strategic management

1. i
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
18.1 UGC BATCH 09, GROUP B

2. ii
School of business
Batch : 18.1 UGC batch 09, Group B
Semester : 3rd year, 1st semester
Module Name : strategic management
Module Lecturer : Dr. Sadamali
Group members:
Student name Student ID number
M.S. Arifeen 10025026
D.N.M. Perera 10023974
K.A.N.Kavindya 10025107
J.G.D.Madushani 10025580
T.S.D.K. Basnayake 10023978
R.H. Pathirage 10025192
M.S. Safna 10022036
K.S.Y.Dalpathadu 10025364
W.D.T.P.Prabhashwari 10025451
S.H.S.S.H.Dharmarathne 10025401
H.M.K.O.Herath 10024118
W.H.D. Perera 10025105
D.U.S. Pathirana 10025422
S.H. Ruwanpathirana 10025824
S.U. Edirisinghe 10025381

3. iii
Acknowledgement
The success and final outcome of this field visit required a lot of guidance and
assistance from many people and we are extremely privileged to have got this
all along the completion of our project. All that we have done is only due to
such supervision and assistance and we would not forget to thank them.
Firstly we respect and thank full Dr. Sadamali the lecturer-in-charge of the
strategic management module for providing us an opportunity to do the field
visit and giving us all support and guidance how to do the report duly.
As well as we extremely thank full to Ms. Anne Pathiranage the senior
lecturer course director for providing such a nice support and guidance
although she had busy schedule making the factory visit requesting letter. As
well as, finally thank full our group members of factory visit as their kindly
contribution for the factory visit.

4. iv

5. v

6. vi

7. 1
1. Introduction to the organization
Maliban Biscuit Manufactories Ltd. is the pioneer and one of the largest
manufacturers, distributors and marketers of bakery products in Sri Lanka.
The company was founded in 1954 by Angulugaha Gamage Hinni Appuhamy
(also known as Maliban Mudalali). In a heritage spanning over six decades,
Maliban expanded from a tea kiosk begun in 1935 in Maliban Street, Colombo
to a group of companies consisting of a tearoom, a bakery, a dairy, a mineral
water bottling plant, an ice cream parlour and six hotels. On August 5th, 1954,
the bakery section of Maliban Hotels Ltd. was subsequently converted into a
limited liability company, Maliban Biscuit Manufactories Ltd. In 1965, the
company's operations shifted to a new factory complex in a 10 acre site
in Ratmalana.
1.1Introduction to strategic Management Process
The strategic management process helps define an organization’s strategy. It
is the process by which managers choose a set of strategies for the
organization that will enable it to achieve better performance at present as
well as in the future.Strategic management is a continuous process that
analyses the business environment in which the organization is involved and
fixes goals to meet all present and future competition and then reassesses
each strategy.The strategic management process consists of four steps:
1. Strategy Position – Strategic positioning involves a process of
collecting, scrutinizing and providing information for strategic
Figure 1

8. 2
purposes. It helps analyses the internal and external factors in the
organizational environment. After executing the environmental
analysis process, management should evaluate it on a continuous basis
and strive to improve it.
2. Strategy Formulation - Strategy formulation is the process of deciding
the most suitable course of action for accomplishing objectives to
achieve organizational purpose. After conducting strategic positioning,
managers formulate corporate, business and functional strategies.
3. Strategy Implementation - Strategy implementation includes putting
the strategy chosen by the organization into action. This includes
designing, developing, managing and distributing the organization’s
structure, resources, decision making process and human resources.
4. Strategy Evaluation- The final step of the strategic management
process. Key activities include analyzing internal and external factors
that are driving present strategies, measuring performance and taking
corrective action. Such evaluation makes sure that the organizational
strategy as well as its implementation meets organizational objectives.
These components are steps that are carried out in chronological order when
creating a new strategic management plan for an organization. Firms with a
strategic management plan will revert to the above steps as the situation
requires making essential changes. Strategic management is an ongoing
process where each component interacts with other components, often in
chorus.
Figure 2

9. 3
2. Selected organization and the functions within the organization
2.1Organizations strategic purpose, vision, mission and values
Strategic purpose Goal-Setting and planning
Maliban currently has a network of over 150 distributors and 260 sales
representatives making its products available in every nook and corner of the
country.
At the moment, the consumer demand is growing from strength to strength
for Maliban products, simply the modern day consumer are well educated and
conscious of decision making.
Maliban always strive to give the best to consumers where consumers
differentiate what is good for them. Maliban has an overall preference out
beating rest in the market. Further company is following innovative marketing
and sales strategy with the aim of becoming market leader in all biscuit
categories.
“Maliban sales strategy purpose is focus on improving the company’s
distribution network, energizing sales staff, and introducing innovative
products with the aim of improving its availability to over 95 percent.
If Maliban Company successful growing, then as their operations become
more complex, their strategic plans will have to respond by getting more
sophisticated. Continuous growth is difficult, but a strategic plan can help
make it more accessible to rally the leadership and resources necessary to
support it.
Vision
To be the most successful and respected Biscuit Company in Srilanka.
Mission

10. 4
To win the Hearts and Minds of Consumers by delivering food propositions
with exceptional quality, safety & value whilst being environmentally &
socially responsible, creating employee satisfaction and returning optimum
value to stakeholders.
Our Values
 Growth mindset
 Open communication and mutual respect
 Consumer & customer focus
 Accountability & responsibility
 Socially and environmental responsible
2.2Strategic analysis within the organization and SWOT analysis
PESTEL analysis of Maliban Company
PESTEL analysis is a tool to identify critical external factors that may affect a
corporation. The factors may be opportunities – methods that provide a
competitive advantage. Or it could be threats, which could become so severe
the firm must shut down.
1. Political factors that impact Maliban company.
Political factors play a significant role in determining the factors that
can impact Maliban Company’s long term profitability. To achieve
success through political environment and political systematic risks,
Maliban Company closely analyse the following factors before entering
or investing in a certain market.
o Political stability.
o Trade regulations & tariffs.
o Pricing regulations – Are there any pricing regulatory
mechanism.
o Taxation – Tax rates and incentives.

11. 5
o Wage legislations – minimum wage and overtime.
o Import and export rates and rules – All the packagings of the
Maliban biscuits are exported ones.
o Government policies.
o Trading policies.
o Government terms and changes.
o Current and future legislations.
2. Economic factors that impact Maliban company.
Economic factors such as – inflation rate,Savings rate, interest rate,
foreign exchange rate and economic cycle determine the aggregate
demand and aggregate investment in an economy.
o Type of economic systemand how stable it is.
o Skill level of workforce in Insurance industry.
o Labor costs and productivity in the economy.
o Business cycle stage (e.g. prosperity, recession, recovery)
o Economic growth rate.
o Discretionary income.
o General taxation issues.
o Trends.
o Market routes and distribution.
3. Social factors that impact Maliban company.
Society’s culture and way of doing things impact the culture of an organization
in an environment.
o Culture – gender roles and age levels.
o Consumer attitudes and opinions - (health issues- high level of
sugar is not good for health) hence that Maliban has to go for
some solutions for that.

12. 6
o Consumer buying patterns- For children – Maliban chocolate
biscuit, nice biscuit, Marie etc: For
young crowd – ginger biscuit, cream cracker.
For elders – Maliban kurakkan
crackers, karapincha crackers
4. Technological factors that impact Maliban company.
Technology is fast disrupting thing. Over the last 5 years the
industry transformation, Maliban not only do technological
analysis of the industry but also the speed at which technology
disrupts. Technology analysis involves understanding the
following impacts of the company,
o The technological environment refers to new technologies,
processes, materials, which create new or better product
and market opportunities.
o Technology has a tremendous effect on lifestyles,
consumption patterns, and the economy.
5. Environmental factors that impact Maliban company.
Maliban has its own norms or environmental standards which can impact the
profitability of an organization in those markets. Even within a country often
states can have different environmental laws. Before entering new markets or
starting a new product in existing market the firm should carefully evaluate
the environmental standards that are required to operate.
o Weather.
o Climatic changes.

13. 7
o Laws regulating environment pollution.
o Air, sound and water pollution regulations.
o Recycling.
o Wastage management.
o Attitudes toward “green” or ecological productions.
6. Legal factors that impact Maliban Company.
According to legal factors Maliban carefully evaluate before
entering such markets as can lead to theft of organization’s secret
sauce thus the overall competitive edge. Some of the legal factors
that Maliban consider while entering a new market are,
o Employment law
o Health and safety law.
o Data Protection.
SWOT ANALAYSIS
 Strengths
A firm's strengths are its resources and capabilities that can be used as a basis
for developing a competitive advantage.
 Good reputation among customers.
 Strong brand names.
 Unique receipes that support to develop unique quality biscuits.
 patents
 favorable access to distribution networks.
 cost advantages from proprietary know-how
 exclusive access to high grade natural resources

14. 8
 Maliban company has the industry I.T experts who qualified with I.T
 Bakery process is complex and well matured process.
 No one can copy the maturity. Well experience people who have
unique experience cannot imidate.
 Modification and repair people are well trained.
Weaknesses
The absence of certain strengths may be viewed as a weakness.
 People in company not flexible to adopt to the changes
 Generation to generation way they think approach to think, flexibility
is different.
 Change should happen time to time and also employees should adopt
to the change.
 lack of patent protection
 high cost structure
 lack of access to the best natural resources
 Difficulties in managing the man power.
 lack of access to key distribution channels
POTER’S FIVE FORCES MODEL.
 Threat of new entry.
 Government rules and regulations
 Dynamic consumer preferences
 Economic of scale
 Multiplicity of food laws
 Fixed investment subsides given by the government.
 Taxes deterring growth in the industry.

15. 9
 Threat of substitution.
 Low switching costs.
 Numerous substitutes in the organized and unorganized sector in the
biscuit industry.
 Extreme price sensitive industry.
 Profits constrained by the presences of more alternatives as if one
brand decided to increase its profits through a price hike, the
consumer would shift their income to another alternative
manufacture.
 Supplier power.
 Higher supplier concentration across the country for the supply
of sugar, wheat flour and salt.
 Biscuits processing machines are usually purchased from
certain select suppliers as such advances technology is not
easily accessible.
 Inputs are relatively standardized and government by means of
a FBMI ensured certain ceilings prices of suppliers.
 So, threat of bargaining power of supplier is limited.
 Buyers power
 Availability of numerous substitutes.
 Low switching costs.
 Strengthened distribution channels.
 Prices of most biscuits brands are kept within the reach of the
budget of the ordinary man in urban and rural areas.
 Competitive rivalry.
 Cyclic nature of demand ensures an environment of cut -
throat competition.
 Immense competition and a multitude of producers

16. 10
2.3Strategic choice and competitive advantage
Strategic choice refers to the decision which determines the future strategy of
a firm. It addresses the question “Where shall we go?”
1. Business or competitive strategies
The formulation of strategic plans by a firm aimed at ensuring that the
firm is able to meet and beat its competitors in supplying a particular
product. Competitive strategy constitutes an integral part of overall
BUSINESS STRATEGY formulation.
 To identify the nature and strength of the various forces driving
competition in a market.
 To understand fully what product attributes are demanded by
buyers (whether it be low prices or product sophistication)
 to establish operationally, a position of COMPETITIVE
ADVANTAGE which makes the firm less vulnerable to attack
from established competitors and potential new entrants, and
to erosion from the direction of buyers, suppliers and
substitute products.
Porter’s 3 Generic Strategy
Maliban company pursues competitive advantages across
“differentiation” strategy (Ex: - Maliban tea). Because it is difficult
them to pursue cost leadership strategy since there is Munchee
company as main competitor.
The strategy clock
Mostly Maliban Company
has differentiation (4) type
of products.
But, there are some kinds of
products under other
categories.
Figure 3

17. 11
2. Corporate level strategies
Corporate level strategy is the top of the planning pyramid. It is the main
purpose of the business. Think of corporate level strategy as the
destination toward which your business is moving. That destination affects
all the strategies and decisions in every other part of the business.
So, for example, if the business has reached market saturation and it
needs to diversify to survive, the corporate level strategy would be to
spread to new markets. That becomes the guiding force for everything the
business does from now on.
There are some corporate level decisions in Maliban scope.
 Product diversity: - Maliban is a biscuit company to distribute their
products to more than 40 countries. Therefore all biscuit flavors do
not match with every country. So they need to concern about that
issue.
 International diversity: - This issue comes with globalization of
markets and competition. Maliban Company striving for higher
levels of diversity and equality in the work place.
 Corporate parenting roles: - A principle, should guide decisions
about the nature of the businesses in the portfolio and about its
structure. Maliban Company consists of businesses and a corporate
hierarchy of line managers, functions, and staffs outside these
businesses, which refers to as the corporate parent that is
responsible for making corporate decisions.
 Managing the portfolio: - The analysis and decision making process
regarding strategic investments for a business (products) or a
corporation (strategic business units). Portfolio strategic
management helps achieve Maliban Company’s success, which
heavily depends on the projects’ implementation that, in turn,
greatly relies on how well the projects were planned.

18. 12
Maliban uses related diversification by adding new but related products to
business industry.
BCG Matrix
The BCG Matrix is a business method that was created by the Boston
Consulting Group in the 1970’s. Maliban also uses this method to identify
their products in this matrix and they drop out low profit biscuit products
from their product chain.
3. Directions and methods of development
"How are you going to win in the period ahead?" That's the key question
behind developing strategy
Ansoff Matrix
The Ansoff Matrix is a
strategic planning tool that
provides a framework to
help executives, senior
managers, and marketers
devise strategies for future
growth.
Maliban Company uses this matrix to get some idea about their
developments.
1. Market penetration :- Cream cracker
2. Product development :- Choco orange
3. Market development :- Bran cracker
4. Diversification :- Double twist cookies
Maliban company also uses,
Figure 5
Figure 4

19. 13
 Market penetration by seeking market share for present products
like biscuits for kids.
 Market development like export their products to new countries.
 Product development such as double twist cookies.
As well as for competitive businesses need to have wide understanding
the relative suitability of strategic options. Accordingly, Maliban uses
Ranking, Decision trees and Scenarios to get that idea. In addition to that
they use SWOT analysis to identify the environment.
Competitive Advantage of Maliban Company
Competitive advantage is the leverage a business has over
its competitors. This can be gained by offering clients better and greater
value. Advertising products or services with lower prices and higher quality
piques the interest of consumers. Target markets recognize these unique
products or services. This is the reason behind brand loyalty, or why
customers prefer one particular product or service over another.
Michael Porter defined the two ways in which an organization
can achieve competitive advantage over its rivals: cost advantage and
differentiation advantage. Cost advantage is when business provides the
same products and services as its competitors albeit at a lesser cost.
Differentiation advantage is when a business provides better products and
services as its competitors.
Figure 6

20. 14
List of primary competitors : There are many biscuits companies
operting in the country but there are two primary competitors ti cream
cracker category.
 Munchee super cream cracker
 Lucky Land cream cracker
List of secondary Competitors: All other biscuit companies and
substitute food companies for the biscuit in Sri Lanka are
secondary competitors.
 Raigam biscuit company
 Diana biscuit company
 Lucky land biscuit company
 Maam biscuit company
 Little Lion biscuit company
Following are the information that managed to find out on Maliban success
than Muchee
 It seems competitive strategy of Maliban and laid back response of
Munchee has being a major reason for Munchee that caused Munchee
failing to define its market leadership in Biscuit market of Sri Lanka. By
going through few analysis previously carried out, managed to find out
following strategies of Munchee that used to attack Maliban market
domination.
1. Maliban introducing to product with better innovation
through product developments in its quality and taste

21. 15
(most of us would agree that Maliban lemon puff taste
better than Munchee lemon puff.)
2. Maliban positioned itself as a modern youthful brand
but response of Munchee was to position itself to build a
traditional image to it. This built the image on consumer
mind that Munchee to be a traditional brand while
Maliban to be a modern brand.
2.4Strategic capability and benchmarking
Before choosing which kind of strategy being use in the company to recognize
whether the company having enough capabilities to absorb this strategy.
Company have to identify what are the ways of identifying these strategic
capabilities because if the company don’t identified capabilities company is
not able to survive in the market.
Competitive Advantages
Why people purchase Malliban biscuit among others?
When it comes to the prices. In terms of prices the giant player in munchee
and Malibun there are the biscuit suppliers to the market. Why Maliban is
unique why the people / competitive advantages of Malibun. Eg:- taste, bite
,crispy, different varieties, quality, food safety.
Why talk about competitive advantage without considering competitive
advantage. We cannot talk about the strategies.
Strategies are something like which is absolutely speaking strengthening the
competitive advantage. Once you identified the competitive advantage to
particular factures which differentiate our product from the rest of the
competitors. We have to focus all over strategies to strengthen to develop
competitive advantages. If competitive advantages somewhere else and
strategies are no point. Because strategies should be there to strengthen the
competitive advantage. Strategies should focus on the competitive advantage.
Strategic formulation
Whatever strategies you formulate that should be align with the competitive
advantage. So superior quality, superior taste competitive advantages of
Malibun that absolutely support consumers to differentiate Maliban from
Munchee.
So what are the strategies?

22. 16
In order to fit strategies with the competitive advantages unique recipes
what the Malibun strategies. E.g.:- Unique recipes support the develop
quality biscuits
That cannot be inmate by anyone else. Any player come to the market
purchase technology for any amount but they don’t have recipes. There’s no
institute in Sri Lanka in the world who absolutely produce recipes. There are
the unique recipes.
Use recipes in order to produce different variety of biscuit categories. When
customers go to the super markets they see variety of biscuits are available
under the one brand of Maliban. Once they taste so good, bite is so good,
Recipe is so good and food appearance is good, gold appearance these are the
critical areas.
E.g.:- industry IT, many institutes produce it people, engineer technicians etc.,
it screen the entire customers there are no companies, institutions, they
produce people who are specialize on baking industry, Malibun have well
experience people who are having the tastier knowledge
Explicit knowledge
Knowledge that can be separate from the human owners.
Malibun have unique people who are having the tacit knowledge other
competitors, people they cannot imitate their knowledge, cannot match with
other knowledge and the unique recipes. We can produce unique product,
quality product and tasty product. Taste cannot be imitate. That’s why people
purchase Malibun.
Tomorrow you can start a biscuit company. You can purchase the technology
from US or UK or whatever country you like. But you cannot get the well
matured system. Malibun having well matured system, matured process they
cannot copy it. That maturing gain by handling for last 63 years by well
experienced people who are having the tacit unique knowledge .Uniqueness
sample people cannot imitate but they can produce biscuit, but they cannot
imitate your recipes.
All these factors are coming with the one brand call Maliban. Brand name,
very proud, unique, matured brand name. Simple person cannot get that
trustworthiness, confidence behind the brand.
1. Cost efficiency
Maliban do modifications, repair, and maintenance service on the
machineries by their people. Time to time those people are train. They are
getting local & overseas training. Especially when install new machinery
,Maliban get all the technical people involve in commission, installing,
operating because they have unique knowledge.Mchinery modification,
Installation of new machinery, service on machinery,maintainance all related
machinery maliban have no huge burden.

23. 17
Maliban have cost centers, budget centers, identify the budget, and allocate
the budget each & every functions. So at the initial stage Maliban plan he
budget successfully and monitor the budget. All functions happen under in
line with the budget.
Price decision are getting by discuss with Munchee. If they increase the price
of a biscuit Maliban also ready to increase. However try to minimize the cost.
Cost is manufacturing cost, labor cost, admin cost, purchasing cost etc.
Maliban have Key performance indicators. All are work in line with KPI.
Eg: There are different brands are there in the sense cracker, ginger, lemon
puff, different categories. These every category has a costing that cost there is
a target .Maliban have to produce the particular biscuit and this amount of
cost. Maliban try level best to reduce the unit cost. That is the KPI of tem.
Assume make 5000 biscuits packets per day. Cost for 5000/ 5000= get the cost
for each .It’s the cost increased than the previous month or decrease than this
month. If the increased what is the reason, what are the route course maliban
identify and what maliban can do to minimize it by strategies. Maliban
outsource many strategies .Maintain quality try level best to purchase
different materials, ingredients at a lower cost.
There are many suppliers e.g.: flour suppliers, palm oil suppliers, sugar
suppliers. When it comes to the area Crisco salt suppliers, pepper suppliers
etc. If they’re many suppliers maliban cam negotiate.
1.1 Economy of scale
E.g.: Supplier prima is a well matured flour supplier for many companies.
Become the mature there can be minimize errors, lower the cost. So they
supply Maliban cost is low. Benefit is gain from Maliban not like other new
companies .Network, distribution is strong. Maliban have 90% of supplier
advantage.
E.g.: palm oil, flour, sugar, butter, suppliers are matured. Maliban do
production for 24 hours. This volume cannot be given to immature companies
in a quality sustainability manner.
1.2 Production process design
Most times the cycle time is low in the process. So the process has design to
reduce energy waste. Because this is a ISO140001 certified company’s 140001
stand for environment management system, waste reduction .So the process
& machines has designed to bring a minimum waste and high quality output.
This is a well matured process.
Has got Machine maturity. Efficient machine in a peak time because always
operating well matured people. So the damage on machines are low. People
are well hands-on experienced people. Not only theoretical knowledge but

24. 18
also different taste, experience, research people. They know the real taste,
color, thickness, puff, softness they can understand.
2. Robustness of strategic Capability
Maliban has legally patents.Eg: In the early century firstly Marie biscuit,
Lemon puff were invented by Maliban. But due to not getting the patent for
Marie and lemon puff now everyone is make Marie and lemon puff. But now
they have patents. And also there unique recipes cannot be imitate easily
2.1 External linkages
Maliban is a member of many institutes.Eg: Charted Accounts Association, CA Sri
Lanka, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, EFC, and CIPM etc. They deals closely with these
external parties. So the attachment is high with these external parties. Because
of that the social capital is high.
2.2 External linkages
In maliban they gave grievances handling system, concealing system, well
communication system.Becase of these best practices their employee turnover is
low.
2.3 Culture & history
Maliban has friendly, family culture. So associate with family members. The
employee psychological attachment & bond is high with the company. They work
aggressively, give full effort for the company.Dont criticize the company .Do
anything for the company.
3. Value Chain Analysis
Porter’s five model is directly impacted.Eg: Do well inbound logistic external
suppliers inspections, Quality screening, check samples in containers by well
experiences peoples and send to labs and checking. After the confirmation of
well quality materials they add to the process. They have separately mixing,
cutting, baking, packing units.
Outbound
They mainly focus in the Value chain isquality.They use quality
ingredients,quality parameters.
Support services
They add value by continuously developing people, periodical maintenance,
technology & HR
4.Benchmarking
Benchmarking is the practice of comparing business processes and
performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other

25. 19
companies. in here we are not going to copy other organizations rather trying
to observe their best practices.
E.g.: - key performances, successes stories & etc.
There are several types of benchmarking
 Historical benchmarking
In this practice we changed historical practices and corporate with new ones.
 Industry/sector benchmarking
In here we do comparisons with our competitors.
 Best in class benchmarking
Best in class is a termfor the top performing results for a particular metric.
firms typically compare results to the organization or industry that achieves
superior results in a particular area.
We chose Maliban company to do our report, they are currently practicing
Industry/sector benchmarking. In order to do that they do their comparisons
with munchee company.
E.g.: -
Price – before maliban company pricing their products, they do discussion
with munchee company.
As an example, Munchee sales a product to 55 rupees but we sell same
product to 60 rupees. according to Industry/sector benchmarking it’s an issue
of Maliban company. So, they will do a root cause analysis to identify issues
and they come up with solutions.
Maintenance – Munchee do their maintenance activities (e.g.:- machine
repairs)
by using internal sources rather using external parties.
Maliban also follow that method in order to Industry/sector benchmarking.

26. 20

27. 21
2.5 Implementation of the strategies in the given economy and the value
chain
Value chain analysis is a very important tool in determining the maximum
possible value a company can offer to their customers. There are many ways
by which values are added in every phase for a product transforming from raw
material to the final product till it reaches the customers. There are many
agents who help in value addition of that product during its transformation
from raw material to its consumption. Various agents involved from

28. 22
manufacturing to sales, are identified with the help of value chain mapping in
order to determine the role of each actors and their relation between them.
Porter’s value chain is a framework for developing an analytic structure that
follows interdependent activities from raw material acquisition or idea
through production and finally into the hands of a cutomer.
The companies like Maliban and Munchee, they build good relationship
with their suppliers and using quality raw material for the biscuit production.
Both companies manufacturing process, production process, packaging and
quality controlling process is the conduction very well and because of the
process companies can dispatch quality product to the market. After the
introduction of product to the market sales and marketing force responsibility
is collecting feedback, collecting new orders, sales promotions, do marketing
research. After the sales should be provide service through the sales force and
can improve the company image as well as company profit.
Strategic Analys
It is clear that although Maliban products are dominating the market,
Maliban products are in a price competition with rivals in the market. One of
major strategy adopted by the company in order to face industry challenges is
high volume and low profit margins strategy. So the company is mass
producing its products through capturing the biggest market share and
continuously pressing harder to increase its market share while keeping prices
of products in line or slightly higher to the competitors and thus Maliban has
been able to achieve high sales volumes while continuously capturing market
share of competitors. In order to increase the production capacities for
catering high sales volumes, the company has made huge capital investment
for high capacity plants and equipments.
The company has relied heavily on advertising for positioning in target
market segments and widening the market share of products. Seeking
opportunities in new market segments is also being done. Furthermore value
innovation is playing crucial role in Maliban strategy. For an instance earlier,

29. 23
biscuit like “Lemon Puff” of which there is yellowish cream inside the biscuits
sandwich was fun part of kids and usually biscuits covering the cream were
thrown away. But Maliban considered this customer insight into consideration
and the result was Maliban Real Lemon Puff of which biscuits part is also
having the taste of lemon cream and biscuits don’t have to be thrown away.
Prior to this innovation Maliban Lemon Puff only had 23% market share in
Lemon Puff market and now is having 80% market share in the market.
As the vision of the company targets, becoming the leader of confectionary
manufacturing would be a long journey for the company. One prerequisite for
achieving the target is huge capital investments in sub continental India. As a
privately owned company this would be a really difficult task and so the
company now has correctly identified and expressed openly its intention of
going public in the near future. This can be mentioned as a farsighted
alignment of corporate strategy with long term company objectives.
Finally it can be said that continuous drive for innovation and creation of
superior value to customers has largely contributed for the recent success of
the Maliban group. Another important factor notable in the success story of
Maliban is, correctly understanding the power of advertising in the event of
building a brand. Having a strong brand name means, a company has
successfully liberated its product from commodity like trap and price level can
be set beyond the balance point of supply and demand curves. Maliban is
heading to that direction.
Strategy Implementation
Strategy implementation is the most important and most
difficult part of the strategic management process which requires the
organization’s employees and managers at all levels to turn strategies
into action. A successful strategy implementation requires support
discipline, motivation and hard work from all managers and
employees. In the aspect of management issues, Maliban has its own
policies to operate on Maliban’s daily operation. Maliban’s prefer to
focus on company and product development which boast a great

30. 24
range on produce its products with world class quality and a long term
brand.
nutritious health and snack solution for smart and active kids and
teens. These products have been reinforce Maliban’s commitment to
providing more great-tasting snacks that help consumers strike a
healthy balance in their daily lives.
The strategy used by Maliban’s make the company
become more stronger and stronger. They specifically focuses on new
potential products and innovations will ensure the company always
stays at the forefront of innovation. The main reason why the
customers always supporting their product is Maliban’s always
emphasize on using the high quality ingredient to process the high
quality product. The effort on using the high quality ingredients on
process the high quality product ensures Maliban’s become successful.
3. Recommendation
4.Conclusion

31. 25
So in this report we mainly talked about what are the main strategies use
by Maliban after analyzed their business environment and how they work for
avoid them. And we mainly identified what are the main strengths such as
healthy and very mature employees and as weaknesses we identified old
employees etc. And Maliban has threats and opportunities like every
organization in this world. When we talk about some of their threats, most of
their biscuits are based on sugar. Because of that there are lots of peoples in
Sri Lanka who have diabetes. So those people can be a threat to Maliban. But
it can be also opportunity to them because; they can make sugarless biscuits
for targeting that people.
After that we realized who is the main competitor of Maliban,
which is Munchee. And other best biscuit producer in Sri Lankan biscuit
market. And we also talked about how strong the bond between Maliban and
Munchee in this race. As per report said before pages it’s a very strong one
and they try achieving some common goals together. And we also talked
about what are the strategies used them for that goals and how they manage
their prices strategically.
Also we talked about what are the organizations Maliban follow
for their more success and how they use their ideas and strategic plans
strategically.
Finally, we can understand what are the strategies used by
Maliban for achieving their success.
References
 Anon., 2003. UKEssays. [Online] Available at: ukessays.com[Accessed 2020].
 Anon., n.d. Course Hero. [Online] Available at: coursehero.com [Accessed
2020].

32. 26
 Anon., n.d. Maliban Group. [Online] Available at: malibangroup.com
[Accessed 2020].
 Anon., n.d. Management Study Guide. [Online] Available at:
managementstudyguide.com [Accessed 2020].
 Anon., n.d. PressReader. [Online] Available at:
https://www.pressreader.com. [Accessed 2020].
 Grant, R. M., n.d. Contempory Strategy analysis. 9 illustrated ed. s.l.:John
wiley and sons,2016.
 I.Cleland, D., 1996. Strategic Management of Teams. illustrated ed. s.l.:John
Wiley and sons.
 IBP.Inc., n.d. Sri Lanka Export-Import,Trade and Business directory-Strategic
Information and contacts. s.l.:Lulu.com,2007.
 international, B., 2011. The International directory of importers. 2 ed.
California: Blytmann International,1983.
 Kourdi, J., 2003. Business Strategy. London: Profile books Ltd.
 Leleur, S., 2012. Complex stategic Choices:Applying Systematic Planning for
Strategic Decision Making. illistrated ed. s.l.:Springer Science and Business
media,2012.
 R.Jones, C. W. H. a. G., 2008. Strategic Management Theory. 9 ed. South-
Western: s.n.
 Vijay Paul Sharma, B. V. H., 2013. Linking SmallholderProducers to Modern
Agri-Food Chains. s.l.:Allied Publishers,2013.
 Wastson, G. H., 2008. Srategic Benchmarking Reloaded with six sigma.
illustrated,revised ed. s.l.:John Wiley and sons.

33. 27
Group contribution sheet
INDEX NO NAME WORK DONE
10025026 M.S. Arifeen Introduction and conclusion
10025364 K.S.Y.Dalpathadu
10024118 H.M.K.O.Herath Strategic analysis and SWOT

34. 28
10025422 D.U.S.Pathirane
10025105 W.H.D. Perera Strategic choice and competition
advantage
10025381 S.U. Edirisinghe
10025824 S.H. Ruwanpathirana Strategic capability and benchmarking
10022036 M.S.Safna
10025451 W.D.T.P. Prabhashwari Implementation strategies in the
given economy value chain
10025401 S.H.S.S.H.Dharmathne
10025580 J.G.D. Madushani Strategic purpose and
recommendations
10023978 T.S.D.K. Basnayake
10025107 K.A.N. Kavindya Practical approach
10023974 D.N.M. Perera Finalize and the presentation
10025192 R.H. Pathirage
Evaluation criteria
Evaluation Criteria – Group Report
Total
Marks
(20 %)
Marks
Obtained
1.Ananlysis 5%
2.Application of theories and models 5%

35. 29
3.Critical evaluation and recommendations 5%
4.Overall quality of the report(flow,structure) 5%
Other Comments
Evaluation Criteria - Presentation
Total
Marks
(10%)
Marks
Obtained
1.Quality of delivery and Content 5%
3.Time Management and Overall performance 5%
Other Comments
Feedback Form
Assignment : applying the theories learnt in Strategic Management into the
given company.
No. Student
Number
Feedback
01
02

36. 30
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15

37. 31

38. 32

39. 33

40. 34

41. 35