Indian Tobacco Company Analysis

Indian Tobacco Company Analysis Indian Tobacco Company ITC Limited, a Rs. 8000-crore Indian conglomerate, and a market leader in the tobacco industry has been strategically diversifying into other related and unrelated businesses since 1970 in the order to reduce its dependency on its tobacco business. It has forayed into the arenas of FMCG (fast moving consumable goods), information technology and agri business to obtain the different revenue streams and also to enhance the brand image. The corporation has been successful in its hotel business known as the ITC-Welcome and collaborated with the international groups market its hospitality services. IT has also packaged foods, branded apparel, greeting cards and stationary, paperboards, packaging and incense sticks businesses in its portfolio. Through the application of effective diversification of its corporate portfolio, ITC has successfully spread its business and market risks across the whole spectrum of the Indian economy and abroad. ITC Group is known as to be one of the most successfully diversified companies, and is also known for its projects on social upliftment like women`s empowerment, primary education, and integrated watershed development program. It has 15,000 employees in India, 3500 in Europe and 2500 in USA. It was incorporated on 24th august 1910 under the name Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited. As an Indian management team took ownership of the company from its British counterparts in 1974, its name was changed to I.T.C limited. In 1975 ITC entered in Hotels In 1988 entered in agro business. In 2000 entered in Fashion Retail shop In 2000 entered in Software business. In 2001 common base like greeting cards and stationary market. MARTIN-make worries into ash. The new brand of ITC cigarette New brands viz., MARTIN is introduced. Long-term agreements were entered into with the unions of factories located at Calcutta, Saharanpur and Munger. ITC CIGARETTE and tobacco is the core business of ITC and market leader in India with a market share of 60% both respect of value and volume. It earns 78% of its total revenues from this business and has a profit margin of 40%. It accounts for two-third of India`s present annual cigarette sticks market of 90 millions of which 18% is exported in cigarettes in country. The company markets popular cigarette brands are available in the market but some are Wills, insignia, India kings, Classic, Gold Flake, Silk Cut, Navy Cut, Scissors, Capstan, Berkeley, Bristol and Flake etc. The company`s focus has been to deliver the highest product quality and value to consumers in the cigarette and tobacco business, which has helped the company maintain its leadership in that industry. To boost the sales growth momentum, it has helped the company maintain its leadership in that industry. To boost the sales growth momentum, it has introduced festival packs of brands like `Flake Filter`, `Bristol Filter`, and `Scissors Filter` in select markets of Kerala. ITC Cigarette is coming with new brand and i.e MARTIN The company had that much of capability to build a leadership position because of its single minded focus on to create the value for the customer; to make the customer most valuable person in the company by attractive product design, quality, and innovation in the product, production technology, marketing and distribution in the market. Due to all reason ITC is serving the customers from the long period of time. This strategic focus on the consumer has paid ITC fantastic profits. ITC`s has international competitiveness is reflected in the overseas markets too. In the extremely competitive US market, ITC offers high-quality, value-priced cigarettes on ready to serve the customers. In West Asia, ITC has become a key player in the GCC markets through growing volumes of its brands. ITC`s cigarettes are produced in state those are Bangalore, Munger, Saharanpur and Kolkata. These factories are known for their high levels of quality, by their technology and work environment. Market Leadership. Powerful brands across whole segment. Consumer acceptable prices. Extensive distribution network Over 900 wholesale dealers serving more than 1 million retail outlets. World- class state-of-the-art technology and product. Investment Rs.10 billion in six years. Leaf Tobacco: ITC pioneered the cultivation and development of leaf Tobaccos in India. The Leaf Tobacco business partnership with the farmer is almost 100 years old. ITC is the largest buyer, processor and exporter of leaf tobaccos in India- creating a global bench mark for the single largest integrated source of quality tobaccos. Composition: Filter is made of 95 % cellulose acetate. Tipping paper to cover the filter. Rolling paper to cover the tobacco. Tobacco blend. BUSINESS MISSION AND VISION Mission is To enhance the wealth generating capability of the enterprise in a globalizing environment, delivering superior and sustainable stakeholder value. Vision is Sustain ITC`s position as one of India`s most valuable corporations through world class performance, creating growing value for the Indian economy and the Company`s stakeholders. ITC`s CORE VALUES Honesty towards work. Customer Focus. Respect for People. Excellence in quality and service. Innovation in ideas Product. MARKETING OBJECTIVE To make the world class or world known brand by providing the best quality and satisfy the customer need with delightful feeling. To retain the position as a market leader in marketplace. And make more than 85% revenues of Cigarettes in the year 2010-2011. Best in Internal Vitality, market standing, profitability. SITUATION ANALYSIS COMPETITIORS: In India, three major cigarette players dominate the market, primarily ITC with 75% market share, Godfrey Phillips with 14% and VST with 4% share of the market. SEGMENTATION, TARGETTING POSITIONING: As concern about segmentation, they are segmented according to the needs and taste of the customer. In every business they segmented the products with the level of income. Products are available according to their purchasing capacity. Products are available with the lowest price as well as higher price. As in the hotel ITC provide categories of the hotel rooms. As targeting is concern ITC targeting the youth mainly with the taste for trendy style and started offering quality; they are concern about the quality not quantity. SUPPLY CHAN MANAGEMENT: The following components are in supply chain management. Production: It all about where business focus on how much to produce, where to produce it and what are the suppliers to use. Inventory: It all about where the business decides where to store their products, and how much to store. Distribution: where the business address questions about how their should be moved and stored. Payments: It concern about where business look for the best ways to suppliers and get paid by customers. Manufacturing Process: Cigarette manufacturing process involves processing of tobacco leaf and stem to different tobacco blends, which is cut tobacco. Cut tobacco is then converted to cigarette using other raw materials for making cigarettes and packing them in various forms as per the trading requirement. ITD receives various grades of Tobacco Leaf and stem from Indian Leaf Tobacco Division (ILTD) based mainly in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. The cut tobacco is then sent to the secondary manufacturing division (SMD) for making and packing cigarettes. At SMD, there are two processes: Making and Packing Making is the process is the rolling of cigarette. Packing process is packing of these cigarette sticks in the cigarette packets of various pack styles. MARKETING STATERGY CORPRATION STATERGY: Do the right things to the right place at the right time. Sustain multiple drivers of growth matching internal capabilities with emerging market opportunities. Pursue world class competitiveness in all businesses and across the entire value chain. As we talk about the pricing strategy ITC cigarettes using Pricing penetration because of their high name in the market. Form the starting they taking the high prices. And after getting the relevant profit they low down the prices. But with that the price range is widely varied catering to the low and high-class consumer segment, ITC has made capital investments of Rupees 700 crores in its cigarette business to upgrade and modernize its manufacturing and research and development facilities. Additional rs. 450 crore has been spent towards building a new and state of art manufacturing plant on Bangalore. The decision to raise prices of some cigarette brands has led to increased sales revenue. The packs are designed in such a way that customer got attracted. Diversification Strategy: It has been observed that ITC`s opt the diversified strategy have been carefully implemented in order to optimize the synergies obtained through both backward and vertical integration of its business. The company had felt need to diversify from the early 1970 and had started the process by entering into the business that provided a good return on investment and a potential for future expansion. In March 2005, ITC stands as a multi-business enterprise, with an impressive market share in almost all the FMCG segment, Hotels, Paperboard and agri-Business sectors. It has successfully crafted a strategy of value addition by entering into related segments, which adds to the competencies and resources of the company. ITC also come with up the diversified brands of cigarette too. ITC apply the diversified strategy by the deep understanding of the markets and consumer tastes. ITC cigarettes come up with the differentiated strategy because they come up with differentiated brands. MARKETING MIX Marketing mix is used in business to gain the reaction it is seeking from its targeting market in relation to its marketing objectives. Marketing mix is including the 7Ps Price, Product, Promotion, Place, People, Process, and Physical Environment Traditional approach is 4 p`s and from the following p`s people is very important in the market. Because in marketing we first identify the demand of people then try to satisfy them with their goods and services. PRODUCT: Methods used to improve/differentiate the product and increase sales or target sales more effectively to gain a competitive advantage e.g. Extension strategies. PRICE: Pricing strategy using by ITC is penetration strategy. As ITC also take care of price according to the income of the people. Its also important to know about the market condition of their product. PROMOTION/ADVERTISMENT: Advertisement and promotion is used to make aware and increase the sales of the product respectively through print media, on internet etc. It help to make aware of the existence of a product. PLACE: Place is where the customer get the product and the services from the producer. Selection of the place is depend on the market research what the demand of the customer, competition in market and geographical condition is also matter. And in which place consumer is easy to buy the product. Positioning of ITC Cigarettes in the market: BCG Matrix: In this Boston consultant group it tells about the market share and growth of the product. In this we take four i.e. stars, dogs, question mark, and cash cow. Cash cow is when market share and growth is on the top. And dogs show both are less STARS Agri Business Paperboards Hotels QUESTION MARK FMCG- Other CASH COWS FMCG Cigarettes DOGS ITC Infotech In product life cycle ITC cigarettes is in the maturity stage of existing brands of cigarettes. SWOT ANALYSIS SWOT is mainly told about the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats can face by the company. It also helps to predict the future of the company. Whereas strength and weakness are controllable and opportunities and threats are uncontrollable in nature. ITC is one of India`s biggest and well known private sector companies. In fact it is one of the World`s most high profile consumer operations. It is business and brands are focused almost entirely on the Indian markets, and despite being most well-known for its tobacco brands such as navy cut, silk cut, the business is now diversifying into new FMCG brands in a number of market sectors. (S)TRENGTHS: Market leadership is the one of the biggest strength of the company. ITC leveraged it traditional businesses to develop new brands for new segments. For e.g. ITC used its experience of transporting and distributing tobacco products to remote and distant parts of India to the advantages of its FMCG products. ITC master chefs from its hotel chain are often asked to develop new food concepts for its FMCG business. ITC is a diversified business is also strength of the ITC itself. Its CSR, social responsibilities like women empowerment, water shed development, primary education also the strengths for ITC. Six Sigma based product development process. Provide the best class products in quality and quantity. E-chopal is biggest strength for ITC. (W)EAKNESSES: The company`s original business was traded in tobacco. ITC business i.e. now so involved in branding continues t use its original name, despite the negative connection of tobacco with poor health and premature death. Even today, ITC depend on the tobacco business revenues. Cigarettes account for 49% of company`s turnover and responsible for 82% of revenues. One single brand Gold Flake is gaining 72% of tobacco market. (O)PPORTUNITIES: FMCG product like Aashirvaad, Bingo, and Sun feast has the increasing growth in the market. This can be good opportunities for the future of ITC. ITC is moving into new and emerging sectors including IT with supporting business solutions. E-Choupal, the unique web based initiatives of ITC`s International business division, products and services they need to enhance farm productivity, improve farm-gate price realization and cut transaction costs. Farmers can access latest local and global information on weather, scientific farming practices as well as market prices at the village itself through this web portal in hindi.It is the biggest opportunities for ITC. Per capita consumption of personal care products in India is the lowest in the world offering an opportunity for ITCs soaps, shampoos and fragrances under their Wills brand. (T)HREATS: Firstly threat is the competition in domestic as well as international market. Dynamic nature of government policies like sudden banned on the advertisement of the cigarette; cigarette is main source for ITC, for revenue and if they are banned by the government law then it will put the very bad impact on the ITC Company. So dynamic government policies is also a biggest threat for the ITC. Basic threat is geographical conditions. Highly dependency on tobacco business can be the threat for ITC. Future Outlook: Company stands to gain between Rs. 5 billion and 5.5 billion in the form of future earnings. ITC is focused on acquiring leadership in IT areas of product life cycle management(PLM), Hospitality, Customer relation management(CRM), manufacturing services. Rural sector development has been high on priority with regard to its future projects. The company is focusing on moving ahead with e-Choupal.

Operations Management Essay

Carefully review the assignment scenario/case study. From the limited information in the scenario/case study, along with your answers to the unit three written assignment, identify at least three direct and specific long-term and three direct and specific short term operations changes that Albatross Anchor must make to gain a clear and sustainable competitive advantage (provide detailed information to validate and support each recommended change) Long-Term Operational Changes (01) Building Renovation: Moving the equipment around to make sure that it is better organized. Moving the foundry to where the raw products and finished products are located right now will open up the receiving and shipping. Receiving and shipping now can be one big area with the possibility of adding more equipment to the area which would bring down the delay between the two anchors. If there is a way of dividing the manufacturing area so that the area can make both anchors at the same time instead of having that 36 hour window of changing the equipment. This will cut cost down on the down time and increase the profit margins. (02)Technology: Having up to date technology added to the area will help eliminate some of the equipment that technology could do. Also up to date technology in the administrative offices is important as well so that all employees on the floor and in the offices know what is going on. Having this technology will be safer and faster production. (03)Equipment: Updating the equipment if possible that would do more in less time would help with building up the profit margins. Adding more equipment so that both anchors can be made at the same time will also bring in the profit margins. Moving the equipment around to make room for new or making the foundry and other equipment to divide the manufacturing area to have the area produce both anchors. Short-Term Operational Changes (01)Budgeting: Budgeting the funds around to help upgrade the technology and equipment. And the funds to have more employees. The cost of what will cost to do all the long time and what the company will make after everything is complete. Having a budget will help with what can be done now and what we can see if we can get help or something that will have to wait until funds are available. (02) Employees: All employees new and old know the procedures and rules of the company. What the employees need to do to make it easier of a change. Train them on the new technology and equipment and what needs to be done. Having all employees knows the two types of anchors is very important especially the administrative office when they have callers that have questions and those that are shipping out the anchors. Sending out the wrong anchors to the customers can lead to loss of money and customers. Because of the items not being right they would think that Albatross Anchor is very none organized and more to a company that looks more organized. (03) Update administrative offices: Updating the offices will have the customers that come in want to do business with Albatross Anchor. Trying to have a couple of the administrative staff are knowledgeable in the anchors will help the other administrative staff with training and be the go to for all questions that they may have. Having updated technology the administrative will be able to do a lot more to help with the business and be able to know when delivers are coming and what amount is coming. This way all employees that deal with shipping and receiving will be on the same page. Question Two From the list of ten operational issues in the Unit 6 assignment instructions select four operational issues. For each of the four operational issues explain in detail that operational issue will help Albatross Anchor improve; 1) job retention, 2) employee morale, and 3) employee dedication. Operational Issue One: Cross Training Job retention: Have cross training employees will be able to work in different areas so if an area is short on employees can move someone to the area of shortage to help and keep everything going. This will also give the employees more of an opportunity and look for work if a position opens up. Employee morale: Having employees cross train over in areas will make them feel valuable to the company, which will give positive results in the work environment and in the employees. Employee dedication: Having employees cross train and having them feel valuable will help bring employees continue to work and want to work at Albatross Anchor. Operational Issue Two: Gain sharing and profit sharing Job retention: profit sharing created the employee will benefit of the financial success of Albatross Anchor. With the growth of the company and valuable employees will help with this success. With the employees knowing that they are benefiting from the profit sharing will continue to stay and work hard. Employee Morale: Employees will feel appreciated if they receive financial rewards. Being rewarded of their hard work created positive morals for the employees and the company. Employee Dedication: Employees has personal responsibility for the profit sharing in the company success, especially when all employees benefit when the company is successful. This will create employee dedication. Operational Issue Three: Ergonomics Job retention: Having hard physical labor brings short and long term damages. Ergonomics ensures that workers operate in the most safest and productive ways. Having a company pay attention to workers health will keep employees when they know the company cares about their employees. Employee morale: Working in hard manual labor rises the risk of damage to the employees. Having the employees know that they are working for a company that cares about their well-being will bring employee morale high. Employee dedication: Employees that feel the company is invested in their employees will bring dedication from their employees. Operational Issue Four: Technology and automation: Job retention: Improving the technology and automation will help bring the company safer and a better place to work for. Having this done will bring Albatross Anchor up to date with safety procedures. Employees will feel safe knowing they are working with the latest technology and automation. Employee morale: Workers will take pride in their work when there is an up to date technology and automation. Employee dedication: Employees that work in up to date technology and automation will come to work happy and will be dedicated to the company. Conclusion If the Albatross Anchor takes these long and short term improvements. The company will be a very successful company and many customers will continue to purchase anchors from them, especially if the company are producing both anchors at the same time. Having employees that want to come will also help bring in the success of the company. No one wants to come and work for a company that doesn’t care or show their appreciation in their employees and help with rewards after the company starts getting a profit after the changing of the equipment and moving things around. As long as Albatross Anchor does the changes and upgrades that need to be done and show support and appreciation to their works Albatross Anchor will be a successful company and one that many customers and possible customers will talk about.

Descriptive Research Article Essay

Descriptive research plays an important role in educational research because it has greatly increased our knowledge about what happens in the classroom. What is descriptive research? Descriptive research can involve collecting quantitative information, or it can describe categories of information such as patterns of interaction when using technology in the classroom. Although it may employ fundamentals of both quantitative and qualitative research, descriptive research does not fit neatly into the definition of either quantitative or qualitative research methodology. Descriptive research takes a â€Å"what is† approach. Types of questions that may be addressed using descriptive research include: What is the best way to provide access to computer equipment in schools? Do teachers hold favorable attitudes toward using computers in schools? What have been the reactions of school administrators to technological innovations in teaching? Using descriptive research methodologies with the educational setting may be advantageous for several reasons. Educational research and experiences may contain many variables that cannot be realistically controlled, educational research may require observations of life experiences, and data collection may be spread over a large number of people over a large geographic area. Descriptive research may be used most effectively within the educational setting because educational research experiences cannot be as realistically controlled as laboratory experiments. In contrast to laboratory experiences, descriptive research is valuable because it allows for the human element of research. Four of the most common ways to collect information for descriptive research include surveys, interviews, observations, and portfolios. These may be used singly or in various combinations depending on the research question to be addressed. Used in the simplest way, surveys may be used to reveal summary statistics by showing responses to all possible questionnaire items. For instance, 30% of the participants agreed, 50% disagreed, and 20% had no opinion. Descriptive results of this type are typical of survey research in education and often provide leads in identifying needed changes. Survey data may also be used to explore relationships between two or more variables. Rather than limit their research to one variable, researchers can investigate relationships in the survey data and have a more substantial research contribution. Two critical components of survey research are sound methodology and well- designed data collection instruments. Data collection instruments should be designed to collect information in a way that will yield quantifiable results, and they should be distributed to all subjects so that data can be summarized and compared. Surveys can be in the form of written questionnaires, personal interviews, or telephone interviews. Factors to be considered in choosing a data collection method include: sampling, type of population, question form, question content, response rates, costs, available facilities, length of data collection, and computer-assisted techniques for data collection. Face-to-face interviews and telephone interviews are a second method of data collection. Interviews are more time efficient, allow the research to establish a rapport with the respondent, and allow the acquisition of more in-depth information. They also allow the interviewer to observe the respondent and obtain visual cues. Disadvantages of personal interviews are that they require more staff time and travel. Telephone interviews may be particularly advantageous because they are less expensive and less time consuming. They can also employ random dialing for a more random survey sample. However, limitations exist because of limited telephone access and the interviewer’s inability to observe the respondent and obtain visual cues. Mailed questionnaires provide some particularly important advantages, including the ability to reach large numbers of people across a wide geographic region. Other advantages include the ease and low cost of distribution, the minimal amount of staff and facilities needed, and the ability of respondents to respond in their own time frame. Disadvantages include lower response rate and the need to take design a survey instrument with a simple format. A letter of transmittal should accompany mailed questionnaires. The letter of transmittal should state the purpose and importance of the research, the importance of responding to the research, a time frame to respond, a confidentiality statement, an offer to share results, and a thank-you to the respondent. To obtain the best results, good surveys should use good questioning techniques. They should use complete sentences and offer a limited set of answers. Surveys should be interesting and should be worded so that the questions mean the same to everyone. They should inform participants about the kinds of answers that are appropriate and should provide definitions for any terms that might be confusing. The third way to collect information for descriptive research, observational research methods, has long been used across a number of disciplines. Observational methods are concerned with naturally occurring behaviors observed in natural contexts or in contexts that are contrived to be realistic. Since observational research methods require direct observation of behavior, many consider it superior to other methods because the data are gather directly without intermediary instruments such as tests or questionnaires. Observational research methods can yield a wealth of valuable information, but it can be a complicated process. Some problems associated with observational research include defining and developing coding schemes, training observers, experiencing technical errors. Yet observational research can yield invaluable descriptions that other research methodologies cannot. Observational research methods can be employed productively to support many purposes in the area of educational technology. It can be used to determine how people interact with technology in various stages of design and implementation. Research questions may consist of questions such as: How do learners interact with a new hardware system? How do learners respond to and interact with a specific program? Observation makes it possible both to explore the implementation of a particular technological innovation and assess the instructional outcomes. Two types of observational research are structured observations and unstructured observations. Structured observations are rigid and controlled. A hypothesis, methods for recording data and analyzing data, as well as, what, how, when, and where to observe are established before the observation takes place. Unstructured observations are used to determine unselective, detailed, continuous description of behavior. Unintended effects are best detected through unstructured observation. However, a disadvantage of unstructured observation is the time and labor required to collect and analyze sets of extensive observations. Once observational variables are identified, an observation form can be developed. These may be paper and pencil or electronic forms. With some observation forms, the observer must evaluate behavior on a rating scale. If a rating scale is used as part of the scoring procedure, a 3-point rating scale with categories such as â€Å"above- average,† â€Å"average,† and â€Å"below-average,† are often sufficient. Newer mediated observation techniques are now available. Behaviors can be recorded using audio and/or videotape. Computers offer the advantage of on-line monitoring which is the process of capturing characteristics of the human-computer interaction automatically. Keystroke records, audit trails, and logging data are terms used to describe on-line monitoring. Position-tracking devices make it possible to record human performance precisely and in great detail. In the naturalistic contrived research approach, unbeknownst to the subject, the researcher manipulates the situation to ensure that certain events will occur. Naturalistic observations can require many hours of observation to record a short, 2-minute event. For example, you want to observe teachers’ responses to deviant student behavior such as cheating, fighting, or abusing computer equipment. Since these behaviors occur at a very low frequency in most classrooms, a great deal of observer time would be needed to gather data on a reasonable sample of such behavior. Situational testing is another form of contrived observation in which the subjects are aware that they are playing a role. The researcher â€Å"devises a situation and assigns appropriate roles to the subjects, who are asked to play the roles to the best of their ability.† Typically, all participants except the person being tested have been trained to play their roles. The situations are manipulated to observe the specific behavior that the researcher is interested in observing. An advantage to situational testing is that by setting up the situation, the behavior can be controlled. The fourth descriptive measure of student work based on actual performance is the student portfolio. Portfolios consist of learner-created products that reflect the processes of learning and development over time. Portfolios have been recommended as a way to integrate learning and assessment since portfolios offer students an opportunity to learn about their own learning while they require active student responsibility and self- assessment. Portfolios serve as measures of student progress. They can take many forms such as game performances, multimedia projects, artwork, compositions, etc. Although descriptive research is growing in importance, many research questions involve questions about cause. Yet descriptive research can play a role because it can provide information from another perspective. Two possible reasons exist for the increase in popularity of descriptive research studies. First educational researchers realize that scientific methods of research do not adequately measure what is happening in the classroom. Secondly, new technologies have led to new classroom activities that necessitate new methods of analysis. This article suggests that if current trends continue, descriptive research methodology will grow in popularity and use.

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