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Organization Design

Project Report

Section B, Group 5

Aman Agarwala (1811080), Hemanth Thoutam (1811140), Izaz Naha (1811116),

Kora Naga Kartheek (1811104), Vigneshwaran ST (1811128), Vivek Gaba (1811092)


Contents
Objectives .............................................................................................................................................. 3
Company Description .......................................................................................................................... 3
Methodology.......................................................................................................................................... 3
Environment: ......................................................................................................................................... 3
Task Environment ............................................................................................................................ 4
General Environment:...................................................................................................................... 5
Assessing Environmental Uncertainty .......................................................................................... 6
How is iD Fresh adapting to the uncertainty? .............................................................................. 6
Objective 1: Evolution of Organization structure with changes in environment.......................... 7
Stage of Creativity: ........................................................................................................................... 8
Stage of Direction: ............................................................................................................................ 9
Stage of Delegation: ...................................................................................................................... 10
Boundary Spanning: ...................................................................................................................... 12
Organization structure for Global market: .................................................................................. 13
Strategy Analysis:........................................................................................................................... 13
Objective 2: Culture and Control system analysis ........................................................................ 14
Culture.............................................................................................................................................. 14
Control Systems: ............................................................................................................................ 17
Objective 3: Analysis of future readiness of the organization ..................................................... 18
Organizing for Innovation: ............................................................................................................. 18
Future Plans: ................................................................................................................................... 18
Conclusion:.......................................................................................................................................... 19
References: ......................................................................................................................................... 20
Objectives
Over the course of this report, we aim to achieve the following broad objectives:

Objective 1: Mapping out the Evolution of Organization structure with changes in


environment

Objective 2: Culture and Control system analysis

Objective 3: Analysis of future readiness of the organization

Company Description
iD Fresh Food Pvt Ltd is a leading Ready-To-Cook (RTC) packaged food company that
serves many cities all over India. It was founded in 2005 by Mr. PC Musthafa and four of his
cousins Jaffar TK, Abdul Nazer, Noushad TA and Shamsudeen TK. PC Musthafa is an IIM
Bangalore alumnus. They setup iD in a small 50 square feet kitchen in Tippasandra,
Bangalore where they tested their first batches of batter[2]. The name iD was suggested by
one of the cousins as an acronym for Idli Dosa. The company is known for its Idli and Dosa
batter which they sell through retail outlets. Since then, it has expanded its product range to
include Malabar Parotta, Wheat Parotta, Chapati, Chutneys, Vada and many more. As of
June 2018, they have a workforce of 1300+ with seven factories and eight offices with
presence overseas in the form of a plant in Dubai.

iD has shown tremendous growth over the past 13 years. From their humble beginnings in a
small kitchen, they have evolved into one of the market leaders in the Ready-To-Cook
segment. From manufacturing just 10 one-kg batter packets per day they have gone onto
manufacture 55,000 kgs of Idli and Dosa batter per day, besides other products, to more than
18,000 retail outlets in 17 cities in India and abroad.

Methodology
Our primary source of data for this project are interviews with Mr. Ajnas N, Assistant Manager-
Finance who has been working with the company for the last 6 years. He enlightened us
about the company’s environment and gave us a holistic picture of the company’s
organizational structure, its timeline and the internal processes that they have adopted. In
addition to this, we had an interaction session with Ms. Ayesha Fathima, who is the Human
Resources Executive of ID Fresh Pvt Limited, Bangalore. She gave us insights into the
present culture and how it has evolved over time. Apart from these, we also utilised various
secondary sources [referenced] to further understand the company’s organizational design.

Environment:
ID Fresh Foods is a player in the Ready to Cook (RTC) market segment under the Food
Processing Industry. The company has managed to conquer a lion’s share of the RTC market
with offerings like Idli and Dosa batter, Chapati and Parotta. ID has been one of the pioneers
of changing this unorganized category to an organized one and is thus well placed to exploit
this change. The company aims to minimise the effort in preparing hand-made meals. It
provides healthy products to the customers by offering 100% natural food without any added
preservatives, chemicals or artificial flavours every day. The organization’s environment can
be analysed based on two broad concepts. They are:

• Task Environment
• General Environment

Task Environment
The task environment includes sectors with which the organization interacts directly and that
have a direct impact on the organization’s ability to achieve its goals. [17]

1. Industry
2. Competitors
3. Raw Materials

Industry Analysis:
ID Fresh Food is a player in the food industry of India. This industry is emerging as a high-
growth and high-profit one because of its scope for value addition, especially in the food
processing sector. The Indian food and grocery market is 6th largest in the world. Retail sales
making up to 70% of the total sales. Indian food processing industry accounts for 30% of the
country’s total food market. This is known as a ‘sunrise’ industry as it provides a link between
the agriculture and manufacturing sector. The Indian food processing industry is valued at
around USD $65 billion and is growing at a CAGR of more than 11%.

ID Fresh Food belongs to the Ready-To-Cook segment under the food processing industry.
These products differentiate themselves from the Ready-To-Eat (RTE) segment in the sense
that they need to be processed in the kitchen before being consumed. This segment has seen
an exponential rise in demand. The RTC sector has been considerably impacted by
urbanisation because of rising employment in tier 1 and tier 2 cities, particularly in the last 7
years. The middle-class population has been undergoing a paradigm shift in lifestyle and
income levels. [11] Nuclear families, students and working professionals living in metropolitans
with busy schedules are among the major consumers of RTC food products. Another major
factor leading to the penetration of these products is the easy accessibility facilitated by major
retail chains, supermarkets and hypermarkets in India. The RTC food market in India was
worth around $230 million in 2013 and is projected to reach $400 million by the end of 2018.
The market is estimated to be at around $750 million by 2022, registering a substantial CAGR
of 15%. [15]

Competitors:
The main competition to iD is from the companies like MTR Foods, Nestle, Maiyas and ITC
in the packed food segment and local players in each city. Both RTC and RTE segments
have huge competition [3]. iD, however, has chosen a niche of preservative free, healthy
products with a low shelf life of 3-6 days. The potential of this niche segment has been
relatively less tapped into by competitors and iD, with its first mover advantage and innovative
packaging, has been able to capture the market effectively. In Bangalore, iD has more than
75% of the market share in the Idli, Dosa batter segment which almost makes it a monopoly.
In Chennai, however, there exist a lot of small local grinders, which is making it difficult for iD
to compete. The overall market captured by iD in the RTC segment is barely 1%. This
indicates immense potential for growth in the coming years.
Raw Materials:
The main raw materials for producing Idli, Dosa and Vada batter are rice, urad dal, methi,
common salt and water. iD sources the best quality of rice, urad dal, methi and RO purified
water from fixed vendors. They procure rice from Tamil Nadu and dal from Indore. They
maintain inventory requirement for one month. Raw materials for all manufacturing locations
are sourced from a fixed set of vendors. Even for the Dubai plant, raw materials are sent from
locations in India.

General Environment:
The general environment includes those sectors that might not have a direct impact on the
daily operations of a firm but will indirectly influence it. The general environment often includes:

1. Government
2. Technology
3. Socio-cultural conditions
4. Economic conditions

Government:
iD being in the food industry, is subject to a lot of government regulations and health standards
like Weights & Measure Rules, Prevention of Food Adulteration, Good Manufacturing
Practices (GMP), ISO 9000, ISO 22000, Tax Laws & Labour Laws. [10] Changes in regulations
may result in unexpected outcomes. For example, iD’s plans of becoming a Rs.1,000 crore
company were temporarily affected by the advent of Goods and Services Tax (GST)
implemented in 2017. [8] Traders refused to stock the product as the tax rate fell from 12% to
5% on these products which made them tough to sell at the original prices.

Technology:
Technology has been a key differentiator for iD Fresh Foods. They are making use of
advanced technology to make healthy and natural products. For example, when they were
looking to scale up, they searched the market for any large wet grinding machines, but nothing
suited them. So, they decided to tie up with a team from US which manufactures machines for
mustard paste grinding plants. [13] They used similar technology to get a machine custom-
made for making batter. These machines are easy to clean and can process several thousand
kilograms of rice into batter. iD not only seems to be catching up with the latest trends in
technology, but also making innovations of their own. A prime example for this is their in-house
developed Vada batter dispenser technology. They also use advanced IT systems to monitor
their operations which has been explained in detail under the control systems.

Socio-cultural:
The major socio-cultural factors which impact the food industry are the tastes and
preferences of the consumers. The last decade has witnessed a movement towards healthy
and easy to make food. This has posed immense opportunity for iD Fresh Foods which caters
to the same segment. Because of differences in culture, many companies are focusing on
the launch of regional RTC products. iD is also following suit, by initially introducing Idli, Dosa
and Vada batter in south Indian cities like Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. For expansion
into North India and catering to their regional preferences, they came up with different
Parottas. In Dubai, they came up with Kulchas. However, it must be noted that the
consistency in taste is maintained everywhere.
Economic:
The economic environment involves the increasing income levels of consumers overall. This
has been beneficial for iD Fresh as their products are priced at a premium. Rising ability to
pay has increased the consumer base for iD. However, no trend can be focused on in isolation.
The overall change in mindset of a large base of consumers backed by rising income and lack
of immediate competitors have contributed significantly in the rapid growth of iD. The
economic conditions of each city in which the company is operating are different and hence
the same strategy for each city will not work. This has made them modify their approach based
on the economics of the region.

Assessing Environmental Uncertainty


Environmental uncertainty can be analysed using the dimensions of environmental change
and environmental complexity. In the change dimension, an organisation can either be in a
stable environment or an unstable environment. ID Fresh is in a relatively stable industry with
no major changes year on year. On the complexity dimension, an organisation’s environment
can range from simple to complex. The food processing industry in which iD plays, is a
complex industry with lots of rules, specifications and regulations guiding it. Very recently,
Maggi which belongs to the same industry had an enormous set-back because of violating the
regulatory guidelines. This makes control systems very important in this industry. Overall iD is
therefore placed in the Stable but Complex Environment

Fig. 1: Analyzing the uncertainty of the environment


How is iD Fresh
adapting to the uncertainty?
iD is dealing with the uncertainty in the external environment by doing the following:
• Adding positions and departments
• Co-optation
• Public Relations and Advertisements
• Business Intelligence
Adding positions and departments:
Since the environment in which they operate is complex, there is a high need of innovation.
For that extent, iD has introduced a New Product Development (NPD) team. This team is
responsible for coming up with new products and improving existing ones. Because of this, iD
has been able to come up with innovative packaging for their Idli and Dosa batter. Not only
this, they have also come up with an innovative ‘squeeze-with-ease’ packaging for their vada
batter which has an integrated batter dispenser in it.

Co-optation:
iD is looking at rapid expansion and has raised funding of $25 million from Premji Invest for
the same[4]. To secure their financial fortune, they have decided to place a member from Premji
Invest on their Board of Directors. This ensures that the investors have a shared vision as the
founders and move in the same direction. iD is using Wipro Consumer Care’s supply chain for
sales and distribution.

Public Relations and Advertisements:


Advertisements are one of the ways iD has managed to stay attached to the customers. It has
delivered impactful ad campaigns from time to time. Some of them are ‘meet your neighbour’,
‘khaana khaaya’ and ‘Unite India’ campaigns. These have managed to touch the consumers
directly. Also, the story of iD’s rise has been propagated through traditional and social media
so much so that PC Musthafa has been invited by the likes of Harvard and United Nations to
share his story.

Business Intelligence:
iD does boundary spanning by analysing large amounts of data everyday by tracking its
sales through an app called BizON, which is installed by each of the salesmen. [12] Since the
products are perishable, proper tracking is required to maintain adequate production levels
and minimize wastage. The app helps co-ordinating operations by tracking the orders,
discounts, deliveries and returns, thus helping iD plan effectively.

Objective 1: Evolution of Organization structure with changes in


environment

Fig. 2: Timeline depicting major events of iD Fresh Food


Stage of Creativity:
In 2005, Musthafa and his 5 cousins came together with an idea to provide better quality, fresh
and ready to cook food. Initially the team consisted of just 5 family members trying to validate
their idea in a small kitchen at Tippasandra. The initial investment amounted to 25,000 and
they were using 2 grinders, 1 mixer and 1 sealing machine. [6] They decided to prepare batter
and sell it in local retail stores. Packaged batter received good response and their idea was
validated.

Change in Environment:
Batter was being supplied in tied plastic bags in kirana stores and was selling well. Product
quality lacked consistency and there was a scope for improvement in packaging quality. With
changing lifestyle of working population and high disposable incomes, the team predicted
exponential growth in RTC category.

Strategy:
They decided to validate their idea through a pilot plant. There was a requirement to have a
decentralized structure with every cousin playing an empowered role. They needed a structure
with overlapping responsibilities with minimum rules and formalization. Hence, an organic
structure emerged.

Organization structure:
Five brothers decided to take care of different verticals. Following was their ownership
structure:
• Musthafa took care of the Finances. He was responsible for bringing in funds
whenever the organization needed investment. He financed iD using his savings from
past jobs and selling off his property in Kerala. iD is based on values of Sharia law of
investment, which does not allow the organisation to avail loans and invest money for
interest income.
• Shamsudeen: Procurement of raw materials like urad, rice, common salt etc.
• Noushad: Sales of packaged batter to kirana stores.
• Abdul Nazer: Manufacturing and packaging of batter.
• Jafar: Manufacturing and packaging of batter.
Though the brothers took ownership of different verticals, there was complete understanding
and some overlapping of work responsibilities. For example, Musthafa was independent to
provide inputs in manufacturing or sales. Similarly, other cousins could contribute in different
disciplines as per organisation’s requirement.

Fig.3: Organizational Structure (Stage of Creativity)


After validation, they moved to a bigger facility of 800 sq. Ft and started making about 3500
kg of batter per day. With increase in scale of operation, workers were employed under
verticals- manufacturing and sales. They started catering to 300 stores in Bangalore and
around 15 salesmen were recruited. Manufacturing team expanded as well, and operators
were employed to operate grinding, mixing and sealing machines. Thus, the organization
started undergoing a transition to mechanistic structure in manufacturing and sales vertical.
Hierarchy and vertical communication was being introduced in these 2 verticals.

Stage of Direction:
Change in Environment:
• As expected, demand in RTC category was increasing exponentially.
• Cost of wastage was increasing with increased scale of operation because of
unpredictable sales.

Strategy:
• There was a need to start a new plant facility to increase scale of production. Also, it
was important to create different departments to coordinate plant processes. This will
also ensure required formalization to meet various legal and regulatory requirements
(Differentiation).
• There was a need for a leader to focus on vision and provide direction to ID (Crisis of
Leadership).
• Better and precise prediction of daily product demand and hence coming up with a
zero-inventory system to minimize wastages (Technology, IT system).

Organization Structure:
In 2008, after graduating from IIM Bangalore, Musthafa became the CEO and in charge of
marketing and finance. A functional structure was created. Various departments were
introduced in the organisational structure under manufacturing function. A batter
manufacturing and packaging facility of about 2500 sq. Ft was commissioned at Hoskote.
Hoskote facility started with a capacity of around 12000 kg batter/ day and employed around
50+ workers. Due to liquidity issues, organization was not able to focus on Marketing at this
stage. Functions like accounts, production, engineering, quality and procurement were
created. A hierarchal structure was introduced, where workers reported to supervisor and
supervisors reported to department heads (5 brothers).

CEO

Sales and
Manufacturing
Distribtution
(3 Cousins)
(Noushad)

Accounts Production Procurement Maintenance


Quality Manager
Manager Manager Manager Manger

Account Procurement
Line supervisors Quality officers Engineers
Executive executives

Shopfloor
workers

Fig.4: Organizational Structure (Stage of Direction)


At this stage, the major challenge was in the distribution system. Due to perishable nature of
the product, it was important to strike a balance between daily production and sales volume.
There was a need to come up with a system to control inventory flow. An app named BizON
was developed through collaboration with Mobsys Technologies. [12] Through this app,
information about inventory and sales was recorded on a real time basis. Using this data
tracking system, they were able to predict sales and match production accordingly. This
helped them move towards a Just-in-Time (JIT) inventory system (IT technology)

Stage of Delegation:
Change in Environment:
• Market demand in other geographies was identified. There was a need to formalize
RTC category in other South Indian major cities where various local players were doing
well.
• Market demand for RTC category in other countries with Indian residents was
identified.
• Expanding operations and understanding regulations across various states and
undergoing transitions in tax regime
• Local market players were emerging in RTC category which was affecting ID’s market
share.

Strategy:
• There was a need to establish regional sales team (for areas near Bangalore) for
providing sales prediction data and creating distribution systems. This will lead to
decentralization of power to take sales decisions at regional level.
• There was a need to establish manufacturing facilities for distant markets (for areas
far from Bangalore) to have less transportation time and hence ensuring delivery of
fresh food since the shelf period is 3-5 days. Regional manufacturing heads will be
created. This will lead to decentralization of power in manufacturing function also.
• With introduction of ID’s plan of expanding manufacturing operations across various
states and countries, there was a need to focus on regulations and compliances which
varied across states/ countries. It was also important to ensure smooth transition while
undergoing a change in tax structure. This could be done by introducing a focussed
legal department in organization structure. Since this department needed complete
autonomy in decision making, it should directly report to highest power centre.
• There was a need to differentiate ID from other local players. To ensure this, it was
important to invest on product development and marketing campaigns. ID being a
follower of Sharia values had liquidity issues. At this stage it was important to look out
for investors that are in line with ID’s value structure and vision. Using these
investments, a new centralized department focusing on product development and
research activities was a necessity. It was also important to channelize some funds in
marketing campaigns to increase ID’s visibility and focus on its competitive advantage.
Organization Structure:

CEO

Dubai head Production Finance Sales Marketing HR Legal

Production Manufacturing Accounts Distribution

Sales NPD MIS Logistics

Marketing

HR

Finance

Fig. 5: Current Organizational Structure (Stage of Delegation)

• Till 2010, ID was operating only in Bangalore market. 2010 onwards, ID started
supplying products in Mysore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kanchipuram markets as well.
Thus, regional sales offices were setup in different cities. Every sales office has
headed by a regional sales manager. All sales manage reported to Sales head sitting
at headquarters. To ensure integration of sales team across regions, ID uses SAP
system to keep a track on sales and inventory data. This ensures optimized material
flow and utilization.
• In 2013, ID decided to expand its operations in Dubai to focus on market demand of
Indian residents. It was important to create a complete regional structure at Dubai. The
regional head of Dubai reported to Musthafa at Indian HQ. Another plant was
commissioned at Mumbai to cater to market demand in Maharashtra. [7]
o To address sudden fluctuations in market demand, ID started outsourcing its
production demand to third parties. Signature and Nilgiri reported to
manufacturing team under production vertical. (Modular structure)
• A new legal department was created that directly reported to Musthafa. This legal
department is responsible to ensure adherence to regulations at all manufacturing
facilities (national and international). They are also responsible to impart training to
local HR and Accounts teams about legal regulations and transition in tax regimes.
• ID received investment from Helion[1] and Premji investment. This was utilized to create
and fund NPD department and various marketing campaigns.
Fig. 6: Third party organizational structure (Modular)

Boundary Spanning:
Public Relations:
ID ensures efficient and speedy complaint redressal system. Initially, the batter production
process of ID didn’t include fermentation process. A complaint was registered by a store owner
at Bangalore. He reported a blast in its ID products stored in refrigerator. A team including
employees from sales and production department were sent on site to understand the incident.
It was found that ID is skipping the fermentation process during production which is resulting
in fermentation of product at a later stage and hence resulting in reported explosion. Taking a
learning from this incident, production process at manufacturing facilities was revised and
required investment was made to introduce these changes. The store owner was paid for
damages and inconvenience.

Advertising:
• Khaana khaaya Campaign focuses on propagating IDs vision of enabling easy
homemade cooking for everyone everywhere. This campaign was conceptualised by
langoor and focuses on customers who lack the time to cook food every day at their
homes and thus prefer ready to cook products.
• ID Trust Shop campaign focuses on building trust and improve the bond between
customers and the company. 17 trust shops have been installed in Bangalore and
more are scheduled to be opened in other cities.
• Share with neighbour campaign emphasized on improving relations between
neighbours by encouraging sharing of food and getting to know one’s neighbour better.
This helped in improving the reach and communicating the values held by ID Fresh
Foods.
To impart decentralization in the organisational structure, ID follows a distinct power structure
in the sales department. Every sales employee is an entrepreneur in himself and maintains
his own profit and loss statement. A fixed pay structure is not followed, and the salary is also
based on the individual performances. ID is currently at stage of delegation, and its current
organization structure follows a functional organisation system in both India and Dubai.
Organization structure for Global market:
ID has entered in Dubai market as a satellite structure reporting to Central headquarters. The
operations are completely owned by ID and it follows a functional organization system similar
to that followed in India. Only NPD and legal department is not available at Dubai. Indian
centre of NPD and legal are responsible for both national and international functional
operations. Refer to current organization structure depicted in fig. which also includes Dubai
organizational structure.

Inflection Points:
By analysing the organizational life cycle, we have identified two inflection points:
• Expanding operations in Dubai: In 2013, ID decided to expand in Dubai. As compared
to India, working in Dubai market is tougher:
1. Strict regulations and tedious processes for getting licenses and hygiene
certificates
2. Huge process for getting products into supermarkets
3. Getting clearances for import raw materials from India.
To take care of all these concerns, a separate legal department was constituted with
full autonomy. It reported directly to Mustafa.
• Helion Ventures and Premji investments: Till 2014, ID was working around funds
financed by Mustafa himself or the profits generated by organization. Compliance to
Sharia was important for the value structure of organization. With the infusion of
investments from Premji and Helion, ID was finally able to focus on product
development and marketing campaigns which helped it differentiate itself from
competitors. It also helped ID propagate its vision.

Strategy Analysis:
Miles and Snow Strategy:
Using the Miles and Snow Strategy Typology, iD Fresh can be categorised as an Analyser.
There is a focus on Stable product lines along with encouragement for Innovation, risk-
taking and creativity. iD strikes a balance between efficiency and learning. On the one hand,
the company is looking to expand its foothold for the current product and on the other hand it
is trying to expand and improve its offerings in the market.

Porter’s Strategy Analysis:

Fig. 7: Porter’s Strategy Analysis


SWOT Analysis:

Fig. 8: SWOT Analysis

Objective 2: Culture and Control system analysis


Culture
Clan Culture:
iD fresh were formed by PC Musthafa and four of his cousins. In the initial days, the company
had a clan culture. The idea of the business had come from one of the cousins, who was a
supermarket employee. They were a very close-knit group and started out the company as a
family business. The different functions of the business were shared among the five of them.
They allocated tasks to each other and trusted in them to get it completed with the required
quality. They even helped each other when one of them faced any difficulties in completing
their respective tasks. This clearly presents that during initial stages, clan form of culture and
control is prevalent in organization. They were adapted to handle any rapidly changing
expectations from the external environments because of this peculiar way in which they
functioned. The clan culture created a sense of responsibility and a greater commitment
towards iD Fresh among the founding members.

While they were expanding to various cities, his engineering classmates and then family
friends joined. He acted more as a mentor to everyone rather than a boss. The organization
ran more on the trust of the employees rather than enforcing specific rules on them. The
regional heads in various offices across Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Dubai
are all his close friends and family members. This shows the controlled expansion in the initial
stages of iD Fresh. With limited financial resources, to mitigate risk, Musthafa chose to keep
his trusted people in charge of departments emphasizing ownership among employees.

Fig.9: Evolution of Culture

Mission Culture:
As the organization has expanded over the years, the needs have changed. The strategic
focus is now on the external environment and Id Fresh aims for stability. Hence the culture
transformed from a close-knit clan culture to a mission culture. iD Fresh has a mission to make
the preparation of home-made meals a pleasure. [5] The entire culture revolves around this
statement. The structure is a mechanistic one. Performance and innovation is highly valued.
The managers communicate clear goals to the employees. They are handsomely rewarded
on meeting their specified targets. There are many departments with low integration between
themselves.

Vision: “To become a fresh food brand, admired and trusted the world over. To grow into a
1000 crore market leader. To become one of the best and most sought-after companies to
work for.” [5]

Aspects of Culture at iD Fresh


1. Rites and Ceremonies
Every big or small victory is celebrated by the entire organization. For example, the
launch of their new innovative Vada packet was celebrated on a global scale. They
also made sure they celebrate their smaller wins such as meeting their sales targets
for the month. This keeps the employees motivated and connected to the overall
organizational goals.

• Rite of Passage: All newly hired employees must undergo common induction program
for one month and each department has its own training program for a period of three
months. Each employee is thus accustomed to the organizational as well as
departmental culture.
• Rite of Integration: They have an annual party for all the employees located in their
various regions. They also conduct celebrations for various regional festivals in the
respective offices.
2. Stories
Though being a small and new organization, iD Fresh share its own motivational
stories to inspire existing and new employees. Story of iD Fresh and Co-founders: Mr.
Musthafa is the hero of the organization. Stories about how a village boy was invited
by the likes of Harvard and United Nations are popular at iD Fresh. Its own CEO’s
journey from a school dropout to IIMB graduate, his focus and temerity, excites each
stakeholder of organization.

3. Symbols
Every employee in the company is given T-shirts branded with the iD Logo. This brings
in a feeling of belonging to the organization. Also, the trucks used for delivering the
company’s products to the retailers are uniform throughout all the cities even Dubai.
These are branded with ID product posters.

4. Power Relationships
The Bangalore office has indoor games, a kitchen and Café for employees. The
workspace is playing a huge role in bringing the real sense of closeness among the
people, boosting morale, building unity. In one of the interviews, Mr. Musthafa rated
his office space as 7 on a scale of 10 for being unconventional. The CEO has an open-
door policy. Even the workers from the plants can visit the CEO at any time. They also
have an open board room whereby the meetings are not held in secrecy.

5. Control System
There is a performance-based control system in place. The salesmen have an
incentive-based compensation system wherein they are paid based on the profits
contributed by them. The managers provide the employees with specific target during
the start of each day, based on which their performance is evaluated.

Motivation and Retention of employees:


iD Fresh have different systems to motivate employee:
• Unique value system: It claims to have the zero-attrition rate in last nine years within
marketing team because of its specific value system. This system is distinct and
unique to each employee. [16]
• Autonomy: Every employee is treated as a micro-entrepreneur. Each sales team is
responsible to maintain their own individual profit and loss account.
• Recognition: With constant professional development recognition and engagement,
each employee is motivated to unleash full potential.

Values, Ethics and Social Responsibility


iD has some unique value systems in which the entire organization believes in.

• Speed: Being in a segment of perishable goods, iD Fresh foods values the speed in
production and delivering fresh food to its customers across the globe every day.
• Simplicity: iD Fresh foods believes in quick decision making through a simple, lean
and efficient organization.
• Authenticity: The major Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for iD Fresh is its 100%
natural products with no chemicals, artificial flavours or preservatives with home-made
style of preparation.
• Integrity: iD Fresh believes in transparency and fairness in all practices, interactions
and transactions with all stakeholders.
• Empathy: There is a shared belief of caring for people rather than just business. ID
Fresh Food’s took initiative to supply free food material during Chennai floods in 2015.
This gesture shows a feeling of empathy and warmth shared by ID Fresh.
• Shariah Standards: Mr. Musthafa is conscientious individual who believes in the
Islamic principles. This has trickled down upon the entire organization in the form of
following the Shariah Law. Under this, iD stays away from Bank Loan and Investments
involving Interest payments. ID thus offers tremendous comfort for investors who are
Shariah conscious to do business.

Control Systems:
IT Control:
This method of control helps in managing information better and assists in making business
decisions. iD Fresh has several control systems in place. Major among them are listed below.

• SAP:
ID Fresh Foods has an integrated SAP ERP system, which has all the data regarding
Purchases, Sales, Inventory, Payroll and Finance. This is used to constantly monitor
different facets of the organization. This data can be used as a control system to
facilitate planning and decision making. Any deviation from the trends can be easily
tracked using the ERP system.
• BizON:
ID Fresh Foods has partnered with BizON app to track its daily sales on real time basis.
Each salesman must install this app and put the sales transactions and orders in it.
This data is used to estimate demand for various items which is then communicated
as under. [12]
• Management Information System (MIS):
The company has MIS put in place to facilitate decision making by the management.
They can check the production, sales, growth and profitability figure readily. The
system produces regular reports on the operations of iD fresh. It provides managers
with feedback and provides a holistic picture on the performance of the company. [9]
The data driven reports produced by MIS are used by the management to take optimal
decisions.

Fig.10: Supply chain control process


Diagnostic Control:
Control is ensured at iD Fresh mainly through diagnostic methods. Each salesperson has a
separate Profit & Loss statement which is directly linked to his salary. The regional heads are
required to display and justify their overall figures. Each region is given a target for every
month based on past data. The performance of the unit is compared with the target and any
significant deviation is analysed in depth.

Quality Control:
The company sources best quality raw material from specific vendors for all its plants, even in
Dubai. The proportions and process is also fixed. This ensures uniformity in its products across
regions. ID believes in providing the freshest products to its consumers. Only one day demand
is produced in a day based on information from BizOn. This results in higher costs of
production and unused capacity, but quality isn’t compromised.

Objective 3: Analysis of future readiness of the organization


iD Fresh operates in market of low barrier entry. There is always a high chance of bigger
existing players entering the domain. Considering all these factors, iD Fresh always prepares
itself future ready.

Organizing for Innovation:


• Spearhead Innovation: iD Fresh have NPD team (New Product development Team)
which acts as an independent innovation focused team. They take inputs from
marketing, sales and manufacturing departments about market. They mainly focus on
1. development of new line of products 2. research on existing products.
• Stimulate innovation: iD Fresh also have a consultancy team and academics
(Innovation advisory boards) working along with NPD team to train and guide on the
innovations particularly in packaging systems.
• Shepherd innovation: At iD Fresh, CEO PC Musthafa and his core team acts as the
growth council to shepherd all the innovation ideas. Keeping company values and
mission in mind, they reject or select ideas to work on and guide NPD Team.
Future Plans:
• Product line and locations: With all these plans, iD Fresh plans to introduce at least
20 new products by 2025. It also plans to expand to more countries like Oman, middle
east and US etc.
• Collaborations: iD Fresh already collaborated with Nilgiri dairy farm to produce dairy
products. They have introduced natural paneer and curd with id Recipe using raw
materials from Nilgiri dairy farm. [14] (Backward Collaboration). iD Fresh also
collaborated with Signature foods (one of the largest flat bread manufacturers in India)
in preparation of chapati complying to iD Foods recipe. They are also looking to
collaborate with other major players to strengthen its supply chain and raw material
procurement to expand its products and locations. Most of the iD’s products have three
to seven days shelf period. Its future plan to cater US and other markets can be
problematic considering its low shelf period. Now iD Fresh is looking to collaborate with
local players to overcome supply chain and manufacturing problems. For now, US
market is being served by its plant in Middle-East.
• Acquisitions: There are no acquisitions till now. But now they are looking for
acquisition of small players with strong local presence.
• Strategy: iD Fresh is looking to introduce new regional products based on locations.
They already have introduced kulcha in Dubai. iD Fresh is also planning to decrease
the number of regional plants and integrate them into one major plant.

Conclusion:
We had the following conclusions for our objectives in the report:
1. Mapping out the Evolution of Organization structure with changes in environment: iD
operates in a stable but complex environment with very few direct competitors. The
organizational structure has changed over the year from an organic structure to a
functional structure with outsourcing for certain products. The organisation is an
Analyser with focus on innovation and adapting together with maintaining present
product line.
2. Culture and Control system analysis: The company has a Mission Culture with shared
values and beliefs. They have a Hero in the form of their CEO. The control systems
are high-tech and well defined. Most of the control is performance based. Goals are
given maximum priority.
3. Analysis of future readiness of the organization: The organisation has a separate
department for innovation which facilitates its future readiness. They have set goals
for the future. Strategic alliances and linkages have put iD on a strong foot for the
years to come.
References:
1. https://yourstory.com/2015/11/id-fresh/
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bengaluru/article6937046.ece
3. http://www.asianentrepreneur.org/musthafa-pc-ceo-co-founder-id-fresh-food/
4. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/money/with-rs-150-crore-from-
premjiinvest-id-fresh-food-to-enter-us-uk-and-singapore/articleshow/57548473.cms
5. https://www.idfreshfood.com/
6. http://www.theweekendleader.com/Success/2555/getting-batter-daily.html
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out-of-readymade-idlidosa-batter/46717/1
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9. https://www.cloudfronts.com/id-fresh-food-success/
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and-opportunities-2019/389.html
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healthy-homemade-cooking-6828.html
13. http://www.projectdeepdive.org/startupstories/how-id-fresh-foods-strong-brand-
philosophy-helped-it-become-a-rs-100-crore-company-and-a-household-name-in-10-
years/
14. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/food/id-fresh-foods-
partners-with-nilgiri-dairy-farm-to-produce-dairy-products/articleshow/53549973.cms
15. http://www.fnbnews.com/Top-News/indias-rtc-food-mkt-estimated-to-reach-38206-
million-by-end-of-2017-41000
16. http://www.rehbar.co.in/sites/default/files/Investment%20Memorandum_ID%20Fresh
%20foods%20%28India%29%20vehicle%20leasing_March%20%2717.pdf
17. Richard L. Daft, Understanding the theory and design of organisation, 11e, 2013 ©
Southwestern, a part of Cengage learning.

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