WRITTEN ANALYSIS AND COMMUNICATION

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
(Section B: Case Analysis Report)
Case: ‘Vikram Rana at Margot Financial Securities’

Post-Graduate Programme in Management

Indian Institute of Management, Indore

Submitted By
Himanshi Gupta (2021PGP146)
Group 9

Submitted To
Prof. Sayanatan Mukherjee

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Letter of Transmittal

November 25, 2021

Prof. Sayanatan Mukherjee

IIM Indore

Subject: Evaluation of Case— “Vikram Rana at Margot Financial Securities”

Dear Professor,

As per instructions received, I submit herewith an analysis of the case titled: “Vikram Rana at
Margot Financial Securities”. The case addresses the gender- sensitivity issues at workplace and
explores the interplay of gender dynamics and engrained biases that contribute to toxic relations.
There has been an attempt in the report to identify the bully between Vikram and Neha. The
following pages contain, in a report layout, a detailed examination of the problem between
Vikram and Neha, and involved discussion regarding the appropriateness of their behaviours,
followed by comprehensive examination of possible alternatives, supplemented by an action
plan.

I shall be willing to have a discussion with you, at your convenience, in case you have any
suggestions regarding the same.

Regards,
Himanshi Gupta
Participant, Written Analysis and Communication Course
IIM Indore
Batch of 2023

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Executive Summary

Vikram Rana, the Chief Editor and Head of Production at Margot Financial Securities, was a
meticulous man in his late thirties, boasting quality education background, Vikram certainly had
very high standards for work and he sought perfection in it. The culture that Margot was trying to
promote was one that of a women-friendly workspace. Vikram’s bossy attitude and his snob
image didn’t go well with his associate Neha Salian, who was an overbearing old woman in her
late 40’s with out of place workplace ethics. Neha dodged her duties on the pretext of familial
responsibilities and took advantage of Vikram’s incapability to confront her openly. Theirs’s was
an ever energy-sapping battle, marred with manipulation and retaliation. As matters went out of
hand, the thoughts of being reported by Neha on context of harassment were haunting Vikram,
who himself was conveniently ignoring his own shortcomings. The options that were suggested
to tackle this situation include an empathetic sorting out of things, going behind Neha’s back and
reprimanding Neha. After careful evaluation we have recommend sorting out things with Neha
compassionately. As a contingency plan, reaching out to Naren before Neha does seemed
feasible.

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Table of Contents

Situation Analysis………………………………….….……………………………………...(5)

Problem Statement………………………………………………………………………..….(5)

Options or alternatives……………………………………….………………….…..……....(6)

Criteria …………………………....…………………………………………………..….…...(6)

Evaluation of Options……………………………………………………..……….…….…...(6)

Recommendations…………………………………………………………….…...……….... (7)

Action Plan and Implementation………………………………………………..….............(7)

Contingency Plan………………………………………………………………...…..…….....(7)

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Situation Analysis

Margot is a Mumbai-based firm regarded as one of India's most rapidly growing domestic
institutional broking businesses. It was attempting to endorse a women-friendly workplace that
allowed women associates to maintain a work-life balance. To this end, a Women's Grievance
Redressal Committee was established to investigate any occurrences of harassment or
humiliation against women at work.

Vikram, the fastidious, precise, and diligent Chief Editor at Margot in his late 30s, was an
unmarried man going through a difficult period in his life due to his tumultuous relationship with
his colleague, Neha Salian.

Neha was an disobedient associate in her late 40’s, who didn’t boast of a very good professional
history. Inline with what most other associates felt, Neha considered Vikram to be a bossy,
domineering man, a snob who always keeps pestering her and doesn’t understand her problems.
Shortcomings were prominent in case of Neha on account of her work, but not so prominent in
case of Vikram, though Vikram internally knew that he lacked somewhere.

The perceptions that Neha had about Vikram, added to Neha’s incompetency, her never-ending
excuses and blunt refusals, things were quite heated between Vikram and Neha. After their last
confrontation where Neha threatened Vikram, things can go in any direction and now its upon
Vikram to ameliorate this situation and save his reputation against any harassment charges.

We will be analysing whether Vikram should introspect and alter his leadership style or he
should reprimand Neha and go against her, ignoring his own behavioural shortcomings.

Problem Statement

What course of action should be taken by Vikram to resurrect the fairly out of control situation
standing between him and his associate, Neha?

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Options

1. Understand, adjust and sort out things: Vikram should try to understand Neha’s
perspective, her familial commitments and sort out things with her over an empathetic
and amiable conversation.
2. Apprising Naren before Neha takes any action: Vikram can go behind Neha’s back,
reach out to Naren straightaway and justify everything before Neha reaches out to Naren
is an effort to tarnish his image.
3. Reprimand Neha: Vikram can reprimand Neha with a strongly worded email full of
accusations, threatening to expose her incompetency’s to the company.

Criteria for Evaluation

1. Past Performance Based: Neha’s performance for Margot has been below par marred
with regular errors, constant excuses and incomplete reports.
2. Image in the company: Vikram was considered a snob by his associates who made his
employees repeat work over and over until it’s perfect.
3. Company’s Culture & Beliefs: Margot is a company that is trying to be gender-
sensitive and trying to establish itself as a women-friendly workspace.
4. Future in the company: Vikram already fired Lijo previously, and now his spat with
Neha poses a question regarding Vikram’s competitiveness for leadership roles in the
company in future.

Evaluation of Options

The following table analyses all the possible options according to the mentioned criteria:

Option 1 Option 2 Option 3

Criteria 1 low -ve moderate low +ve
Criteria 2 high +ve low -ve high -ve
Criteria 3 high +ve low -ve high -ve
Criteria 4 low +ve moderate low -ve

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Recommendations

From the above evaluation, it is clear that the best alternative that Vikram can choose is to have
an empathetic talk with Neha with a cool mind, try to gauge her perspective, be polite and
understanding with her. Once Neha feels that he is not actually an arrogant bossy man, and once
she feels gender secure, she will not go ahead and press charges against him. This will also aid in
re-defining his image in the company, the notions and doubt if any regarding his leadership skills
will be curtailed to an extent. This will impact Vikram’s personal life in a positive manner as
well, as he would no longer have to live under constant fear of what might be reported against
him.

Action Plan and Implementation

1. Self-Introspection by Vikarm on how as to he has been an inefficient leader and has not
been empathetic with his associates, including Neha.
2. Set up a meeting with Neha.
3. In the meeting, Vikram should accept his flaws, and explain his situation to Neha,
elucidate Neha her mistakes but in a more subtle manner, clear everything as to how
nothing is personal against her and how he is cognizant of and respects the fact that she is
a working woman with family commitments.
4. Vikram should hang out more with his associates, try to build a stronger relation with
them which is beyond work.
5. Vikram can also organize workshops for his associates clarifying how grammatical
mistakes are bad for a company’s image and how they can be avoided.

Contingency Plan

In case the candid conversation with Neha didn’t work out and she is still mad at him, the
contingency plan that I suggest is option 2, that is apprising Naren before Neha does, because if
Neha were to reach out first then there was a risk of his image being shattered and action taken
against him.

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