Course: Management Theory and Practice

A1.
Introduction
SWOT Analysis is a structured planning method mostly used in strategic planning by
organization, project or business venture. It’s an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities & Threats. It is simple but powerful framework. It helps in decision making
process and to plan and manage future performance in the most effective & efficient manner
by summarizing the current state of the organization and identifying the factors affecting the
performance of the organization.

SWOT Analysis / Concept:

Step 1: List all the strengths that exist now. Then, in turn list all weakness that exist now.
Step 2: List all opportunities that exist in the future. Then, in turn list all threats that exist in
the future.
Step 3: Plan of Action – Review the SWOT matrix with a view to create an action plan to
address each of the four areas.

S W O T
STRENGTHS WEAKNESS OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
• Things Company does • Things Company • Underserved • Emerging
Well Lacks markets for specific Competitors.
• Qualities That Separate • Things Company’s products. • Changing regulatory
the Company from their Competitors do • Few Competitors in environment.
Competitors better than it. company’s area • Negative press/media
• Internal resources such • Resource • Emerging need for coverage
skills, knowledgeable Limitations. company’s product • Changing customer
staff • Unclear Unique / Service. attitudes toward the
• Tangible assets such as selling propositions • Press/media company.
intellectual property, coverage of the
capital, proprietary company
technologies etc.

CASE STUDY
HONASA CONSUMER PRIVATE LIMITED (Mamaearth)
Mamaearth, registered under Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd, is the first company in Asia
that has been certified by Made Safe. It aims to provide toxin-free baby care, skincare &
haircare products. It is a digital-first FMGC company whose revenue model is based on the
sale of tangible products to consumers through D2C platforms.

Strengths:
• High Brand Image: Effectively made use of modern marketing tactic to enhance its
brand image.
• Reputation: Achieved high level of customer trust by being a responsible enterprise
and by using sonly fresh produce for its products & ensure customer health.
• Customer Service: Follows Customer Centric Approach. Well Defined training for
its employees to refine their skills and prepare them for smooth customer interactions.
 • Flexibility: Quick to adapt to innovations and changes in industry. It has flexible
change management program which helps employees stay abreast of industry
developments.
• Quality: It has internal quality checks for all products and processes. This ensures
that all business systems & processes are up to mark with the quality standards.
• Innovation: It has been known for frequently introducing innovations in its product
line to keep the interest of the customer at a spike.
• Global Presence: It has exposure to different cultures, allowing it to maintain a more
wholesome product offering & expands the customer base for the company.
• Financial Investment Management: Company has been able to progress on equity
with minimal debt because of its financial management of the cash flows & profits.
• Strong Distribution Network.
• Integrated supply chain: It maintains control over costs allowing it to maintain a
strict control over quality so as to ensure that the end product does not suffer.
• Strong and effective strategic marketing and communications.
• Social media marketing: Company directly interact with consumers. It is also the
most cost effective and has higher reach.

Weakness:
• Niche Products: Markets are high end in nature & cater to elite customers which
restricts the source of income and makes it highly depended on a selectively target
market for returns.
• Pricing Strategy: The premium pricing strategy for selective segments is an offset as
it leads in losing customers to other competitors.
• Limited Diversification: This allows competitors to usurp consumers from
Mamaearth.
• Fluctuation in Cash Flows: Recent fluctuations lead to temporary financial
uncertainty, resulting in high impact on efficiency.
• Franchised Operations cause in Quality Issues: Global operations are controlled by
franchised branches which sometimes harm the brand image and quality.
• Negative Publicity: Negative customer feedback.
• High Employee Turnover: Company has a poorly managed succession planning
system and limited career growth opportunities.
• Plagued organizational culture: System suffering with poor management and a rum
after profiteering.

Opportunities:
• Expansion in Developing Countries: Company should expand operation in
emerging markets as consumers in these markets will be more prone to
experimentation.
• Product Diversifications: Engaging in diversification, company will be able to
increase its reach and penetration.
• Partnership & Collaborations: Partnership will provide more exposure and
collaborations with organization with a cause can help enhance brand image and work
towards CSR activities.
• Online Expansion: Engaging in online retailing will be cost effective and product
more accessible.
• Focus on Consumer Lifestyle: Tapping into lifestyles of the consumers and target
groups will help to identify important shifts and changes.
 • Training & Development: Should develop succession planning program to help
employees advance their careers and facilitate them by regular performance
appraisals.
• Technological Integrations: This will help in growth of business locally & globally.

Threats:
• Increasing Cost of Raw Materials: Increase in cost of raw materials makes the
cost of doing business high and leads to increase in price of final product.
• Changing Market Trends & Consumer Preferences: Change in Market Trends
& consumer preferences are in a state of flux and continually changing. Low
response to these changes can make survival hard.
• Increasing influx of Imports: Higher rate of import pressures businesses.
Countries in the global economy often produce and market at high economies of
scale, which makes their products cheaper. As a result, company also competes
against imports that are often dumped in the country
• Trade blocks & treaties: Trade Block & treaties signed by governments with
other countries add to the influx of imports.
• Fluctuating Labour cost: It also adds to the cost of doing business. Lower skill
levels of the labour pool also create problems and force company to outsource
tasks and operations.
• Low Barriers to entry in Industry: Low govt. regulations and low financial
investments invites new players and hence there are direct substitutes and cut-
through price wars amongst companies.
• Counterfeit Products: Counterfeit products are easily available in the market,
limitations prove to be a threat for company.

A2.
Introduction
Just In Time (JIT) is focused on improving efficiency by eliminating wastage of excess
inventory. This process will make it so a material that is needed for production will arrive at
the exact moment when it is required for use.
Lean Production is all about reducing waste, not just material waste but labour and time
waste generated by some processes. It takes into account the waste generated from uneven
workloads and overburden and then reduces them in order to increase value and reduce cost.

Concept & Implementation for MG Motors

As a consultant for MG Motors, I would recommend them to implement both JIT & Lean
Production strategies. These two strategies can provide many important benefits to the
manufacturing facility. These two strategies are very complimentary with each other and
yield more benefits when combined rather than either one can provide individually. Even
though these two concepts have distinct strategies but the areas where there are differences do
no involve contradictory actions, so they can be done together. Following are some strategies
that can help MG Motors tackle their issue of pilferages & wastage in production and
increase in manufacturing rate:
A. JIT Strategy: Striving for JIT manufacturing will allow MG Motors to reduce the
amount of inventory for each material that they use. JIT ensures that the next step of a
process is only started once the previous phase is completed. This way if there is flaw
in the assembly line, no extra and unnecessary work will be completed. This will
benefit MG motors in various areas such as low inventory, less wastage, free up cash
 resources and increased quality production. JIT system will ensure that MG Motor
can adapt quickly to their customers’ need without maintaining more than required
inventory which lowers its waste and hence will avoid any malpractices/pilferages in
production.
Benefits:
• Reduced Costs & Storage Space: A facility needs to store all different
materials, the more that needs to be on site, the bigger the area it needs. Large
Storage space can get quite expensive
• Reduced Inventory: Inventory are directly brought to the area where it will
be used and hence reduces the cost of transportation and storage. Also, it
minimises the level of risk associated with storing of materials on site.
• Improved Productivity: Employees will be spending less time moving
materials and more time actually completing the production requirements.
This leads to more productivity.
• Increased Profitability: Less need for building up large inventories means
there won’t be a need to put products on sale to clear out inventory, which
means each product sells for a large amount.
B. Lean Production: It will help MG Motors to determine what activities/processes add
value by reducing other aspects. This will reduce/eliminate all waste products starting
from design process to the manufacturing, distribution and towards the product
support and beyond phases. It will also increase the speed, efficiency and improve
quality on top of waste elimination. This in return will solve the issue of
manufacturing one unit as per the global benchmark as manufacturing increase in
production is possible through productivity which can be achieved via Lean
Production.
Benefits:
• Waste Minimization: Waste is defined by any activity that does not add value
to the process. This is the most significant benefit of lean manufacturing.
• Enhanced Customer Relationships: Lean Production focuses on loyal
customers’ concern & suggestions to cut some wasteful processes. Customer
interactions will improve and the relationship with MG Motor trusted
customers will offer a steady flow of revenue coming in.
• Lean Infrastructure: Lean Production will help MG Motor reduce
components required to fulfil near-term inventory demand. This way MG
Motor does not waste space within the operation and will enable them to come
as close as they can to production efficiency.

While neither of these two methodologies can be implemented to perfection, both of them
will help MG Motors to make measurable improvements in the present and continue to push
forward with further improvements long into the future.

A3(a)
Political Factor: Political forces such as governmental regulations play a significant role in
how organizations choose to manage themselves. Political Factors often influence the success
and failure of a business and most of the time political factors are often completely out of the
company’s control. It affects in areas of environmental analysis, planning, control &
organizational design and employee rights.
Political forces that affect lemon tree hotel line during this pandemic is the Nationwide lock-
down and the insistence of the government for hotels not to overcrowd therefore they are only
allowed to admit a certain number but not as before to maintain the social distancing rule. Also,
the government restriction on International Flights have resulted in decrease in the Foreign
Clients, who are the major contributors in the income. Global travel advisories, suspension of
Visas, imposition of Section-144(prohibition against mass gathering) have also lead to an direct
affect on the Hotel chain.

Social Forces: Social forces deals with the aspects of a culture that guide and influence
relationships among people-their values, needs, and standards of behaviour. Social forces
include traditions, values, societal trends, consumer psychology, and a society's expectations of
business.
Social forces that have affected Lemon tree is the fear many people have of contracting the
virus. Many people have stopped vising the hotel premises since hotels always have a lot of
traffic of people coming from different places which people fear makes the hotels a hotspot
for the contraction of the virus.

Economic Forces: Economic forces affect the availability, production, and distribution of a
society’s resources among competing users. These forces are responsible for the formation of
base market economy and other concepts.
Economic force that affects Lemon tree line of hotels at this time during pandemic is that due
to low customer numbers, the benefits of the business have dropped drastically and they have
had to retrench some workers which in turn leads to slow services as the number of
employees has reduced.

A3(b)
Contingency Approach: The contingency approach to management is based on the idea that
there is no single best way to manage. Contingency refers to the immediate contingent
circumstances. It is often called the Situational Approach & is based upon the premise that
all management is essentially situational in nature.
To Address the issue the Lemon Tree team should follow below mentioned approaches:
• Travelers & guests will make safety and hygiene measures a priority when choosing
accommodation. There Lemon Tree should implement strict cleaning protocols.
• Provide frequent uniform laundry services and establish an internal laundry protocol
for all staff to follow.
• Avoid their guests’ needing to use public transportation by ensuring transfers to the
accommodation from airports and stations.
• Create a protocol for epidemics or quarantines.
• Train their team to identify possible symptoms caused by COVID19.
• The ventilation system should be revised with a specific maintenance protocol that
increases disinfection frequency.
• Keep the team informed of the hotel’s evolution and business expectations
• Use technological tools so that the staff feel united even if some team members may
be working from home. It is important not to stop daily meetings and regular
communication with staff.
• Take advantage of the slow period to train their teams, whether they are teams facing
the public or those working in the back office.
• Offer guests 24/7 medical care and display these insurance services and agreements
for the guest as a way of building confidence and trust.
• Create a comprehensive guide of the hotel’s actions to prevent COVID-19 infections
and make it easily available on the hotel’s website.
• Transmit a message of social inclusion that confronts COVID-19 without making
distinctions between nationality, race or geographic origin.
• Assist guests with all their preparations before arrival and create a guide of things to
do during their stay that involves providers who are authorized and trusted by the
hotel.
• Offer free cancellations against local, international restrictions or for cancellations of
large events.
• Offer comfort with more flexible upgrades that allow guests to have a better room to
be able to work from and to have more space in the case of unexpected quarantines.
• Being flexible with check-in and check-out times will help to prevent their guests
from waiting on the street or in common areas spending unnecessary time in close
proximity to others due large lines.
• Investment in innovative technology, opting for digital transformation of the industry
in order to meet the level of personalization that guests demand. These tools may lead
to an increase in direct bookings and lessen the dominance of the big OTAS.