RESTRUCTURING THE MARKETING FUNCTION FOR GREATER EFFICIENCY

Size 11and diagram 8.

1. Introduction
There are three kinds of companies: those who make things happen, those watch things happen,
and those who wonder whats happened. (Basic of Philip kotler 03)

2. The Environment
The business environment is in a constant state of change. Thus to remain in business, to survive and to
gain competitive advantage, a company has to adapt to the environment around it. Thus restructuring
actions need to be implemented, where necessary.

2.1 Macro Environment

P Political
E Economical
S Social/Socio cultural
T Technology
E Ecological
L Legal

2.1.1 Political Environment

2.1.1.2 Political values:
These refer to government policy such as the degree of intervention in the economy. What goods
and services does a government want to provide (ref to oxford press 2007). Changing in
government always have an impact on our organisation.

2.1.2 Economical Environment

Economic: Euro crisis, Mauritius economy.
The Euro crisis 2010-2012, the ex Finance Minister Pravin Jugnauth indicated that the Euro has
reached its lowest rate of exchange in relation to the US Dollar, and that such a situation is
having very negative repercussions on the activities of export enterprises in Mauritius(date &
article related to). Euro depreciation results in currency exchange gain for all importers paying
their Supplier in Euros. Subsequently our product costs decreases, however with time, when a
currency is weakened, it creates inflation in the country producing goods, increasing cost of
materials, products and services. Also as this crisis is persisting promoters do not invest in
Mauritius and by the way development is on a slow path. Dealing with LEGRAND as supplier
is not so far easy if ever EURO crisis continues. Thus, LEGRAND will have no other alternative
than to increase their price.

2.1.3 Socio-cultural Environment

Humans essentially create their own cultural and social environment. Customs, practices and
traditions for survival and development are passed down from one generation to the next.
{REFERENCE URGENT} Our Company Count about 50 employees, divided within 3
departments with different vision: Sales Dept , Marketing Dept and Financial Dept. The
increasingly competitive business environment calls us everyone to work in a team spirit
harmony to improve business efficiency. IBL electrical to survive needs to adapt to the culture
of each customer to create better satisfaction. The inability or unwillingness to do so could
become a serious obstacle to success.

2.1.4 Technological Environment

The way that businesses function both in and out of the office has changed drastically thanks to
advances in computer, information and communication technology. Companies now use a variety
of mobile devices, software and various applications that employees can use for marketing and
networking, as well as research and development, for their goods and services. To stay updated
will need to invest in :-
E-commerce promotion & distribution via Internet
For LEGRAND, stock management software
CRMs (customer relationship management) software is critical to the smooth running
of our operation.
JBA, way of controlling of goods and invoicing (ancestral method)

The existing system JBA is an old method of doing invoicing and stock check but with
upgrading technologies and tools, organization need to invest in a new way, that can
makes it sales department gain instead of loosing time.

2.1.5 Ecological Environment

Ecological: sustainable development and energy efficiency is LEGRAND objective.
As LEGRAND and MEGAMAN are extremely concern with the environment both decide to
create a new range of environmental friendly product.
LEGRAND: Legrand considers preservation of the environment to be a major corporate issue
this is why they created the green light for energy saving and reduce greenhouse gas emission.
(REF)
MEGAMAN: Energy Saving lights and lights with no mercury hazard, new evolution with the
concept for better economy and efficiency.(REF)

2.1.6 Legal Environment

2.1.6.1 Consumer Laws
Consumer laws are designed to protect customers against firms who sell products that differs
from advertising (misleading description of product)

2.1.6.2 Employment laws

Employment laws cover areas such as redundancy, dismissal, working hours and minimum
wages. They aim to protect employees against the abuse of power by managers

2.1.6.3 health and safety legislation

its aim is to help employees to work in a safer manner by giving appropriate training to
employees and laws to abide by employer.

Those issues should always be considered before making any changes in the organization
planning.

2.2 Micro Environment

S Strength
W Weakness
O Opportunity
T Threats

2.2.1 Strengths
Selling a worldwide brand
Well structured company
Selling force (Skillful & Trained Salesmen)
Parking facilities

2.2.2 Weaknesses
Poor delivery services
Lack of teamwork spirit (within marketing and sales dept and other dept)
Stakeholders: Issues from shareholders is that they always wants to invest in other activities,
decide to cut all subsidies, fundsthat are compulsory for our different strategies; Ex no funds
to stock our MEGAMAN lights , cables ad even for training.

2.2.3 Opportunities (Outside Company)

Skilled workforce that we can train to move in other part of the business (new product range)
Moving a product into a new market sector

2.2.4 Treats (Outside Company)

Substitutes and competitors
Competitions is increasing
Existing product becoming unfashionable and unable to sold

Nowadays as competition is increasing, selling is becoming more and more an art. Salesmen
need to work very hard to achieve their sales objective but sometimes lost their times due to the
finance dept who sees the business in a different way and this created Clashes. The main issues
we can encounter is cash flow. Finance department, within their rights, logically warns sales
department to focus on debtors recovery in order to balance the level of cash flow in the bank
account. This is the best way to proceed with payment (suppliers and expenses). Using
suppliers credit terms and bank overdraft are other ways but could be expensive. So if we change
the human being behaviour then clashes will be no more.

Competition
Is competition good or bad?
Nowadays buyers decide what & where to buy they purely based themselves on price.
In the electrical field there is lot of competitors that are doing there best to prospect by giving
products at extremely good price and even if product are not conform to standard or event of
inferior quality, people with their purely set of mind for cheaper price go for it.
Questions that we need to ask if ever we want to compete are:
Our services appropriate and is it as per the client satisfaction
Are we well structured or is there modification that need to be operate.
Are our salesteam strong enough, do they have all requirement tools to perform the right
job, are they well motivated.
.
Above are points that we need to work on so that we can stay competitive otherwise we will lose
the market.

Before creating a new strategy planning we need to know the causes and effect of changing
environment on our structure and marketing team.

Do our salesforce need training.

Are they well remunerate
Are we strong enough (financial strength)
Are we managing employees in a good manner. (is recruitment is good solution or training).
3.0 Role of Managers
Management takes on different role and aspect in an organization. These include interpersonal,
decisional and informational roles. Essentially, management is deemed as the process of getting
tasks done efficiently by getting the help of other people.

The Role of managers:-

o Organisation : identifies activities to have to be performed (sales, control, prepare budget)

o Planning:- meet with leaders to plan for the weekly program of salesperson in
organization.
o Staffing: -
o Directing
o Controlling

4.0 Role of leaders

Leader as the word implies it consist of people that have the ability to give order and being
obeyed by others. The fact is that we do not have real leaders in our organization, people that are
deemed to take decision, who has the ability of being obeyed by others, none has eno`ugh
potential to take this role.

The Skills that a leader should have:-

o Initiates Action : Leader starts the works by communicating to its subordinates the plan
and ways of doing it.
o Motivation: A leader should be able to motivates his subordinates economically and
non-economically to get good result and work done in time.
o Providing guidance: A leader should not only supervised but he must be also someone
that is a model for other employees, instructing how to do the work efficiently.
o Creating confidence: To create confidence a leader should be able to congratulate his
subordinates when they perform well. A leader should be also attentive to employees
complaints and problems.
o Building Morale: A leader should have the ability to boost its subordinates morals even
if they are down. This will contributes to help its employees to perform with best of their
abilities as they work to achieve goals.
o Builds work environment: Getting things done from people include that a leader should
have a good human relationship with his employees, he should listen to their issues and
problem and he should accordingly try to resolve their problems. This will help in
creating a good working environment.
o Co-ordination: This could be achieved by reconciling personal interests with
 organization goals. This should be a priority to leader as its will help in creating a good
relationship in work.

5.0 Differences between managers and leaders

Item Managers Leaders

1.0 Managers rules Leaders Followed

Managers uses rational, formal method to Leaders is more passionate, comprehensive

2.0
rules and stirs emotions

Managers established details approaches to Leaders sets directions to achieve vision of

3.0
achieve their planning company

Managers can review decisions, action and Leaders can only listen and has not the
4.0
making changes accordingly. capacity of changing things or take actions.

Marketing Team Structure

Marketing Team consist of four sales person, each one has a different task in the organization.

Each Salesman has a different role, each role are different but by the end of the month the main
objective is bringing profit.

Restructuration for Marketing Team

The market has changed dramatically, customers eventually want more than good pricing, they
also want a good service and technical guide. To meet the needs and wants of customers, the
organization should take the initiative to give formation to sales person so that they got the
technical aspect that customers is expecting. Delivering of materials, respecting deadline and
promises to client are very important. The delivery services has lot of failures, lot of customers
complaining about receiving materials late, that they lost their time waiting in showroom to get
their materials, they feel annoyed. This situation should be clear out sooner for not losing
customers to competitor benefits. Loss of materials within our premises, item is shown on JBA
system but physical not in store. This happen a lot of time, client feel unsatisfied with this type
of problem, lot of credit note has to be issued, uses of more papers that is extremely costly. Al
those little things associated create big issues and need to be solved.

Recommendations how to restructure

As most of issues have been listed above, it is very urgent to see how restructuration should be
introduced for better efficiency of our marketing Team. For the delivery of materials on site / to
hardware shop, a new transport should be purchased so that we get a better coverage over the
island, this will also help in improving our delivery time frame. One important aspect is that the
organization must use a democratic management style to keep in touch with the team and give
the team the chance to explain their point of views, as they are in the front line and sees the
problem in a different angle. Inventory should be done in store to keep update of materials list
available