Retailing in India
India has one of the best retailing systems in the world. The industry is totally fragmented and has the highest level of penetration across the length and breath of the country. This industry has the largest number of entrepreneurs in India.
The adoption of this model in countries where the unemployment is very high, would help to create many more entrepreneurs and resolving the unemployment problem .
India is the only country where a retail outlet could be seen in every street corner whether it is a town or a village.
The leading category in retailing is Food and in other categories are gold and mobile phones.s leading the table.
There were many attempts by Business groups to establish a very large Organised retail chain in India. Many a times, the companies were not able to implement this concept with big success especially in Food and Grocery items, since the value delivered by a local retailer was not matched by a large retail chain. Since retailers are a large entrepreneurial class, they were also able to wield influence in the society and able to curtail the efforts by large players in consolidating this industry.
Small retail provides lot of opportunities for entrepreneurs. When I was travelling in interiors of the county, I saw the small and village level retail has even spread its wings to retailing in other products categopreis. Earlier , the retailing was taking place in a big way only in food and grocery. Now we can find shops selling Textiles, Pharma, Electronics , Telephones and even Jewellery.
In a small retail, many players were able to achieve a Profit Before tax on Sales of close to 20% . Whereas in the case of large retailers, hardly they are able to achieve a Profit Before tax of 5% with great difficulty even after achieving a gross margin of 30 35%.
For small retailers, the operations are very simple and easy to manage.
For small retailers, the productivity per sq.ft is the highest sometimes going upto 100 times of a large retailer.
Small retailers offer small packs, which makes the buying affordable for all the sections of society. The buyers need not buy in large packs and store for long periods of time. Storage increases the cost in terms of inventory cost as well as additional cost on food/grocery items becoming stale and not good for use.
For small retailers, the overheads and expenses are very less in delivering the service. Whereas in the organized retail, the expenses on Rent is between 6 – 8% on sales, Salaries are between 4- 7%, Interest on working capital, wastages going up to 3% on sales and payment of taxes.
In fact, the cost structure of large retailers is unfavourable and large retailers have a very clear disadvantage of 16% on sale compared to the small retailer. If the large retail is not managed well then it increases the loss of cost competitiveness further.
Due to space constraints and increasing purchasing power of buyers, the large retail formats are not able to make the experience of buying pleasurable. One of the constraints is in providing parking space for large number of customers.
As of today, there are not too many managers in the Indian system with the capacity to manage the large store formats in an efficient manner.
The systems and procedures are still not uniform and it differs from store to store for the same retail chain. There is lot of discretion for store managers. Whereas in mass retailing, there is a need to follow well defined systems and procedures without having too many exemptions, discretion by the local managers. Local managers can have disecretion to decide the product portfolio of a store depending on the region based on the consumption pattern but not the administrative systems and procedures.
In vegetables and fruits, large retail formats are not able to deliver consistent quality products. The quality differs from day to day and from hour to hour. Many a times poor quality products are displayed and stock out is observed in these items.
There are still many issues relating pricing, bar coding and counter management. Many a times, there is a need for intervention by the person who is preparing the bill to manually intervene to input the prices which is leading to errors in billing and customer complaints.
Since all the products are not having a proper bar code and automatic billing , this reduces the efficiency of the billing and counter management. Counters become a major constraint in deciding the number of customers who could be served by the system. Counters decide the capacity to serve the number of customers.
Organised retailing is not able to take off in a big way due to all the above reasons especially in food and grocery categories. .
To make a large successful Organised retail chain, the following points could be taken into consideration.
1. Choose the right product mix. Emphasis should be on non perishables and items which are not sold in a big way by small retailers.
2. Follow a strategy of creating a few model stores on the format. Address all the issues relating to Store Management, Procurement, supply chain, wastage management, billing system and counter management. After making this a big success, then replicate the same model across many centres .
3. Organisation structure. Managing a large retail is more complex than managing a small retail. There are different businesses involved. The first business is the store management followed by Supply chain management and Real estate management. Each business requires different skills . Hence three separate entities to be created for each of the above. Since Indian entrepreneurs have still not mastered all the above aspects, it would be in the best interests to enter into JV’s with those who are experts in the above fields either from India or from abroad.
4. Systems and procedures. This is the key for success of the retail. Even small inefficiencies in the system , wipe away the little margins achieved by large retailers and sometime resulting in losses. This area requires more attention than the attention provided today and this area to be given the prime importance in managing the retail business.
5. Large retailers have to create strategic alliances with the small retailers in the catchment area and wherever the direct market penetration would be difficult, they could look at indirect penetration in the market through distributing private lable products through the small retailers.
6. To have better control, instead of spreading operations thin all over the country, make the expansion fast within small territories to start with and then go for national expansion.
7. Create as many private labels as possible especially in Food and Grocery and start marketing to small retailers. Quality of products should be given the prime importance.
8. Present in the entire value chain. Right from production of Agri produce to packing and branding the products and marketing them.
9. Adopt best practices in Financial and inventory management. Reduce the wastages in the system through ensuring quality at all levels.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Telecom Companies - India
1. Business Models had undergone a big transformation in the last 10 years.
2. Initially, the model was capital intensive. Now the model is asset light.
3. The players who have higher level of variable costs in their operations are able to achieve higher operating margins. The need for high capital is less on account of very high levels of outsourcing.
4. Higher variable cost provide a high level of flexibility in operations and helps in faster ramping up with minimum risk.
5. Now almost most of the operations relating to Telecom services are outsourced.
6. India had the highest tariffs in the world . Today India has the lowest tariffs in the world.
7. More than 95% of business was post paid and now about 95% of subscribers are pre paid ( where the risk of not collecting the dues is very less ).
8. Initially, the price competition in the sector was very low and operating margins were very high. Now the price competition is very high and operating margins are coming down.
9. The core business of Telecom services is not profitable. But services related to Telecom are profitable and players in the Eco system are operating profitably. Phone manufacturers, Content Providers, Tower owners, Networking managers, Telecom Retail, BPO providers and IT services providers are part of the Eco System today. The core business of voice is not profitable any more and it has to be supported by Data and other value added services.
10. Only a few companies in the world have most of the above services and those who have the above could look at synergies and leverage of synergies available within a group.
11. Going forward, only the leading players in the field and those who consolidate their operations will survive in the market.
12. The government's proposal to allow easy exit of players should facilitate the mergers and acquisitions and optimal use of spectrum.
13. To develop a robust business model, the companies have to develop host of Products , Services based on Telecom which will add lot of value to the Product portfolio and increase the revenue . The services could include TV on Mobile, Banking on Mobile, Mobile Data Services, use of cloud computing for operations, High speed wireless, High speed Broadband and whole host of data services through mobile.
14. Going forward, Telecom industry players will be competing with Banks, DTH, Cable Services in providing Banking and Entertainment services.
15. The companies in the sector have to tailor strategies in line with the developments in the Eco system, which would ensure a development of a competitive Strategy.
2. Initially, the model was capital intensive. Now the model is asset light.
3. The players who have higher level of variable costs in their operations are able to achieve higher operating margins. The need for high capital is less on account of very high levels of outsourcing.
4. Higher variable cost provide a high level of flexibility in operations and helps in faster ramping up with minimum risk.
5. Now almost most of the operations relating to Telecom services are outsourced.
6. India had the highest tariffs in the world . Today India has the lowest tariffs in the world.
7. More than 95% of business was post paid and now about 95% of subscribers are pre paid ( where the risk of not collecting the dues is very less ).
8. Initially, the price competition in the sector was very low and operating margins were very high. Now the price competition is very high and operating margins are coming down.
9. The core business of Telecom services is not profitable. But services related to Telecom are profitable and players in the Eco system are operating profitably. Phone manufacturers, Content Providers, Tower owners, Networking managers, Telecom Retail, BPO providers and IT services providers are part of the Eco System today. The core business of voice is not profitable any more and it has to be supported by Data and other value added services.
10. Only a few companies in the world have most of the above services and those who have the above could look at synergies and leverage of synergies available within a group.
11. Going forward, only the leading players in the field and those who consolidate their operations will survive in the market.
12. The government's proposal to allow easy exit of players should facilitate the mergers and acquisitions and optimal use of spectrum.
13. To develop a robust business model, the companies have to develop host of Products , Services based on Telecom which will add lot of value to the Product portfolio and increase the revenue . The services could include TV on Mobile, Banking on Mobile, Mobile Data Services, use of cloud computing for operations, High speed wireless, High speed Broadband and whole host of data services through mobile.
14. Going forward, Telecom industry players will be competing with Banks, DTH, Cable Services in providing Banking and Entertainment services.
15. The companies in the sector have to tailor strategies in line with the developments in the Eco system, which would ensure a development of a competitive Strategy.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Revival of Air India
Revival of Air India
Air India was a great brand and whoever travelled abroad a few years back had an excellent experience in travelling by Air India. The Maharaja symbol, represented the rich Indian culture. The liberalization of the Airline sector coupled with lowered productivity of the assets led to the present Economic Condition of Air India.
The financial condition is very bad today but it is not at a level that it would be difficult to turn around the company. There are many hidden assets the company has which could be capitalized to restructure the company. Since it is owned by government, reserving a few privileges being the national carrier could be created for Air India.
The company requires restructuring of the Businesses, Operations, Systems and Procedures and Capital Structure. There is a greater need to follow a asset light strategy and capitalizing on the hidden assets going forward.
The vision can be set as “To become a World Class Airline enterprise and be ranked among the Top 10 Airlines by 2015”..
The Mission could be , ’ To operate in All businesses related to Air Transportation and establish operations across the world.” By addressing participating in all the related businesses , the asset utilization could go up and the fixed cost of operation per Passenger KM could be brought down substantially.
They could set an objective to become cash positive within a year and book break even in two years and a profitable Airline in 5 years.
The opportunities for this business are :
• Robust Indian Economic Growth and increasing liberalisation of the sector
• Increasing purchasing power of Indian customers.
• Government’s proactive approach to fast growth of Air Transportation sector
• For consolidation of the sector
• Existence of underserved , unserved markets in India.
• Growing international Trade
• Likely opening of Military Airports for commercial aviation
• Liberalisation of international routes through bilateral agreements.
• Growing Cargo business
• Scope for outsourcing non core operations and employing people on contract going forward.
The Threats for this business are :
• Faster growth of other Airlines
• Threat of new entrants and higher focus on India by foreign airlines.
• Shortage of trained pilots
• High Ticket prices
• Oil price at high levels
• Intense competition forcing price reductions
• Shortage of Airports which will support the growth targets
The Strengths of Air India are :
• Support from the Government
• Lot of hidden assets.
• Presence in all the major Segments of Airline operations.
• Large Fleet
• Availability of Large supporting Infrastructure
• A very wide network
The weakness of Air India are :
• Losing market share.
• Poor financial position
• Sub optimal Load factors.
• Very low cargo load factor
• Lower level of productivity across the organisation. Low Employee productivity.
• Large number of non performing assets.
• High overheads
• Less aggressive approach to development of the business compared to the private carriers.
• Slow response to market developments
• Employee attrition replaced at high cost
The possible strategies could be :
• Expand by acquiring large number of aircrafts by using innovative financing strategies.
• Give lot of emphasis to reduction of costs across the enterprise.
• Improve the internal processes to improve the profitability.
• Adopt the best practices in the Industry adopted by various players across the world.
• Use leasing as a major strategy to achieve the fast expansion.
• Capitalise the non performing assets.
• Explore the scope for JV in all its operations ( Business – wise, scope for Joint ventures).
• Explore the scope for outsourcing in all possible areas.
• Explore the scope for sharing the ground resources with other players.
• As far as possible ensure only variable costs are added to the system.
• Develop a restructuring plan with three phases. The first phase should focus on Operational turnaround in performance. The second phase should focus on structural turn around and in the final phase which is a strategic turn around which should be complete within 5 years should result in Improving the market position and establishing the best cost management programme in the industry.
The Change Management could be implemented as following :
• The present need is Change management.
• Apart from expansion initiatives in the past and merger of the companies , no major initiatives were undertaken to change the way the Airline functions, partly due to the work culture.
• But by adopting innovative strategies and making the employees partners in progress it should be possible to achieve the required change.
• Restructuring is the need of the hour and there is a requirement for Organisation Restructuring, Financial Restructuring, Systems and Procedures restructuring and making the organisational culture more conducive for growth.
• To achieve this intervention is required from external experts from Finance, HR and Organisational Development and IT systems.
• Once the Strategy of fast expansion is endorsed by the government, then all the above change initiatives to be in place to achieve the desired objectives.
Funding Strategies to be followed :
• Stock Markets are good now and the Airline companies attract good premiums. Without delay go for the IPO.
• Use more off balance sheet financing for the expansion.
• Have an optimal debt equity ratio
• Methods of leasing and securitization of the fixed assets and receivables to be done in a big way
• Generate funds through New JV’s for expansion.
• Request for one time support from Government and mainly rely of internal funding and self generation of funds.
• In three years, become self reliant for financial resources.
• Use Equipment supplier finance in a big way.
• Explore the scope for Aircraft suppliers to take a stake in the Airline( 5% to each supplier of the Aircraft ).
Product / Services Strategies
Be present in the following businesses including any other business which is adjacent to these businesses.
• Full Service Carrier
• Value Carrier ( dedicate a few aircrafts for this concept)
• LCC
• Cargo services
• Technical Services
• Customer Services
• Ground Support
• Catering
• Warehousing Services
• Aircraft/Airport and E – retailing.
• Tours and Travel Services and \
• Any other adjacent businesses to be identified in future.
Yield Management Strategies
Be present in the following businesses including any other business which is adjacent to these businesses.
• Full Service Carrier
• Value Carrier ( dedicate a few aircrafts for this concept)
• LCC
• Cargo services
• Technical Services
• Customer Services
• Ground Support
• Catering
• Warehousing Services
• Aircraft/Airport and E – retailing.
• Tours and Travel Services and \
• Any other adjacent businesses to be identified in future.
Distribution Strategy
• Use all the channels available for marketing and selling .
• Target a sale of more than 80% through internet and E-commerce going forward in future.
• Collaborate with others to create kiosks for selling the tickets.
• Create long term alliances with the Top 10 tour operators in the world and the top 10 tour operators in India.
• Government should make it mandatory for all the Central , State Government Employees and PSU employees to use only NACIL for official purpose.
Post Merger Integration
There are still issues relating to Merger of both the Airlines . This was mainly on account of HR issues.
• First phase should be to achieve the financial integration and balance sheet consolidation. Bring in uniformity in accounting and reporting systems across the divisions.
• In the Second phase, merge all the supporting and infrastructural facilities.
• Keep the Brands and services for International, Domestic and LCC separate in terms of marketing and promotion.
• Keep the old labour agreements with the Unions of erstwhile entities intact and in IT have different systems to support the complexity of payroll. This has happened in a big way in a Private sector bank and the for the same position in the company , they have four different pay scales and performance systems which are not made very explicit.
• Use the Size of operations to negotiate better deals with the suppliers of Aircraft and other equipments.
• Clearly define the SBU’s and unambiguous targets on performance to be set for SBU through very effective Budgeting and performance monitoring systems.
• Achieve the merger on HR /Employee issues in a gradual manner and this will require efforts which should go in line with the Change Management required across the enterprise. This aspect will take at least three years to achieve.
• A phased approach with different times frames have to drawn up for aspects relating Finance, Support Services, Product, Branding, HR, IT Systems, reporting systems and Marketing.
Asset Utilisation
• The use of Aircrafts require lot of improvement from the present levels and there is a scope for increasing the average use of these aircrafts by at least 15% from the present levels.
• An objective should be set to achieve usage of at least 12 hrs per aircraft per day.
• Achieve a capacity utilisation of 85% of all the infrastructure and supporting facilities. This could be achieved by sharing some of these facilities with the other airlines.
• Explore the scope of leasing the extra free land , leased land and identify scope for improving the revenue through this route.
• The company has lot of hidden resources including Realty , which could be valued at much higher rates than what was shown in the balance sheet.
• An exercise to be conducted on all the non performing assets and action plans to be drawn up for improving the utilisation of these assets or disposal of these assets which would help in releasing resources for growth.
• The company owns properties in Premium places and the scope for enhancing the revenue from these properties could be explored including Sale/Lease/Joint Development and extracting higher revenue from these properties
Cost Control
• Reduce the number of types of Aircraft in the system which would help to save on Maintenance costs.
• Wherever possible convert the fixed costs into variable costs
• Change the quality of paper in which the tickets are printed. Saving of Rs.1 per passenger could be targeted.
• Identify the non value adding variable expenses and control them very effectively.
• Cut down the speed of Planes if the availability of landing space for the aircraft is likely to be delayed from the scheduled time.
• Develop the crew scheduling in such a way that layovers and night halts are minimized to a great extent.
• Reduce the maintenance costs.
• Reduce the number of lay overs by strengthening the route planning and crew planning.
• Share the infrastructure with other airlines and earn revenue from sharing of infrastructure.
Fuel Management Strategies
• High fuel costs are increasing the Break even levels for the Airlines.
• Now they constitute 40% of an airlines’ operating cost.
• ATF in India is costlier by 60 – 70%.
• Fill the fuel where the price of fuel is very low
• Enter into long term contracts for supply with a provision for lowering the price indexed to the Price of the ATF in the world market.
• Instead of using the Jet engine use on – board diesel power generation unit to rev up the aircraft while passenger board and embark.
• Monitor the fuel consumption flight wise to ensure
• Fuel Hedging strategies – Like in other countries request the government to allow the hedging of fuel requirements, which would help to reduce the cost of the fuel.
Performance Reporting system
• Develop a very robust Operating and Financial Reporting system across the enterprise and for each SBU and division.
• Prepare Perspective Plans, Strategic Plans and Annual and Monthly Budgets.
• Introduce the concept of Balanced Score card across the enterprise.
• Prepare monthly Financial reports and forward it to the Ministry for their review. Have a review with the Ministry every month on the performance.
• Report Variances with the course corrections and action plans required .
• Track the daily performance of each route, flight, aircraft and the major support and infrastructure facility.
• Consolidate this on a monthly basis.
• Continuous performance review should be in place to achieve the fast response.
• As soon as possible, bring the above system in synch with the ERP to be deployed across the enterprise.
HR Strategies
• Increase the level of operations without substantially increasing the employee head count.
• Bring down the number of employees per aircraft to 120 and this could be achieved over a period of time.
• Tie up with Aircraft manufacturers for training the Pilots and supply of pilots when a new aircraft is delivered. When a new aircraft is delivered the Manufacturer can provide 4 trained pilots for each Air craft supplied.
• Give ESOP’s to every employee at Rs.10 per share before IPO.
• Introduce the Balanced score card system to measure the performance of employees.
• Introduce the variable pay system and the variable pay could go up to 40% of employees salary. Move towards the concept of cost to the company.
• Retrain the staff in operating departments to handle functions relating to Customer service.
• Help the surplus manpower to get placed with other emerging Airlines in the country through out placement services.
Union Management
• Create a committee for all the Unions where each Union president will become a member.
• In the beginning, conduct a brain storming session with all the Unions to identify how to make the company more competitive and survive in the highly competitive environment.
• Request the Union to come with ideas on how to improve the productivity of all the resources within the company which would increase the company’s ability to increase the wage levels of all employees.
• Future wage agreements to be signed after based on productivity agreements with the Unions. Productivity to be benchmarked with other leading airlines in the world.
Training/Retraining Strategy
• Identify 10 leading institutes in India and abroad for training the personnel.
• Enter into Strategic Alliances with leading Airline training organisations in the world.
• Develop strategic alliance for training with the equipment suppliers and make it as a part of the pacakage for purchase.
• Co-operate with non competing Airlines like South West to design enterprise wide training programme for staff and prepare a master training programme covering from Senior Management level to Junior Management level.
IT and Systems Strategy
• Install the best systems in the world in the Airline Industry for Enterprise Management, Yield Management, CRM and other related aspects.
• Add the modules relating to Daily and Weekly performance reporting into the system.
• Pricing and Revenue Management system requires strengthening.
• HR Management system to be brought in alignment with the present challenges including merger.
• Flight utilisation is very poor and Flight Operation system requires strengthening.
• IP based strategies to be based in a big way
• Infrastructure has to be reviewed for required upgrades to meet the growth targets.
• Set objectives to improve Flight Schedule, Flight Assignment and crew planning
Restructuring implementation :
• Introduce the Balanced score card across the organisation.
• Engage a consultant to introduce this system
• A model Balanced Score card adopted in South West one of the best Airlines is given here.
• Bench marking to be done with the leading airlines in the world including South West, Singapore, etc.
Closely monitor the following Key Performance Indicators :
• Aircraft Utilisation – Block hours per day / annum
• Cabin Factor
• ASK /RPK
• Passenger Yield
• Freight Load Factor
• AFTK/RFTK
• Cargo Yield
• Average Employee / Aircraft
• Revenue per Aircraft / Employee
• Fuel cost per ASK and FTK or FTK
• Cost Per Passenger KM / FTK
• Operating profit margin
• Actual and Break Even Load factors
• Return on Investment
• Return on Equity
Organisation Structure :
• Create a Corporate Centre with Central functions like Finance, HR, Safety and Strategy (including fleet net work and Brand)
• Create Airline Business Units ( SBU’s), Domestic Airline, Cargo Airline, International Airline and LCC. Each business will have Divisional CEO and Head of Finance and HR.
• Have profit centres for Catering, Ground Handling,MRO and Shared services
• Have SBU’s for Rental Cars, Hotels ,Resorts , Tourism, Travel Services and Merchandising of products in the Aircraft, Airport and Web site.
• Create a subsidiary for exploiting the Real Estates of NACIL and the associated companies.
• Provide a big focus to customer service which will be a differentiator for the company going forward.
Other Strategies
• Create a lead in forming Asian Airlines Association for protecting the interest of the Asian airlines, since going forward the Asian markets are going to provide the momentum to the growth of this industry.
• Take the support of Government in adding capacity which would help to maintain the present market share in the highly competitive market.
• Take the support of government in protecting the routes, sectors which are providing the profits today. The top 10 profit making international routes could be reserved for NACIL for the next three years till the company attains self sufficiency.
• Work closely in coordination with the government to promote the Aviation Sector and Tourism Industry of India which will provide the momentum to the Indian Economic Growth.
The key to success of all the above strategies will be treat the employees as partners in implementing this exercise and protecting the interests of the employees.
Air India was a great brand and whoever travelled abroad a few years back had an excellent experience in travelling by Air India. The Maharaja symbol, represented the rich Indian culture. The liberalization of the Airline sector coupled with lowered productivity of the assets led to the present Economic Condition of Air India.
The financial condition is very bad today but it is not at a level that it would be difficult to turn around the company. There are many hidden assets the company has which could be capitalized to restructure the company. Since it is owned by government, reserving a few privileges being the national carrier could be created for Air India.
The company requires restructuring of the Businesses, Operations, Systems and Procedures and Capital Structure. There is a greater need to follow a asset light strategy and capitalizing on the hidden assets going forward.
The vision can be set as “To become a World Class Airline enterprise and be ranked among the Top 10 Airlines by 2015”..
The Mission could be , ’ To operate in All businesses related to Air Transportation and establish operations across the world.” By addressing participating in all the related businesses , the asset utilization could go up and the fixed cost of operation per Passenger KM could be brought down substantially.
They could set an objective to become cash positive within a year and book break even in two years and a profitable Airline in 5 years.
The opportunities for this business are :
• Robust Indian Economic Growth and increasing liberalisation of the sector
• Increasing purchasing power of Indian customers.
• Government’s proactive approach to fast growth of Air Transportation sector
• For consolidation of the sector
• Existence of underserved , unserved markets in India.
• Growing international Trade
• Likely opening of Military Airports for commercial aviation
• Liberalisation of international routes through bilateral agreements.
• Growing Cargo business
• Scope for outsourcing non core operations and employing people on contract going forward.
The Threats for this business are :
• Faster growth of other Airlines
• Threat of new entrants and higher focus on India by foreign airlines.
• Shortage of trained pilots
• High Ticket prices
• Oil price at high levels
• Intense competition forcing price reductions
• Shortage of Airports which will support the growth targets
The Strengths of Air India are :
• Support from the Government
• Lot of hidden assets.
• Presence in all the major Segments of Airline operations.
• Large Fleet
• Availability of Large supporting Infrastructure
• A very wide network
The weakness of Air India are :
• Losing market share.
• Poor financial position
• Sub optimal Load factors.
• Very low cargo load factor
• Lower level of productivity across the organisation. Low Employee productivity.
• Large number of non performing assets.
• High overheads
• Less aggressive approach to development of the business compared to the private carriers.
• Slow response to market developments
• Employee attrition replaced at high cost
The possible strategies could be :
• Expand by acquiring large number of aircrafts by using innovative financing strategies.
• Give lot of emphasis to reduction of costs across the enterprise.
• Improve the internal processes to improve the profitability.
• Adopt the best practices in the Industry adopted by various players across the world.
• Use leasing as a major strategy to achieve the fast expansion.
• Capitalise the non performing assets.
• Explore the scope for JV in all its operations ( Business – wise, scope for Joint ventures).
• Explore the scope for outsourcing in all possible areas.
• Explore the scope for sharing the ground resources with other players.
• As far as possible ensure only variable costs are added to the system.
• Develop a restructuring plan with three phases. The first phase should focus on Operational turnaround in performance. The second phase should focus on structural turn around and in the final phase which is a strategic turn around which should be complete within 5 years should result in Improving the market position and establishing the best cost management programme in the industry.
The Change Management could be implemented as following :
• The present need is Change management.
• Apart from expansion initiatives in the past and merger of the companies , no major initiatives were undertaken to change the way the Airline functions, partly due to the work culture.
• But by adopting innovative strategies and making the employees partners in progress it should be possible to achieve the required change.
• Restructuring is the need of the hour and there is a requirement for Organisation Restructuring, Financial Restructuring, Systems and Procedures restructuring and making the organisational culture more conducive for growth.
• To achieve this intervention is required from external experts from Finance, HR and Organisational Development and IT systems.
• Once the Strategy of fast expansion is endorsed by the government, then all the above change initiatives to be in place to achieve the desired objectives.
Funding Strategies to be followed :
• Stock Markets are good now and the Airline companies attract good premiums. Without delay go for the IPO.
• Use more off balance sheet financing for the expansion.
• Have an optimal debt equity ratio
• Methods of leasing and securitization of the fixed assets and receivables to be done in a big way
• Generate funds through New JV’s for expansion.
• Request for one time support from Government and mainly rely of internal funding and self generation of funds.
• In three years, become self reliant for financial resources.
• Use Equipment supplier finance in a big way.
• Explore the scope for Aircraft suppliers to take a stake in the Airline( 5% to each supplier of the Aircraft ).
Product / Services Strategies
Be present in the following businesses including any other business which is adjacent to these businesses.
• Full Service Carrier
• Value Carrier ( dedicate a few aircrafts for this concept)
• LCC
• Cargo services
• Technical Services
• Customer Services
• Ground Support
• Catering
• Warehousing Services
• Aircraft/Airport and E – retailing.
• Tours and Travel Services and \
• Any other adjacent businesses to be identified in future.
Yield Management Strategies
Be present in the following businesses including any other business which is adjacent to these businesses.
• Full Service Carrier
• Value Carrier ( dedicate a few aircrafts for this concept)
• LCC
• Cargo services
• Technical Services
• Customer Services
• Ground Support
• Catering
• Warehousing Services
• Aircraft/Airport and E – retailing.
• Tours and Travel Services and \
• Any other adjacent businesses to be identified in future.
Distribution Strategy
• Use all the channels available for marketing and selling .
• Target a sale of more than 80% through internet and E-commerce going forward in future.
• Collaborate with others to create kiosks for selling the tickets.
• Create long term alliances with the Top 10 tour operators in the world and the top 10 tour operators in India.
• Government should make it mandatory for all the Central , State Government Employees and PSU employees to use only NACIL for official purpose.
Post Merger Integration
There are still issues relating to Merger of both the Airlines . This was mainly on account of HR issues.
• First phase should be to achieve the financial integration and balance sheet consolidation. Bring in uniformity in accounting and reporting systems across the divisions.
• In the Second phase, merge all the supporting and infrastructural facilities.
• Keep the Brands and services for International, Domestic and LCC separate in terms of marketing and promotion.
• Keep the old labour agreements with the Unions of erstwhile entities intact and in IT have different systems to support the complexity of payroll. This has happened in a big way in a Private sector bank and the for the same position in the company , they have four different pay scales and performance systems which are not made very explicit.
• Use the Size of operations to negotiate better deals with the suppliers of Aircraft and other equipments.
• Clearly define the SBU’s and unambiguous targets on performance to be set for SBU through very effective Budgeting and performance monitoring systems.
• Achieve the merger on HR /Employee issues in a gradual manner and this will require efforts which should go in line with the Change Management required across the enterprise. This aspect will take at least three years to achieve.
• A phased approach with different times frames have to drawn up for aspects relating Finance, Support Services, Product, Branding, HR, IT Systems, reporting systems and Marketing.
Asset Utilisation
• The use of Aircrafts require lot of improvement from the present levels and there is a scope for increasing the average use of these aircrafts by at least 15% from the present levels.
• An objective should be set to achieve usage of at least 12 hrs per aircraft per day.
• Achieve a capacity utilisation of 85% of all the infrastructure and supporting facilities. This could be achieved by sharing some of these facilities with the other airlines.
• Explore the scope of leasing the extra free land , leased land and identify scope for improving the revenue through this route.
• The company has lot of hidden resources including Realty , which could be valued at much higher rates than what was shown in the balance sheet.
• An exercise to be conducted on all the non performing assets and action plans to be drawn up for improving the utilisation of these assets or disposal of these assets which would help in releasing resources for growth.
• The company owns properties in Premium places and the scope for enhancing the revenue from these properties could be explored including Sale/Lease/Joint Development and extracting higher revenue from these properties
Cost Control
• Reduce the number of types of Aircraft in the system which would help to save on Maintenance costs.
• Wherever possible convert the fixed costs into variable costs
• Change the quality of paper in which the tickets are printed. Saving of Rs.1 per passenger could be targeted.
• Identify the non value adding variable expenses and control them very effectively.
• Cut down the speed of Planes if the availability of landing space for the aircraft is likely to be delayed from the scheduled time.
• Develop the crew scheduling in such a way that layovers and night halts are minimized to a great extent.
• Reduce the maintenance costs.
• Reduce the number of lay overs by strengthening the route planning and crew planning.
• Share the infrastructure with other airlines and earn revenue from sharing of infrastructure.
Fuel Management Strategies
• High fuel costs are increasing the Break even levels for the Airlines.
• Now they constitute 40% of an airlines’ operating cost.
• ATF in India is costlier by 60 – 70%.
• Fill the fuel where the price of fuel is very low
• Enter into long term contracts for supply with a provision for lowering the price indexed to the Price of the ATF in the world market.
• Instead of using the Jet engine use on – board diesel power generation unit to rev up the aircraft while passenger board and embark.
• Monitor the fuel consumption flight wise to ensure
• Fuel Hedging strategies – Like in other countries request the government to allow the hedging of fuel requirements, which would help to reduce the cost of the fuel.
Performance Reporting system
• Develop a very robust Operating and Financial Reporting system across the enterprise and for each SBU and division.
• Prepare Perspective Plans, Strategic Plans and Annual and Monthly Budgets.
• Introduce the concept of Balanced Score card across the enterprise.
• Prepare monthly Financial reports and forward it to the Ministry for their review. Have a review with the Ministry every month on the performance.
• Report Variances with the course corrections and action plans required .
• Track the daily performance of each route, flight, aircraft and the major support and infrastructure facility.
• Consolidate this on a monthly basis.
• Continuous performance review should be in place to achieve the fast response.
• As soon as possible, bring the above system in synch with the ERP to be deployed across the enterprise.
HR Strategies
• Increase the level of operations without substantially increasing the employee head count.
• Bring down the number of employees per aircraft to 120 and this could be achieved over a period of time.
• Tie up with Aircraft manufacturers for training the Pilots and supply of pilots when a new aircraft is delivered. When a new aircraft is delivered the Manufacturer can provide 4 trained pilots for each Air craft supplied.
• Give ESOP’s to every employee at Rs.10 per share before IPO.
• Introduce the Balanced score card system to measure the performance of employees.
• Introduce the variable pay system and the variable pay could go up to 40% of employees salary. Move towards the concept of cost to the company.
• Retrain the staff in operating departments to handle functions relating to Customer service.
• Help the surplus manpower to get placed with other emerging Airlines in the country through out placement services.
Union Management
• Create a committee for all the Unions where each Union president will become a member.
• In the beginning, conduct a brain storming session with all the Unions to identify how to make the company more competitive and survive in the highly competitive environment.
• Request the Union to come with ideas on how to improve the productivity of all the resources within the company which would increase the company’s ability to increase the wage levels of all employees.
• Future wage agreements to be signed after based on productivity agreements with the Unions. Productivity to be benchmarked with other leading airlines in the world.
Training/Retraining Strategy
• Identify 10 leading institutes in India and abroad for training the personnel.
• Enter into Strategic Alliances with leading Airline training organisations in the world.
• Develop strategic alliance for training with the equipment suppliers and make it as a part of the pacakage for purchase.
• Co-operate with non competing Airlines like South West to design enterprise wide training programme for staff and prepare a master training programme covering from Senior Management level to Junior Management level.
IT and Systems Strategy
• Install the best systems in the world in the Airline Industry for Enterprise Management, Yield Management, CRM and other related aspects.
• Add the modules relating to Daily and Weekly performance reporting into the system.
• Pricing and Revenue Management system requires strengthening.
• HR Management system to be brought in alignment with the present challenges including merger.
• Flight utilisation is very poor and Flight Operation system requires strengthening.
• IP based strategies to be based in a big way
• Infrastructure has to be reviewed for required upgrades to meet the growth targets.
• Set objectives to improve Flight Schedule, Flight Assignment and crew planning
Restructuring implementation :
• Introduce the Balanced score card across the organisation.
• Engage a consultant to introduce this system
• A model Balanced Score card adopted in South West one of the best Airlines is given here.
• Bench marking to be done with the leading airlines in the world including South West, Singapore, etc.
Closely monitor the following Key Performance Indicators :
• Aircraft Utilisation – Block hours per day / annum
• Cabin Factor
• ASK /RPK
• Passenger Yield
• Freight Load Factor
• AFTK/RFTK
• Cargo Yield
• Average Employee / Aircraft
• Revenue per Aircraft / Employee
• Fuel cost per ASK and FTK or FTK
• Cost Per Passenger KM / FTK
• Operating profit margin
• Actual and Break Even Load factors
• Return on Investment
• Return on Equity
Organisation Structure :
• Create a Corporate Centre with Central functions like Finance, HR, Safety and Strategy (including fleet net work and Brand)
• Create Airline Business Units ( SBU’s), Domestic Airline, Cargo Airline, International Airline and LCC. Each business will have Divisional CEO and Head of Finance and HR.
• Have profit centres for Catering, Ground Handling,MRO and Shared services
• Have SBU’s for Rental Cars, Hotels ,Resorts , Tourism, Travel Services and Merchandising of products in the Aircraft, Airport and Web site.
• Create a subsidiary for exploiting the Real Estates of NACIL and the associated companies.
• Provide a big focus to customer service which will be a differentiator for the company going forward.
Other Strategies
• Create a lead in forming Asian Airlines Association for protecting the interest of the Asian airlines, since going forward the Asian markets are going to provide the momentum to the growth of this industry.
• Take the support of Government in adding capacity which would help to maintain the present market share in the highly competitive market.
• Take the support of government in protecting the routes, sectors which are providing the profits today. The top 10 profit making international routes could be reserved for NACIL for the next three years till the company attains self sufficiency.
• Work closely in coordination with the government to promote the Aviation Sector and Tourism Industry of India which will provide the momentum to the Indian Economic Growth.
The key to success of all the above strategies will be treat the employees as partners in implementing this exercise and protecting the interests of the employees.
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