Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur

PGP-II Year: II Term-2019-2020

Seminar cum Workshop on Consumer Based Business Strategies (SWCBBS)
(2 Credits)

Instructors: Rama Bijapurkar (Visiting Faculty) & Abhinandan Jain (Visiting Faculty)

Introduction and Objectives:

It is becoming much tougher for businesses in India to meet their growth aspirations in the
volatile and turbulent environment and expectations of declining economic growth. These are
outcomes of several forces including: (i) frequent and far reaching regulatory changes; (ii)
exploding superior products and services by suppliers; and (iii) expectations of superior
experiences by customers in different product/ services categories. Besides, incumbent’s
historic advantages are being threatened by heightened competitive activity based on new
disruptive business models ranging from the ones by ‘old game’ players to the ‘game changing’
tech enabled small-upstarts.

Customer Centricity, the new mantra in business, often stops just at improving the quality of
marketing and sales functions. The situation cannot be addressed through short term responses
like sustained improvement in functional strategies. There is greater and urgent need for
designing business strategy itself which is focused to deliver improved customer perceived
value advantage for helping achievement of short and long term customer goals as well as
organizational mission and goals.

The Customer Based Business Strategy (CBBS) framework provides for development of
business strategy which is strongly focussed on connectivity of delivering superior customer
value with business success. Irrespective of whether the environment is disruptive or not, this
framework is most likely to lead to achievement of organisational goals and mission in every
sector - be it financial services, autos, chemicals, consumer durables, FMCG, or IT as well as
deliver superior value to customers.

CBBS Framework consists of:

Guiding philosophy:

“The heart of strategy is not about beating the competitor but about creating
value for the customer” (Kenichi Ohmae), and we add “by creating value for the
customer, generate wealth for the business.”

Defining the mission of business as:

 to create value for the business,

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  by delivering superior customer value compared to competitors and
 to do all this at a cost that is profitable to the business

Designing and Implementing Customer Based Business Strategy which has:

 A "front end" of business-market choices that helps define the business game to
be the played in the market to win customers and

 A “back end” consisting of a business plan that will align the activities of the
organization to play the chosen game.

Objectives of the Course:

1. Enable you to read external changes (including environmental and competitive), assess
how these will impact customers, and in turn how they all will shape business strategy

2. Provide understanding of customer value and customer centricity for designing business
strategy:
o Customer Perceived Value Advantage (CPVA)
o Segmentation for Business Decisions

3. Expose you to approaches, frameworks, tools to:

o Embed customer centricity into strategy development process
o Design a customer based business strategy:
 The Front End: The Strategic Market Choices based on CPVA to achieve
organisational purpose
 The Back End: Business Plan for Delivering and Communicating CPVA
Contents:

Topics:
 Understanding customer centricity and perceived customer value advantage (CPVA) and
their interaction with environmental forces
 Approaches to decide the business game: define and choose markets and segments to
deliver CPVA and achieve organizational purpose
 Framework for developing and implementing business plan:
o designing, delivering, and communicating CPVA
o systems, and organization for the above

Vehicles:
The course content would include cases, readings, and presentations cum discussions by
participants.
 Cases would cover a variety of business situations, both domestic and global as well as
stable and disruptive, for understanding the concepts and frameworks

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  Readings would provide exposure to frameworks for (I) understanding and assessing
customer value; (ii) defining and choosing markets and segments for business decisions;
and (iii) designing plans, including systems and organization for implementation.

Materials:
 Course pack of cases and readings
 Relevant Chapters from Rama Bijapurkar, “Customer in the Board Room? Crafting
Customer - Based Business Strategy (SAGE; New Delhi, 2016) with permission from Rama
Bijapurkar.

Pedagogy:

The pedagogy would include discussion cum presentations on cases and readings primarily led
by participants and helped by instructors.

1. Preparation for Best Learning: From cases, readings, sessions, and project, participants
need to form
a. groups of 7 participants
b. each group to have members of diverse backgrounds and course mix

2. Instructions for Preparation: We strongly suggest the following time schedule and the
guidelines for gaining the most learning from the seminar

 Time Schedule
 Divide your total of 40 hours of time to be devoted to this 2 credit course in to
a. About 20 hours before the sessions begin in the morning of 16
November
b. About 20 hours, including sessions, on 16 and 17 November.
 Before the beginning of the sessions on 16 November, complete the following
a. Individual preparation of
o all the cases and
o all the readings
b. Preparation for Project:
o Identification of organization and its specific business for the project
o understand the context and strategy of the business
c. Group discussion of cases and readings scheduled on 16 November

 After the sessions on 16 November, work in your groups on

a. Discussing the cases and readings for 17 November
b. Work on and prepare the presentation on your project scheduled on 17
November as briefed in the last session of 16 November.

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  Guidelines for Preparation:
 Wherever provided in the outline, follow the guidelines.
 For Best Learning from Cases
a. Identify decision area(s), generate options, evaluate options on appropriate
criteria, choose the best option, and prepare an implementation plan.
b. Prepare each case before class:
o First on your own (individually) for 1.5 to 2 hours
o Next discuss in your group for about half an hour to one hour.
 For Best Learning from the Readings:
a. Assign one reading for each session/ course to a member of your group for
o a thorough understanding of the key ideas in the reading (concepts,
techniques etc.),
o critique the same by application to the case or some other situation
o Each reading by a participant may take about 1.5 to 2 hours.
b. Share and discuss the above learning of each reading in your group. This may
take about 15 to 30 minutes for each reading.
 For Best Learning from Project: Your project task is to develop a customer based
strategy for a business.
a. Choose a business / company for the project.
o About which one or more of your group members have reasonable
understanding of the strategy of the business.
o An organization/ business where one / more of your group members
had summer internship or prior work experience is likely to provide
better learning.
b. Understand the strategy of the business /company and its competitors and
environment of the industry.
c. Develop a customer based business strategy for the business
d. Present the findings and the learning from the project in class

Evaluation:

Class Participation Individual : 20

Group Presentations: Project, cases, and readings : 40
Examination : 40

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 Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur
Seminar cum Workshop on Customer Based Business Strategy
16 -17 November, 2019

Day-by-Day Schedule

Day 1 Saturday 16 November, 2019

Sessions
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Session 1 Topic: CBBS Framework and Review of Business Strategy
0830 – 1000 Readings:
1. The Customer Based Business Strategy Framework, Ch. 3, CIBR
2. “Getting back to Strategy”, Kenichi Ohmae, from Strategic Marketing
Management, by Robert J. Dolan
Guidelines for Preparation:
1. Review your learning of strategy so far. (Couple of articles which provide an
understanding of strategy and suggest need for different types of strategy in
different contexts are provided in the suggested readings below.)
2. Read and understand the above two readings and be ready to clarify your
doubts about what is strategy and how to formulate one.
Suggested Readings: (You might have gone through these articles in your other
courses)
 "Are You Sure You Have  a Strategy?" by Donald C Hambrick and James W
Frederickson, Academy of Management Science, 2005, Volume 19, No. 5
 Your Strategy Needs a Strategy (HBSP)

1000-1015 Tea/ Coffee Break

Session 2 Topic Customer Value and Value Delivery System

1015 – 1215 Case: Southwest Airlines 1993(A)
Readings:
1. Business Market Strategy: WHERE?, Ch. 4, CIBR
2. Business Market Strategy: HOW? Developing Rivalry Proposition, Ch. 5, CIBR
3. The Art of Business Market Segmentation, Ch. 7, CIBR
Guidelines for Preparation:
1. Understand the strategy of SWA.
 Identify the target market(s) of SWA
 Understand the customer perceived value advantage (CPVA) being
delivered by to target customers

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  Understand the delivery and communication system of SWA
2. Which growth option would you recommend and why?
3. Draw your own lessons about what is strategy and how to design a successful
one
1215 - 1230 Tea/Coffee Break

Session 3: Topic: Workshop on Customer Values & Customer Value Based Segmentation
1230 – 1315 for Business Decisions

1. Briefing for the Workshop: 15 Minutes

2. Preparation in Groups: 30 Minutes

1315-1400 Working Lunch

Session 4: Topic: Workshop on Customer Values & Customer Value Based

1400 – 1530 Segmentation for Business Decisions (contd.)
3. Presentations by Groups: 75 Minutes
4. Debriefing: 15 Minutes

1530 - 1545 Tea/Coffee Break

Session 5: Topic: Formulating and Implementing Customer Based Business Strategy in B

1600 – 1730 to B and Global Context:
Case: SKF Bearings Series: Market Orientation Through Services (A)
Guidelines for Preparation: All Participants must go through the case and come
prepared with the following:
1. Understand and critique the business game (re-segmentation and prioritizing
target markets/ segments) proposed to be used by the company and the
process for arriving at the game.
2. For the aftermarket, design a business strategy and implementation plan.

Session 06: Topic: Review of Learning and Briefing for Projects and sessions on 17
1730-1800 November

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Preparation after Sessions: 1800 – 2000 and 2100 Plus
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Topic: Group Study: Preparation for Project Presentation an Sessions on 17 November
Readings:
1. Patricia B. Seybold, Get Inside the Lives of Your Customers, May 2001
2. W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, Creating New Market Space, HBR, Jan-
Feb 1999

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 3. Customer Insight for Business Strategy, Ch. 8, CIBR
Guidelines for Preparation: As provided During Briefing: 1730-1800
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Day 2 Sunday 17 November, 2019

Session 7 Topic: Finalising the Project Presentations by Groups

0830 - 0900

Session 8 Topic: Project Presentations

0900 – 1030

1030 - 1045 Tea/Coffee Break

Session 9 Topic: Project Presentations and Debriefing

1045 – 1200

1200 – 1215 Tea/Coffee Break

Session 10 Case: Netflix Inc.: Streaming away from DVDs

1215 – 1330 Reading: How to Thrive in Turbulent Markets, Donald Sull, HBR Feb 2009
Suggested Reading
The Big Idea: The Big Bang Disruption, Larry Downes and Paul F Nunes, HBR Mar
2013
Guidelines for Preparation: To Be Announced

1330-1415 Working Lunch

Session 11: Topic: Formulating and Implementing CBBS in An Innovative Organisation

1415-1545 Case: Innovation at 3M Corporation (A):
Reading: Removing Organizational Roadblocks, Ch. 10, CIBR
Guidelines for Preparation:
1. As Rita which option would you recommend to Top management and why?
2. How would you implement your decision using CBBS concepts

1545-1600 Tea/Coffee Break

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Session 12: Topic: Review of Learning over the Two Days
1600-1700 Reading: Thomas W Malnight, Ivy Buche and Charles Dhanaraj. Put Purpose at
the Core of Your Strategy, HBR Sept – Oct 2019

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