Trinity Finance’s Sales Organization and Sales Approach (A): ‘RACE’

Trinity Finance’s Sales Organization and Sales Approach (A): ‘RACE’

Date: May 16^th 2016
Time: 2:00 PM
Location: CEO Chamber, Trinity Finance Ltd.

It was not a day that Samir Nair (Samir), CEO, Trinity Finance Ltd. (Trinity), would like to remember. Never did he imagine that the company he thought was on an autopilot mode required an external agency to suggest what it had to do to sustain. With benefit of doubt to an objective assessment and fresh perspectives, Trinity hired Photon Consulting (Photon) to suggest ways and means to reorient the sales organization and sales approach. Here he was, brooding over the suggestions and the way forward for Trinity. With several thoughts crisscrossing his mind, especially his dream to make Trinity a global financial services powerhouse, Samir.................

Trinity Finance Ltd.: Meteoric Rise and Mellowed Growth

Trinity was one of the leading players in the Indian financial services market. It was a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) operating predominantly in rural and semi-urban markets. It started its operations in early 1990s in the immediate aftermath of the opening up of the Indian economy to private and foreign players............

Challenges Galore

The per capita income in India started rising after the economic reforms were initiated in the early 1990s. Being one of the first NBFCs in India to focus on the rural areas, Trinity had an early mover advantage and did not face any competition in the market. However, with the rising incomes in rural and suburban areas, India attracted many new players into the market...........

Internal Interventions to Reinvent

Trinity’s Leadership Team (LT) – CEO (Samir Nair), CMO (Suman Wadhwa), CSO (Sunil Kapoor), CTO (Shyam Sundar), CPO (Swapnil Mukherjee), CFO (Shankar Mahadevan) and COO (Srinivas Raghavan) – was unanimous that to reorient Trinity to be an effective marketoriented company (especially the sales team) with an inside-out approach, it needed a comprehensive and effectual intervention.........

The Consultant’s Advice and Trinity’s RACE Initiative

On April 10^th 2016, a team headed by Gautam Narang (Gautam) from Photon Consulting visited the company and took stock of the situation. The team also had meetings with both the top- and middle-management at Trinity. In order to understand the problems within the organization, Gautam interacted with all the LT members.............

Management Response

Presentation made by Gautam along with suggestions was a rude awakening for the LT of Trinity. The LT realized that drastic action was required in order to stop the declining fortunes of the organization. They decided to focus on the six areas for improvement as suggested by the consultant............

Assignment Questions

I. Why does the performance of good companies deteriorate rapidly? List the reasons for Trinity’s sliding market share. Explicate.
II. ................

Exhibits

Exhibit I: Designation at Various Levels of Trinity

Exhibit II: Trinity Finance Limited’s Sales Force Hierarchy

Exhibit III: Framework for Leadership Inventory Check

Exhibit IV: Results of the Leadership Inventory Check

Trinity Finance’s Sales Organization and Sales Approach (A): ‘RACE’

Synopsis

This caselet deals with issues faced by companies who were market leaders in their respective market areas but whose performance declined due to reasons like complacency and lack of innovation in their business conduct. Participants can understand these issues in the backdrop of Trinity Finance Ltd. (Trinity), one of the leading Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) in India. Trinity was the market leader in vehicle finance in rural and semi-urban areas. However, the company’s market share fell due to the entry of nimble players who followed innovative strategies. An external consultant, Photon Consulting (Photon), was hired to design an appropriate course of action to revive the fortunes of the company after the internal interventions failed to show any result. A team headed by Gautam Narang (Gautam) from Photon suggested six specific areas of improvement that could possibly alter Trinity’s market fortunes. Why did Trinity’s market fortunes slide? What are the specific areas of improvement and how should they be sequenced? How should Trinity’s sales organization be restructured to reinvent itself?

Prerequisite Conceptual Understanding/Before the Classroom Discussion

The students/participants should read the following to have more insightful discussion:

• • Mark W. Johnston and Greg W. Marshall, “Introduction to Sales Management in the Twenty-First Century”, Sales Force Management, Routledge, 2013 – To understand the requirements of a twenty-first century sales organization

Case Positioning and Setting

This caselet can be used in MBA Program for the following course/module:

• • Sales Management – To develop an understanding on managing salesforce of an organization

Suggested Reading for the Faculty

• • Donald N. Sull, “Why Good Companies Go Bad”, Harvard Business Review, July–August 1999 – To understand the reasons behind deterioration in performance of some of the best companies over a period of time

Preamble to the Case Analysis

The purpose of this caselet is to understand the reasons as to why some of the best companies start declining over a period. The discussion was carried out with reference to Trinity, wherein the reasons behind Trinity’s declining market shares were debated upon. The caselet introduces the concept of active inertia as the reason behind the decline in the performance of good companies. After a discussion on the four hallmarks of active inertia, the six areas of improvement for Trinity, as suggested by the external consultant, can be analysed to arrive at an appropriate sequencing of the six identified interventions. The classroom discussion was accordingly orchestrated [Exhibit (TN)-I]........