This case study relates the story of U-Brand, a new venture resulting from a partnership

agreement between two old friends. The partnership operates in the media industry of the
United Arab Emirates. It describes the internal and external dynamics surrounding the set-
up, evolution and development of U-Brand activities for the period between 2006 and 2009.
Although, since its very inception, U-Brand enjoyed a successful start, a series of events
and managerial decisions has brought the company on the verge of collapse

SLEEPING PARTNERA partner who contribute capital or otherwise become a partner and do not
take active part in the conduct of the business. They are liable to outsider just other partners. On his
retirement he will not give a public notice.

 Even though she had no authority to question Basheer's management style.

Q1. Was the creation of U-Brand a good idea? Was the selection of U-Brand location a right choice?
Argument and explain.

The creation of U-Brand was good idea especially in Dubai (Location) and (time) where Media sector
is booming in Dubai .

A new venture resulting from a partnership agreement between two old friends. The partnership
operates in the media industry of the United Arab Emirates. “As diverse industrial sectors flourished
in this booming region of the world, the demand for media services was at all time high, In 2005
advertising costs incurred principally by real state, telecom, jewelry, airline and food firms had risen
by 43 %” all these factors give a great exposure of such a business to grow exponentially.

Location was selected smartly, because choice of Free Zone ‘Hamriyah Free Zone’ has lot of
benefits like “less cost and corporate tax exemption and abundant and inexpensive energy a larger
choice of office space, sponsorship and housing and many other benefits’.

Q2. Who is the sleeping partner at U-Brand and why? Do you see any problems in the way the
partnership was formed and managed?
Siddiq’s partner was the sleeping partner, and Faisal didn’t this partnership seriously where he
suggest his wife Zainab that she doesn’t have any experience to handle this position.

Then he suggests his daughter Aamma to help in this regard; I can see from this suggestion that he
was taking the partnership as a experimental and he never ‘Control’ the way of working neither
checks the financial report where he can save the company at a certain stage if he interfere.

The partnership was putting Basheer in full responsibility since he has much experience in this
regard and in Dubai country specifically.

At first stage, all partners were involved by ‘picking the name of the company and structure their
activities and identify the services the would be offering’.

Q3. Are there any mistakes that Basheer committed as the managing director of U-Brand? Justify
your answer.

Basheer start the project by controlling each phase of projects from Intial phase to delivery to
customer.

He spread a good work environemt where all employee work together and eat together that create a
good ambiance for all workers where they work late with no complains.

But in middle stage where the company reach a good place in market and begin to ta3ty massare.

He recruit 2 new people where he didn’t even ask his partner about the new strategy where he did
change in organization by adding one layer managers who handles both lane.

Mrs Saloni Madhora: Head of Print Media.

Mr. Rathod Kappor: Head of digital Media.

And he reomoved Mrs Sherry D’Sonza from her current position and put her under Mr Rathod
Kapoor ‘Sherry was moved from being a General Media Head to a Graphic Designer for Digital
Media and now worked directly under Rathod’.

Basheer focused after the big success he made in the company in the image; he took a strategy to
sustain the company after reaching a good position

Q4. Analyze Amna’s experience at U-Brand. According to you, what role should she play in the
future of U-Brand?

Since Amna recently “enrolled at the American University of Sharjah and was pursuing a degree in
Mass Communications” thus make her major was closely related to the media industry, she could be
a great asset to the company someday”.

As a fresh graduate with a good knowledge in the domain; I propose that she can work under
Sherry’s team in Digital Media.

She could form a good team with Sherry since they have a good communication and they can work
under the same wave with no communication complication.
Q5. If you were Faisal, what exactly would you tell Basheer?

Basheer made lot of mistakes and keep lot of gaps in following strategic Plan:

1. Basheer should respect

Corporate level strategy where Basheer didn’t integrate with the top
management (Siddiq’s Family).
2. Basheer started the business in a good way where he followed the strategic management
process:
a. Where he did analysis for the situation of the business in Dubai where he found that
this kind of business is growing fast.
b. He made a good formulation strategy where he used a good competitive advantages
by having a digital media sector and “a design studio, focused on designing promotional
materials for its customers, and not an advertising company”.
c. Strategy implementation where they created two lanes of activity “Print Media” and
“Digital Media”.
d. In Strategy evaluation, involves evaluating both the outcomes of the strategies ^d how t
ey
been implemented If they don't measure up to expectations or strategic goals, then the
sttategy
S o"Si melt^ may need to be modified. We'll also cover evaluation as we discuss each
type of strategy.
In reality it's a continual cycle that may no. alwa^

A process implies sequential and interrelated activities leading to some outcome. In the strate-gic
management process, the interrelated activities—situation analysis, strategy formulation, strategy
implementation, and strategy evaluation—result in a set of strategies the organization