MBA ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS: July 2017

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BUSINESS COMMUNICATION AND ETIQUETTE

Q 1) The sales professionals of your organization are impatient and unwilling to listen to their clients. What is the importance of listening? How can you help them develop listening as a behavior? What is the one advice that you would like to give them to improve their trait.

Q 2) As a manager of a growing organization, it is your responsibility to set a high benchmark for ethical communication for your team members. Elaborate on ethical communication and its importance. What key areas would you focus on to ensure the same?

Q 3) The sales team of Zenith Global has a proven track record of success with customers when it comes to giving a presentation or participating in meetings. Despite this the conversions of prospects into customers has been surprisingly low. On deeper analysis it was found that the team struggled with their written communication. Every meeting / sales presentation needs to be followed up with a sales letter to clinch the deal.

a) What should the team bear in mind while writing letters to clients they have interacted with in the past and who have shown interest in their offerings?

b) What approach would work best to convert a neutral customer who is not aware about your products or offerings?

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BUSINESS ECONOMICS

1. State how the ordinal utility approach to consumer behaviour is different from the cardinal utility approach by Marshall. In the context of indifference curve (IC) technique using ordinal utility approach, explain whether following two statements are true. - “IC slopes downwards because if the quantity of one product is reduced, the quantity of other product must also be decreased” and “Slope of indifference curve indicates the rate at which individuals are ready to substitute one commodity by the other”. Substantiate your view on each of the statements separately.

2. With the help of the concept of production function, explain the difference between Law of Variable Proportions and Law of Returns to Scale. Elaborate your answer by citing real world examples.

3. a) Discuss product differentiation as an important feature of Monopolistically Competitive market. Explain the statement “Price flexibility under monopolistic competition depends on the degree of product differentiation”, by referring to the case of any FMCG industry.

3. b) PepsiCo has been a leader in soft drink industry. But over years, it has diversified in various snack foods. Over half of its current profits come from non-soft drink products. What, in your opinion, is the economic principle behind it?

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CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Case Study:

M/s Sun Shine is in the manufacturing of best quality ISO certified Solar Panels. The company is known for the durable solar panels having best features. The government provides subsidy to the customers buying solar panels under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in the country. The company has been doing well consistently over the period of years. The awareness for usage of Solar as a source of energy is increasing day by day. The company sells solar panels at the lowest possible price. The company’s vision is to light every house in the rural India.

Q1. The company wants to sell Solar Panels in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as a part of “Go Global” Initiative. Explain the benefits and demerits of Globalization for M/s Sun Shine.

Q2. The company plans to do CSR activity in rural India and hires you as a consultant to advice the organization for at least five CSR activities. Which one activity among the suggested five activities you would select for M/s Sun Shine. Explain the same with reason.

Q3. From the case above:

a) Assume you plan to implement one of the CSR activity, explain the process that you would follow for its implementation in the organization.

b) Explain any three voluntary codes in CSR that you would apply for the organization.

Explain the benefits of the same for M/s Sun Shine.

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INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR MANAGERS

1. A public sector bank is currently striving to differentiate itself from the competition to private sector bank in the same region. The customers at the public sector bank complain about the employees who are not informed about each customer's needs, preferences, and interaction history. The bank has been unable to cultivate more profitable relationships with the customers’ which has impacted its growth. Their inability to proactively identify risk – elevating customer behaviour has attributed to further losses. As the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the public sector bank, elaborate on your understanding of customer relationship management and its importance. How you would acquire, retain and create lasting relationships with the customers? How would creating these relationships help your bank?

2. The Healthcare industry is inundated with massive volumes of data generated each minute. With the adoption of electronic health records, mobile health apps and wearable technologies this is poised to increase dramatically over the next few years. This comprises of data being generated by patients in different forms such as the patient report’s generated by the diagnostic labs, the data in the form of vital stats generated by the wearable devices and body patches, data from medical insurance companies, to name a few. Explain data mining and its importance in the healthcare industry. With the help of a suitable example elaborate how patient data can be used for preventive healthcare. Would you recommend the use of Data mining in healthcare?

3. a. As the Indian city of Chennai went under floodwaters following heavy rains, it became clear that the effects of a lack of planning can be devastating for small companies. Reports suggest, as many as 40 to 60 percent of small businesses never recover after being hit by natural disasters. Some companies looked on helplessly as systems went down. They found themselves drowning in a flood of complaints from enraged customers’ as the water level rose on Chennai streets. Many enterprises believe that they can survive any disaster if they put in place a robust physical infrastructure and technical expertise. But floods in Chennai confirmed that technology companies need to do more to escape the ill-effects of natural disasters. Organizations wanted to make sure that their data centers don’t shut down, and continue to function as usual. However this was in vain. Explain BCP and its importance. What factors play an important role in the successful implementation of a BCP? In your opinion, should small businesses invest in BCP?

3. b. What are ERP systems and mention five benefits of using them. With the help of an example of any company with a failed ERP implementation, highlight the main reasons companies experience failures in implementing ERP systems. What were the lessons learnt to avoid the same mistakes in future?

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MANAGEMENT THEORY AND PRACTICE

Q 1. On account of the protectionist stands taken by some major countries the Global consulting Business of the IT giant IND Solutions is hurt. The entire business strategy for the consulting business is being realigned. As a HR Specialist, you are required to share the Organization structure and propose a new (organization structure).

Q 2. You are the HR Manager in an organisation handling a regional profile and are aspirational and would want to be the Chief People Officer. In the corporate world the completion is stiff and you need to have a good professional image. Differences of opinions are common and needs to be handled carefully. How do you plan to handle conflicts effectively, discuss your thoughts.

Q 3. As the Chief Learning officer of the company. You are currently training the fresh batch of Management Trainees.

a. Explain with examples the different types of leaderships (min 5) and what situation these leadership styles can be used effectively to get results.

b. Maslow’s theory on Hierarchy of Needs can be effectively used to understand human behavior. Explain it to the Management Trainees with a simple example.

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ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

1. Why do we do what we do? Motivation is the word which explains why one individual is absorbed about a particular objective or action plan while the other one would be totally disoriented about it? Alia and Aarti are colleagues working in a software firm. Alia comes from a very affluent family and is she is very much involved in the workplace politics whereas Aarti comes from a very humble background and works really hard to achieve her aspirations. Aarti is always involved in her work and shrugs off any kind of political agenda. Discuss the given scenario of Alia and Aarti with the help of McClelland Needs Theory? Explain why both the colleagues so differently oriented?

2. Karan and Sanjay are Team leaders of team A and B respectively. Karan is very open to feedback and does not let his perception rule his decision. He takes action based on facts and figures whereas Sanjay get carried away with his perception. Team A is very happy and motivated team which is clearly visible by their performance and just the reverse goes for team B. Sanjay takes aid from a self-help book where he reads about the managerial implications of perception. When he does a self-analysis he understood that all this while he was working totally under the influence of his perception. Sanjay decides to take a plunge and modify his behaviour. Discuss any three managerial implications of perception and what could have made Sanjay change his way of behaving? Discuss.

3. Deepak, Mohsin, Kiara and Kashyap have recently joined Infinity Infotech. In the first few days of Induction they are all made to form a group which will work on a project given by the management. Initially it went good for some time but after fifteen days rift could be seen between the group members. The management gave them a timeline for the completion of the project. They appointed Kiara as their leader and followed the norms set by the group. Within the given time frame by the management they completed the project and got appreciated for the same. After the completion of this project these four group members were again assigned a new group.

a. Explain the process for formation of a group in Infinity Infotech.

b. List down all the theories of group formation (all the theories need not to be discussed). Discuss the theory which you will the most apt in case of Infinity Infotech.

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BUSINESS LAW

1. Please list out the factors that affect “Free Consent” to enter into a contract. Give an example for each of the factors that affect free consent to enter into a contract.

2. What are the Rights of the Consumer, explain atleast 2 real life instances where the rights of consumer have been upheld and protected.

3. Vijay Singh is a leading filmmaker in India who plans to release his upcoming blockbuster romantic movie during the Diwali festival weekend of 2016. However, he has learnt that a production house Mukesh Raj Films (MRF) has blocked the single screens and multiplexes theaters (“Exhibitors”) only for screening of their film for the same Diwali festival weekend. In fact Vijay Singh has also found out that MRF had earlier in the year during the Eid festival launched a blockbuster movie and during the negotiation for screening the said Film imposed a condition that he would grant rights to screen the movie only if he was provided with the exclusive rights to screen another movie during the Diwali Weekend. Therefore, MRF and Exhibitors had entered into a tie-in arrangement for exclusive exhibition of the films in Eid and Diwali Festival Weekend respectively. Thus, preventing Vijay Singh from exhibiting his film.

Vijay Singh has now approached the Competition Commission of India for relief.

a) Does the tie in-arrangement between MRF and the Exhibitors amount to having “adverse appreciable effects on Competition”. Please quote the relevant precedent to support your answer.

b) Please list out the penalties stated under the Competition Act, 2002 and atleast quote one instance where Competition Commission India has imposed penalty along with the brief description of such instance.

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BUSINESS STATISTICS

1. The above chart shows the sales of toys over a period of one year. Identify the diagrammatic representation used and derive meaningful conclusions about the sales of toys.

2. The following table shows the results of a survey conducted across the country, on 200 working professionals. The professionals were asked to identify the location of their company and the type of industry of their company. The professionals were allowed only to select one location and one industry.

Industry	Location				Total
Industry	North	South	East	West	Total
Banking	24	10	8	14	56
Logistics	30	6	22	12	70
Telecom	28	18	12	16	74
Total	82	34	42	42	200

Suppose a professional is selected at random

a) Calculate the probability that the professional is from West

b) Calculate the probability that the professional is from Banking

c) Calculate the probability that the professional is from Logistics or from North?

d) Calculate the probability that the professional is from Telecom and South?

3. Titan industries Ltd., India’s leading watch manufacturer was established in 1984, as a joint venture between the Tata Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation. The company brought about a paradigm shift in the Indian watch market, offering quartz technology with international styling. Leveraging its understanding of different segments in the watch market, it launched a second brand, Sonata, as a value brand to those seeking to buy functionally-styled watches at affordable prices. The company diversified into jewellery in 1995 under the brand name Tanishq after taking stock of the huge opportunities and the large size of the jewellery business in India. Suppose, Titan has launched new jewellery designs under the Tanishq brand for working Indian women. Past record indicates that the mean sale of this brand, from various showrooms located across various towns is Rs. 20 million. If the distribution of the sales is normal with standard deviation of Rs. 50,000

a) What is the probability of obtaining sale greater than Rs. 45 million this year?

b) What is the probability of generating sale between Rs. 17 and Rs. 27 million?

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ESSENTIALS OF HRM

1. Kaya & Kaya is a skincare product manufacturing company. The company has been in the market from past 10 years and it’s been noted that because of the change in size, growth, work assignments, job duties and responsibilities the existing jobs have changed and new jobs have been established. You have been hired as a consultant to help determine the various ways of establishing job analysis. Discuss the different method of job analysis which could be used in this company. Conclude by choosing the best method of job analysis for Kaya & Kaya.

2. Assessment centres were first used in early 1940s in United Kingdom for solving discipline and behavioural issues of war officers and selecting the right candidate. Now, assessment centres have become a must tool for most of the organisations .Critically analyse this statement as well as discuss that in which two areas of HRM assessment centres can be used? Conclude by gauging the importance of assessment centres.

3. Sanjana joined a media company Showtimes Ltd. as Public Relationship officer. On the very day of her joining the office she is assigned a lot of tasks, which made her feel very nervous and confused. Since it’s the first day of her work Sanjana has lots of query but does not have any coach/ mentor/buddy who she can look up to for any help. For every single query she has to approach the HR who every time assigns a different person to guide her. This continues for every single day. Within a month of joining Sanjana is contemplating to resign from her services. It was then noted by the HR that the employee turnover in their organisation is very high especially within the few months of joining. It also came up that the main reason behind this was lack of Induction to employees

a. What could HR have done when Sanjana kept on approaching them for every single query she encountered during her first month in Showtimes Ltd?

b. You have been hired by Showbiz ltd. as a consultant to come up with induction strategy as it has been proved that if not inducted properly the attrition rates can be very high. Discuss the merits of Induction in general as well as for Showbiz Ltd which you need to present in front of the management.

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FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING & ANALYSIS

Question 1

Calculate Net cash flow from operating activities and discuss how here the non-cash item and the non-operating items are to be treated

· Net profit for the year 155000

· One of the machinery whose opening written down value is 120000/- depreciation charged on the same Rs 15000 is sold at the year-end for Rs 95000.Loss on sale of machinery included in above.

· Interest received included in above Rs2000

· The opening balances of stock is Rs 50000/- and the closing is Rs 55000/-

· The opening balances of creditors is Rs 75000/- and the closing is Rs 90000/-

Question 2

You being the account’s manager of JVP Ltd in the online grocery business. The account executive recognizes the income arising from lease rentals on the basis of accounting standard -9 which talks about revenue recognition.

You have a difference of opinion with him as this Accounting standard is not applicable to income arising from lease agreement and other income mentioned there. How will you make him understand what exactly AS-9 talks about?

Question 3

From the following information

Liabilities	Amount	Assets	Amount
Equity share Capital	225000	Fixed assets (net depreciation)	226000
Reserves & Surplus	105000	Stock	48000
Bank Over draft	115000	Debtors	72000
Creditors	55000	Bank	154000
Total	500000	Total	500000

Calculate –

a. Cash ratio and interpret the results.

b. Interpret how quick ratio is different from current ratio if computed in the above scenario.

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MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Case

“Ayurvedic India” is a new company started by two young entrepreneurs Mr. Dharam and Mr. Raj. “Ayurvedic India” deals with traditional Indian Ayurveda medicines. The company has already opened 10 stores across two cities namely Delhi and Mumbai in India and it has a plan to open at least 50 more stores in less than a year time. All the stores will have an Ayurvedic Doctor to provide free medical assistance. The company is known for its brands “Dant Rakshak” which is toothpaste, “Kesh Rakshak” which is hair oil, “Chehra” which is a cosmetic cream, “Tez Chyawanprash” which is nutritive jam that helps in boosting immunity. The stores have a huge space both for the patient treatment and a dedicated space for the retail counter. The company plans to give competition to the market leaders i.e. Patanjali and Dabur.

Q1. The company hires you as a Marketing Manager and asks you to prepare the Segmentation and Targeting for “Ayurvedic India”.

Q2. “Ayurvedic India” deals with the concept of treatment of patients and then selling them the medicine. You have been asked to prepare the 7P’s of Marketing Mix for “Ayurvedic India”.

Q3. Answer on the basis of the case above:

a. Prepare the positioning strategy for “Ayurvedic India”.

b. Prepare a list of five celebrities who can act as a Brand Ambassador for “Ayurvedic India” Explain the selection of celebrities with reason.

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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

Q1. M/s Divine Soul is into traditional Indian wear which sells multiple brands. The popular brand for male is “Raja” and for the females is “Rani”. The company sells traditional wear for children popularly known as “Shaayad”. The company has 120 outlets in India. The competition in this industry has been constantly growing. The profit margins are going down. The company has been profitable since the day of inception but there has been no growth. The company has remain stable from many years as the directors believe that the stability is the best strategy. The company adds you into the board as a strategy director and asks your view on Stability Strategy. You have been asked to prepare the pros and cons of Stability strategy for M/s Divine Soul.

Q2. Assume that the directors of M/s Divine Soul agree with your view on the challenges of Stability Strategy. The director asks you to suggest one corporate level strategy for the organization that will help them achieve growth for the organization.

Q3. From the case above answer the following question:

a. Explain the strategic Management process that needs to be followed for M/s Divine Soul.

b. Prepare a Porters Five competitive forces for M/s Divine Soul.

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TAXATION DIRECT & INDIRECT

1. Mr. Bhaalla started with a grocery shop. You being the tax consultant to Mr. haalla advise him on how the income from the grocery will be assessed under the Income tax Act and the principles to be considered while computing the taxable income?

2. You want to remit 1000 dollars as a payment of interest to Mr. Albert. Your tax consultant advises that such payment can be done if relevant procedures and guidelines for making such payment outside India are followed. Discuss the same in the light of the different provisions of Income Tax Act.

3. Mr. Rajat owns two houses. The details with respect to let out property is as under

Standard rent Rs 81000

Fair rent Rs 92500

Municipal valuation Rs 95000

Actual rent received is Rs 7000 per month

Municipal tax @ 15 % of Municipal valuation

Light and water charges Rs 1000 per month

Repairs: Rs 12000 per annum

Compute

a. Gross annual value of the house property.

b. Income taxable under the head Income from house property.

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SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

1. Write your views on the critical success factors behind a push / pull system of any Manufacturing / FMCG Organisation of your choice. Explain in detail the process steps with an example of a product AND/OR Product lines.

2. You are the Country Head of IKEA & have been granted permission by Government of India to set up operations in India. Detail out some of the Strategic Supply Chain Decisions that you would undertake?

3. You have recently taken over as Head-Supply Chain for an Automotive company in Western India by the name of “India Motors”. It has been brought to your attention that IT initiatives being deployed in the company have been very basic in nature.

A) What steps would you take to introduce IT related systems framework enabling a complete overhaul of their existing systems from a SCM perspective?

B) What IT solutions would you propose to help increase the efficiency of supply chain?

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STRATEGIC COST MANAGEMENT

1. A closely held successful start-up venture has recently converted itself into a publicly listed company post a successful IPO and handed over the management in the hands of young professional managers. These teams of managers are a bit inexperienced in strategic business decisions. They have heard that Pears and Robinson have in their paper discussed the various dimensions of strategic issues. Discuss how these dimensions of strategic issues will be relevant in current scenario.

2. The Cost Accounting department and the Engineering department of a large EPC company have been at loggerheads off late. Their main contention has been the concept of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) & Total Quality Management (TQM). The Engineering team feels that they are both the same with old wine in new bottle, whereas the Cost Accounting department opines otherwise. You are a newly appointed intern in the Cost Accounting department having freshly qualified as CMA. You are expected to resolve this conflict by providing your note discussing the similarities & differences between the two.

3. a) An input of 100 kgs. of materials yields to a standard output of 10,000 units. Standard price per kg of material is Rs.20. Actual quantity of material issued & used by production department is 10,000 kgs. Actual price per kg of material is Rs.21. Actual output 900,000 units. Compute Direct Material Cost variance, Material Price variance & Material Usage variance.

3. b) Number of employees is 200. Standard wage rate per employee is Rs.40 per day and standard daily output per employee is 100 units. Total number of days worked is 50 days (Idle time paid for and included above is half day for each employee). Actual wage rate per day is Rs.45. Compute Direct Labour Cost variance, Direct Labour Rate variance & Idle Time variance.

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SERVICES MARKETING

Q.1 Patanjali is in the process of setting up restaurant chain. Suggest suitable Elements of Physical Evidence during the launch of restaurants.

Q.2 Prepare a Service Blue print with a diagram for any brand in the banking industry

Q.3 Read the following Case & solve the questions given:

‘Strides’ is a leading shoe store in South Mumbai. The products are slightly high priced & in addition to the up market clientele, they also have a huge customer base of middle income group who are attracted to the products because of their superior quality & durability. The products range from office going & party wear to casual foot ware for both men & women. The store also has an entire section for kids. Excellent service & quality products has made ‘Strides’ one of the most reputed shoe store in the locality. The management of the store has been planning to venture into an allied business of a ‘Shoe Laundry’ but is doubtful about its success in the market where the concept is relatively new. Repairing of shoes is basically done at the local corner cobbler & in such a situation ‘Shoe Laundry’ will be a concept that would have to be explained to the people. The service would include professional cleaning, washing, airing & repairing of shoes. The management wants to hire an outside agency to find the feasibility of such a venture. They would also like to find the profile of the consumers who will try out for such a service.

You are the director of the market research firm that has been selected to undertake the study.

Questions:

1) In your opinion, what strategy should Strides adopt? Should it go for ‘Shoe Laundry’ or expand ‘Strides’?

2) What should be the strategy, if ‘Strides’ wants to expand?

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SALES MANAGEMENT

1. New Indian consumer goods company would like to enter Indian market, you being their Sales Director what are the steps you will initiate, explain each step with one example.

2. One of the Indian Pharma company you have recently joined them as their Head of Sales and Marketing of pharmaceutical generics, you will notice that, the company is not able to sustain sales as per their annual sales budget, due to several low price generics manufacturing companies which was affecting their top-line and bottomline. Work out how will you take care this situation and work out a effective strategy to improve the revenue generation and expand the market at the same achieve topline and bottom-line as per the sales budget.

3. Indian Industrial chemical manufacturing company well established in West zone covering 4 states, now they would like to expand their market geographically in the South zone covering 5 states:

a. Work out sales team deployment in each state, and explain basis of your deployment and how will you carry out recruitment.

b. What is the basis you will choose the specific state for your market expansion programme.

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RETAIL STORE DESIGN AND LOCATION

1. “The design of a retail store should attract customers to enter the store and navigate through different divisions of the store”- In view of this statement discuss the concept of retail store design for International Brand “Mont Blanc” which wants to retail its products comprising of Watches, Pens, Wallets and Leather Bags through its store in India.

2. Write the major elements involved in site selection to retail German luxury apparel brand “HUGO BOSS” in India. Explain all the elements in detail so that awareness and sales increase of the brand can be made.

3. Raymond Limited – An Indian Business Conglomerate in Men’s Fashion Industry wants to launch it’s “Made to Measure” Services and position it as a lifestyle aspirational brand with the help of exclusive stores.

a. What are the possible challenges you think will be faced by Raymond in Visual Merchandising in such store.

b. What are the ways to overcome these challenges in Visual Merchandising.

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PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Q1) Radha is a First Time Manager and has recently joined Aakash Industries which is a motor manufacturing company. In her earlier company there was no performance management process. Radha is not entirely sure of the relevance of Performance Management and its need. Assume you are coaching Radha. How will you convince her on the need for Performance Management and on the objectives of the same.

Q2) Shyam is the HR Manager of Nashikant Technologies. The company employees over 500 software professionals. Employees have to constantly collaborate and work across different geographies. There are sometimes constant friction between employees. Shyam is thinking of setting up a coaching and mentoring program. How should Shyam go about setting up a coaching and mentoring program?

Q 3) Big Bag Industries is in the retail business focusing primarily on apparels (men, women and children) The company has been in existence since 2012. The company is in the process of exploring introduction of the Balanced Score Card. Vasanti, the HR Head at Big Bag Industries is leading this exercise.

a) How should Vasanti go about the process of building a Balanced Score Card?

b) Explain to Vasanti the purpose of the Balanced Score Card.

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ORGANISATION CULTURE

Question 1: Princess Apparels is an organisation where ethics represents the honest and developmental codes of conduct that every employee associated with them must oblige. Here the ethical culture aids to deter negligence, dishonesty and deception. Ethical culture has helped Princess Apparels to grow in a very organic and holistic way. The organization puts emphasis on the employees to abide by the norms of conduct and even reward them. Discuss the practices which Princess apparels must be following to create ethical organisation culture?

Question 2: Developing an innovative culture has become a necessary element for the survival of any organisation, in order to have a competitive advantage one must nurture innovativeness. Consider any organisation of your choice which you think has a very innovative culture. Discuss the characteristics of an organisation with innovative culture specially focusing on the organisation which you have taken into consideration.

Question 3: Gaurav has recently joined a Multi-National Organisation as the Chief Human Resource Officer. It is observed by Gaurav that all the department in the organisation operate in silos. He also noticed that the culture of the organisation is such that interdepartmental communication is very less and only need based. He wants to bring some change in the prevailing culture which will help the departments to become close knitted.

A). How can Gaurav bring such kind of change in the organisation?

B). As we all know that communication is a key to success in personal and professional life, in the above case what role can it (communication) play to bring a change in the organisation?

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INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND LABOUR LAWS

1. PQR is a sugar manufacturing factory situated at a remote village in Ahmednagar. The factory buys sugarcane for the nearby villagers and sells the sugar manufactured, to the wholesalers at Pune. Male, female and children from the nearby villages are employed to work in the factory. Since the factory is situated at a remote area the basic health, safety and welfare provisions that should be provided to the employees are not available. The female employees were made to work overtime. The children had to work on and near dangerous machines. The employees were not paid overtime wages and were also not given the requisite holidays. Last month a group from an NGO visited the factory and after analyzing the condition suggested that the employees form a trade union under the provision of the Trade Unions Act. Analyze the situation and relate it with the different functions of a trade union.

2. A company permitted the employees to take 75 holidays in a year. Due to financial problems the management decided to cut down the holidays to 60 per year. The employees were unhappy with the decision and approached the Trade Union. The employees got together and decided to raise the issue with the management. Since all the employees were against the decision, the management was compelled to reach to a bargaining situation. At the end it was decided that the employees will be given holidays for 60 days only. But to compensate for the cancelled holidays, the management will pay each employee wages for 20 days in the month of December. What were the different functions taken that led to a successful collective bargaining?

3. Mrs. Payal is an employee, with a software company. She is employed as a system administrator. Along with her, two more colleagues David and Manisha are employed in the company at the same position. Mrs. Payal goes on a maternity leave for a period of 12 weeks. Before going on leave she had completed her assignments and no work was pending. During her leave, David and Manisha coped with the work and therefore the manager did not feel the need to appoint a temporary employee in Payal's place. Also in her absence the business did fairly well and there was no instance which required her presence. Now, Payal is completing her 12 weeks of maternity leave and is about to return to work. But the manager now feels that the office can cope without her and not hiring her back will also save company’s some money.

a) What would be your advice to the manager?

b) What remedies does Payal have?

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COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

Q.1) Your Company, a technology start-up in the area of telecommunication services, has decided to formulate compensation strategies. Before penning down the strategies, the HR Manager considers it necessary to identify factors that influence the compensation strategies. You, as an employee of HR Department, are assigned this task of identifying these factors.

Q.2) Your Company is diversifying into online retail business and HR Department is busy dealing with compensation challenges. HR Department has decided to conduct the Wage Survey in order to determine the compensation system for the organization. You are given the task of suggesting the type of survey suitable for your organization. In this light, identify different types of wage surveys and recommend a type for your organization.

Q.3) ABC Ltd is a newly incorporated company in financial services sector. They are a company providing consultancy to other companies in the area of financial planning for the employees in that respective organization. They are into their third year of operations and have a strength of 75 employees and their target market is Mumbai region with no sector specific segmentation. You are working as an HR Manager in ABC Ltd and you are supposed to solve following problems:

a) ABC Ltd is yet to provide to its employees legally required benefits. As an HR Manager, you are supposed to list the legally required benefits for employees in ABC Ltd.

b) Company is also considering the option of providing fringe benefits to its employees. You are supposed to suggest the fringe benefits that your company can provide to its employees.

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT

1. Recently you have been appointed as an external Project Management Consultant for the Mumbai Monorail Phase 2 implementation which has been delayed several times & has missed deadlines. What are the key areas that you will focus around to bring the project back on track & launch it successfully?

2. You have recently taken over as CEO of a rival firm of L&T namely X&Y. Your organization is as large as L&T & is involved in several engineering & infrastructure projects both in India & abroad. The Project Structure of your organization is that of a Functional type. Would you suggest to go ahead by proposing to change the Functional Structure to that of a Matrix One? Justify with reasons whether you will proceed ahead with this change or you will refrain from making this change.

3. You are the Plant Head of an automotive plant headquartered in Gurgaon & have been recently tasked with identifying a 2nd plant location for expansion of your plant.

a. What steps or factors will you undertake/consider whilst choosing a new plant location in India?

b. What steps will you undertake to assess the economic viability of this expansion project of your automotive plant?

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OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

1. Pick a company that you are familiar with and describe its operations strategy and how it relates to winning customers. Describe the specific activities used by the company that support the strategy.

2. A manufacturer expects to produce 3, 00, 000 widgets during the current year, to supply a demand that is uniform throughout the year. The set up cost for each production run of widgets is Rs. 124 and the variable cost of producing each widget is Rs. 4. The cost of carrying one widget in inventory is Rs. 25 per year. After a batch of widgets is produced and placed in inventory, it is sold at a uniform rate and inventory is exhausted when the next batch of widgets is completed. Determine the optimum quantity of widgets to be produced in each run in order to minimize the total production and inventory carrying costs.

3. Suppose a regional medical warehouse is to be established to serve several hospitals throughout the country. The supplies originate at S1 and S2 and are destined for hospitals at H1 through H4. Refer to the following data:

POINT i	LOCATION	ANNUAL VOLUME, CWT	RATE-$/CWT/MILE	Xi	Yi
S1	SEATTLE	8000	0.02	0.6	7.3
S2	ATLANTA	10000	0.02	8.6	3
H1	LOS ANGELES	5000	0.05	2	3
H2	DALLAS	3000	0.05	5.5	2.4
H3	CHICAGO	4000	0.05	7.9	5.5
H4	NEW YORK	6000	0.05	10.6	5.2

a) Briefly explain the principles of Center of Gravity Method for location decisions.

b) For the above problem, determine the optimum location for the regional medical warehouse using the COG Model.

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ORGANISATIONAL THEORY, STRUCTURE AND DESIGN

1. Ajay is working in Halotrics Ltd. He is very innovative and always challenges opinions of others. For that reason he has been a part of lots of conflict at his workplace. As it is said that conflict is a necessary evil in an organisation. Ajay has been counselled by his friend Karan that he should not get involved in so many conflicts to which he (Ajay) answered that an organisation will become boring monotonous if every employee is working in a very harmonious way where no one ever gets into an argument. Such organisation would not even thrive well because there would not be any creativity. Karan agrees to it but he also explains Ajay that as every coin has its flip side so does conflict. If the conflict crosses the threshold and hampers the daily routine of the workplace activities then it is alarming. It has to be controlled and managed. Ajay then contemplates over it and agrees to what Karan explained. Discuss the different conflict management techniques. Also, give your view point on conflict control and management.

2. An industry is a set of organisations delivering similar products or services. Before entering any market the organisations must analyse the industry in which they will operate. Choose any organisation from FMCG industry and perform an industry analysis by adopting Porter’s Five Forces model.

3. Khadi Cloak Ltd. is an organisation which gradually grew from a humble family owned business. With the hard work and dedication it has reached to the total capacity of 600 employees. It has been noticed that the organisation is not able to function effortlessly as there is no effective structure. Since the organisation grew manifolds it kept hiring more employees but then none of them have a role clarity. The biggest problem for Khadi Cloak Ltd. right now is that it does not have a proper hierarchical system

a. Discuss the organisational structure which according to you will best suit an organisation like Khali Cloak Ltd.

b. What would be the different elements of organisational structure which Khadi cloak should consider?

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MERCHANDISING MANAGEMENT

1. How would you go about starting your own store of cakes and pastries using innovative techniques of display and selling?

2. You have been given a profile of a product manager for apparels for a particular brand, how would you go about setting up your store (use innovations), adding merchandise to your existing products in the process ensuring good profits?

3. Case Study

Volkswagen (VW) is one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers and the largest carmaker in Europe. As Volkswagen pursues its goal of becoming the number one automaker in the world by 2018, India has become a key component of its strategy. India is currently the world’s second fastest growing car market, with shipments expected to more than double by 2018. As a relatively recent entry into the Indian automotive market, VW needed to raise brand awareness. To address this challenge, Volkswagen’s marketing team focused one of its key brand pillars, innovation, to make a strong impact throughout the roll-out in India. Innovation was showcased not only in Volkswagen’s product introductions, but also in its communications and advertising.

Innovative marketing strategies raise awareness

VW India created groundbreaking campaigns such as the world’s first ‘talking newspaper’, which used light-sensitive chips to speak to readers about Volkswagen as they turned the pages of their morning newspaper. The talking newspaper ad created a sensation in India, and garnered worldwide attention for taking print advertising to a new level. In one year, brand awareness more than quadrupled, increasing from 8 percent to a high of 37 percent. Volkswagen next turned to digital media to extend its success and create new opportunities for customers to connect with the brand. Lutz Kothe, Head of Marketing for VW India, says, “At Volkswagen, innovation is woven into everything we do. In formulating our digital strategy, we looked beyond the obvious for innovative ways to engage our audience. We knew that for many people, their car affects their professional life and their professional identity affects their car choices. This made LinkedIn a natural choice to connect with current and potential car buyers among the growing Indian professional population.”

a) Why are Auto companies focussing on India as a market and how is VW poised to perform in this fiercely competitive environment?

b) What innovation did VW do to create its brand awarness and how do they intend to remain in the minds of the consumers?

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MARKETING STRATEGY

Q1. MyDentist a nationwide chain of Dentists has been going through a bad phase of late. In order to get back on track, it has rebranded itself as “Sabka Dentist”. Do you think this strategy will help it regain its market? What other steps should be taken by them?

Q2. “Rumors”, the 3rd largest brand in India in the Furnishing Fabrics segment is planning to undergo a change. Known for its high end range of Fabrics, for the first time the brand is planning to come out with a low priced range of fabrics as a part of its latest collection to be launched next month. Market is skeptical that this strategy is a wrong move and might backfire. What are your thoughts about the same? How should Rumors go about it?

Q3. The country’s largest oral care company, Colgate-Palmolive, will need to ramp up its herbal portfolio in the next few quarters. It reported a three per cent decline in volume growth for the March quarter 2017. While in line with estimates and lower than the 12 per cent decline in volume growth reported for the December 2016 quarter, this does not bode well for the company.The trend, says analyst for fast-moving consumer goods appears to be in favour of companies pushing herbal oral care products.

“Patanjali has been growing its share in oral care, where it said it had achieved market share of 14-15 per cent in toothpastes. Dabur has seen a share gain of one per cent (110 basis points) for the March quarter, indicating there is traction for its products, which are based on Ayurveda.

Colgate, on the other hand, saw market share fall sequentially from 55.6 per cent in the December quarter to 55.1 per cent in the March one.

Cibaca Vedshakti, herbal toothpaste it launched in August 2016, would not be the last thing in its natural’s portfolio. So far, Vedshakti has been doing well. Soon, there will be other natural products from Colgate as they continue to innovate in the category. Colgate has been working on its natural portfolio for nearly two years. It first responded to the herbal revolution, kicked off by Patanjali, in June-July of 2015 when it launched Active Salt Neem toothpaste, its first indigenously developed one and followed it with launching variants containing clove oil and charcoal respectively.

The year 2016 saw the company launch its second indigenously developed toothpaste in Cibaca Vedshakti, with additional ones supporting its clove oil portfolio (sensitive clove toothpaste). But, for all the effort in the herbal category, the overall toothpaste share for Colgate has declined 220 basis points in the past year and three months.

a. What strategies should be followed by Colgate in order to protect its market share?

b. What strategies should be followed by Patanjali in order to dent Colgate’s market share more?

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MARKETING OF FINANCIAL SERVICES

Q 1) Design a Digital Marketing campaign for a Financial Services company of your choice.

Q 2) Develop a Public Relations campaign for IRDA to create awareness about Life Insurance sector and to educate policyholders about their rights.

Q 3) Ashwin Advani, aged 32 years, working with an IT company, has approached you for preparing his Financial Plan. He earns salary of Rs. 15 lakh per annum. His wife Kiran, aged 30 years, is a homemaker. They have one son Kabir, aged 3 years. (You can make any assumptions to further build up your case.)

a. Ashwin has expressed his desire to retire by the age of 55. Design a retirement plan for him.

b. Ashwin and Kiran want to start investing for Kabirs higher education and marriage. Develop an investment strategy to help them achieve their goals.

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LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT

1. Being a Logistics Manager, you have been asked to give a suggestion whether to manage a stores in house or to outsource the entire stores (warehouse) operations. Suggest a best option with cost benefit details.

2. You are working with a distributor of pharmaceutical products. One of your clients (manufacturer) has been dumping stock to your warehouse to show sales. Due to space constraint in the warehouse your company asks you to prepare a report of nonmoving items of last 6 months based on ABC analysis. The client has dumped 925 items. Average Stock value is Rs. 4 crores/month and sales value is Rs. 1 crore per month. Prepare a report based on ABC analysis and inform the total number of nonmoving items lying in the warehouse. Explain the complete process of the analysis to get the non-moving items.

3. You are heading a Distribution company which distributes consumer items to the wholesalers. The orders are placed whole day by 80 wholesalers. The wholesalers are located in the vicinity of 60 – 80 kms from your warehouse. Orders placed by 3.00 p.m. should be delivered on the same day and the orders placed after 3.00 p.m. should be delivered by next day 12 noon. Apart from this there are urgent orders which should be delivered in 3 to 4 hours on the same day of orders. Your management wants you to suggest the following:

a. If we use our own transportation system what are the benefits and drawbacks.

b. If we outsource the transportation systems what are the benefits and drawbacks. What is your recommendation to the organization on this?

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INTRODUCTION TO RETAIL

1. Citing from your own experience which are the factors which are important in the retail scenario for a store of supermarket to succeed?

2. How would you go about starting an exclusive potato chips store and ensure its success?

3. Case Study

For most of its 100-year existence, Oreo was America's best loved cookie, but today it is a global brand. Faced with stagnation in the domestic market, Kraft Foods moved it into emerging markets where it made some mistakes, learnt from them and ultimately triumphed. This case study looks at the strategies used to win over customers in China and India.On March 6, 2012, the famous cookie brand, Oreo, celebrated its 100^th birthday. From humble beginnings in a Nabisco bakery in New York City, Oreo has grown to become the bestselling cookie brand of the 21st century generating $1.5 billion in global annual revenues. Currently owned by Kraft Foods Inc, Oreo is one of the company's dozen billion dollar brands. Until the mid-1990s, Oreo largely focused on the US market - as reflected in one of its popular advertising slogans from the 1980s, "America's Best Loved Cookie". But the dominant position in the US limited growth opportunities and spurred Kraft to turn to international markets. With China and India representing possibly the jewels in the crown of international target markets due to their sheer size, Oreo was launched in China in 1996.The China launch was based on the implicit assumption that what made it successful in its home market would be a winning formula in any other market. However, after almost a decade in China, Oreo cookies were not a hit as anticipated, according to Lorna Davis, in charge of the global biscuit division at Kraft. And the team even considered pulling Oreo out of the Chinese market altogether.In 2005, Kraft decided to research the Chinese market to understand why the Oreo cookie that was so successful in most countries had failed to resonate with the Chinese. Research showed the Chinese were not historically big cookie eaters. According to Davis, Chinese consumers liked the contrast of sweet and bitter but "they said it was a little bit too sweet and a little bit too bitter".Without the emotional attachment of American consumers who grew up with the cookie, the taste and shape could be quite alien. In addition, 72 cents for a pack of 14 Oreos was too expensive for the value-conscious Chinese.Kraft's Chinese division used this information to formulate a modified recipe, making the cookie more chocolatey and the cream less cloying. Kraft developed 20 prototypes of reduced-sugar Oreos and tested them with Chinese consumers before arriving at a formula that tasted right. They also introduced different packages, including smaller packets for just 29 cents to cater to Chinese buying habits.

The changes had a positive impact on sales and prompted the company to ask some basic questions challenging the core attributes of the traditional Oreo cookie. Why does an Oreo have to be black and white? And why should an Oreo be round? This line of questioning and an ambition to capture a greater share of the Chinese biscuit market led Kraft to remake the product in 2006 and introduce an Oreo that looked almost nothing like the original. The new Chinese Oreo consisted of four layers of crispy wafers filled with vanilla and chocolate cream, coated in chocolate. The local innovations continued and Oreo products in China today include Oreo green tea ice cream and Oreo Double-Fruit.

Another challenge for Kraft in China was introducing the typical twist, lick and dunk ritual used by American consumers to enjoy their Oreos. Americans traditionally twist open their Oreo cookies, lick the cream inside and then dunk it in milk. Such behavior was considered a "strangely American habit", according to Davis. But the team noticed China's growing thirst for milk which Kraft tapped with a grassroots marketing campaign to tell Chinese consumers about the American tradition of pairing milk with cookies. A product tailored for the Chinese market and a campaign to market the American style of pairing Oreos with milk paid off and Oreos became the bestselling cookies of that country.

a) How old is the “Oreo” brand and what are the factors that have contributed to its succcess in the US?

b) Why did the brand Oreo not succeed in China?

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INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

1. EPRG Framework is considered as one of the most established Strategies in International Marketing. If you are heading a Multiproduct company in South American Market-what strategy will be adopted by you and why? Elaborate your answer with 2 suitable product examples.

2. Exchange Rate fluctuation of currencies is one of the biggest challenge in International Marketing? As an Export Head what strategy would you adopt to counter it and secondly which will be the best way to grow in such volatile markets? You can take any product/market of your choice to explain your viewpoint.

3. As a new Export Manager your company got a huge order of Basmati Rice from Middle East to be delivered in 11 months. What measures will you take regarding the basmati rice order for:

A. Export Quality Control and Export Incentives.

B. Different documentation and approval required.

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INTERNATIONAL FINANCE

1. The present price of USD is 64 times of INR, why the rate of USD is so high? What are the methods of calculating the rates?

2. Mr. Kamat is the head of Finance Department in QZ Export, Company exported goods $ 1,50,000 to US base Company XM Ltd. On 2nd March 2017. XM Ltd promised to pay on 4th June 2017. What are the different types of Risk in above transaction? And how Mr. Kamat can minimize it?

3. The major purpose behind ‘Make in India’ initiative is job creation and skill enhancement in all the major sectors of the economy. In September 2014, the government increased the foreign investment upper limit with an aim to promote India as an important investment destination and a global hub for manufacturing, design and innovation. In 2013, India was ranked 15th in terms of FDI inflow, it rose up to 9th position in 2014, and in 2015 India overtook the U.S and China as the top destination for foreign direct investment. The success in FDI for India in such a short span is worth applauding. Looking at the statistics, FDI during October 2014 and May 2016 grew 46 per cent from $42.31 to $61.58 billion after the launch of ‘Make in India’ campaign. Singapore, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Unites States accounts for major share of FDI inflows in India.The government of India is taking various measures like opening FDI in various sectors of the economy and improving ease of doing business. Agriculture, Civil Aviation, Courier Service, Defense, Education, Pharma, Railway, Telecom, Tourism, Food products are some sectors under the ‘Make in India’ initiative where 100 per cent FDI is permitted. Sectors that attract maximum FDI include services, trading, automobile, and power. The state-wise analysis shows Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh together attracted more than 70% of total FDI. The government has approved more than 259 proposals for setting up special economic zones relating to IT sector. Source: Business World

Q3. A. How Make in India and Foreign Direct Investment are related? What are the reasons behind increase in FDI in India?

Q3. B. Why some political parties are against FDI? What will the negative impact of FDI on future of India?

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STRATEGIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

1. The owner of M –Charge, an e wallet company wants to establish a successful business empire. For that it is necessary that the management should promote strategic thinking and put efforts so as to turn the goals into actual accomplishments. The financial experts advices that this all can be achieved if the management plans strategically. Discuss and conclude whether strategic planning will be helpful? If yes, discuss, the advantages the entity will have if planning is done strategically and the essential elements of successful strategic planning.

2. Snap deal wants to step in for business restructuring as management thinks that the same will result into increased profits and will maximize the shareholders’ value. However the Board of Director’s is not clear about the various effective methods of restructuring. You being the head of strategic management team advice the board on the suitable methods of restructuring if the board wants to expand the business of the company in near future.

3. Tittan Put Ltd is planning to raise fund in the following proportion. From the information provided

Components of capital structure	Market value (Rs in crores )	After tax cost of Capital
Equity share capital	1000	10
Preference share capital	350	12
Long term debentures	500	8
Total	1850	WACC?

a. Find out the Weighted Average Cost of Capital and discuss the significance of calculating cost of capital for the management.

b. What if the company’s WACC calculated above is less than the expected return to be generated from the project which is 15 %?

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TREASURY MANAGEMENT IN BANKING

Q1: Sneha had just completed her MBA and was placed in a bank. She was appointed to manage the foreign exchange department. Her manager had asked to prepare a short report on various exposures she would be facing while handling foreign exchange transactions. Help her to prepare the report keeping in mind key exposures.

Q2: ABC Ltd had recently made fresh recruitments for the position of Treasurer and Controller. If you are their reporting manager, prepare a report of their job responsibilities, keeping in mind they have completed their post graduation in Finance.

Q3: The manager of a bank wants to analyse the post effects of increasing the interest rate from 6% to 7% on the value of assets and liabilities. The current asset value of the bank is 250 lacs and the current liability value is 240 lacs. Average duration of assets is 4.2 and average duration of liabilities is 1.1. Calculate the change in the value of:

a) Assets

b) Liabilities

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WORLD CLASS OPERATIONS

Q1: The Mumbai Dabbawalas have achieved Six Sigma Quality in Customer Service Excellence. What do you understand by Six Sigma Quality in Customer Service Excellence? Briefly explain the features of Six Sigma Quality in Customer Service Excellence.

Q2: "TPM is a maintenance philosophy aimed at eliminating production losses due to equipment status." As an operations Manager, how can you implement TPM in your firm?

Q3a: "To achieve world class standards in operations, an increasing number of firms are adopting the best tools and practices with the aim of maximizing production, reducing costs, eliminating waste and delivering quality products." How far do you agree with this statement? Give a suitable example in support of your answer by selecting a firm from the Indian automobile industry.

Q3b: Select a firm of your choice from the Indian fast moving consumer durables industry and briefly explain how the firm has successfully implemented the principles of World Class Manufacturing.

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INTERNATIONAL LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Q1) How can you relate value creation and demand synchronizing to Supply Chain Management. Relate this to challenges faced by an auto ancillary company (which supplies precision engine parts to a car manufacturer on JIT basis) in framing and executing their overall supply chain objectives.

Q2) Explain how you will apply the concept of vendor management, asset management and lean supply chain management to a food franchisee company.

Q3) JSRK Omni is an Indian company which manufactures mobile hand sets. They procure some parts of the handset from Taiwan.

a. State and give examples of the different primary and secondary value chain activities of this firm.

b. Enlist four inter related ways how your global supply chain management plan can contribute to value addition.

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INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Q1) Enlist at least five strategic advantages of International trade and explain how has Apple Inc. leveraged each of these to become one of the world’s leading global company.

What are some of the disadvantages of international trade they would have faced in reaching this position.

Q2) What are the forces that drive globalization. What do you understand by disadvantages of globalisation and what are the options available to the government of a particular country which is signatory to WTO and supports Laissez Faire approach, in containing these challenges.

Q3) Michael Porters diamond theory of national advantage states that the success of an organisation in international markets depends on the features of the home country.

a) State the various determinants of the theory and also state who plays the role of a catalyst in unifying and integrating the determinants together.

b) Apply the theory to the Indian software industry, giving your recommendations.

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INTERNATIONAL BANKING AND FOREIGN EXCHANGE MANAGEMENT

Q1. Xlone Ltd is an Indian company planning to raise capital from US market. If you are the head of finance department of the Xlone Ltd suggest them various ways to do so? If company doesn’t want to list in US stock market, than how company can generate fund in USD? What are the Challenges for the same?

Q2. 1991 is the year of transformation for economy of India; LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) policy opened the door for many foreign companies in Indian Market. In context to LPG there were many amendments in foreign exchange act. Please explain the same and compare that with the law before LPG.

Q3. FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank is adding half a trillion euros ($579 billion) in stimulus to the eurozone economy as it hopes to support growth as Europe heads into what could be a tumultuous election year. The chief monetary authority for the 19 countries that use the euro said Thursday it would keep injecting money into the economy through its bond-buying program until at least December, past the previous end date of March. It will reduce the amount of bonds it buys after March to 60 billion euros ($64 billion) a month from 80 billion euros. That effectively adds at least 540 billion euros in stimulus to the existing 1.74 billion ($1.87 trillion) effort. That's slightly more than expected by analysts, who on average thought the ECB would extend for only six months at the same current rate.

SOURCE: Economic Times

a. Why the European Central Bank is injecting the money in the Economy?

b. How monetary policy and Export Policy are related? What is the role of Balance of Payment to improve the employment in the nation?

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INSURANCE & RISK MANAGEMENT

Q.1) Mr.ABC is a 25 year old working professional & is interested in exploring an annuity plan that can take care of his pre-tax money which he can also disclose to the IT dept whilst filing his IT return. As an Insurance advisor, which type of annuity plan would you suggest to him & why? Name some of the existing annuity plans being provided by service providers in India. Also chart out an investment based annuity plan for Mr.ABC.

Q.2) India has one of the lowest Insurance penetration rates in the world. Given this fact, if you were to take over as the CEO of a brand new private sector Insurance company by the name of “WeCare Insurance” that has commenced operations, elaborate on the strategy & steps that you would undertake to help increase Insurance penetration & also of your firm’s Insurance product suite namely between ANY TWO of the following provided options

i) Health Insurance,

ii) Life Insurance,

iii) Property: Home Insurance &

iv) Motor Vehicle Insurance?

Q.3) “Boilers India Ltd”, a well established company into the manufacturing of Boilers & Boiler related equipment located at Pune had covered their commercial property under Commercial Property Insurance coverage during the year 2010. During 2016, owing to an electrical disturbance, there was a major fire within the plant premise leading to a near total damage of all their 3 Boiler equipment machinery.

A) As an adjuster of the Insurance Company, you are tasked with providing the full claim amount as refund for fire damage caused by electrical disturbance towards the value of the 3 Boiler equipment machinery damaged. Explain your process to assess & verify the claim amount?

B) As an adjuster for the Insurance Company, would you pay the entire refund as claimed by Boilers India Ltd? Justify with reasons depending upon whether your response is affirmative or negative.

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INDIA’S FOREIGN TRADE

1. ABC Limited was doing well in the local market and was planning to expand its business in the foreign market as well but was worried about how will they collect the payment from the importers located in other countries. Is it possible for the company not to face credit risk in the foreign market, if yes, how? Explain using examples.

2. A chemical company was planning to enter into strategic alliance with another chemical company for growth. Elaborate the reasons for the company to engage in strategic alliance.

3. Alpha Ltd was in the business of manufacturing ayurvedic products and was performing well in the Indian Market. The company had broad range of products currently selling in the market. Looking at the growing demand of ayurvedic products in the foreign market as well, the company was planning to export its goods to other countries as well. If you are the manager of the company, prepare a report highlighting:

a) Reasons that would motivate the company for entering foreign market.

b) Benefits that would be available to Alpha Ltd as exporters.

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FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND MARKET

1. XYZ Ltd. is a Govt. recognized export house with annual turnover of Rs 2200 Crores Mr Pathak is Vice President- Finance of the Company. The company follows policy of no hedging of the US$ exposure. What all risks that Mr. Pathak has to enlists in his presentation to the management in a floating exchange rate scenario?

2. PSL Bank Ltd. is a private sector bank. The treasury division has an immediate need to arrange Rs. 100 Crores to finance its one of the top corporate client. However the requirement is for very short period of around 7 days. So what sources are available for Mr. Das to raise the required fund, who heads the treasury divisions of the Bank?

3. A) LMH Ltd. Has floated an Investment Company. You are appointed as the CEO to spearhead the investment in secondary market. So to initiate these investments, explain the mechanism that you will follow.

3. B) JFK Ltd. is listed Company on the exchange and the share price is quoted at Rs. 340 as of today, the Company reported EPS of Rs. 25.00 for FY 2017. In the recently concluded board meeting, the Company announced stock split and accordingly, the face value has been reduced to Rs5.00 from Rs. 10.00. The outstanding shares of the Company are 30,00,000. Calculate the number of outstanding shares of the Company post stock split and adjusted share price of the Company post stock split. Also calculate the PE ratio of the Company post stock Split.

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EXPORT IMPORT PROCEDURES AND DOCUMENTATION

1. You have received an export order to Dubai. The importer wants Certificate of origin from you along with the consignment. What is Certificate of origin and how will you obtain this from your location. Explain the complete procedure based on your experience.

2. You have received an order for exporting second hand machinery to West Germany. You need to provide Chartered Engineer’s certificate to the Indian Customs for Export clearance. Please explain the following in detail:

a. Who will issue Chartered Engineer’s certificate

b. Whether this can be arranged by importer or exporter?

c. What are the details to be provided in the Chartered Engineer’s certificate?

d. How will you locate a chartered engineer to do this job?

e. What is the action plan of Chartered Engineer before issuing such a certificate?

3. You have imported one consignment of Activated Carbon from Japan. Your clearing agent is asking for customs chapter classification number for this product. Please explain the following:

a. What is the chapter number for this item and from which book you will obtain this information? Which government website provides this information?

b. What is the rate of customs duty and the total percentage of duty for this product? Give breakup of the duty structure?

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DECISION ANALYSIS AND MODELING

1. Observe any government department or service process that consumes limited resources and/or has multiple restricts, and explain what are artificial variables and why do we need them? Also using suitable example discuss how artificial variables differ from slack and surplus variables?

2. Obtain an initial basic feasible solution to the following transportation problem using the Vogel’s Approximation Method.

WAREHOUSE	STORES				AVAILABILITY
WAREHOUSE	I	II	III	IV	AVAILABILITY
A	7	3	5	5	34
B	5	5	7	6	15
C	8	6	6	5	12
D	6	1	6	4	19
DEMAND	21	25	17	17	80

3. A processor of frozen fruits has to decide which crop to cultivate in which geographical area. There are two strategies available: to plant apples and to plant pomegranates. There are three possibilities of weather: perfect weather, variable weather, and bad weather. The probability of perfect weather is 0.25, that of variable weather is 0.50 and that of bad weather is 0.25. The outputs of the two crops, measured in dollars, under the different conditions, are known. The utility of the firm is to be measured by the dollar amounts as shown in the following payoff table.

ACTIONS	EVENTS
ACTIONS	PERFECT WEATHER	VARIABLE WEATHER	BAD WEATHER
CULTIVATE APPLES	40000	30000	20000
CULTIVATE POMEGRANATES	70000	20000	0

a) Prepare the expected payoff table.

b) What action should the processor select?

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CUSTOMS SHIPPING AND INSURANCE

1. Your company has imported one consignment and your customs broker has opted for second check to clear the consignment. However during customs examination, customs has found some excess items which have not been mentioned in the invoice. Explain the customs action on this and how will you handle this situation.

2. You have imported one consignment of 250 cases under CIF terms. During examination your customs broker observed a shortage of 28 cases and stopped the clearance. What is your action plan to clear this consignment and how will you claim the insurance for the shortages.

3. You are a customs broker. One company approaches you to use your services to export one huge consignment of 2000 boxes of same dimension by SEA. The company requests you to suggest the safe and cheaper freight for this export:

a. What will you suggest…. Export as break bulk or through containers and explain the reasons for your recommendation?

b. How will you assess the requirement of number of containers if exported through containers? How will you check the cheapest freight for this consignment?

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CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

Q1. With the advent of Jio in the market, the telecom industry has gone for a complete shake up. In trying to match up to the rising competition and falling margins, companies have been left with no breathing space. In this entire mess, Vodafone is facing a problem of a different kind, i.e. rising customer complaints. With the price war and the ever increasing employee turnover rate, it is unable to satisfy its customers. Can you guide them with steps to improve the situation?

Q2. Haldirams, the country’s biggest QSR brand has recently felt the need to implement CRM seeing the ever increasing competition and in order to preserve its market share. But being a homegrown traditional company it does not understand the factors it needs to keep in mind for its successful implementation and also the potholes it needs to avoid. Can you as a consultant guide them on the same?

Q3. Read and Analyze the below given case and answer the questions at the end of it Customer-centricity simply speaking means bringing customers at the centre of the enterprise and aligning strategies, decisions and actions to deepen this relationship with them over a period of time. Aligning strategies, decision and actions includes products, distribution, behaviour, business models, talent acquisition and so.

Deepening relationship is about increasing share of wallet and doing repeat business with the company. This holds true whether you are a MSME, SME or large corporate. However, a journey of customer-centricity is easier said than done. For MSME owners, to understand this journey, we must first put in place the foundational elements called the AUDI of customer-centricity: Align Understand, Define and Inventorise.

A = Align for commitment

Alignment commences with the CEO and top management coming together and deciding to bring customer-centricity from the periphery of an enterprise to being a strategic-choice for achieving the company's vision.

U = Understand the Customer Value Proposition

Do you know your customer value proposition? It is not just about the physical attributes or the specifications or what is before your eyes. It is the finer details that connect a product with the customers. A customer value proposition should clarify the benefits that consumers can expect from a product.

D = Define what is the Service Intent

One thing that organizations often struggle with is lack of clarity on what the customer should experience while using the product. Service intent is a short definition of what customers would experience while interacting with the organization across touch-points. It is a statement that stipulates what experience would be delivered to customers.

I = Inventorise initiatives that matter

Once the leadership alignment is in place and there is clarity on customer value proposition and the service intent, the top management in participation with employees should come up with a laundry list of initiatives that would need to be deployed.

1. Do you think this concept of AUDI stands relevant in the SME sector? Explain with the help of an example?

2. SME’s in India do not understand CRM and how can it guide them in building loyalty. Can you guide them on the same?

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COST AND MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Question 1

You are the CEO of Patta Noodles Ltd and want to appoint Mr. Milind as management accountant so there can be adequate coordination between accounts, finance and management functions. Please brief him about his responsibilities and the necessary qualities which he should reflect as a management accountant so as to enable him to sincerely perform the job.

Question 2

Nokia recently launched N3310 model. The company is quite optimistic to continue with producing NOKIA 3310 in the near future. The management of the company prudently takes all decisions and they are analyzing their decision to continue to manufacture the product. As an accountant discusses the necessary factors the management should analyze in order to continue or to shut down any production operation.

Question 3

a) Calculate total earning as per Emerson’s plan-

Standard output in 5 hours = 30 units
Actual output in 5 hours = 27 units
Actual rate paid for each hour = Rs 50 per hour

b) Calculate the earnings and bonus as per Rowan’s plan

Standard time allocated to complete job = 10 hours
Wage rate per hour = Rs 50
Actual time taken to complete the job = 8 hours

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CORPORATE FINANCE

Question 1

TATA Steels is looking forward for entering into a joint venture with United States Steel Corporation in USA. The company is planning to access funds from the international market. Discuss

· Meaning of the overseas sources of finance

· Why the company wants to raise fund from international market?

· Methods which can be employed by the company to raise fund from the international market.

· Is it advisable that company should go for Sourcing equity globally?

Question 2

LIMBDI Ltd started a chain of hotels with “profit maximization” as the basic financial objective and TEBDI Ltd started with a portfolio management company with the basic objective as “wealth maximization”. In light of the relevant concepts of financial management give your opinion on “which company will surely survive in long run” and why?

Question 3

Kabra Motors is considering a proposal to install new machine. The initial capital outflow will be 15 lacs. The expected cost of capital is 12 %. The expected cash inflows from the operations will be as under -

Year	Cash inflows
1	2
2	3
3	4
4	5
5	5

a) Calculate the NPV of the proposal. And give your opinion whether to accept or reject the proposal.

b) Calculate the profitability index and give your opinion whether to accept or reject the proposal.

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CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

1. Kellogg launched cornflakes as a breakfast food in Indian market, they were not able to penetrate the Indian market effectively, explain what could be the main reason for not able to penetrate Indian breakfast segment effectively, and they made certain changes in product positioning, what are the changes incorporated by them.

2. One of the European company engaged in the manufacture of highly specialized artificial nose (Electronic Smell Sensor), which has varied application in various industries, however they are planning to find out the market opportunity for their product in the food segment in India. Prepare a detailed questionnaire keeping in mind food Industry in mind (Example – Fast food chains to identify quality of the food etc.).

3. An International company that is very well-known for Perfume brands in both the categories of men and women. The company has their own manufacturing unit and marketing team.

a. Discuss the market entry strategy from the point of Indian culture.

b. Make steps you will consider pre-launch- explain each step logically.

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CAPITAL MARKET AND PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

1. Mr. Shabd Kumar has to make a choice of investment between the two stocks, namely A and B. The possible returns with the associated probabilities of their occurrence for both stock A and B have been provided in the Table given below. Based on the data provided in Table which stock he should choose to invest in?

Stock A		Stock B
Probability	Return	Probability	Return
10%	-10%	35%	15%
15%	0%	25%	10%
20%	5%	20%	20%
25%	25%	10%	-10%
30%	15%	10%	25%

2. Mr. Saran Kumar, aged 35, is employed with Mumbai University as a Lecturer in the English Department. He is the sole earning member of his family. He stays in a joint family with his parents, his wife and two children aged 5 years and 2 years. He has been deploying his savings in primarily in bank fixed deposits and other tax savings instruments such as Public Provident Fund (PPF) etc. However, he is not sure that whether his savings would be adequate to meet future financial needs of his family or not. His friends have been suggesting him to invest in stock market and have been giving him tips also for specific stocks. Mr. Saran is reluctant to follow his friends’ advice as his uncle had lost significant amount of money in the stock market around 10 years back. Not only his uncle had to sell off his house and his wife’s jewelry to compensate for the loss incurred but the whole family had also faced loss of reputation with relatives and friends. Torn between the choice of losing money in the stock market or ending up with insufficient savings to meet his future needs and exigencies, he decides to seek professional help to solve his problem. He approaches his bank manager for his advice. The bank manager directs him to you for further discussions. You are employed in the Wealth Management Department of the bank. The department’ role is to advise the bank’s client and offer tailor -made solutions with respect to the client’s investment needs.

Discuss how should I go about investing my savings? Is there a way that I make enough money without losing may savings? If yes, how? Provide your rationale for the same.

3. Historical price of Stock A and the closing level of a Market Index is provided in the Table given below.

As on December 31	Price of Stock A	Closing level of the market index
2000	23	1264
2001	22	1059
2002	40	1094
2003	114	1880
2004	128	2081
2005	139	2837
2006	113	3966
2007	199	6139
2008	106	2959
2009	153	5201
2010	171	6135
2011	127	4624
2012	135	5905
2013	107	6304
2014	166	8283
2015	214	7946
2016	325	8186

a) Calculate Beta of the stock A.

b) The Table given below gives the expected market index values for 31 December 2017 and the associated probabilities of occurrence for the same.

Probability	Closing level of the market index
10%	7500
15%	8000
20%	8500
25%	10000
30%	9000

If the 10 Year Government of India Bond (G-Sec) yield is 7%. What is the expected prices of the stock A as on 31 December 2017?

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BUSINESS ETHICS, GOVERNANCE & RISK

1. The New Companies Act of 2013 introduced conditional CSR spend of 2 percent – a first of its kind mandate globally. You have been retained as a CSR consultant by Acumen Logistics Services, a company providing cold storage & transport services. Which according to you will be the two or three appropriate CSR initiatives for them from schedule VII and what will be your recommendation/plan on how they should implement them?

2. In the parking lots of Bangalore, it is a common sight to see provisions made to recharge the car batteries of Reva, the electric car. The way it works is quietly making sense to the customers. Elaborate on the ethical and sustainable dimensions of manufacturing and marketing such a product in a country like India.

3. Are you aware that you are being tracked and watched while you are surfing the net. The advertisers observe your surfing behavior and accordingly target their ads at you. You end up exposing your supposed needs unawares as someone is stealing data about your online surfing patterns. This kind of tracking and placing ads in the surfer’s path is known as contextual targeting.

a. What is the inherent moral issue here? Why is it an issue? What does law say about it.

b. Marketer’s say prohibition of tracking takes away the marketer’s legitimate right to study consumer behavior. Which side do you agree with and what are your reasons for doing so?

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BRAND MANAGEMENT

Case Study:

1. A company has launched a new cola drink “Fresh Cola” in the Indian Market. The main feature of Fresh cola is that it has the least amount of calories in it. The company is facing a tough competition from Pepsi and Coke. The company hires you as a brand strategist and ask you to find out various positioning strategies and recommend the best positioning for the Brand “Fresh Cola”.

2. Brand Ambassador plays an important role in creation of a Brand. Company has asked you to suggest five brand ambassadors for “Fresh Cola”. Introduce the importance of Brand Ambassador and your selection of five Brand ambassador for “Fresh Cola” with reason.

3. A) Every company tries to take advantage of Brand Extension. Assume “Fresh cola” becomes a top brand in the Indian Market. You have been asked to identify and explain various types of extension and suggest one extension that would go well with the Brand “Fresh Cola”.

3. B) Assume you are planning to buy a new mobile for yourself. You are now confused with the problem of plenty of choices. Explain the various stages of Consumer decision making process that you will undergo to purchase the mobile of your choice.

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ADVANCED SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

1. Assume that you have joined as the Chief Operating Officer in one of the leading supermarket chains in the country. The owners of the supermarket chain have asked you to increase the revenue and profits by at least 20 percent in a year’s time. You have decided to use “Innovative Pricing” as your key strategy for extracting more revenue and enhancing profits. Explain why innovative pricing is a good strategy in the above scenario? Discuss the concept of innovative pricing. How innovative pricing can be applied in a supermarket chain? In your opinion are there any other better strategies to maximize the profits?

2. Information Technology (IT) has become an integral part of the modern supply chains. Select any single organization and discuss its strategic framework for IT adoption in a supply chain. What are the goals of IT in the organization’s supply chain? Discuss how IT applications are helping the organization in improving its supply chain performance. Explain the future IT trends in supply chain.

3. In 2014, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M) came out with its new sourcing strategy under which purchasing of components for all its vehicles was brought together under a single umbrella. This One Sourcing policy was a shift from the company’s existing model, where components for manufacturing automobiles, two-wheelers tractors and trucks were being sourced through various departments. M & M chief Purchasing officer, Hemant Sikka said “the new one sourcing strategy the firm adopted will help it reduce at least 2-3% of the cost of purchasing from component makers who supply parts to models across the segments and make its supply chain more efficient.”

(Source: Shally Seth Mohile, Mahindra to reduce supplier base as part of new sourcing strategy, Live Mint, http://www.livemint.com/Companies/1FOq6BpomNLkmJLIsPLRSK/Mahindra-toreduce-supplier-base-as-part-of-new-sourcing-str.html, Oct 06 2014)

a. Using the example of M & M explain the various sourcing strategies.

b. Discuss how the new strategy will help M & M in sourcing.

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Integrated Marketing Communication

1. Mr. Karan plans to start a new chain of coffee shops named after popular TV show “Kofee with Karan” across India. All the stores will have Bollywood theme in it. Every store will be dedicated to one actor so that the customers should try to get in all the stores. There will be selfie booth in all stores. The company plans to give competition to Café Coffee Day, Barista, Starbucks, etc. The company hires you as a Marketing Communication head and ask you prepare a 7P’s of Marketing Mix for the store.

2. The “Koffee with Karan” is the new Bollywood concept store and wants to aggressively get the market share. The company plans to use sales promotion techniques to get the customer to the store. You have been asked to decide at least five sales promotion technique for the “Koffee with Karan” Outlets.

3. Answer the following:

a) The store “Koffee with Karan” wants to make its presence felt in Online Marketing. You have been asked to suggest five online activities that you will do for the outlet.

b) The store “Koffee with Karan” plans to open five stores in the International Market. You have been asked to prepare the list of challenges that the company will face in the International Market.

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International HR Practices

Q.1) You are an HR Manager of a leading Information Technology firm from India serving the international clients. You have an ongoing project in UK wherein it is found that 20% of expatriates from India are underperforming. You are asked to give explanation for the same. Give possible reasons for the failure of Expatriates.

Q.2) Your Company is into automobile sector manufacturing two-wheelers in Indonesia. Recently, the Indonesian Government brought changes in its FDI policy which forced the automobile company to send 40 % of its Indian workers working in Indonesia back to India. The company does not have a formal repatriation process in place. You are asked to put a formal repatriation process in place.

Q.3) ABC Ltd is an MNC from India specializing into Biotechnology sector. After its successful operations in European market, it is planning to expand in North America and Asia. Currently, it has an employee strength of 1000. It is planning to start units in above regions with an initial employee base of 100. At this juncture, identifying different HRM issues in these areas becomes essential. In this light, answer following two questions.

a) Which HRM issues in North America are relevant to your company?

b) Which HRM issues in Asia are relevant to your company?

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Internet Marketing

1. You have recently joined as Chief Digital Officer of a Govt PSU Shipping company. The company does not have a web presence at all. Explain in detail the process of setting up a website. Explain atleast 2 innovative approaches that would form part of your website.

2. You are the Chief Marketing Officer of a newly opened French restaurant in Delhi by the name of “LePain”. What Online Media tools will you deploy via your restaurant website to generate traffic to your website?

3. You have decided to become an entrepreneur by setting up your own business in travel & tourism sector with a facility to make travel bookings online via your website?

a. What will be your approach towards Social Media Marketing? Explain.

b. How do you plan to leverage mobile marketing platforms? Suggest innovative approaches.

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Manpower Planning, Recruitment & Selection

Question 1: Kiara has joined Manpower Ltd. as Management trainee in HR department. This is her first job as she freshly graduates from a business school. She has all her theoretical concepts in place which she has learnt but is not able to implement the same when it comes to its application in a business scenario. Mitali, her mentor observes the same and requests the management to send Kiara for on the job training. Discuss any two on the job training method which would prove beneficial for Kiara?

Question 2: Akshara works in Illuminati Ltd as Asst. Manager in marketing department. Off late the work pressure has increased tremendously which has stressed Akshara and can be observed in her behaviour. It’s not only single case of Akshara but the entire workforce of Illuminati Ltd seems to be stressed which is observable through high absenteeism and turnover. The top management wants to make the workforce happy and satisfied by giving them better quality of work life. Discuss the components of quality of work life which would help Akshara and her likes to maintain a good work life balance?

Question 3: Ajit graduated as Software Engineer from a reputed university. He got placed in a top E-commerce company through his campus placement. Within six months of corporate experience he resigned from his services and prepared a blueprint for his own start-up. He explained to his friend Aditi that he could not work under someone’s orders and wanted to explore his own capabilities? He wanted to see his own business grow.

3 a) What is Ajit’s career anchor in the above scenario? Explain.

3 b) If Ajit wanted to continue working with this organisation and achieve more and more targets or goals then what would have been his career anchor? Discuss.

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Marketing Research

Q.1. A questionnaire is a very important tool for any Survey process. Assuming a research process to take customer opinions on the launch of a "New Restaurant", What are the features/characteristics to be kept in mind to design a good questionnaire? How can any Researcher cope up with a scenario of a respondent unwilling to respond to a particular set of questions?

Q.2. It is very difficult to understand and evaluate the consumer preferences (Attitude) for any Market Research process. Keeping this difficulty in mind, discuss the various Attitude Measuring techniques that would be used during a Marketing Research process undertaken by a leading Clothing Brand (assume a brand) to measure and evaluate consumer attitudes while shopping for clothes for the entire family.

Q.3. An MNC, an already established name in the global scenario, is planning to launch 2 new models of its mobile phone brand in India. The organization needs suggestion the following

a. Suggest a few New product development techniques and ways to Test Market its product in a few cities.

b. The organization also wants to evaluate the use of Social Media and E-commerce sites to market its products. Give your suggestions for the same.

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Mass Communication

Q 1) For media all over the world, briefly outline the areas of conduct that should be covered as per the voluntarily accepted code of ethics. How are ethics of journalism different from ethics of entertainment media?

Q 2) Can media be a positive avenue for learning? Highlight the subtle potential influences of media along with negative outcomes attributed to media exposure.

Q 3) Imagine you were to start your own media company. You have to create a vision for your company and what your objectives are.

a) Which functions of mass communication would your company focus on and why?

b) How would you describe your viewer audience for whom you will create content?

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Public Relations Theory & Practice

1. Consider that a major crisis (in terms of quality of the product) is been faced by a reputed electronic goods brand in the market in India. Prepare a crisis communication plan for the same.

2. Prepare a Two-Way model of Communication Plan (for the purpose of communication) for any FMCG brand of you own choice with proper justification.

3. Read the following Case & solve the questions given:

Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali forecast its turnover to double this fiscal year, after the company that sells everything from shampoos to biscuits, noodles and dairy products reported revenue of 10,561 crore for the year ended March 31, 2017.

The Haridwar-based company expects to expand its headcount fivefold to five lakhs within a year, and become the country's biggest swadeshi brand in two years. It is also in the process of setting up a restaurant chain.

a. Outline a Media Relations Strategy for the restaurant chain by Patanjali.

b. As a PR consultant, suggest any 2 Tools of PR which the brand should adopt for the new launch.

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Retail Banking

Q.1. Banking as a Service Industry faces a lot if issues in its operations. Some of these issues are critical. Discuss the various Issues/ Risks that are encountered in the Banking Scenario. Also discuss how do banks tackle these risk scenarios.

Q.2. Banking today has become a competitive industry. Discuss how banks reach out to customers through various Marketing modes. Also discuss the role of Technology for the banks to service its customers.

Q.3. A leading Global MNC Bank is opening branches in the metro cities of India. Give your views on the following aspects of the scenario

a. What are the various Retail Banking products that the bank can offer to its target customers?

b. Apart from branch operations briefly discuss the various channel partners that the bank has as an option to reach out to these customers.

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Total Quality Management

Q.1 An auto parts company proposes to accept delivery of materials from their suppliers based on sampling inspection instead of 100% inspection of received materials. In your opinion do you think this is a good practice considering the risk involved? Explain your answer in detail.

Q.2 You are the Quality Head. In the last few weeks you find the rejection rates in the production line is steadily increasing. You must now quickly find the root cause of the problem and eliminate it. Explain your approach using seven quality tools.

Q.3 The total expenses in a year for an organization for quality activities are as given below.

Prevention cost Rs. 180000

Appraisal cost Rs. 210000

Failure Cost Rs. 1110000

(Internal + External)

(a) Would you consider this organization as world class with high level of quality management? Explain your answer.

(b) If you were the Quality Manager of this organization, what would be your approach to enhance its quality level using COPQ?

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WRITTEN AND ORAL COMMUNICATION

Q. 1 Shekhar noticed that while his team in the office speaks very well, their written communication to the customers usually get delayed responses. Many queries are raised especially after the written communication. He noted a typical problem of sentence clarity.

He wants to introduce the concept of ‘modifiers’ to his team. Help Shekhar by listing out and discussing various modifiers in details.

Q.2 While Justintime.com imparts training often to its customer service associates, they find that a few training programs prove to be completely ineffective. There could be a problem of listening barriers. Discuss speaker related and listener related listening barriers in detail.

Q. 3 Puneet is a very good orator. He heads the Information Technology department of a reputed Engineering college. His lectures and workshops are very popular and are well liked by students and colleagues. However, he does not like to use any slide presentations, to avoid distracting his listeners. On certain occasions, he finds it difficult to explain complicated concepts effectively, without the use of visual aid. Based on the above information, answer following questions.

a) What steps do you think Puneet must take to make successful presentations?

b) Discuss the importance of using visual aids for making effective presentations.

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Strategic HRM

1. IT companies are yet again facing uncertainty over global crises. This time it is driven by protectionist policies of countries who are their major customers. While the industry had built additional capacities in anticipation of growth from various geographies, the changed circumstances have forced them to re-look at their Business strategy. Your company, as part of their strategy to deal with this change has decided to rely more on technologies that facilitate remote operations and Artificial Intelligence there by reducing the need to travel. This means that new skill sets will be required. However, keeping in mind the business uncertainty it was decided that a strategic Downsizing shall be undertaken. You are made responsible and are required to complete the activity in the next 3 months. The management needs you to make a presentation detailing the plan and the thought behind.

2. Spice Jet is currently experiencing a major turnaround in its fortunes, largely due to the Top Management leadership. As part of its strategy to increase revenue per passenger in its international flights, it has taken a cost leadership approach. You are the head of HR, discuss your options and plans for integrating the HR strategy with corporate strategy.

3. Trinity Restaurants is a growing chain of fine dining restaurants. The Business is such that not just the food quality, but the customer experience is of paramount importance.

a. You realized that there needs to be more structured training on various subjects for the employees. How will you justify the time, effort and cost to the management to get them to agree to your plan.

b. Discuss the strategic issues of:

i. Skills Development

ii. Employee Turnover &

iii. Safe Working Culture. On industrial relations.

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E-Commerce and Cyber Laws

Q1. With the boom of E-commerce, there has been huge explosion of payment systems to cater the E-Commerce ecosystem. What do you understand by electronic payment systems? List out two payment systems along with the risks involved in each these payment systems. Provide examples to support your answer. Do consumers easily adopt online payment systems?

Q2. B2B (Business-to-Business) and B2C (Business-to-Consumer) are two different lines of business ecosystem. Elaborate with five examples each on how B2B is different from B2C.

Q3. “Ransomware” is the most recent cybercrime attack that has gripped the world. Over the last few days, the global ransomware attack WannaCry infected computers running on older versions of Microsoft operating systems like XP, locking access to files.

a. What are the different types of cyber-attacks? Describe two instances where such large scale cyber-attacks have taken place and have caused mayhem and destruction.

b. Elaborate on the steps being taken by governmental agencies to control these cyberattacks.

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Business Ethics, Governance & Risk

a. What is the inherent moral issue here? Why is it an issue? What does law say about it.

b. Marketer’s say prohibition of tracking takes away the marketer’s legitimate right to study consumer behavior. Which side do you agree with and what are your reasons for doing so?

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Employee Development and Talent Management

1. Demonetarization in India surged demand for manpower especially in Banks. Public sector banks made use of their former employees to overcome this crisis. Which Internal Assignment Applicable for September 2017 Examination other techniques of internal acquisition could banks come up with to ensure smooth supply of manpower and help build conducive work environment?

2. P & T a joint venture between Patson & Toney 2007 was founded as a big name in Chips provided to phones, tablets and other such devices. Despite the overall industry growing at 30% P&T was stuck at just 10%. The top management tried hard to understand why. They finally groped in external consultants called as AB Brothers to bring out the reasons and find solution. AB Brothers found that some needed flexible timings work from home options, some needed gym while others were looking for sabbaticals so that they could cater to their family and get back fresh to work. The given suggestions were worked upon. Employees were seen to be happy and employees stayed with the organisation for long. The organisation culture improved. Do you think such initiatives are just a cost to the company and do not materialise in much benefits for the organisation. Justify your answer based on the case.

3. Aeroline, a no-frills air carrier wanted to revamp its staff uniform. They asked their internal employees to give in their names to work towards this. Of the many who offered to rope in management zeroed down on 45 employees. This team met twice a month and worked for more than 18 months to bring out a uniform which was not only cost effective, could be washed by machine and customised to the flight usage for all staff. The management was very pleased with the outcome. Not only did the uniform boost the morale of employees but also brought out what was the true spirit of the employees. This definitely worked much better than hiring someone from Outside.

a) What do you think could be real reason for the management of Aerolines to ask employees to work on their uniforms?

b) Think about other ways in which employees could be motivated in the organisation like Aeroline.

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Global Retailing

1. Entry Strategy in Global Retail Market differ from Country to Country and from Market to Market. If you are an Executive Director of a Global Company which produces Formal Leather Shoes- how will your retailing strategy differ in Countries like Nigeria, Germany and Dubai? You have to explain your answer looking into these specific markets, market segmentation and specific target audience.

2. It is estimated that global retail ecommerce will reach US$ 4 Trillion by 2020, recently many new global retailers have shown tremendous growth within last 3-4 years. What is your opinion of about the growth factor of e-commerce in recent time? Secondly if your company also decide to launch their products, of electronic equipment’s, thru e-commerce, what challenges will you face while competing in the market? Why do you think that it is important to be a part of ecommerce if you have to survive and grow in Global Retailing?

3. The growth of Global Retail industry will remain around 15% till 2021 mainly driven by Asia Pacific Sector including India. Keeping in mind the Indian Consumer-critically evaluate this growth on the following two parameters with suitable examples.

a. Customer looking for convenience and buying online.

b. Consumer being more quality and price conscious and ready to go for best bargain/offer.

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HR AUDIT

Q.1. XYZ Training Ltd. was established in 2009. It is observed that after every employee after working in the organization for 8-10 months either start taking sick leaves or are absent without giving any relevant reason and in a span of a year they leave the organization. The management is surprised and are trying to find out the reason behind such turnover. Help the management in conducting relevant audit to find out the actual reasons for absenteeism.

Q.2. Shri. Mishra, is an owner of 'Cacophony'- An Ecotel Hotel at Patna. He believes that 'Training makes people perfect'. However, he observed that his staff even after getting trained for a month, is not able to perform as per set standards. He is confused and needs your help in finding the root cause. Guide him for conducting the relevant audit.

Q.3. Mr. Nandan is a Sr. Manager - Accounts with Car Tex Ltd. Very often, Mr. Nandan used to stay back after working hours for completing the work. On 24th March, Mr. Nandan was in the office till 3 a.m., since it was year ending. Unfortunately, he was attacked by robbers on that night and was left with broken leg. In the morning it was found that Rs.2 lakhs were robbed by the robbers. Mr. Nandan had filed a claim for compensation which the management denied as this tragedy took place after working hours. Answer the following:

a) According to you, Mr. Nandan or the management is right? Give reasons.

b) How would you conduct an audit of the compensation measures of the company.

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