MN7185 – Leadership and

Strategic Management

Assessment 2 –Individual
Investigative Report

Student Name -18028389 Shanaka Fernando

Module Tutor – Dr.Dilina Herath
Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................................................... 2
2. An outline of the current issue in the business .......................................................................................................... 4
3. Critical evaluation of role of leadership in the business ........................................................................................... 7
4 Critical analysis of current strategic framework of the business ............................................................................ 12
4.1. Application of Mckinsey’s 7S Framework ........................................................................................................ 12
4.2. Application of Porter’s five forces analysis ...................................................................................................... 14
5. Designing of change approach ................................................................................................................................... 17
5.1. Application of Lewin’s forcefield analysis ........................................................................................................ 18
5.2. Designing of change using Mckinsey’s 7S Framework ................................................................................... 20
5.3. Application of change kaleidoscope Model ...................................................................................................... 21
6. Recommendations for new strategic initiation ........................................................................................................ 24
6.1 Application of Common elements in successful strategies for strategic initiation in Hemas .................... 24
6.2. Application of 8 components of strategy execution process for strategic initiation in Hemas ............... 27
7. Personal Reflection Statement .................................................................................................................................... 29
List of Reference ............................................................................................................................................................... 33

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1. Introduction

The objective of this assignment is to investigate facts and figures of Hemas consumer
brand sector and identify the current strategic issue of this sector and evaluate the key
reasons for it. Further develop recommendations to overcome the situation based on
several model of strategic management we learnt in MN7185 subject.

Hemas Group is one of Sri Lanka’s premier conglomerates, a widely diversified, public
quoted company with a strong presence in several key sectors of the economy. The
Hemas offering consists of affordable, practical & high quality products and services in
the healthcare, FMCG, Transportation & Leisure sectors. As one of Sri Lanka’s fastest
growing blue chip conglomerates, Hemas Holdings PLC touches the lives of millions of
loyal customer, every day, via their renowned wellness, leisure & mobility services and
their range of high quality home & personal care products; helping to enrich lives,
empower businesses and make a positive contribution to our nation’s economic
development. Consumer brand Sector is the largest sector at Hemas. FMCG is involved
in the development, manufacture, marketing & distribution of a wide range of consumer
products, most of which are household names.

Each Business’ separate revenue growth rate, and contribution to group revenue is
illustrated in the below table.

Sector Revenue Contribution to

growth rate group revenue

Consumer Sector 8.6% 34%

(FMCG)

Healthcare 22.6% 45%

Leisure, travel & aviation -3.0% 8%

Mobility 45.7% 6%

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 Other 45.6% 7%

Source: Annual report 2016/17

Hemas FMCG sector includes several sub Categories of products. These can be
classified as products in;

Major Sub Sector Brands

Sector

FMCG Personal Care Baby Cheramy, Gold, Goya, Paris, Fems,

CAPRI

Home Care-laundry Diva

category

Skin Care/ Personal Wash Velvet

Oral care Clogard

Hair Care Dandex, Kumarika,

Source: Annual report 2016/17

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2. An outline of the current issue in the business

Hamas always set the long-term strategic directions and all the system and process were
geared to achieve the pre-determined goals. Company culture itself has very low flexibility
for convert from deliberate strategy to unrealized emergent strategies and as a result
company can’t grab the emergent trend opportunities. That was the major competitive
disadvantage for Hemas FMCG sector growth.

Figure1:No flexibility in Hemas for Emergent startegies

Source:Mintzberg & Waters,1985

According to Friederike (ND) by now there is a consensus that strategy making resides
on a continuum from planned to emergent strategy making where most strategies are
made in a mixed way. Various sets of contingency factors have been suggested to explain
the influences on the strategy making mode, whether strategies are made in a more
planned or a more emergent way. The role of strategic planning in companies continues
to be debated. Companies do still plan their futures which implies that strategic planning

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is still a relevant issue in management. On the other hand, it has been shown that
strategic planning with its assumption of rational decision making is inconsistent with
managerial reality and fails in practice. The idea of emergent strategies is that within an
organization, strategy emerges out of practice in a bottom-up or undirected way. Even
though many attempts of emergent strategy making might fail, some are successful in
changing the company’s overall direction. Emergent strategy making is most likely to
emerge at a level where managers are directly in contact with new technological
developments and changes in market conditions, and have some budgetary discretion.
In this view, strategic decision making is an ongoing and rather inductive change process.
It can be rather incremental and path-dependent as strategies are continuously modified.

What to be achieved – Planned Mission

Hemas is having single mission to achieve 5-year business plan. That was formulated on
year 2015 as business objective to achieve Rs100 billion annual turnover in the year 2020
(5 years plan). Stakeholders expect 50% of the contribution from FMCG sector.

How to be Achieved –Deliberate Strategy

As per the 5 year strategy of FMCG sector the growth is mainly expected from persona;
care category and all the system and process were geared to drive personal care sector.
It was planned at the strategy formulation that all the other categories, mainly home care
will be kept in the basket of offering to strengthen personal care category.

Hemas consumer brands sector is not giving adequate priority to developed home care
sector when compared with growth strategy and development plans for other categories.
It resulted in allocating low budget and resources to home care category for marketing
development and new product development projects. It had negatively impacted home
care category in Hemas despite trends in economic development and life style change is
more towards growing the home care category in the market.

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Hemas FMCG mission statement itself positioned company as a leader in the personal
care sector “Hemas FMCG strives to enrich your lifestyle via innovative, trusted and
exceptional products that offer greater satisfaction in everyday use. A leader in the
personal care sector, Hemas brands encompass a range of products for babies and
adults in hair care, skin care, toiletries, fragrances and oral care.”

Home care category in summery

 Largest category in which Hemas operates (Laundry category is Rs:15 billion –

LMRB 2015/16)
 High share of mind of traders & consumers: strategically important role
 Soap and detergent powders are the largest segments.
 Fabric softness are growing on a small base

Soap

 Laundry soap remains over 60% of category value although we see year on
year declines in soap volumes
 Unilever Sunlight soap dominates- gives them bottom line which they can
support other personal care Brands

Powders

 Growing segment with 3 sub segments & multiple brands

 Economy is the largest segment: Unilever fights fiercely with Hemas
 Mid segment: currently no strong player with compelling consumer benefit
 Stain removal is the 2nd largest and Unilever Surf has a monopoly

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3. Critical evaluation of role of leadership in the business

Hemas Holdings group, initially known by the name Hemas Drugs Ltd, was founded by
Sheikh Hasannally Esufally as a pharmaceutical and trading enterprise commenced
operations in 1948. With the nationalization of industries and changes in the commercial
arena in the early 1970’s, Hemas identified & entered a promising industry as it diversified
into travel & tourism industries & in 1992, they have entered into the field of freight &
Logistics. Restructuring the group operations in 1993, where individual businesses were
organized in to separate subsidiaries with accountability to parent company.

Chairman

He is business strategist counts for over 30 years management experience and holds a
Bachelor of Science Degree. He serves as the Chairman of the Group’s Fast Moving
Consumer Goods (FMCG) business, and J L Morison Son & Jones (Ceylon) PLC. Whilst
serving on several other Boards. His father is the core founder of the company and Hemas
start mainly with baby cheramy cologne. Mr. Husein is passionate about personal care
category since his childhood age and he took many risks and commitment with Hemas
team to transform baby cheramy cologne to enter baby care category as basket of baby
products (Baby soap/cream/lotions/Diapers etc.). He has never stopped with that and
developed other umbrella categories of Hemas (oral care/hair care/personal wash etc...)
while developing baby care as core flagship category of Hemas consumer sector.

His main strengths are a visionary leader with a passion and dreams to develop
international personal care brand and dominate Asia pacific region personal care range
through Hemas FMCG sector and also he is technical knowhow and proven track record
of developing personal care sector brands (Baby cheramy/Kumarika/Velvet ).However
his weaknesses are giving the main priority to his liking rather than rationally looking at
what market needs and low flexibility to deviate from his deliberate based on upcoming
trends .

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In 2003 he introduced home care category to Hemas with launch of Diva washing powder
to achieve miner two objective.

 To counter attack Unilever laundry care range to make sure that unilever is
not dominating in the shelf of shop as a main brand
 To strengthen the distribution network by introducing a fast moving category

As far as his leadership traits are concerned, he has demonstrated laissez faire
leadership style in home care category although he is a transformational leader in
persona care sector. According to Abdul & Husain (2012) this style is avoiding making
decisions.Laissez- Fair is uninvolved in the work of the unit. It’s difficult to defend this
leadership style unless the leader’s subordinates are expert and well-motivated
specialists, such as Scientists. Leaders let group members make all decisions. According
to Hande & Ozge (2016), although laissez faire leaders have been nominated to
leadership positions and physically occupy these positions, they ignore the
responsibilities and duties assigned to them. Based on this, laissez-faire leadership
should be regarded not only as “lack of presence”, also as “zero leadership”.

As per three skill approach (Katz, 1955) he has conceptual skill and vision to grow
personal care business and that motive factor drives him to gather more technical skill
about new product development of personal care category. He motivated and drove his
entire leadership team to gain share from personal care category as transformational
leader. According to Sadia & Aman (2018) transformational leadership is one of the best
methods to enhance the individuals and group’s performance. Transformational leaders
motivate followers to exert and explore existing as well as new prospects.
Transformational leaders proactively help the followers to attain goals with high
standards. Transformational leaders move followers beyond immediate self-interest.
Transformational leadership creates an environment in which employees are motivated
and energized. Motivated employees working in a supportive climate provide more
effective customer service, reinforcing organizational performance and leading to
financial gains for shareholders.

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On the other side he has introduced home care category with vary narrow objective of
safe-guarding the personal care category from competition, showing a transactional
leadership style in initial stage and then changed leadership laissez faire style with
organic growth of home care category.

His current leadership style directly affect Hemas home care business as many effective
strategies were not implemented in the category due to his lethargic approach towards
category. At the same time many strategic decisions in the category are getting delayed
and therefore competitor grabbed the opportunity of new product development and new
business development.

The suggested leadership style for effective business operation is traformational

leadership. According to Aymn(2018), transformational leadership that is needed today,
it has the potential to inspire subordinates to do their best, develop their skills so as to
deliver those subordinates to advanced intellectual levels. The transformational leader is
able to urge his followers to achieve more than the expected. Transformational leadership
is the leadership that goes beyond incentives for performance, to develop and encourage
workers intellectually and creatively, as well as to transform their own concerns into an
essential part of the organization’s mission. At the same time Sadia & Aman(2018) says
transformational leaders move followers beyond immediate self-interest.
Transformational leadership creates an environment in which employees are motivated
and energized. Motivated employees working in a supportive climate provide more
effective customer service, reinforcing organizational performance and leading to
financial gains for shareholders. Four dimensions of transformational leadership style
which includes idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual simulation and
individualized consideration.

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Leadership team of Hemas FMCG sector

Chairman and board of directors of Hemas appointed the leadership team to run the
FMCG sector and delegated the authority and responsibility to grow FMCG sector. When
forming the leadership and senior management teams also board of directors prioritized
recruiting specialists in personal care sector. Mainly director marketing is an oral care
category expert, director research and development is a personal wash category expert,
director sales and distribution is skin care category expert.

Entire leadership team has minimum technical know how about home care range and as
chairman directed them, always had laissez faire leadership to home care category.
According to Timothy & Chester (2008) the major defining characteristic of laissez-faire
leadership as the lack of leader response to a variety of potential stimuli in a variety of
situations. Laissez-faire leadership does not appear to be motivated and intentional; it is
simply the lack of any response to subordinates needs and performance. Nonresponse
to good performance is likely to have more negative effects than will nonresponse to poor
performance. Their main strengths are highly qualified and have a vast experience in the
field of persona care and their weaknesses are most of LT team members were hired
from overseas and as a result the exposure on local culture and consumer habits were
very less. At the same time always followed the international trends and difficult to
convince to develop local connect inside driven product and communication campaigns
(culture shock). Further there was a high communication Gap between leadership team
and the work force due to the language barrier.

Their leadership style affect decision making in home care category as least priority is
given in allocating resources for home care category. At the same time many effective
business decisions were not taken and got delayed due to less priority for home care in
their work schedule.

The suggested leadership style for them in home care category is situational leadership
where they should delegate, support, coach and direct employees in their decision
making. According to Ammar (2015), the main responsibility of the situational leaders is
to meet the team member’s needs for different task direction and personal motivation
based on the individual’s readiness to complete a certain work by changing leader’s

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behavior. The main strengths of situational leadership are flexible in nature, and to tell the
leader in a particular situation what to do given different solutions.

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4 Critical analysis of current strategic framework of the business

4.1. Application of Mckinsey’s 7S Framework

According to FMM institute (2015) this model is most often used as a tool to assess and
monitor changes in the internal situation of an organization. It is based on the theory that,
for an organization to perform well, these seven elements need to be aligned and
mutually reinforcing. So, the model can be used to help identify what needs to be
realigned to improve performance, or to maintain alignment during change. According to
Bryant, Lawrence and Stephen (ND) The strengths of the McKinsey 7S Model are its
description of organizational variables that convey obvious importance, its recognition of
the importance of the interrelationships among all of these seven variables, or dimensions
and its generic form makes its applicable to either manufacturing or service firms.

According to Teybeh, Mohammad and Mehdi(2015) the model can be applied to many
situations and is a valuable tool when organizational design is at question. The most
common uses of the framework are to facilitate organizational change, to help implement
new strategy, to identify how each area may change in a future, to facilitate the merger of
organizations. In McKinsey model, the seven areas of organization are divided into the
‘soft’ and ‘hard’ areas. Strategy, structure and systems are hard elements that are much
easier to identify and manage when compared to soft elements. On the other hand, soft
areas, although harder to manage, are the foundation of the organization and are more
likely to create the sustained competitive advantage.

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Figure 2: How to analyze Hemas through 7S Framework

Source: Mckinsey, 1980

When Mckinsey model is applied to current situation of Hemas for hard elements, primary
stage of strategy formulation is mainly driven by Hemas total PLC board of directors to
achieve annual 100 billion revenue by year 2020. To achieve that objective secondarily
formulated each business sector objectives. At the same time FMCG sector was expected
to contribute by 50% revenue to the annual turnover. At the same time it is confirmed
that the growth should come from personal care category in FMCG sector. This was the
deliberate 5 year strategy in Hemas .As far as structure is concerned All the layers,
infrastructures, resource were allocated to strengthen the personal care sector.Ex: New
product development specialists recruited in personal care , Manufacturing facility
expansions in personal care .Also all the systems were mainly developed to identify the
personal care category development opportunities and build the competitive edge.Ex:
Developed online consumer feedback generation system/24 hours customer care center
only for personal care brands. As far as soft elements are concerned, mainly skills were

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planned giving high priority to recruitment training and development of personal care
sector Ex: Providing overseas training to brand team of personal care, appointing new
marketing director to handle personal care category.When the staff is concerned, there
is a huge staff turnover in home care category due to unfair rewards and recognition to
home care team. Also Organizational culture always encourage to be innovative and
creative in personal care sector and consider home care sector .Company is having more
of top down values driven approach to satisfy chairman and leadership team . There are
lot of barriers to convince through bottom up approach. Systemized culture always tries
only to achieve pre-determined goals and does not facilitate deviations although it gives
positive results to business. Very low flexibility to capitalize upcoming new trends and
opportunities. Ex: Home care sector should always follow the strategy of competitor and
no room for gain first mover advantage

4.2. Application of Porter’s five forces analysis

Competitive forces is defined by Porter as the pressure of industry on business

unit (company/firm/corporate) in gaining performance. According to Porter, the
industrial pressures consist of five elements, namely:
(1) Bargaining power of buyers
(2) Bargaining power of suppliers
(3) Threat of new entrants
(4) Threat of substitute products or services
(5) Rivalry among existing firms (Sirajuddin, Ibrahim & Hisnol, 2017)

According to Fabian (2014) The Five Forces framework is a useful starting point for
strategic analysis. In order to create a strategy it is very important to have enough

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knowledge about the industry in which the company operates. The factors that are
influencing a company within an industry can be extremely various. Therefore it is wise
to consider only those factors that are important for all participating companies within an
industry. In addition to the competition among the existing competitors, Porter’s Five
Forces model identifies another four forces that characterize the intensity of competition
within an industry: Bargaining power of Supplier, Bargaining power of Buyer, Threat of
Substitutes and Threat of new Entrants .The interaction of these Five Forces is a constant
threat to the success of a company.

Figure 3: How to analyze Hemas through Porter’s 5 forces

Source: Porter ,2008

When analyzing Hemas FMCG sector through this model bargaining power of buyers are
very high in all the categories which Hemas operates in main categories due to no much
value offering differentiations (commodity products) and differentiation is mainly through

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emotional attributes (Brand equity/Do good benefits/Fragrance/packaging).Also
bargaining power of suppliers are comparatively high as key competitors of Hemas are
mainly multinational companies and they mainly have the regional buying power and
enjoying bulk buying economies of scale Ex: forward contracting/High quality exclusive
raw materials. Threat of new entrants are comparatively high since Hemas business is
more into commodity product selling. New entrants can easily enter into market since not
much product differentiation and at the same time having threat of high quality imported
premium products. Threat of substitute products are very high in the FMCG sector with
the growth of modern trade outlets channels and opening for entry of all new imported
products offerings. Rivalry among existing firms are very high mainly with multinational
companies and local regional small players. With multinationals, need to be competed
with high quality and brand building factors and with local and regional players, need to
be competed with price factor.

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5. Designing of change approach

One of the main weaknesses in FMCG sector is 5-year plan business objective setup
process of analysis, formulation and implantation is done as one process and they do not
consider it as an ongoing process in long run. When the business environment change,
it needs to be continuously carried out to come to the desired state of achieving 100 billion
turnover in the year 2020.

Figure 4: The strategic management process is not being practiced as a continues

process in Hemas

Source: Johnson, Scholes &Whittington,2008

In the strategy analysis and formulation stage the main focus were given to
personal care sector. Home care sector was considered to be maintained rather
than bringing growth in order to strengthen the personal care sector. The strategy
analysis team has not considered the positive global and local trends and the size
of home care category to understand the growth potential as a category. In the
strategy formulation stage the senior management team has single focus to grow
personal care. The strategy team is mainly influenced by the chairman’s passion
about personal care sector. On the other side most of senior members of

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 leadership team were only personal care experts and that was resulted in lack of
analysis made in home care sector on the strategy formulation stage. In the
strategy implementation stage no room was given to grab the upcoming emergent
trends on home care sector or change market situations. All systems, procedure
were set up to drive the pre-planned deliberate strategy.

5.1. Application of Lewin’s forcefield analysis

According to Laura(2016) constant change is required from today’s business

organizations. Due to the ever-growing competitive environment, they have to
deliver rapid results and sustainable growth. In order to keep the pace and stay
competitive, companies are forced to adapt and change to an unpredictable
degree. Some of those master the art of changing quickly and therefore gain a
competitive advantage and others do not. According to Donald & Andrew (2014)
embracing the complexities of change and not oversimplifying it as a simple linear
process can be rewarding, and yet challenging in practice. Two aspects of change
the facts of a situation, and the perceptions of the people involved are crucial
issues. Planned change provides a full suite of useful tools for understanding and
driving change. According to Hustled & Score (1995) Force-field analysis was
developed by the noted sociologist, Kurt Lewin, in the 1940s. According to Lewin,
organizations and individuals operate within a psychological and social
environment. The "life space" of this environment is called a "field." The
relationship between various "forces" in a field can halt or encourage change.
Organizations and groups are better equipped to handle and plan for change when
they increase their understanding of force relationships. According to Peter,
Linnaya & David (2016) Force field analysis is a tool used in management to
identify forces that influence, drive or impedes change. It is used to define the
dynamic of human behavior when change is introduced and when the status quo
is disrupted. The three key actions must take place change to occur is First,
identify contributing and inhibiting factors or forces that influence behaviors.
Second, determine which forces or factors can be controlled or positively

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 manipulated to drive change. Third, develop recommendations or action plans for
positive change.

Figure 5: Designing of change in Hemas through Lewin’s force field analysis

Source: Donald & Andrew,2015

Local washing powder market is mainly having 3 segments as economy segment, middle
segment and stain removal segment. Diva washing powder operates only in economy
segment and as a result currently enjoying only low gross profit (GP around 30%)
compared to personal care category .If Diva can introduce new offerings to middle and
stain removal segments, GP can be accelerated to over 50%. The resisting factors are
currently diva is manufactured through contract manufacturing facility and as result there
are lot barriers to improve productivity. If Hemas starts own manufacturing plant,
productivity can be easily improved and thereby improve the GP level .Also currently diva
operates only and there is vast untapped markets for innovative products such as Stain
removal, whitening, softeners, fabric care products, washing liquid. At the same currently

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senior and middle management motivation and focus were very minimum to home care
sector due to lower margins. It can be changed easily if we can upgrade the current loyal
consumer base to premium price offerings as said innovative new product range. Further
current leadership team doesn’t have much of experience and technical know-how in
home care category. If we can hire few home care experts to the leadership team, then
new development strategies can be easily planned.

In order to do the above change resisting forces in the company for home care starting
form chairman and leadership team should be brain stormed by the change leader
showing positive results of bringing growth in this sector. The negative perception they
have on home care category as a low margin category should be eliminated showing a
new strategic plan for home care in terms of strategy analysis and formulation.

5.2. Designing of change using Mckinsey’s 7S Framework

Figure 6: Designing of change in Hemas through 7S Framework

Source: Mckinsey,1980

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As far as strategy is concerned there should enough stargies developed for home care
sector in the deliberate strategy and at the same time a room should be given to emergent
stargies to come into existence based on market conditions .The Structure should
facilitate the growth of home care sector by having specialized layers and people for home
care. Systems such as total ERP solutions, sales force automation systems should
facilitate analyzing, planning the growth of home care sector .The leadership style
towards home care sector should be converted to transformational leadership .Also
specialized staff for home care should be recruited to implement the stargies effectively
.when recruiting people, home care experts should be brought in with the objective of
bringing new skills and competencies to the organization.

5.3. Application of change kaleidoscope Model

According to Craig (2014) It is a framework through which insight can be gained into
whether or not the organization has followed a process for the change. Change
implementation is very complex since its success depends on the development of a
context-sensitive approach. The Change Kaleidoscope is, therefore, a framework that
can assist judgments about the approach to be made to a change context. The Change
Kaleidoscope Model uses the change context, which is the “why” of change.

Figure 7: How to design change in Hemas through Kaleidoscope model

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Source: Balogun & Hope,1999

When applying the above model to Hemas, FMCG sector is a very dynamic market. If we
want to win the market company should always be ready for grab the opportunities of
emergent trends. It will be a threat to setup a pre-determined long term actions plans with
fixed systems and procedures. To achieve targeted vision (What to achieve) directions of
actions plans (How to achieve) should be degree of change which can be separated into
realignment and transformation. Also almost all resources in the company should be kept
available for the change. The company should motivate, recognize and encourage the
all teams without discriminating categories or brands .At the same time the company
should identify the skills of existing staff and make plans to enhance in order align the
home care growth strategy to skills. The resources organization need for change is capital
investment, technology and expert knowledge should be brought into the business at the
time of change implantation .Further change leader should encourage employee and
management attitude and passion to change, grab new emergent opportunities. Change
leader should be empowered to take decisions in all aspect.

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In order to survive and grow in the modern dynamic FMCG sector the new business model
should be driven mainly by three pillars

 Mission driven
 Value driven
 People driven

Mission driven: live the mission, share your dream journey (What to achieve) and
convince, inspire the team with simple change. Know your target customer better and
create value to them. Engage your customers and all the stakeholders with the company.

Value driven: create value for others (customers/stakeholders). Today business is mainly
driven with E-commerce however we don’t know what will happen in the long run therefore
always structure, system and procedures should be flexible to grab the new opportunities.

People driven: Always prioritize employee training and development to build the
professionalism. Highly trained and developed teams are any time ready for the change.
Create reward and recognition culture for innovation and value creation base.

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6. Recommendations for new strategic initiation

6.1 Application of Common elements in successful strategies for strategic initiation in

Hemas

Bonekeh (2018) describes the success strategies which when effectively implemented
enhance growth in the organization. The organization needs to set values of being simple,
consistent and having long-term goals. There should be a profound understanding of the
competitive environment and objective appraisal of the resources. Just like the case of
the armies who need strategies, organizations also need business strategies to give
direction and purpose to deploy resources in most efficient manner and to coordinate the
decisions made by different individuals.

Figure 8: How to apply common elements in successful strategies to Hemas

Source: Grant,2009

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Hemas should apply the model to make sure effective implementation of strategy. Vision
is mainly the purpose of business exist and it should create value to the society. Current
Hemas vision is in line with that “enriching the life of consumer”. Current 5-year goal is“to
be number one personal care category in the country” and through that increase the
FMCG sector growth. Recommending to create value driven approach to achieve FMCG
sector growth. Fixed element of the plan is “what to achieve” (Grow FMCG sector to get
50% contribution to parent company on year 2020) but variable factor of plan should be
“How to achieve” it can’t be fixed only to depend on personal care sector. “How to
achieve” need to be flexible to garb upcoming emergent opportunities. Core
competencies and market opportunities we can consider as together because they are
mutually dependent on each other for profound understanding of the competitive
environment.

Core competencies are mainly what we do well. Be it products value offering, services
excellency, technical expertise, great employees or even outstanding pricing, sales
distribution network the competencies are the business attributes upon which we compete
and differentiate ourselves. When consider Hemas personal care sector there were not
much core competencies except outstanding value for money price points. Other side of
“value for money” concept consumers have a perception on quality of the product also
low. Creating loyal consumer base on personal care sector major influencing factors are
product offering and delivery and Hemas personal care products don’t have that attribute.
As a summery without having competitive edge on personal care sector very difficult even
survive despite growth expectation.

When consider the Heams home care sector we can identify many core competencies
and market opportunities to grow Diva brand. Diva Regular and Flowers will be both
absorbed under this common umbrella. This will allow the brand to have one common
communication as well as allow the brand flexibility to go into different fragrance variants.
The role of this sub brand is as a great VFM brand that will operate in the economy
segment, this segment will have attractive packaging and winning fragrances and will use
new fragrances launches to keep interest and new news alive. Product will be priced on
par with market leader Sunlight. Liquid format of Diva Fresh with more aspirational

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fragrances will allow the brand to go into the mid-tier. Given that currently (LMRB) 78%
of category volumes are at the bottom we see a significant gap which can be leveraged
to upgrade Sunlight users to Diva’s liquid product. This will also give Diva aspiration and
allow significant growths of presence in the modern trade.

Diva Power will be Diva’s premium product offering and sub brand. This will be a liquid to
leverage the new news of liquid format as well as the functional positives of less
harshness on clothes and hands as well as superior delivery of fragrance. Diva soap’s
role is to gain at least a 10% value share in the large laundry soap segment. This will
deliver topline for the company. This should be done in a manner that will not cause a
bleed to the brand’s financials. The objective is also as a competitive strategy to force
Unilever to spend effort and funds to defend their large soap franchise which they use
funds from to fund their Personal care brands.

Objective appraisal of resources is the collective impact of the company's activities, and
the important part of any plan. A clear vision together with aligned core competencies and

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opportunities is must. However in order to plan effective execution, the objective appraisal
of resources is must, otherwise all of that becomes just only a dreams without realization.
The main challenge is how Hemas FMCG sector differentiate from competitors. This can
be achieving through innovative insights into the future. Identification of these resources
by competitors will be problematic because then Hemas can’t enjoy the first mover or
value creation advantage. To create innovation when a company is able to keep important
resources to itself, such as engaged loyal employees base advance training and
development, advance R&D facility.

6.2. Application of 8 components of strategy execution process for strategic initiation in

Hemas

Figure 9: How to apply 8 components of strategy execution process to Hemas

Source: Thompson, Strickland & Gamble ,2007

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The above model can be applied to Hemas to allocate resource according to each
category (Personal care, Home care) operates mainly from the category Size, Category
growth, Competition (Share of voice, share of market).Also need to analysis and prioritize
each category future business potential and allocate resource based on that. Policies
and procedures should be flexible to garb emergent trends and innovate the product
offering to win the future market. Also must Share the learning and best practice among
each category for continues improvement Ex: New product launch learnings. At the same
time create value through installing support systems and it will create competitive edge in
the market Ex: From marketing intelligent division can gather competitor information and
distribution network input to win the future competition. Further develop reward and
recognition to motivate and engage the employees for continues improvement. Also must
create performance driven culture Ex: CEO awards, MD’s pride awards .At the same time
must create corporate culture of value, mission, and people driven and develop align
business strategies to maintain and grow it.Further chairman and the leadership team
have to play the transformational leadership role to change the culture. At the same time
need to strength the R&D with employee training and development to better perform for
win the future market.

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7. Personal Reflection Statement

Through Leadership and Strategic management subject knowledge I were able to

understand my leadership skills ,In which areas I’m lacking of capabilities and how
to improve myself as a corporate leader . I’m enriched with people skills where I
believe I have a great ability of influencing others, interacting with any group of
employees irrespective of diversity , motivating people towards given task , get the
work done form others .However I understand intellectual skills are lacking in my
profile where I’m weak in developing a direction for vision as well as making
strategic decisions .I categorize myself as a leader who has high concern for
people and low concern for results and according to Blake and Mouton’s
managerial grid , in most of the time I demonstrate county club leadership style
.At the same time I have some traits in servant leaders such as acknowledging the
viewpoint of followers and validating these perspectives, attempting to see the
world from another person’s point of view, helping followers become whole,
servant leaders are themselves healed, understanding oneself and the impact one
has on others, creates change through gentle, non-judgmental argument. At the
same time I demonstrate some transformational leadership qualities in my decision
making such as team building, focus on success through motivation and
collaboration.

However, I understand the importance of being a situational leader and therefore

I should improve my skills in delegating, supporting, coaching and directing. At the
same time, I understand the importance of being a team leader in the organization
and it will give directions for success in organization. Therefore, according to Blake
and Mouton’s leadership grid I must change my leadership style from county club
to team leader giving high concern of people as well as results.

As per the psychometric test I carried out in www.psychometrictest.org.uk, the

following areas were identified as my strengths

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Transformational Leadership, which is representative of the individual’s ability to
inspire and motivate employees, promoting an atmosphere wherein the leaders
and employees aid one another’s development. It is also indicative of mentoring
qualities and the capacity in which the candidate is able to provide a role model for
those within the company, thus encouraging others to strive to an advanced level
of performance.

Resourcefulness is the final trait assessed by the leadership questionnaire, a

fundamental characteristic for those who are in charge of any number of
employees, in this instance it is regarded as the ability to maintain calm, collected
and to provide solutions for adverse situations effectively and efficiently. Those
with low resourcefulness may be more inclined to become overwhelmed when
confronting difficulties, possibly resulting in the impairment of other important
leadership assets.

However, following areas were identified as weaknesses of my leadership

Organization, which is extremely important to any individual in a managerial or

leadership role, as it concerns the structuring of tasks, time keeping, preparedness
and attention to detail. These are key abilities to those in a role responsible for
instructing or guiding a team.

Responsibility, which refers to the candidate’s ability to consider the needs of other
employees and incorporate this into decision making along with their own needs,
in order to make a fair, balanced work environment and is also an indicator of
accountability for one’s own mistakes, as opposed to passing the blame to
subordinates.

Assertiveness, which demonstrates an active pursuit of achieving desired goals,

as well as the confident expression of opinions and ideas, which is important for

30
an individual in a leadership role as it promotes clear communication of what is
desired of employees, as well as feedback which is vital to individual development.

In strategic management perspective I believe that I’m a good executer and I have
the ability of getting support from others. However, in Analysis and formulation part
my skills are lacking and I should pay more focus on how to do a professional work
in terms of two areas in strategy development. At the same time my ability of
convincing resisting forces during change is very high. However as per 8
components of strategy execution, just convincing is not enough as I need to make
sure effective change is happened and it is being established in the organization.
For that I need to look at aspects such as enough resource allocation, change
corporate culture permanently to fit the strategy, establishing strategy supportive
policies, installing strategy supportive systems which were not done during change
management.

In summery I categorize myself as a leader who has many people management

skills however need to improve intellectual and conceptual skills. For that I need to
refer many books of leadership and strategic management written by reputed
authors on improving skills and capabilities in leadership as well as on situational
leadership and transformational leadership .with the subject knowledge I gain I
have already changed my approach in my day to day decision making in the
organization . I’m always conscious of being a team leader, situational leader and
improving my intellectual skills and conceptual skills in decision making. I believe
I would be able to enhance my leadership and strategic management capabilities
with the annual planning process in the organization which starts in February 2019
and go till April 2019.During that period I have to go through many challenges as
a leader, decision maker and strategist and it will be the ideal time to enhance my
capabilities and skills with the subject knowledge.

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As per Kolb's experiential learning style theory I have planned the improvements which I
need in my leadership and strategic management capabilities as follows

The experiential learning cycle Personal Development Plan

Concrete Experience Reinterpret my past experience at Hemas
on intellectual skills.
Reflective observation of the new Understand how to change my behavior in
experience managing organizing, taking responsibility
and being assertive.
Abstract Conceptualization Change the behavior
Active experimentation Experience new approach in day today
work

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