USHNA AMJAD
MBA – 1.5
CASE STUDY: 1 ON T&D WITH SOLUTION
Title: “MAKAR” Gained profit by missed opportunity & lost wealth.
“Makar” a textile manufacturing unit located in the city of Jaipur with enough infrastructure and
a good workforce. The organization is specialized in shirting and suiting particularly the supplies
that are done in Rajasthan only. The organization is run by the CEO who is commonly known for
well educated, experienced, a businessman with a humane approach. Mr. Mukund CEO “Makar”
considered the employees as a competitive advantage of his organization and want to keep the
workforce always updated to face the challenges from their competitors.
Mukund the people’s leader:
[Link], who heads the production himself, developed an efficient top management group
which includes [Link] Heading marketing, [Link] leading HR and T&D, [Link]
leading finance. All these department heads are always been supportive heads for the ideas of
[Link] in handling the workforce. Mr. Mukund always quotes that “I believe that satisfied,
educated, the dedicated workforce will be a key to success at any condition to any organization.
Money spent on employees will always be an investment for my organization.”
Activity of the Organization:
Training and development become a day to activity in the organization. Employees are been
trained by well-versed trainers in that area. The organization also encourages the employees to
do further studies as part of the career development program and they get a helping hand from
the organization.
Happy Employees:
The employees of Makar are very much satisfied with this kind of support from the organization
and they realized that being with Makar their personal growth will be assured. Because of the
above-said things Makar had many advantages like highly trained and qualified workforce,
highest quality of supplies assured, less rate of attrition, dedicated workforce, meeting the targets
on time, satisfied workforce, etc…
Announcement by Mr. Mukund:
One day the employees of Makar were in deep Grief when the news hit the office that Mr.
Mukund CEO made an announcement, ” Dear employees. You all are my colleagues rather than
my employees. I always feel that I am one of you with more responsibility. Now my age is not
allowing me to shoulder that responsibility, I wish to give way to my younger generation. So I
have decided to handover the charge to Mr. Mithun, My only son, who had completed his studies
and returned to India. I know you all will be with him as a pillar and extend your support, in the
same manner, you supported me. Without you people, this organization would not have reached
these heights. I am Sure you all will support him.
Now it has been three months since Mr. Mithun take over the charge and from day one he started
auditing in almost all the departments with a motto to reduce cost. And he got a strong statistics
that the compensation is the highest cost bared by the company compared to any other cost
incurred in the organization.
Mitun’s decision: Shocked Mrunal:
Mitun called Mrs. Mrunal the head HR and told her “Mrs. Mrinal, I need an immediate action
plan to reduce the labor force by 30% by way of Lay-off” he continued, “Mrunal I hope you are
getting my point and I want it to happen soon”. Mrs. Mrunal got shocked by listening to this
decision and said to [Link] that “ Sir it is my responsibility to tell you that the workforce
which we have is an excellent, well trained, loyal and self-motivated workforce. In case of lay
off such the competitors will take advantage of that. We can think of other options rather than
Layoff.”
[Link] was not in a position to listen to her words he said that “sorry [Link] I am not
ready to review my decision and neither wants any alternatives for this I want this work to be
done within a week”. Finally, with all her regrets Mr. Mrunal reduced the workforce by 30%. On
the other hand, the employees who were waived from Makar joined the competitors with a better
package.
One day in his office [Link] was discussing with [Link] that the cost of labor in the
organization has been reduced to a great level which increases the net profit also. After listening
to this [Link] said that “it is well-said sir, we have reduced the labor cost and increased the
profit but it is more true that we have missed the great opportunity to grow more by losing our
wealth to the competitors”
SOLUTION
1. “Employees are the competitive advantage of Makar” comment on this statement
relating to the approach of Mr. Mukund CEO
Competitive Advantage means the point where you specialized when compared to that of your
competitors. That is an edge over your competitors. In the said case Mr. Mukund and his team
enabled employees to get well trained and also encouraged to precede their further studies.
Hence they become skilled, educated, well trained, and qualified employees.
When the employees are been considered as the competitive advantage of any organization then
it becomes a greater strength of that organization. Because when the employees are the
competitive advantage that means that they are well trained and they are much satisfied with the
organization the same way a well trained and satisfied employee will produce products which are
rich in quality.
To comment on the statement said by [Link] it is true that employees are the competitive
advantage of Makar. The reasons why employees are considered so is a) they are well trained up
to date b) they are educated c) skilled d) Habituated to cope up with the change in technology e)
producing high-quality f) time-bound etc.
2. How did you judge the actions taken by Mr. Mithun to reduce the cost of labor was it
really a successful one?
As soon as Mithun took over the charge he wants to reduce the cost of production or you can say
the overall expenses of the company in all means. When he noticed that the cost of labor is very
high he didn’t analyze in the way why it is high and what the company is getting because of
spending on it.
According to me decision taken by Mr. Mithun is not a wise or successful Idea because:- a)
[Link] has spent years together and invested lots of money to mold the employees in such a
way. [Link]’s decision will not allow him to encash the investment done by his father he
b) [Link] fire the employees from the organization on whom they have invested because of
which the competitors will get a chance to utilize the benefit of money that Makar had to spend
on the employees.
c) this decision may also reduce the level of motivation and morale of the remaining employees
as the job security becomes a question mark in Makar.
3.“We have gained the profit by losing our wealth” discuss the statement of [Link]
and support her statement.
[Link] HR head of Makar was opposing the decision of [Link] from starting itself.
Because being an HR Mrunal was clear that the amount spent on employees for training is not an
expense but it is an investment. But Mithun didn’t listen to her words. And being an employee
she has been forced to separate some of the employees from MAKAR. And Mrunal did it. But
she is not happy about what she had done. So she said this statement. This statement is very well
suitable for Makar. Let us separate this statement in two parts and discuss “We have gained the
profit + by + losing our wealth”
In this statement “We have gained the profit” means by reducing the workforce Makar has
reduced the expenses which resulted in an increase in the profit “losing our wealth” means
Makar has invested a lot of money on employees by way of training and made them a strong
workforce which is also a competitive advantage to Makar. By separating them from Makar it is
can be said that Makar lost its wealth and wealth here denotes the highly skilled employees.
4. From the above-said case find the opportunity which was missed by Makar due to the
lay off as mentioned by [Link].
[Link] said that “Makar has missed a good opportunity by means of Layoff”. The
opportunity mentioned here is:-
When we go through the case carefully it was mentioned that “Makar has a good infrastructure
and workforce”, but it is serving the need of Rajasthan only. And it is also mentioned that Makar
has gained a good value among the customers as they don’t have any negative points to say
about Makar.
In this situation when it is noticed that Makar has an excess workforce that is well trained the
CEO should consider the option of extending the business to nearby states. This will develop the
business and increase profit.
Expansion of Business is the Opportunity which was Mentioned by Mrs. Mrunal in the case.
CASE 2: GOOGLE CASE STUDY
Each year, Google receives more than two million job applications from around the world and
hires several thousand of those candidates. It takes an average of six weeks to secure a hire, and
every candidate needs to be screened by their potential boss, potential colleagues, and a hiring
committee. "If you wondered if this takes a lot of Google time, it does," Google's former SVP of
People Operations Laszlo Bock wrote in his 2015 book, "Work Rules!." Bock left Google at the
end of 2016, but his principles remain at Google and its parent company Alphabet.
Bock wrote that in the early days of Google, hiring would take four to 10 hours of manager’s
time each week, with top executives spending a full day on it. By 2013, the company had grown
to 40,000 employees but had slashed that time to one and a half hours a week. (Today, the
company has more than 60,000 employees.) He explained that years of research and
experimentation helped Google get hiring exceptional people down to a near science. "There
are four simple principles that can help even the smallest team do much, much better at hiring,"
he wrote. We've explained them below.
SOLUTIONS
1. Set an uncompromising high standard
You will be able to quickly determine if someone is worth even an initial interview by setting the
bar high and not budging it. "Before you start recruiting, decide what attributes you want and
define as a group what great looks like," Bock wrote. "A good rule of thumb is to hire only
people who are better than you." This applies to all positions, he explained. If you're hiring an
administrative assistant, don’t simply look for someone who can answer a phone and schedule
your meetings —find someone who will make your job easier by organizing your time and
priorities better than you ever could. And if an employee search is taking longer than
you would like, be patient and concentrate more of your effort on the task. "Do not
compromise," Bock wrote. "Ever."
2. Find candidates on your own
Google works with some recruitment firms, but only in specific situations in which outside
expertise is a requirement, such as building a new team in another country.
The company has used third-party job boards like Monster in the past, but pulled back from them
after its reputation grew sufficiently, mostly because it found that too many of those sites' users
send out generic mass job applications. Google now relies on its own careers portal and the
referrals it solicits from Google’s. And when your company begins growing, Bock said, "ask
your best-networked people to spend even more time sourcing great hires." He also
recommended that managers make use of LinkedIn, Google+, alumni databases, and
professional associations to discover talent.
3. Put checks in place to assess candidates objectively
An organization the size of Google can afford to have a large group of people spend time with
each candidate, but even smaller companies need to avoid placing the burden of hiring someone
onto one individual. "Include subordinates and peers in the interviews, make sure interviewers
write good notes, and have an unbiased group of people make the actual hiring decision," Bock
wrote. "Periodically return to those notes and compare them to how the new employee is doing,
to refine your assessment capability."
4. Provide candidates with a reason to join
Jonathan Rosenberg, advisor to Alphabet CEO Larry Page, used to keep 200 Google employees'
résumés in his office. "If a candidate was on the fence about joining Google, Jonathan would
simply give them the stack and say: 'You get to work with these people,'" Bock wrote.
According to Bock, the candidate would look through the impressive collection,
including everyone from the inventor of JavaScript to Olympic athletes, and ask
Rosenberg if he had cherry-picked them — to which he would honestly reply no. The technique
worked every time. "Make clear why the work you are doing matters, and let the candidate
experience the astounding people they will get to work with," Bock wrote.
5. Using metrics to improve the recruitment
Over the years, Google has been modernizing its recruitment by using numerical data. For
example, in the interviews, they used to use riddles like: "How many golf balls can fit in an
airplane? “However, they later realized that there was no correlation between the performance of
their best employees and their responses to such questions, so they decided to review the
structure of their interviews.
6. The faster you make decisions, the better
At Google they know firsthand that there is a lot of competition to hire the best talent. If their
selection processes are not fast enough, companies like Facebook or Twitter will win the game.
That is why they devote great efforts and resources to accelerate their recruitment to the
maximum. They understand that the loss of a brilliant candidate in these circumstances is a very
costly mistake.
7. The importance of investing in talent recruitment
Google invests substantial resources in recruitment; above all, after drawing up a studying which
that came to the conclusion that an outstanding employee generated them 300times more value
than a mediocre one!
CASE 3: WATSON PUBLIC LTD
Watson Public Ltd Company is well known for its welfare activities and employee-oriented
schemes in the manufacturing industry for more than ten decades. The company employs more
than 800 workers and 150 administrative staff and 80 management-level employees. The Top-
level management views all the employees at the same level. This can be clearly understood by
seeing the uniform of the company which is the Same for all starting from MD to floor level
workers. The company has 2 different cafeterias at different places one near the plant for workers
and others near the Administration building. Though the place is different the amenities,
infrastructure and the food provided are of the same quality. In short, the company stands by the
rule of Employee Equality.
The company has one registered trade union. The relationship between the union and the
management is very cordial. The company has not lost a single man day due to strike. The
company is not a paymaster in that industry. The compensation policy of that company, when
compared to other similar companies, is very less still the employees don’t have many
grievances due to the other benefits provided by the company. But the company is facing a
countable number of problems in supplying the materials in the recent past days. Problems like
quality issues, mismatch in packing materials (placing material A in the box of material B)
incorrect labelling of material, not dispatching the material on time, etc…
The management views the case as there are loopholes in the system of various departments and
hand over the responsibility to the HR department to solve the issue. When the HR manager goes
through the issues he realized that the issues are not relating to the system but it relates to the
employees. When investigated he come to know that the reason behind the casual approach by
employees in work is
The company hired new employees for a higher-level post without considering the potential
internal candidates.
The newly hired employees are placed with higher packages than that of existing employees in
the same cadre.
SOLUTION
Employee Equality is not the need for every hour. In the above-said case, Watson Ltd had
provided all facilities to employees at each grade in an equal manner. But still, the employees
started creating certain issues like materials are meeting the quality supply schedule is not met
etc. And the HR manager said that the policy of hiring new employees for the higher post
without considering old potential employees is the major problem.
“Employee recognition VS Employee equality”. As the HR manager states that employees are
not been recognized for the potential rather the company has gone for new recruitment. Because
of which the company faces problems.
The points rose by the HR manager as the reason for the latest issues in the organization is
justifiable or not. Support your answer with Human resource related concepts.
Yes, the points raised by the HR manager is justifiable because “Human beings are social
Animals as popularly” said by many Human resources Scholars. So human minds demand social
recognition, self-respect, consideration, etc for their work and performance.
In the above-said case, even the company provides and stands by the concept of employee
equality when it fails to recognize the potential talents of existing employee they felt
dissatisfaction towards the organization and they showed in the way of quality issues and slow
down production.
HRM CASE STUDY 4
Harsha and Franklin both of them are postgraduates in management under different streams from
the same B-School. Both of them are close to each other from the college days itself and the
same friendship is continuing in the organization too as they are placed in the same company,
Hy-tech technology solutions. Harsha placed in the HR department as employee counsellor and
Franklin in the finance department as a key finance executive. As per the grade is concerned both
are at the same level but when responsibility is concerned Franklin is holding more responsibility
being in core finance.
By nature, Harsha is friendly in nature and ready to help the needy. Franklin is silent in nature
ready to help if approached personally and always a bit egoistic in nature. They have
successfully completed 4 years in the organization. And management is very much satisfied with
both of them as they are equally talented and constant performers.
Harsha felt that now a day’s Franklin is not like as he uses to be in the past. She noticed some
behavioural changes with him. During general conversations, she feels that Franklin is taunting
her that she is famous among the employees in the organization, on the other hand, he is not even
recognized by fellow employees.
One morning Mr. Mehta General Manager Hy-tech technology solutions shocked while going
through the mail received from Franklin about his resignation. Mr. Mehta called Harsha
immediately and discussed the same as she is close to Franklin. By hearing the news Harsha got
stunned and said that she does not know this before she also revealed here current experience
with him. Mr. Mehta who does not want to lose both of them promised her that he will handle
this and he won’t allow Franklin to resign.
In the afternoon Mr. Metha took Franklin to Canteen to make him comfortable after some
general discussion he starts on the issue. Franklin, after some hesitation, opened his thinking in
front of Mr. Mehta. The problem of Franklin is
1) when he comes alone to canteen the people from others don’t even recognize him but if he
accompanied by Harsha he gets well treated by others.
2) one day Both of them entered the company together the security in the gate wished them but
the next day when he came alone the same security did not do so.
3) Even in meetings held in the office, the points raised by Harsha will get more value so many
times he keeps silent in the meeting.
It happens to Franklin that he has to face such degradation in each day of work which totally
disturbs him. Franklin also questioned that ” Harsha and myself have the same qualification,
from the same institute, passed out in the same year both with first class. We have the same
number of experiences in this organization. Moreover, the responsibilities with me are more
valuable than those of Harsha. After all these things if I am been ignored or unrecognized by the
fellow employees my ego does not allow me to continue here”.
By listening to this statement [Link] felt that it is not going to be very difficult to stop his
resignation. Mr. Mehta explained Franklin the reasons for such partial behaviour of the
employees.
After listening to Mr. Mehta Franklin said sorry for his reaction and ready to take back his
resignation. And he called Harsha and spoke with like before.
SOLUTION
Mr. Mehta listening to this case understood the situation and realized the reason behind the
partial response given by the employees towards Franklin and Harsha. As Franklin said both
Harsha and Franklin are passed out from the same college in the same year. Both of them joined
the company together both have the same experience. Even in performance-wise, both stands in
the same level i.e. both are constant performers and good performers.
Franklin analyzed all the above-said similarities between him and Harsha. He also stated that he
holds more responsibility than that of Harsha. One thing Franklin did not notice or analyzed is
the job profile of Harsha. It is true that Franklin holds more responsibility than that of Harsha but
when it comes to direct interaction with employees Harsha wins the employees’ attention in this
aspect. Harsha being a counsellor in HR she faces the employees every day. She developed good
rapport among the employees due to her friendly nature. She is always remembered by the
employees whenever they face any problem as she gives good counselling and most of the time
she suggests the best solutions for such issues.
Franklin though holding a key position in finance his profile does not allow him to interact with
the employees. Though he has a helping tendency he does only when someone approached him
personally. As the employees of other departments do not have any relation with him they never
approach him for help.
Mr. Mehta having a good experience understood these things when Franklin explained his
problems one by one. Later he relates each situation, explained by Franklin with the above said
reasons and made Franklin understood the reality.
Mr. Mehta said that the security in the gate or the employees in the canteen who recognized
Harsha and not Franklin would have interacted with her during counselling or approached her for
any issues. And as usual, she would have counselled well or solved the issues of them that is the
reason why they treat her and wish her whenever where ever they meet her. When it comes to the
case of Franklin they would have hardly met him or interacted with him.
When it comes to the point that even in-office meetings Harsha, points are valued so Franklin
keeps mum. For this, Mr. Mehta replied that the points put forward by her would be related to
employees or from the employees’ point of view which actually the management wants to know
so they give value to her points. And as quoted Fraklin after, one or two such incidents keep
silent in the meeting. He never made an attempt to raise some suggestions so management does
not have any option to listen to that suggestion.
After listening to all the explanations given by Mr. Mehta Franklin realized his mistake and felt
proud of the Rapport developed by Harsha among the employees. He said to Mr. Mehta that he
will take back his resignation. And rushed to Harsha to make an apology and to meet her as a
friend as like his college days.
