Assignment on

The Story of Synergos

unfolds

Group Members:

Heena Kapoor……2012071

Ramandeep Kaur….2012075

Neha Kaushal……….2012076

Monica Khatri……….2012080

Pooja Mishra………….2012100

Introduction of Synergos Ltd.

There are two fundamental areas where consultancy services can be effective for Synergos business.  The first is to provide expert advice in the areas in which they specialize. The experience of their professional consultants means that they are ideally placed to provide their clients with the knowledge, information and advice they require.  The second is to offer clients the benefit of their considerable professional experience in refocusing their business or a specific aspect of their business. It is often difficult or impossible to identify or resolve issues from inside your own organisation, even the best managers can be blinded by over-familiarity; that’s where the Synergos can solve problems of other SME firms.  Synergos Consultancy teams will help others identify all their hazards, understand their risks and contribute to improving the company’s safety performance. Synergos experienced consultants can advise firms on all aspects of safety and risk management. The diverse background of the team assures that Synergos Consultancy Services are able to advise firms on all aspects of safety and risk throughout all their facilities, no matter how complex they might be.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF SYNERGOS (CONSULTANCY SERVICES SECTOR)

S- STRENGTHS:

The strengths of Synergos a consultancy firm ranges from factors such as customer demand to the lack of competition in the external environment. The specific knowledge, capabilities, organizational skills and other qualifications of the professional consultant namely Mr. Urmish Patel will be of particular importance in listing the firm's strengths. The key strength is what makes the consultant different from other service providers in the market.

W-WEAKNESSES:

Obstacles might relate to limited access to investment capital needed to launch a needed marketing campaign. In-depth market research should be conducted prior to performing a SWOT assessment because it might reveal a declining customer-base or new competition within the target market. Another apparent weakness is the small size of Synergos, which makes it difficult to compete with large scale organizations.

O-OPPORTUNITIES:

Demographic, environmental, political and socioeconomic factors are areas where opportunities might exist for a consultancy business. Also, significant opportunity may exist if the consultancy firm has a strong professional network that can be quickly tapped into in growing a client base. Evaluate benefits in relation to emerging markets, new technology, small business agency support or the availability of capital funding. Synergous can emerge as a strong organization due to its niche for itself and its dynamic entrepreneur Mr.Urmish Patel.

T-THREATS:

All of the areas offering opportunities can also pose threats. For example, pending legislation might exist that, if passed, will increase costs related to obtaining special licensing and certification to operate as a consultant. This same legislation might also present an opportunity within the field by its potential to increase the perception of professionalism associated with the specific type of Consultancy Company i.e. Synergos.As with all of the other SWOT assessment areas, closely evaluate the business objective when determining potential threats. When identifying threats in the business planning stage, the goal is to develop strategies to eliminate or limit the threat.Also other possible threats are the entrants of new emerging organizations that may hamper the growth of Synergos.Analysis of the Case:

The following case talks about Synergos, a consultancy firm & the budding entrepreneur in Urmish Patel. Synergos is an entrepreneurial venture into the management consultancy led by the dynamic Urmish Patel. The case talks about the strategies, policies, planning, managing & controlling an entrepreneurial business. It also talks about the challenges faced and optimum utilization of the opportunities that come in the path of any budding organization.

Synergos had gain popularity in a very less amount of time due its adaptability to the prevailing market. It insured to create a niche for itself by tailor-making consultancy services for its clients thus satisfying them optimally & insuring its goodwill.

Also, its organizational structure is appropriate for such a venture. Synergos follows a hierarchical organizational

structure thus insuring that its policies are formed & implemented accordingly. Also, Synergos insures human resource development by regular appraisals, opportunities, promotions & overall employee well-fare.

Thus, these policies & its implementations have proven that Synergos is gaining popularity & is fast paced in the growing market scenario & developing day-by-day.

Service Sector in India

Indian Services Sector: Brief Overview

The services sector is a vital cog in the wheel of the Indian economy. The sector, accounting for 60 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), grew 5 per cent in the FY13.

The Indian service industry has emerged as one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors on the global landscape and hence has made substantial contribution towards global output and employment. Growing at faster pace as compared to agriculture and manufacturing sectors, Indian service segment comprises of wide range of activities, such as trading, transportation and communication, financial, real estate

and business services, as well as community, social and personal services.

The IT& ITeS industry in India has today become a growth engine for the economy, contributing substantially to increases in the GDP, urban employment and exports, to achieve the vision of a powerful and resilient India.

Indian firms, across all other sectors, largely depend on the IT & ITeS service providers to make their business processes efficient and streamlined. Indian manufacturing sector has the highest IT spending followed by automotive, chemicals and consumer products industries.

Nasscom expects the IT services sector in India to grow by 13-14 per cent in 2013-14 and to touch US$ 225 billion by 2020.

Key Statistics

The HSBC Market services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which gauges business activity from a survey of over 400 companies ranging from banks to hospitals, stood at 47.9 points in July 2013.

Indian service sector enjoyed foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows amounting to US$ 547 million during April-May 2013-14, according to the recent statistics released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

Services sector, including insurance and real estate, grew by 9.1 per cent in January-March quarter of 2013. The segment grew by 8.6 per cent in 2012-13. Community social and personal services

expanded by 4 per cent in the fourth quarter of FY13 while they grew by 6.6 per cent in 2012-13. Trade, hotels, transport and communications segment grew at 6.2 per cent in the January-March quarter this year as against 5.1 per cent in the same period a year ago. The sector grew at 6.4 per cent in 2012-13.

Indian IT's core competencies and strengths have placed it on the international canvas, attracting investments from major countries.

Between April 2000 and June 2013, the computer software and hardware sector attracted cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) of Rs 53,757.60 crore (US$ 7.97 billion), according to data released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

More recently, online retailing, cloud computing and e-commerce are the major driving forces behind the rapidly increasing growth in the IT industry. Online shopping has increased with the emergence of internet retailing and e-commerce.

Government Initiatives

The Indian Government has also taken many policy initiatives to liberalize the FDI policy for the services sector. These include liberalizing the policy on foreign investment for companies operating in the broadcasting sector, like increasing the foreign investment limit from 49 per cent to 74 per cent in teleports (setting up up-linking HUBs/teleports) and direct to home (DTH) and cable networks, and permitting foreign investment of up to 74 per cent in mobile TV.

Foreign airlines have also been permitted to make investment up to 49 per cent in scheduled and non-scheduled air transport services.

A meeting of senior cabinet ministers chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to hike FDI limit in the insurance sector to 49 per cent from the existing 26 per cent. The move is expected to ripe benefits soon, in terms of more foreign investments into the country.

As a part of the National Electronics Policy, the Government of India is planning to set-up 15 new laboratories under public-private-partnership (PPP) model for hardware and software testing. The labs will facilitate registration and testing of IT products before they are launched in the market.

FDI upto 100 per cent under the automatic route is allowed in Data processing, software development and computer consultancy services; software supply services; business and management consultancy services, market research services, technical testing & analysis services.

Road Ahead

The services industry comprises of various industry sub-segments which are poised to mark immense growth in the years to come.

Industry body CII projects the growth rate for Indian insurance industry in 2013-14 at around 5 per cent. It also projects that 60 per cent of non-life insurance companies would record an average growth of more than 10 per cent.

Technologies, such as telemedicine, mHealth, remote monitoring solutions and clinical information systems, would continue to boost demand for IT service across the globe. IT sophistication in the utilities segment and the need for standardisation of the process are expected to drive demand.

As IT is increasingly gaining traction in small and medium business activities, the sector offers impressive growth opportunities and is estimated at approximately US$ 230 billion–US$ 250 billion by 2020. In a bid to reduce cost, governments across the world are exploring outsourcing and global sourcing options.

Answers:

1) Synergos basically follows the Matrix Structure of organization. When it comes to matrix structure, the organization places the employees based on the function and the product. The matrix structure gives the best of the both worlds of functional and divisional structures. In this type of an organization, the company uses teams to complete tasks. The teams are formed based on the functions they belong to and product they are involved in.

Benefits: The organizational structure at Synergos has a board at the top, consisting of seven people, including the four founding members and three independent directors. One of the independent directors is the chairman of the board. Urmish, as the founder CEO, also heads an executive management committee with each of the founding members, leading three other top-level committees dealing with business portfolio, service management and executive recruitment. The departmentation at Synergos is flexible, based on interplay of the three categories: skill, service and specialty. The flexibility that such an organizational arrangement affords seems to have been the major reason for the evolution of the organization structure at Synergos over the years.

Pitfalls: Despite the fact that Synergos follows a Matrix Structure, but for a fast growing organization this structure might prove fatal. This is so because the flexibility of the organization that is now advantageous due to its small size & structure may prove to be hectic, if and when the organization expands because of the increase in the number of workforce causing unrest in the overall working of the organization.

2) Yes, the organizational structure is appropriate with the strategy implemented because of the following reasons:

Since the organizational size is small, a matrix structure suits the working of Synergos.

The matrix structure allows supervisors to focus on their areas of expertise. Functional supervisors focus on hiring, training

and managing employees in their field, while project supervisors can focus on achieving the goals of their specific projects or products.

Placing employees in functional areas allows them to specialize in a particular field. Instead of being good at a variety of tasks, specialized employees can excel at tasks in their field of focus.

The matrix organizational structure divides authority both by functional area and by project.

In a matrix structure, each employee answers to two immediate supervisors: a functional supervisor and a project supervisor.

Since employees have constant contact with members of different functional areas, the matrix structure allows for information and resources to travel more fluidly between those functional areas. The collaboration between functional areas allows a project team to better handle complex challenges and objectives.

The matrix structure allows for human resources to be shared flexibly across different projects or products. Functional areas maintain a stock of talented employees to meet projects' requirements.

In a matrix structure, employees have constant contact with members of other functional areas via their membership in project teams. Through the project team, employees have the opportunity to develop a wider set of skills than they would in a purely functional structure.

Thus, due these reasons the organizational structure of Synergos is optimal.

3) Strategic group members must challenge themselves to be clear in their purpose and intent, and to push for consistent operational definitions that each member of the team agrees to. This prevents differing perceptions or turf-driven viewpoints later on. A carefully chosen, neutral facilitator can be essential in helping the team to overcome process, group dynamics, and interpersonal issues.

A common way to begin is to review the organization's current state and future possibilities using a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat) analysis. This involves identifying strengths and core capabilities in products, resources, people, and customers. These are what the organization is best at, and why it is in business. Many organizations have responded to this review by spinning off ventures that were not related to their core business. For example, Chrysler sold its interests in Maserati, Lambourghini, and Diamond Star and then concentrated on developing "great cars, great trucks." This sent a clear message to employees and other stakeholders, and triggered the company's renaissance.

Using SWOT, once strengths and core capabilities are defined the next step is to identify weaknesses or vulnerabilities. This is usually the most difficult for organizations and leaders to assess. The identification of gaps is often threatening. In some organizations it is not considered safe to admit to weakness; but an honest appraisal can make the difference between success and failure. Again, reviews should include a look at products, services, resources, customers, and employees.

Once strategies have been agreed on, the next step is implementation; this is where most failures occur. It is not uncommon for strategic plans to be drawn up annually, and to have no impact on the organization as a whole.

A common method of implementation is hoopla-a total communication effort. This can involve slogans, posters, events, memos, videos, Web sites, etc. A critical success factor is whether the entire senior team appears to buy into the strategy, and models appropriate behaviors. Success appears to be more likely if the CEO, or a very visible leader, is also a champion of the strategy.

Strategic measurement can help in implementing the strategic plan. Appropriate measures show the strategy is important to the leaders, provide motivation, and allow for follow-through and sustained attention. By acting as operational definitions of the plan, measures can increase the focus of the strategy, aligning the workforce around specific issues. The results can include faster changes (both in strategic implementation, and in everyday work); greater accountability (since responsibilities are clarified by strategic measurement, people are naturally more accountable); and better communication of responsibilities (because the measures show what each group's primary responsibility is), which may reduce duplication of effort.

Conclusion:

After the complete analysis of Synergos it can be concluded that the organizational structure & its overall human resource management is optimal for its working & development.

Synergos is fast growing & creating a niche for itself in the management consultancy sector. Also, it strengths are its tailor-made consultancy services for its customers thus giving them a competitive edge.

Its weaknesses can be the small size structure that may not survive in the competitive market. Its opportunities are to explore & exploit the advantageous it will receive due its niche status. Also, its threats can be the new upcoming entrants that may prove fatal for Synergos.

Also, the Entrepreneurial qualities of Mr. Urmish Patel are exhibited in the case.