Mr.

bala kumaran was sitting at his office desk on Friday morning and
reading the news paper, on the consumer grievances column he found the name of his
retail stores “Murugan stores”. He was not suprized or shocked about it as it was an usual
thing to him . where in the past 3 months the complaints of the consumers are increasing
day to day .he dropped the paper on the table and closed his eyes and was lost into his
thoughts. His business was an family business which where started by his grandfather and
developed by his father and uncles together. Now his generation is the third to take over
the company, and now it has been one year since Bala kumaran had taken over the
charge, but he was not able to make a single improvement to this business because even
thought he had taken over the business he could not take actions all by himself, he had a
management committee consiting of his cousins who are looking after the other chains of
the same business group and his out dated uncles and father . Their style of business
structure was apt for their period of time but now the business demands more re-
structuring and modernization. Now since the trends are changing with a lot of
techonological advancement there needs a check for quality, even thought the retail store
are well know for their quality and pricing in the past, in the world of inceresing
competation more innovation and quality improvement is required.

Bala kumaran’s thoughts are flowing into the memories of the previous
committee meeting which happened the week before, he had made notes on what all
things requires a change in the over all group of companies. Before he could voice his
views his elder family members had gone through the accounts and the inventries details
and closed the meeting .It was a strict rule in the very orthodox family that they wold not
be any discusson about business at home. Since there were no one else to discuss about
the business and being the youngest among his family he never got a chance to voice his
opinions. More over the other retail chains of their group where not even bothered to
improve the business they were happy with the input, process and output style of business
where money invested and only profit was looked into. Ignoring the consumer
statisfaction, quality and the human side of the business.

Bala kumaran delt with home appliances section of their retail stores where already
the consumer complaints where over flowing. One consumer named satish has
approached the management that he would take his issue to the consumer court, satish
has purchased a table top grinder from the home appliance section but realized there was
a defect in the product , that is the cover of the grinder is smaller the mouth of the ginder
and he wants a replacement with compensation. He has written an article in the greviance
section in news paper which was read previously by Bala kumran.

Now bala kumaran brain storming to find the core problem faced by his retail stores. He
makes a note of these things

a) there is no quality check at any point of time of the business, there is no such
person a called quality manager.
b) The staffing is not good. Mostly illirates are hired from their native place down
south other than that there are 10 managers who have studided upto 10th std. these
 managers appointed for each store is just an supervisory who invigilates the staffs
and checks the in flow and out flow of stock. There is one cashier at the cash desk
who bills the product and collects the cash at each store.
c) Even the wide expanisation of the business could be a reason for decreased
quality in the products and sevices offered, the retail stores found at each and
every nook and coner at the area which is at the heart of the city. There is no
proper adaptability for the expanisation. Each month there is an opening of a new
building at the same area or different area but the staffing and facilites are not
improved according. This is the expanisation in geographic area
d) The expanisation in products has also a wide range, from home appliances to
textiles and cosmetics to eatires and hotel including gold market. Any field, any
market, any product to be named the Murugan stores has set a foot in it. As the
saying goes jack of all trades master of none.
e) The next issue due quality problem is purchase of goods from whole salers in
bulk in order to reduce the cost has reduced the quality as there is an increase in
the number of damaged goods which are with out any check taken straight for
sale.
f) The number of staffs available is incridablay low, where in a counter four staffs
are required only one staff is available and as
g) As the cashiers them selves bill the products and collect the cash there is a lot of
delay in the billing section. Customers are waiting in long queques and getting
tired.
h) There is not even a complaint box so the consumers write to the grivences column
of new papers and comment in networking sites

Due to the following draw backs the good will of the retail stores was degrading
day by day. These problems are haunting the mind of Bala kumaran.