The People's Ceo; Managing Human Resources Strategically at Daily Bread

The 'People's CEO; Managing Human Resources strategically at Daily Bread

Teaching Note

1. Overview

The "Peoples CEO" case offers fresh insight into how a charismatic leader transforms a workplace of responsibility, commitment and team-building which finally enables the business to soar amidst the recession and attract the right customer base with a difference. This case explores the impact of the Mr. Inam Abul(CEO) of Myles High, who used simple HR practices and found that the strategy bore fruits successfully. The initiatives of the CEO are seen with some success as it reflects strong support derived from the vision of the Chairman of the corporation. Maintaining high quality standards for the products, the sustenance of the business reflect strategy, leadership and motivation. But success is not a goal or an end but a process to be refined and wonders what next?

2. Issues raised in the case

There a number of issues coming from the perspective of HR practices namely:

* Is the Recruitment policy in line with the business requirement?

Maintaining the stand that the business focused on quality products (FMGC) and also adheres to the "quality of services", the process of the CEO in recruited good staff based on their attitude to serve as well as identifying their core strength and then working them through formal and informal briefing support the business practice in building a good working team.

* Is the training offered sufficient for the entire business?

The current practice reflect that the business has seen success such as good team work, low level of labour turnover and maintenance of high quality products, which surfaces that the production unit members are convinced of doing a good job for bigger cause. However in the light of expansion there is a need for a formal HR training process as well as a training manager.

* Would Charismatic Leadership be able to sustain the motivation level?

The case reflects that the passion of the CEO is translated into action for the current situation and the business has been able to respond positively. In the process of empowerment such a type of leadership works in motivating and building workable teams. However the need for a formal HR process is still debated.

3. Case Summary

Daily Bread, established in 2003, is an associate company of Britannia Industries Ltd., one of India's largest fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. At present, it supplies bakery products to a wide spectrum of Institutional clients and operates 36 outlets spread across Bangalore, Mysore and Mumbai. The case reflects the approach of the CEO who works with structured interview techniques to recruit acceptable candidate willing to learn and then offers them constant briefing and training on the floor to make the business boom. As a retention policy he uses the method of performance and incentives along with a keen interest to maintain a high level of motivation among the team members to pull through the recession. As Inam(CEO) finds himself successful with his attempt he looks forward to a though of business expansion and wonders with the next possibility and strategy.

4. Teaching Themes / Teaching Objectives

* The Challenge of Human Resource Management

* HR practices versus Traditional Personal Management

* Recruitment policies and methods

* Training and Development

5. Assignment Questions (Answers are given below)

* Analyze the current condition for the expansion of the business

* What is the missing link to this case with reference to the HR perspective

* What other HR practice need to be undertaken for the current situation

* Which HR factors would leverage sustainable competitive growth

The teaching of the case should take 90 minutes in total.

a) Start the case discussion and background preparation among students ( 10 mins)

b) Discussion on the four case questions among different students groups (45-65 mins in total)(10-15 minutes per case question)

c) Discussion on other aspects sprouting out during the case discussion which needs deliberation (10 mins)

d) Summarization from each group leader (15 mins)

a. What theories are captured and explained through the case and its discussion.

6. Alternate Teaching Plan (if any)

One approach has been used successfully- with a group of 60 students where in the case was distributed three days before the class and the entire class were divided into 10 groups of 6 each.

1. The learning teams were asked to prepare a brief (1 page) presentation to show their finding and their recommendation (Action Plan) to address the issues identified

2. In the classroom, one group is randomly selected to present the core issues fo the case while the second randomly selected group is invited to elaborate. Later the other groups are invited to share their insights. A third group is later invited to present its recommendation an inputs

3. The discussion can then be opened to other HR issues, concepts, and experiences: importance of HR knowledge, measuring appraisal with pay, role of short term and long term training etc.

P.S: This case was introduced as the first case at the beginning of the course in HR and surprisingly the question "What is the missing link in the case" led to a whole lot of enthusiasm, excitement and learning. The energy in wanting to know the "missing link" leads to an openness to the HR concepts.

7. Questions for Discussion:

An effective method for the on going discussion following the various group presentation is: "Who could share a similar experience of a CEO as an HR catalyst?

Similar questions to the above could be posed to move the discussion to a new perspective:

"In your view, who else could support the delivery of HR practices on the