Asian Journal of Management Cases, Ahead of Print.
In 2013, Alan Herrick, the CEO of Sapient, raised concerns with his HR leadership regarding the effectiveness of the existing performance management system (PMS). He tasked Kameshwari Rao, Vice President of People Strategy at Sapient India, with evaluating the current performance appraisal system, which relied on bell curving and forced ranking. Leading a core team, Rao explored alternative systems to replace the current one, eliminating the use of the bell curve.The team’s findings led to the proposal of a new approach named ‘enabling your potential’ (EYP), focusing on regular conversations throughout the year rather than a singular year-end effort for gathering and disseminating performance information. The EYP approach emphasized coaching and feedback. The case outlines the dilemma faced by Rao when confronted with feedback from various organizational stakeholders regarding the proposed EYP PMS. Rao must decide whether to persist with the bell curve system or adopt the proposed EYP approach.
Author Archives: Pooja Gupta
Rural Sales Force Retention: Dilemma of Accurate Adhesives
Asian Journal of Management Cases, Ahead of Print.
Sudeep was the sales development manager for the rural business unit of an FMCG company Accurate Adhesive Ltd. in West Bengal. The company had been plagued with a high level of attrition in its workforce. Sudeep had a big presentation coming up in the next week. He was due to present the concerns of the field sales force, benchmarking with the best practices and motivational tools needed for incremental and sustainable business practices to a team from top management. He was specially chosen for this as his immediate superior believed that Sudeep had a better insight into the field sales force. This was due to his role during his management trainee days. During the training, he experienced the life of a frontal sales force and realized the persistence and agility required of the sales force. The top management had been quite worried about the high attrition (>20%) problem in the rural areas where the company had a presence. The business loss is considerable with such a staffing gap within the field force territories. Market coverage and other business parameters such as issue resolution, product awareness & service levels also suffer. This becomes an easy breeding ground for the competition to move in. This problem of high attrition needs to be addressed at the grass root level. Can technology be the solution? Alternatively, there is a need for some other management initiatives.
Sudeep was the sales development manager for the rural business unit of an FMCG company Accurate Adhesive Ltd. in West Bengal. The company had been plagued with a high level of attrition in its workforce. Sudeep had a big presentation coming up in the next week. He was due to present the concerns of the field sales force, benchmarking with the best practices and motivational tools needed for incremental and sustainable business practices to a team from top management. He was specially chosen for this as his immediate superior believed that Sudeep had a better insight into the field sales force. This was due to his role during his management trainee days. During the training, he experienced the life of a frontal sales force and realized the persistence and agility required of the sales force. The top management had been quite worried about the high attrition (>20%) problem in the rural areas where the company had a presence. The business loss is considerable with such a staffing gap within the field force territories. Market coverage and other business parameters such as issue resolution, product awareness & service levels also suffer. This becomes an easy breeding ground for the competition to move in. This problem of high attrition needs to be addressed at the grass root level. Can technology be the solution? Alternatively, there is a need for some other management initiatives.