Assignment Sample DBS Individual
Assignment Sample DBS Individual
Assignment Sample DBS Individual
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1. Organization Overview
1.1. History
The organization that we are going to look at from strategic perspective, is an
information technology company based in Pune, India. It was started by a freelance
programmer in 2004 to develop ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software for small
& medium local garment shops. The application was marketed as “EZGarment”. It was
then customized for small manufacturing companies as “EZBusiness”. In 2007, another
former company colleague joined him to start the organization to cater software
development needs of clients abroad. (Refer Appendix I - Figure I)
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Customer based objectives are –
i. Try to convert potential leads into prospective clients and then finally
customers by aggressive marketing
ii. Retain existing customers by offering them skilled manpower having advanced
skills
iii. Hire new marketing team to develop unknown markets like EU
But there are some issues in corporate governance in the company that have not gone
unnoticed. Level of corporate governance is low since ownership and management roles
have been handled by same persons. There are people who act in non-executive director
or shareholder capacity but they have negligible interest in company’s strategic
decisions and have hardly exercised any authority. So the company interest is driven by
the directors according to their own vision which sometime may be different than that
of advisors and partners. Even though department heads are responsible for managing
their own staff and tasks, they are subjected to micro management from owners which
indicate lack of trust flowing towards lower level of reporting.
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1.6. Company’s stance on Corporate Social Responsibility
Company does perform occasional Corporate Social Responsibility activities. But there
is no formal committee or panel that overlook these operations since company doesn’t
have resources to manage CSR activities. Also, company’s primary interest is in job
creation and profits than social duties so it will take action on social duties only if there
are government obligations. But since CSR is voluntary activity for SMEs in India,
company won’t do much than what is required. So its actions will be mostly need or
event based. This indicates that CSR stance of the company is Laissez-Faire where
organization will initiate CSR based on external pressures. (Johnson, Whittington and
Scholes, 2014, p. 128)
2. Strategic Capabilities
Because of the ever changing nature of IT industry, people with up-to-date technical
skills are always in demand for IT related projects. From this perspective, company has
pool of talented manpower and many of whom are engineers having Bachelor degree in
Computers. This gives company ability to exploit market-ready skills that are required
to sustain in the market. Even though many of them are fresh engineers, there are some
experienced resources also. In terms of financial resources, company has shown slow
but consistent growth during last 4-5 years and it has been able to raise enough capital
to have its own building as an asset. Company has continued its policy to provide
technical support & maintenance to its old clients who had purchased legacy ERP
software. This move has been successful in generating additional cash flow.
Software licenses are intangible resources for an IT organization since software vendors
have very strict rules against piracy. The company has made sure to use licensed
software for business. From competency perspective, company’s financial strength has
been certified by CRISIL ratings. Apart from this, company has managed to acquire
quality management certification from ISO. Company’s current delivery manager is
Microsoft certified professional who bridges gap between functional and technical
requirements.
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market. Since IT industry is heavily technology based, it’s essential that a company must
have at least one senior person with strong technical skills which company has. Major
plus point for the company is S&P rating SE 2A which certifies about sound financial
position in the market and ISO certificate for quality management. Company has
advantage in terms of qualified manpower since almost 60% of its engineers have
Bachelor degree essential for an IT firm. (Refer Appendix II - Figure V)
3. Competitive Advantage
Value - Primary revenue source of the company is providing IT services to clients using
outsourcing methods. So qualified IT engineers and managers are essential to build
technical competency and survive in the volatile market over the years. Not only they
create tangible benefits in terms of better customer service and revenue growth but also
intangible benefits by improving brand value.
Rarity - It’s difficult for Indian IT companies to find and hire US based sales &
marketing professionals because of the time difference as well as difference in wage
levels. So in this case, it’s a rarity from capability perspective since they can provide
assistance to existing clients and work with prospects during US day-time.
Inimitable - Obtaining positive ratings from S&P CRISIL is a complex and rigorous
exercise since it deals with company’s internal processes to manage quality in terms of
customer expectations. So it’s not possible for other organizations to simply imitate it
because certification requirements of S&P are of very high standards.
In business risk, CRISIL verifies a company based on factors like profiles of current
clients, customer & supplier relationships and infrastructure level. Management risk
deals with organizational structure, presence of multi-layer management team and
quality of internal processes. If these factors are not satisfactory then the company is
considered as non-sustainable over long-term. So this is more of internal linkages of
complexity. Finally, financial risk is assessed by CRISIL using financial parameters like
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net worth, sales volume, company size, profitability, working capital etc. This is again
internal to the company.
From above discussion, it can be seen that – unless a company scores well in these three
criteria, it won’t get good ratings necessary for customer confidence and its sole
responsibility of management and staff to ensure that they meet the compliance in all
criteria for good rating. (Johnson, Whittington and Scholes, 2014, p. 78)
4. Stakeholder Analysis
Company is private limited owned by two individuals while their wives are partners and
have invested. Advisors are independent consultants who form part of strategy team.
Suppliers of the company are - hardware dealers, networking equipment suppliers,
computer maintenance contractors, stationery material suppliers etc. Company uses
external outsourcing agencies for various reasons like manpower for the skills not
available among employees or recruitment of senior professionals. Managers are mostly
department heads under whom most of the employees work.
Key players - From this mapping, it is clear that owners have highest power and
have highest level of interest but advisors are also key players even if they possess
less power compared to owners, since their decisions are crucial for company’s
future.
Keep satisfied – Partners have high level of power due to their investment but they
are not much interested in company’s day-to-day operations. So they work as
facilitators for the organization.
Minimal effort – Suppliers and Outsourcing agencies have low interest and have no
power in the organization. Since there are multiple vendors available in the market,
company won’t find it difficult to switch to another vendor.
Keep informed – There are many players in this group and it is essential for the
company to keep them informed about new developments based on the power they
can exercise. E.g. company may share some strategic decisions with managers but
may not reveal internal details to employees and clients.
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5. Strategy Recommendation for Future
Company can’t afford differentiation strategy since it doesn’t have huge financial and
resource investment for IT product research & development. (Refer Appendix II - Figure
VIII) Company needs to convert the value destroying activities into value adding so that
they will provide long-term competitive advantage. E.g. better pay-scale or frequent
engagement between management and junior staff etc. (Refer Appendix II - Figure X)
5.2. Other Strategy Models - Bowman’s Strategy Clock & Ansoff Matrix
On Bowman’s strategy clock, company is at position 1 due to low value addition with low
profit margins. To address this problem, company should from zone 1 to zone 2 i.e.
perceived added value to client, as shown in the diagram. Here company can set
moderate cost and also improve its quality of services for more value addition for sales
growth. (Refer Appendix II - Figure IX)
Ansoff matrix is a corporate strategy tool to guide a business to its future direction.
Currently, company operates mainly in North American markets by providing IT
enabled services. It has stared with single client in 2007 and earned many more clients
to its list using market penetration strategy which had been quite successful.
The strategy worked well for a long time since this market is huge in terms of size and
opportunities. But over dependence on it can put the company in financial trouble
because US economy had been subject to global economic slowdown in past. So
company has to identify and develop new markets for its expansion rather than solely
concentrating on US IT industry. (Refer Appendix II - Figure XI)
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6. Strategy Evaluation Using SAFe criteria
From the strategies, now criteria are to be evaluated for SAF – Suitability, Acceptability and
Feasibility. (Johnson, Whittington and Scholes, 2014, p. 372)
Lifecycle matrix–
At present, company’s position in the market is favourable and there are many SME
competitors for the company having almost same size & profit margin and IT industry is
currently in mature stage. So the suitable strategy would be to move towards cost leadership
from cost focus. (Refer Appendix II - Figure XVI)
Suitability –
Based on strengths & weaknesses identified using SWOT analysis (Refer Appendix II - Figure
XII), recommended option for the company would be “Market Development”. Main reason
for this is that the company relies heavily on North American IT market and it is moving
towards saturation due to many native software development firms. So company needs to use
its marketing capabilities along with financial & quality assurance certifications and move
towards developing new market in European countries. (Refer Appendix II - Figure XV)
Acceptability –
Risk – Even though company’s financial position is very good which is evident from its
S&P rating, there are some risks that might affect effective implementation of above
strategies. Company may not face any major risk but most of the clients are US based and
company earns most of its revenue in US$, fluctuations in US exchange rate against
Rupees pose major risk to its earnings. Similarly, getting entry in European IT market is
tough compared to US because it’s not easily accessible to SMEs outside EU and EU
companies prefer local vendors due to language barriers. So company might need to
spend substantial amount of money to hire competent marketing professionals there.
Returns – During initial stage, company would need to invest money on sales &
marketing to develop new markets like EU but once it establishes itself there, the returns
would be higher since revenue will be generated in British Pound £ and Euro € which are
stronger than US$.
Reaction of Stakeholders – As seen in section 4.2, owners and partners are main
stakeholders in the company. Also company’s stance on CSR is profit based according to
section 1.7. Since this new strategy is going to target sales growth thru new market
exploration, reaction of owners & partners will be positive and pro-investment. Other
stakeholders like employees, managers, advisors have low or limited power so major
stakeholders can implement the strategy without much resistance from others. (Refer
Appendix II - Figure VII)
Feasibility –
Let’s analyse feasibility of proposed strategy from resources and competency perspective. For
strategy implementation, company needs resources and competencies to fulfil perceived
targets.
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Physical – Company does have its own infrastructure development facility.
To sum up from above discussion, the proposed strategy is feasible for the company in
current conditions. After analysing competencies, identifying suitable strategy and
integrating SAFe criteria, it can be concluded that if the company decides to follow this
proposed strategic direction then it would be able to achieve its interlinked objectives as
shown in the map and sustainable competitive advantage. (Refer Appendix II - Figure XIV)
7. Bibliography
CRISIL. (n.d.). Rating Criteria for Small and Medium Enterprises. [online] Available at:
http://www.crisil.com/Ratings/BusiAreaMethodology/MethodologyDocs/sme-criteria_2nov06.pdf [Accessed 24
Mar. 2016].
Iso.org. (2014). ISO 9001:2008 - Quality management systems -- Requirements. [online] Available at:
http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=46486 [Accessed 23 Mar. 2016].
Johnson, G., Whittington, R. and Scholes, K. (2014). Exploring strategy Text and Cases. 10th ed. Harlow: Financial
Times Prentice Hall.
Pignatelli, A. (2014). How to create a vision statement that inspires your organization. [video] Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMGLJ2hV1Is [Accessed 13 Mar. 2016].
zConsolutions.com. (n.d.). zCon Solutions Pvt. Ltd. |. [online] Available at: http://www.zconsolutions.com/
[Accessed 29 Mar. 2016].
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Appendix I – Company Images
Figure I
(zConsolutions.com, n.d.)
Figure II
(zConsolutions.com, n.d.)
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Figure III
(zConsolutions.com, n.d.)
Figure IV
(zConsolutions.com, n.d.)
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Figure V
(zConsolutions.com, n.d.)
Figure VI
(zConsolutions.com, n.d.)
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Appendix II – Supporting Figures
Figure I – Corporate structure
Marketing
Finance Software
Dev.
Management
Networking Admin
HR
Figure II - Stakeholders
Owners
Advisors Clients
Outsourcing
Managers
Agency
Company
Suppliers Employees
Partners Competitor
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Figure III – Reporting structure
Non-Executive
Advisors Directors
(Partners)
Annual Progress Report
Executive Directors
Delivery
Principal
Manager
Project Plan and
Proposal
Project
Sales Targets and
Tracking
Prospective Clients
Progress
Report Team Leader
Developer
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Figure IV - Capabilities
Resources Competencies
Leased Internet line to ensure high Physical Multi-story software development facility
speed connectivity Enhanced security using Biometric
Licensed software from Microsoft, fingerprint based devices
Oracle ISO 9001:2008 certification for quality
VOIP based US phone number for US management (Refer Appendix I - Figure
based clients VI)
SE 2A rating from CRISIL, a Standard &
Poor's company (Crisil.com, 2016)
Around 80 staff which includes mix of Human Founders with vast on-site work
experienced and fresh graduates experience in US IT industry
Over 60% of the staff are engineers US based sales and marketing advisors
having Bachelor degree (Refer Appendix who do real-time scan of local IT market
I - Figure IV) to find prospects
Programmers with wide range of IT Expertise in MVC architecture
skills (Refer Appendix I - Figure V) Delivery manager with strong technical
background
Sustainable revenue to invest money in Financial Competitive pricing in cost-conscious
real-estate in one of the most expensive outsourcing market
part of the city to develop own facility Revenue still generated from its legacy
Decent profits despite low margins in software developed for SMEs almost 10
small size IT projects years ago
Resources Competencies
Threshold Leased Internet line to ensure high Multi-story software development facility
speed connectivity Enhanced security using Biometric
Licensed software from Microsoft, fingerprint based devices
Oracle Competitive pricing in cost-conscious
VOIP based US phone number for US outsourcing market
based clients Expertise in MVC architecture
Around 80 staff which includes mix of Revenue still generated from its legacy
experienced and fresh graduates software developed for SMEs almost 10
People with wide range of IT skills years ago
Decent profits despite low margins in
small size IT projects
Distinctive Over 60% of the staff are engineers Founders with vast on-site work experience
having Bachelor degree in US IT industry
Sustainable revenue to invest money US based sales and marketing advisors who
in real-estate in one of the most do real-time scan of local IT market to find
expensive part of the city to develop prospects
own facility Delivery manager with strong technical
background in Microsoft Technologies
SE 2A rating from CRISIL, a Standard &
Poor's company
ISO 9001:2008 certification for quality
management
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Figure VI – VRIN model
Category Competencies
Value Delivery manager with strong technical background in Microsoft
Technologies
ISO 9001:2008 certification for quality management
Qualified engineers having Bachelor degree
Rarity US based sales and marketing advisors who do real-time scan of local IT
market to find prospects
Inimitability SE 2A rating from CRISIL, a Standard & Poor's company
Non-substitutable Founders with vast on-site work experience in US IT industry
(Johnson, Whittington and Scholes, 2014, p. 76)
LEVEL OF INTEREST
Low High
Low
Competitors Employees
Managers
POWER
Advisors
Partners
High Owners
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Figure VIII – Generic strategy
ADVANTAGE
Lower Cost Differentiation
SCOPE
Target
Position
Current
Position
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Figure XI – Ansoff matrix
PRODUCTS / SERVICES
Existing New
MARKETS
Strength Weakness
1. Sound Financial position
1. Too much cost-focus
2. Quality rating from ISO
2. Top-down management
3. Technically strog delivery
manager 3. Dependency on US market
Opportunity Threat
1. Can position itself in European
market 1. European market highly localized
2. Can exploit technical expertise 2. US market can erode due to native
in mobile software development SMEs
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Figure XIII – Balanced scorecard
Financial Customer
1. Total Sales 1. Customer Satisfaction
2. Total Profit 2. Customer Retention
3. Market Share
Balanced
Scorecard
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Figure XV – Suitability matrix
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