Question

FIRST, you need to choose a firm: For this assignment, choose any firm except (a) those firms presently being used by the groups in this course (GM, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Tesla, Apple, Walmart) or (b) any firm that you are using or mentioning in your individual writeup assignment (which is totally different from this assignment). Note that you MAY choose a firm you have recently worked for or are working for as well, as long you have/can get sufficient information on this firm.

SECOND, you need to decide whether you would like to focus on your chosen firm’s (a) business-level (Ch 5) OR (b its high-technology (Ch 7) OR (c) its global strategy (Ch 8) OR (d) corporate level strategy (Ch 9, 10). NOTE that you can choose ANY ONE of these types of strategies for this assignment.

FINALLY, discuss the strategy you have chosen for your chosen firm. To do this, please complete items 1 to 3 below:

1. Correctly label the strategy (e.g. cost-leadership, blue ocean, multidomestic, etc….) and briefly explain why you chose this label.

2. Explain carefully and completely the key features of this firm’s strategy. In doing this, you should explain its logic and how it is supposed to work. You should also explain how it is intended to help the firm compete in its industry to obtain competitive advantage.

In doing this part, among other things, you should consider the industry the firm is in, how the strategy might help it deal with the five forces, how it may exploit the firm's resources and capabilities, how it fits with the firm's mission and goals, and so on.

3. Provide any recommendations you have for improving the strategy (especially given current opportunities and threats facing your chosen firm).

Answer 1

First

About the Company:

• Company Name: Maruti Suzuki India Limited
• Type: Public
• Traded as: BSE; NSE
• Industry: Automotive
• Founded: 1981; 38 years ago
• Headquarters: New Delhi, India
• Area served: India
• Key people: R. C. Bhargava (Chairman); Kenichi Ayukawa (M. D. & CEO)
• Products: Automobiles
• Production output: 1,568,603 units (2017)
• Revenue: ₹796,060 million (US$12 billion) (2017)
• Operating income: ₹101,272 million (US$1.5 billion) (2017
• Net income: ₹77,326 million (US$1.1 billion) (2017)
• Total assets: ₹519,605 million (US$7.5 billion) (2017)
• Total equity: ₹370,905 million (US$5.4 billion) (2017)
• Number of employees: 40000 (2018)
• Parent: Suzuki Motor Corporation (56.21%); Public (43.79%)

Second

Corporate level strategy: The Company is not operating globally to adopt the global level strategy, neither the company is small enough to focus on business-level strategy.

The important corporate-level strategy of the company includes:

• Providing all accessories under one roof, easy finance facility, showrooms, etc.
• The company focuses on improving its technology and provide maximum customer satisfaction at the lowest possible cost.
• It has a unique distribution channel. It has a sales network of 933 centres in 668 towns and cities and provides service support to customers at 3053 workshops in over 1395 towns and cities.

Third

1. Maruti Suzuki India Limited: Cost leadership strategy – The Company generally sets its price to target the Lower middle-class and middle-class families in India. So they set the prices of their car low to make it people’s car so that person driving 2-wheelers would shift towards driving of the 4-wheeler car.
2. Product, Place, Price and Promotion are key strategies of the company:
   1. The company offers a wide product range.
   2. It has a range of cars from 2 to 26 lakhs. The price is decided by the quality and design of the product.
   3. It decides its distribution channel on its own, which is sometimes one level or a two-level marketing channel.
   4. For promotion, it uses both prints as well as the electronic media. It tries to create an emotional connect with the customers (which are mainly the Indian middle-class population).
3. Recommendation: the company has captured more than 55% of the market in India and Japan where it operates using its quality products and the lowest cost as well as with significant services. Hereby I recommend the company:

• To globalize their business to increase the brand image and profitability.
• To produce cars in luxurious segment to increase its brand image.
• To obtain more patents to be a substantial leader in the industry and earn through royalty.