STRIVE SQUAD

Milind Goplani 22020341208

Sanwal Uppal 22020341217

Shefali Singh 22020341218

Symbiosis Centre for Management

and Human Resource Development
 Case Study

You are the Area Sales Manager for South Maharashtra which is one of the most important territories of the west region(Monthly RR 9.5 Cr).

The region is a good mix of Modern Trade and Traditional Trade and the team consists of 3 Territory Sales In-charge reporting directly to you.

70% of your sales is contributed from the traditional trade channel and the balance comes from Modern Trade. The modern trade business

is managed by the MT Key Account Manager who sits out of your territory but doesn’t report into you. The modern trade business is growing

at 18% YoY consistently in your territory on the back of new stores opening and business from existing stores.

Your Team

1. Mahesh – New TSI who handles Ahmednagar (17% of your TT Business). He has joined right out of college and super excited to do well.

He is a fast learner, but he lacks experience and jumps to conclusions very fast. He wants to make a big impact and get promoted on to

bigger roles.

2. Rahul STSI– He has been with Reckitt for 13 years. He is from Pune and handle Pune Metro (65% of your TT business). He has worked

across roles in Reckitt and comes with a lot of experience. He doesn’t want to move out of Pune.

3. Abhilasha – She manages Nasik (20% of TT). She has been with Reckitt for 3 years. She wants to shift to Pune because her in laws

stay there and has expressed interest to take over Pune Metro many times in the past. She has also said that she is actively looking for a job

in Pune and if she nds something, she will resign.

While you are not declining YOY, South Maharashtra business is struggling to grow. The biggest territory Pune has been

declining with Rahul citing rate issues from MT as the chief cause of decline. Abhilasha is growing Nasik YoY at 20%, while

Mahesh is growing slowly at 7%.

 Area DB  Contribution to TT Biz GOLY Years In Business Salesman Coverage
DB1 25% 4% 12 18 4250
Pune
DB2 38% -10% 25 5 950
DB1 12% 20% 2 6 1250
Nasik
DB2 8% 20% 8 3 650
Ahmednagar DB1 17% 7% 4 4 850

DB  Contribution to Overall Biz GOLY Brand Contribution to Overall Biz GOLY
WS 20% -20% Dettol Soap 40% 20%
Retail 50% 8% Dettol Others 15% 0%
MT Retail 10% 5% Harpic 15% 15%
MT CNC 20% 25% Other Brands 20% -20%
The sub channel wise growth is mentioned in the table. The The brand wise growth and contribution table is mentioned
performance is not substantial especially at a time when the above. 70% contribution is from top 3 Micros.
company’s growth expectation is 10%+
Case Study

As an ASM your task is to turn around Pune and consistently deliver business for South Maharashtra. You must look for
growth opportunities in the territory after looking at the distributor infrastructure and coverage. You must also ensure
that Abhilasha doesn’t quit. Mahesh’s ambition needs to be managed as well, since there are many new start ups who are
looking to woo new FMCG sales personals with more money. Rahul is a stable resource and has worked with Reckitt for
many years, but his comfort zone sometimes prevents you from taking new initiatives in your largest territory.

You have a presentation with your sales director next week and you want to present a case to make a few changes. Your
Sales Director Is a man of few words and wants to only see 6 slides ( advice : include business and people
recommendations). Recommend what you share with him which will help you deliver a better business in the balance of
the year and how to prevent attrition in your team.

Also build one slide which will talk about the discussion that you will have with each member of the team and ways in
which you will address their issues, queries and aspirations.
Evaluation Framework
Rationale of Proposed Recommendations

Problem Statement Parameters Framework Subject Understanding

Identication

Impactful Presentation
 Rules of Submission

o The Business challenge solution to be submitted in a ‘.ppt’ format in this template

o Do not exceed the 5 empty slides to submit your solutions, any extra slide will not be

considered.

o CVs ( pdf) of all the team members to be submitted along with the solution ppt in a zip folder (

do not use .rar format)

o The zip folder to be uploaded on the InsideIIM competition dashboard , under the ‘Team

Submission’ tab.

o Refer to the ‘Team Submission’ tab at the competition dashboard for the submission deadline,

any submission post the deadline will not be accepted.

o In case of any queries, write to [email protected] or yashaswini.chouhan@reckitt.

com
 AREA SALES MANAGER – STAGNANT GROWTH IN
SOUTH MAHARASHTRA

30
Problems encountered : 25 20.00
1. The company is facing stagnancy and is 20
15 Pune
struggling to grow 10 6
2
2. The team is struggling to align their aspirations 5 0 1.25
0 Pune Nasik
and goals with that of the company’s thus -5

an
B1

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B.

ag
leading to risk of attrition -10

sm
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G

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-15

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3. Decline in Pune’s growth rate

C
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Problem Statement : Stagnant company growth with a
decline in their biggest territory, along with risk of attrition
Contribution to TT Biz Brand contribution to TT Biz
17%
25% Pune DB1 Dettol soaps
8% 20%
DB2 40% Dettol
12%
15% Others
38%
15% Harpic

PROPOSED RECOMMENDATIONS

Swapping Reducing the portion of

positions within inventory sent from WS
to Retail and instead
the team for
adjusting it by increasing
effective the proportion in MT
management Shifting salesman CNC
from DB1 Pune to
Affiliate marketing
DB2 Nasik
 RECOMMENDED SOLUTIONS

1. For the time being, the MT key account manager can directly report to ASM, so
that they can get a grip on the rate issues plaguing Pune.
Swapping positions
2. During this period, Mahesh can be sent to the modern trade department to be
within the team for
trained. This will not only curb his growing ambition by providing him growth
effective opportunities, but also allow the team to get a valuable subordinate in modern
management trade who can later come back to us and manage our modern trade areas.

Despite being in the market for 25 years and holding 38% of the market share,
DB2 had a 10% decline over the previous year. 
1. For the company to grow above the stagnant stage, the team decided to
Shifting salesman push DB2 in Nasik due to its consistent performance so that it gets
from DB1 Pune to approximately double the coverage and earns more prot.
DB2 Nasik 2. To overcome the decline, the team has decided to shift 3 salesmen from
DB2 Pune to DB2 Nasik which covers 650 stores with a signicant growth of
20% over the last year
 RECOMMENDED SOLUTIONS

1. The team plans to divert 40% inventory from WS to MT CNC instead of

Retailers which will result in better management of excess inventory with the
Reducing the portion of help of automated machines with less or no error
inventory sent from WS 2. A positive growth of 25% over the last year in MT CNC will help compensate
to Retail and instead for the decline in the wholesalers
adjusting it by increasing
3. The retailers in modern trade will be able to absorb cost and give promotional
the proportion in MT
discounts which will help drive the purchase. MT CNC has proven to be
CNC
consistent, hence an equilibrium can be maintained in the demand-supply.
4. Additionally, WS should provide incentives to retailers to increase growth
To recover losses incurred by Other Brands:
1. The team is planning to promote affiliate marketing for certain products of
Other Brands with Dettol Soap
Affiliate marketing
2. Dettol Soap holds a major market share and contributes to 40% of the total
business with a growth of 20% over the last year, thus providing a large room
for growth.
Example: Providing freebies like Lizol surface cleaner along with Dettol Soap in
order to increase market share of Lizol and attract more consumers.
Solutions for Team Management
Steps recommended to deal effectively with the queries and issues of the team:

Mahesh: As a fresher right out the college, he lacks experience but makes up for it as a fast learner. I would like to use
his drive and ambition to assign him as the TSI of Nasik. The reasons being that Nasik is growing the fastest in terms
of rate of growth, this will make Mahesh feel that the company has high expectations of him to assign him to
something so promising, and he will try his best to boost the growth. Furthermore, although it is growing fast, overall,
Nasik doesn’t contribute much more than Mahesh’s previous area. Hence, leaving room for error due to his
inexperience, while simultaneously providing room for his ambition. Of course for Ahmednagar, we will have to hire a
new TSI.

Rahul: A senior with a lot of experience under his belt. He doesn’t want to move out of Pune, so, he can take over
Pune’s DB2 and leave DB1 for Abhilasha. As Pune’s DB2 is declining while it has the largest contribution to business.
Hence, a senior expert like Rahul being allotted only to this project would be good so that he can stay in Pune as well
as use his knowledge and experience to get the DB2 out of this hole. Furthermore, he can also guide Abhilasha when
she takes over Pune’s DB1. This will help her a lot to get a good grip of things faster.

Abhilasha: She wants to move to Pune at all costs because of her family, even at the cost of her job. Seeing as she
has performed exceptionally in Nasik by making it grow exponentially over the last year. I believe she should be
assigned to Pune’s DB1, where under the guidance of Rahul, she might be able to replicate her exponential boom of
Nasik in Pune as well. This will not only retain a talent like her in the organization, but will also help increase the growth
rate in Pune.
THANK
YOU