Hp hr map case study competition case

1. XYZ Corp and the WEBShirt- Case Study
INDIA HR MAP
Background:
In the summer of 2014, XYZ acquired Digital Clothing, Inc. (DCI) and all of its patents, including WEBShirt. WEBShirt is a smart t-shirt that integrated computing and a smart phone into a wireless comfortable fabric. Wearable technology was the next big bastion to conquer and the company wanted to get a head start on it. The company is not alone in the assumption that the market demand will shift to support this discovery and it was believed that web-enabled garments will dominate the market in just 3-4 years.
Over the next 3 years, the business model will need to change to support new product lines, while maintaining current products and services until demand dictates otherwise. Workforce planning will be a critical piece to the puzzle as they look to invest in the new business. The company itself will not be assuming any of DCI’s labor force so it is up to HR to put together a winning workforce to support XYZ’s long-term business goals.
With these thoughts in her head, Neeta Ghosh, the country HR head for XYZ Corp for 6 years now, sat down to ponder over how her role in XYZ had changed over the last few years.
Introduction:
Founded in the late 1960’s in a small office behind one of the co-founders’ house, XYZ had come a long way today. In 47 years of it existence, the company had gone from being a small garage startup by Jim Whitefield and Hanson Page, to a technology giant with presence in over 100 countries and a headcount of over 150,000 dedicated employees across the world. Major product lines from the company included personal computing devices, enterprise and industry standard servers & storage devices, networking products, software and a diverse range of imaging products. Recently, the company had jumped on the smartphone bandwagon and released a range of “phablets” integrating a smart phone and a tablet.
Clearly things had changed at XYZ Corp in 47 years, but what hadn’t changed at all was its thirst for constant innovation and reinvention and the open door work culture practiced by the founders fondly referred to as Jim and Han.
As the technology business changed rapidly in the last 5 years, the company’s new CEO, Megan Blankenship had repeatedly stressed on a customer centric approach to doing business. Megan had taken over the reins of the company in 2010 after the company went through a rough patch that saw little innovation and a steep drop in share price. As she took over, she laid down the plan for the transformation journey of XYZ that included a renewed single-minded focus on the customer and customer service. She had also laid emphasis on the kind of people XYZ hired and retained because the people formed the culture and environment of the company. Megan was adamant that XYZ organizations and subsidiaries across the world would have one thing in common: the work culture. She wanted to cascade the drive, the passion and the will to win as part of the DNA of the company and the last few years were indicative of the change. The following were the shared values Megan wanted XYZ to exhibit across the world internally, as well as to its customers.
The transformation journey was right on track and the time was right for XYZ to expand into new territory in line with its focus on innovation. DCI had been a rising star that was being observed carefully for almost a year before XYZ made a bid to buy them. The company’s innovative idea of merging technology with comfort appealed to Megan and she eventually signed off on the buy. However, she was insistent that XYZ run DCI as a part of the company and not as a subsidiary. The culture and values of XYZ would have to be inculcated into the workforce at DCI for the acquisition to pay off as expected. This was going to be one of the biggest challenges Neeta had faced at her career in XYZ and she wanted to do this just right.

2. The WEBShirt:
WEBShirt by DCI is the world’s first web-enabled garment. Designed by top scientists, WEBShirt uses nanotechnology to put the power of the internet right on the wearer’s chest. As the company’s CMO pitched it, “Need to find a great Chinese restaurant? No problem with WEBShirt! Stuck in traffic and need to check email? With WEBShirt, you’re always online. But WEBShirt is much more than a web browser. Love your coworker’s blouse? With WEBShirt, just download the pattern and it’s yours! Plus, when it’s time to wash your WEBShirt, tiny sensors notify you, AND 10 of the nearest dry cleaners, so you can be back online in no time.” The WEBShirt is a powerful personal computer, a tablet, an MP3 player, a phone and best of all a great looking shirt all rolled into one replacing all of these devices and more: laptop, tablet, cell phone, video phone, MP3 player, CD player, tape recorder, and TV.
Workforce Requirements:
As Neeta put a talent acquisition team together in her head she knew she would have to look for a good mix of Managers, Engineers and Non Managers. She drew up a table comparing each group’s pros and cons and value to the new company (Exhibit 1)
She jotted down a few questions to pose to her Talent Acquisition team:
 Clearly we need engineers to support innovation, development and R&D. But who will manage them? Do we want managers or engineer managers?
Her next challenge would be to decide where to recommend setting up the facilities for the production. DCI was expected to ramp up rapidly and facilities would be established within a year. She knew this was not her area of expertise but with Megan’s arrival, she had noticed a change in expectation from HR and always wanted to be able to make informed recommendations in joint leadership meetings.
She had received the following list of instructions from the Business Development head for the project:
We have 100 Million Dollars to build and staff the new facilities to support HP’s WEBShirt and we must adhere to these rules:
1. At least 2 regions must have a facility. The options for regions are APJ (Asia-Pacific Japan), AMS (Americas) and EMEA (Europe and Middle East Asia)
2. You must have at least 1 MGR from all 3 regions
3. You must place at least 100 Employees per facility (excluding Managers)
4. You must place a total of 300 employees (excluding Managers)
5. If AMS is used as a facility, an 8:1 span of control can be used in all regions. If AMS not used, all regions must be 6:1
6. Non-Manager Employees must be in the same region as facility
The span of control was the employee to manager ratio. For example, if the SoC is 6:1 in APJ, there would be one manager available to supervise 6 employees on an average. Since manager salaries were considerably higher than regular workforce salaries, Neeta understood that SoC might be a game changer. Savings would be wonderful but of course, getting the best combination of region, facility and management was the priority.
APJ would clearly provide cost savings but considering the propensity to adapt new technology faster in AMS, would it be prudent to stay closer to the market in a time where go-to-market cycle expectations were ridiculously short? Europe was the fashion hub but that was slowly changing with Asian players like Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines were rapidly becoming fashion hubs on this side of the world. Would that give us an added advantage?
As Neeta drew up her final list of questions and considerations to arrive at her conclusion, she realized this would be a long night indeed.

3. Exhibit 1:
Exhibit 2 (Cost Structure):