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1 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
KARTHIKAVALLI CHITTURI
(BA3, 2014-15)
THE INDIA CEMENTS LTD.
JUNIOR MANAGER INTERNSHIP
1ST JULY 2015 – 31ST AUGUST 2015
2 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
CONTENTS
Acknowledgement ------------------------------------------------------ 3
Company Profile ------------------------------------------------------- 4
Internship Overview ------------------------------------------------------- 5
Tasks & Mission ------------------------------------------------------- 6
Results ------------------------------------------------------- 9
Skills Developed ------------------------------------------------------- 11
Critical Analysis ------------------------------------------------------- 13
Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------- 14
Appendix ------------------------------------------------------- 15
Bibliography ------------------------------------------------------- 19
3 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I am thankful to my mentor Mr. K.R. Gopala Krishnan, Vice President of Marketing,
The India Cements Ltd, for his extended support as a guide through the period of
internship.
I would also like to convey my thanks to all the staff of The India Cements Ltd, who
have extended their suggestions and support and have also helped me through my
learning process.
I would like to acknowledge all the architects who were the respondents for my survey
for helping me being able to finish the task, without whom the survey wouldn’t have
been completed.
4 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
COMPANY PROFILE
BREIF HISTORY
India cements Ltd. is a cement manufacturing company which was initiated in 1946 by
Shri S N N Sankaralinga Iyer and Shri T S Narayanaswami. The humble beginning of
the company began as a cement factory at Talaiyuthu, an almost unmapped in tiny
location in Tamil Nadu, India. The first plant of the company was set up in 1949 at
Sankarnagar (Talaiyuthu), Tamil Nadu, India; is the headquarters of the company.
GROWTH AND ACTIVITIES
India Cements is one of the oldest family owed corporate. The company has robustly
grown over the last two decades from having a capacity of just 1.3 million tonnes in
1989 to having a total capacity of 15.5 million tonnes per annum today. Mr. N
Srinivasan the Vice Chairman & Managing Director of the company is directly indicated
for the spectacular growth and development over the last two decades.
While cement is the core activity of the company, India cements has ventured into
related fields like shipping, coal mining and captive power which have synergy to the
main activity of the business; it is seen as a strategy of the company to avoid
uncertainties in acquiring energy and other inputs/materials in the supply chain at
competitive costs.
BRANDS
India Cements is currently the 3rd largest cement company in India and the largest
cement manufacture of South India. The India Cements products are marketed under
3 brands viz. Raasi Gold, Sankar super power and Coromandel King.
Sankar super power is six decade old brand with emotional values and provides
confidence and trust to its customers over generations. It is popular across states like
Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Coromandel King is a brand with rationale value which
promises for durability and strength of cement. It is popular in all metro cities of India,
generally trusted by all and widely preferred by Architects and Engineers. Raasi Gold
is a three decade old brand with sentimental values that is marketed as it foresees
golden times for those living in stronger homes. It is popular in states like Andhra
Pradesh and Orissa.
Sankar Shakti and Coromandel Super Power are sub brands of the above mentioned.
5 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
INTERNSHIP OVERVIEW
My Internship in India Cements commenced on 1st July 2015 in the marketing
department. I initially sought to work in the Marketing department and Operations to
gain knowledge about cement industry and the manufacturing process. The company
could not provide internship to me in operations department because it requires
outdoor work and observation in the mining quarries.
My mentor for Internship is MR. K. R. Gopalakrishnan, Vice President of Marketing of
The India Cements Ltd. He guided me throughout the course of my internship despite
of his busy schedule.
As my Internship mentor told me once that “It’s hard to identify the brand of a cement
when it is unpacked.” I had only 2 months which is quiet short to understand the
consumer buying behaviour of the company’s products, which requires me to initially
understand the buying behaviour of cement consumers so as to comprehend their
requirements and expectations before or while buying cement. Also taking into
account the fact that it is an altogether a new industry, Hence the overall mission of
my Internship was to “understand the buying behaviour of cement customers.”
In order to fulfil my internship I was asked to submit an excel document at the end of
my research with my recommendations to the company meeting all of their guidelines.
6 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
TASKS AND MISSION
The 60 days internship in marketing department was very beneficial to me because I
had to learn from the basics about the industry to applying the concepts of marketing
learnt from the Market research lecture in IESEG.
Week 1.
The initial days/week at the company were pretty slow as they wanted me to know
about the company by interacting with the employees so as to get familiar with my
colleagues and to get used to the office work environment. I was explained about all
their brands(explained earlier in the report), their backward integration strategy for
business like synergy projects such as coal mines in Indonesia, shipping division and
the number of carriers the company has acquired and the number of power plants the
company has. I also got to know that the company has recently ventured into
construction and has set up a subsidiary called India Cements Infrastructures Ltd. In
2014 as a part of their forward integration strategy for business.
Week 2.
The second week at the company picked up and I was getting onto the track of the
Internship where I was introduced to the various ways in which the company markets
and sells their brands and products. I realized that they had segmented their brands
in terms of their customers For example: Sankar Super power is marketed based on
the emotional values to the generations as it is the oldest brands, Coromandel is
marketed based on the rationale values to the professionals in construction business
and Raasi Gold focuses more on the sentimental values. (As mentioned earlier in the
report about the brands.) The company uses mediums like TV channels and News
Papers to market their brands. But above all I realised that the company uses a very
interesting technique which is promoting the brand in the IPL (INDIAN PREMIER
LEAGUE) a professional twenty20 cricket league in India, as India Cements sponsors
a team/owns a franchise called CHENNAI SUPER KINGS. Chennai Super Kings has
won 2 trophies/titles consecutively and has been awarded the most valuable franchise
in IPL 2012. Considering IPL is the most watched twenty20 league in the world, the
whole idea of India cements here was to promote the brand and to gain its own
7 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
corporate image. India cements also tied up with apparel brand and team sponsors to
help in brand promotion at minimum cost.
WEEK3.
During the third week of my internship I was given a report of an earlier intern and was
asked to read and analyse the report. This part was very intriguing for me because I
was very curious about knowing the manufacturing of cement and the core activities
of the business. The report had a very clear and thorough explanation of cement
manufacturing and I got to know a lot about the various grades of the cement like 53
grade, 43 grade and 33 grade. I also understood that each grade indicates the
compressive strength of N mm2 that the cement attains after curing for a period of 28
days. Curing means maintaining a favourable environment for continuing the chemical
reaction which is responsible to harden the cement. Apart from these I had also got to
know other facts like why cracks develop on wall, plastering, RCC. I read a very
interesting fact of that cement is stored in dry weather conditions and that they are not
stored in more than ten bags in a pile and while using the cement the bags are
removed on “First in first out” basis. These above facts in particular were very useful
for my later research part in the internship.
Overall my analysis and suggestion for the report was that it was very insightful and
that the previous intern has done an exceptional job, but I personally felt that the intern
probably had abundant time so he was trying to focus on everything that I felt in
between he went very much into details about the cement for which people like me
who have little knowledge wouldn’t understand everything mentioned unless I see the
process in live, yet was very helpful.
WEEK4.
Now that I had acquired the operational knowledge of the company I was asked to
prepare a questionnaire to start my market research to analyse the buying behaviour
of cement customers for the remaining 3 weeks. The Market Research lecture at
IESEG was very helpful for this phase: preparing a questionnaire. Though the
questionnaire was verified and corrected by my mentor it was appreciated for being
8 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
above average for the first time. The questionnaire was not confined to INDIA
CEMENTS products, it was generic to all the cement brands. The questionnaire
consisted of both open ended and multiple choice questions.
My mentor was very clear about the outcome he was expecting. He was very sure that
he did not want a question and answer session but instead he wanted a very
interactive session with the respondents so that we could get other useful and in-depth
information.
The first question was to know the name of the cement(s) the architects buy. Then we
wanted to know their source of purchase of cement. The next question was about their
criteria to buy a cement. Then we wanted to know about the category of their
construction. The fourth question was to know about how much quantity do they buy
in each lot. Finally we wanted to know if they use the same brand they specified for all
purposes of construction, if not we would like to know why. (Refer. Appendix 1)
WEEK5-8.
The Market Research phase was the crucial phase of all. During this phase my mentor
has asked me to contact architects and to finish the research/survey in 3 weeks
deadline and to submit an excel file of my analysis and suggestions in the following
week which is the 8th week (the end of internship).
The reason why we chose architects is because in India we believe that the architects
would be educated and would be easy and suitable to communicate for a formal
environment. The market research was a qualitative market research and not
quantitative because the main aim of my mentor giving me this task is for me to
develop an initial understanding of what the consumers expect from a cement. My task
here was to phone call and fix an appointment to meet in order to take the survey and
to know about what an architect would be expecting from cement, what factors
influence him in buying a particular cement, which brands of cement does he prefer,
etc. After the survey I was to summarize the information that I had acquired and make
an excel report fulfilling the guidelines of the company and providing valuable
recommendations.
The excel report consisted of 3 sheets where the first sheet was named “data” in which
I had typed the raw data given/told by consumers without any change, highlighting
various important words in various colours to differentiate so that it would be easy to
analyse. The second sheet was named “content analysis” which had two headings viz.
observations and interesting findings. The third sheet was named “suggestions” in
which of course were my recommendations to the company.
The market research course in IESEG was very helpful throughout the Market
research phase of my internship from preparing a questionnaire to submitting an excel
report.
9 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
RESULTS
Cement(s) they purchase:
Since the survey was generic we realised that 9 out of 15 respondents’ preferred
using Ultratech cement and 8 out of 15 respondents’ have told that use Coromandel.
This is because none of them buy 1 cement, all of them have said at least 2 or more
names of cements they buy.
Source of purchase:
All of them have said that they buy from dealers. But after probing in I found that few
of them say that buying from dealer or company depends on the quantity required. If
they require in bulk they contact the company and if they need less than 200 bags of
cement then they buy from the dealer.
Quantity they buy for each lot:
Surprisingly yet rationally all of them said that the quantity they buy for a lot completely
depends on the size of the lot hence they cannot precisely say a number. Most of them
have said that they do not buy a lot in advance because cement tends to become hard
when stored too long so they order whenever they realise they are going to go out of
stock.
CRITERIA TO BUY A CEMENT:
Most of the respondents say that the quality of the cement is their main criteria to buy.
Some say only price is an important criteria to buy. While some others say price and
quality are the important criteria to buy. Very few think that brand is the important
criteria to buy.
CATEGORY OF CONSTRUCTION:
Since we focused on architects all of them answered “Total contract” meaning they
have the liberty to choose the brands of cements they want to use and it’s not their
clients that choose the brands of cement and just give them a site to construct. (The
results might differ depending on the profession of the target respondents.)
10 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
APPLICATION OF CEMENT(S):
Most of the respondents have said that they do not like to change the cement for
various parts of construction hence they use the same cement for whole construction.
While some have said that they use different cements like Ultratech cement for roof
but for plastering purpose they use Coromandel cement because they observed
cracks on the walls when they used Ultratech for plastering purpose. (This question in
particular has given wide answers and has helped me in probing in depth because the
respondents were telling their issues with the cement which gives a lot of insights for
the main purpose of my research.)
11 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
SKILLS DEVELOPED
SOFT SKILLS
I believe communication skills are perhaps the first skills that anyone would notice. In
the company during my first week when I had to interact with employees in a formal
environment. Naturally since it is a new place with new people and especially a formal
organization and that I have a very little experience comparatively. I was a little afraid
deep down, but I realized that any new place/company in the beginning is going to
make me feel uncomfortable and I started to gain confidence and then I unhesitatingly
approached the employees for any information/doubts.
PUNCTUALITY AND TIME MANAGEMENT:
Time management is definitely a skill that I developed from the company because the
office had standard working hours and I was asked to report on time and to abide by
the rules. My mentor has emphasized on punctuality and how important it is to be
punctual in a work environment.
I did not want to fail to obey the rules hence I ensured that I was always 5 minutes
before time or on time but not late during the course of my internship. During the tenure
I was given time limit for almost every work and I had managed to finish the task to
meet the target date and time. I was managing different works at the same time. I was
working on different deadlines so I had to divide my time accordingly. In order to meet
the deadlines I had to do homework so that I can be efficient. Working in a company
has always taught me how to be well-planned in order to be effective and efficient at
the same time.
COMPETENCE:
During the Market research phase I had learnt how to communicate formally especially
when representing a company. During this phase I had to phone call the architects
and fix an appointment with them over phone in order to meet them in person for the
survey. This part was quiet demanding because most of them were reluctant to meet
and I had to be warm, polite and patient to be able to convince them to meet, despite
some respondents being blunt. On the other hand few respondents did not want to
meet at all and wanted to give the survey over a telephone call with time constraints
and it was quiet hard on me to get as much information as I could during the time
limitation, but I managed to get the most out of it. As a whole I deduce that my
experience in India cements certainly brushed up my communication abilities and has
taught me to adapt to respond situationally.
12 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
SOCIAL SKILLS:
In my market research phase my mentor has asked me to contact the architects but
he did not provide me the contacts of the architect clients of the company because
then their answers would be based on the company’s products and would kill the
purpose of the survey. Since I’m from management background I did not know any
architects hence I had to contact all my friends and know if they knew any architects
and so on. Doing this has really enhanced my socializing skill and I had managed to
interact and communicate with others so that I can get the contacts and also has
helped making contacts or at least know new people. I must say that this has helped
me in my networking skills.
13 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The most difficult part of the internship was to get the contacts of the architects
because as I mentioned before being from a management background I did not know
any architects and as well my mentor has asked me to find architects who are
experienced in the field, which made it all the more complicated. Hence I contacted
my friends and friends of friends so that I can get the contacts but it was difficult
because the architects my friends knew were budding architects and not very much
experienced. But somehow I managed to get the contacts of experienced architects
through the friends of friends who knew the budding architects and they have given
me the contacts of their mentors with their reference.
But the problem did not end here as I found only one or two people who were budding
architects and I needed to find at least fifteen experienced architects. Hence I decided
that I would make a chain like process by contacting the architects whoever I found
and take the contact of another architect from each person I contact. Doing this has
really helped me in finishing my survey.
The other problem faced during the chain process was that some of them were not
willing to help with the contacts as they think I would go and waste one’s time. The
main problem in acquiring the contacts was that as most of the architects I contacted
were experienced, hence probably I was not taken very seriously by them since I was
an intern and not an employee of India Cements. But I managed to convince them by
being polite, patient and warm. I was also very persistent in waiting and getting back
to them whenever they had asked me to call/meet.
Another problem I faced was while trying to fix an appointment with the architects in
order to meet them in person was that most of them were not willing to meet and had
excuses like I don’t have time and so-and-so. I was required to be patient and to
understand that they are truly busy so I had to convince them by saying that it would
take just less than 10 minutes of your time and I could come during your lunch break
and that doing this survey would really help me with my project.
The limitation of the internship was I felt that since I did not get to visit the field, I could
not understand everything about cement manufacturing when I was reading about it.
Yet I gained sufficient knowledge which was very useful during my survey phase when
respondents’ used technical words with regard to cement and its grades. Hence not
visiting the field has not caused any kind of problem during the survey phase but I
hoped for a deeper knowledge into the manufacturing process as my personal interest.
14 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
CONCLUSION
My Internship in The India cements Ltd. was enriching as it was a completely
professional environment with a uniform of blue coloured shirts and black formal pants.
It was different from my previous internships as the previous companies did
emphasize on being formally dressed but for the first time I experienced a company
with uniform. Although the uniform didn’t apply to the interns, we were formally dressed
in order to adapt to the professional environment.
I had gained a lot of insights with regard to the company’s marketing techniques and
strategies. I got to understand a new industry altogether, as it is not very common to
choose cement industry to work for.
Despite of all the criticalities I faced during my internship I believe it was an experience
that will be very useful for me to think of alternatives or take up better decisions so that
I can complete my tasks and accomplish the internship. The internship also helped me
in developing various skills like Social skills, Punctuality and Time management, Soft
skills and competence.
15 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
APPENDIX
1. SAMPLE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE:
Questionnaire
Hello Sir I’m an Intern in India Cements trying to understand the buying
behaviour of cement consumers. I’d like to seek your help by providing me
with the required information and giving me knowledge. This would take less
than 10 minutes.
Personal information:
1. Name(optional):
2. Age:
A) Below 35 years B)35-45years
C)Above 45 years
3. Profession:
4. Name of the cement(s) you buy.
Essential information:
5. What is your source of purchase?
A. Dealer B. Company
16 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
6. What quantity do you buy in each lot?
7. Do you buy the above brands for all applications? If not, why not?
Conclusion:
8. What is your criteria for buying cement?
9. Your construction is of which of the following category?
A) Total Contract
B) Contract with material specification
C) Labour contract
Thankyou
17 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
2. PROOF OF REPORT SUBMISSION:
Raw data on excel sheet highlighted by different colours to differentiate
Analysis of the raw data segregated into observations and interesting
findings.
18 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
Recommendations given by me to the company
19 | P a g e B Y , K A R T H I K A V A L L I C H I T T U R I
REFERENCE:
‘Company Profile’ 2014, India cements, accessed from
http://www.indiacements.co.in/company-profile.html
‘Growth Journey’ 2013, accessed from
http://www.indiacements.co.in/growth-journey.html
‘Sports’ 2012, accessed from
http://www.indiacements.co.in/sports.html