BA4301- STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

CASE STUDY

1. Several campaigns and demonstrations followed the publication of a report issued by the
Indian NGO Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in 2003. The report provided
evidence of the presence of pesticides, to a level exceeding European standards,25 in a sample
of a dozen Coca -Cola and PepsiCo beverages sold in India.26 With that evidence at hand, the
CSE called on the Indian government to implement legally enforceable water standards. The
report gained ample public and media attention, resulting in almost immediate effects on
Coca -Cola revenues. The main allegations made by the NGO against Coca -Cola were that it
sold products containing unacceptable levels of pesticides, it extracted large amounts of
groundwater and it had polluted water sources.27 Regarding the allegation about Coca - Cola
beverages containing high levels of pesticide residues, the Indian government undertook
various investigations. The government set up a Joint Committee 28 to carry out its own tests
on the beverages. The tests also found the presence of pesticides that failed to meet European
standards, but they were still considered safe under local standards. Therefore, it was
concluded that Coca -Cola had not violated any national laws but Coca -Cola was also
accused of causing water shortages in – among other areas – the community of Plachimada in
Kerala, southern India.

QUESTIONS:

a) Do you think is the coco -cola socially responsible company?

b) How can coco -cola regain its market?

2. Everyone was made to wear identical shirts to work, with the Pepsi logo emblazoned on the
pockets, right across their hearts. There were no „bosses‟ or „sirs‟. Suman would be
addressed as Suman by the entire team. In every visit to the market, in every conference
Suman would make sure that he projected salesman as the real heroes of PepsiCo. Even the
television commercials showed salesman doing everything possible for the company. Everyone
including the truck drivers was made to believe that he/she is out on a battle ready to kill the
enemy Coke. People say that is what made Pepsi win the battle in India against Coke. In fact,
if you stopped a Pepsi truck and asked the salesman what he was doing, chances would be
high that he would say he is helping Pepsi win the Cola war. Not just selling Pepsi. Remember
what the then President of America, John F Kennedy was greeted with when he posed a
question to the janitor working at the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, „what do you do
here?‟ She replied “I am helping America put a man on the moon!” And that is what is called
as Vision sharing. When employees share the vision, they can scale new heights continually
and put the company on top of the world, quite easily.

Questions:

a) How PepsiCo India did have won the war with Coke?

b) What kind of strategy had adopted by Mr.Suman to get sUccess for PepsiCoIndia?

3. Obviously, a well -known transformational story is APPLE, Jobs has successfully

transformed APPLE from a PC firm to a promising diversified organization, this has great
strategic flexibility to innovate in the market. This revolution process is certainly full of
adventure and difficulties. In the PC industry where the product has become a commodity, it
is the low cost player which can deliver the best quality at the lowest cost will win. Historically
this has been Dell, Lenovo and HP. However, Apple is protected in the sense that it has a
uniquely differentiated product in a commodity industry. It has the advantages of brand
loyalty, ease of use, and design elegance. After the early year‟s failure of marketing PC, Apple
has been very successful with the iPod, iTunes and iPhones. In a decade APPLE has gone from
a computer manufacture to a world beater in personal music players, mobile phones, music
retail, tablet computing, TV hardware manufacture. Especially, the firm has actually
dominated the market for mobile phone applications by being open and rewarding developers
with generous profit sharing. In 2010 it hosted over 250,000 „„apps‟‟ from outside
developers, and while it is criticized for being „„closed‟‟ in operating a strict policy in
monitoring the content of these apps, it is generating almost $1bn a year through the
innovation and has made many developers millionaires. There are a number of reasons for
Apple‟s successful organizational transformation. Firstly, the iPod itself was technologically
sophisticated and cool, the design elegance helped to drive demand. Secondly, iTunes files
could only be played on the iPod created a closed world in which copyright violations were
less likely to occur. This helped to allay the fears of music publishers regarding illegal file
sharing. Last but not the least, Apple offered the music companies a great deal – of the$0.99
paid for every download, $0.89 reportedly goes straight to the music companies. They capture
most of the economic profit. With regards to iPhone, although the iPhone was not the first
smart phone, its market share is growing rapidly. The reason is clear now: Apple has realized
the importance of applications for sales of the iPhone, and is creating incentives for third part
developers to make and sell applications through its apps store. Essentially, Apple is
leveraging a network effect successfully. The more valuable apps offered on the iPhone
platform, the greater the utility of owning an iPhone, the greater demand will be created, and
the more apps will be offered. Previously, Microsoft utilized such a network effect with
Windows, now Apple is trying to utilize it with its iPhone. The successful organizationaly to
win what is rapidly becoming a format war in the smart phone . To do that, it must exploit
network effects, and so far Apple seems to be doing a better job than its competitors.

Questions:

1. Do a SWOT analysis for the AppleInc.

2.Assume a company of your own and conduct a ETOP and GAP analysis.
3.Explain Mckinsey’s 7 S framework and its utility to strategists.
4.Perform a SWOT analysis for an Indian telecom company

4. The MSIL has a market share of about 55% in the Indian passenger car segment and is the
largest manufacture of small cars in India. The company has been voted as first by Indian
customers for level of customer service and customer satisfaction. The company manufactures
affordable small cars which serve the needs of average Indian customers faithfully and hence
have a strong brand image as the common man‟s car in India, which an average Indian
customer identifies with. Such a strong brand image and huge customer base can sustain the
position of the company as the market leader in the Indian small car segment. Well Developed
Sales and Service Network throughout India: The Maruti Suzuki India and a huge service
network of more 2,750 franchises of service outlets spreading about 1,300 cities throughout
India. Such a widely distributed sales and service network can help the company to relate
with its Customers across India, also facilitates bargaining power with suppliers and increases
profitability. Very Strong Knowledge of Indian Market: The Maruti Suzuki India has a strong
knowledge of the Indian market which has helped them to grow their sales and market share
in India.

Questions:
A. How core competencies of MSIL are explained in above case?
B. What kind of strategy can be adopted by MSIL to get commercial success of car in
domestic as well as global market?
5. In 1968, Spencer Silver was working at 3M to create a super strong adhesive for use in the
aerospace industry. Instead, he accidently created an incredibly weak, pressure sensitive
adhesive. While useless for his project the new adhesive had two interesting features. First,
when stuck to a surface, it could be removed without leaving residue, and second, it was
reusable. Unable to use this product in his work, Silver then tried to introduce bulletin boards
coated with the adhesive as an alternative to pushpins. While effective, the bulletin board
market was too small to offer any real promise and the project was shelved.Silver found
himself in a sticky situation. His product failed.3M encouraged Silver to continue seeking
suggestions from other employees and for nearly five years the adhesive stayed in the
company as an interesting, but useless innovation. In a moment of frustration chemical
engineer and 3M employee Art Fry suggested that perhaps Silver had been using the adhesive
backwards all along. Fry had struggled with keeping his page markers in his hymn book, and
having learnt about the adhesive from one of Silver‟s lectures thought this adhesive could be
the key.The key difference he explained was instead of coating bulletin boards, 3M could put
the adhesive on a piece of paper and stick it to anything. By applying this adhesive to a strip of
paper, Fry could mark his pages, move the markers around and easily flip between hymns
without damaging the books.And the Post -It note was born. Spencer Silver could have easily
thrown away his weak adhesive and today there would be no Post -It notes. However, because
3M encouraged Silver to share his discovery with coworkers in other fields, Art Fry was able
to keep track of his hymnal pages.
Questions:
• Elaborate the concept of intrepreneurship and how it helped spencer to be successful.