Effect of Market and Business Plan on Company

Milestone 1: Draft of Business Problem and Literature Review

Introduction

All over the world there are many organizations that have been facing business problems related to numerous aspects such as financial management, human resources, and product management.  As time and organizations have developed these challenges have made it harder for organizations to maximize their production and profits. Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) is an example of a company that has been facing different obstacles which has led them to having a disadvantage in their current segment of business. The research provided will pinpoint the business problem that MSIL is facing and how it is effecting its operations. The research will also interpret the data provided for the organization and explain the differences within the market.

Business Problem

Research Problem

  Overtime Maruti Suzuki dominated the Indian market for a segment cars until it started to fail in the product management department in 2013. After reading the case, MSIL did not make it a priority to focus on its product management like its competitor such as Hyundai and Tata in the A segment. Hyundai and Tata both introduced products that were accepted by the Indian culture which caused major problems to Maruti Suzuki. This caused MSIL market share to drop as well as sales.  There were many aspects of the product management that brought negative results to the company. The first being there was poor research and development by MSIL.  The research and development group did not broaden its scope because they did most of their work in India. They were only looking in the geographical perception not an overall perception. They built products that were meant for customers who were looking in the a- segment, not people who are looking for cars in general. Its competitors Hyundai took the approach of appealing to a wide range of customers and produced a global image which MSIL did not do. Tata also developed a global image which kept customers engaged in its products. MSIL missed this which caused the organizations to fall behind its competitors. Another is that MSIL did not did not keep up with market trends of the customers whose needs were growing and evolving when it comes to the products they would like to have and that affected MSIL tremendously. Although the lace of research was MSIL down fall they have made strides to correcting the problem such as engaging and design product features that they have found was critical to their consumers, by adding this effort it has helped them in their market share.

Key Stakeholders

Maruti Suzuki company has different quite a few different stakeholders, the company is considered a joint venture due to its collaboration with Indian government. As time went on MSIL involved other stakeholders in the financial and public institution. After reading the case one of the main stakeholders are the people who are working for MSIL, as the market share starts to decline the company gets low returns which means the business receives low dividends at the end of the fiscal year. With this effect the management of the company who act as representatives of the shareholders of the organizations. Another stakeholder that is affected are the customers due to the lack of proper product management they will not be able satisfy product needs. According to the case, it shows that Maruti Suzuki motor has suffered with this problem and it is resulted to low sales and stiff competitors in the market.

Research Objective

The research objective in this case is product management had major effect on the growth and profitability of Maruti Suzuki in India. One of the benefits of knowing the research objective is being able to understand where the company started to down fall in the a- segment vehicles. Knowing this information, it helps also mold how the company can rise above the adversity that it currently is facing with its competitors.  Also, the objective is to better understand the aspects of product management that failed and the aspects that contributed to a huge lose in market share to its competitors.  One major factor that goes into this is the hiring and development in the product research department. If MSIL would have allocated more resources to this area they could have possibly avoided poor product management and they could have had proper product management and the stakeholders would have not had as many issues. 

Research Question

For MSIL, how has product management effected its market and business plan.?

Ethical Issues

Any potential ethical issue for this study would reside from the people or society that data is collected from. One ethical consideration, is that making sure that the data that is collected does not violate the rights of the people. Two ways of collecting data in a manner that can assist with this is through questionnaires or interviews from people who are randomly selected. If this method is chosen, they must consent and agree to be a part of the research that would be used to promote the product. Data that is collected should be recorded and collected in a data base that is secure and not tampered with. Also, protecting human rights will be effective and significant that advocates the well-being of the people who have participated. The human subjects will only be required to provide information that is relevant to the case study. Another major aspect is confidentially of the participants and will be maintained in an efficient manner to ensure privacy regulations laws. Respect to privacy will be highly prioritized in the study.

Literature Review

The following review will analyze theories that adhere to the organizational problem in Maruti Suzuki               and the bias and limitations that are present, it will touch upon research studies that have similar issues and an organization with similar issues.

Theories

The problems that are affecting Maruti Suzuki India is poor product management. Overall management is the main problem affecting the organization. There are many theories that can be applied to ground the problem that MSIL is facing. According to Anderson, Rungtusanatham, & Schroeder (1994), they outline that Maruti Suzuki company failed at applying the scientific management theory in its overall operations. The main responsibility of the management team was to make sure there was improvement in the process and that it grows from a regional to a global stand point when it comes to production. Scientific theory of management indicates that when ensuring growth fails, it causes negative problems to the business (Locke, 1982).  This theory grounds the problem affecting MSIL ensuring that productivity and poor product management is the reason why Hyundai and Tata took over the market. Another theory that grounds the problem is the product management theory.  For instance, the product management theory involves brining in the best product. The product can be new or old to the market but market research shows that business must identify changing needs of the consumers, research on improving product is best when facing the competitors (Nambsian, 2002). Another element is that product management covers marketing as well.  In the case study, it highlights how MSIL failed to ensure proper product management and how the product management theory grounds the issue that it is currently facing. One example of this is that product management theory asks for market research to figure out the needs of consumers as well as constantly improving with the need and standards and MSIL failed to do so causing them to suffer in market share.

Bias and Limitations

After reading the case study there are many biases and limitations. In the case, it states that Maruti Suzuki has a had a huge loss of market share overtime.  The data presented shows the percentages and the trends of different players in the segment over the years. Although the stock given shows positive bias (Anderson, Rungtusanatham, & Schroeder, 1994). There is a huge drop as a result of lower production that is supported by the data. One major element that is missing in the case is that it shows how the market changed by how the data was collected causing reason to question the validity of the data used in the case. Another limitation is the data collected cannot be verified so it’s not clear if the data is biased or not. These biases and limitations can affect an organization negatively if it relies on informed judgment to resolve the issue.

Other Research Study

According to Becker Ritterspach (2005) research it illustrates a similar problem of biases and limitations of studies specially to Maruti Suzuki India. According to the research it highlights that there is bias and limitations present in the case. The case study didn’t give any evidence of the source of the information provided and data was collected based on people’s review similar to MSIL. It manufactured products and the information given was not reliable.

Other Organizations

One other organization that had similar issues was Blackberry. Blackberry used to be one of the top runners in telecommunication industry. They were competing with apple but the lack of product management brought down their stocks. Blackberry chose to be very limited with its operating system. The other companies such as Apple were always evolving and improving their operating system. Android and Apple interface changed the world of mobile applications, by the time blackberry noticed this it was too late which resulted in Blackberry now not being a top cellphone company. This case is prime example of poor product management. Blackberry has now joined the android platform but it’s too late and blackberry has lost market share that they may never get back.

References

Anderson, J. C., Rungtusanatham, M., & Schroeder, R. G. (1994). A theory of quality management underlying the Deming management method. Academy of management Review, 19(3), 472-509.

Becker-Ritterspach, F. A. (2005). Transfer, intercultural friction and hybridization: empirical evidence from a German automobile subsidiary in India. Asian Business & Management, 4(4), 365-387.

Blackberry, Where it All Went Wrong. Retrieved from; http://bgr.com/2013/09/30/blackberry-downfall-analysis-iphone/

Locke, E. A. (1982). The ideas of Frederick W. Taylor: an evaluation. Academy of Management Review, 7(1), 14-24.

Nambisan, S. (2002). Designing virtual customer environments for new product development: Toward a theory. Academy of Management Review, 27(3), 392-413.

Mukherjee, J., Mathur, G., & Dhar, N. R. (2015). Maruti Suzuki India: Defending Market Leadership in the A-Segment. Sales and Marketing Case Study. Canada: Ivey Publishing.