Marketing Management
Case Analysis
Due: Friday November 1st,
Assignment:
1. Read through the lectures as given in class
2. Apply those concepts to the case that follows. (Choose the
most relevant concepts)
3. Prepare a preliminary report on how you would apply those
concepts towards evaluating the situation.
4. Your evaluation should be returned to the CEO in the form of a
report.
5. Concepts to consider are:
a. Evaluation of the company
i. What are the important things to consider when
looking at the company in terms of marketing?
ii. How would the company establish an effective sales
department using modern techniques?
b. Evaluation of the market
i. What are the factors that shape the market
ii. How is the market to be defined?
iii. How is the market to be studied?
c. How would we relate the above to the long-term business
plans of the company?
General information
This assignment has been designed to help you revise and prepare
for the exam
Most of this case was discussed in the last class (recap lecture) so
there should not be be any difficulty with it.
This is an individual assignment. Each student should do the
assignment by themselves. Copying will result in a zero mark.
Submission is on Friday, 1st November. This gives you a week to
revise and prepare.
Bonus marks will be given for well prepared assignment.
Hints:
Try to assess the purpose of your assignment. The purpose is NOT to
make recommendations or develop a business plan at present, but
to evaluate an existing situation.
Don’t go off-topic. Stick to information in slides and relate them to
company. You have not been asked for recommendations or
marketing plans, but instead how you would set up a marketing
information system.
Make a list of all the relevant information before you start writing.
It’s a good habit to read the questions first and then read the case
and make a list as you read through the case.
Stick to the information provided. There are no additional marks for
assumed or invented additional information – in fact you may annoy
the instructor by adding non-existant information. Academic case
studies contain all the relevant information required for that
assessment.
This is a open case-study. Your marks will depend on how well you
analyze the case and the detail you are able to bring into your
arguments.
****Instructions for submitting assignments****
General instructions for submitting assignments:
Ensure that the following information is in the upper right-hand corner of
the first page as shown:
Name
Roll number
Section – Important!
Assignment number
Date of submission.
Submission
Assignments must be submitted in softcopy format in folder created
in the new google classroom, on date provided.
.
Preparing and writing:
Be concise, clear and systematic. Stick to the point. Avoid excessive
verbiage. Business writing depends on identifying objectives, being
clear and including all information.
Organize your information logically so that your arguments flow
naturally and convince the reader.
Use bullet points where appropriate to make reading and retention
easier.
Avoid large “walls” of text. Break information into smaller logical
paragraphs, with each paragraph covering just a single point.
Provide dropped line (gaps) between paragraphs, and two dropped
lines between sections. Do not use indents for first line
Use titles and subtitles (if needed) to organize and group related
paragraphs together.
Use an appropriate readable font. DO NOT use large fonts – you are
not writing a book for children. Large fonts might fill in the page but
they are difficult to read, irritating, and look unprofessional and
childlike. Large fonts will lose you marks.
************
CASE ANALYSIS – Situational Analysis and Application
IKHTIAR BUSINESS SERVICES
Ikhtiar Business Services (IBS) is a medium sized Corporation in Lahore, Pakistan.
IBS started off as a Accounting company, but recently it has incorporated itself as a
business development company. Ownership is in the form of shares, majority of
which are held by a single family (51%), but management is entirely separate and
overseen by the current CEO who has big ideas about expanding it into a
multinational company. With this objective in mind, the CEO has added two new
divisions to the company – Business development and Venture capitalism.
Current services offered by IBS:
1. Accounting, financial documentation, tax preparation and filing (AT)
2. Business development services (BDS)
3. Venture capitalism (financial investment in exchange for stock ownership)
(VC)
Details of Services:
Accounting Financial Documentation, Tax Preparation and Filing Services:
Systematic and comprehensive recording of financial transactions to help a
business to keep track of all revenues and outlays, cashflows and financial
data.
Provide summaries, analysis, and reports on a quarterly, half-yearly or annual
basis as requested.
Provide financial information that is useful for decision-making, especially
when looking at growth and development
Tax preparation on quarterly, half-yearly or annual basis
Tax filing as required.
The new services – BDS and VC are not yet operational, but the CEO is
hoping they contribute substantially to IBS earnings over the next five
years.
Business Development Services (Business Incubation, BDS).
BDS are a wide range of non-financial services used by entrepreneurs to help
improve the performance of their businesses, find access to markets, and increase
the ability to compete. Business Development Services are basically a process
aimed at growing a company and making it more successful by developing business
plans which:
Analyze an existing business to identify strengths, weaknesses, threats and
opportunities (SWOT analysis)
Provide market research and analysis: identify existing and new market
opportunities and develop effective strategies.
Help develop Sales and lead prospecting strategies to convert leads into
customers.
Identify strategic partnerships and alliances - forming strategic alliances, joint
ventures, or collaborations for mutually beneficial opportunities – e.g.
between suppliers and retailers.
Venture Capitalism.
Venture Capitalism (VC) is a form of private equity (ownership share) and a type of
financing provided by investors to startup companies and small businesses that are
believed to have long-term growth potential. Investment can be in terms of
financing, technical, or managerial forms. VC services may include some or all of
the following:
Direct funding in exchange for proportional ownership share in the company
Sourcing and finding collaborators and other investors
Finding sources of additional funding from both private and public companies
Providing access to capital markets, bank loans and other debt instruments
(using IBS credit rating)
In order to provide these services, IBS has the following HR set-up:
The work force is divided into 7 departments (teams are multidepartment as
needed) which are:
1. Accounting (35 employees)
2. Finance and Risk Assessment (12)
3. HR (3)
4. Sales & Marketing (10)
5. Survey and Asset Valuation (4)
6. Legal (4)
7. Support Staff (12)
At present, the firm has 80 employees, but this number will increase as needed over
the next 5 years in order to meet the objectives of the long term plans, in pace with
the growth of client numbers.
As in most modern organizations, employees fall into one of four general
subdivisions companywide. Based on hierarchical position, management role and
length of employment, these are:
1. Senior Management (CEO and Department heads)
2. Middle Management (Mid-level executives and Team leaders)
3. Entry Level Management (managerial employees with less than 5 years work
experience)
4. Support Staff (PAs and secretaries, office workers)
Both the BDS and the VC divisions are new. The current 5-year plan calls for 20% of
IBS’s gross income to be derived from its new Business Development services
(BDS), and 30% be derived from Venture Capitalist (VC) investments and
partnerships by 2029. In addition, the CEO has challenged the Accounting and Tax
division to sign on a minimum of 100 new clients over the next 5 years.
While the CEO is banking on retaining older clients for the accounting division, new
clients will have to be found for both Business Development and Venture Capitalism
– ideally small businesses looking to grow, and/or people with new innovative ideas.
The challenge for the Marketing department is how to put the CEO’s ideas into
practice. Ikhtiar Business Services still does things the old-fashioned way, the
employees are used to just carrying out the CEO’s orders, whether good or bad.
However the new CEO wants to modernize IBS and bring in current best business
practices, including developing a full marketing department that operates in
coordination with all the other divisions.
Right now, the CEO has a outline of a development plan, which is to find small
businesses that require accounting and tax services, offer them these services at
discounted rates, and from these businesses, identify those that are most likely to
benefit from BD and VC services and then sign them up. The marketing team could
test out this model in Anarkali Bazaar first, as many of the businesses there fit the
profile of the type of clients who might need the BD and VC services.
However, no primary research has been done, and the old marketing team does not
even know how to conduct marketing research using modern methods.
As the newly appointed Head of Sales, it has fallen on your shoulders to
evaluate both the company, and the market.
*** End Case ***
