XIMAHR presents Case In Point

General Guidelines:
• The solutions are expected to be original, creative, innovative and relevant to HR.
• Please stick to the word limits, in violation of which the submissions will be
disqualified.

Case-1

The basic wage including Dearness allowance of Ramavtar was Rs. 100/- per day.
How much money Ramavtar would get per day in each of the stated situations?
Calculate and state the criteria followed to decide the amount. (Word Limit: 500)

Situation 1: Ramavtar reached at 6am to his working place as he has been allotted for
Shift A which runs from 6 am to 2 pm. He was informed at 9 am that he cannot be
provided any work due to breakdown of the machine.

Situation 2: Ramavtar reached at 6am to his working place as he has been allotted for
Shift A which runs from 6 am to 2 pm. He was informed at 6.30 am that he cannot be
provided any work due to non availability of raw materials and therefore he was asked
to report himself at 10 am, that is second half of the A shift. He reached at 10 am but
could not be provided any work due to non availability of raw materials.

Situation 3: Ramavtar reached at 6am to his working place as he has been allotted for
Shift A which runs from 6 am to 2 pm. He was informed at 6.30 am that he cannot be
provided any work due to non availability of raw materials and therefore he was asked
to report himself at 10 am, that is second half of the A shift. He reached at 10 am and job
was given to him.

Situation 4: Ramavtar reached at 6am to his working place as he has been allotted for
Shift A which runs from 6 am to 2 pm. He was informed at 7.55 am that he cannot be
provided job due to shortage of raw material and asked him to report himself next day.

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 XIMAHR presents Case In Point

Case-2

The Managing Director of ABC Company, a major diversified, decentralized, consumer

products organization has slowly reached the conclusion that succession planning does
not happen on its own. There is a need for a system to select, identify and develop future
senior management.

The Managing Director, Mr. J. K. Mathur, had led a tremendously successful company,
that about ten years ago was acquired by ABC Company, another large packaged goods
manufacturer. Mr. Mathur and his management team were given total operating
autonomy and access to capital, which permitted rapid and successful expansion. By
2002, it became apparent to the Board of Directors that Mr. Mathur and his team were
truly outstanding performers. Net income and earnings per share grew at rates exceeding
inflation by between 8 to 10 per cent.

When Mr. Mathur became Managing Director of the Rs. 100 crore parent company, he
placed several of his associates in key management positions at the corporate level and at
the other major subsidiaries. At the same time, he embarked on a successful quest for
several acquisitions, which occupied about half of his time; the rest of his time was spent
keeping an eye on the performance of the subsidiary companies and addressing long
range issues.

Mr. Mathur, an extremely people-oriented executive, had never really given much
thought to formal human resources planning. He had put together a winning team in his
early days at his old subsidiary, trusting his own intuitive feel for people. He delegated
the selection and development functions to his trusted team members, who in turn trusted
their intuition to fill jobs and build entourages of their own. However, in his role, he had
reluctantly come to the conclusion that he has too few effective subsidiary executives and
fewer backups to those persons. Some of the recent acquisitions may have some talent,
but there is no way to be certain. Size does not allow reliance on the old system
anymore; it is not producing enough leaders to fill the void.

The organizational tradition has always been to encourage a decentralized approach to

running the organization and also to foster cooperation and communication between the

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 XIMAHR presents Case In Point

operating units. Management sophistication, performance levels and talent of personnel

are all very well mixed. Mr. Mathur has not attended to these issues until now. He
realizes that at least three of ten vice-presidents should be replaced and or start reporting
to another stronger executive. Recently, for the first time, many more ‘good’ people in
the middle are leaving because they think the ‘old-friends network’ Mr. Mathur has
developed and relied on is blocking opportunities. Recruiting costs have skyrocketed
because of the increased turnover and the difficulty in attracting good middle
management talent. The company’s reputation in the street is that only insiders get
ahead, and few outside managers are willing to try to break into the ‘old-friends’ group.

Now that the general framework of the long-term business strategy has been developed,
Mr. Mathur recognizes that the human resources component has been given too little
emphasis. He is suspicious of too-formal systems requiring a lot of paperwork and staffs
to support the effort. However, he is genuinely convinced that the time has come to
address this critical issue. The company has just completed another major acquisition that
will increase its size from 8,500 to 10,000 employees and its revenues to Rs. 200 crores.
Mr. J.K. Mathur wants to establish a framework that will enable all of the subsidiaries to
draw on each other’s human resource strengths.

You are the newly appointed General Manager of Human Resource, having been
promoted from a small acquired subsidiary where you held the job of Human Resource
Manager and ran a traditional personnel department, which did mainly administrative
jobs and also looked after recruitment and training. You have done an MBA from a
reputed management institute where you specialized in HR. Your boss, (the Vice-
President - Human Resources) has told the MD, Mr. Mathur that the task of designing
and implementing an appropriate HR system is within your skill range and properly in
your job description. You are to give a report to Mr. Mathur outlining what action steps
you would follow to respond to his need and how such an ‘HR system’ would look like.
The report should answer the following queries:

• How would your HR system look like?

• How could formal HR forecasting help? What kind of demand and supply
forecasting can be done?

• What environmental factors might affect forecasts in this company? Why do you
think so?

• What other steps does the organization need to take to make your HR plan a
success?

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 XIMAHR presents Case In Point

(Word Limit: 1500)

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