SUMMER INTERNSHIP REPORT

ON

MARKETING STRATEGIES IN MACCADIN

SOFTWARE PVT.LTD
Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirement of Bachelor of Business
Administration (B.B.A) General

BBA IIIRD SEMESTER (SHIFT) (SECTION)

BATCH 2011-2014

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Enrollment no.

JAGANNATH INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT SCHOOL KALKAJI

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A lot of effort has gone into this training report. My thanks are due to many people with whom I have
been closely associated.

I would like all those who have contributed in completing this project. First of all, I would like to send
my sincere thanks to MS…………….. for her helpful hand in the completion of my project.

I would like to thank my entire beloved family & friends for providing me monetary as well as non –
monetary support, as and when required, without which this project would not have completed on
time. Their trust and patience is now coming out in form of this thesis.
 CONTENTS
Ch-1: Introduction to the study

1.1Brief overview of study

1.2Objectives of the study

1.3Scope & significance of the study

1.4Limitations of the study

Ch-2: Research Methodology

2.1 Universe

2.2 Sample size and sampling technique

2.3 Data collection (Primary and secondary)

2.4 Presentation tools used

Ch-3: Industry overview

3.1 Past, present and future trends

3.2 Major Players and their respective market share

Ch-4: Company profile

4.1 History

4.2 Vision, Mission and objectives of the company

4.3 Organizational structure/Management hierarchy

4.4 Products and services offered

 4.5 Marketing strategies for customer satisfaction

4.6 Future plans

Ch-5: Theoretical Perspective

Ch-6 Findings and analysis

6.1 General Findings

6.2 Findings based on questionnaire responses

Ch-7 Conclusion and recommendations

7.1 Conclusion

7.2 Suggestions

Annexure

 Bibliography

 Sample Questionnaire
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Marketing Planning is a method of focusing an organization's energies and resources on a course of
action which can lead to increased sales and dominance of a targeted market niche. A marketing
Planning combines product development, promotion, distribution, pricing, relationship management
and other elements; identifies the firm's marketing goals, and explains how they will be achieved,
ideally within a stated timeframe. Marketing Planning determines the choice of target market
segments, positioning, marketing mix, and allocation of resources. It is most effective when it is an
integral component of overall firm planning, defining how the organization will successfully engage
customers, prospects, and competitors in the market arena. Corporate strategies, corporate missions,
and corporate goals. As the customer constitutes the source of a company's revenue, marketing
Planning is closely linked with sales. A key component of marketing Planning is often to keep
marketing in line with a company's overarching mission statement

INTRODUCTION
1.1 BRIEF OVERVIEW OF STUDY

Situation Analysis

Human Capital Maximizers is a start-up company just beginning operations. Marketing efforts will
be critical to ensure success and profitability. HCM offers a wide range of HR consultancy
services. The basic market need is a HR firm to offer in-house like services with flexible compensation
structures taking into account the fact that many start-ups are cash poor, yet are in the need of
professional HR services.

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Market Summary

HCM possess reliable information regarding the market and common attributes of the sought after
customers. HCM will leverage this information to better understand who will be served, their specific
needs, and how HCM can better communicate with them.

Market Analysis

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Market Analysis

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Potential Customers Growth CAGR

Emerging tech companies 10% 345 380 418 460 506 10.05%

Emerging non-tech companies 9% 225 245 267 291 317 8.95%

Other 0% 0 0 0 0 0 0.00%

Total 9.62% 570 625 685 751 823 9.62%

Market Needs

HCM is providing its customers with a wide selection of HR consultancy from a seasoned
professional. The market need is professional HR services for start-up companies with flexible
payment options, recognizing the precarious nature of a start-up. HCM seeks to fulfill the following
benefits that are important to their customers:

 Selection: A wide range of HR services are offered.

 Accessibility: HCM is able to offer these services to companies throughout the Portland and
Vancouver metropolitan areas.
 Customer service: HCM recognizes the fact that outstanding customer service is needed to
survive in today's competitive business environment.
 Competitive pricing: HCM's rates are competitive relative to the other service providers in
the area.

Market Trends

The market trend in professional services, particularly HR is to outsource the services. The advantage
of outsourcing is the reduction in the need for upfront capital, a scarce resource. Additionally,
outsourcing services allows a smaller company to enjoy the same level of service that at one time was
only available to larger companies. The outsourced service industry effectively allows smaller
companies to more easily compete with larger companies that have a larger resource base.

Market Growth

The HR consultancy industry is a $900 million dollar industry that is growing at 12% a year. Within
the last three years the industry has exploded, fueled primarily by the demand created by start-up
companies who are in need of HR services. As their size scales rapidly, they do not have the capital
for an in-house staff.
1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 Study the product, price, promotion and place mix for the Milestone Corporation Pvt.
Ltd to understand the potential of Marketing mix .
 Study the customer perception towards the organisation in terms of service , branding
etc.
 Development of effective marketing mix for the Milestone Corporation.

 The objective of this study is to understand the concept of event marketing, its benefits
and implementation process.

 To evaluate the effectiveness of MILESTONE CORPORATION Pvt.

 To identify the problems associated with MILESTONE CORPORATION Pvt.Ltd in

the Indian scenario.

 To offer suggestions for improvement to make it a more productive investment.

 1.3 SCOPE & SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This project is about hoe the Investor's Behavior is changing and they are now leaving behind the
sacred investment options like the fixed deposits, company deposits, gold etc. Investors are now
looking towards equity linked investment options.

Many individuals find investments to be fascinating because they can participate in the decision
making process and see the results of their choices. Not all investments will be profitable, as investor
wills not always make the correct investment decisions over the period of years; however, you should
earn a positive return on a diversified portfolio. In addition, there is a thrill from the major success,
along with the agony associated with the stock that dramatically rose after you sold or did not buy.
Both the big fish you catch and the fish that get away can make wonderful stories.

1.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

1. There was a time restriction of 45 days, so the study was conducted by selecting a sample of 15
respondents and the facts and findings may not represent a true picture of the procedure followed in
Education Industry
 CHAPTER II
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1 UNIVERSE

In this project use exploratory research design and for data collection fill-up the questionnaires from
the customer of mobile, survey of the market and some information collect by interview of the users
of the cell phone at West Delhi

2.2 SAMPLE SIZE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE

SAMPLE AREA

The sample area is Delhi & NCR

SAMPLE SIZE

Approx. 100 outlets

SAMPLE TECHNIQUE

Radom Sampling Method

2.3 DATA COLLECTION (PRIMARY AND SECONDARY)

COLLECTION OF PRIMARY DATA:

We collect primary data during the course of doing experiments in an experimental research but in
case we do research of the descriptive type and perform surveys, whether sample surveys or census
surveys then we can obtain the primary data either through observation or through direct
communication with respondents in one form or another or through personal interview. Thus, in other
words, it means that there are several methods of collecting primary data particularly in surveys and
descriptive research. Important ones are:

Observation methods:

In observational studies, the investigator doesn’t ask question to seek clarification on certain issue
instead he records the behavior, as it occurs, of an event in which he is interested. Sometimes
mechanical devices are also used to record the desired data.
interviewing:

Interview can be conducted either face to face or over telephone. Such interviews provide an
opportunity to establish a rapport with the interviewer and help extract valuable information.

Questionnaire:

It is formalized set of question for extracting information from the target respondent. The form of the
question should correspond to the form of required information. The three general form of question
are dichotomous (yes/no type), multiple choice and open ended.

COLLECTION OF SECONDARY DATA:

Secondary data means data that are already available i.e. they refer to the data which have already
been collected and analyzed by someone else. When the researcher utilizes secondary data, then he
has to look into various sources from where he can obtain them. In this scale he is certainly not
confronted with the problems that are usually associated with the collection of original data.
Secondary data may either be published or unpublished. Usually published data are available in
various publications of the central, state, and local bodies. In various publications of foreign govt. and
international bodies and their subsidiary organization. In technical and trade journals, books
magazines, newspaper, reports and publication of various associations connected with business and
industry, banks, stock exchanges etc.

2.4 PRESENTATION TOOLS USED

Graphical tools such as Bar Graph & Historogram has been used for the study
 CHAPTER III
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

Marketing Strategy

Human Capital Maximizers marketing strategy will be based on strategic networking and traditional
advertising. The networking will consist of leveraging Major's extensive industry contacts. Having
spent several years in Nike's HR department and then moving onto a well-known boutique consultancy
specializing in start-ups, Major is familiar with many of the large players in the Portland area, both
service providers as well as start-up executives.

Major will begin his networking/marketing activities by being present at the several regular
networking events that focus on emerging companies. The main event is the Oregon Entrepreneurs
Forum (OEF). This association is a wonderful place to meet main players in the Portland start-up
market for several reasons. The association has the backing of many of the larger capital institutions
and service providers in the city like Silicon Valley Bank, Stoel Rives, KPMG, and Andersen
Consulting. Having a rich list of established companies as backers for the association drives many
start-ups to the forum. Additionally, the OEF has a subset group of angel investors that a few lucky
start-ups are allowed to make their pitch to.

Another excellent group for networking is the Software Association of Oregon (SAO). Major has
been an active member of the SAO for three years and is friends with most of the participants. The
SAO is continually growing in size as the "Silicon Forest" is becoming enriched with new
companies. The monthly SAO meetings will always be a ideal place to network with all the players
in Oregon's high technology community.

Both the SAO and the OEF will be active projects of Major with a fair amount of time donated to
helping members as well as generating business. These two organizations are just one example of the
networking events/techniques that Major will be leveraging to generate business. Major will also be
advertising in these association's newsletters regularly to generate visibility. HCM will also advertise
in the Business Journal of Portland, the definitive business journal of the area.

Lastly, Major will be working with career services at Portland State University, Willamette University,
and the University of Oregon to offer guidance and help to prospective students, as well as to remain
in touch with the different start-ups that are coming out of the University's undergraduate and graduate
programs.

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Mission

Human Capital Maximizers' mission is to provide human resource consulting for emerging companies.
We exist to attract and maintain customers. When we adhere to this maxim, everything else will fall
into place. Our services will exceed the expectations of our customers.

Marketing Objectives

 Grow total sales by 15% annually after the first year.

 Diversify the client base to include a fiscally prudent mixture of both technology and non-
technology companies in case of the collapse of a specific market.
 Grow the business so 35% of new customers are referrals.
 Build the HCM brand among start-up companies so it is recognized as the premier source of
HR consulting.

Financial Objectives

 Realize value in at least 15% of the equity held in customers within four years.
 Decrease variable costs associated with servicing each project.
 Increase business enough to require the hiring of additional consultants.
Target Markets

Emerging companies will be the target market for several reasons:

1. They are in need of HR services as they are growing rapidly.

2. They often do not have a large enough in-house solution.
3. Capital is a scarce resource for emerging companies so the ability to accept stock options in
replace of cash is appealing.

The emerging company market can be further broken down into two categories, technology and non-
technology. The significance of the breakdown is not great because a lot of the networking activities
are occurring in settings that do not differentiate between technology and non-technology.

Human Capital Maximizers' market can be segmented into two groups, emerging high-tech companies
and emerging non-high-tech companies. The emerging high-tech companies are going to be the larger
of the two segments. Even with the Internet bubble bursting within the last year, there are still many
emerging high-tech companies proliferating. This is evidenced by the Business Journal of Portland
which in their annual list of fastest growing companies for this year, 18 of the top 25 were technology
companies.

Positioning

HCM will position itself as the premier HR consultant firm for emerging companies in the
Portland/Vancouver market. Emerging companies that are in need of quality HR services and do not
have enough capital to cover all of the costs will look to HCM for assistance.

Human Capital Maximizers' competitive edge is its flexibility for compensation. Most, or all, other
companies require compensation to be in the form of cash, for them cash is king. Human Capital
Maximizers is able to take stock options or equity in lieu of some cash. While Human Capital
Maximizers needs cash to float the business, it can take up to 75% of its fees in equity. Human Capital
Maximizers is able to do this because they have secured an office space that is low in cost, helping
them reduce their overhead. In addition, Major's wife contributes a significant portion of money to the
household so Major is not in need of a lot of monthly compensation. This allows him to accept options
as payment in hopes of an upside several years for now. Please note the HR industry, unlike law firms
and accounting firms do not run into conflict of interests situations regarding receiving equity as
compensation.

Strategy Pyramids

The single objective for HCM is to position themselves as THE human resource firm in the Portland
area, earning a commanding market share of emerging companies within four years. The marketing
strategy will first create customer awareness regarding services offered, develop the customer base,
and work toward building customer loyalty and referrals.

The message that Human Capital Maximizers will seek to communicate is that it is the most flexible,
knowledgeable, and professional HR firm for the emerging company community. This message will
be communicated several different ways. The first is a targeted advertising campaign that includes
the Software Association of Oregon and the Oregon Entrepreneur Forum's newsletter. HCM will also
advertise in the Business Journal of Portland. These publication's reader base is comprised of a large
percentage of HCM's target audience. The message will also be communicated in all of Major's
networking activities including active participation in different associations.

Marketing Mix

Human Capital Maximizers' marketing mix is comprised of the following approaches to pricing,
distribution, advertising and promotion, and customer service:

 Pricing: HCM will use a flexible pricing model that accepts both cash as well as equity in the
customer's company.
 Distribution: Services will be provided to the Portland/Vancouver via HCM's downtown
office. Client meetings will be held at HCM's office, or at the client site.
 Advertising and Promotion: These activities will be aimed at the Portland and Vancouver
market.
 Customer Service: Obsessive customer service is the mantra. HCM's philosophy is to exceed
the customer's expectations at whatever cost. While this might hurt short-term profits, it will
only strengthen a long term, customer-centric business model.
Marketing Research

During the initial phases of the marketing plan development, several focus groups were held with
target market customers to gain insight into their business decision making processes.

Another form of market research has been a constant, long dialogue with the many seasoned managers
on HCM's board of directors and informal mentors. These dialogues have been Major's venue of
bouncing any, and all, business decisions, thoughts, ideas, etc. on people that have done this before
and can provide incredible insight.

Lastly, HCM has been relying on a market research project that has been completed by graduate
students from Willamette University. This project was a semester-long project that is tied in to
Willamette's entrepreneurship class. The four students that participated in the project spent an entire
semester conducting market research for HCM. The students crafted a useful, insightful research
project with valuable information. They received class credit as well as real world experience.

Financials

This section will offer a financial overview of HCM as it related to the marketing activities. HCM
will address break-even analysis, sales forecasts, expense forecasts, and how those relate to the
marketing strategy.

Break-even Analysis

The Break-even Analysis indicates that $7,368 will be needed in monthly revenue to reach the break-
even point.
Break-even Analysis

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Break-even Analysis

Monthly Revenue Break-even $7,000

Assumptions:

Average Percent Variable Cost 5%

Estimated Monthly Fixed Cost $7,000

Sales Forecast

As stated earlier, the marketing and sales will be done primarily through networking. This means the
bulk of leads will have been developed through a personal/professional relationships that Major has
developed either in his previous professional work or through his activities with the Oregon
Entrepreneurs Association and other like associations. The sales spiel will based on Human Capital
Maximizers' experience in the field as well as their flexibility for compensation. Major will be able to
explain to the prospective client the areas that he has experience in and the solutions that he can offer.

Major will also be able to speak about Human Capital Maximizers ability to accept options in lieu of
some cash. This will be appealing to companies, particularly in the current capital market that is quite
scarce. Since capital is more difficult to come by now than in the last few years, emerging companies
will be excited about this option.
Sales Forecast

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Sales Forecast

2001 2002 2003

Sales

Emerging tech. companies $41,500 $78,455 $92,541

Emerging non-tech companies $16,600 $31,382 $37,016

Total Sales $58,100 $109,837 $129,557

Direct Cost of Sales 2001 2002 2003

Emerging tech. companies $2,075 $3,923 $4,627

Emerging non-tech companies $830 $1,569 $1,851

Subtotal Direct Cost of Sales $2,905 $5,492 $6,478

Expense Forecast

Marketing expenses are to be budgeted to be fairly consistent through the year. The first few months
will see a ramp-up of expenses designed to generate visibility at the beginning when HCM is just
starting out.
Marketing Expense Budget

Marketing Expense Budget

2001 2002 2003

Networking $1,560 $1,700 $2,000

Advertising $850 $1,500 $2,000

Other $600 $600 $600

------------ ------------ ------------

Total Sales and Marketing

$3,010 $3,800 $4,600
Expenses

Percent of Sales 5.18% 3.46% 3.55%

 CHAPTER 4
COMPANY PROFILE

4.1 HISTORY

With over 30 years of executives experience, we at Maccadin are committed to serve customers
beyond their expectation and without any hassle in fulfilling all their IT and Non IT needs. Maccadin
combines unparalleled customizable solution and dedicated approach to provide technology
solutions, services and outsourcing options.

Our team is a combination of Young energy, Dynamic ideas, Mature decisions, and Processed
implementation. Our onsite offsite-offshore model, serve our esteem customers with an unique edge
over time and efficiency round the clock.

Our manifold tremendous growth is due to our unique approach of customizing solution for every
challenge. Our approach is to devise unique solutions for the surprisingly different challenges we face
on a day to day basis.

Capabilities:

 Web And Application development

 Technology solutions
 Staffing services
 Outsourcing solutions
  Product development
 Web hosting
 Networking solutions

Company Overview

Maccadin Inc, established in 2010 and based in Santa Clara, CA, with a service range to US and
India, offers a holistic and system-oriented approach to support organizations for IT consulting,
projects, staffing and outsourcing needs.

Enterprises of every size have counted on the Business and Professional Services division of
MACCADIN to meet their needs for temporary and full-time staff.

Whether you’re hiring to manage attrition, maintain steady growth, or change the face of your entire
company, Maccadin will work with you to find the specific professional — or build the entire team —
you’re looking for.

We offer placement services across the full range of business operations:

• Accounting • Administrative

• Banking • Business Development

• Call Center • Customer Service

• Finance • HR

• IT • Marketing

• Management • Sales

Thanks to our flexible approach, extensive candidate database, and vast recruiting network, we can
respond to any requirement. We have helped established institutions build entire operations centers
in new markets and have helped smaller; aspiring enterprises pursue their own high growth initiatives.

Delivering Superior Service: Our goal on every engagement is to be a strategic partner who delivers
superior service, adds value, and develops a win-win solution: one that provides you the talent you
need while providing our consultants the opportunity to grow. At Maccadin, our best practices in
recruitment and hiring translate into a repeatable solution for locating, qualifying, and delivering
exceptional consultants and employees. Furthermore, we are committed to providing our services in
cost effective, efficient and innovative resourcing solutions tailored to our client’s specific needs.

4.2 VISION, MISSION AND OBJECTIVES OF THE COMPANY

Mission

Our Mission is "to create competitive value for customers through exceptional use of technology and
talent through a workforce that displays the highest level of ethics, provides exceptional customer
service, and honors all commitments."

At MACCADIN, we formulate effective strategies for improvement of business processes by addition

of appropriate technological changes and methodologies that streamline the supply chain.

We are dedicated to bringing value to our clients by offering end-to-end solutions across diverse
technology platforms and industry domains. The services are on-site as well as through a global
delivery model, which delivers 24x7 coverage.

We contribute to our client’s success by engaging the

right professionals on both contract and permanent
structure.

Vision

Our Vision is “to be the integrated IT services & solutions company offering business value through
innovative and cost-effective delivery & engagement model to our Clients worldwide. We will
consistently thrive to deliver cost-effective, value-driven solutions through the convergence of people,
process and technology”

We constantly aim to be a people centric organization, leading the HR landscape through innovative
solutions and operational excellence to become our customer’s first choice.

Here is what we aim to accomplish in order to continue achieving sustainable, quality growth:
Our Values – these set out what we collectively believe in and guide our behaviours

Can-do Safely, Responsibility, Win Through Teamwork, Passion for Quality, Openness, Trust and
Integrity

4.3 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE/MANAGEMENT HIERARCHY

4.4 PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED

Domination

 To grow beyond
  To be relevant to our people, clients, candidates and stakeholders
 To ensure continuity
“Innovative” solutions

 To provide differentiated service

 To come up with out of box ideas
Operational excellence

 To ensure better processes

 To provide high productivity
Customer’s first choice

 To provide unparallel services

 To be the first brand for them to associate with in our domain.
People Centric

 To ensure employee satisfaction

 To be ‘Employer of choice’
 To Allow people to develop skills under expert guidance

Values

Our purpose is to enrich the lives of people we touch. By providing highest performing products and
services that reduce risk and increase assets, we help individuals and clients fulfill their
responsibilities and build better tomorrow. Our culture is based on an unwavering belief in integrity.
We treat our clients and employees with dignity and respect… We meet the needs of the markets we
serve… We strive for excellence…

We take prudent risks and work together to assure our success and profitability in the future. We work
hard to continuously enhance our reputation for accessibility, professionalism, performance, and the
depth and quality of our long-term relationships with clients...

We endeavor to be valued as an industry leader in quality services, client satisfaction, sales growth,
product performance, strength and profitability.

HUMAN element
The HUMAN element is the basis and focus of Maccadin. This element is often overlooked, yet
Maccadin believes it is the most crucial in business, management and technology projects.
Irrespective of the time and energy invested in conceptualizing, planning or monitoring projects, the
success of a project is ultimately determined by the performance of the people involved with the
project. At Maccadin, our objective is to maximize the expertise and satisfaction of the HUMAN
element. Maccadin’s constant efforts are invested in building the HUMAN element by providing the
right training and development.

Value holding

Our values embody the spirit and energy of Maccadin. Our values drive our performance and guide
us in how we work together towards excellence. At Maccadin, our promise of professionalism to each
other and our clients we serve compels us to align our culture of integrity with our values, words and
actions. By setting high standards for ourselves and our clients, our commitment to upholding
Maccadin’s values is clear. There is never a situation when compromising our standards is either
expected or acceptable.

Integrity:

We embrace and uphold the highest standards of personal and professional ethics, honesty and trust.

Respect:

We treat everyone with uncompromising respect, civility and fairness.

Collaboration:

We work as team and share knowledge for continuous improvement, learning and innovation.

Empowerment:

We are empowered to deliver operational excellence through innovation and leadership at all levels.

Responsibility:

We are responsible to fulfill our commitments to colleagues and clients with a clear understanding of
the urgency and accountability inherent in those commitments.

Excellence:
We strive for excellence at all time in all things. We pursue excellence in performing our duties, are
well-informed and prepared, and constantly endeavor to increase our proficiency in all areas of
responsibility.

Commitment:

We are committed to deliver what we promise, we never fail. We deliver on all promises and
commitments. We set challenging goals, measure outcomes and reward success.

Accountability:

We care. We do the right thing. We consider the consequences of our actions.

Why Choose Maccadin?

Maccadin is proud to foster a high –performance culture, one that’s defined by having the best people,
with the skills and determination to deliver above and beyond and that means we must continue to
recruit, retain, and develop people who are technically brilliant, insightful and astute professionals
who are also forward thinking, confident and globally minded

We know that our ability to successfully sustain a high performance culture also requires that our
people be as diverse as the clients we serve and the communities in which we live and work.

Ethics/Integrity

we adhere to the highest standards of ethical conduct by:

 Treating everyone with dignity and respect

 Having the character to do what is right, morally and legally
 Making ethical conduct the personal responsibility of every one of our associates

Customer Service

We build lasting business partnerships by:

 Treating our clients as they would want to be treated

 Communicating honestly and clearly
 Responding to all forms of communication
 Providing exceptional customer service
  Listening to our clients to truly understand their needs

Commitments

We honor our commitments by:

 Doing What we Say

 Doing it Right
 Doing it On Time

Communication

We build lasting relationships by:

 Communicating with candidates and employees in an honest and timely manner

 Encouraging and respecting two-way communication
 Supplying the tools and resources necessary to make informed decisions

Services

Maccadin delivers a globally consistent set of multidisciplinary services based on deep industry
knowledge. Maccadin offers a full line of comprehensive Business Management, IT and Engineering
services including scoping, analysis, architecture, design, installation, development, deployment,
testing, QA, maintenance and support. We are committed to provide high quality IT solutions reducing
the cost and complexity of IT lifecycle management. We aim to do so by providing innovative and
high quality products and services that can perfectly meet the requirements. Our services include:

Technology Solutions: We provide complete web hosting solutions at affordable prices coupled with
quality technical support & services to customers. We believe in uplifting the web hosting
requirements to more than just dealing with websites, emails & data, transforming it into a sensory
experience
Staffing services: We at MACCADIN are fully dedicated to cater all kind of requirements to meet the
client needs. We excel in client relationship management and provide dynamic staffing needs. We
serve Contract, Contract to hire or Permanent Staffing needs for IT and Non-IT customers.

Outsourcing solutions: We have broad range of outsourcing solutions, which we can customize as
per client needs. In an ideal environment, we work with the client to build a custom, scalable solution
tailored for their needs. Our outsourcing solutions include:

 Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)

 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
 Infrastructure Outsourcing
 ERP Solutions

Product development: We develop software products for various clients keeping in mind what they
actually need. We aim at accomplishing it with a combination of business and technical knowledge
on the requirement of the clients

IT Training: We offer IT Training to Veterans, students and disabled. We believe in looking beyond
technology and to reach out to the society at large through community programs and make a large
difference on the global platform

Culture

We foster a positive team environment by:

 Putting ethics above all else

 Treating everyone fairly
 Supporting each other

Our Process to Assure Quality

Our proven approach includes:

 Extensive database of resumes

 Nationwide network of IT recruiters with in-depth understanding of local markets
 Focus on IT staffing to help identify specialized candidates
 Established process for identifying, screening and selecting candidates
These processes are spelled out in writing to ensure that best practices are followed at every step,
including full compliance with all federal, state, and local regulatory requirements.

As an added safeguard, our in-house compliance officer regularly reviews our process
implementation to ensure that Maccadin personnel consistently adhere to our policies.

4.6 FUTURE PLANS

Maccadin Growth Strategy

Here at Maccadin we strive to inspire and assist in our client’s growth. Our priority is to seamlessly
integrate ourselves into our client’s organization to help them achieve high productivity utilizing:

 Strong core values

 Advanced customer management
 Ability to execute
 Robust consulting practice
 Build functional and technical leadership
 Focus on full services and long-term relationship with customers
 Ability to make quality delivery on time and on budget
 Leverage Maccadin account relationships to cross sell and up sell
 Nation-wide delivery expertise in emerging geographies within the United States
Corporate Social Responsibility

Giving back and involvement in the Community Maccadin involves itself in community initiatives to
help create community awareness and promotion of good will. At Maccadin, it is of immense
importance to us to be a part of our community by promoting volunteer programs that bring about
positive changes to communities in need.

HR & Employment Program

The Maccadin Recruiting group spearheads this program involving constant proactive recruitment of
talents in the efforts towards bridging gaps between needs and skills.
Training & Internship

Maccadin has an affiliation with universities and local community colleges. We believe in promoting
employment through mentoring, networking & education. Maccadin aims to provide value-based
internships and training programs for fresh graduates in order to provide them professional
experience.

Business Community Networking

At Maccadin, we focus on Business Community Networking. We keep in mind that networking is

about being genuine and authentic, building trust and relationships, and finding ways to help others.
We promote networking and meetings that are based more on learning, making contacts, and/or
volunteering rather than on strictly making business connections.

The Veterans Employment and Training solutions (VETS)

Maccadin is committed to assisting members of our honored military community in finding their next
rewarding career as a gratitude to their selfless service of protecting us.

The Veterans Employment and Training solutions (VETS) program is led by veterans who know just
how challenging the transition from military to civilian life can be. Their goal is to help them make the
most of their training and skills gained during their service.

The program also supports military spouses Maccadin provides talent to organizations across the
globe, allowing us to help them continue their career wherever the military may relocate their family.
 CHAPTER 5
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE
The market for any product is normally made up of several segments. A ‘market’ after all is the
aggregate of consumers of a given product. And, consumer (the end user), who makes a market, are
of varying characteristics and buying behavior. There are different factors contributing for varying
mind set of consumers. It is thus natural that many differing segments occur within a market. In order
to capture this heterogeneous market for any product, marketers usually divide or disintegrate the
market into a number of sub-markets/segments and the process is known as market segmentation.

Thus we can say that market segmentation is the segmentation of markets into homogenous groups of
customers, each of them reacting differently to promotion, communication, pricing and other variables
of the marketing mix. Market segments should be formed in that way that difference between buyers
within each segment is as small as possible. Thus, every segment can be addressed with an individually
targeted marketing mix. The importance of market segmentation results from the fact that the buyers
of a product or a service are no homogenous group. Actually, every buyer has individual needs,
preferences, resources and behaviors. Since it is virtually impossible to cater for every customer’s
individual characteristics, marketers group customers to market segments by variables they have in
common. These common characteristics allow developing a standardized marketing mix for all
customers in this segment. Through segmentation, the marketer can look at the differences among the
customer groups and decide on appropriate strategies/offers for each group. This is precisely why
some marketing gurus/experts have described segmentation as a strategy of dividing the markets for
conquering them.

MARKETING STRATEGY AND MARKET SEGMENTATION: - When it comes to marketing

strategies, most people spontaneously think about the 4P (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) – maybe
extended by three more Ps for marketing services (People, Processes, Physical Evidence).

Market segmentation and the identification of target markets, however, are an important element of
each marketing strategy. They are the basis for determining any particular marketing mix. Basic steps
in marketing strategy are as follows:-
 Market Segmentation
1.Identification of customers' needs and
market segments.
2.Develop profiles of resulting market
segments.

Identification of Target
Markets
3.Evaluation of attractivity of each
segment.
4.Selection of target segments.

Positioning
5. Identification of differential advantages
in each segment.
6. Development and selection of
positioning concepts.

Marketing Planning
7. Development of a marketing mix for
each segment according to the chosen
position.

Strategic management process comprises four phases: environmental scanning, strategy formulation,
strategy implementation and strategy evaluation and control. Strategic management is an ongoing
process to develop and revise future-oriented strategies that allow an organization to achieve its
objectives, considering its capabilities, constraints, and the environment in which it operates.
Once the environmental scanning is done the next step is strategy formulation. Formulation produces
a clear set of recommendations, with supporting justification, that revise as necessary the mission and
objectives of the organization, and supply the strategies for accomplishing them. In formulation, we
are trying to modify the current objectives and strategies in ways to make the organization more
successful. This includes trying to create "sustainable" competitive advantages -- although most
competitive advantages are eroded steadily by the efforts of competitors.

PORTER’S GENERIC BUSINESS STRATEGIES

Cost Leadership Differentiation

Focussed cost Focused

Leadership Differentiation

LOW COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES

Low cost leadership strategies are based on a firm’s ability to offer a product or service at a lower cost
than its rivals. When a firm is able to build a substantial cost advantage over other competitors it can
pass on its benefits to customers and gain a large market share. This requires being the overall low-
cost provider of the products or services (e.g., Costco, among retail stores, and Hyundai, among
automobile manufacturers). Implementing this strategy successfully requires continual, exceptional
efforts to reduce costs without excluding product features and services that buyers consider essential.
It also requires achieving cost advantages in ways that are hard for competitors to copy or match.
Some conditions that tend to make this strategy an attractive choice are:
  The industry's product is much the same from seller to seller

 The marketplace is dominated by price competition, with highly price-sensitive buyers

 There are few ways to achieve product differentiation that have much value to buyers

 Most buyers use product in same ways -- common user requirements

 Switching costs for buyers are low

 Buyers are large and have significant bargaining power

DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES

When firm appeal to a broad cross-section of the market through offering differentiating features that
make customers willing to pay premium prices, e.g., superior technology, quality, prestige, special
features, service, convenience (examples are Nordstrom and Lexus). Success with this type of strategy
requires differentiation features that are hard or expensive for competitors to duplicate. Sustainable
differentiation usually comes from advantages in core competencies, unique company resources or
capabilities, and superior management of value chain activities. Some conditions that tend to favor
differentiation strategies are:

 There are multiple ways to differentiate the product/service that buyers think have
substantial value
  Buyers have different needs or uses of the product/service

 Product innovations and technological change are rapid and competition

emphasizes the latest product features

 Not many rivals are following a similar differentiation strategy

FOCUS STRATEGIES

Focus strategies aim to sell good or services to narrow or specific target market, niche or segment.
Focus builds competitive advantage through high specialization and concentration of resources in a
given niche.

Firms can build focus in one of the two ways. Focussed Cost Leadership and Focussed Differentiation.

Focussed cost Leadership: A market niche strategy, concentrating on a narrow customer segment
and competing with lowest prices, which, again, requires having lower cost structure than competitors

Focused Differentiation: a second market niche strategy, concentrating on a narrow customer

segment and competing through differentiating features

e.g., a high-fashion women's clothing boutique

Some conditions that tend to favor focus (either cost or differentiation focus) are:

 The business is new and/or has modest resources

 The company lacks the capability to go after a wider part of the total market

 Buyers' needs or uses of the item are diverse; there are many different niches and segments in
the industry

 Buyer segments differ widely in size, growth rate, profitability, and intensity in the five
competitive forces, making some segments more attractive than others

 Industry leaders don't see the niche as crucial to their own success

 Few or no other rivals are attempting to specialize in the same target segment

GLOBAL STRATEGIES

Developing strategies on a global scale is not an easy task. Managers have to learn other languages,
understand host country laws, deal with volatile currencies, face political uncertainties, and redesign
products to suit different customer needs and expectations.

GLOBAL EXPANSION STRATEGIES

A firm can choose four types of strategies - Global Strategy, International Strategy, Transnational
Strategy and Multidomestic Strategy

Two sets of factors affect firm’s decision to adopt international strategies: extent of cost pressures and
the extent of pressures for local responsiveness. Cost pressures denote the demand on a firm to
minimize its unit costs. Pressures for local responsiveness makes a firm tailor its strategies to respond
to national-level differences in terms of variables like customer preferences and tastes, government
policies, or business practices

High

Cost Global Transnational

Pressure Strategy Strategy

Low

International Multi domestic Low

Strategy Strategy High

Pressure for local responsiveness

Firms adopt an international strategy when they create value by transferring products and services
to foreign markets where these products and services are not available. This is a simple strategy in
the sense that an international firm, by maintaining a tight control over its overseas operations, offers
standardized products and services in different countries with little or no differentiation. Most
international companies, such as, Coca Cola, McDonald, IBM, Kellogg, Proctor and Gamble,
Microsoft, and several others adopt this strategy for the different countries they operate in.

Firms adopt a multidomestic strategy when they try to achieve a high level of local responsiveness
by matching their products and services offerings to the national conditions operating in the countries
they operate in. In this case, the multidomestic firm attempts to extensively customize their products
and services according to the local conditions operating in the different countries. Obviously, this
leads to a high-cost structure as functions, such as, research and development, production, and
marketing have to be duplicated.

Firms adopt a global strategy when they rely on a low-cost approach based on reaping the benefits
of experience-curve effects and location economies and offering standardized products and services
across different countries. The global firm tries to focus intensively on a low-cost structure by
leveraging their expertise in providing certain products and services, and concentrating the production
of these standardized products and services at a few favorable locations around the world. These
products and services are offered in an undifferentiated manner in all countries the global firm operates
in, usually at competitive prices.

Firms adopt a transnational strategy when they adopt a combined approach of low-cost and high
local responsiveness simultaneously for their products and services.

MARKET ENTRY STRATEGIES

Once the MNC decides to target a particular country, it has to decide the best mode of entry. Mode of
entry means the manner in which the firm would commence its international operations. There are
several entry modes, each with their own sets of advantages and disadvantages. A firm would have to
decide which mode suits its circumstances best before it could be adopted.

The different entry modes are:

(1) Export entry modes: Under these modes, the firm produces in the home country and markets in
the overseas markets.

 Direct exports do not involve home-country intermediaries and marketing is done either
through direct agent/distributor or through direct branch/subsidiary in the overseas markets.

 Indirect exports involving intermediaries in the home country and who are responsible for
exporting the firm’s products.

(2) Contractual entry modes: These modes involve non-equity associations between an international
company and a company or any other legal entity in the overseas markets.

 Licensing is an arrangement where the international company transfers knowledge,

technology, patent, and so on for a limited period of time to an overseas entity in return for
some form of payment, usually a royalty payment.

 Franchising: Franchising involves the right to use a business format, usually a brand name, in
the overseas market in return for the franchise receiving some form of payment.
  Other forms of contractual arrangements, such as, technical agreements (for technology
transfers), service contracts (for technical support or expertise provision), contract
manufacturing, production sharing, turnkey operations, build-operate-transfer (BOT)
arrangements, etc.

(3) Investment entry modes: These modes involve ownership of production units in the overseas
market based on some form of equity investment of direct foreign investment.

 Joint venture and strategic alliances involve a cooperative partnership between two or more
firms with Networking interests as the basis of cooperation, (These entry options have been
discussed earlier under the heading of cooperative strategies.)

 Independent ventures or wholly-owned subsidiaries are modes in which the parent

international company holds 100 percent equity and is in full control. Such facilities may be
created either through a new venture known as a Greenfield venture or acquired through
takeover strategies.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND CHOICE

Strategic Analysis and Choice seeks to determine alternative courses of action that could enable the
firm to achieve its mission and objectives. Strategic Analysis and Choice tries to find out answers to
three basic questions: How effective has the existing strategy been? How effective will that strategy
be in future? What will be the effectiveness of selected alternative strategy in future?
Portfolio Analysis

Portfolio Analysis is analyzing elements of a firm's product mix to determine the optimum allocation
of its resources. It is used in Multi Business Corporation to develop corporate strategy. The top
management views its product lines and business units as a series of investment from which it expects
a return.

It deals with how individual product lines and business units can gain competitive advantage in the
marketplace by using competitive and cooperative strategies. It helps the company to answer the
following questions:

 How much of our time and money should we spend on our best products to ensure that they
continue to be successful?

 How much of our time and money should we spend developing new costly products, most of
which will never be successful?

The two best-known portfolio planning methods are the Boston Consulting Group Portfolio Matrix
and the McKinsey / General Electric Matrix.

BCG GROWTH-SHARE MATRIX

It is based on the observation that a company's business units can be classified into four categories
based on combinations of market growth and market share relative to the largest competitor, hence the
name "growth-share". The growth-share matrix thus maps the business unit positions within these two
important determinants of profitability

The relative market share serves as a measure of SBU strength in the market. The market growth rate
provides a measure of market attractiveness.

Each of the corporation’s product lines or business units is plotted on the matrix according to both the
growth rate of the industry in which it competes and its relative market share

The Boston Consulting Group Box ("BCG Box")

Stars - Stars are high growth businesses or products competing in markets where they are relatively
strong compared with the competition. They are typically at the peak of their product life cycle. Stars
generate large amounts of cash because of their strong relative market share, but also consume large
amounts of cash because of their high growth rate. Often they need heavy investment to sustain their
growth. Eventually their growth will slow and will become cash cows.
Cash Cows - Cash cows are low-growth businesses or products with a relatively high market share.
These are mature, successful businesses with relatively little need for investment. They typically bring
in far more money than is needed to maintain their market share. In this decline stage of their life
cycle, these products are “milked” for cash that will be invested in new question marks.

Question marks - Question marks are businesses or products with low market share but which operate
in higher growth markets. Question marks are growing rapidly and thus consume large amounts of
cash, but because they have low market shares they do not generate much cash. A question mark (also
known as a "problem child") has the potential to gain market share and become a star, and eventually
a cash cow when the market growth slows. If the question mark does not succeed in becoming the
market leader, then after years of cash consumption it will degenerate into a dog when the market
growth declines. Management have to think hard about "question marks" - which ones should they
invest in? Which ones should they allow to fail or shrink?

Dogs - Dogs have low market share and a low growth rate and thus neither generate nor consume a
large amount of cash. However, dogs are cash traps because of the money tied up in a business that
has little potential. Such businesses are candidates for divestiture.

The Boston Consulting Group Portfolio Matrix simplicity is its strength - the relative positions of the
firm's entire business portfolio can be displayed in a single diagram. Its limitation is market growth
rate is only one factor in industry attractiveness, and relative market share is only one factor in
competitive advantage. The growth-share matrix overlooks many other factors in these two important
determinants of profitability

GE BUSINESS SCREEN

It is the business portfolio framework developed by General Electric with the help of McKinsey and
Company, a consulting firm. GE Business Screen includes nine cells based on long-term industry
attractiveness and business strength/competitive position
Factors that Affect Market Attractiveness: There are several factors which can help determine
attractiveness. These are listed below:

- Market Size
- Market growth
- Market profitability
- Pricing trends
- Competitive intensity / rivalry
- Overall risk of returns in the industry
- Opportunity to differentiate products and services
- Segmentation
- Distribution structure (e.g. retail, direct, wholesale

Factors that Affect Competitive Strength: There are several factors which can help determine the
business unit strength. These are listed below:

- Strength of assets and competencies

- Relative brand strength
- Market share
- Customer loyalty
- Relative cost position (cost structure compared with competitors)
- Distribution strength
- Record of technological or other innovation
- Access to Networking and other investment resources

Plotting the Information Each business unit can be portrayed as a circle plotted on the matrix, with
the information conveyed as follows:

 Market size is represented by the size of the circle.

 Market share is shown by using the circle as a pie chart.
 The expected future position of the circle is portrayed by means of an arrow.
The green zone indicates go ahead. It includes the strong SBU’s in which the company should invest
and grow. They go for Expansion Strategies

The yellow zone indicates wait and see. It includes SBS’s that are medium in overall attractiveness.
They should maintain their level of investments. They go for Stability Strategies

The red zone indicates stop. It includes SBU’s that are low in overall attractiveness. They go for
Retrenchment Strategies (Divestment and Liquidation).

The shading of the above circle indicates a 40% market share for the strategic business unit. The arrow
in the upward left direction indicates that the business unit is projected to gain strength relative to
competitors, and that the business unit is in an industry that is projected to become more attractive.
The tip of the arrow indicates the future position of the center point of the circle.

Six-step approach for the implementation of the McKinsey Matrix

1. Specify drivers of each dimension. The corporation must carefully determine those factors that
are important to its overall strategy.
 2. Determine the weight of each driver. The corporation must assign relative importance weights
to the drivers.
3. Score the SBU's on each driver.
4. Multiply weights and scores for each SBU.
5. View resulting graph and interpret it.
6. Perform a review/sensitivity analysis. Make use of adjusted other weights and scores (there
may be no consensus).

THREE LEVELS OF STRATEGY FORMULATION

The following three aspects or levels of strategy formulation, each with a different focus, need to be
dealt with in the formulation phase of strategic management. The three sets of recommendations must
be internally consistent and fit together in a mutually supportive manner that forms an integrated
hierarchy of strategy, in the order given.

Corporate Level Strategy: In this aspect of strategy, we are concerned with broad decisions about
the total organization's scope and direction. Basically, we consider what changes should be made in
our growth objective and strategy for achieving it, the lines of business we are in, and how these lines
of business fit together. It is useful to think of three components of corporate level strategy: (a) growth
or directional strategy (what should be our growth objective, ranging from retrenchment through
stability to varying degrees of growth - and how do we accomplish this), (b) portfolio strategy (what
should be our portfolio of lines of business, which implicitly requires reconsidering how much
concentration or diversification we should have), and (c) parenting strategy (how we allocate resources
and manage capabilities and activities across the portfolio -- where do we put special emphasis, and
how much do we integrate our various lines of business).
Business Level Strategy (often called Competitive Strategy): This involves deciding how the
company will compete within each line of business (LOB) or strategic business unit (SBU).

Functional Strategy: These more localized and shorter-horizon strategies deal with how each
functional area and unit will carry out its functional activities to be effective and maximize resource
productivity.

CORPORATE LEVEL STRATEGIES

Corporate level strategies are basically about the choice of direction that a firm adopts in order to
achieve its objectives. They are basically about decisions related to allocating resources among the
different businesses of a firm, transferring resources from one set of businesses to others, and
managing and nurturing a portfolio of businesses in such a way that the overall corporate objectives
are achieved.

Major types of grand strategies:

 Expansion (Growth) Strategies

 Stability Strategies
 Retrenchment Strategies
 Combination Strategies

GROWTH STRATEGIES

Growth is a way of life. Almost all organizations plan to expand. This strategy is followed when
an organization aims at higher growth by broadening its one or more of its business in terms of
their respective customer groups, customers functions, and alternative technologies singly or
jointly – in order to improve its overall performance.
E.g.: A chocolate manufacturer expands its customer groups to include middle aged and old
persons among its existing customers comprising of children and adolescents.

There are five types of expansion (Growth) strategies

 Expansion through concentration

 Expansion through integration
 Expansion through diversification
 Expansion through cooperation

Expansion through concentration

It involves converging resources in one or more of firms businesses in terms of their respective
customer needs, customer functions, or alternative technologies either singly or jointly, in such
a manner that it results in expansions. A firm that is familiar with an industry would naturally
like to invest more in known business rather than unknown business. Concentration can be done
through

Market Penetration: It involves selling more products to the same market by focusing intensely
on existing markets with its present products, increasing usage by existing customers and
increasing market share and restructures a mature market by driving out competitors E.g.: Low
pricing strategies

Market Development: It involves selling the same products to new markets by attracting new
users to its existing products. Market development can be geographic wise and demographic
wise. E.g.: XEROX Company educated small business entrepreneurs to create new markets.

Product Development: It involves selling new products to the same markets by introducing
newer products in existing markets. E.g.: the Sheet Metal industry in India has not been able to
attract new customers in significant numbers. New products such as selling India as a golfing or
ayuerveda-based medical treatment destination are some of the product development efforts in
the Sheet Metal industry to attract more tourists.

ANSOFF”S PRODUCT-MARKET MATRIX

.

Present New

Present Market Product

Penetration Development

New Market Diversification

Development

Advantages of concentration strategies

 Involves minimal organizational changes and is less threatening

 Enables the firm to specialize by gaining the in-depth knowledge of the businesses.

 Enables the firm to develop competitive advantage

 Decision-making can be made easily as there is a high level of productivity

 Systems and processes within the firm become familiar to the people in the organization.
Disadvantages of concentration strategies

 It is dependent on one industry if there is any worse condition in the industry the firm
will be affected.
  Factors such as product obsolescence, fickleness of market, emergence of newer
technologies are threat to concentrated firm

 Mangers may not be able to sustain interest and find the work less challenging

 It may lead to cash flow problems

Expansion through Integration

It is done where the company attempts to widen the scope of its business definition in such a
manner that it results in serving the same set of customers. The alternative technology of the
business undergoes a change. It is combing activities related to the present activity of a firm.
Such a combination may be done through value chain. A value chain is a set of interrelated
activity performed by an organization right from the procurement of basic raw materials down
to the marketing of finished products to the ultimate customers.

E.g.: Several process based industry such as petro chemicals, steel, textiles of hydrocarbons have
integrate firm

A make or buy decision is then made when firms wish to negotiate with the suppliers or buyers.
The cost of making the items used in the manufacture of ones owns products are to be evaluated
against the cost of procuring them from suppliers. If the cost of making is less that the cost of
procurement then the firm moves up the value chain to make the item itself. Like wise if the cost
of selling the finished products is lesser than the price paid to the sellers to do the same thing
then the firm would go for direct selling.

Among the integration strategies are of two type’s vertical and horizontal integration.

Vertical Integration: when an organization starts making new products that serve its own needs
vertical integration takes place. Vertical integration could be of two types Back ward and
forward integration. Backward integration means moving back to the source of raw materials
while forward integration moves the organization nearer to the ultimate customer. Generally
when firms vertically integrate they do so in a complete manner that is they move backward or
forward decisively resulting in a full integration but when a firm does not commit it fully it is
possible to have partial vertical integration strategies too. Two such partial vertical integration
strategies are ‘taper’ integration and ‘quasi’ integration. Taper integration requires firms to
make a part of their own requirements and to buy the rest from outsiders. Through quasi
integration strategies firm purchase most of their requirements from other firms in which they
have an ownership stake. Ancillary industrial units and outsourcing through sub contracting
are adapted forms of quasi integration. Horizontal Integration: when an organization takes up
the same type of products at the same level of production or marketing process, it is said to
follow a strategy of horizontal integration. When a luggage company takes over its rival luggage
company, it is horizontal integration. Horizontal integration strategy may be frequently adopted
with a view to expand geographically by buying a competitors business, to increase the market
share or to benefit from economics of scale.

Expansion through Diversification

Diversification is a much used and much talked about set of strategies. It involves a substantial
change in the business definition – singly or jointly- in terms of customer groups or alternative
technologies of one or more of a firm’s businesses. . There are two categories, concentric and
conglomerate diversification.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGIES

Related Technology Unrelated Technology

Similar Type of Marketing- technology Marketing related

Product related concentric concentric
diversification diversification
 New Type of Technology- related Conglomerate
Product concentric diversification diversification

Concentric Diversification: when an organization takes up an activity in such a manner that is

related to the existing business definition of one or more of firms businesses, either in terms of
customer groups, customer’s functions or alternative technologies, it is called concentric
diversification. Concentric diversification may be of three types
 Marketing related concentric diversification
 Technology- related concentric diversification
 Marketing- technology related concentric diversification

Marketing related concentric diversification: when a similar type of product is offered with a
help of unrelated technology for e.g., a company in the sewing machine business diversifies in to
kitchen ware and household appliances, which are sold to house wives through a chain of retails
stores.

Technology- related concentric diversification: when a new type of product or service is

provided with the help of related technology, for e.g., a leasing firm offering hire- purchase
services to institutional customers also starts consumer financing for the purchase of durable
sot individual customers.

Marketing- technology related concentric diversification: when a similar type of product is

provided with the help of related technology, for e.g., a rain coat manufacturer makes other
rubber based items, such as water proof shoes and rubber gloves sold through the same retail
outlets

Conglomerate Diversification: when an organization adopts a strategy which requires taking of

those activities which are unrelated to the existing businesses definition of one or more of its
businesses either in terms of their respective customer groups, customer functions or alternative
technologies. Example of Indian company which have adopted apart of growth and expansion
through conglomerate diversification the classic examples is of ITC, a cigarette company
diversifying into the hotel industry

Expansion through Cooperation

The term cooperation expresses the idea of simultaneous competition and cooperation among
rival firms for mutual benefits. Cooperative strategies could be of the following types

1. Mergers
2. Takeovers
3. Joint ventures
4. Strategic alliances

Mergers Strategies: A merger is a combination of two or more organizations in which one

acquires the assets and liabilities of the other in exchange for shares or cash or both the
organization are dissolved and the assets and liabilities are combined and new stock is issued.
For the organization, which acquires another, it is an acquisition. For the organization, which is
acquired, it is a merger. If both the organization dissolves their identity to create a new
organization, it is consolidation. There are different types of mergers they are horizontal merger,
vertical merger, concentric merger and conglomerate merger.

Horizontal Mergers: it takes place when there is a combination of two or more organizations in
the same business. E.g: A company making footwear combines with another footwear company,
or a retailer of Sheet Metalceutical combines with another retailer in the same businesses.

Vertical Mergers: It takes place when there is a combination of two or more organizations, not
necessarily in the same business, which create complementarities either in terms of supply of
raw materials (input) or marketing of goods and services (outputs). E.g: A footwear company
combines with a leather tannery or with a chain shoe retail stores
Concentric Mergers: It takes place when there is a combination of two or more organizations
related to each other either in terms of customer functions, customer groups, or the alternative
technologies used. E.g: A footwear company combining with a hosiery firm making socks or
another specialty footwear company, or with a leather goods company making purse, hand bags
and so on

Conglomerate Mergers: It takes place when there is a combination of two or more organizations
unrelated to each other, either in terms of customer functions, customer groups, or alternative
technologies used. E.g: A footwear company combining with a Sheet Metalceutical firm.
Reasons for mergers.

Why the buyer wishes to merge:

1. To increase the value of the organization’s stock

2. To increase the growth rate and make a good investment
3. To improve stability of earning and sales
4. To balance, complete, or diversify product line
5. To reduce competition
6. To acquire needed resources quickly
7. To avail tax concessions and benefits
8. To take advantages of synergy

Why the seller wishes to merge

1. To increase the value of the owner’s stock and investment

2. To increase the growth rate
3. To acquire resources to stabilize operations
4. To benefit from tax legislation
5. To deal with top management succession problem
Takeover Strategies: Takeover or acquisition is a popular strategic alternative adopted by
Indian companies. Acquisitions usually are based on the strong motivation of the buyer firm to
acquire. Takeovers are frequently classified as hostile takeovers (which are against the wishes
of the acquired firm) and friendly takeovers (by mutual consent)

Friendly takeovers are where a takeover is not resisted or opposed, by the existing management
or professionals. E.g: Tata Tea’s takeover of Consolidated Coffee (a grower of coffee beans) and
Asian Coffee (a processor) is an example of a friendly takeover.

Hostile takeovers is where a takeover is resisted, or expected to be opposed, by the existing

management or professionals

Advantages of Takeovers

 Ensure management accountability

 Offer easy growth opportunities

 Create mobility of resources

 Avoid gestation periods and hurdles involved in new projects

 Offer a chance to sick units to survive

 Open up alternatives for selective divestment.

Joint Venture Strategies: Joint ventures are a special case of consolidation where two or more
companies from a temporary form a temporary partnership (also called a consortium) for a
specified purpose. They occur when an independent firm is created by at least two other firms.
Joint ventures may be useful to gain access to a new business mainly under these conditions

 When an activity is uneconomical for an organization to do alone

 When the risk of business has to be shared
 When the distinctive competence of two or more organization can be brought together.
 When the organization has to overcome the hurdles, such as import quotas, tariffs, nationalistic
– political interests, and cultural roadblocks

Types of Join ventures

1. Between two firms in one industry

2. Between two firms across different countries
3. Between an Indian firm and a foreign company in India
4. Between an Indian firm and a foreign company in that foreign country
5. Between an Indian firma and a foreign company in a third country

Strategic alliances: They are partnership between firms whereby their resources, capabilities
and core competencies are combined to pursue mutual interest to develop, manufacture, or
distribute goods or services. There are various advantages:

 Two or more firms unite to pursue a set of agreed upon goals but remain independent
subsequent to the formation of the alliances. A pooling of resources, investment and risks
occurs for mutual gain

 The partner firms contribute on a continuing basis in one or more key strategic areas, for
example, technology, product and so forth.

 Strategic alliances offer a growth route in which merging one’s entity, acquiring or being
acquired, or creating a joint venture may not be required

 Global partners can help local firms by developing global quality consciousness, creating
adherence to international quality standards, providing access to state of the art technology,
gaining entry to world wide mass markets, and making funds available for expansions.
E.g: Ranbaxy Company went into strategic alliance with Elilly of the US to realize its mission
of becoming a research based international Sheet Metalceutical company.

E.g: synergistic benefits arising out of strategic alliance is that of Taj Hotels and British Airways,
where both create advantages for each other through complementarities of airlines and hotel services

STABILITY STRATEGIES

The stability grand strategy is adopted by an organization when it attempts at an incremental

improvement of its functional performance by marginally changing one or more of its businesses in
terms of their respective customer groups, customer functions, and alternative technologies – either
singly or collectively

E.g: A copier machine company provides better after sales service to its existing customer to improve
its company product image, and increase the sale of accessories and consumables

This strategy may be relevant for a firm operating in a reasonably certain and predictable
environment. Stability strategy can be of three types –No Change Strategy, Profit Strategy,
Pause/ Proceed – with – caution Strategy.

No-Change Strategy

It is a conscious decision to do nothing new. The firm will continue with its present business
definition. When a firm has a stable internal and external environment the firm will continue
with its present strategy. The firm has no new strengths and weaknesses within the organization
and there is no opportunities or threats in the external environment. Taking into account this
situation the firm decides to maintain its strategy.
Several small and medium sized firm operating in a familiar market- more often a niche market
that is limited in scope – and offering products or services through a time tested technology rely
on the No – Change Strategy.

Profit Strategy

No firm can continue with the No – Change Strategy. Sometimes things do change and the firm is
faced with the situation where it has to do something. A firm may assess the situation and assume that
its problem are short lived and will go away with time. Till then a firm tries to sustain its profitability
by adopting a profit strategy

For instance in a situation when the profit is becoming lower firm takes measures to reduce
investments, cut costs, raise prices, increase productivity and adopt other measures to solve the
temporary difficulties.

The problem arises due to unfavorable situation like economic recession, government attitude, and
industry down turn, competitive pressures and like. During this kind of situation that the firm assumes
to be temporary it would adopt profit strategies

Some firms to overcome these difficulties would sell off assets such as prime land in a commercial
area and move to suburbs. Others have removed some of its non-core business to raise money, while
others have decided to provide outsourcing service to other organizations.

Pause/ Proceed with Caution Strategy

It is employed by the firm that wish to test the ground before moving ahead with a full fledged grand
strategy, or by firms that have an intense pace of expansion and wish to rest for a while before moving
ahead. The purpose is to allow all the people in the organization to adapt to the changes. It is a
deliberate and conscious attempt to postpone strategic changes to a more opportune time.

E.g: In the India shoe market dominated by Bata and Liberty, Hindustan Levers better known for
soaps and detergents, produces substantial quantity of shoes and shoe uppers for the export market. In
late 2000, it started selling a few thousand pairs in the cities to find out the market reaction. This is a
pause proceed with caution strategy before it goes full steam into another FMCG sector that has a lot
of potential

RETRENCHMENT STRATEGIES

A retrenchment grand strategy is followed when an organization aims at a contraction of its activities
through substantial reduction or the elimination of the scope of one or more of its businesses in terms
of their respective customer groups, customer functions, or alternative technologies either singly or
jointly in order to improve its overall performance. E.g: A corporate hospital decides to focus only on
special treatment and realize higher revenues by reducing its commitment to general case which is less
profitable.

The growth of industries and markets are threatened by various external and internal developments
(External developments - government policies, demand saturation, emergence of substitute products,
or changing customer needs. Internal Developments – poor management, wrong strategies, poor
quality of functional management and so on.) In these situations the industries and markets and
consequently the companies face the danger of decline and will go for adopting retrenchment
strategies.

E.g: fountain pens, manual type writers, tele printers, steam engines, jute and jute products, slide rules,
calculators and wooden toys are some products that have either disappeared or face decline.
There are three types of retrenchment strategies - Turnaround Strategies, Divestment Strategies and
Liquidation strategies.

Turnaround Strategies

Turn around strategies derives their name from the action involved that is reversing a negative trend.
There are certain conditions or indicators which point out that a turnaround is needed for an
organization to survive. They are

 Persistent Negative cash flows

 Negative Profits
 Declining market share
 Deterioration in Physical facilities
 Over manning, high turnover of employees, and low morale
 Uncompetitive products or services
 Mis management

An organization which faces one or more of these issues is referred to as a ‘sick’ company

There are three ways in which turnarounds can be managed

 The existing chief executive and management team handles the entire turnaround strategy with
the advisory support of a external consultant.
  In another case the existing team withdraws temporarily and an executive consultant or
turnaround specialist is employed to do the job.

 The last method involves the replacement of the existing team specially the chief executive, or
merging the sick organization with a healthy one.

Before a turn around can be formulated for an Indian company, it has to be first declared as a sick
company. The declaration is done on the basis of the Sick Industrial Companies Act (SICA), 1985,
which provides for a quasi judicial body called the Board of Industrial and Networking Reconstruction
(BIFR) which acts as the corporate doctor whenever companies fall sick.

Divestment Strategies

A divestment strategy involves the sale or liquidation of a portion of business, or a major division.
Profit centre or SBU. Divestment is usually a part of rehabilitation or restructuring plan and is adopted
when a turnaround has been attempted but has proved to be unsuccessful. Harvesting strategies a
variant of the divestment strategies, involve a process of gradually letting a company business wither
away in a carefully controlled manner

Reasons for Divestment

 The business that has been acquired proves to be a mismatch and cannot be integrated within
the company. Similarly a project that proves to be in viable in the long term is divested

 Persistent negative cash flows from a particular business create Networking problems for the
whole company, creating a need for the divestment of that business.
  Severity of competition and the inability of a firm to cope with it may cause it to divest.

 Technological up gradation is required if the business is to survive but where it is not possible
for the firm to invest in it. A preferable option would be to divest

 Divestment may be done because by selling off a part of a business the company may be in a
position to survive

 A better alternative may be available for investment, causing a firm to divest a part of its
unprofitable business.

 Divestment by one firm may be a part of merger plan executed with another firm, where mutual
exchange of unprofitable divisions may take place.

 Lastly a firm may divest in order to attract the provisions of the MRTP Act or owing to oversize
and the resultant inability to manage a large business.

E.g: TATA group is a highly diversified entity with a range of businesses under its fold. They
identified their non – core businesses for divestment. TOMCO was divested and sold to Hindustan
Levers as soaps and a detergent was not considered a core business for the Tatas. Similarly, the Sheet
Metalceuticals companies of the Tatas- Merind and Tata Sheet Metal – were divested to Wockhardt.
The cosmetics company Lakme was divested and sold to Hindustan Levers, as besides being a non
core business, it was found to be a non- competitive and would have required substantial investment
to be sustained.

Liquidation Strategies
A retrenchment strategy which is considered the most extreme and unattractive is the liquidation
strategy, which involves closing down a firm and selling its assets. It is considered as the last resort
because it leads to serious consequences such as loss of employment for workers and other employees,
termination of opportunities where a firm could pursue any future activities and the stigma of failure

The psychological implications

 The prospects of liquidation create a bad impact on the company’s reputation.

 For many executives who are closely associated firms, liquidation may be a traumatic
experience.

Legal aspects of liquidation

Under the Companies Act 1956, liquidation is termed as winding up. The Act defines winding up of
a company as the process whereby its life is ended and its property administered for the benefit of its
creditors and members. The Act provides for a liquidator who takes control of the company, collect
its assets, pay it debts, and finally distributes any surplus among the members according to their rights.

Combination (Mixed Strategies)

The combination grand strategy is followed when an organization adopts a mixture of stability,
expansion and retrenchment either at the same time in its different business or at different times in the
same business with the aim of improving its performance. Complicated situations generally require
complex solutions. Combination strategies are the complex solutions that strategists have to offer
when faced with the difficulties of real life businesses.

E.g: A paint company augments its offering of decorative paints to provide a wider variety to its
customers (stability) and expands its product range to include industrial and automotive paints
(expansion). Simultaneously, it decides to close down the division which undertakes large scale
painting contract jobs (retrenchment).

It would be difficult to find an organization that has survived and grown by adopting a single pure
strategy. The complexity of doing business demands that different strategies be adopted to suit the
situational demands made upon the organization. An organisaiton which has followed a stability
strategy for quite some time has to think of expansion. Any organization which has been on an
expansion path for long has to pause to consolidate its businesses.

BUSINESS LEVEL STRATEGIES

In this second aspect of a company's strategy, the focus is on how to compete successfully in each of
the lines of business the company has chosen to engage in. The central thrust is how to build and
improve the company's competitive position for each of its lines of business.

Acquiring Core Competencies

A company has competitive advantage whenever it can attract customers and defend against
competitive forces better than its rivals. Companies want to develop competitive advantages that have
some sustainability. Successful competitive strategies usually involve building uniquely strong or
distinctive competencies in one or several areas crucial to success and using them to maintain a
competitive edge over rivals. Some examples of distinctive competencies are superior technology
and/or product features, better manufacturing technology and skills, superior sales and distribution
capabilities, and better customer service and convenience.

Competitive strategy is about being different. It means deliberately choosing to perform activities
differently or to perform different activities than rivals to deliver a unique mix of value. (Michael E.
Porter)

Porter has advocated Porter's three Generic Competitive Strategies that can be implemented at the
business unit level to created a competitive advantage. They are Cost Leadership, Differentiation and
Focus strategies

PORTER’S GENERIC BUSINESS STRATEGIES

Cost Leadership Differentiation

Focussed cost Focused

Leadership Differentiation

LOW COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES

Low cost leadership strategies are based on a firm’s ability to offer a product or service at a lower cost
than its rivals. When a firm is able to build a substantial cost advantage over other competitors it can
pass on its benefits to customers and gain a large market share. This requires being the overall low-
cost provider of the products or services (e.g., Costco, among retail stores, and Hyundai, among
automobile manufacturers). Implementing this strategy successfully requires continual, exceptional
efforts to reduce costs without excluding product features and services that buyers consider essential.
It also requires achieving cost advantages in ways that are hard for competitors to copy or match.
Some conditions that tend to make this strategy an attractive choice are:

 The industry's product is much the same from seller to seller

 The marketplace is dominated by price competition, with highly price-sensitive buyers

 There are few ways to achieve product differentiation that have much value to buyers

 Most buyers use product in same ways -- common user requirements

 Switching costs for buyers are low

 Buyers are large and have significant bargaining power

DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES

When firm appeal to a broad cross-section of the market through offering differentiating features that
make customers willing to pay premium prices, e.g., superior technology, quality, prestige, special
features, service, convenience (examples are Nordstrom and Lexus). Success with this type of strategy
requires differentiation features that are hard or expensive for competitors to duplicate. Sustainable
differentiation usually comes from advantages in core competencies, unique company resources or
capabilities, and superior management of value chain activities. Some conditions that tend to favor
differentiation strategies are:

 There are multiple ways to differentiate the product/service that buyers think have
substantial value

 Buyers have different needs or uses of the product/service

 Product innovations and technological change are rapid and competition

emphasizes the latest product features

 Not many rivals are following a similar differentiation strategy

FOCUS STRATEGIES

Focus strategies aim to sell good or services to narrow or specific target market, niche or segment.
Focus builds competitive advantage through high specialization and concentration of resources in a
given niche.

Firms can build focus in one of the two ways. Focussed Cost Leadership and Focussed Differentiation.
Focussed cost Leadership: A market niche strategy, concentrating on a narrow customer segment
and competing with lowest prices, which, again, requires having lower cost structure than competitors

Focused Differentiation: a second market niche strategy, concentrating on a narrow customer

segment and competing through differentiating features

e.g., a high-fashion women's clothing boutique

Some conditions that tend to favor focus (either cost or differentiation focus) are:

 The business is new and/or has modest resources

 The company lacks the capability to go after a wider part of the total market

 Buyers' needs or uses of the item are diverse; there are many different niches and segments in
the industry

 Buyer segments differ widely in size, growth rate, profitability, and intensity in the five
competitive forces, making some segments more attractive than others

 Industry leaders don't see the niche as crucial to their own success

 Few or no other rivals are attempting to specialize in the same target segment

Physical distribution represents the way businesses provide goods and services to their customers. In
some businesses, particularly retail businesses, the customer comes to the business. Their locations
may be important. Several other businesses usually go to the customer (e.g. B2B) The location of their
businesses is not so important.

The designing a Distribution Strategy deals with the following issues:

 Best Channel to deliver product

 Three different distribution systems:

o Retail consideration.

o Channel length.

o Channel exclusivity.

 Choice of channel: Cost/benefit of each alternative.

Why Is Distribution Important?

(1) It greatly affects all decisions in the marketing mix, including pricing, promotion, sales and
packaging through its impact on marketing costs and relationships.

(2) It creates a mutually dependent commitment between participants through an infrastructure that is
not easily changed and would be expensive to re-create. It becomes a part of the service delivery
structure that the customers become accustomed to and trained in using.

Most of the activities for a product manager are usually related to working with the existing
distributors, dealers or agents and perhaps expediting shipments as necessary. However, some new
products necessitate changes in the channel of distribution, or market and competitive forces will
require changes for existing products. This could also be a critical element of the plan if a product
manager is rolling out a product into new regions and/or expanding globally. As a result, distribution
strategy becomes an important aspect for the development of the annual marketing plan and an
effective marketing strategy.

Choice of Intemediaries versus Direct Marketing

 Producers may lack Networking resources to carry out marketing

 Customer support may be required

o Early days of computers

 Many firms set up partially owned distribution

o Auto manufacturers

o Fast food

 New technologies such as internet and logistics are affecting choice

o Dell Computer Corporation

Choice may also vary with Product Characteristics

 Perishable products

o Problem of delay and handling

 Bulky products

o Minimize shipping distance

 Nonstandard product

o Direct sales

 High unit value product (airplanes)

Dedicated sales force in company

A supply chain is a network of facilities and distribution options that performs the functions of
procurement of materials, transformation of these materials into intermediate and finished products,
and the distribution of these finished products to customers. Supply chains exist in both service and
manufacturing organizations, although the complexity of the chain may vary greatly from industry to
industry and firm to firm.

Below is an example of a very simple supply chain for a single product, where raw material is procured
from vendors, transformed into finished goods in a single step, and then transported to distribution
centers, and ultimately, customers. Realistic supply chains have multiple end products with shared
components, facilities and capacities. The flow of materials is not always along an arborescent
network, various modes of transportation may be considered, and the bill of materials for the end items
may be both deep and large.

Traditionally, marketing, distribution, planning, manufacturing, and the purchasing organizations

along the supply chain operated independently. These organizations have their own objectives and
these are often conflicting. Marketing's objective of high customer service and maximum sales dollars
conflict with manufacturing and distribution goals. Many manufacturing operations are designed to
maximize throughput and lower costs with little consideration for the impact on inventory levels and
distribution capabilities. Purchasing contracts are often negotiated with very little information beyond
historical buying patterns. The result of these factors is that there is not a single, integrated plan for
the organization---there were as many plans as businesses. Clearly, there is a need for a mechanism
through which these different functions can be integrated together. Supply chain management is a
strategy through which such an integration can be achieved.

Supply chain management is typically viewed to lie between fully vertically integrated firms, where
the entire material flow is owned by a single firm, and those where each channel member operates
independently. Therefore coordination between the various players in the chain is key in its effective
management. Cooper and Ellram [1993] compare supply chain management to a well-balanced and
well-practiced relay team. Such a team is more competitive when each player knows how to be
positioned for the hand-off. The relationships are the strongest between players who directly pass the
baton, but the entire team needs to make a coordinated effort to win the race.
Supply Chain Decisions

We classify the decisions for supply chain management into two broad categories -- strategic and
operational. As the term implies, strategic decisions are made typically over a longer time horizon.
These are closely linked to the corporate strategy (they sometimes {\it are} the corporate strategy),
and guide supply chain policies from a design perspective. On the other hand, operational decisions
are short term, and focus on activities over a day-to-day basis. The effort in these type of decisions is
to effectively and efficiently manage the product flow in the "strategically" planned supply chain.

There are four major decision areas in supply chain management: 1) location, 2) production, 3)
inventory, and 4) transportation (distribution), and there are both strategic and operational elements in
each of these decision areas.

Location Decisions

The geographic placement of production facilities, stocking points, and sourcing points is the natural
first step in creating a supply chain. The location of facilities involves a commitment of resources to
a long-term plan. Once the size, number, and location of these are determined, so are the possible paths
by which the product flows through to the final customer. These decisions are of great significance to
a firm since they represent the basic strategy for accessing customer markets, and will have a
considerable impact on revenue, cost, and level of service. These decisions should be determined by
an optimization routine that considers production costs, taxes, duties and duty drawback, tariffs, local
content, distribution costs, production limitations, etc. (See Arntzen, Brown, Harrison and Trafton
[1995] for a thorough discussion of these aspects.) Although location decisions are primarily strategic,
they also have implications on an operational level.

Production Decisions

The strategic decisions include what products to produce, and which plants to produce them in,
allocation of suppliers to plants, plants to DC's, and DC's to customer markets. As before, these
decisions have a big impact on the revenues, costs and customer service levels of the firm. These
decisions assume the existence of the facilities, but determine the exact path(s) through which a
product flows to and from these facilities. Another critical issue is the capacity of the manufacturing
facilities--and this largely depends the degree of vertical integration within the firm. Operational
decisions focus on detailed production scheduling. These decisions include the construction of the
master production schedules, scheduling production on machines, and equipment maintenance. Other
considerations include workload balancing, and quality control measures at a production facility.

Inventory Decisions

These refer to means by which inventories are managed. Inventories exist at every stage of the supply
chain as either raw materials, semi-finished or finished goods. They can also be in-process between
locations. Their primary purpose to buffer against any uncertainty that might exist in the supply chain.
Since holding of inventories can cost anywhere between 20 to 40 percent of their value, their efficient
management is critical in supply chain operations. It is strategic in the sense that top management sets
goals. However, most researchers have approached the management of inventory from an operational
perspective. These include deployment strategies (push versus pull), control policies --- the
determination of the optimal levels of order quantities and reorder points, and setting safety stock
levels, at each stocking location. These levels are critical, since they are primary determinants of
customer service levels.

Transportation Decisions

The mode choice aspect of these decisions are the more strategic ones. These are closely linked to the
inventory decisions, since the best choice of mode is often found by trading-off the cost of using the
particular mode of transport with the indirect cost of inventory associated with that mode. While air
shipments may be fast, reliable, and warrant lesser safety stocks, they are expensive. Meanwhile
shipping by sea or rail may be much cheaper, but they necessitate holding relatively large amounts of
inventory to buffer against the inherent uncertainty associated with them. Therefore customer service
levels, and geographic location play vital roles in such decisions. Since transportation is more than 30
percent of the logistics costs, operating efficiently makes good economic sense. Shipment sizes
(consolidated bulk shipments versus Lot-for-Lot), routing and scheduling of equipment are key in
effective management of the firm's transport strategy.
Supply Chain Modeling Approaches

Clearly, each of the above two levels of decisions require a different perspective. The strategic
decisions are, for the most part, global or "all encompassing" in that they try to integrate various
aspects of the supply chain. Consequently, the models that describe these decisions are huge, and
require a considerable amount of data. Often due to the enormity of data requirements, and the broad
scope of decisions, these models provide approximate solutions to the decisions they describe. The
operational decisions, meanwhile, address the day to day operation of the supply chain. Therefore the
models that describe them are often very specific in nature. Due to their narrow perspective, these
models often consider great detail and provide very good, if not optimal, solutions to the operational
decisions.

To facilitate a concise review of the literature, and at the same time attempting to accommodate the
above polarity in modeling, we divide the modeling approaches into three areas --- Network Design,
``Rough Cut" methods, and simulation based methods. The network design methods, for the most part,
provide normative models for the more strategic decisions. These models typically cover the four
major decision areas described earlier, and focus more on the design aspect of the supply chain; the
establishment of the network and the associated flows on them. "Rough cut" methods, on the other
hand, give guiding policies for the operational decisions. These models typically assume a "single site"
(i.e., ignore the network) and add supply chain characteristics to it, such as explicitly considering the
site's relation to the others in the network. Simulation methods is a method by which a comprehensive
supply chain model can be analyzed, considering both strategic and operational elements. However,
as with all simulation models, one can only evaluate the effectiveness of a pre-specified policy rather
than develop new ones. It is the traditional question of "What If?" versus "What's Best?".
 CHAPTER VI
FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
1. Are you facing any problem with current used product line?

a.)Yes

b.)No

c.)Not yet

Total Nos.

facing problem 15

not facing problem 18

not faced problems yet 22

hospitals facing problem

Facing problems

hospitals not facing

Not facing problems
problem
not yet encountered
Not yet encountered
That the above graph shows that the above observation showed that major number of users are either
not facing any problem or they have not being encountered with any.

2. Are you planning to make any new purchase?

a.) Yes

b.) No

c.) Not yet planned

Planning about new purchase Total Nos.

Planning to purchase 9

No planning 17

Not yet planned 29

planning to purchase
no planning
not yet planned
That the above graph show that the most of the users have not planned about making a purchase and
a very few are planning to make a buy.

3. How do you find the MACCADIN SOFTWARE products?

a.) OK

b.) Good

c.) Satisfactory

d.) Outstanding

e.) Not tried yet

Reaction about MACCADIN SOFTWARE Total Nos.

products

OK 3

Good 12

Satisfactory 19

Outstanding 7

Not tried yet 10

 OK
good
satisfactory
outstanding
not tried yet

According to above graph shows that the maximum of MACCADIN SOFTWARE user are satisfied
with the products and services provided. Very few have not tried yet MACCADIN SOFTWARE on a
business scale, but most of them have an experience about MACCADIN SOFTWARE.

4 . Do you want to know more about MACCADIN SOFTWARE products?

a.)Yes b.)No

Wanted knowledge about MACCADIN Total Nos.

SOFTWARE

Yes 42

No 13
 want info about HCL
no info wanted

That the above graph shows that the observation and the most of the people are interested in knowing
more about the brand and have the urge to buy.

5. Do you require demo for any product?

a.)Yes

b.)No

Total Nos.

interested in demo 24

not interested in demo 31

 interestedinterested
hospitals in demo in
demo
hospitals not interested
in demo
interested in demo

This observation showed that almost 45% of the sample was interested in demo.

6 .Do you want to buy any product? (Commercial proposal)

a.)Yes

b.)No

c.)Not yet decided

 Commercial proposal Total Nos.

Yes 8

No 19

Not yet decided 28

hospitals
Interestedinterested
in in
commercial proposal
commercial proposal
hospitals not interested
inNot interested in
commercial proposal
commercial proposal
not yet planned
Not yet planned

That the above graph shows that the above observation showed that almost a huge chunk of hospitals
surveyed either doesn’t want or they have not planned for any commercial proposal.

4 How you use Relationship Marketing team communicates and builds relationship with customer?

(a) Direct Mailer (b) Internet quotation

(c) Advertisement pop up (d) service on request

 Grade Survey Result

Direct Mailer 35

Internet quotation help 25

Advertisement Pop Up 25

Service on request 15

Survey Result

Direct Mailer
15%
35% Internet Quotation
25%
Advertisement Pop Up
25%
Service On demand

This question gives an idea about how uses of Relationship Marketing team working with
MACCADIN SOFTWARE and build relationship with customer,

According to our survey result 35 % respondent replies that they use Relationship Marketing because
they send direct mailer to end customer for their request purpose also 25% MACCADIN SOFTWARE
people using Relationship Marketing team using internet using as a tools for increasing business ,
purpose also 15 % respondent said they using Relationship Marketing team providing service on
demand service which gives better satisfaction because of they provide MACCADIN SOFTWARE
service to the customer like sending to the customer also 25% respondent said out of 100 sample size
they preferred internet as a marketing tools for the stone crushing item.
5. How Relationship Marketing team help provides the basis of relationship marketing of
MACCADIN SOFTWARE to its customers

(a) Lead generation (b) Product Information

(c) Advantage of the product (d) online form fills up

Factor Respondent

Lead Generation 36

Product Information 22

Advantage of the Product 14

Online form fill up 28

Respondent

Lead Generation Product Information

Advantage of the Product Online form fill up

Online form
fill up Lead
28% Generation
36%

Advantage of
the Product Product
14% Information
22%
How Relationship Marketing team provides the basis of relationship marketing of MACCADIN
SOFTWARE and customers this question gives the insight of how direct marketing will maintain
relationship whit the customer. Lead Generation is not a new form of gaining new business, but it now
has a new approach. Rather than sitting at a trade show table for hours on end, or sitting up a display
in hopes that targeted consumers will complete a form, you can have leads generated and sent to you
using the technology of the Internet

According to our survey result 36% respondent said they use lead generation through the direct sells
team also 22% responded said internet provide product information to the customer and 28 %
respondent said Relationship Marketing concept will help MACCADIN SOFTWARE consumer to
fill up there MACCADIN SOFTWARE formalities or online query/

Lead generation is a win-win for both the buyer and seller. A buyer is able to request information from
several businesses that offer the product or service that they are looking for and the seller is given the
opportunity to pitch their product or service to someone who has given them permission

6 Identify factors those help and affect customer retention in the new economy

(a) Advertisement (b) Good product

(c) Availability (d) Customer Care

Factor Respondent

Advertisement 46

Good product 23

Availability 19

Customer Care 12
 Respondent

Customer Care
12% Advertisment
Availability
Good product
19% Advertisment
46% Availability

Good product Customer Care

23%

Identify factors those help and affect customer retention in the new economy Customer retention is
not only a cost effective and profitable strategy, but in today's business world it's necessary. This is
especially true when you remember that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customer and
clients. With these statistics I am wondering why most marketing and sales for MACCADIN
SOFTWARE little value-add strategies that you can use include:

o Welcome, acknowledgement, sales recognition, thank you statements.

According to our survey 46% people said out of 100 respondent Advertisement is the most valuable
thing to maintain customer relationship. While 23% respondent said Good product and useful product
also hard pressing for the customer retentions while 19% respondent reply that Availability of the
product will be key factor for MACCADIN SOFTWARE company’s consumer.

7. How the consumers come to know about the MACCADIN SOFTWARE?

Here we come to know that 35% of the consumers came to know about the MACCADIN SOFTWARE
product through self research, and following of this 30% people get to know about MACCADIN
SOFTWARE trough advertisement i.e. quite effective advertisement point of view. Rest of 20% are
influenced though their friend and colleagues or by friends and a small number i.e. 10% by the
Hoardings and 5% by or any other means includes radio and magazine news paper article.

8. You like the advertisement pattern of the MACCADIN SOFTWARE of (currently).

 Yes (Because I think I am associated with that).

 NO (meaning less for me).
According to our survey 78% respondent realize that they are associated with MACCADIN
SOFTWARE advertisement whenever they watching that advertisement in Television or News paper
or any mean also 22% still don’t think they are associated with that advertisement because the subject
line of that advertisement is not communicate the message what MACCADIN SOFTWARE trying to
reach them.

An opportunity of MACCADIN SOFTWARE to convert 22% of population to positive side so the

brand extension would be done in better and efficient manner.

9. Kindly select any one of the following way where Indian MACCADIN SOFTWARE sector has
leverage in the global scenario?

A. Globalisation B. Consolidation

C. Dérégulation D. Diversification

Factor influence MACCADIN SOFTWARE

 Globalization 42

Consolidation 12

Deregulation 18

Diversification 28

Factor influence D&B

28% 42%

18%
12%

Globalisation Consolidation Deregulation Diversification

With further globalization, consolidation, deregulation and diversification of the financial industry,
the MACCADIN SOFTWARE sector will become even more complex but how much it influence
Indian MACCADIN SOFTWARE to go global for this we just try to find out the influential factor.
42% of the people said that globalization would be the factor while 28% of the people said
diversification would be the Indian MACCADIN SOFTWARE get beneficial paradigm for the coming
days while 18% people felt deregulation in the financial market would be the key area for the Indian
bank to became a global player.
10. After experiencing the entire factor for consideration; what do you think Relationship Marketing
team is more important or costly marketing is more necessary?

A. Relationship Marketing

B. Marketing

Which is beneficial

Relationship Marketing 78

Marketing 22

This question gives us zest of the Relationship Marketing vs. marketing which is preferred for the
MACCADIN SOFTWARE. After the analysis of primary data it is clear that Relationship Marketing
concept is the more preferred way for the MACCADIN SOFTWARE for growing there demand, 78%
of the people out of 100 chosen of that while 22% of the customer suggested that they preferred
marketing for the best possible way to do increase there business.

So from this question it has been cleared that Relationship Marketing is more advantageous for the
MACCADIN SOFTWARE rather than maketing.
5.4 SWOT ANALYSIS

In present corporate scenario the S.W.O.T. Analysis is the most vital and foremost tool in order to
judge the competitors and also to analyze the position of the company itself. Basically S.W.O.T.
Analysis refers to the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strength and Weaknesses are
the internal analysis of the firm; on the other hand Opportunities and Threats are the external analysis
of the firm.

Strength:

 Compass Grouphas well built image of excellence and innovation supported of triumph of
Indian dairy technology.

 It has well logistic and channel network.

 Well trained and educated marketing staff.

 Quality of Ice-cream is good and it doesn’t use any artificial items in making Ice-creams.

 It ensures that only cow and buffalo milk is used for making Ice-creams by collecting milk
from milk cooperatives.

 Demand is absolutely optimistic.

 Abundant availability of raw material.

 High brand image of Compass GroupIce-cream in market.

 Provide pure milk Ice-cream rather than frozen desert.

 Nation wide coverage of Compass GroupIce-cream.

 Offering new product to customer continuously.

 Large varieties of Ice-cream and its reasonable pricegives the value for money to customer.

 Consumer have trust on the brand name of Mother dairy, which is helping it to build up a
formidable image.

Weaknesses:
  Retailers say they are not satisfied by trade schemes and offerings.

 Equal importance is not given by distributors to all retailers and confectionary stores. They
neglect some retailers.

 All is not well with distribution system.

 With so many companies in this industry, competition is becoming tougher day by day. But
then competition has to be faced as a ground reality. The market is large enough for many to
carve out their niche.

 Image of Compass Groupis being diminished by not supplying the goods and services
regularly.

 As far as deep freezer is concern, company has no plan to provide DF on installment or any
other plan while the competitors are doing so.

 Advertisement policies are not good.

 Replacement policy of Compass Groupis very tough and because of this many retailer don’t
want to go with Mother dairy.

 A major entry barrier with Compass Groupis their some non flexible policies , if Compass
Groupmakes a bit flexible policies then it will be beneficial for them.

Opportunities:

“Failure is never final, and success never ending.” Dr. Kurien bears out this statement perfectly. He
entered the industry when there were only threats. He met failure head-on, and now he clearly is an
example of ‘never ending success! If dairy entrepreneurs are looking for opportunities in India, the
following areas must be tapped:

 Value Addition: There is a phenomenal scope for innovations in product development,

packaging and presentation. Steps can be taken to introduce Compass Groupice cream with
having less fat as additional essential extra elements for health conscious people.

 By increasing the margin to the retailer Compass GroupIce-cream can reach to the more
retailers as well as consumers.
  By solving the replacement problem it can maximize the attention of retailers about selling the
product.

 Can open retail outlet in Rich residential colonies and various malls, cinema halls.

 Can expand its business in rural areas.

Threats:

 Cut throat competition in the market.

 No flexibility in strategy.

 Customers are not brand loyal in ice-cream industry.

 SUGGESTION

Analysis of the Maccadin Software marketing tactics reveals the extent of their influence on patient
care and medical research. These tactics can be arranged into five categories according to the potential
for harm to patients (from least to most harmful): physicians-targeted promotions, direct- to-consumer
advertising, unethical recruitment of physicians, researchers’ conflicts of interest, and data
manipulation in clinical trials. Drug companies’ promotions subconsciously influence physicians’
prescription patterns. Heavy advertising to consumers results in more prescriptions being written,
whether or not the new drug is in the best interests of patients, and therefore strongly correlates with
sales increases for the promoted new drug. The Sheet Metalceutical industry’s public relation firms
unethically recruit physicians to endorse their companies’ clinical studies. Researchers’ financial
conflicts of interest often influence results in the corresponding studies; in many cases, the employed
researchers receive extra financial benefits, such as stock options and funding for future projects, from
the drug company for which they are conducting clinical trials. Distributional companies manipulate
research data to prevent negative data from leaking to the public. Much evidence suggests that the
Sheet Metalceutical industry’s economic influence on the medical field is substantial. Despite the
threats these activities pose to the reliability of medical care and the integrity of research, the reputation
for quality in American healthcare is not yet lost; the continuing quality of American healthcare will
depend primarily on the morality of next generation’s scientists and doctors.
CONCLUSION

In order to prosper in an overcrowded environment, company need to market Maccadin Software

business' competitive advantage. However, identifying this competitive advantage may not be as easy
as it seems. To help company determine what Maccadin Software advantage is take some time to
consider what Maccadin Software business does better than anyone else.

By clearly understanding Maccadin Software competitive advantage company can tailor Maccadin
Software marketing strategy to highlight this important selling feature. Company should aim to focus
on one competitive advantage rather than trying to be good at a range of different factors - focussing
on too many things often leads to mediocre performance rather than one true and sustainable
advantage. Take a look at these four common competitive advantages to see if one of these areas holds
the right focus for Maccadin Software business:

1. Process

2. Expertise

3. Uniqueness

4. Relationships

1. Process

A business' processes can be a great competitive advantage, particularly if it means company run
Maccadin Software business more efficiently then Maccadin Software competitors. The right business
processes often results in better customer service and outcomes.
  Results - as a business, Maccadin Software can market Maccadin Software results-based
service, particularly if company use Maccadin Software processes to generate results that are
above and beyond those of Maccadin Software competitors. If Maccadin Software business is
extremely efficient, company can actually save Maccadin Software business money and pass
the savings onto Maccadin Software customers by reducing prices. Through streamlined
processes, company can also offer faster delivery.

To best market Maccadin Software results-based service, accumulate examples, such as

testimonials and case studies, and include them in Maccadin Software marketing material and
on Maccadin Software website (if company have one).

 Customer service – Maccadin Software competitive advantage may be Maccadin Software

exceptional customer service. The values of Maccadin Software business, including the
importance company place on customer service, shows through in the service Maccadin
Software employees provide.

 This type of advantage needs continual work if it is to be maintained as customer service cannot
be achieved without the right staff. This means Maccadin Software business must invest in top
quality staff and offer good training - this approach will pay off in the long term.

Admittedly, customer service can be hard to market, but word-of-mouth will do most of the
work for company.

2. Expertise

If Maccadin Software business offers cutting-edge products or services or company are a specialist in
Maccadin Software field, then expertise may be the competitive advantage company need to focus on.

 Products and services - is Maccadin Software business breaking ground with new technology
or improved business processes? If so, company should promote these features as they can set
company apart from Maccadin Software competitors.
  Don't be modest in advertising and marketing Maccadin Software cutting-edge products and
services. Just be careful to ensure Maccadin Software marketing material is easy to understand
- it can be difficult when company're dealing with something new or quite technical.

 Specialist - if Maccadin Software business has been involved in one industry for a number of
years, company can use this to Maccadin Software advantage. Take Maccadin Software years
of experience and promote Mimaki Kanphorself as a specialist in Maccadin Software field.
There are a number of ways to do this, including published writing, public speaking, media
interviews and testimonials.

3. Uniqueness

Do Maccadin Software have a product or service that is unique to Maccadin Software industry or that
has been tailored so it suits a specific niche market? It is easy to get lost in the crowd, but with a unique
process, system or product Maccadin Software can make Maccadin Software business memorable.
Maccadin Software unique attribute could simply be that company specialise in one area rather than
offering a broad range of services. One of the greatest benefits of being a unique business is that
Maccadin Software cannot be compared on price or product because company offer something
completely different.

Again, don't be shy in marketing Maccadin Software unique qualities. Make sure all Maccadin
Software marketing material mentions Maccadin Software unique process, system or product so
Maccadin Software target market is interested in finding out more.

If company don't already have a unique product or service but this competitive advantage particularly
appeals to company, company could start from scratch and develop something to take to market. A
good place to start is to consider a gap in the industry. Alternatively, company could examine similar
sectors or overseas markets to find inspiration. Just make sure company investigate copyright or patent
protection so company can protect Maccadin Software great idea for copycats.
4. Relationships

Solid relationships with Maccadin Software customers can ensure Maccadin Software business is
around for the long haul. If company spend the time making Maccadin Software customers feel special
and understood, then focusing on Maccadin Software customer relationships might be the way to go.
However a keen focus on customer relations will not be the right approach for every business. Small
businesses often differentiate themselves from the big players on the basis of customer relationships
however, if company feel this is Maccadin Software competitive advantage, company should also be
able to distinguish Maccadin Software firm from other small businesses. But that is not as easy to do.
For a real competitive advantage, company should be dedicating time and energy to these relationships
and that may mean company can only take on a select number of customers at a time.

Remember, to successfully exploit Maccadin Software competitive advantage, company should focus
on only one area. Company need to identify just one specific factor where company thrive and put all
Maccadin Software energy into it making sure this strength continues to reach new heights. The
alternative is to try and work on all four areas however, if company take this approach company'll
likely find that company can't achieve and maintain "best" status in all four areas.

Annexure

BOOKS:

 Kotler Philip, ‘marketing management’ prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi.

 Kothari C. R. ‘research methodology’, vishwa publication, New Delhi.

 Beri G.C. ‘marketing research’, Tata McGraw-hill publicating Co. Ltd. New Delhi.

 Dr. Sharma D.D. ‘marketing research’, Sultan Chand & Sons educational publication, New Delhi.
 Saxena Rajan ‘marketing management’ Tata McGraw-hill publicating Co. Ltd. New Delhi.

 Verma H. V. ‘marketing of services’ Global business press, New Delhi.

 Business today magazine of August issue, 2008.

WEB RESOURCES:

http://www.maccadin.com

http://www.google.com

http://www.rediff.com

http://www.india_today.com