Assignment II: Maple Case Study: Strategic Choices
Assignment II: Maple Case Study: Strategic Choices
Assignment II: Maple Case Study: Strategic Choices
Strategic Choices
Submitted To
Mr. Ajay Shrestha, KUSOM
Submitted By:
Sudan Khadgi (18511)
Q1. Analyse the evolution of the MLCFL in terms of strategy, implementation, and performance
When Mr. Saigol took charge of the family owned business Maple Leaf Cement Factory
in 2004, it was underperforming. The business was facing challenges in two key areas,
production and distribution. It was tangled in the industry dominated by the monopolistic
distributors and a management team with that viewed lowering the cost of the cement was the
only way they could boost their sales. This view and taking care of the distributors was the
closest thing to a strategy they had in order to survive in the market. The company despite
being considered as a premium brand was already fetching lower prices compared to their
competitors due to the physical location of their factories which was twice as far. The high cost
of production and transport of goods to the market were the major challenges they faced. Mr.
Saigol then hired Mr. Ijaj as his consultant to mitigate the hurdles to pull back the company as
leaders in the industry. They both started to work on systematically transforming the company
and focusing on the people to grow their business. Just as they were preparing their strategic
vision a price war had started, so they shifted from the transformation to surviving in the present
condition. As the war ended both Mr. Saigol and Mr. Ijaj decided that this was the right time for
them to remould the organization. The new strategy was based to focus on retaining existing
customers. Mr Saigol and Mr Ijaj both decided this was the strategy that would differentiate
them from its competitors. They needed to be efficient in the operations and reduction in the
cost of production was equally important as well. The energy consumption was the costliest
In 2008, Some layovers were made as new minds were required in the transformation of
processes as traditional views are hard to override. In order to achieve their strategic vision
Cross functional teams each with a different purpose were created. The energy team looked
after the consumption, cost factors of energy, the reliability centre mechanism took charge of
the standards maintained in the company operations, an improvement team for all processes
and a cultural team to manage the human resource relations. The company now had a vision
and strategy to operate in the market. This was passed on to the mid-level management who
The new teams improved the production and helped to increase interaction and maintain
good relationship with the employees. To understand the transportation and logistics side of the
business new Marketing Manager, Mr. Yahya Hamid and IT manager, Mobin Ahmed were hired.
With the help of information acquired from the studies on world class logistics and supply chain
setup and Information Technology the company was able to position itself as a distributor
maintaining relationship down the supply chain line. Training programmes related to TQM, 5
WHYs were used to improve employee capacity and maintain a stable workforce.
By 2012, the transformation had started to bear fruits tripling the overall performance of the
company in terms of EBITDA and placing itself in top three in the sector. The employees too
acknowledged the accomplishment. The strategy of Mr. Saigol and Mr. Ijaj faired well for the
company, they transformed the organizational structure and processes in a such a way that it
aligned with the strategic vision they set which was well executed by the responsible
stakeholders down the line in the organization. This illustrates the importance of having a
legitimate strategy and knowing how to implement them and monitoring the process could
Q2. What key challenges do you, as Sayeed Tariq Saigol, face in early 2015 and what would
to add to the brand which they had created with the transformation from a mere surviving to a
top three company in the sector. The relationship maintenance cost is expected to be higher
and its importance needs to be visible to the investors as they look on the return on Investment.
They need a mechanism to prove that the investment made in the maintaining relationship with
the stakeholders in the supply chain across the global market has a fruitful return. A senior
management team is required to build on the existing strategy and to tackle unforeseen events.
To add to this i believe they should enhance their IT systems make it more compatible to the
global market as this is the world we are heading to. They should make use of technological
improvements across other industries mostly services industry (eg banking industries) like
online payments. As they start to grow they need to maintain the quality of the products and that
requires highly skilled human resources from labor to manager therefore a very robust HR