FORE School of Management

Make My Trip ( An Analysis )

Under the Guidance of Prof. Sanghamitra Buddhapriya Submitted by- Group 1

Anshuman Mishra (201019) Megha Agrawal (201075) Raashi Sodhi (201112) Neha Goyal (053026) Shikha Chaudhry (201153) Julie Noyar (FY 1208)

Acknowledgement

We thank Prof. Sanghamitra Buddhapriya for her timely suggestions and guidance in the process of making of this project. His suggestions, guidance and feedback throughout the report were very valuable and helped us in giving a direction to our report. His teachings in the classroom were extremely valuable and generated the interest of the group towards the subject and towards the making of the report. We also thank her for clearing our doubts and giving us clarity of concepts and develop the right approach towards the project. We would also like to acknowledge each other for the coordination because of which this project has been a learning experience.

Group 1 SHRM , 2012 - 2013 FORE School of Management New Delhi

Table of Contents
Acknowledgement ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Chapter 1....................................................................................................................................................... 4 Business environment of Industry and organization. .......................................................................... 4 Chapter 2....................................................................................................................................................... 8 Business strategy and its analysis. ........................................................................................................ 8 Chapter 3..................................................................................................................................................... 10 RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION .......................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 4..................................................................................................................................................... 19 Congruence between Business Strategy and HR Practices ................................................................. 19 Chapter 5..................................................................................................................................................... 20 Final Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 20 References ................................................................................................................................................... 22

Chapter 1
Business environment of Industry and organization.

The Tourism Market in India Tourism in India is the largest service industry, with a contribution of 6.23% to the national GDP and 8.78% of the total employment in India. In 2010, total Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTA) in India were 5.78 million and India generated about 200 billion US dollars in 2008 and that is expected to increase to US$375.5 billion by 2018 at a 9.4% annual growth rate. According to the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009 brought out by World Economic Forum, India is ranked 11th in the Asia- Pacific region and 62nd overall in a list of 133 assessed countries in 2008. In terms of travel, India stands 9th in the index of relative cost of access (ticket taxes and airport charges) to international air transport services, having almost the lowest costs in the world. The contribution of travel and tourism to gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to be at 6.0 per cent (US$ 67.3 billion) in 2009 rising to US$ 187.3 billion by 2019. The ministry is planning to develop three niche products wellness tourism, caravan tourism and helipad tourism this year. According to the Tourism Ministry of India, foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) during June 2009 were 341,000 as compared to FTAs of 340,000 during the month of June 2008. There has been an improvement in the growth rate of FTAs in June 2009 (+0.2 per cent) as compared to May 2009 (-1.9 per cent), in fact, a positive growth has been witnessed for the first time in 2009. India represents one of the most potential tourism markets in the world. Tourism today is the most vibrant tertiary activity and a multi-billion industry in India.

Some figures and trends The Aviation industry in India is booming after the privatization. The latest trend being privatization of airports. Here is a statistic of Domestic Air Travel in India :

Image is sourced from - Infographics: The rising Indian economy

MakeMyTrip Overview MakeMyTrip Limited is an Indian leading online travel agency. The company was founded by Deep Kalra in April, 2000, with its prime focus the US-India travel market. It swiftly became the favored choice for organizing both business and leisure trips to India, providing its customers with efficient and reliable travel services while offering the best deals and the most innovative products in the industry. Today, MakeMyTrip.com is a multi-award winning company that has achieved total market dominance, and is the No.1 Online Travel Agency in India. Your trusted Travel Specialist, MakeMyTrip.com offers you a broad range of best-value

international/domestic holidays and tours, along with a variety of other travel services and products that are designed to satisfy the most varied of tastes, desires and requirements. With the foresight to seize the opportunities in the domestic travel market, brought on by a slew of new airlines, MakeMyTrip offered travellers the convenience of online travel bookings at rock-bottom prices. Rapidly, MakeMyTrip became the preferred choice of millions of travellers who were delighted to be empowered by a few mouse clicks. MakeMyTrips rise has been led by the vision and the spirit of each one of its employees, for whom no idea was too big and no problem too difficult. With untiring innovation and
5

determination, MakeMyTrip proactively began to diversify its product offering, adding a variety of online and offline products and services. MakeMyTrip also stayed ahead of the curve by continually evolving its technology to meet the ever changing demands of the rapidly developing global travel market. Steadily establishing itself across India and the world, MakeMyTrip simultaneously nurtured the growth of its offline businesses like its franchises and affiliates simultaneously, augmenting the brands already strong retail presence further. MakeMyTrips Products: International and Domestic Air Tickets, Holiday Packages and Hotels Domestic Bus and Rail Tickets Private Car and Taxi Rentals MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions) B2B and Affiliate Services

MakeMyTrips Market Share: MakeMyTrip is the undisputed online leader, with its share of the travel market extending to more than 48% of all online sales.

PEST Analysis Political

The system in India is quite stable and the country encourages foreign investment. On the other side, terrorism is a pertinent issue (ej: Mumbai Terrorist Attacks).
6

Economic

On the one hand, there is a projection for GDP growth at a change of 6.9 %. But on the other hand, recession has affected inbound travel. Social

Nowadays, people use more than ever internet to book their trips Online. Interfaces are design in such a way people could use easily to organize their trip. But they still should believe in these online portals. Technological

Internet has a penetration of 10.2 %. The evolution of all the technologies induces people to use for anything and everything. But there is a lack of knowledge among the users. Internet allows increasing the rapidity with which transaction can be done. We have also to take into account the safety of the transaction and the assurance that the trip is being rightly booked. Indeed, some people still not trust in these technologies, and prefer to use conventional agencies.

Chapter 2
Business strategy and its analysis.

MMTs business model is a simple B2C model. The customer could use either MMT website or its call centre to book air tickets, hotel rooms, and travel packages. There were three enabling components: technology, people and process, and supplier relations. MMT had already developed proprietary technology which would help it link all supplier sites to check the inventory and compare prices. In fact, the search engine the company had developed would enable it to offer the lowest possible price to the customer. The booking engine would also enable customers to customize the booking of their flight and hotel packages to maximize savings. Being a travel commerce website, the company believed that its own products would generate adequate revenue to successfully run the business model without depending on revenue generated from selling advertisement space on the website. The company believed that placing of advertisements on the website might distract or divert visitors from their main objective of searching or booking travel products on MMTs website. The other key component of the business strategy would be employees having domain-specific skills in order to help MMT develop and offer suitable products and services for the travel consumer. According to Deep Kalra, Founder & CEO, Make My Trip,The focus of MMT is to move beyond customer satisfaction and move towards customer delight. He further says that MMT maintains its competitive edge in the market by being ahead on the technology curve. Also, its the experience provided to the customers that matter the most since the products and the technology cab be replicated by the competitors. In todays world, the travellers can get the lowest fares on the airlines site itself. However, Make My Trip makes this easier by listing down all available options at a glance. The customer thus, saves a lot of time. Make My Trip also ensures that its suppliers business is profitable because it works in an industry that is capex hungry for suppliers and they play a major role in the business model. MMTs focus is not just to provide cheap tickets but to deliver an experience for the customers.
8

Its advertising strategy plays a major role in capturing the mind-share of the customers. Make My Trip has advertisements in the form of TV, Print, Internet and Outdoor.

Chapter 3
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

As per Mr.RohitHasteer(Head HR, MMT), the recruitment process followed by MakeMyTrip is very selective and intricate as its a niche sector. There is a very high set bar of requirements that the applicants have to qualify. The company looks out for smart people in selected college campuses and also from high performers in travel sector. In fact over 25% of MMTs recruitment is from various campuses. From what sources does MMT reach out to candidates:1.

Its own site where it posts career opportunities both location wise and department wise.

The above figure is a screenshot of a job opportunity in Kolkata at makemytrip.com. This opening is posted on its own official websites.

10

2.

Other than its own site, MMT also posts its openings at a number of other job portals and

groups on internet. The above is the screen shot of a number of postings on shine.com. Apart from this MMT openings can be found on almost all job portals on internet.
3.

Apart from these postings, makemytrip also reaches out to fresh graduates directly through campus placements at both graduate and post graduate level. However, from the information available on internet, one can presume that it visits only premier institutes for campus selection.

4.

MMT talent hunters search proactively for qualified candidates. They actively use internal employee referrals and internal movements to fill a number positions.

Selection Process: Thereis no set single pattern of selection process for all the jobs. However, few examples of selection processes for different jobs are listed below: 1. Software Developer at MakeMyTrip
11

Interview in Pune (India) Nov 2012 Negotiation Details They paid what was asked for. So no negotiation takes place. Process i. Interviews 2 written [Java + aptitude[ English + quantitative + verbal + non-verbal reasoning ] ] + 2 technical interviews + 1 HR ii. Tests - Skills Test + IQ/Intelligence Test iii. Other - Background Check

2. Senior Executive Human Resources at MakeMyTrip Interview in Mumbai (India) Mar 2012 Other Details - Applied online and the process took 4+ weeks. i. Interviews- Interview Details Called for initial rounds of 2 F2F interviews including written Technical and Aptitude test, and a Video conferencing round with HR Head of MMT,1 F2F interview with Talent Acquisition head MMT,and a Telephonic technical interview,with Salary discussions, and joining formalities, documents required description provided through phone and email chains. Phone Interview Face to face Interview ii. Tests Skills Test Personality Test IQ/Intelligence Test iii. Other Background Check 3. Senior Software Developer at MakeMyTrip Interview in Gurgaon, Haryana (India) Nov 2011 Negotiation Details The organization paid well enough that there was no need to negotiate. Process:
12

i. Interview Round One (Written): Data Interpretation + Mathematics + English (Grammar and Passages) Round Two (Written): Technical (Java + Database) Mostly Core Java...lesser Client- Server Round Three (F2F): Technical Round, asked most of the questions on Data Structures and Threads. Round Four (F2F): Technical Round, asked most of the questions on Database Performance Tuning, Thread Dump Analysis, Importance of Logs in an application and Concepts of Multithreading. Round Five (F2F): HR It was simple salary discussion round ii. Tests IQ/Intelligence Test iii. Other Background Check Source- http://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/MakeMyTrip-Interview-QuestionsE354629.htm And many more such examples can be found. An observation to be made is that most of the interviewees have rated the selection process from average to difficult level which may be attributed to MMTs inclination towards choosing the right candidate at the first go only. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT MMTs motto is We Teach, We Learn, We Grow!. With this as a background, it lays a great focus on training and development initiatives. The training procedure for the new recruits is very detailed and intense and it extends over a period of 2 months. MMT believes in staying the best in the industry through continuously staying ahead and going an extra mile.This is achieved by undertaking a number of initiatives to enhance the skills of employees through various trainings and workshops across disciplines. Some of the key initiatives are:

13

Grow Leaders Program Classroom Sessions Experiential Learning Offsites Self Initiated Learning Sessions Leadership Connect Sessions with eminent personalities across walks of life Study Program with A-Listed B-Schools across the country

Source- http://careers.makemytrip.com/development.php A specific example of building mid-level talent pipeline can be taken to understand MMTs T&D philosophy. Make My Trip has implemented a strategic initiative in this regards called as the Talking Talent Process. The term Talking Talent refers to the essence of demonstrated talent identification and development. The process is transparent, well integrated to the business context of MakemyTrip and dynamic. The purpose of the Talking Talent process is to have: A diverse supply of talented leaders ready, willing and able to take on new and different challenges A common framework to differentiate performance and the predictive indicators of future potential A talent pipeline which is full and flowing No delay in project delivery or losing business opportunities due to critical positions being vacant To achieve the above objectives the Talking Talent process is divided into: Strategic alignment Developing a competency framework Talent assessment 360 degree assessment is done for all employees at manager and above level to identify competencies and learning agility which is a predictor of potential. Talking Talent session- The appraisal discussion also known as the talking talent session at Make My Trip and involves a series of exhaustive discussion amongst all

14

the Leadership Team members and an external consultant about each candidate on performance and potential. Creation of Individual Development Plans Special assignments - Each assignment at MakemyTrip is so designed that it focuses on certain developmental needs (competency, learning agility or career stallers and stoppers). Coaching sessions - The coaching sessions give insights to the employees about their strengths and weaknesses and how to develop the same. Training Interventions

Source- Jenny Benoy, Ms.ApekshaPoojary, The Strategic Development of Mid-Level Talent (A Project on MakemyTrip.com), 2012 PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT Personnel management refers to obtaining, using and sustaining a satisfied workforce. Makemytrips ways of sourcing candidates and developing them has already been discussed in previous sections. Therefore, in this section, the focus will be on how MMT manages to maintain a motivated and satisfied workforce. There are a number of perks with the hidden motive to bring balance into the employees life. MMT tries to ensure that when their Trippers are at work, they work with full heart and mind, and after the work they are expected to live their own life. Benefits like casual dressing, daily catered lunch, and free air conditioned cabs; work from home and many such other things are aimed to enhance the employees life. All the teams enjoy a variety of benefits including: Top-of-the-line technology Owning a share of Make My Trip Work from home flexibility Comprehensive benefits to meet life needs like Transport, Healthy Meals, Fitness Program Holistic Development Team trips, company retreats, and Happy Hours!
15

Source- http://careers.makemytrip.com/lifeatmmt.php Apart from the above mentioned features other few activities that characterize life at makemytrip.com include: fun@work- theme days, rock bands, TT tournaments corporate social responsibility- sponsoring a green patch, carbon footprint offset, tree plantation mentoring kids- Udyan care employee welfare initiatives- doctor visits, eye camps

source-Source - http://www.makemytrip.com/about-us/life@mmt.php An internal survey was conducted on few existing employees and new hires from top technology and business management institutes like IIM, ISB, IIT. These associates had offers from various other multi-national organizations but accepted MakeMyTrip offers. Few of the insights that were received from MMT employees on what makes it a great place to work, included: their role and the empowerment they get, career growth, compensation, recognition, accessibility and openness of senior team members, pride in being a part of the Online Travel Agency industry leader, having colleagues as friends, aggressive team members with a passion to win and a fun@work culture. Source- http://peoplematters.in/articles/cover-story/2-make-my-trip-having-fun-work

Performance Appraisal & Compensation

Make my trip ensures that a keen eye of observation for Performance Appraisal in the organization. The entire focus is not only on the performance of the employee but greatly on his potential and inherent talent. Make my trip believes in the learning ability of the employees. Performance is a great function of circumstances and situations. But the ability for learning can be exhibited anywhere and that is the right judge of the persons potential and performance
16

capabilities. One should be flexible and able to adapt as per the situation; one should be capable of working in conditions of change and of handling different types of people says MrHasteer, Head of Performance appraisal at MMT. One typical question he asks is, Does the person know what to do when he has not been told what to do?

At Make my Trip, Not only do they align their HR policy to the overall business strategy of the company, they also increase employee commitment and capability by their performance management, potential assessment, competency enhancement, programmes as well as career planning. Building trust is very important, therefore there is complete transparency and fairness in rewards, promotions and hiring. Their performance incentives are part of Best HR practices across industries. Employees get ESOPs and can calculate their own bonuses, which are linked to performance. They also believe in creating a family atmosphere in the workplace to create friendly sociable workers. Offsites are common, birthdays and festivals are celebrated in-house. There is a feedback mechanism for all HR practices and communication is encouraged.

Our bonus variable plans are designed in a way that it is directly co-related to the unit as well as the companys performance. Employees who exhibit strong team working spirit are rewarded. Our appraisal mechanism gives equal weightage to values and KRAs as well as contribution towards the collective goal of the group.

At Make my Trip, HR is the anchor that keeps the business and its people aligned towards one common goal. HR with the help of management objectively defines the business goals for the organization and also runs the reward strategies to drive the same. HR plays a role in ensuring goals are ambitious yet achievable, and also ensures that the people are well equipped to be able to deliver on these goals. This also means they ensure that the talent acquisition and training and development are in sync with the business goals. HRs dual role of being a support function and a business partner, it is imperative that HR involves itself in critical business decisions and therefore in the organizational goal setting process.
17

Take the HallaBol award, for example. Its a coveted recognition, given out monthly to sales executives with the highest sales for the month or for non-sales staff who have made a significant contribution to the organisation in their function. Apart from a big round of applause when the award is announced at the employees deskthe winner takes home cash rewards, a flag and some stars to brand their work stations. The HallaBol scheme is well-plannedabout 10 per cent of employees in the companys different operational regions like North, South, East, West and Gujarat get rewarded. More than the company-wide communication, the physical branding of being awarded has played a big part in making this an award employees aspire for.Theres an entire galaxy of rewards to choose from including the Star Performer, Star Extraordinaire and Star Leader which are all given out during the bi-annual town hall meetingsattended by everybody from the CEO to the support staff.

Setting a high-performance, high-reward culture can lead to the proverbial corporate dog-eat-dog world. To ensure the race to achieve sales revenue and bring more business in doesnt come at the cost of compromising the companys values, MakeMyTrip has also introduced schemes that reward employees who demonstrate company values in their daily work. Our recognition policies help maintain a healthy atmosphere in the competitive corporate environment reinstating a feel good, am-part-of-it factor, says founder and CEO Deep Kalra. Clearly, MakeMyTrip has worked out a formula where everybody winsand that too, all the time!

18

Chapter 4
Congruence between Business Strategy and HR Practices

Make my trip has a primary focus on creating a niche for itself offering customer delight. It intends to become a one stop solution for trip bookings through provision of registration through railways, airlines, roadways, etc. Thus, it has to take care of building customer delight offering the best and the quickest services to its customers. To be the best in the industry, it has to focus upon offering the best HR practices in the domain. To begin with, the team hires people with unique bent of mind with creative ideas and great talent at implement the strategic goals and objectives. For training and development, programs like Grow Leaders Program, Classroom Sessions, Experiential Learning Offsite, Self Initiated Learning Sessions offer the employees to renew their skills and competencies.

The having fun at work philosophy of Make My Trip focuses upon the employees having a good time while working making them become more loyal and productive than ever before. All the best practices followed in the workplace, i.e. a friendly culture, a flat organization, informal processes, Open Door Policy and hiring the right people. The team has successfully managed the expansion of MakeMyTrip where the company has grown to thrice its size in three years. Also the entire focus is not only on the performance of the employee but greatly on his potential and inherent talent. One typical question he asks is, Does the person know what to do when he has not been told what to do? This is the kind of initiative that he looks for.

19

Chapter 5
Final Analysis

As MMT has established itself as the market leaders, it is imperative for them to leverage their position as an Employer of Choice and also offer people plethora of growth opportunities. Therefore managing talent is a prime focus which ensures that people development strategy and HR processes are in line with organizational needs. As a part of the initiative, MMT has encouraged identifying the first batch of leaders who will undergo a critical talent development initiatives. Hiring the right people for the right job remains another area of focus. Their focus is to hire for people with a constant adrenaline rush that keeps them going tirelessly at all times to deliver their best and also challenge themselves each time with a bigger goal. MMT seeks the best-inclass talent from the market to ensure that the quality of products and deliveries is world class. Therefore MMT is conscious to hire only those who fit the MakeMyTrip culture and values to 100%.

The last crucial priority is building a great workplace.

MMT strongly believes in giving

employees great learning, a career path, and a fun environment. For MMT Fun@Work is not a jargon, but a value that is imbibed which defines the true spirit the organization. The nature of the online travel industry is such that it is highly dynamic. New developments and changes in the dynamic online industry make it important that people are agile to change with the happening around them. Constant learning and upgrading of knowledge is essential to maintain a competitive edge. This poses a challenge for HR to ensure that people remain motivated to actively engage themselves in constant knowledge up gradation. Hence there is an imperative to focus on people and ensure they are given plenty of growth and learning opportunities. Another concern is that being a growing company, people have their hands full and are constantly multi-tasking which makes it difficult to pay much attention on investing in knowledge enriching activities which do not provide instant visible gains. Thus there is a challenge to motivate them to upgrade their existing knowledge base. Further, its nascent nature
20

also makes nurturing of talent important because the required talent is not readily available in the market. HRs biggest responsibility at MMT remains to ensure a balance between business goals and people-centricity in all company policies. To keep the uniqueness and essence of MakeMyTrip, the HR team ensures that they offer the employees a culture of freedom, empowerment and excitement. Special care is taken to keep employees engaged and motivated despite the hectic work schedule. This ensures that each morning the employee looks forward to reach office and start a new day. All three HR functions - recruitment, operations and organization development work in tandem to ensure that employees are kept happy and engaged at the workplace. The HR department is highly responsive and follows the philosophy of happy employees make happy customers. The SPOC (single-point-of-contact) model is followed in the organization, wherein at least one HR person sits at every floor. This ensures that the employees always have someone within their reach to put forward their queries to and get an instant direction/ resolution.

21

References

http://careers.makemytrip.com/lifeatmmt.php ( accessed on 25 November, 2012 )

http://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/MakeMyTrip-Interview-Questions-E354629.htm (

accessed on 25 November, 2012 )

http://careers.makemytrip.com/development.php ( accessed on 25 November, 2012 )

http://www.makemytrip.com/about-us/life@mmt.php ( accessed on 25 November, 2012 )

http://peoplematters.in/articles/cover-story/2-make-my-trip-having-fun-work ( accessed on 25

November, 2012 )

22