THE SHOE

CASELET

DIAGNOSIS

SWOT ANALYSISSTRENGTHS :

XYZ(P) Ltd is a flourishing, shoe manufacturing and selling firm with an

annual turnover of 25 crores.

Given its goodwill in the shoe sector , it has the capacity to spread out

its operations in undiscovered areas.

The firm had a valuable employee in Mr.Ghosh, a 25 year old sales

trainee, an efficient and well observing person who attempted to give

shape to his plans.

The Chairperson of the firm, Mrs.Xaveri, respected her sales trainee's

views and approaches to expand the business. She was open for discussion

with her subordinates.

WEAKNESSES :

Mrs.Xaveri, the Chairperson of XYZ(P)Ltd, belonging to a traditional family made a traditional

approach in her shoe business. She targeted only the male population as in earlier days, women did not

venture out much.

She did not make an effort to step out of the family philosophy of only concentrating on male leather

shoes.

The firm did not cater to the needs of females and thus revenue did not generate from the female

sector.

The firm had employed Ms.A, a 36 year old Sales Manager who was very orthodox by nature and

who did not much encourage her juniors to be proactive on their own, thus blocking innovation and

leadership amongst her juniors in the firm.

Mr.Ghosh was allowed limited time and budget in his attempt to a possible, new market

exploration.

OPPORTUNITIES :

The unexplored rocky terrains of Nagaland filled with poisonous animals and reptiles, posed a major

challenge to any innovative, reasonably well known shoe maker, none of whom ventured to operate in this area at

that time, thus making a clear opportunity for XYZ(P)Ltd to operate in that area with very little competition from

the rivals.

It was observed through a survey that localities of that area, mainly the woodcutters had to travel long miles to

buy necessities like very poor quality shoes, sandals at very high prices which provided hardly any safety from the

natural elements, forcing repeat purchases. This provided an opportunity to know the exact needs of the people,

what kind of safety shoes they needed to protect them from snake bites, etc.

It was observed that the people, including the women, had Church going habits, thus indicating that even

women would have to be provided with "comfort" shoes in addition to "safety" shoes for men.

The people had good income as a result of which had good purchasing power thus indicating their willingness

to buy shoes.

Many ladies, old people and even children showed interest to buy.

THREATS :

Competition was becoming intense in the urban areas from Bata and

other shoe makers.

A possible threat could be the rocky forests of unexplored

Nagaland which were infested with poisonous snakes, scorpions,

leeches; the rocks were slippery due to incessant rainfall, making it

difficult to tread the paths of the forests.

Threat to Mr Ghosh was that if his idea failed then most likely he

would be terminated from his job as his immediate superior was less

than happy with his initiative.

SYMPTOMS :

Sales revenue could not be generated from the

women thus bringing down the firm's market share in

the shoe sector. It was becoming difficult to face

competition from Bata and other shoemakers.

STAGE OF PROBLEM

FORMULATION

(Identification and listing of factors singly or jointly causing the

symptom)

Manufacturing and selling of leather shoes were targeted only

for the adult male population.

Mrs.Xaveri did not go beyond the traditional philosophy of

catering to only the demands of the male population.

Innovation factor in the firm was low due to employees at the

managerial level were orthodox and discouraging.

STAGE OF PROBLEM

IDENTIFICATION

The locals had to trudge miles to the local Haats to do their marketing thus

being forced to give up their daily work. Thus if new outlets could be opened up at

convenient locations customer satisfaction, retention and expansion could be higher.

From the survey it could be identified that there was a necessity to produce and

supply specific shoes which could protect the local workforce from the natural

elements like snake bites etc.

The available foot ware available locally was woefully inadequate thus the target

population was on the lookout for viable alternatives.

PROGNOSIS

Prognosis is the science and art of managerial deployment where one has to play with the available resources.

Here Mr. Ghosh after reading the symptoms and making a careful diagnosis of the situation decided that the best way to go about is to look for new and virgin markets where the threat of competitors from powerful rival companies will be nil or negligible as they were facing stiff competition in Calcutta from the likes of ‘BATA’ and other shoe companies.

Since this happened in the 1960’s Mr.Ghosh found it easier to find new and untouched territories where they could introduce their brand of shoes. Since Nagaland was well connected to Calcutta and there was a need there for quality foot ware, it seemed like a potential market where if carefully introduced their shoe company may be well received and the chances of making a profit was huge.

So with the available resources in his hand Mr. Ghosh found he could do a couple of necessary surveys to taste the water and see if indeed Nagaland was the ideal market for them.

Mr. Ghosh shows leadership qualities by taking risks and showing innovative ideas.

PROGNOSIS

New and virgin markets are required

Shift from just „selling shoes‟ to marketing shoes is necessary

Threat from competitors should be minimal

The new market should be well connected from Calcutta

This time careful market survey is required to target the right

demography

The new and potential market should have a demand for the products

which they were willing to introduce i.e quality and affordable foot ware

Prognosis is the science and art of managerial deployment where one has to play with the available resources.

Here Mr. Ghosh after reading the symptoms and making a careful diagnosis of the situation decided that the best way to go about is to look for new and virgin markets where the threat of competitors from powerful rival companies will be nil or negligible as they were facing stiff competition in Calcutta from the likes of ‘BATA’ and other shoe companies.

Since this happened in the 1960’s Mr.Ghosh found it easier to find new and untouched territories where they could introduce their brand of shoes. Since Nagaland was well connected to Calcutta and there was a need there for quality foot ware, it seemed like a potential market where if carefully introduced their shoe company may be well received and the chances of making a profit was huge.

So with the available resources in his hand Mr. Ghosh found he could do a couple of necessary surveys to taste the water and see if indeed Nagaland was the ideal market for them.

Mr. Ghosh shows leadership qualities by taking risks and showing innovative ideas.

PROGNOSIS

OBJECTIVES

Short term to long term goals

OBJECTIVES

Objectives may be simply defined as quantifiable achievable targets from short

term to middle term to long term.

SHORT TERM OBJECTIVES

Assess the demographic characteristics of relevant population

Qualitative assessment of their interest to go in for shoes of much better

qualities

Get an idea of their future wants

Types of „safety‟ shoes needed

Prices they were willing to pay

Probable purchase patterns (annually)

Local competition

MID-TERM OBJECTIVES

Approach internally other functional heads and finally the

chairperson

Get approval for exploration of possible new markets

Get R & D to design a few hundred pairs of adult male shoes

Ascertain that thy design the new shoes according to his

suggestions, confirming to suggested leather type, color, shape, sizes,

designs within sought-after price indications

Conduct a second survey with initial samples

Find out if the male customers were willing to buy them immediately

Find out purchase frequency of male customers and probable

purchase frequency of other target segments

Price indications

Find out from where his prospective clients can buy the shoes and

how to promote his company as well

LONG TERM OBJECTIVES

If he found the feed back favorable then they can proceed with

large scale production and supply.

Increase market share for their company

Establish a foothold in a new market territory.

CONSTRAINTS

1) The chairperson toed the family philosophy of only concentrating on male leather shoes.

2) The wood cutters were poisoned by the numerous scorpions and similar dangerous

animals, which thronged the dense forests which lead to death.

3) The terrain was full of rocks, very slippery due to incessant rainfall and, as a whole, posed

a major challenge to any shoemaker to operate in that area, at that time.

4) In the biweekly “Hats” which was held several miles away from the high-altitude dense

jungles, the local inhabitants were forced to give up their daily work trudge miles either

way and buy necessities like very poor quality shoes, sandals etc. at exorbitant prices,

which hardly provided any type of safety from the natural elements and were soon worn

out.

CONSTRAINTS

The Sales Manager, was very traditional and hardly

encouraged her juniors to be proactive on their own.

Mr. ghosh has limited time for exploration of new market.

Mr. ghosh has limited budget in his attempts to explore new

market.

Competition from Bata and few other shoe makers.

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