On a Sunday morning when everybody was on the breakfast table discussing the family business over food, Bikaram Sevji was pacing back and forth in the living room, anxiously checking his mail every 5 minutes. He could hear his father apprehensively talk about globalisation hitting their business. His father was worried about the changing demand for machine-made packaged food which has resulted in the loss of business for the local meethai and sev shops. His uncle seemed to second his thoughts but couldn’t say anything further as his grandfather’s angry voice cut through the discussion, ending it at once. His grandfather was a man of tradition who had inherited their family shop from his father. He valued the customary pooja in the kitchen at dawn before the workers started making delicious hand-made fafda, sev, gathia, boondi, and other mouth-watering delicacies. Bikaram admired his grandfather but could not help disagreeing with him at times. He would blame it on the generational gap and move on. He got so engrossed in their discussion that he was startled when his phone pinged with a mail from Oxford University. He could not contain his excitement as he read the mail stating his selection in the Oxford business school.
Time at Oxford
Initially, Bikaram faced difficulty in adjusting to the new country and its environment. He severely felt homesick and doubted his decision of joining oxford, after all, MBA could have been pursued in India as well. Britain was very different from India. Clean roads, small houses, rain, food, people and their accent-everything was different and a new experience for Bikaram. ......
During his time at the university, he would go and talk to his friends and professors about his family situation and ask for advice, he had already started researching on how to bring the changes and he would prep himself with mock speeches, prepared for his grandfather, in front of the mirror. Once during his research, he asked his father for the accounts of the business. His father was reluctant, Bikaram could not understand why but anyway forwarded it when Bikaram said that he needed it for one of his class projects.............
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The scary yet exciting first day, meeting new people from across the globe, sharing views, culture, and most importantly fafda and sev. His home-made fafda and sev had earned him a bunch of friends and surely some international fans. Sevji, as they called him, was returning home not just with memories but with a determination to take the family name beyond their Banarasi galliyan................
Somewhere between reminiscing his past and thinking about future, he said goodbye to his hostel room and his university to board the plane to his motherland. He was returning a changed man, more confident, more enthusiastic, and driven by a cause to turn things around...........
...............
Keeping this in mind he kept his presentation focused on costs, revenues, and legal requirements. He started with the financial reports, the same that his father had sent him. Focusing on the increasing expenses and declining sales he first established why there was a need for change. It was a purely quantitative pitch. All facts that were already known. But then he opened the financial reports of haldirome and bikanagar-wala, the arch-rivals of sevji, and focused on their sales and revenues which were not limited to Banaras or just India for that matter..............
As he turned 18, he was married to Sashikala and had joined his father full-time. He had his first son at the age of 21 and by then he had almost taken over the shop. Life had been easy and people loved their namkeens. Suryaprakash was very proud of his namkeens.
............
After a decade or so, he read in newspapers that haldirome was getting split due to ownership issues into three distinct areas of operation. Kolkata faction, Delhi faction, and the Nagpur faction. Suryaprakash had sighed remembering his father’s words. He had thought “what good is the money if the family comes unstuck”.....
Back to the Pitch
Although, Bikaram hadn’t finished yet, now he had shifted to telling them how these brands keep the immigrant Indians close to their homeland and the attachment people feel towards these brands. A flash of guilt surely appeared in his grandfather’s eyes for not even considering what his sons were saying. He was too stubborn........
ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS
I. I. Is there a need for change?
II. ...........
III..................
Exhibits:
Exhibit I: Industry Overview
Exhibit II: Sevji and Sons – Income Statement (For the year ending Dec. 31, 2014 and Dec. 31, 2015)
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