Case Study 1

The Lexmark is a leading printing and imaging solution provider. Lexmark sells its products to
customers in over 150 countries around the world. Lexmark caters to both business and
consumer segments through products which are specially designed for both home and office.
Lexmark sells dot matrix, Inkjet and Laser printers and other related printer supplies such as ink
cartridges and toners. Lexmark is the third largest manufacturer of inkjet printers and fifth largest
manufacturer of laser printers in the world. In the recent years, there has been a significant
growth in the laser printer market. Lexmark has comparatively low presence in the Laser printing
market.
Lexmark's product portfolio consists of single function printers, photo printers and all-in-one
printers. Though Lexmark's portfolio is not as comprehensive as HP, its printers have attractive
features and are priced lower than that of the competitors.
Through research and development (R&D), Lexmark continuously develops new printer
technologies and improves existing technologies. R&D focuses on continuously increasing
product performance, ease of use and at the same time lowering the production cost. Lexmark
has seven R&D centres around the world and holds over 4000 patents in countries all over the
world. Lexmark's R&D efforts are aimed at developing Laser printer technologies, wireless
printers and multifunction printers.
In the recent years, the revenue and the operating income of Lexmark has significantly decreased
whereas that of the competitors such as HP and Canon has increased. The printer market is very
competitive. Lexmark competes with large competitors such as HP, Canon and Epson who
together with Lexmark caters to 80% of the global printer market. Further, convergence in copier
and printer technologies has brought in a number of new players into the printer market. This
includes companies such as Xerox and Ricoh who were previously copier companies. Around
80% of Lexmark's revenue is from mature markets such as US and EMEA. Although Lexmark
has presence in the fast growing markets, it has comparatively a very low market share of these
markets.
Growth in re-manufacturers of after-market supplies which includes ink cartridges and toners has
created more competition. These manufacturers purchase empty cartridges and toners from the
users and, refill and sell them for a lower price than that of the original cartridge manufactures.
This has reduced the sales of Lexmarks cartridges and toners.
Today, due to the increased use of mobile products such as laptops and other handheld
computing devices, there is a growing demand for wireless networks and related peripherals
including wireless printers. A wireless network enables wireless access to Internet, printing
devices and provides connectivity for other wireless devices. Wireless networks are gradually
becoming more popular in home and offices. Further, web printing is another important feature
which is becoming popular in printers. Printing websites is not an easy task because printing a
web page normally prints unnecessary and lengthy advertisements in the webpage. This has
created requirements for facilities that can print only texts on the web page.

Questions:
1. Conduct a SWOT analysis for use in the marketing planning process
2. What marketing objectives should be set by Lexmark and what strategies should it use to
achieve them?
internal

Strengths
Weaknesses
-Solid
Managed
Services
Service Delivery Infrastructure -Contributions from Emerging Economies
lagging behind competition
-Compelling Value Proposition
and Execution Successes for -Weak Channels - Unable to execute
Distribution Fleet Management Service Business within expectations
-Robust A4 Line-up
-Lack of Replacement Strategy after
-R&D focuses on continuously exiting the inkjet business
increasing product performance

external

Opportunities
Threats
Firm Global Major Accounts -Acquisition Targets
Base in North America & AP
-competitors such as HP and Canon has
increased
-Strengths in Latin America
-Sound value proposition from
Distributed Fleet Management
- A wireless network enables
wireless access to Internet,
printing devices and provides
connectivity for other wireless
devices

2The criteria of marketing objectives are as the following

Specific

Produce Anew wireless network enables

wireless access to Internet

Measurable

by increasing quantities & qualities

Achievable

increase the resource of R&D to produce the

products

Relevant

it meets the need of consumer behavior

Time-bound

next year 2015

Case Study 2
SUBJECT: MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES FOR LOGISTICIANS
The Marketing manager of AMK Enterprises, Roopali Deshmukh (Deshmukh) stepped out of the
conference hall in a pensive mood after an important meeting called by the CEO. The meeting
was attended by the heads of various departments in the company and was convened to discuss
the targets for the coming assessment year. Deshmukh had a formidable sales target to achieve
and wondered how she would be able to meet those seemingly impossible goals. This fear was
further aggravated by the fact that the productivity levels of employees in the company had been
falling. Deshmukh was under tremendous pressure from the management to improve the
performance of her team. She also had to deal with the decreasing levels of employees morale in
her 24-member team. As a first step, Deshmukh informed her team members about a meeting
that she planned to hold the next day. She then drafted a plan of action that she intended to
discuss with her team.
The next day, Deshmukh began the meeting by informing her team members about the corporate
meeting she had attended. She then said, We have a difficult task ahead for this year, and your
participation and involvement is essential to achieve the goals. She then invited suggestions
from her team members regarding the role to be played by each of them. The meeting then
progressed on to setting of individual targets for by each team member as, it was felt that this
would help in accomplishing the organizational goals. Specific goals were, therefore, set and
agreed upon by all the team members. The team aimed to increase the organizational profits by

18% over the next six months. They sketched out a plan of action to achieve the targets set for
the team and decided that they would meet once every two months to monitor their progress.
Two months later, the team met again and received their progress. Deshmukh also gave a
feedback on the performance of every member of the team. The team then collectively identified
the areas of improvement and decided upon the measures they would take to overcome their
deficiencies. This continued for the rest of the year. The final review meeting was held just
before the yearly corporate meeting attended by the top management. The team was surprised to
see that they had achieved their targets.
Thus, effective planning and control mechanisms helped the team achieve their short term goals,
and this in turn, helped in the achievement of the organizational objectives. Besides, the
employees were also motivated as the management gave adequate recognition to their
involvement and participation in achieving team goals. The target to be achieved by the team
was highly challenging. This further motivated the team members as they had better
opportunities to prove their problems solving skills. Thus, the outstanding performance of the
sales team helped the organization achieve in the long term.
Questions for Discussions:
1. Roopali Deshmukh followed the practice of management by objectives (MBO) while setting
goals for team members. Discuss the various phases of the MBO process that helped her team
achieve its goals.

Roopali Deshmukh implemented the MBO process as an intervention to improve the

productivity of her sales team. She successfully implemented the process by following a
sequence of effective planning, control and development. The following are the various phases
of the MBO process that led to its success: The MBO program was initiated by the top
management which set the overall organizational goals and communicated them to the people
down the hierarchy. However, the management did not interfere much with the means of
achieving the objectives. In other words, it gave adequate autonomy to its employees to
implement the progress. Deshmukh then drafted a plan of action to achieve the targets decided
by the management for the year. She invited employee participation in various aspects of
implementation of the program. She encouraged her team members to decide the role each one
would play in role to achieve the teams target. She sought their suggestions to play in order to
achieve the team targets that each individual would achieve. These short term targets were in line
with the teams long term goals and objectives. Deshmukh also set specific time frames specific
time frames for the accomplishments of the targets. Thus the goals were not only specific but
also time bound. Deshmukh closely monitored the performance of all the team members without
actually interfering in their job. She also offered positive feedback to her subordinates and this
helped them overcome their shortcomings and perform effectively.
Thus the MBO program implemented in the sales team proved to be beneficial to both the
employees and the management

2. Explain briefly the process of MBO and the various advantages of implementing MBO in
organizations.
2. Explain briefly the process of MBO and the various advantages of implementing MBO in
organizations.

ANSWER:
Management by objectives is a goal-setting tool where goals are set by employees in
collaboration with the management. The aim of management by objectives is the achievement of
organizational goals. MBO involves setting up short-term goals for employees in line with the
long term objectives of the organization. MBO is thus an effective tool for planning, control nad
development.
Most organizations use MBO as a control mechanism to ensure that there is no deviation
between employee performance and organizational objectives. Organizations also use MBO as a
performance measurement tool. Since MBO is a bottom-up approach, the organization gains
from the participation of employees in the establishment and achievement of employee goals.
Since individual goals are set collaboratively by employees and employers and are closely linked
to the organizations mission and objectives, achievement of individual goals results in
accomplishment of organizations objectives. Thus an effective MBO program not only motivate