Presentation by:

Amit (533)

Kritika (600)

Manjula (610)

Parmeet (634)

CASE STUDYHuman Resource Management

Orient Marketing Pvt. Ltdo This case study details the predicament faced by Nand Kumar, who

worked as a Marketing Manager in a consumer packaged goods company.

o Aggrieved at the cost-cutting measured introduced at the company, Kumar shot off an email to the CEO of the company. Now after receiving the response from the CEO, he wondered whether he had approached the issue in the right way.

Orient Marketing Pvt. Ltd A midsized company in the fast moving consumer goods industry.

•Beauty care

•Consumer Healthcare

•Packaged Food

•Household Cleaning

Robin Shah( CEO )

Part A

Orient Marketing Pvt. Ltd … Headquartered in New Delhi. It had

Operations all across India.

o Company also provided ample opportunities for employees to grow in the organization.

Nand Kumar

Marketing Manager

• Joined the company at entry level sales

position in the beauty care products.

• Been working for the company for 3 years.

• Is now a marketing manager looking after

New Delhi and the national capital region.

Kumar's Job Profile It involved extensive tours but he was also available at the

corporate headquarters for around 10 days in a month.

He was very hard working and performance oriented.

The sales growth in his region was 25% more for the last six months as compared to previous year.

The CEO, Robin Shah had taken note of his performance and also appreciated his efforts.

But one day… Kumar was quite contented in his job until he returned from

a hectic tour to see a new circular put up on the bulletin

board.

With the recessionary trend setting in, Orient like many

other companies announced some cost cutting measures.

The circular was sent to all the departments.

All the employees,

Orient marketing communication & services ltd.

New Delhi

CIRCULAR

8.4.2014

All the employees of the company are hereby informed that the following measures are being implemented due to

recession with immediate effect :

Local transportation has been indefinitely stopped. If any employee wish to avail of this facility, they can pay for the same at the rate of Rs. 5 per Km.

At the office canteen, food and beverages will be for sale, including tea, coffee, and cold drinks.

At the Mess, lunch coupon will be available at subsidized prices — Veg meals for Rs. 20 and Non-veg for Rs. 30, per coupon.

If there is a need to print or photocopy any documents, anything more than 5 pages is chargeable now. Per page printing cost would be Rs. 5 and photocopying would be Rs. 2,

For executives, in an emergency, only the lowest fare of the Economy Class Air are will be reimbursed. Otherwise, only II and III AC Train Fares will be paid.

The staff members are advised to strictly adhere to these measures and co6perate with the management.

Senior Manager- Operations

Kumar was livid after reading the circular.

Moreover, there were rumors floating around that the company was also contemplating putting on hold pay hikes and other benefits such as LTC. Why

should people like

me be affected?

Why should the

performers and

non-performers

be treated the

same way?Is there novalue for performers in this organization ?

The Decision… At last, Kumar decided to raise the

matter with Shah directly. He wanted to put across his grievance

to the CEO and also discuss a pay hike for himself.

o So, he walked into the CEO's office deep in thought.

Should I E-mail him ?Will he have

time to read it ?

shall I make

a phone call?

Or should I draft a request

application & put it on his

table?

What if he is in a

meeting?

The Decisiono Face-to-face interaction would be far better and more effective than all these alternatives

Face to face meeting it is.

o “Let's meet him,” Kumar thought.

o He signed the 'Appointment Requisition Form‘ and gave it to Shah's Personal Assistant.

Shah was surprised to know that Kumar had come to meet

him at his office.

Only the previous day, Kumar had briefed him about the

sales in his region on the phone and there did not seem to

be any decision that warranted this urgent meeting.Now, what does he want?

I am too busy today

If it's about the new circular, how do Irespond to him?

He does not usually rush into my office

with his problems

“Tell him to meet me tomorrow”, Shah said.

Part B

That night, Kumar felt very restless. The more he thought about

the content of the circular, the more aggrieved he felt. Moreover,

he could not visit the CEO the next day as he was planning to

take a day's casual leave to take his aunt to the doctor.

o At around 11 pm, he decided that he would put across his grievance

to Shah via email. He switched on his personal computer and wrote

the email thinking that his letter would set the tone for the meeting with

Shah.

Esteemed and dearest CEO sir,

I am regretting to inform you that things are very depressing to me. It is paining sincere people like me.

Please look at the performance of the individuals before you send such circulars.

Ever since I joined the company I worked very hard. You can see that employees hardly work sincerely,

nowadays. I travel day and night and meet many customers to promote our products. Many times, I don't

get time to have my dinner and lunch also. Last month, in my village… when my grand father was selling

the house… along with my sister-in-law... many people went to our village to buy... except me.

If you want to depress people who increase sales for the company, it is very difficult. Please take care! If

your company can't take care of us, we don't care for company also.

More over travelling by trains wasting my time. How to go by train? Schedule of the trains doesn‘t match

to our client. How do you expect me to go in time? Kindly, do something.

Any unpleasant notices will further depress us. So, need not be done. My only aunt is very sick… with

your permission… I am only the responsible person in the family... so I can take her to hospital… on

leave.

Please do the needful.

For your eyes only.

Yours most sincerely,

Nand Kumar

Marketing Manager

Orient Marketing Pvt. Ltd.

Meanwhile… Shah was working late at the office, taking a final look at the PowerPoint slides

that he was going to present before the board the following week when he

received the email from Kumar. He found it difficult to make sense of the note.

o Feeling irritated, he wondered… If this is the way he communicates

with me,how does he

communicate with the customers?

He immediately sent a memo to Kumar

From the CEO

To: Mr. Nand Kumar, marketing manager

Date : 9.4.14

Subject: Please learn the Principles of Business Writing

Please take care of the following before you write anything in business situations.

• Learn how to express assertiveness and proper questioning.

• Study the 7 Cs of communication and Principles of Business Writing.

• The 'subject' is a must for every correspondence.

• You should use vocabulary suitable for the situation.

• Punctuation has to be correctly used.

• Coherence and the order of paragraphs have to be maintained.

• There has to be a logical flow of points.

• The ending need not have ‘most' .

• The organization's name after your name is unnecessary.

• I hope these mistakes will not be repeated.

CEO

Kumar was surprised to get such a prompt reply from

Shah. But after reading the email he felt really

embarrassed.

He dropped the idea of meeting the CEO, thinking that this

was perhaps not the appropriate time to ask for a raise.

o He also brooded over ways in which he could have handled this whole issue better.

Maybe I should work on my

areas of improvement

first

Conclusion The case depicts the nature of the communication

methods adopted by Nand Kumar to his CEO, shah.

In our opinion, Kumar should not have handled the problem in an informal way. Even though his method was acceptable, his communication abilities in business writing were poor.

Kumar’s anger towards the “circular” was rational but it affected all the employees not just an individual. So, in our opinion approaching the CEO in such informal manner was irrational and unacceptable.

Thank you

Questions ?

Suggestions ?

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