Group Assignment

Points :10

UDAY SINGH'S CHANGED TRAVEL PLAN

Acme Ltd is into manufacturing and marketing a few industrial products. Only two to three customers
are present on an average in one major city. The order size is generally big. A salesperson is generally
assigned a geographically big sales territory because of the above factors.
Uday Singh is a Sales Officer with Acme Ltd.), stationed at Chandigarh. His sales territory includes whole
of Punjab, Himachal, and parts of Haryana. The major towns covered by him are Chandigarh, Baddi,
Dharamshala, Solan, Shimla, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala, Bathinda, Ambala, Karnal,
Kurukshetra and Hissar. Generally a day each is required for covering each center.
Recently there was a change in management at Acme. Mr. R.S. Solanki joined as the new General
Manager (Marketing). He was known for his strong cost cutting measures. He did an analysis of Uday
Singh’s territory and proposed some cost cutting measures.
Uday Singh was paid ordinary bus fare. His daily allowance at home station i.e. Chandigarh was Rs. 100.
His ex-allowance i.e. going to an outstation and coming back to the home station the same day was Rs.
150. This was in addition to the fares, which was on actuals. However, the company had a liberal policy
on night stay. They used to pay hotel charges to a maximum of Rs. 750 in addition to the daily allowance
of Rs. 200 in case the salesperson stayed at an outstation for a night.
Uday Singh had to cover a big geographical area. He used to have a minimum of 10 night stays in a
month. This amounted to hotel charges of between Rs. 7000 to 7500 every month.
The General Manager observed that all the stations in Uday’s territory are at an approachable distance
from Chandigarh. He can easily go in the morning and come back in the evening. This will have no
impact on the coverage, and the company will save a minimum of Rs. 5000 since the cost of travelling is
not much.
Uday Singh took a strong exception to this change. He gave the following reasons in his defence:
1. Around three customers have to be covered in a day at one centre. Customers generally reach their
work place at around 11 AM in the morning. One sales call takes a minimum of two hours. 2 PM to 3
PM is the lunch time, and the factory owners reach their workplace after lunch between 3 to 3.30
PM. They work till 8 PM. Uday is generally free by 8 PM. If he plans to come back to Chandigarh in
the night, he will have to leave his third customer, so that that he can be free by 6 PM and catch the
bus for Chandigarh.
2. Even if he leaves his third customer, he will still reach Chandigarh late in the night and will have to
again catch the early morning bus to reach the next destination in time. It will be impossible for a
normal human being to follow such a routine for long.
3. The added stress will have an impact on his sales presentation, and his performance level will go
down.
4. He will have no time for follow up with the customers, as most of his time will be spent on travelling.

Case Study: Travel Plan of Uday Singh: SDM

However, Mr.Solanki feels that sales persons have to be ready for such hard work. According to him, a
person who is afraid of hard work has no place in the selling profession. He has told Uday to follow the
new routine for at least 3 months. If there is a need, this routine can be reviewed.
Uday Singh has been a star performer of the company for the last few years. No one had ever
questioned his hard working capabilities previously. He is now demoralized and has started looking for a
better opportunity.
1. Plan the travel plan for Uday based on the information and the analysis of the GM.
2. Did the GM do the right thing or did Uday have a genuine case for grievance?
3. What would be your solution to this problem?

Please use maps and bus fares between the various locations. Plan the optimum route and your
suggested routes and work out the total costs.

Case Study: Travel Plan of Uday Singh: SDM