Presentation on Shoe Caselet

1. THE
SHOE
CASELET
DIAGNOSIS

2. SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS :
 XYZ(P) Ltd is a flourishing, shoe manufacturing and selling firm with an
annual turnover of 25 crores.
 Given its goodwill in the shoe sector , it has the capacity to spread out
its operations in undiscovered areas.
 The firm had a valuable employee in Mr.Ghosh, a 25 year old sales
trainee, an efficient and well observing person who attempted to give
shape to his plans.
 The Chairperson of the firm, Mrs.Xaveri, respected her sales trainee's
views and approaches to expand the business. She was open for discussion
with her subordinates.

3. WEAKNESSES :
 Mrs.Xaveri, the Chairperson of XYZ(P)Ltd, belonging to a traditional family made a traditional
approach in her shoe business. She targeted only the male population as in earlier days, women did not
venture out much.
 She did not make an effort to step out of the family philosophy of only concentrating on male leather
shoes.
 The firm did not cater to the needs of females and thus revenue did not generate from the female
sector.
 The firm had employed Ms.A, a 36 year old Sales Manager who was very orthodox by nature and
who did not much encourage her juniors to be proactive on their own, thus blocking innovation and
leadership amongst her juniors in the firm.
 Mr.Ghosh was allowed limited time and budget in his attempt to a possible, new market
exploration.

4. OPPORTUNITIES :
 The unexplored rocky terrains of Nagaland filled with poisonous animals and reptiles, posed a major
challenge to any innovative, reasonably well known shoe maker, none of whom ventured to operate in this area at
that time, thus making a clear opportunity for XYZ(P)Ltd to operate in that area with very little competition from
the rivals.
 It was observed through a survey that localities of that area, mainly the woodcutters had to travel long miles to
buy necessities like very poor quality shoes, sandals at very high prices which provided hardly any safety from the
natural elements, forcing repeat purchases. This provided an opportunity to know the exact needs of the people,
what kind of safety shoes they needed to protect them from snake bites, etc.
 It was observed that the people, including the women, had Church going habits, thus indicating that even
women would have to be provided with "comfort" shoes in addition to "safety" shoes for men.
 The people had good income as a result of which had good purchasing power thus indicating their willingness
to buy shoes.
 Many ladies, old people and even children showed interest to buy.


5. THREATS :
 Competition was becoming intense in the urban areas from Bata and
other shoe makers.
 A possible threat could be the rocky forests of unexplored
Nagaland which were infested with poisonous snakes, scorpions,
leeches; the rocks were slippery due to incessant rainfall, making it
difficult to tread the paths of the forests.
 Threat to Mr Ghosh was that if his idea failed then most likely he
would be terminated from his job as his immediate superior was less
than happy with his initiative.

6. SYMPTOMS :
Sales revenue could not be generated from the
women thus bringing down the firm's market share in
the shoe sector. It was becoming difficult to face
competition from Bata and other shoemakers.

7. STAGE OF PROBLEM
FORMULATION
(Identification and listing of factors singly or jointly causing the
symptom)
 Manufacturing and selling of leather shoes were targeted only
for the adult male population.
 Mrs.Xaveri did not go beyond the traditional philosophy of
catering to only the demands of the male population.
 Innovation factor in the firm was low due to employees at the
managerial level were orthodox and discouraging.

8. STAGE OF PROBLEM
IDENTIFICATION
 The locals had to trudge miles to the local Haats to do their marketing thus
being forced to give up their daily work. Thus if new outlets could be opened up at
convenient locations customer satisfaction, retention and expansion could be higher.
 From the survey it could be identified that there was a necessity to produce and
supply specific shoes which could protect the local workforce from the natural
elements like snake bites etc.
 The available foot ware available locally was woefully inadequate thus the target
population was on the lookout for viable alternatives.

10. PROGNOSIS
 Prognosis is the science and art of managerial deployment where one has to play with the
available resources.
 Here Mr. Ghosh after reading the symptoms and making a careful diagnosis of the
situation decided that the best way to go about is to look for new and virgin markets where the
threat of competitors from powerful rival companies will be nil or negligible as they were facing
stiff competition in Calcutta from the likes of ‘BATA’ and other shoe companies.
 Since this happened in the 1960’s Mr.Ghosh found it easier to find new and
untouched territories where they could introduce their brand of shoes. Since Nagaland was well
connected to Calcutta and there was a need there for quality foot ware, it seemed like a potential
market where if carefully introduced their shoe company may be well received and the chances
of making a profit was huge.
 So with the available resources in his hand Mr. Ghosh found he could do a couple of
necessary surveys to taste the water and see if indeed Nagaland was the ideal market for them.
 Mr. Ghosh shows leadership qualities by taking risks and showing innovative ideas.

11. PROGNOSIS
 New and virgin markets are required
 Shift from just „selling shoes‟ to marketing shoes is necessary
 Threat from competitors should be minimal
 The new market should be well connected from Calcutta
 This time careful market survey is required to target the right
demography
 The new and potential market should have a demand for the products
which they were willing to introduce i.e quality and affordable foot ware

12.  Prognosis is the science and art of managerial deployment where one has to play with the
available resources.
 Here Mr. Ghosh after reading the symptoms and making a careful diagnosis of the
situation decided that the best way to go about is to look for new and virgin markets where the
threat of competitors from powerful rival companies will be nil or negligible as they were facing
stiff competition in Calcutta from the likes of ‘BATA’ and other shoe companies.
 Since this happened in the 1960’s Mr.Ghosh found it easier to find new and
untouched territories where they could introduce their brand of shoes. Since Nagaland was well
connected to Calcutta and there was a need there for quality foot ware, it seemed like a potential
market where if carefully introduced their shoe company may be well received and the chances
of making a profit was huge.
 So with the available resources in his hand Mr. Ghosh found he could do a couple of
necessary surveys to taste the water and see if indeed Nagaland was the ideal market for them.
 Mr. Ghosh shows leadership qualities by taking risks and showing innovative ideas.
PROGNOSIS

13. OBJECTIVES
Short term to long term goals

14. OBJECTIVES
 Objectives may be simply defined as quantifiable achievable targets from short
term to middle term to long term.

15. SHORT TERM OBJECTIVES
 Assess the demographic characteristics of relevant population
 Qualitative assessment of their interest to go in for shoes of much better
qualities
 Get an idea of their future wants
 Types of „safety‟ shoes needed
 Prices they were willing to pay
 Probable purchase patterns (annually)
 Local competition

16. MID-TERM OBJECTIVES
 Approach internally other functional heads and finally the
chairperson
 Get approval for exploration of possible new markets
 Get R & D to design a few hundred pairs of adult male shoes
 Ascertain that thy design the new shoes according to his
suggestions, confirming to suggested leather type, color, shape, sizes,
designs within sought-after price indications

17.  Conduct a second survey with initial samples
 Find out if the male customers were willing to buy them immediately
 Find out purchase frequency of male customers and probable
purchase frequency of other target segments
 Price indications
 Find out from where his prospective clients can buy the shoes and
how to promote his company as well

18. LONG TERM OBJECTIVES
 If he found the feed back favorable then they can proceed with
large scale production and supply.
 Increase market share for their company
 Establish a foothold in a new market territory.

19. CONSTRAINTS
1) The chairperson toed the family philosophy of only concentrating on male leather shoes.
2) The wood cutters were poisoned by the numerous scorpions and similar dangerous
animals, which thronged the dense forests which lead to death.
3) The terrain was full of rocks, very slippery due to incessant rainfall and, as a whole, posed
a major challenge to any shoemaker to operate in that area, at that time.
4) In the biweekly “Hats” which was held several miles away from the high-altitude dense
jungles, the local inhabitants were forced to give up their daily work trudge miles either
way and buy necessities like very poor quality shoes, sandals etc. at exorbitant prices,
which hardly provided any type of safety from the natural elements and were soon worn
out.

20. CONSTRAINTS
 The Sales Manager, was very traditional and hardly
encouraged her juniors to be proactive on their own.
 Mr. ghosh has limited time for exploration of new market.
 Mr. ghosh has limited budget in his attempts to explore new
market.
 Competition from Bata and few other shoe makers.

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