous quality control unreliable quality
control
High end Thermo- High strength with Outdated rolling Nonuniform
mechanical ductility and processes structure and
treatment process inconsistent quality
Uniform rib patent Excellent bond Manual rib cutting, ‘X’ rib/non uniform
and size, engraved strength with with inconsistent pattern has low
through CNC concrete dimension fatigue life and
machine lower bond strength
High UTS/YS Earthquake resistant Low UTS/YS ratio Low resistance
ratio of 1.8 & high quality & High variation in to cyclic loading,
elongation elongation inferior earthquake
properties
158
Surpasses BIS More value for Not qualifying all Doubtful quality
standards money BIS standards
Predefined and Uniform rates, Daily fluctuation in Doubtful pricing,
transparent price displayed at dealer price commission
outlet dependent price
National brand World class quality A local, regional Average quality
brands
Table 12: Weigh chart of ‘The Empire’
TMT size Weight, kg/m Weight, kg/per piece (12 m length)
8 mm 0.39 4.68
10 mm 0.62 7.44
12 mm 0.89 10.68
16 mm 1.58 18.96
20 mm 2.47 29.64
Table 13: Change in RRP format
SIL TMT ‘The Empire’
RRP, Rs./Ton RRP, Rs./pc
Avg. Tentative
8 mm 56500 260
10 mm 54933 400
12 mm 54267 570
16 mm 54267 1000
20 mm 53667 1500
Table 14: Property comparison of ‘The Empire’ vis a vis competitor TMT brands
IS 1786: SIL JSL, TSL JSS Secondary Secondary Secondary Secondary
2008 ‘The ‘Eagle ‘TIBAR’ producer producer producer producer
Empire’ IV
(Fe I II III
500D
grade)
CHEMICAL PROPERTY
% C, Max 0.25 0.25 0.20- 0.25 0.20- 0.25 0.22 0.30 0.02
0.25 0.23
% S, Max 0.040 0.035 0.03 0.035 0.03 0.04 0.035 0.040 0.028
% P, Max 0.040 0.035 0.03 0.035 0.03 0.04 0.035 0.040 0.032
% S+P, Max 0.075 0.070 0.055 0.07 0.05 0.075 0.065 - 0.06
MECHANICAL PROPERTY
YS, MPa, Min 500 500 525 540 530 500 560 500 535
159
Tensile strength, 565 650 - 600 530 565 - - 622

MPa
UTS/YS ratio, 1.10 1.18 1.15 1.12 1.10 - - - 1.16
Min
Elongation, Min 16 18 18 18 16 16 20 14 18
Bend test min. 3d 2d - - 3d 3d 2-3 d - 3
mandrel dia
(upto 20 mm)
Rebend mandrel 4d 3d - - 4d 4d 3-5 d - 4
dia (upto 10
mm)
Exhibit 5: Stress strain curve of ‘The Empire’
160
Cases Sourced through :
http://nhrd-ranchi.blogspot.com/2020/02/8th-anubhav-management-case-study.html
Published by : STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA LIMITED

Management Training Institute
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Ranchi - 834002, Jharkhand

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Cases Sourced through :

ANUBHAV : The Management Case Study Development Contest

STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA LIMITED

Executive Director (HRD) & Ranchi Chapter

President – NHRDN, Ranchi

Can HR Be A Business Partner

Dilemma Turning into Reality: Odyssey of Success

Safety Culture: Analysing Workers Safety Perspective

ZENSAR - A Billion Dollar Transformation

Get API or get out : Marketing of API grade

GO DESi: Scaling Up Challenges of a Social Enterprise

Emerging Human Resource Challenges in a Pandemic World

The Rise of ‘THE EMPIRE’

AnkurBhadury, SAIL-ISP, Burnpur

metallurgy, mechanical, electrical, automation, HR, finance.

Exhibit 1: Planned vs. Actual Performance of Various Shops.

Particulars Caster-I Caster-II Caster-III

acknowledge HR as a business partner.

Particulars Aug` 19 Oct` 19

Solutions For The Loading Side

Target of Demurrage reduction involved coordination of multiple departments.

Exhibit 13: Graphical representation of cost comparison of the

Managerial Theories and its Linkage to Mission Morya

Exhibit 14: Dave Ulrich Model for HR Roles

Exhibit 15: Tuckman’s Model of Team Development

Exhibit 16: Tuckman’s Team Development Model

Exhibit 17: Leadership Theories

DILEMMA TURNING INTO REALITY:

2. Trade in which apprentice were to be engaged: The following trades was

• The Mandatory forms to be submitted while applying for the program.

Santosh Kumar P, SAIL-BSP, Bhilai

2. Organizational structure, systems, work forms, technology, capital structure, and

The Core of Organizational Culture

Exhibit 1 : Organizational Culture Nested in Societal and Global Management Culture

Safety Culture: What is it?

Exhibit 2 : Organizational Culture and Safety Culture

What prompted the interest in assessing safety culture?

Mishaps occurred in Bhilai Steel Plant

Exhibit 3 : Fatalities in SAIL and BSP

The Current Case Study

 State-of-the-day and external conditions

a functioning safety performance at work is the responsibility of the individual, and

Part A: Workplace policies and procedures

Part B: Occupational health and safety awareness

20 I receive appropriate feedback/review about

Darshan Shukla, Indian Institute of Management Visakhapatnam

2) A gap in the leadership team.

Growth and Success by Participative Management

Zensar growth post changes in higher management

Zensar Journey Map

Zensar social support

Zensar initiative # Humans of Zensar

Anindya Chakladar, SAIL-CMO, New Delhi

“But why have we waited so long ?”

1. Principles of lean manufacturing :

GAIL GAS 3654 3654

Mathew J. Manimala, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore

of the company, Vinay summed it up in the following question:“How does GO DESi

Exhibit 1: Desi Snacks From Go Desi.

Desipopz Real aamDesipopzKuchaaam

Discussion on the concept of social enterprise Class Discussion 10

thus creating a few successful micro-entrepreneurs. By providing a platform to sell their