SANDESH LTD

Q1. What is the strategy of your company? Give evidence in favor of your statement.

Ans1.
Sandesh is a blooming regional newspaper in Gujarat. The main strategy is evident
from the fact that the focus of the management has always been profits and cash
generation which is evident from a razor sharp regional focus and deployment of
generated cash in profitable avenues. The company has so much cash to burn and they
could use the cash to give out dividends to its shareholders and instead the company
has invested in Applewood Real Estate Company.
Also their strategy has been to capture the print media and be the market leader in
that.

The evidence of the same can be seen from their financial reports where they have
been able to maintain a net income of Rs. 100 500 Crores. Also they are a zero debt
print and media company with cash and cash equivalents of more than 100 Crores
since FY 2011.
Also another evidence of the fact that they want to become the largest print newspaper
in Gujarat is that they were at 3rd, behind Divya Bhaskar by just 1% as of 2011, and at
2nd as of now in Gujarat after Gujarat Samachar.

Q2. What are the tradeoffs your company is making? Again give evidence in favour of
your claims.

Ans2.

1. Tradeoffs that the company i.e. Sandesh is making is in terms of medium of

news flow.
2. Sandesh Ltd is focusing only on the regional sector and not trying to scale up
and expand to other states.
3. By trying to keep the ownership to themselves they have just given 12.16%
stake to Times Group, who could have been a major push for the Sandesh group
to go global or at the least national.
 4. One of the other tradeoffs can be seen in a little different way. In order to keep
the family ownership running, they have a history of making rash and improper
decisions at times because the managers are not so empowered; rather the
family owners poke their nose in each and every decision, be it big or small.

Q3. What advantages do you see from these tradeoffs? Give evidence.

Ans3.
There are fewer advantages of the tradeoffs that Sandesh Ltd is doing. Few of them
are listed below.

1. Focus on single medium i.e. Print Media keeps them focused in what they are
doing in a narrow way. Their 70% of the focus is on Print Media.
2. Evidence of the above can be seen from the fact that they are the 2nd most
popular regional newspaper of Gujarat.
3. Targeting a single region i.e. Gujarat is better than expanding pointlessly. They
had spent around 30 Crores in order to order new printing machinery so as to
compete Divya Bhaskar and defeat them and hence become the 2nd largest/most
popular newspaper in Gujarat.
4. Also the focus on building cash has been their main aim that is the reason why
they keep on investing money back into the business or take up new ventures
like investing in Applewood Real Estate Company.
5. They have been one of those very few media companies who have managed to
be in huge profits with considerable Cash Flow.

Q4. What are the disadvantages from these tradeoffs? Give evidence.

Ans4.
There has been some criticism of the tradeoffs done by the company outside as well as
inside the company. Few of them are listed below.
1. With too much focus in Gujarat and restricting Times Group to take major
stakes, they have restrained themselves from going National, providing them a
chance to even earn more.
2. Also in order to keep the family ownership in place and to be present in all
decision making, they have developed a negative feeling amongst their
employees. It is evident from the reviews given by the employees on various
job portals.
3. The common consensus of the employees is that the owner does not value their
contribution and take the final decision on their own.
4. Investing major part of the money in the business and not giving any dividends
is also one of the problems with their tradeoffs.
5. In todays era where social media and television news is more preferred,
Sandesh Ltd. Is still relying majorly on their print media.
6. As stated by one of the ex-employees, the confusion of the directors and
internal politics creates a lot of hindrance to electronic media which is caused
by the print media division itself.