IIM Rohtak

END TERM QUESTION PAPER; ePGPx02 Term III

Strategic Decision & Tools (SDT)
MM 100

PART A (Prof. AKS)

Q1: To ensure business continuity, having an emergency scenario is essential. In the current
COVID 19 Pandemic situation, it is vital to react as fast as possible in order to mitigate
impacts and other risks and to prepare the organisation for the further development of the
COVID-19 pandemic and its possible scenarios. Business continuity management covers
infrastructure, cyber, employee, business, operational and communication risks, with the
aim of managing an organisation that has to face new challenges and risks and wants to
ensure continuity of operations and production. In normal operation activities and in
reaction to common events (e.g. breakdowns), business continuity management sets a
strategic and operational framework to actively increase corporate resilience. The objective
is clear: to prevent suspension of operations or services.
How can your organisation ensure continuity of business? Think and evolve a structured
framework for organisational resilience? (MM 40, Restrict your answer in less than 250
words)
Q2. Your consulting team has been hired by Unilever, a multinational
corporation that owns many of the world’s consumer product brands in
foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products. Dove is a
personal care brand owned by Unilever. Dove’s product lines include:
antiperspirants/deodorants, body washes, beauty bars,
lotions/moisturizers, hair care, and facial care products. Recently Unilever
has noticed that it is losing market share in the soap product and suspects
that its pricing is to blame. The company currently charges $1.20/bar for
the Dove soap as opposed to $1.00/bar for the Safeguard soap charged by
major competitor Procter & Gamble Co.. Should Unilever lower its price to
$1.00? (MM 30)

Additional Information
Dove soaps are currently selling 15 million bars/year; were selling 20
million bars/year before the brand started losing market share. The soap
market is a mature industry (not growing rapidly). The marketing
department of Unilever believes that lowering its price to $1.00/bar would
boost volume back to 20 million bars/year. (How would you test this?
Consider a demand analysis using demand instruments.) Unilever has a
reputation of producing the highest-quality product on the market and
Dove is a highly recognized brand. The soap market is dominated by four
main competitors. Currently the client’s market share is 12 percent. The
four competitors (Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Henkel, L’Oreal)
have market shares of 30, 20, 17 and 10 percent respectively. Currently,
the client Unilever has the capacity to handle virtually any increase in
demand. The company cannot specify the overall cost of a unit (except
that it is less than $1.00 and greater than $0.80), but it does know the
cost structure to be the following:30 percent labor; 20 percent inputs; 20
percent general and administrative; 20 percent overhead; 10 percent
other.

Q3. Our client Optical Fiber Solutions (OFS) manufactures and markets
leading-edge fusion splicers, optical fiber, optical cable, fiber to the home
(FTTX), connectivity and optical components. Headquartered in Norcross
in the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, USA, Optical Fiber Solutions is a wholly
owned subsidiary of Japanese telecom and electric company Furukawa
Electric Co. An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of glass
(silica), slightly thicker than a human hair. It can function as a waveguide,
or “light pipe”, to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. Optical
fiber has volume advantages to copper wire and is mainly used by the
telecom, cable and mobile phone industries. It’s made in glass strands
and rolled onto 25 km spools. Our client Optical Fiber Solutions’ customers
(who are generally major Telecoms networks like AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile,
Verizon) would buy a huge quantity, bundle it up, dig a trench and put the
bundle of optical fibers in the ground. Recently, the client has seen a 50%
decline in revenues, and has recently brought in a new CEO. The new CEO
of OFS would like you to help address three questions: (MM 30)
1. Why did revenues drop 50% in one year?
2. Can he expect an improvement, and if so in what timeframe?
3. How does our company compare to our competitors?