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IIM
M Kozh
hikode & Back
kwaterrs v2.1
10
prresentss
Bo
Boot K
Kam
mp
The U
Ultima
ate HR Challe
enge
STAGE 1 INSTRUCTIONS
1. It consists of two parts, and the cumulative scores of both parts will be used
for short‐listing the finalist teams.
2. The Participants are required to send their answers to both parts in a mail to
bootkamp@iimklive.com with the Subject as:
Bootkamp_Stage1_<TeamName>_<Institute>
3. Last date of Submission is: 29th October, 2010, 23.59 IST
Stage 1A:
1. 6 caselets are given in this document.
2. Participants need to give short and precise solutions to each case
3. Answer for any caselet should NOT be more than 300 words
4. Weightage will be given to accurate problem identification and feasibility of
solutions proposed
5. Each entry should have a cover page mentioning team name, names, e‐mail
id’s and mobile nos. of the team member(s) and the name of the institute
they belong to.
6. The File should be in pdf Format with the following naming convention:
Bootkamp_Stage1A_<TeamName>_<Institute>.pdf
Stage 1B:
1. Download the Excel sheet uploaded on our website
2. The Participants are required to fill in their answers in the excel sheet itself
3. Each entry should have a separate sheet mentioning team name, names, e‐
mail id’s and mobile nos. of the team member(s) and the name of the
institute they belong to.
4. The File should be in .xls Format with the following naming convention:
Bootkamp_Stage1B_<TeamName>_<Institute>.xls
STAGE 1A
Case 1: It just doesn’t ad(d) up!
Rakesh, a hot‐shot MBA graduate from one of India’s leading institutes joined
the company of his dreams, Insulant Advertising, which after ten years of
professional work has earned the company a lot of respect in the field of
advertising. Rakesh is much attuned to modern advertising methods on social
networks like Facebook and Twitter. He is convinced that they could reach out
to potential talented hires by adding them as friends and rating them based on
the creativity of their photos or status messages. According to him, there is
much to unearth by using this medium.
But his boss, Sanjeev, isn’t sure about the efficacy of this method. He believes
the tried and tested method of employee referrals and campus recruitment
should be stuck to. Furthermore, he feels that adding potential hires as friends
would be a little unethical and intrusive on their part.
If you were Rakesh, how would you convince Sanjeev to try this mode of
recruitment?
Case 2: Through the Looking Glass
Archana had joined AlHomeCare as a sales trainee after her MBA in sales and
marketing. Having impressed one and all with her performance, she was
given the responsibility of sales executive within one year. She later had
successfully handled the responsibilities of an area sales manager and was
now the Divisional Sales Manager.
AlHomeCare was a market leader in detergents and had expanded their
product portfolio to include floor cleaners, toilet cleaners and insect
repellents in the last decade.
After more than 6 years of field work, Archana was now hoping to be
promoted as the Regional Sales Manager. This promotion was done by
evaluating the eligible divisional sales managers based on the sales revenues
for their respective divisions for four quarters straight. Archana had
undertaken several sales based initiatives in her division over the past two
years and was hoping to see a substantial increase in the sales revenues over
the next four quarters.
Hence, she was shocked to hear her superior announcing her transfer to the
northern division of Gujarat for the next year. No one from amongst the other
candidates eligible for this promotion was transferred to a different region.
Archana was aware that the Gujarat division was relatively new and the
market, one of the toughest to break through.
Moreover, being the only women candidate for this job Archana could not help
feeling the transfer had more to do with a gender bias against her upcoming
promotion than a strategy decision as conveyed to her. She knew her results
in the northern division would be marred by its inherent problems like
intense competition and unfamiliar markets. Archana could see a major crack
in her planned career path.
‘What is the point of introducing quotas and striving for diversity if women
are still imprisoned beneath the glass ceiling? Will ambitious women ever get
to fulfill their dreams in an unbiased working environment?’ wondered
Archana.
Questions:
Q: What is your perception about Archana’s suspicions?
Q: As a personnel manager, what would you do to avoid such a situation?
Case 3: Personnel Policy
Arjun had joined RXConsultancies after an MBA in Finance and Strategy as a
finance consultant. In a span of 10 years, he had moved up to the position of a
Senior Manager, Financial Division and was hopeful of being promoted as a
vice president of his division in the next two years. Most of RX’s international
operations had grown during Arjun’s tenure at RX. Consequently, travel and
transfers had been an integral part of Arjun’s professional career. However, a
mid life crisis coupled with adolescent children brought home a realization of
how much Arjun had missed out on in his personal life. Loyal to the firm,
Arjun wanted to continue his contribution to the growth of the firm but was
looking forward to a more peaceful stint without any travel.
After being informed about an upcoming month long tour abroad, Arjun had
called his friend and Manager HR at RX, Ravi for coffee to discuss his
predicament. Ravi had an extremely offhand view on the matter:
‘With RX poised at such a crucial juncture of Strategic growth, it will be
difficult to get you out of these assignments. I agree, you have more
than played your part in enabling our international growth but we
generally make such exceptions on a case by case basis. For instance,
Mr. Sameer from the Strategy Division has been specially kept on home
assignments for the past entire year keeping in view his health
problems. But we have no policy in place that provides for limited
travelling or transfers for our employees in the long run.
With a sinking heart, Arjun realized he may have to take a difficult decision.
He loved his job. But RX had never even provided for any paternity leave
policies deeming them unnecessary in the Indian scenario and Arjun could not
bear to lose out on any more important moments in his kid’s lives. Despite
having made many sacrifices for the sake of his career, Arjun was now
seriously considering putting in his papers.
Questions:
Q: What should RX as an employer do avoid loss of employees like Arjun?
Case 4: With Great Power comes Less Responsibility
Since a long time, Harshad had been nursing a strong desire to do something
for his country. After 15 years of handling responsibilities for a large private
sector bank, Jeeves Bank, in India, he decided to take the plunge and heed the
call of his patriotic side.
As the new branch manager at Suraksha, a large public sector bank with a
pervasive outreach across the urban and semi‐urban parts of India, he was
highly motivated to take upon the new challenge.
A week into the job, he was approached by a startup company, that was
looking for funding to scale up its operations. The company had been coming
up with innovative solutions for teaching slum kids in the cities, and capital
was needed to increase their scope of activities.
After verifying their documents, Harshad was convinced that this group of
motivated company founders deserved to get the funding and gave them a
special low‐interest loan in particular to further their cause.
A few weeks, he was rapped on his shoulder for sanctioning the loan, as this
category of loans needed approval from the regional branch manager, which
typically at least a month’s time, if not more. Harshad was very disheartened
at this, as he was able to sanction loans in his previous company without the
need for any bureaucratic intermediary.
Harshad now wonders if he made the right career choice, and whether he
could have made a greater difference in his previous job.
Case 5: Time and Again
Mr. Ram Narayan, a mechanical engineer, graduated from a premier
engineering college in India joined Ghanshyam Das Pvt. Ltd., a leading
manufacturer of automotive spare parts about a year ago. When he joined the
company, he was sure that he had found his dream job.
At the time of selection, his job profile stated that he had to work 40 hours a
week. But very soon he realized that he was working for 50 to 55 hours a
week. He generally ended up spending his weekends in the office. He decided
to demand overtime for the extra hours that he was working. He sent a mail to
the department HR regarding the same. The HR replied back saying that as
per the nature of his job and the company policies, he is not eligible for any
kind of overtime compensation. Disheartened, Ram Narayan went back to his
routine job.
After a six more months of similar working conditions, he sent an email to the
HR head of the company demanding a revision in his pay structure to fit in the
compensation for overtime, threatening to quit. The news has spread in the
entire company like a forest fire. A lot of employees have started demanding
for overtime and a situation of unrest among the employees has arisen. The
matter has been escalated to the higher authorities in the company.
Mr.Kiran Kumar, the head HR has the challenge of resolving the current
situation before people start quitting their jobs. He realizes that an
appropriate compensation system needs to be set up that resolves around the
issues of the employees, keeps them motivated and prevents attrition, and not
withholding the company interests.
Questions:
Q: What parameters should Mr. Kiran consider while designing the
compensation packages?
Case 6: The Eternal Balance
Neha Singh joined Virmani Software Solutions, a well‐known company in the
field of providing B2B software solutions, 3 years ago as a systems architect.
Within one year, as a reward for her exceptional work, she was promoted to
senior systems architect.
As Neha’s mentor, it was Nikhil’s job to show her a way out. Barely 2 months
into the new role, Nikhil realized that it was a much tougher job than he had
initially thought. Trying to resolve the issue over coffee, Nikhil began thus,
“You should go” said Nikhil.
“Why can’t they send Purav instead? He worked on the project with me” Neha
argued angrily.
“It could be the client’s insistence on having you there as you were the chief
architect” Nikhil reasoned.
“Don’t my problems mean anything to the company?” Neha asked, her face
flushed.
“Of course they do Neha, but your boss wouldn’t wish to do anything that will
strain company’s relationship with this key customer” Nikhil explained.
“Listen Nikhil” Neha said, her mind all made up. “I will go to UK, but under
protest, you can tell my boss or the HR or whoever you want to, that as soon
as I come back, I am going to look for another job”.
“Do not take rash decisions…” Nikhil began. But Neha cut him off mid‐way
through his sentence. “This is not a rash decision. It is not the first time that
I’ve had to turn a blind eye to my family’s needs and sort things out for the
company” replied Neha and walked away.
Nikhil Sharma decided to tell Pratik Patki, the head HR, at Virmani Software
Solutions. Mentoring had been his idea. Pratik was shocked to learn about the
conversation between Neha and Nikhil. “The CEO is going to kill me. If she
resigns, it will be 6thexit in 3 months. Besides this is Neha Singh we are talking
about, the star of our new systems architecture. I have to figure some way
out”.
Questions:
Q: What should Pratik Patki do in this situation?
NOTE:
- Download the excel sheet from our website for Stage 1B
- Last Date of Submission: 29th October 2010