SAS REAL ESTATE: TO FIRE OR NOT TO FIRE

WAC CASE STUDY

Group-10, SECTION F:
Balla Vamshi Krishna
Pranjal Gupta
Pentapaty Monica
Gopika Jhunjunwala
Abhishek Kumar
Mayavanshi Prita
Deepak Kumar

Letter of Transmittal

Prof. Abha Chatterjee

Communications,
IIM Indore,
16th Oct 2015
As per you instructions, we have analysed SAS Real Estate: To for or not
to fire case in detail and identified problem statement along with options,
criteria to evaluate them, best recommended course of action, implementation
and contingency plan. The detailed analysis with contents is in the document.

Sincerely,
Group 10
Section F

Executive Summary

Haider Ali, the founder of SAS real estate, is faced with the situation where an
out dated cheque of 7.5 million Pakistani rupees has been encashed with the
bank. The prime suspect, Tanveer shah, is the only employee who has access to
the keys from where the cheque was stolen. But firing him would deeply ruin the
companys reputation and hiring a new employee to replace Tanveer is almost
impossible. So, Haider Ali is contemplating the future options to tackle the
situation.
After analysing the situation, we recommend that Tanveer be retained and
closely monitored to avoid any future fraudulent activities. Firing him is not the
best option as it would cost the company heavily in terms of resources and
reputation. Internal Investigation must also be done to ascertain if Tanveer is
really guilty or not.

Contents

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Title

Page
no
Situation Analysis
5
Problem Statement
5
Options for the Problem 5
Criteria for Evaluation
5
Evaluation Options
5
Recommendations
6
Action
& 6
Implementation Plan
Contingency Plan
6

1. Situational Analysis
Haider Ali founded SAS real estate in 2008, with Rahim Khan and Nusrat Amjad
having stake of 50, 25, 25 percent respectively. The seed money of 1 million

Pakistani rupees was invested by Haider Ali and additional 2 million Pakistani
rupees were taken from bank as loan. The real estate market was highly
competitive and company operated primarily through personal contacts and
reference-based relationships. The company was planning to launch its largest
project after the success of its previous three projects.
SAS Real Estate switched to complicated accounting software, for increasing the
efficiency however it required a training of one year. Tanveer Shah acquired the
required training and succeeded Ahmad Shahbaz as the chief accounting officer.
On March 4, 2014 a cheque worth 7.5 million Pakistani Rupees which had expired
six months ago was encashed with a fake ID and signature. A legal court case
was filed against the bank for their negligence and an internal investigative
committee was formed to look into the issue. Ali suspected Tanveer Shah for the
act.

2. Problem Statement
How should Ali tackle the situation keeping in mind his companys future?

3. Options for the problem

1. Tanveer Shah should not be fired at present and should be monitored
closely.
2. Ahmed Shahbaz, the previous Chief Accounting officer should be
approached for a temporary position, and Tanveer Shah should be fired.
3. Retain Tanveer shah temporarily and train other employee to reduce
dependency on tanveer

4. Criteria for evaluation

1. Cost (legal costs, training costs).
2. Customers confidence and trust.
3. Loss of future projects.

5. Evaluation of options
1. There is a risk of losing more money if Tanveer Shah was actually
responsible for the theft. Not firing Tanveer shah will subdue the news and
people would not come to know about this situation and therefore
customer confidence and trust will not be hampered. Future projects can
go on smoothly as Tanveer Shah has worked for more than 5 years on the
software and was most qualified for handling the softwares. Monitoring
closely will help in preventing future thefts.
2. The previous accountant Ahmed Shahbaz who trained Tanveer could be
persuaded to take the job again. He knew all about the soft wares and
could easily perform the job. His where abouts is needed to be found and

he should be persuaded to join and help SAS in this difficult situation. He

could be offered a higher salary as it would be cheaper than training a new
employee and also an immediate possible solution. But if Tanveer Shah
files a court case there would be legal cost. Trust will be affected as news
of firing of Tanveer will spread in locality. New projects could go on
smoothly with Ahmed Shahbaz back but loss of trust could make it difficult
to acquire new projects and hence hampering the companys growth in
monetary and market terms.
3. Tanveer could be retained temporarily till the replacement employee is
trained and ready to take up the job. But, this could cost the company
heavily which it could not afford at this time. But, even in this option,
Tanveer could sue the company after firing him and can cause damage to
companys reputation which is again not desirable.

6. Recommendations
The first solution is recommended as it is most feasible in terms of time, cost and resources.
It will enable the company to work on new projects without any disruptions. CCTV cameras
should be installed and Tanveer shah work is to be closely monitored by one of the
shareholders.

7. Action Plan and Implementation Plan

Increase the surveillance system in the company by increasing number of CC TV

installations.
Reduce the power with employees by mandating submission of keys to one of the
owners at the end of the day.
Follow the trial against the bank diligently making them solely responsible for the
loss and recovering the money from them.

8. Contingency plan
If the above plan sees any setback, calling back Ahmed Shahbaz is the next better option.
Given the financial expertize he has, he could take care of accounting software and financial
matters till the replacement is ready. He could also help the employee under training by
sharing his insights.