This document provides an overview of two projects conducted by an intern at Merck Limited. Project 1 involves a profitability analysis of Merck's chemicals business for 2014 vs 2013. The analysis identifies top customers and products for each of 6 divisions and examines margins, discounts, and sales growth rates. Project 2 involves an investment analysis of Merck for 2014. It classifies the company's fixed deposits and mutual funds and compares Merck's returns, maturity levels, and liquidity to other companies to evaluate its investment strategy and positioning. The intern aims to provide insights to help Merck make effective customer-focused and investment decisions.
This document summarizes the key findings of research into the psychology of procurement in businesses. It finds that many boards see procurement only as a means of short-term cost cutting, rather than a strategic function. This leads to a lack of procurement skills and understanding throughout organizations. As a result, supply chain partnerships are often inefficient and departments resist procurement efforts. The research recommends implementing next-generation procurement led from the boardroom to change these psychological barriers and foster a smarter spending culture.
Strategic Management Concepts and Cases Global 15th Edition David Solutions M...fisysaran
Full download https://alibabadownload.com/product/strategic-management-concepts-and-cases-global-15th-edition-david-solutions-manual/
Strategic Management Concepts and Cases Global 15th Edition David Solutions Manual
Maryland technology consultants case study.pdf maryland tecADDY50
Maryland Technology Consultants (MTC) is an IT consulting firm seeking to improve its hiring process to support growth goals. Currently hiring is manual and inefficient. MTC expects to win contracts requiring hiring 75 consultants quickly. Leadership interviews identify needs for an applicant tracking system to automate hiring, reduce time-to-hire, and support global expansion. The Director of HR and recruiting staff see an urgent need for a solution to handle increased volume and improve service levels. Leadership wants a cost-effective SaaS solution compatible with existing systems that improves security and mobility.
1) The document discusses a sales transformation framework that addresses structural alignment, adherence to sales processes, and incentive systems.
2) It presents a 4-stage process for sales transformation: data collection, solution configuration, briefing stakeholders on changes, and measuring outcomes.
3) The goal of sales transformation is to increase profitability and predictability while optimizing costs through structural and process changes.
Quiz 4QUIZ strategic management concepts &cases 11th edition by Fred R. David...حمد بوجرادة
The document discusses key concepts in strategic management. It provides definitions of strategic management and strategic planning, noting that strategic management refers to strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation, while strategic planning refers specifically to strategy formulation. It also lists important aspects of strategic management like establishing objectives, devising policies, allocating resources, and periodically conducting strategic meetings away from the work site to encourage creativity and candor among participants.
This document is a project report synopsis submitted by Rohit Singh for the partial fulfillment of an MBA degree. The project examines working capital management at Delhi Transco Limited over a three year period from 2017-2019. The objectives are to study DTL's working capital management, examine changes over three years, and identify factors to improve future performance. The methodology involves analyzing DTL's annual reports using ratio analysis and statements of changes in working capital. The scope is a practical study of working capital theory based on DTL's financial data.
Thanks to all my readers. It gives boost when I get calls from my readers and am always happy to revert back to my followers and readers. I am sorry if I am unable to reply to all the e-mails due to my busy schedule.
Contact me for any type of assignments help(nominal charges).
Thanks and Regards,
Er. Bhavi Bhatia
e-mail: bhavi.bhatia.411@gmail.com
Phone: +91-9779703714, +91-9814614666
Quiz 1QUIZ strategic management concepts &cases 11th edition by Fred حمد بوجرادة
Strategic management involves analyzing external and internal factors to formulate strategies, implement plans, and evaluate performance. It is an objective, logical process for making major decisions under uncertainty. Effective strategic management requires understanding competitors and markets, allocating resources, and gaining commitment through disciplined implementation. It provides benefits like improved performance through a cooperative approach to opportunities and problems.
This document summarizes the key findings of research into the psychology of procurement in businesses. It finds that many boards see procurement only as a means of short-term cost cutting, rather than a strategic function. This leads to a lack of procurement skills and understanding throughout organizations. As a result, supply chain partnerships are often inefficient and departments resist procurement efforts. The research recommends implementing next-generation procurement led from the boardroom to change these psychological barriers and foster a smarter spending culture.
Strategic Management Concepts and Cases Global 15th Edition David Solutions M...fisysaran
Full download https://alibabadownload.com/product/strategic-management-concepts-and-cases-global-15th-edition-david-solutions-manual/
Strategic Management Concepts and Cases Global 15th Edition David Solutions Manual
Maryland technology consultants case study.pdf maryland tecADDY50
Maryland Technology Consultants (MTC) is an IT consulting firm seeking to improve its hiring process to support growth goals. Currently hiring is manual and inefficient. MTC expects to win contracts requiring hiring 75 consultants quickly. Leadership interviews identify needs for an applicant tracking system to automate hiring, reduce time-to-hire, and support global expansion. The Director of HR and recruiting staff see an urgent need for a solution to handle increased volume and improve service levels. Leadership wants a cost-effective SaaS solution compatible with existing systems that improves security and mobility.
1) The document discusses a sales transformation framework that addresses structural alignment, adherence to sales processes, and incentive systems.
2) It presents a 4-stage process for sales transformation: data collection, solution configuration, briefing stakeholders on changes, and measuring outcomes.
3) The goal of sales transformation is to increase profitability and predictability while optimizing costs through structural and process changes.
Quiz 4QUIZ strategic management concepts &cases 11th edition by Fred R. David...حمد بوجرادة
The document discusses key concepts in strategic management. It provides definitions of strategic management and strategic planning, noting that strategic management refers to strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation, while strategic planning refers specifically to strategy formulation. It also lists important aspects of strategic management like establishing objectives, devising policies, allocating resources, and periodically conducting strategic meetings away from the work site to encourage creativity and candor among participants.
This document is a project report synopsis submitted by Rohit Singh for the partial fulfillment of an MBA degree. The project examines working capital management at Delhi Transco Limited over a three year period from 2017-2019. The objectives are to study DTL's working capital management, examine changes over three years, and identify factors to improve future performance. The methodology involves analyzing DTL's annual reports using ratio analysis and statements of changes in working capital. The scope is a practical study of working capital theory based on DTL's financial data.
Thanks to all my readers. It gives boost when I get calls from my readers and am always happy to revert back to my followers and readers. I am sorry if I am unable to reply to all the e-mails due to my busy schedule.
Contact me for any type of assignments help(nominal charges).
Thanks and Regards,
Er. Bhavi Bhatia
e-mail: bhavi.bhatia.411@gmail.com
Phone: +91-9779703714, +91-9814614666
Quiz 1QUIZ strategic management concepts &cases 11th edition by Fred حمد بوجرادة
Strategic management involves analyzing external and internal factors to formulate strategies, implement plans, and evaluate performance. It is an objective, logical process for making major decisions under uncertainty. Effective strategic management requires understanding competitors and markets, allocating resources, and gaining commitment through disciplined implementation. It provides benefits like improved performance through a cooperative approach to opportunities and problems.
Mkt574 v1 strategic marketing planmkt574 v1page 3 of 3assamit657720
This document outlines the requirements for a strategic marketing plan assignment. It includes sections on determining new target markets and adapting the marketing mix for each. It discusses implementing the marketing plan and evaluating marketing communication channels. It provides templates for strategic actions, monitoring goals, and analyzing internal and external data sources. The purpose is to give students experience developing a comprehensive strategic marketing plan.
23 principles of successful product companiesBrowne & Mohan
This document outlines 23 principles of successful Indian software product companies as identified by Dr. T R Madan Mohan. Some of the key principles include:
- Identifying market opportunities based on IT adoption, regulations, efficiency needs, and friction in paper-based processes.
- Developing "minimum viable products" focused on core functionality before adding additional features.
- Building modular products and aligning with dominant technology platforms to reduce costs.
- Pursuing a disciplined and controlled development approach, limiting customization and variety initially.
- Focusing sales approaches on named accounts rather than broad marketing, and emphasizing different metrics for inside, indirect, and direct sales teams.
- Scaling through
Initial Public Offers and Due DiligenceProjects Kart
This document is a project report submitted to the University of Mysore in partial fulfillment of an MBA degree. It discusses initial public offers (IPOs) and the role of investment bankers. The report was conducted as a case study at Hassan Kotak Securities Ltd and guided by Harish Kumar. It includes an introduction, industry and company profiles, literature review on topics like IPOs and due diligence, data collection and findings. The investment banker plays an important fiduciary role in coordinating the IPO process between the company, regulators, and investors.
MH Company is considering expanding into global markets through international trade or foreign direct investment. There are three main reasons for companies to shift from domestic to global markets: market saturation at home, product decline in the domestic market, and new opportunities abroad. The document discusses strategies for international market expansion such as greenfield ventures, strategic alliances, and joint ventures. It also analyzes several potential foreign markets for MH Company including the UK, Australia, and India.
The document analyzes the key performance measures of StartUp! Consulting Company based on a BenchmarkIndex analysis comparing it to 233 similar companies. There are issues in several key areas:
1. Financial performance is poor, with low and declining profit margins indicating strategic issues.
2. Customers are dissatisfied, shown by high complaint rates, and the company is struggling to attract new customers.
3. Staff issues include a high manager-to-worker ratio, high costs, low qualifications, and high turnover and absenteeism, reflecting poor management.
4. Investment in technology and innovation is very low compared to peers, risking the company falling behind. Overall the analysis finds serious strategic and operational problems
This document provides a project synopsis on the valuation of mergers and acquisitions. It discusses the increasing use of M&A as a growth strategy in both developed and developing economies. The objectives are to value the acquirer firm pre-and post-merger using discounted cash flow models. Research methodology will use income approach and comparable methods since necessary information is available. Limitations include using secondary data sources and assumptions based on economic conditions at the time of the deal. Benefits of M&A valuation include determining appropriate purchase prices and swap ratios to maximize value creation for both parties.
The document is a student's internship project report on analyzing the financial statements of Amul (Co-Operative Milk Producer's Union Ltd.), submitted in partial fulfillment of an MBA degree. It includes sections on the certificate, declaration, index, preface, acknowledgement, research methodology, executive summary, and introduction to the organization. The report was submitted in August 2013 and analyzes Amul's financial performance and position through tools like ratio analysis, common size statements, DuPont analysis, and working capital management.
An overview atlantis global corporation (agc) is a multinational honey690131
Atlantis Global Corporation (AGC) is a multinational organization that manufactures electronic circuit boards. It has subsidiaries in Asia, Africa, and South America where most manufacturing occurs. AGC has struggled financially and failed to meet profit goals. The new VP of Global Human Capital was hired to address AGC's human capital issues and help diagnose problems preventing the company from achieving leadership in its market.
5 transformative strategies to unlock more-procurement_value_ardent partnersBravoSolution
The current generation of procurement professionals has witnessed first-hand a period of unrivaled advances for their profession as market forces and new technologies combined to pull procurement to the center of business operations and business results. While the foundation of procurement's future will be built upon the past, the strategies and approaches that drive new successes will be markedly different. This report looks at the transformative strategies that will unlock procurement's next wave of value.
This business plan outlines Kokomo Technology Consulting Services, an IT consulting firm to be located in Chicago, Illinois. The plan details the company's mission to provide high quality IT services and solutions to enhance clients' business processes. It analyzes the industry and competitive landscape, and identifies the medical and university sectors as primary target markets. The marketing strategy focuses on establishing long-term partnerships through superior customer service and deliverables. Financial projections estimate modest profits for the first three years based on sales forecasts and expense budgets. The plan aims to position Kokomo Technology as one of the top three IT consulting firms in Chicago within five years.
The 2014/2015 HRM Recruit – Employee Engagement Report brings insight into the primary engagement drivers of over 13,000 professionals in Ireland across 12 functional areas. In the report we look at and weight the factors that have most impact and highlight those, that for some functions, do not give the engagement advantage one might expect.
Executive Summary
Employee engagement has become a top business priority for senior executives. In this rapid
cycle economy, business leaders know that having a high-performing workforce is essential
for growth and survival. They recognize that a highly engaged workforce can increase innovation,
productivity,
and bottom-line
performance
while reducing
costs related
to
hiring
and
retention
in highly competitive
talent
markets.
But while most executives see a clear need to improve employee engagement, many have
yet to develop tangible ways to measure and tackle this goal. However, a growing group of
best-in-class companies says they are gaining competitive advantage through establishing
metrics and practices to effectively quantify and improve the impact of their engagement
initiatives on overall business performance.
In March 2019, the Korea of Minister of Strategy and Finance announced a strategy to spread the
second venture boom in cooperation with relevant ministries. You can start high-tech innovation start-ups by
strengthening your business
Quiz 8QUIZ strategic management concepts &cases 11th edition by Fred R. David...حمد بوجرادة
This document contains 51 true/false questions and 13 multiple choice questions about strategy analysis and choice. It discusses various strategic frameworks including the SWOT analysis, SPACE matrix, BCG matrix, IE matrix, and quantitative strategic planning matrix (QSPM). Key aspects covered include the input and matching stages of the strategic formulation process, using matrices to generate alternative strategies, and considering cultural and political factors in strategic choice.
1. The consultancy report analyzes the bankruptcy of Japan Airline Ltd and provides recommendations for reorganization.
2. Root cause analysis using tools like fishbone diagrams and 5 whys identified high fixed costs, inefficient management, and lack of visionary leadership as contributing factors.
3. Literature on organizational distress phases and turnaround management informed the analysis. A matrix structure was recommended to improve adaptability compared to JAL's mechanistic structure.
High-Performance Organization: The impact of employee engagement on performanceJonathan Escobar Marin
- Employee engagement has become a top priority for companies as it can increase productivity, innovation, and bottom-line performance while reducing costs. However, many companies still struggle to effectively measure engagement and tie it to financial metrics.
- The study found that just 24% of respondents said most employees in their organization are highly engaged. Executive managers viewed engagement more optimistically than middle managers.
- "High prioritizers" who see engagement as extremely important are more likely to use metrics to improve performance and share best practices like goal alignment, recognition programs, and surveys to connect engagement to business outcomes.
In recent years, a number of Nordic companies have tried to capture synergies by centralizing functions, only to find that in optimizing those individual functional efficiencies they've compromised their overall advantage. The good thing is that there are ways to avoid these kinds of traps - read about them in our white paper on the subject
The document provides an overview of several frameworks and models used for strategic analysis, including SWOT analysis, Porter's 5 forces, and the strategy diamond. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each framework. In particular, it explains that while SWOT analysis identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it does not provide guidance on what actions to take. The document also discusses different measures of industry concentration, including concentration ratios and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI). The HHI gives more weight to larger firms and provides a more accurate picture of competition than concentration ratios alone. Thresholds for the HHI indicate whether an industry is highly competitive or concentrated.
Impress the web bot and the people searching for you - taking seo a bit furtherPatrick Broens
Schema.org is a collaborative effort to create a standard set of schemas for structured data on the internet. It defines common entities, relationships between entities, and an extendable modeling framework. Structured data can be marked up on web pages using HTML5 semantics like article, nav, section etc. or embedded using JSON-LD. Marking up content with Schema.org vocabulary enables rich snippets and potential benefits like increased click through rates for search results.
Este documento proporciona instrucciones en 4 pasos para subir archivos a la página web Sliderhave, incluyendo registrarse, completar un formulario de solicitud y cargar archivos como presentaciones PowerPoint, documentos de Word y programas ejecutables. Solo se pueden subir ciertos tipos de archivos como presentaciones, documentos y programas a Sliderhave a través de la función de carga.
Mkt574 v1 strategic marketing planmkt574 v1page 3 of 3assamit657720
This document outlines the requirements for a strategic marketing plan assignment. It includes sections on determining new target markets and adapting the marketing mix for each. It discusses implementing the marketing plan and evaluating marketing communication channels. It provides templates for strategic actions, monitoring goals, and analyzing internal and external data sources. The purpose is to give students experience developing a comprehensive strategic marketing plan.
23 principles of successful product companiesBrowne & Mohan
This document outlines 23 principles of successful Indian software product companies as identified by Dr. T R Madan Mohan. Some of the key principles include:
- Identifying market opportunities based on IT adoption, regulations, efficiency needs, and friction in paper-based processes.
- Developing "minimum viable products" focused on core functionality before adding additional features.
- Building modular products and aligning with dominant technology platforms to reduce costs.
- Pursuing a disciplined and controlled development approach, limiting customization and variety initially.
- Focusing sales approaches on named accounts rather than broad marketing, and emphasizing different metrics for inside, indirect, and direct sales teams.
- Scaling through
Initial Public Offers and Due DiligenceProjects Kart
This document is a project report submitted to the University of Mysore in partial fulfillment of an MBA degree. It discusses initial public offers (IPOs) and the role of investment bankers. The report was conducted as a case study at Hassan Kotak Securities Ltd and guided by Harish Kumar. It includes an introduction, industry and company profiles, literature review on topics like IPOs and due diligence, data collection and findings. The investment banker plays an important fiduciary role in coordinating the IPO process between the company, regulators, and investors.
MH Company is considering expanding into global markets through international trade or foreign direct investment. There are three main reasons for companies to shift from domestic to global markets: market saturation at home, product decline in the domestic market, and new opportunities abroad. The document discusses strategies for international market expansion such as greenfield ventures, strategic alliances, and joint ventures. It also analyzes several potential foreign markets for MH Company including the UK, Australia, and India.
The document analyzes the key performance measures of StartUp! Consulting Company based on a BenchmarkIndex analysis comparing it to 233 similar companies. There are issues in several key areas:
1. Financial performance is poor, with low and declining profit margins indicating strategic issues.
2. Customers are dissatisfied, shown by high complaint rates, and the company is struggling to attract new customers.
3. Staff issues include a high manager-to-worker ratio, high costs, low qualifications, and high turnover and absenteeism, reflecting poor management.
4. Investment in technology and innovation is very low compared to peers, risking the company falling behind. Overall the analysis finds serious strategic and operational problems
This document provides a project synopsis on the valuation of mergers and acquisitions. It discusses the increasing use of M&A as a growth strategy in both developed and developing economies. The objectives are to value the acquirer firm pre-and post-merger using discounted cash flow models. Research methodology will use income approach and comparable methods since necessary information is available. Limitations include using secondary data sources and assumptions based on economic conditions at the time of the deal. Benefits of M&A valuation include determining appropriate purchase prices and swap ratios to maximize value creation for both parties.
The document is a student's internship project report on analyzing the financial statements of Amul (Co-Operative Milk Producer's Union Ltd.), submitted in partial fulfillment of an MBA degree. It includes sections on the certificate, declaration, index, preface, acknowledgement, research methodology, executive summary, and introduction to the organization. The report was submitted in August 2013 and analyzes Amul's financial performance and position through tools like ratio analysis, common size statements, DuPont analysis, and working capital management.
An overview atlantis global corporation (agc) is a multinational honey690131
Atlantis Global Corporation (AGC) is a multinational organization that manufactures electronic circuit boards. It has subsidiaries in Asia, Africa, and South America where most manufacturing occurs. AGC has struggled financially and failed to meet profit goals. The new VP of Global Human Capital was hired to address AGC's human capital issues and help diagnose problems preventing the company from achieving leadership in its market.
5 transformative strategies to unlock more-procurement_value_ardent partnersBravoSolution
The current generation of procurement professionals has witnessed first-hand a period of unrivaled advances for their profession as market forces and new technologies combined to pull procurement to the center of business operations and business results. While the foundation of procurement's future will be built upon the past, the strategies and approaches that drive new successes will be markedly different. This report looks at the transformative strategies that will unlock procurement's next wave of value.
This business plan outlines Kokomo Technology Consulting Services, an IT consulting firm to be located in Chicago, Illinois. The plan details the company's mission to provide high quality IT services and solutions to enhance clients' business processes. It analyzes the industry and competitive landscape, and identifies the medical and university sectors as primary target markets. The marketing strategy focuses on establishing long-term partnerships through superior customer service and deliverables. Financial projections estimate modest profits for the first three years based on sales forecasts and expense budgets. The plan aims to position Kokomo Technology as one of the top three IT consulting firms in Chicago within five years.
The 2014/2015 HRM Recruit – Employee Engagement Report brings insight into the primary engagement drivers of over 13,000 professionals in Ireland across 12 functional areas. In the report we look at and weight the factors that have most impact and highlight those, that for some functions, do not give the engagement advantage one might expect.
Executive Summary
Employee engagement has become a top business priority for senior executives. In this rapid
cycle economy, business leaders know that having a high-performing workforce is essential
for growth and survival. They recognize that a highly engaged workforce can increase innovation,
productivity,
and bottom-line
performance
while reducing
costs related
to
hiring
and
retention
in highly competitive
talent
markets.
But while most executives see a clear need to improve employee engagement, many have
yet to develop tangible ways to measure and tackle this goal. However, a growing group of
best-in-class companies says they are gaining competitive advantage through establishing
metrics and practices to effectively quantify and improve the impact of their engagement
initiatives on overall business performance.
In March 2019, the Korea of Minister of Strategy and Finance announced a strategy to spread the
second venture boom in cooperation with relevant ministries. You can start high-tech innovation start-ups by
strengthening your business
Quiz 8QUIZ strategic management concepts &cases 11th edition by Fred R. David...حمد بوجرادة
This document contains 51 true/false questions and 13 multiple choice questions about strategy analysis and choice. It discusses various strategic frameworks including the SWOT analysis, SPACE matrix, BCG matrix, IE matrix, and quantitative strategic planning matrix (QSPM). Key aspects covered include the input and matching stages of the strategic formulation process, using matrices to generate alternative strategies, and considering cultural and political factors in strategic choice.
1. The consultancy report analyzes the bankruptcy of Japan Airline Ltd and provides recommendations for reorganization.
2. Root cause analysis using tools like fishbone diagrams and 5 whys identified high fixed costs, inefficient management, and lack of visionary leadership as contributing factors.
3. Literature on organizational distress phases and turnaround management informed the analysis. A matrix structure was recommended to improve adaptability compared to JAL's mechanistic structure.
High-Performance Organization: The impact of employee engagement on performanceJonathan Escobar Marin
- Employee engagement has become a top priority for companies as it can increase productivity, innovation, and bottom-line performance while reducing costs. However, many companies still struggle to effectively measure engagement and tie it to financial metrics.
- The study found that just 24% of respondents said most employees in their organization are highly engaged. Executive managers viewed engagement more optimistically than middle managers.
- "High prioritizers" who see engagement as extremely important are more likely to use metrics to improve performance and share best practices like goal alignment, recognition programs, and surveys to connect engagement to business outcomes.
In recent years, a number of Nordic companies have tried to capture synergies by centralizing functions, only to find that in optimizing those individual functional efficiencies they've compromised their overall advantage. The good thing is that there are ways to avoid these kinds of traps - read about them in our white paper on the subject
The document provides an overview of several frameworks and models used for strategic analysis, including SWOT analysis, Porter's 5 forces, and the strategy diamond. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each framework. In particular, it explains that while SWOT analysis identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it does not provide guidance on what actions to take. The document also discusses different measures of industry concentration, including concentration ratios and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI). The HHI gives more weight to larger firms and provides a more accurate picture of competition than concentration ratios alone. Thresholds for the HHI indicate whether an industry is highly competitive or concentrated.
Impress the web bot and the people searching for you - taking seo a bit furtherPatrick Broens
Schema.org is a collaborative effort to create a standard set of schemas for structured data on the internet. It defines common entities, relationships between entities, and an extendable modeling framework. Structured data can be marked up on web pages using HTML5 semantics like article, nav, section etc. or embedded using JSON-LD. Marking up content with Schema.org vocabulary enables rich snippets and potential benefits like increased click through rates for search results.
Este documento proporciona instrucciones en 4 pasos para subir archivos a la página web Sliderhave, incluyendo registrarse, completar un formulario de solicitud y cargar archivos como presentaciones PowerPoint, documentos de Word y programas ejecutables. Solo se pueden subir ciertos tipos de archivos como presentaciones, documentos y programas a Sliderhave a través de la función de carga.
CableBox - Joshua, Michelle, Orville, Sarah and TabithaMichelle Nagy
CableBox is an IT solutions company that provides technical support and managed services to clients across North America. To continuously improve and stay ahead in technology, CableBox provides ongoing training to its worldwide employees. This training is done virtually through web dialogs and informal social settings. CableBox measures the ROI of its training using 6 approaches: performance, coaching, mentoring, impact, skill, and knowledge. It calculates ROI by comparing total program benefits to total costs. Challenges include effectively tracking global employee performance and maintaining interest across time zones. Technologies used include online programs, social media, and an electronic performance support system to provide on-demand learning.
Francesco Minora, Collective Action And Habitability In Residential ContextsLabGov
Produzione di abitabilità e condizioni di efficacia di interventi di Social Housing
Post doc 2010 incoming (call 1)
The “Trentino - PCOFUND-GA-2008-226070” programme
- The document discusses early stone tool technologies, beginning with Oldowan tools dated to 3.4 million years ago which were made and used by Australopithecus afarensis.
- Acheulean tools emerged around 1.8 million years ago and were more sophisticated, consisting of bifacial hand axes, cleavers, and picks. These tools spread widely and suggested more advanced cognition among humans.
- Acheulean handaxes are believed to have taken on social significance beyond just functionality, with elaborate examples perhaps serving to display skills or used in mate selection by early humans.
This document is a resume for Gary Terrill, an IT professional with over 25 years of experience in areas such as technology strategy, project management, operations management, and vendor negotiation. He has worked across multiple industries implementing large-scale enterprise systems. His core competencies include technology strategy, project management, integration management, and team management. His professional experience includes roles at GTELIT Consulting, Apex System/Capital One, Verizon Enterprise Solutions, Florida Department of Transportation, and Vista Health Plan/HealthNet.
This document summarizes a research paper that designed and implemented an embedded hardware accelerator to help diagnose HDL code during assertion-based verification. The hardware accelerator, called a multi-array processor (MAP), was programmed onto a FPGA chip to efficiently perform logical operations on large amounts of data generated during verification in parallel. Testing showed the MAP improved processing and analysis time over manual methods. The MAP can also be used for applications that compare output matrices for decision making.
This document summarizes a workshop on learning experience (LX) design. The workshop covered introductions, an overview of LX design methodology, user research activities like empathy mapping and persona development, idea generation techniques like visual slam and scenario sketching, and journey mapping. Participants worked in groups to conduct user interviews, develop personas, identify challenges, generate ideas, and create learner journey maps for a project on designing an Open Educational Resources program. The workshop aimed to provide hands-on experience applying human-centered and service design approaches to learning experience design.
This document provides an overview of a presentation on global warming and carbon mitigation scenarios for the next 100 years. It discusses that global warming is primarily caused by human greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion. It outlines that over 85% of the world's energy supply is carbon-based, coming from oil, gas, and coal. It then summarizes projections for the depletion of these fossil fuel resources over the next century and models scenarios of carbon emissions resulting from their use with varying levels of mitigation through the implementation of "stabilization wedges" to reduce emissions.
Post-Merger Integration (PMI) is a critical phase in any merger or acquisition, representing the juncture where strategies are put into practice, and the potential for success or failure becomes most evident. It's a high-stakes game, with billions of dollars and the future of the newly formed entity hanging in the balance.
Key highlights of the report:
- Data-based findings on PMI practices followed currently
- Seven key insights into PMI based on survey data analysis
- Best practices suggested by global M&A leaders
Capstone project_Pratim Roy PGDM_1838(1)pratim roy
This document is a capstone project report on valuing Kotak Mahindra Bank submitted by Pratim Roy, a student in the PGDM program at Institute for Technology and Management. The report includes an introduction covering the problem statement, importance, scope and objectives of the project. It also provides details about Kotak Mahindra Bank such as its products/services and organizational structure. The literature review section summarizes several analyst reports on Kotak Mahindra Bank's financial performance and valuation. The methodology, data collection, analysis and conclusions are also outlined.
The Corporate Digest Magazine contains latest trends and expert opinions on
> Strategy
> Digital
> Finance, and
> Legal.
September-2017 magazine has covered complete ROC compliances for each type of entity.
Rak ceramic dividend appraisal full niloy sahaNiloy Saha
This report analyzes the dividend policy of RAK Ceramics Limited from 2014 to 2018. It begins with an overview of key concepts related to dividends including types of dividends, factors affecting dividend policy, and theories of dividend relevance and irrelevance. The report then examines RAK Ceramics' net income, dividend declarations, earnings per share, payout and retention ratios, and the relationship between net income and total dividends over the period. Finally, it determines whether RAK Ceramics follows a policy of dividend relevance or irrelevance based on the analysis.
enParadigm Client Story - The Muthoot Pappachan Group - this caselet places enParadigm's intervention in context, traces its implementation and lays out results.
Working capital management on kotak mahindra groupProjects Kart
This document is a summer training report submitted for a post graduate degree in international business. It contains 14 chapters covering various aspects of working capital management at Kotak Mahindra Group, including research methodology, literature review, company and industry profiles, data collection, analysis of working capital, findings, and recommendations. The document analyzes Kotak Mahindra's working capital management through ratios and comparisons over multiple years. It finds that working capital utilization and inventory turnover were not consistently effective. Recommendations are made to improve receivables collection and liquidity management.
1. The report analyzes recruitment of front line sales employees at Future Generali Life Insurance. It found high attrition and challenges in acquiring new talent.
2. Direct competition mapping identified strengths and weaknesses of Future Generali compared to competitors. It found Future Generali provided fewer leads to employees and had longer turnaround times than peers.
3. Recommendations included outsourcing hiring, reducing turnaround time, providing more leads to employees, and lowering sales targets to improve recruitment and retention.
MARKETING STRATEGY & CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OF BIG BAZAARSoumeet Sarkar
The document is a project report submitted by Soumeet D. Sarkar to Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai for his Master of Commerce program. The report examines the marketing strategy and customer satisfaction of Big Bazaar, a large retail chain in India. It provides background information on Big Bazaar, outlines the research methodology used in the project, which includes primary and secondary data collection and analysis of customer feedback. The report then analyzes Big Bazaar's marketing mix, strategies, and customer satisfaction levels. It also includes sample customer questionnaires and data analysis of the responses.
This document provides an executive summary and objectives of a project completed at Reliance Securities Ltd. as part of an MBA program. The project involved learning about financial products, improving customer acquisition, and analyzing mutual fund selection parameters. The objectives were to gain practical experience, increase customer interactions and product knowledge, and evaluate funds based on metrics like CAGR, beta, and Sharpe ratio. Tasks during the internship included market observation, customer acquisition, technical support, administration, and follow-up.
The Master Map Principles (MMP) is an approach to leadership that focuses on people, principles, product, and performance. It provides a framework to quickly understand a company, develop shared goals and values, and take action to improve short-term and long-term results. The MMP helps engage stakeholders, provides structure through documented maps and principles, and creates accountability through metrics. When applied, the MMP has helped companies adapt to changing markets and grow competitively over the long run.
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Merck+report+-Garima+Grover
1. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
1
Industry Internship Project 2014 – 16
On
Profitability Analysis and Investment Analysis
For Merck Limited For the Year 2014
Submitted by:
Name of the Student: GARIMA GROVER
Roll No.:KHR2014PGDM24F087
Program: PGDM (Finance)
Batch: 2014-2016
Company Guide: Mr. Amitabh Desai Faculty Guide: Mr.Samie Sayed
Designation: Manager Controlling
Company Guide: Mr. Niren Gandhi
Designation: Manager Finance and Accounting
ITM Business School
Plot No. 25 / 26, Institutional Area,
Sector – 4, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai
2. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The success and final outcome of this project required a lot of guidance and assistance from
many people and I am extremely fortunate to have got this all along the completion of my project
work. Whatever I have done is only due to such guidance and assistance and I would not forget
to thank them.
I respect and thank Mr. N. S. KRISHNAN- CFO- Merck Limited, for giving me an opportunity
to do the project work in MERCK LIMITED and providing us all support and guidance which
made me complete the project on time. I am extremely grateful to him for providing such a nice
support.
I owe my profound gratitude to my project guide Mr. Amitabh Desai- Manager- Controlling
and MIS, Merck Millipore and Mr. Niren Gandhi – Manager- Accounts and Finance who took
keen interest on this project work and guided me all along, till the completion of my project work
by providing all the necessary information.
I would not forget to remember Ms.Amruta Shirgaonkar and Ms. Shefali Deshpande of finance
department for their unlisted encouragement and more over for their timely support and guidance
till the completion of my project work.
All through this project, it has been a great exposure for me to abundance of data that was related
in complex ways and some was even incompatible. Collating and organizing the data was a
challenging task. Accomplishment of the final result by discovering sense in the data and
recognizing most profitable customers was an interesting task throughout.
I am thankful to Merck Limited for giving me this wonderful opportunity to work in a corporate
environment and understand most practical aspects of financial analysis.
Sincerely,
Garima Grover
ITM, Mumbai (2014-2016 Batch)
3. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY…………………………………………… 5-7
Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………....... 8-12
1 Introduction…………………………………………………. 8
Project 1-
1.1 Overview……………………………………………….. 9
1.2 Business sectors………………………………………... 9
1.3 Objectives of study…………………………………… 10
1.4 Modus operendi………………………………………. 2
Project 2
1.5 Overview………………………………………………. 10
1.6 Classification of investments………………………. 11
1.7 Objectives of project…………………………......... 11
1.8 Modus operendi…………………………………….. 12
Chapter 2: Details of organisation................................................ 13-21
2.1 Introduction………………………………………………… 14
2.2 Evolution of the company………….……………………… 14
2.3 Business sector and businesses……………………………. 15
2.4 Management ………………………………………………. 16
2.5 Organizational structure of the company…………………. 16
2.6 Corporate structure of the company……………………….. 17
5. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Merck is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. Since 1668 the name has
stood for innovation, business success and responsible entrepreneurship. So, financial data on
just a small part of its entire business that too of a small portion of time in its long history is
sufficient to keep an intern well-occupied over a stretch of entire 3 months. From its worldwide
business, I am just focusing on Chemicals business of its India operations for the first project that
was PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS FOR MERCK LIMITED FOR THE YEAR 2014 VS
2013. The financial analysis is performed for all the 6 divisions of this business for the two
years: 2013 and 2014.
The data for analysis is derived from the invoices of the 3 legal entities of Merck operating in
India: Merck Limited, Merck Specialties and Merck Millipore. This data was first combined and
then segregated into different divisions. The analysis is performed for each division separately
for both years. Since every division has many customers, my analysis centers on only top 50
customers by contribution. This handful chunk contributes more than 50% to the total of most
divisions and so it’s worth to maintain focus on them.
So first, top customers are identified for each division and then Top 25 products are identified for
each of the top customers. Depending on the division the number of top customers chosen to
examine products also, varies. Thus the profitability analysis is division-wise, customer-wise and
product-wise: top products for each top customer for each division.
Some customers give very good margins but are still under-ranked because of lower sales. They
will rise in ranking if higher sales are made to them while maintaining the margin percentage
increasing our total contribution (which is a primary goal in profitability improvement).
Yet on the other side of spectrum are the customers who give loads of sales but very low margin
relatively. For such customers the challenge is to increase contribution per unit sales while
maintaining the high sales level.
There are some customers who appear regularly in top 50. Their purchasing patterns could help
us customize product mix for them and optimize sales strategy. Also we could unearth the factors
that keep them in top through analysis. Some customers are new entrants in top 50 club while
some drop out of it. Such customers may have cyclic or one time surges in demand, and may be
paid less attention.
Some customers demand a varied portfolio of products while some purchase very high quantities
of just one-two products. The latter types typically have a very high share in such product’s total
sales.
6. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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Now coming to discounts, their basic purpose is to push sales. But too high a discount can eat
into your margins. Ideally sales would grow at the average demand growth rate. So any sales
above that can be attributed to stimulation provided by discounts. Similarly, such additional sales
should not reduce margin. This is an important assumption that can be used to evaluate if
discounts are really doing good.
The overall profit can only be increased by reducing the cost of production or reducing the
percentage of discounts allowed. If the first option is familiarized then the company may have to
find an alternative that would reduce the cost of goods and if we go for the second option, the
discount policies should be introduced in such a way that would actually not eat up sales but it
pushes the amount of sales.
It’s on such observations that I am basing my analysis. These can help to decide future course of
action for different customers. For example customers appearing frequently in the top can be
offered attractive credit terms. Customers featuring sporadically in the top can be offered
frequency discounts. I believe my modest analysis would be found useful to enable concerned
authorities to take effective decisions.
The second project was on INVESMENT ANALYSIS FOR MERCK LIMITED FOR THE
YEAR 2014. The data I was given was all main files on which the investment team of Merck
works. The files included the fixed deposits and mutual funds schemes into which Merck had
invested in the year 2014. Merck did not invest in any other investment schemes as it is the
applied rules of the company from the headquarters. The investments are to be done in the way
that company does not lack behind the competitors in this term. This research was done earlier in
the year 2008 which concluded that with respect to the policies of the company, the company is
performing quite well in this area. They were getting suitable returns and even better from the
top companies at that point of time. I started my research with the same companies because I had
to confirm that the position of Merck is still doing better or some changes should be done.
All the companies’ investments data was to be classified into the major investment heads i.e.
equity funds, liquid funds, liquid plus funds, income funds, fixed deposits, bonds and
government securities etc. Fixed assets have been excluded from this project. The deep studies
were done on the investment trends of the companies and compare the ways with Merck limited.
Further, coming on to comparing Merck with other companies, I decided some criteria i.e. on the
basis of return on investment received by each of the company, maturity of the investments of
Merck, proportion of money blocked into long term investments and liquidity of cash with the
company. This would ease my study on how the Merck investments are performing in the current
market and is at what is the rank when we compare it to 2008 data.
Return on investment is the best criteria to judge ones capabilities to invest properly. Side by
side one need to keep in mind that it does not invest a large amount in risky investments or in
gambling in order to get high amount of returns. This could also ruin away the principle amount.
7. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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Due to 2008 subprime crises, Merck decided not to invest in any kind of risky assets that could
ruin away even the principle amount. When many companies had incurred large amount of
losses, Merck did not incur any type to losses. But as it is said that prevention is always better
than cure, Merck introduced some policies regarding the way of investing in different schemes
that excluded equity investments, income funds and other risky investments. The policies
stressed upon investing into fixed deposits and mutual funds only.
9. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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PROJECT 1:- PROFITABILITY IMPROVEMENT THROUGH DETAILED
ANALYSIS OF THE PRODUCT, CUSTOMER, MARKET
SEGMENTATION OF SALES FOR THE YEAR 2014 VS 2013
1.1 OVERVIEW:-
Merck is a leading company for innovative and top-quality high-tech products in healthcare, life
science and performance materials. Around 39,000 employees work in 66 countries to improve
the quality of life for patients, to further the success of our customers and to help meet global
challenges.
They generated total revenues of € 11.5 billion in 2014 with our three business sectors:
Healthcare, Life Science and Performance Materials.
Merck products are known and established throughout the world. Whether our medicines are of
biological origin, over-the-counter products, products for allergen immunotherapy, liquid
crystals for LC displays, Merck pigments for the coatings, plastics and printing industries as well
as lab solutions for pharmaceutical research and biotechnology – products and services from
which Merck enjoys a high level of trust everywhere.
Merck is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. Since 1668 our name has
stood for innovation, business success and responsible entrepreneurship. The founding family
remains the majority owner of the company to this day.
The research task given is done every year by a trainee because this is an essential part of work.
The problem focuses on identifying the most profitable customers and making the discount
policies according to the situation. The most profitable customers need an altered consideration.
Firms always treats its most profitable customers with care and customize its strategies according
to the customer’s needs. If less attention is paid to such customers it may lead to ultimate losses.
1.2 BUSINESS SECTORS:
This company is divided into 2 parts-
a) Pharmaceuticals – Further under this sector Merck has 2 companies-
Merck Serono
Consumer Health
b) Chemicals - This sections has the company has 3 entities-
1. Merck limited
2. Merck Specialities(MSPL)
3. Millipore
Under each entity there are 6 divisions-
BPS- Bio-pharma process solutions
LE- lab essentials
BIOS- Bio-science
LW- lab waters
BIOM- Bio-Monitoring
10. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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PCS- Processed Chemical solutions
This company manufactures chemicals under these six divisions and also manufactures
pharmaceutical products.
I.3 OBJECTIVES OF STUDY:-
I. Identifying top 50 customers providing maximum profit to each of the 7 divisions of the
Chemicals business.
II. For each selected top customers of each division, identifying their top 25 products.
III. Understanding which customers and products are really profitable in terms of giving high
margins in absolute terms as well as relative to sales value.
IV. Finding if products are being sold at a reasonable discount to the customers (Highlighting
products sold at higher than average discount percentage for that product).
V. Finding if products sold to customers are providing a reasonable contribution margin
(Highlighting products sold at lower than average contribution margin percentage for that
product).
VI. Determining if a customer’s margin is growing at a rate commensurate with sales growth rate.
I.4 MODUS OPERANDI (METHODS OF OPERATION):-
I. Microsoft Excel- various tools in excel
II. Microsoft Word
III. Finding out contribution per unit sales
IV. Various ratios
V. Profitability analysis
PROJECT 2:- INVESTMENT ANALYSIS OF MERCK LIMITED FOR
THE YEAR 2014
I.5 OVERVIEW
An asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate
in the future. In an economic sense, an investment is the purchase of goods that are not
consumed today but are used in the future to create wealth.
There are many types of investments that will ensure you a safe and secure financial future
such as:-
o Liquid investments :- Liquid investments are investments that could be turned into
cash relatively easily and assume various forms, such as savings accounts, Certificates
of Deposit, Money Market Accounts etc.
o Bonds :- Under the broad umbrella of bonds, we cover both government bonds
(Treasury Bonds) issued by government and corporate bonds issued by companies.
o Stocks :- A stock normally represents your ownership within the corporation. The
advantage of holding a stock is that not only do you own a piece of the company, you
11. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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also have the liberty to trade these instruments in an open market (and thus realize
capital gains) and reap income in the form of dividends, which are declared when the
company makes profits.
o Mutual funds :- Mutual funds are a large aggregation of stocks, bonds, and other
financial investments, except that they are managed by professional investors. The
advantage of mutual funds is the possibility of diversifying your financial investment
over a large pool of investments.
o Real Estate :- For those who keep track of the real estate market, buying, selling, and
renting property could be a viable financial investment. Not only will you realize
capital gains if you invest in the right property, there is also the possibility of earning
rental income.
I.6 CLASSIFCATION OF INVESTMENTS
ON THE BASIS OF TIME :-
1. Investments that are readily realisable and intended to be held for not more than a
year from the date of acquisition are classified as current investments.
2. All other investments are classified as long-term investments. However, that part
of long term investments which is expected to be realized within 12 months after
the reporting date is also presented under ‘current assets’ as “current portion of
long term investments” in consonance with the current non-current classification
scheme of revised Schedule VI.
Long-term investments (including current portion thereof) are carried at cost less any other-
than-temporary diminution in value, determined separately for each individual investment.
ON THE BASIS OF RISK :-
1. High Risk – e.g. growth funds, stocks and shares, emerging markets mutual funds
etc.
2. Moderate Risk – e.g. convertible bonds, junk bonds, stock funds etc.
3. Low Risk – e.g. fixed annuities, government securities, treasury bills, money
market mutual funds etc.
4. Very low risk – e.g. certificates
I.7 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT:-
To analyze investment trends in the market
To discover any new investment opportunity that the company is not aware of.
To find out the company’s ranking on the basis of their effective investments
To check whether the funds are not blocked in any kind of risky investments
To verify the liquidity of cash and investments available with the company.
Find out the results and give analysis of the research done.
12. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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I.8 MODUS OPERANDI (METHODS OF OPERATION):-
Analyze annual reports of various companies selected
Calculate the total investments of the companies in the year 2014
Calculate the returns of the companies from the investments done
Collate all the primary data in excel and calculate the average rate of returns of fixed deposits and
mutual funds for Merck Limited
Find out total return of the company and then compare the returns with other companies taken
into consideration
Calculate the average maturity period of the companies investments so that we can analyze the
regular flow of investments and the money is not trapped in a single investment for a long period
of time.
Microsoft excel and PowerPoint is used to handle the data
13. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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CHAPTER 2:-
DETAILS OF THE
ORGANISATION
14. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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2.1 INTRODUCTION
Founded in 1668 in Darmstadt, Merck is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical
company. The success of the export business to the United States led in 1887 to the
establishment of an office in New York, which gave rise to the subsidiary Merck & Co. four
years later. Owing to World War I, Merck & Co. was expropriated in 1917. The two
companies have been separate ever since.
To make it is easier to distinguish between the two companies, clear rules stipulate the rights
to the name and the trademark. Merck of Darmstadt, Germany, – the original – holds the
global rights to the name and the trademark MERCK. The exception is North America,
where we are represented by the EMD brand, which stands for “Emanuel Merck Darmstadt”.
Merck is the oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company in the world. Its roots date back to
the year 1668. Experience the exciting history of Merck and learn what has characterized the
company over the centuries: Courage and pioneering spirit, vision and determination.
Darmstadt – The headquarters of the Merck Group
Darmstadt is the headquarters of Merck KGaA, the parent company for the operating
businesses of the Merck Group. Besides R&D units as well as production plants for various
pharmaceuticals and chemicals, this site is also home to Group functions such as Human
Resources, Patents and Scientific Information, Legal and Compliance, Information Services,
Procurement, Marketing and Sales, Accounting, and Controlling.
2.2 EVOLUTION OF THE COMPANY:-
1668:- Friedrich Jacob Merck acquires the Angel Pharmacy what was later called as
Angel Pharmacy.
1827:- Emanuel Merck realizes the transition from a pharmacy trade to research based
industrial company.
1850:- In order to ensure the continued existence of his company, in 1850 Emanuel
Merck and his two sons Carl and Georg formed a business partnership called E. Merck,
with the sons assuming the role of partners with equal rights to the pharmacy and factory
business.
1860:- The youngest son, Wilhelm, also joined the partnership. In this way the individual
proprietorship was transformed into company with several partners.
1888:- “Merck’s guaranteed pure reagents” enable comparative chemical analysis.
1904:- At the incentive of Otto Lehmann, Merck offered the first liquid crystal for
research purposes in its price list, “substances with liquid crystalline properties”.
1900:- Merck is represented on all continents
1914:- In 1914, Merck, Boehringer Mannheim and Knoll joined forces to launch a range
of ready -to-use drugs under the MBK trademark. The manufacturing of drugs in
15. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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compressed tablet and ampoule form was a tremendous success. In the first few years,
production o compressed tables rose from 64.5 to 168.5 million. MBK existed until 1971.
1917:- As a consequence of World War 1, Merck loses its subsidiaries abroad, including
its American subsidiary Merck & co., which becomes an independent U.S. company.
1920:- In February 1920 the management structure of the company changed. The
formation of a Board of Directors allowed persons who were not family members to fill
leading positions at the company for the first time. The chair reserved for the company
owners and thus family members.
1945:- Merck loses its subsidiaries abroad and starts up again from the ruins.
1970:- Merck becomes firmly Re-established also in the United States – after Asia and
Latin America.
1995:- Merck KGaA is founded and publicly listed.
2.3 BUSINESS SECTORS AND BUSINESSES:-
Merck Serono - Transforming lives through medical science
Merck Serono is the largest division of Merck. It markets innovative prescription drugs of
chemical and biotechnological origin. Merck Serono focuses on highly specialized therapeutic
areas such as Neurodegenerative Diseases, Oncology, Fertility, Endocrinology and
Rheumatology.
Consumer Health - Reach for a better life!
The Consumer Health division offers high-quality over-the-counter products to enhance the
quality of life of consumers all over the world. Our brands are available in many countries in
Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa.
Performance Materials – Experience Innovation
Merck’s Performance Materials division offers highly innovative materials, advanced
technologies, and high-tech chemicals to clients in the consumer electronics, lighting, printing,
plastics, and cosmetics industries. Our market leader products include liquid crystals for LCD
displays, new lighting technologies, and functional and effect pigments.
Merck Millipore - Advancing Life Science Together
Our Merck Millipore division offers solutions that enable scientists to conduct life science
research easily, efficiently and economically. With a range of more than 40,000 products, Merck
Millipore is one of the top three suppliers of tools to the life science industry. The division
comprises three business units: Bioscience, Lab Solutions and Process Solutions
16. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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2.4 MANAGEMENT:-
Merck is organized as a Corporation with general partners (Kommanditgesellschaft auf
Aktien - KGaA). At least one partner has unlimited liability for the company’s creditors
(general partner). The others (shareholders) hold an interest in the share capital without
any personal liability for the company’s debts. It is therefore a hybrid of an
Aktiengesellschaft (German Stock Corporation) and a Kommanditgesellschaft with a focus
on German stock corporation law.
These are the differences between a German corporation with general partners and a
German stock corporation:
The businesses must be run by personally liable partners
There is no Management Board
The rights and obligations of the Supervisory Board are limited.
Numerous resolutions made by the Annual General Meeting require the approval of
the general partners
Shareholders hold around 30% of the total capital of Merck KGaA, and the Merck family
owns an interest of around 70% via E. Merck KG the general partner.
2.5 ORGANISATIONAL STUCTURE OF THE COMPANY:-
17. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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2.6 CORPORATE STUCTURE OF MERCK:-
Merck is organized as a Corporation with general partners (Kommanditgesellschaft auf
Aktien - KGaA). At least one partner has unlimited liability for the company’s creditors
(general partner). The others (shareholders) hold an interest in the share capital without
any personal liability for the company’s debts. It is therefore a hybrid of an
Aktiengesellschaft (German Stock Corporation) and a Kommanditgesellschaft with a
focus on German stock corporation law.
These are the differences between a German corporation with general partners and a
German stock corporation:
The businesses must be run by personally liable partners
There is no Management Board
The rights and obligations of the Supervisory Board are limited.
Numerous resolutions made by the Annual General Meeting require the approval of the
general partners .Shareholders hold around 30% of the total capital of Merck KGaA, and
the Merck family owns an interest of around 70% via E. Merck KG the general partner.
18. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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2.7 IMPORTANT NOTES
Facts & Figures (MERCK INDIA)
Managing
Director
Mr. Anand Nambiar
Number of
employees
Nearly 1500 across the Corporate, Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals businesses along with the Goa plant
(as of June 2013)
Sales Rs. 6580.7 million (Jan-Dec 2012)
Major products –
Pharmaceuticals
Multi-vitamin products (Evion™, Neurobion, Polybion™), Cardio-vascular Care (Concor™), Metabolic
disorders (Carbophage™), Haematinics (Livogen®
) and Immuno-stimulator (ImmubronTM
, Pedimune TM )
Major products –
Consumer Health
Care
Nasivion ® , SevenSeas Original ® , Maxepa ® , Electrobion ® , and Evion Cream ® .
Major products –
Performance
Materials
We offer effect pigments for paint, plastics, printing and coatings industries as well as for cosmetic
applications and various active ingredients used in skin care and personal care products. We are a market
leader in functional and pearl lustre effect pigments
Research &
Development
Merck’s state-of-the-art Galenic and Analytical Development Laboratory in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra
enables it to react faster to market demands, have better quality control and ensure world-class
formulations by developing in-house various galenic forms like tablets, capsules, injections, syrups, dry
powders, creams, etc.
Corporate
Responsibility
One of the company’s key initiatives is the Merck India Charitable Trust Scholarship Programme, which
was established in 2005 to encourage talented under-privileged students in India to pursue higher
education. The objective of the programme is to prevent them from dropping out of academics due to lack
of resources, by sponsoring their key educational expenses for as long as they wish to study. Following a
contribution of INR 3 crores to the corpus, the Trust has financed the education of over 200 students since
its inception.
2.8 PRODUCTS:-
MERCK SERONO:-
19. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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MERCK MILLIPORE:-
CONSUMER HEALTH:-
20. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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PIGMENTS:-
2.9 MISSION STATEMENT, VALUES, STRATEGIES:-
"Our aspiration is to make great things happen." The first sentence of our Mission Statement
also applies to our values and shapes the way the company is managed. In order for the Mission
Statement to be reliably implemented, we have created globally consistent tools and control
systems. This enables us to actively shape our corporate culture and measure ourselves even
better against our own principles.
The corporate strategy is targeted to success, but equally respects the interests of employees,
customers, providers of capital, and society.
Our values and strategy give our employees clear orientation for their daily work.
21. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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2.10 SWOT ANALYSIS:-
SWOT Analysis
Strength
1. A strong brand name in the pharmaceutical industry
2. Huge product portfolio in pharmaceuticals
3. Provides medical help to underprivileged people in the US
4. Excellent R&D and innovations
5. Has its presence across Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin
America
7. Has a strong workforce of over 40,000 employees
8. Customer loyalty and brand visibility is a strength
Weakness
1. Problems of fake imitations affects the companies brand image
2. Hasn’t been able to aggressively enter emerging economies in
terms of brand recall, which are huge potential markets
Opportunity
1. Broad-based medical innovation, in technologies and
businesses across the spectrum of health care
2. Venture into health needs in under-developed and poor
countries
4. Leverage its core business expertise and resources to create
sustainable solutions in countries around the world.
Threats
1. Increasing obsolesce of technology
2. Competition from peers
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CHAPTER 3:-
PROFITABILITY
ANALYSIS OF MERCK
LIMITED FOR THE YEAR
2014 VS 2013
24. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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APPROACH
SCOPE:
1) The data and analysis are restricted to Chemicals business only. For Merck and Merck
Specialties data was fetched from SAP. This is product-, customer-, invoice- wise data. Millipore
Finance team provided the Millipore bills data.
2) All 3 legal entities have been considered, viz. Merck Limited, Merck Specialities (MSpl) and
Merck Millipore. But the analysis is presented division-wise.
3) 7 divisions under this have been studied namely:
a) BIOM: Bio-monitoring
b) BIOS: Bioscience
c) BPS: Bio-pharm Process Solutions
d) LE: Lab Essentials
e) LW: Lab Water
f) PCS: Processed Chemical Solutions
4) The divisions are grouped as:
a) MM Lab: BIOM, BIOS, LE, LW
b) GPP: BPS, PCS
5) Exports have been excluded from the data. [Identified as: Distribution Channel=13 , i.e. rows
where DC column has value 13 have been deleted]
6) Scrap Sales have been excluded from data. [Identified as: Distribution Channel=16 , i.e. rows
where DC column has value 16 have been deleted]
7) Items which are provided as Free Samples to the customers have also been excluded. [Identified
as: Item Category=ZCTA , i.e. rows where ‘Item Categ’ column has value ‘ZCTA’ have been
deleted]
8) Only the sales data from invoices has been used. Unabsorbed factory costs, write downs and
write-offs have not been considered therefore. Cost of service people (BPS, LW) has not been
considered [Identified as SBU= 652 for BPS and 647 for lab waters have been deleted].
9) In Millipore data, there were some records without any customer code. These were excluded
to avoid a blank customer from appearing.
25. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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ASSUMPTIONS:
1) Contribution Margin (CM) is a better measure of profitability and hence I am providing ranks to
customers on the basis of contribution margin (CM) rather than on Net Sales. This convention is
followed in the’ Top 50 customers’. This ensures that top customers with highest CMs are
included as they prove to be most profitable to the business. For ranks to products delivered to
customers I provided ranks on the basis of net sales because customers are already ranked on the
basis of contribution and further in our analysis we need to discover the products which are most
demanded by a particular customer
2) For products the number of codes is more than the number of product descriptions (names). I am
resolving this by assuming product code as its unique identifier.
3) There is no GSP and Excise column in Millipore data files. My mentor said that most products
there are traded items. So I am safely assuming Excise=0 for Millipore. Total List Price (TLP)
and Gross Sales Value (GSV) are the nearest equivalents of GSP concept. But sometimes
TLP>GSV and sometimes TLP<GSV, unlike GSP which is always higher than other quantities.
To determine which of the 2 to consider as GSP we did 2 tests:
a) Total TLP amount exceeds total GSV amount. So TLP is considered as GSP.
b) We calculated discounts, once considering TLP as GSP and then considering GSV as GSP.
GSV gave unreasonable values of discount like 5%, 2%, etc. whereas TLP gave realistic
values in most cases.
Thus I am assuming TLP to be the GSP equivalent for combining Merck and Millipore data.
26. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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CONVENTIONS:
1) Some Definitions:
a) Actual Contribution Margin /Contribution Margin/ Margin (abbr. as CM):
CM = Net Sales – Actual COGS
Actual COGS is ZMAP COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) column in data. This is the moving
average cost of the invoiced item and is usually revised quarterly (for all products). This
changes due to changing factory costs, fluctuating currencies, etc. Thus it reflects actual cost
and is different from budgeted cost.
b) Effective Discount / Eff. Discount :
Eff. Discount = GSP – (Net Sales + Excise)
Note that Excise is assumed 0 for Millipore.
GSP or the Gross Sale Price is set by the company once a year and hence can be manipulated
to control the discount percentage that appears to the customers. But customers are also aware
of this and consider previous GSP also while interpreting discounts. So there is only a limited
control which is further restricted by government pricing regulations for some products (e.g.
Vitamin E).
2) Some relevant columns that were added to data files are:
a) Entity: This column tells from which entity a particular record has come from. Required
because entities were merged as it was decided to go division-wise instead of entity-wise.
b) Division: This tells division to which the invoice belongs. This is obtained from the SBU
mapping file (SBU Masters 2013, 2014).
c) Customer Group: If a customer has been mapped to a group (either already or now by me),
then it shows the group name. I have grouped each customer by a unique customer name that
will identify all the customer codes and data handling becomes easy.
d) Ranks: This tells ranks of the customers on the basis of the contribution margin or cm zmap.
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EXPLANATIONS OF COLUMNS IN ANALYSIS TABLES:
a) ‘Top 50 Customers’ table :
The column headers for year 2013 and 2014 are as shown above. The top 50 customers are summarized at
2 stops: Top 25 and Top 50. Finally Grand Total row gives the summary figures for entire division.
The 7 columns for each year are explained as under:
1) Name: This identifies which customer we are talking about.
2) Actual CM: this shows actual contribution margin of the particular customer for the product
demanded.
3) Rank by Actual CM: Tells where the customer ranks according to his Contribution Margin
amount. These occur serially because customers have been sorted in descending order by CM
4) Net Sales: Shows the net sales amount provided by the customer to Merck.
5) Rank by Net Sales: Tells where the customer stands by his Net Sales amount. This is his sales
rank in the entire division under consideration.
6) Actual CM as % of cust. Net Sales: This gives customer’s contribution margin amount divided
by his net sales amount, expressed as a percentage. Thus it shows the really profitable
customers and identifies that which customers are to be focused on.
7) Eff. Discount as % of GSP: Gives customer’s effective discount amount divided by his GSP
amount, expressed as a percentage. Thus by multiplying this with column 9 (GSP) we get the
customer’s effective discount amount.
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b) Top 25 products for X Customer’ table:
The column headers for this table shown as above are explained under. Unless stated otherwise, the scope
of all the quantities does not go beyond the division in which this table appears:
1) Product Code: Code by which the product is identified uniquely
2) Product Description: Name of the product
3) CM: Contribution Margin provided by this product for this customer. Products are arranged in
descending order of this value.
4) Net Sales for this Customer: Net Sales provided by this product for this customer
5) Net Sales of Product across all Customers: Net Sales provided by this product across all
customers
6) This Customer’s share in Product’s total Net Sales: Column 5 divided by Column 6 expressed as
a percentage.
7) CM as % of Net Sales for this Customer: Column 4 divided by Column 5 expressed as a
percentage. This value is highlighted if it’s less than corresponding value in Column 10, telling
that it’s below average. (Highlighted cells denotes products which could be sold at a higher
margin but are sold below the standard margin derived in column 8- products total CM%),.
8) Product’ total CM as a % of its Net Sales across all Customers: This product’s total CM across all
the customers divided by this product’s total Net Sales across all the customers, expressed as a
percentage. This value serves as a reference point, as a kind of some average CM% against which
this product’s CM% can be evaluated for this customer.
9) Eff. Discount as % of GSP for this customer: This product’s effective discount amount for this
customer divided by this product’s GSP amount for this customer, expressed as a percentage.
This value is highlighted if it’s greater than corresponding value in Column 12, telling that it’s
above average (i.e. customer is getting higher discount than average)
*(All values are in 000’Rs)
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EXPERIENCE:
This is a collection of some things that can be improved.
First, in the raw data downloaded from SAP, many columns had cryptic names. BTyp, CM ZMAP,
ZMAP COGS, Product hi, etc. are some examples. It’s difficult to make sense of what they mean,
because ultimately one has to shortlist only those columns that are relevant for analysis. So there should
be some documentation explaining each column succinctly, the data type of the values contained in it,
the format and allowable length of value. Also relationship between certain columns must be clear. For
example: ‘CM ZMAP = Net Sale – ZMAP COGS in all cases’ is the rule connecting these 3 columns.
Knowledge of column’s data type will help to properly import the data in MS Excel. The relationships
will help in constructing derived columns properly.
Next, after creating some pivot tables, I observed that some fields gave division by 0 errors, or showed
unrealistic values. Only when I referred last year’s report I realized that some records such as those
pertaining to free samples or scrap sales were not to be included in the data on which pivot was
constructed. Free Samples were ones where ‘Item Categ’ column had value ZCTA, Scrap sales were ones
where ‘DC’ column had value 16. Now how could I possibly know that without knowing about these
columns which were seemingly irrelevant for a financial analysis! There should be description on the
format, type, number of values that a column can take. Probably there is such description but it is
distributed information, not available at one place. Crucial information about all the columns in a data
table (for e.g. the invoices data in SAP) should tag along with the table and should be easily accessible at
single place. This will allow to keep only the rows/records relevant for analysis.
When I preceded with making pivots for ranking the customers, some of the customers showed CM
percent of net sales= 100%. After I had a word with Mr. Amitabh Desai, I got to identify that there were
some SBU’s in Lab Waters (647) and Bio-Pharma Process Solutions (652) has to be deleted because they
denoted service costs and did not include any product cost
In some initial ‘Top customers’ tables which I prepared, I found some repeated names with minor
differences- like: ‘Bharat Science Apparatus’ appearing at say rank 5 and then ‘Bharat Science Apparatus
Workshops’ appearing at rank 17. These were in fact one and the same customer and so should be
considered together. If that was done then it jumped to rank 1 and some other customers could come in its
former positions. Now the real problem was how to find such names that corresponded to the same
customer and group them under one umbrella, identifying them uniquely. I found around 50 well
established customer names grouped in a readymade SBU master file, which helped to some extent. But
this file missed out customer codes for some of these 50 customers too (probably because those new
codes were added to system after this mapping file was last updated). Anyway it was not sufficient and I
added more groups to it as I discovered these while preparing data division by division. Without this I
couldn’t rank customers correctly.
It was a painful process as I had to individually check the customer group in each of the three entities and
manually add all the missing customer groups to the SBU master file. At the end the pivot table was free
of duplicate entries and each customer had single ranks not multiple ranks.
30. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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I feel the invoicing system itself should restrict the introduction of such duplicate names or names with
minor difference. For example, at the invoicing person’s end the system itself should search similar
names of existing customers and suggest them to him (guess-as you-type). So this person if he finds a
right guess would directly select the name suggested by the system, instead of making some
typographical error that could lead to unnecessary creation of a new customer by mistake. Any new
customer name should be kept in some temporary system and registered to main system only after
verifying that it’s indeed different from existing customers.
Initially, I was performing analysis entity-wise. As the data files were downloaded entity-wise, there
wasn’t much problem. But when it was decided to go division-wise instead of entity-wise, some problems
arose. This happened because it involved merging Millipore data which had mostly different set of
columns. So I merged Bill Number values in Millipore in Invoice No column of merged data, and so on.
But Millipore doesn’t have excise column whereas Merck does. Millipore has 2 columns: Total List Price
(TLP) and Gross Sales Value (GSV) that look similar to GSP column in Merck. So which one to consider
as GSP? Conceptually GSP is like MRP (in fact it’s even very close to MRP). So it’s like a limiting value
that sales price cannot exceed. This meant, TLP or GSV – whichever had greatest values – could be safely
assumed to be GSP equivalent. But sometimes TLP values exceeded GSV values and sometimes vice-
versa. Then as already stated we did 2 tests to decide upon the GSP equivalent column in Millipore, and
went ahead with TLP for the same. My guide, Mr. Amitabh Desai was saying that soon they would be
having a meeting in Bangalore regarding the integration of Millipore data in SAP. IT integration is
difficult because of its real-time, dynamic nature and because data mapping also involves conceptual
association. Business processes often differ between uniting organizations and their understanding is
required for a smooth integration. I believe this meeting would resolve the data compatibility issues and
bring more uniformity.
Without such hurdles, experience doesn’t become rich. But experience should help remove or work
around them.
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NOTE:-
The above were some of the examples of top customers. I made tables for top 25 companies for
the year 2014 and 2013 as well. Additionally the above report is for only one division which
depicted a jest of my work. I made 5 more similar reports. The reports were of:-
1. Lab essentials
2. Lab waters
3. Processed chemical solutions
4. Bio-science
5. Bio-monitoring
6. Bio-pharm process solutions
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CHAPTER 4:-
INVESTMENT ANALYSIS
FOR MERCK LIMITED
FOR THE YEAR 2014
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INVESTMENTS OF TOP COMPANIES IN 2014
The data was segregated into the following major heads:-
Equity
Liquid funds
Fixed term palns
Income funds
Bonds
FD’S
Government securities
** All the figures were taken from the company’s annual reports.
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
PERCENTAGEINVESTED-->
Companies -->
Equity %
(2015)
Liquid
Funds %
(2015)
FMP
(FTP) %
(2015)
Income %
(2015)
Bonds %
(2015)
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MERCK LIMITED INVESTMENTS 2007 VS 2014
COMPARISON OF INVESTMENTS
0 2,387 0 0 0 0
15,848
0 55
5,471
10,521
71,059
7,350
11,369
0
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
70,000
80,000
EQUITY LIQUID LIQUID
PLUS
FMP'S INCOME BONDS FD'S G-SEC
AMOUNT(INLAKHS)
INVESTMENT PLANS
AMT(2015)
AMT(2007)
0.0%
13.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
86.9%
% of 2015
EQUITY LIQUID LIQUID PLUS FMP'S
INCOME BONDS FD'S G-SEC
52. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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According to the research done, it can be seen that earlier Merck used to invest in various kinds
of investments such as liquid funds, liquid plus funds, bonds, fixed deposits etc. But now Merck
only invests in fixed deposits and mutual funds.
INVESTMENT SCENARIO 2014
Due to sub crisis 2008, most of the companies had lost their investments as well as
principal amounts. Now, rather than investing in risky investments, companies are
moving towards safer options.
As per the graphs and research done, we can see that most of the companies are investing
major part of profits into FD’s, Government securities, liquid investments as compared to
the year 2007.
A small portion or nil amounts is invested in equity and preference shares.
They have preferred to earn low amount of interest as they can choose one from risky
investments and safe investments.
Merck Limited has also shifted its focus from earning high interests by investing into
risky options to earning low amount of interest but reducing the risk of losing the
principal amount.
0.0% 0.16%
15.74%
30.26%
0.0%
21.14%
32.70%
0.0%
% of 2007
EQUITY LIQUID LIQUID PLUS FMP'S INCOME BONDS FD'S G-SEC
53. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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Due to guidelines of the Board of Directors of Merck Group, Merck Limited is not
allowed to invest in any kind of equity based schemes.
Merck only invests in highly liquid investments, government securities and fixed
deposits.
RETURNS AS A PERCENTAGE OF INVESTMENTS OF VARIOUS
COMPANIES
According to the calculations it is seen that Merck has a significant amount of returns even after
a large amount of restrictions on investments. Merck is managing to get 8.5% returns from only
2 types of investments that is fixed deposits and mutual funds which is much higher than other
companies.
9.3%
13.1%
8.4%
3.1%
5.3%
8.8% 8.9%
18.8%
7.4%
6.2%
8.5%
0.0%
2.0%
4.0%
6.0%
8.0%
10.0%
12.0%
14.0%
16.0%
18.0%
20.0%
RETURNSASA%AGEOFINVESTMENTS
COMPANIES
54. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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INTEREST INCOME OF MERCK LIMITED
MATURITY OF INVESTMENTS
It is clearly shown that most of the investments get matured in less than 15 days to this ensure
that the investments are highly liquid.
8.4%
6.64%
0.0%
2.0%
4.0%
6.0%
8.0%
10.0%
FIXED DEPOSITS MUTUAL FUND
RETURNONINVESTMENT
TYPES OF INVESTMENT
53%
6%
20%
2% 19%
less than 15
days
15-30 days
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5.1 PROJECT 1:- CONCLUSION AND ANALYSIS TO THE STUDY
LAB ESSENTIALS ANALYSIS
(COMPARING 2014 AND 2013)
Observations and Recommendations (Specific to the division):
1) Highly Profitable Companies:
Highly profitable customers are those who give a higher percentage of contribution to net sales.
The total contribution of Lab essentials business has grown from 34.5% of net sales in 2013 to
39.1% of net sales in 2014. The contribution of growth has come from many customers who gave
a higher CM% to net sales in 2014 and have been constantly growing.
Some of the customers who gave high CM% of net sales in both the years include:
Noble Enterprise
R & D chemicals
GB Chemicals Corporation
Jeyam Scientific co. (P) Ltd.
AIC (Associated Instruments and Chemicals)
Kasliwal Brothers
Modern Scientific Company
H Chandalal And Company
Vardhaman Instruments And Chemicals
Lab Supplies India Pvt Ltd.
Some customers that gave a higher CM% of net sales in year 2014 only includes:
Bharati Chemicals & Scientific Works
Coastal Enterprises
Sadhale Enterprises
The Precision Scientific Company
Arihant
Pharmaids and Equipments
Lab Technologies
Earth Chemical & Scientific Pvt Ltd
Sterling Chemie Pharma
Recommendations:
The above mentioned companies gave higher CM% of net sales in both the years or in 2014 but
are still not ranked well. If the sales are encouraged to these customers even after keeping the
CM% constant, company could get more profits. CM% is difficult to increase as the demand is
directly proportional to the discount percentage and indirectly proportional to selling price of the
57. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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products. To increase the net sales company needs to set up such discount policies that would
neither eat up margins nor sales.
2) High sales companies:
Some companies in this division give high amount of net sales but low contribution margin
percentage of net sales and vice a versa. K.Y. Enterprises, Teknirvana Trade links Pvt Ltd, Teva etc.
are those companies which have high net sales but are ranked below due to low contribution margins.
Recommendations:
For these customers total contribution to net sales should be increased either by reducing the effective
discount percentage given to customers or by reducing the COGS of the products.
3) General Observations:
These observations are for the top 50 customers.
Sr.No. Parameter Count
1 Number of common customers appearing in both years 44
2 Number of customers maintaining their rank (by CM) 5
3 Number of customers improving their rank (by CM) 23
4 Number of customers falling in rank (by CM) 24
5 Number of customers present in only one of the two years 0
Subra Scientific Company is the star performer rising by whopping 40 ranks (by CM) from 64 in
201 to 24 in 2014. Teva fell by 24 notches from 8 to 32.
Customers whose ranks are maintained are:
Bharat Science Apparatus Workshop at rank 1
Mehta Sales Corporation at Rank 2
Vasco Scientifics Private Limited at rank 3
GB chemicals Corporation at rank 37
It is good thing that a very high proportion of customers have repeatedly appeared in the top 50
(44 of 50, which is more than 88%). This regularity can help us to customize growth strategy
based on their demand patterns. Also top 3 companies have maintained their positions.
4) Impact of Effective Discount per GSP on Profitable Sales:
Discounts have a positive impact on Net sales till the time it helps stimulate the value by not
effecting the contribution margin. It is not useful to increase sales by reducing the desired profit
of the firm. For example, effective discount per GSP for The Precision Scientific Company and
Delta Chem. (more than 60%) is very high. This could be the reason that the contribution margin
is low and these companies are ranked low.
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5.2 PROJECT 2:- CONCLUSION TO THE STUDY
1. Merck Ltd. always has to consider that at least 30% of the surplus have to be invested in
Fixed Deposits (in 2014- investments in Fixed Deposits is almost 40%).
2. As compared to the market, Merck returns are in a much better situation (8.5%) as Merck
is not allowed to invest in any of the equity schemes which could yield a high return.
Merck is anyway investing in an appropriate manner and getting good amount of return
as compared to other companies who are investing in the same way.
3. Merck prefers to invest in highly liquid funds. We can see that 53% investments are
getting redeemed in less than 15 days.
4. Merck has earned an average of 8.35% on Fixed Deposits and 6.64% on mutual funds in
the year 2014 which is actually remarkable.
5. In future there is no chance for Merck investing in equity schemes or any other kind of
risky investments.
60. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
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6.1 PROJECT 1:-
This is a collection of some things that can be improved.
First, in the raw data downloaded from SAP, many columns had cryptic names. BTyp, CM ZMAP,
ZMAP COGS, Product hi, etc. are some examples. It’s difficult to make sense of what they mean,
because ultimately one has to shortlist only those columns that are relevant for analysis. So there should
be some documentation explaining each column succinctly, the data type of the values contained in it, the
format and allowable length of value. Also relationship between certain columns must be clear. For
example: ‘CM ZMAP = Net Sale – ZMAP COGS in all cases’ is the rule connecting these 3 columns.
Knowledge of column’s data type will help to properly import the data in MS Excel. The relationships
will help in constructing derived columns properly.
Next, after creating some pivot tables, I observed that some fields gave division by 0 errors, or showed
unrealistic values. Only when I referred last year’s report I realized that some records such as those
pertaining to free samples or scrap sales were not to be included in the data on which pivot was
constructed. Free Samples were ones where ‘Item Categ’ column had value ZCTA, Scrap sales were ones
where ‘DC’ column had value 16. Now how could I possibly know that without knowing about these
columns which were seemingly irrelevant for a financial analysis! There should be description on the
format, type, number of values that a column can take. Probably there is such description but it is
distributed information, not available at one place. Crucial information about all the columns in a data
table (for e.g. the invoices data in SAP) should tag along with the table and should be easily accessible at
single place. This will allow to keep only the rows/records relevant for analysis.
When I preceded with making pivots for ranking the customers, some of the customers showed CM
percent of net sales= 100%. After I had a word with Mr. Amitabh Desai, I got to identify that there were
some SBU’s in Lab Waters (647) and Bio-Pharma Process Solutions (652) has to be deleted because they
denoted service costs and did not include any product cost
In some initial ‘Top customers’ tables which I prepared, I found some repeated names with minor
differences- like: ‘Bharat Science Apparatus’ appearing at say rank 5 and then ‘Bharat Science Apparatus
Workshops’ appearing at rank 17. These were in fact one and the same customer and so should be
considered together. If that was done then it jumped to rank 1 and some other customers could come in its
former positions. Now the real problem was how to find such names that corresponded to the same
customer and group them under one umbrella, identifying them uniquely. I found around 50 well
established customer names grouped in a readymade SBU master file, which helped to some extent. But
this file missed out customer codes for some of these 50 customers too (probably because those new
codes were added to system after this mapping file was last updated). Anyway it was not sufficient and I
added more groups to it as I discovered these while preparing data division by division. Without this I
couldn’t rank customers correctly.
It was a painful process as I had to individually check the customer group in each of the three entities and
manually add all the missing customer groups to the SBU master file. At the end the pivot table was free
of duplicate entries and each customer had single ranks not multiple ranks.
I feel the invoicing system itself should restrict the introduction of such duplicate names or names with
minor difference. For example, at the invoicing person’s end the system itself should search similar
names of existing customers and suggest them to him (guess-as you-type). So this person if he finds a
right guess would directly select the name suggested by the system, instead of making some
typographical error that could lead to unnecessary creation of a new customer by mistake. Any new
customer name should be kept in some temporary system and registered to main system only after
verifying that it’s indeed different from existing customers.
61. MERCK LIMITED ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL
61
Initially, I was performing analysis entity-wise. As the data files were downloaded entity-wise, there
wasn’t much problem. But when it was decided to go division-wise instead of entity-wise, some problems
arose. This happened because it involved merging Millipore data which had mostly different set of
columns. So I merged Bill Number values in Millipore in Invoice No column of merged data, and so on.
But Millipore doesn’t have excise column whereas Merck does. Millipore has 2 columns: Total List Price
(TLP) and Gross Sales Value (GSV) that look similar to GSP column in Merck. So which one to consider
as GSP? Conceptually GSP is like MRP (in fact it’s even very close to MRP). So it’s like a limiting value
that sales price cannot exceed. This meant, TLP or GSV – whichever had greatest values – could be safely
assumed to be GSP equivalent. But sometimes TLP values exceeded GSV values and sometimes vice-
versa. Then as already stated we did 2 tests to decide upon the GSP equivalent column in Millipore, and
went ahead with TLP for the same. My guide, Mr. Amitabh Desai was saying that soon they would be
having a meeting in Bangalore regarding the integration of Millipore data in SAP. IT integration is
difficult because of its real-time, dynamic nature and because data mapping also involves conceptual
association. Business processes often differ between uniting organizations and their understanding is
required for a smooth integration. I believe this meeting would resolve the data compatibility issues and
bring more uniformity.
PROJECT 2:-
The company should explore more investment options
A little part could also be invested in equity and equity related schemes.
Highly liquid funds could also give a significant amount of returns.