Was Silvio the right choice for general manager of Schindler’s India

operations?
Silvio was absolutely right choice for general manager position of Schindler’s India because,

 Joined as a head of corporate planning in Schindler’s headquarters after graduating from the
MBA program at Harvard Business School.
 He has an experience working with VRA at higher level and also coordinating annual strategic
review process, undertaking external benchmarking and competitor analysis.
 He was part of swatch project and came up with a solution to the existing problem of erosion
of new sales.
 He has a good foresight about how things are to be planned and organized. Even before
coming to India, Silvio spent nine months for detailed analysis of Indian market size, legal
procedures and competitive environment analysis.
 He was the one who charted the plan out and has a capability to execute it properly as well.
 He had courage. He was labelled as strong headed and single-minded manager. He possess
the attributes of a warrior who never gives up until he succeeds.
 He is friendly and easy going. At the same time, he can be a tough as well.
As Luc Bonnard how would you evaluate Silvio’s first seven months as general
manager of the Indian company? What advice would you offer?

 Silvio was very logical in selecting his team of managers which is very important to take forward
the Schindler’s operations in India.
 Should not be too stringent on the strategy chartered. Should be flexible with the needs of the
customers especially when they need a minor changes required in the elevators.
 He should take into account the suggestions given by his managers on few aspects as they know
the conditions or mindset of customers better than him.
 In the first seven months, he is organized in developing a team and charting a strategy but failed
in understanding elevators market in Indian context.
 He should align the business strategy with the needs of the customer which helps Schindler to
stabilize its position.
What advice would you give to Silvio regarding his decision on the
nonstandard glass wall elevator that has been ordered?

 Taking up the glass wall elevator would help the Schindler to penetrate into the market even
though this venture would give them a loss.
 Along with the standard product, they can accommodate to the customer needs by supplying
glass wall elevators as it takes minor customization to the product.
 Silvio has to be clear about the demand of glass wall elevator in the market basically. If it has
good market and customers are preferring them, then glass wall elevators can be made as a
standard product that Schindler sells.
 Also, strategy should be changed accordingly based on the customers demand. You should
offer some value proposition in order to differentiate from the competitors as they acquired 75%
of the market share.
How should he deal with the challenges he is facing over transfer prices
and limited technical cooperation from the European plants?

 He needs to escalate things immediately when he doesn’t get proper response from the
European plants regarding design details and product specifications.
 There should be a proper communication in updating the details regarding the transfer prices
quite often so that cost estimation and pricing strategy can be altered accordingly.
 He should be outsourcing it to local suppliers immediately so that transfer price doesn’t affect
the profits here in India.
 A detailed report on shortcomings from transfer price perspective need to be shared with CEO
so that he can sort out the things with European plant.
Thank You