Research and Best Practices

Research and Best Practices

Table of Contents

What is Research?

Different Types Of Research

Research Methodolgies

Outsourcing and Research

Career Opportunities

Role Plays

Key Takeaway‘s

An entrepreneur comes to you and says that he/she is about to start a mobile hand set production firm. He/She is ready to invest around USD 2.5 million in the Indian market. What is your take on it?

Go ahead. Never even hesitate Go for a joint venture Buy an already established firm in India Do not enter the Indian market…Try some other country Do not enter this business…..Try something else.

Research

What, When, Where, Why, Who ? Research is a process of systematic investigation to establish facts which forms an

important part of a business strategy.

Is valuable for everyone Research can be adopted in every process and sphere of life. It can be done from

all standpoints irrespective of any behavioral trait.

Process is common through out Map out the scope Determine the characteristics Bring in the analysis Sort out the trends Identify Opportunities Validate and Publish

Knowing is important Needs and requirements What is the market all about? How is the industry? How are government and external agencies placed?

Market Research

Analysis

Strategies

Trends

Build Databases

Forecasting

Best Practices

Market Research

Understand ImplementEvaluate Plan

Different Types Of Research-1

Primary Research Secondary Research Qualitative Research Quantitative Research

Exploratory Research

Descriptive Research Experimental Research

Primary Research

•Refers to the collection of data that does not exist or is not available on public forums

•Carried out through RFI‘s, telephonic interviews etc.

Secondary Research

•Data obtained and gathered from the internet, books, libraries, public forums/associations/groups.

•Access to search engines/ news portals etc

Qualitative Research

•Data obtained based on certain specific attributes only for a given service/product/commodity.

•Deals with descriptions only. Data can be observed but not measured.

•The sample considered will be very small and interpretation would be more based on these.

Quantitative Research

•Data obtained based on the given quantity considered on the whole.

•Deals with numbers. Data which can be measured.

•A big sample would be considered and analysis would be done.



Exploratory Research

Descriptive Research

Experimental research

Here we gather preliminary information that will help define problems and suggest hypotheses.

More deeper understanding is possible.

Research is conducted via journals, magazines, publications etc.

Is basically used to obtain and identify the cause of something that is happening.

This is basically targeted at specific problems.

Basically research is conducted via RFI’s and samples taken from a given section.

Is carried out looking for a cause and effect.

It is more like a testing phase or an experimental phase.

Research is conducted via watching a specific group using a particular product.

Research Methodologies

No standard methodology followed generally. It varies from industry to industry.

A Simple Process

Plan

Prepare

Delivery

Learn Interact Analyze

Pers

pecti

ves

Focu

sed

In

sig

ht

Scenarios Key Issues Involved Strategies

Sources of Information

Search Engines

Company Specific Information

News

www.google.com

www.hotbot.lycos.com

www.altavista.com

www.bpubs.com

www.bing.com

www.hoovers.com

www.zoominfo.com

www.individual.com

www.jigsaw.com

www.google.com/finance

www.bloomberg.com

www.reuters.com

www.wsj.com

www.economictimes.indiatimes.com

www.nytimes.com

www.onlinenewspapers.com

Other Useful sites

www.contractpharma.com

www.pharmaceuticalonline.com

www.icis.com

www.importgenius.com

www.fda.gov

www.bls.gov

www.epa.gov

www.wikipedia.org (Sources cited)

www.investopedia.com

www.naics.com

www.indiamart.com

www.alibaba.com

www.onesource.com

Networking(Primary Research)

www.linkedin.com

www.facebook.com

www.orkut.com

Blogs

Outsourcing and Research-1

Out sourcing is a success and will continue to be a success Economies of scale Core competencies Lack of in-house resources Access to innovation Cost parameters

All are billion dollar industries where the opportunities are plenty especially in emerging countries.

OutsourcingEPO

KPO

IT/ITES

BPO

LPO

HRO

RPO

MBPO


KPO

•KPO is one step extension of Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) because BPO Industry is shaping into Knowledge Process Outsourcing because of its favorable advantageous and future scope.

•Value processes chain where the achievement of objectives is highly dependent on the skills, domain knowledge and experience of the people carrying out the activity.

IT/ITES

•Information Technology ('IT') and IT enabled Services ('ITES') sector has matured considerably with its expansion into different service verticals and increasing geographic penetration.

•IT: development of software and hardware applications.

•ITES: It is an outsourced service which has only due to involvement of IT in various fields such as banking and finance, telecommunications, insurance, etc

BPO

•Business Process Outsourcing is the process by which you outsource your backend/back office operations to emerging countries like India, Philippines to save costs. Eg.: Employee payroll, data entry, and voice process.

•Data-based orientation is directly dependent on IT services.

LPO

•Legal process outsourcing a huge range of legal processes, such as patent application drafting, legal research, pre-litigation documentation, advising clients, writing software licensing agreements and drafting distribution agreements.

•LPO’s are driven by various factors which includes, breadth and depth of coverage, domain expertise, location advantage, sales and marketing capabilities, data compliance with respect to regulatory standards (especially those defined by the US, Canada and EU) and management of business risks.


HRO

• Human Resource Outsourcing is a process by which HR services are outsourced to third party providers who can bring in the benefits of domain knowledge.

•It an activity which comprises of a group of activities, which include payroll management, training, staffing, benefits administration, travel and expenses management, retirement and benefits planning, risk management, compensation consulting, etc..

RPO

•Research Process Outsourcing is popular in the biotech, pharmaceutical and health care industry where clients outsource their R&D work.

•RPO also stands for Recruitment Process Outsourcing. RPO is a key component of Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO). The RPO team basically handles all the recruitment for the clients.

MBPO

•Medical Business Process Outsourcing include outsourcing of services like medical transcription, medical billing and collection, medical coding, medical insurance, designing healthcare website with search engine optimization, document conversion, healthcare staffing, outsourced healthcare staffing, data entry outsourcing etc..

EPO

•Engineering process outsourcing is a process where you outsource only your enigeering services comprising capital goods, iron and steel items, non-ferrous metals and products, consumer durables etc.

Tools Used

In any research process various kinds of tools are used to analyze a given situation. Some of the most popular tools used include the following:

Porter’s five forces PACE analysis PEST analysis BCG matrix Cause and Effect analysis Cost models/ Cost Structure

Unique Features:

Generally used to understand and evaluate the market from all spheres. Helps us in narrowing down on to the best of the things. Very important when a large buy is involved. Can be used in all spheres of research process. Widely applicable to any kind of industry. It’s a kind of dashboard where you get everything on a single slide.

Porter’s 5 forces

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Supplier Power – Medium

Fragmented industry with multiple suppliers providing variety of commodities to large enterprises; reducing individual bargaining power of suppliers.

Industry Rivalry - High

Fragmented industry with regional and global players offering state-of-the art commodities.

Current offerings and strategic approach of suppliers make the marketplace competitive especially in pricing and contractual agreements.

Substitutes – Medium

The industry has been highly evolving and one has to bring in new technologies to constantly increase their value

Buyer Power - High

Buyers looking for suppliers having global capabilities to provide a variety of commodities; creating competition amongst suppliers and increasing buyer negotiation power.

High competition among suppliers has increased bargaining power for buyers.

Barriers to New Entrants –

Medium

The track record of the existing players act as barriers to new entrants.

Established players are preferred over new entrants for laboratory consumables and other accessories .

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Two important pressure points come from industry regulators who focus more on quality and regulation compliance for the procurement of general raw materials.

Buyers are looking for suppliers with global footprint and capability to supply phones compliant with quality, regulatory standards and latest technological upgradations and innovations.

Buyers are resorting to cost cutting measures such as negotiation for discounts on volumes and engaging suppliers from emerging markets to avail cost advantages.

Intense rivalry among suppliers giving higher bargaining power to the buyers in general.

PACE analysis

PEST Analysis

The governments are bringing in new rules and regulations covering the entire telecom industry which is again affecting the entire hand set market as such.

The mobile phones companies are under scrutiny from social activist groups for the quality and effectiveness introduced in the market.

The quality of the phone plays a major role.

Regulatory authorities stressing on compliance with quality standards and international regulations for procurement of general raw material supplies. E-procurement is an important tool for sourcing general laboratoty supplies.

Current financial crisis made it essential for mobile phone companies to reduce spending and focus on improving quality which attracted more customers world wide.

BCG Matrix

17

Quality

Cost

Note: The size of the circle represents the risk involved in sourcing from each country. The top 11 countries have been considered from the table.

EGY

SIN

MAL

CHI

IND

THA

VIE

NIG

INDO

RUS

USA

High

Low

Low High

Country Cost in USD Risk Quality

Egypt(EGY) 141.55 5.5 7

Singapore(SIN) 195.79 3.4 7

China(CHI) 198.29 3.67 8

India(IND) 199.34 3.65 8

Malaysia(MAL) 205.38 3.7 7.5

Thailand(THA) 214.75 5.3 7.5

Vietnam(VIE) 233.53 4.68 7

Nigeria(NIG) 261.86 5.8 7

Indonesia(INDO) 270.34 6.05 7

Russia(RUS) 283.61 2.88 7.5

USA 324.13 3.04 10

Ukraine(UKR) 342.93 5.6 7

Argentina(ARG) 343.33 4.4 7.5

Mexico(MEX) 358.31 3.76 7.5

Turkey(TUR) 381.23 5 7.5

Brazil(BRA) 481.64 4.13 7

Colombia(COL) 569.70 5.46 7

Romania(ROM) 695.98 5.52 7.5

Cause and Effect Diagram

FDIDemographi

c Patten

Rising Agricultural

Trends

New Government

Policies

Natural Wealth

Economic Stability and

Growth

Telecommunication

Mining and Oil Exploration

IT related services

Infrastructure Services

Labor Availability

Young Population

Demand for Organic Cotton

Demand for cut flowers and fresh vegetables

Boneless Beef production

Minerals

OilMetal Resource

New policies to encourage investment

Regional Cooperation

The next hub for emerging and low cost

countries.

19

Strengths

• Huge market base due to cheaper phones.• Insights made available to customers on how others would have reacted to similar circumstances.•The industry is bringing in new dimensions to the customers.

Weakness

• Low profit and operating margins have reduced the growth of the company.•More competitors and low cost phones entering the market.

Opportunities

• A young and a vibrant population offers business opportunities. • Surging demand•Lot of avenues for improvement and evolution.

Threats

• Increasing costs of raw materials would pose a significant threat to the company.• The legal probe on companies can hamper its growth.• Competition from other companies.

SWOT analysis

Cost Structure/Cost Modeling

Career Opportunities

Lots of KPO’s are looking for young talented minds who have the ability to think out of the box.

Basic qualifications: MBA graduates Engineering graduates Students who have did their graduation in Economics.

A simple organization structure will be as follows:

KPO: Ariba, Gartner, Beroe, Smart Cube, Zycus, Data Monitor, Deloitte, KPMG, IDC, Boston Consulting

IT/ITES: IBM, Cap Gemini, Infosys, TCS, Cognizant, HCL, Mahindra Satyam,

Super AnalystSenior AnalystAnalystResearch Associate

Team Lead VP ResearchAssistant Manager Research Manager

Role Plays

Role Play 1

Pedigree is one of the world’s most popular dog foods.

Consider a city like Chennai. Would it be possible for you to tell me how many packets of Pedigree(500g packets) would have been sold in the month of October 2009?

I need the number (It can be any number) but Validation is the key

Role Play 2

One of the world’s most popular sport is golf. If I say that “India is the fourth largest consumer of golf balls”, would

you agree? Validation is the key.

Role Play 3

Can you tell me the value of the tie market in India? Validation is the key.

Key Takeaway’s:

Keep hunting for the information. Keep Networking. Update yourself on a daily basis. Always plan before you start. Understand before you give and validate statements. Internet is the best resource available. Think from all perspectives. Try to start with the bigger picture and keep your focus on what is

needed only. Hit Singles. Knowledge is the only weapon available and use it explore and win.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish!

Thank You!