Negotiation:

One of the biggest hurdles faced by the founding members during the materialization
of the startup idea was in getting the license for the firm. The license was to be
issued by the state government of Karnataka. One of the founding members
Mr.Vivekananda being a Chartered Accountant by discipline was well aware of the
fact that the law permitted such a license. However their request for license was
being constantly declined. There were times according the founders when they used
to spend entire day waiting outside the government offices. According to them it
created a negative image about the government officials. Everytime they travelled
infront of the Vidhan Soudha it reminded them of their plight and got them frustrated.
So they decided to approach other governments with the request. They approached
the Rajasthan government. The ministry of Rajasthan was very optimistic about the
endeavour. Their only concern was whether the law provided for such a license. The
founders provided proof for the same. They also informed the government that this
can actually aid the tourism promotion efforts of the government. They got the
license within a few days. This served as a signal to the Karnataka government.
They now seemed less reluctant to issue the license. The founders motivated by the
success with the Rajasthan government decided to look into what was happening
with the Karnataka government. They realised that the state government transport
operated with the same license. But the license was never issued to a private
company; there was no precedence to WickedRide. And the government was
apprehensive of being the first ones to issue to such a license. Thus once they
realised the constraints on the other side they decided to help them out. They found
the records of the law in other nations including Australia, America etc. They even
worked with the government officials in formulating the policy. All the efforts paid off
and the Karnataka Government issued the license. According to the founders in fact
this experience helped them forge close relations with the government officials. The
founders were even more proud of the fact that their efforts in fact aided the
formulation of the policy for the rental business which later on helped many other
firms which wanted to get into similar business.
Approach-avoidance conflict for the government of Karnataka:
The conflict with the government represents the origins of conflict:
Various steps in conflict resolution:

Pygmalion Effect

From the time of its inception, the leadership team of WickedRide has tried to set
high expectations from its employees. This has actually led to an increase in the
employee performance. The managers treat their employees as high performers,
which finally leads to them feeling great knowing that their bosses believe in them,
which enhances their self-efficacy. The founders and managers actually believe in
the fact that setting low expectations from their employees would negatively hurt
their self- efficacy, thus inadvertently hurting their performance.

To achieve the same, they realised that keeping the employee happy is extremely
important, as they are usually the face of the business, they being the first point of
contact with the customers. The management, still being at an early phase, realises
that they are not in a position to offer hefty salaries to its employees. So, apart from
money, one of the major things that they offer their staff is the satisfaction that they
would have in knowing that they built a company that reached great heights.

The leadership makes it a point to visit each and every employee on a regular basis,
talk of them regarding any issues that they face and takes their views on ways to
improve on the current processes. Thus, the employees feel the need to reciprocate
due to the fact that they are given the importance that they deserve.

Also, whenever a person is hired, the expectations are set straight and the employer
tells them clearly what they are trying to achieve and what their role would be. Apart
from the day-to-day work, they also have a sense of how they can add value to the
company. Everyone in the organization knows what the vision of the company is.

The employees at all levels of the company feel free to ask the leadership team for
any new implementations or sharing of new ideas. For example, suppose the
workers at the Jaipur centre hear that something new is being done at the Bangalore
centre, the they would be keen to set up a comment asking if they could implement
the same at the Jaipur location. The management team believes in encouraging
such communications as it helps the business grow. This shows that they have an
open communication channel where everyone gets to contribute and thus, they feel
that they are an integral part of the company. So, the sense of ownership is always
there for the employees and they try to respond back to the confidence shown by the
management towards them by delivering through their work.
 Fig: Pygmalion Effect at workplace

As evident from the Fig. above, we can see that the leader believes that the
employees can perform well and take ownership of the roles that they are in. This, in
turn, influences the leader’s actions, which includes interacting with employees at all
levels as discussed earlier and also reward them for the good work that they do. This
would then have an impact on the employees about their own capabilities and they
would believe in themselves that they can contribute to the company. Finally, this will
cause the employees to put in extra effort to perform well and exceed the
expectations set by the higher management. This will again reinforce the leader’s
belief further and thus, the cycle continues. This finally leads to an ever-improving
work culture, which is very important for a start-up like WickedRide to grow and
become a big player.
Group Process

The first stage of our project dealt with selection of the firm to analyse. We came up
with a lot of choices and were thinking to go for an IT firm, an automobile firm or a
bike-rental start-up. After a bit of deliberation, we came to consensus and went for
the latter. The choice of the firm was on the based on the fact that the founders were
first generation young entrepreneurs whom we could relate to and also because of
the novelty of the idea. The accessibility of the firm and its presence at Bangalore
city was an added advantage. Moreover, it sounded like an interesting firm to us
since all of us are bikes enthusiasts and are interested in the automobile sector.

Once we had decided on the firm, we began to do some research on the firm and
tried to understand their business model from whatever information that we could get
from the internet. We also did not procrastinate and contacted one of the founders as
soon as the firm was finalized in order to avoid last minute accessibility issues. We
had a few interactions with the founder over call to find out about the nature of the
firm and its history along with some of the support functions such as regulations,
licencing and insurance that the firm has to be updated with.

We then submitted our mid-way progress report on 11​th November based on the
activities completed till that date.

In the next phase of the project, which was a major part, was to plan a visit to the
organization and meet the management in person. We had always been at talking
terms with the leadership since the start of our project, so that the scheduling of the
meeting becomes hassle-free. Before going for the meeting, we, as a team had to sit
for regular meetings in order to decide on the questions that were needed to be
asked. We understood that the founders would have a busy schedule themselves,
so, going well prepared with the questions seemed to be the most logical approach.
So, we decided to spend a good amount of time to prepare well for the meeting.

Once we had the meeting scheduled, all six members of the team went for the same.
We went to their corporate office at Jayanagar and were warmly received by their
team. We had a meeting of about an hour and were fortunate enough to talk to all
the 3 founding members of WickedRide. Based on the questionnaire that we had
prepared, we were able to ask them whatever questions we had in mind and were
able to get great first-hand responses. The overall experience was an enriching one,
as we were actually able to relate the MPPO lectures to the answers that we
received from the leadership. We were able to relate the examples that we had
covered in the class, with the real-life examples provided by their team.
Once the meeting was over, we came back and watched the videos captured and
ran through the notes made during the meeting all over again to understand the firm
even better and discuss the opinions that we had formed during the meeting. This
was a great exercise, as, at first, we had differing opinions for some points that were
brought up at the meeting. We tried to understand why each member had to say
what they wanted and why they made their perceptions based on certain responses.
We were finally able to come to a consensus and made a rough analysis of what we
extracted out of that meeting as a team.

At the final stage, all the six members divided sections to write for the report and
worked on it over a week. In the final week, we sat together as a team and
consolidated all the writings in order to from a crux of the report. We then met at
regular intervals to work on the project report and make it better to come up with a
final report to be submitted. We had also prepared a presentation of the same once
the report was completed.

Overall, it was a project that we, as a team, were really proud of, given the effort that
we had put in, the extensive team interactions and the opportunity that we had to
interact with young entrepreneurs to understand the real-life challenges in running an
organization.

Fig.: Step-wise progress of the project

Attrition:
Generally, people hired are amongst the ones who are passionate about bikes. And
when provided the opportunity to work, they were ready to give upon slightly better
salaries offered by the e-commerce giants like Flipkart. Amazon, etc. Overall people
come in with a notion of enjoying the work, and it leads them to work dedicatedly.
Thus, the attrition rate here is low, and the only reason people quit the organization
is when they get a high salary at an MNC.

Appraisal:
The firm has four departments viz. Sales, Technical, Operations, Creative team.
Appraisal system is unlike the usual once a year rankings or review, and 360-degree
feedback, instead they have incentives based on performance each varying as per
the departments. But yes, they are looking forward to incorporating these methods of
appraisal in the near future. Also, the same performance parameters in each
department are used to consider the employee for a promotion.
1.​ ​Sales department:
The major jobs of the people working here are-
·​ ​To address inquiries and persuade people to rent the bike
· ​To make new calls each day to the target segment and convert them into a new

customer
·​ ​Addressing customer issues and solve their problems
People working here have cash incentives included in their salary structure. Star
performers are felicitated and set as an example for others within the
organization. The amount of incentives is decided based on the following
parameters-
·​ ​Number of calls and upselling done each day
·​ ​Number of issues resolved per day

2.​ ​Technical department:

The major jobs of the people working here are-
·​ To regularly update the android app and website
​

· ​Ensure higher and better customer reviews as compared to earlier versions of

the app and website

Employees in this department are incentivized if the app and/or website hits
all-time high reviews. They are felicitated and set as an example for others within
the organization.

3.​ Operations department:

​

The major jobs of the people working here are-

·​ ​To allocate bikes to the customer from their nearest store

·​ ​To ensure better customer reviews by providing timely customer service

·​ ​To reduce the downtime of bikes due to service related issues

Similar to the Sales department, they are incentivized based on how they
increase the performance in the above mentioned three parameters.

4.​ Creative team: No incentives available in their salary structure

​

Promotion:
The organization as a whole has a very less vertical hierarchy and operates majorly
in horizontal form. Thus, promotion regarding position needs the employee to stay
with the organization for few years and along with it work consistently well. But if an
employee is really good, he/she is then promoted to make the better use of his/her
skills.

Autonomy:
The employees have been given autonomy in which they can take the decisions on
the spot without referring to higher authority in situations wherever necessary.
Obviously, the rate cards are fixed so they are refrained from negotiating the price
with customers. But while purchasing any consumable for the firm, they’re
pre-informed about the price and then they are allowed to go ahead and negotiate
with the vendors and fix the deal. They should be able to justify the price to their
immediate boss after the closure of the deal.
ORGANIZATION GROWTH & CONTROL:

Apart from metro cities, Wicked Ride is looking to expand more into Tier II cities. To
solve the last mile connectivity problems in such locations, Wicked Ride also has
been working closely with various agencies. They have partnered with car rental
services such as Uber for B2B and B2C bike rentals and are looking to grow their
business relationships. Also, as Wicked Ride’s subscriber base is increasing, the
company is focusing on bringing the best of motorcycling on one platform to make it
easily accessible and have started a utility arm called “Apna-Ride”, a platform where
one can rent his scooters & motorbikes such as Bajaj Avenger, Honda Activa,
Electric Bikes and even Bicycles. This requires the company to build ties with more
people who wish to put their own bikes for rent on the platform and earn from them.
Thus, Wicked Ride is looking to hire individuals with good negotiation &
communication skills to strike better deals and to provide unrestrained product
support and customer service to the increasing customers.
Wicked Ride is slowly coming out of its nascent stage & growing steadily. Due to its
yet small size and lower disposable capital, it cannot pay lumpsum salaries to hire
professionals. In this scenario, a specific challenge for Wicked Ride is compensating
the founding members & staff. Also, the rapid growth is capital intensive and requires
hiring new employees with new skill sets with well-defined responsibilities at
competitive wages, which is a challenge for the firm.
Now, Wicked Ride’s management acknowledges that there is no separate HR
training system in the company due to financial crunch and they want the new
entrants to contribute to operation from day 1; hence, the employees need to learn
on the job. So, the company looks for candidates with good spoken English skills,
passion for bikes, and an inclination towards expressive legacy. The company is
looking to nurture such individuals into star performers through entrepreneurial
opportunities. Also, the new employees need to be aligned into Wicked Ride’s
culture and working in the organization. To minimize this problem the founding
members looks to hire people with similar values to their own. The founders are also
trying to find ways such that the growing company reflects the founders’ style &
values. One such path they have envisioned is cross-departmental on-the-job
training in the head office before posting a new employee to other offices across
various operational cities in India.
Although the founders have found that small conflicts between them has enabled
them to find a more realistic path of success thus far, they do realize that major
conflicts between the top management members can largely impact the growth path
in the future. Conflict resolution so far has been through working towards a common
target. The veterans, who have brought the company to success so far, runs at a
risk of conflicts & frictions with the future new entrants based on the entrant’s culture,
methodologies & compensations. So, defining targets specific to the company, and
less as per individual capability, is critical for sustaining growth in the near future.
The policies inside the organization have evolved from the practices that best served
the situations so far. Employees are not yet organized by functional departments,
except for the customer support and the technology team. Lower level employees
have a certain level of autonomy, but their deciding power on financial aspects is
restricted by a centralized hierarchy. The core decision-making power lies with the
founding members who delegate the work. Also, growth implies that Wicked Ride
has to abandon its flat hierarchy. In future, the founders need to step aside from
technical work and hire more middle managers to better pull the organization
together. Because of its prevalent operations in multiple cities, Wicked Ride has got
to solve the issue of local leadership crisis as the firm grows. This means that
Wicked Ride’s present management will have to lose a certain extent of its control in
each stage of the firm’s growth as it expands geographically.
As Wicked Ride is expanding into more cities, it is also looking forward to building
internal control systems and partially decentralize its decision making on local
issues, while the head office keeps control of the major and wholistic issues related
to the company. The company is in the process of getting its policies documented for
consistency and fairness in the future.
Until now most of the communications in the company has been direct "one-on-one"
type. But now the management feels the need of a lateral communication system for
smooth, fast, & hassle-free transfer & processing of information.
Performance evaluation until now have been through team leader escalation,
considering customer ratings on grievances and percentage of target sales figures.
Performance based incentives constitute bulk of the employee’s pay now. The
company is deciding on a more detailed, consistent and structured performance
evaluation process for tracking employee contribution & performances in the future.
Wicked Ride is India’s first bike rental company and the forerunner of several
motorcycle and bike rental companies which have come up. As such companies
grow, Wicked Ride’s strategy will move from being analyzer to defender type. Its
organization structure then has to be in line with its future operations & strategies.
Also, in this scenario, if long term performance goals and adequate training are not
provided to the employees, attrition rate might increase as there exists other similar
firms who would like to capture such employees for their own firms. Thus, best
employee contributions need to be publicly recognized for boosting employee
motivation. In this phase of growth Wicked Ride should foster more managers who
are comfortable with planning, decision making and problem solving. Since the
company wants to retain its existing employees its can promote its skilled specialist
employees to leverage their knowledge of the sector and their analytical abilities.
From a nascent stage, Wicked Ride’s management has been flexible in methodology
of approaching problems, and its current matrix structure of organization helps it
emphasize spontaneity though quick team decisions. But as the organization grows,
the type of organization structure will change, and we will see a change in decision
making protocols and personnel. Its current organic structure will tend to become
more of a mechanistic one once it standardizes its organizational procedures for
better control & operation.

KEY MANAGEMENT LEARNING:

For a manager:

As a manager in a growing and dynamic firm like Wicked Ride, one needs to
continually develop and improve his/her managerial skills as his career develops &
as new managerial challenges arrives with the firm’s growth.
While managing a team, it's important to know how to get the most out of the existing
employees. To achieve a target with the help of others in a complex multicultural
organization across various locations, it becomes important to understand the culture
and making most of the behavioral patterns while managing employee relationships.
So, apart from his core technical skills, a present employee must build his
persuasion & management skills which is going to aid him manage when the firm
grows. A manager in Wicked Ride not only should delegate and communicate
responsibilities & targets, but also needs to understand team dynamics and motivate
them.

For the management: