CORPORATE

STRATEGY

LIVE CASE REPORT

Company Name: HUM NETWORK LIMITED (HNL)

Submitted on: 10th May 2019 to Dr. Mehnaz Fatima

Adil Faiyaz
Amna Urooj
Aisha Tariq
Farah Rasheed
Maryam Rashid
Owais Atiq
Sarim Khan
Salman Malik
Syed Fahad Ahmed
Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1

Analysis of Vision and Mission Statement ................................................................................ 1

HUM TV’S Vision Statement................................................................................................ 1

Analysis of Vision Statement................................................................................................. 1

HUM TV’S Mission Statement ............................................................................................. 2

Analysis of Mission Statement .............................................................................................. 2

Organogram ............................................................................................................................... 2

External Environment ................................................................................................................ 3

Political Environment ............................................................................................................ 3

Economic Environment ......................................................................................................... 3

Social Environment ................................................................................................................ 4

Legal Environment................................................................................................................. 5

Competitor Analysis .................................................................................................................. 6

Financial Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 8

Cross-Functional Financial Analysis ....................................................................................... 10

Internal Environment Analysis ................................................................................................ 12

Human Resource .................................................................................................................. 12

Programming........................................................................................................................ 13

Marketing ............................................................................................................................. 14

Sales and Distribution .......................................................................................................... 15

International Operations....................................................................................................... 15
 Integrated Root Cause Analysis ........................................................................................... 16

Minor Problems ....................................................................................................................... 17

Dysfunctional HR department ............................................................................................. 17

Unresponsive to changes in external environment .............................................................. 18

Internal Resistance ............................................................................................................... 19

HUM News .......................................................................................................................... 19

Absence and poor implementation of policy framework ..................................................... 20

Major Problem ......................................................................................................................... 20

Lack of peripheral vision, unstructured professionalism and absence of iron-clad will

exhibited by CEO. ................................................................................................................ 20

Strategic Alternatives ............................................................................................................... 21

Creation of a dedicated cross-functional team to implement strategies and monitor progress

.............................................................................................................................................. 21

Revamping and empowering of HR Department................................................................. 21

Structured pro-active participation of CEO in all departments & board composition: ....... 22

Strategic Choice ....................................................................................................................... 22

Structured pro-active participation of CEO in all departments & board composition ........ 22

Industry Overview ...................................................................................................................... i

Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) Matrix ....................................................................................ii

External Factor Evaluation Matrix............................................................................................ iv

IE Matrix .................................................................................................................................... v

Competitive Profiling (CPM) Matrix........................................................................................ vi

Porter’s Five Forces .................................................................................................................. ix

Potential Development of New Substitutes .......................................................................... ix

Potential Entry of New Competitors ..................................................................................... ix

Bargaining Powers of Consumers......................................................................................... ix

Bargaining Power of Suppliers .............................................................................................. x

Rivalry Among Competing Firms ......................................................................................... x

Strategic Map ...........................................................................................................................xii

Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) ................................................................... xiii

Strategic Position & Action Evaluation (SPACE) Matrix for Hum Network ........................ xiv

The BCG Matrix ..................................................................................................................... xvi

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS AND RATIOS .......................................................................... xviii

Common Size Analysis ........................................................................................................... xix

Trend Analysis ........................................................................................................................ xix

Ratio Analysis .......................................................................................................................... xx

Root Cause Analysis ............................................................................................................ xxiii

CS Level SWOT Matrix ....................................................................................................... xxiv

CS Level SWOT Analysis .................................................................................................... xxix

Maximizing HUM Network Strengths to capitalize on Opportunities ............................. xxix

Maximizing HUM Network Strengths to avert Threats ................................................... xxix

Overcoming HUM Network Weaknesses to Capitalize Opportunities ............................. xxx

Overcoming HUM Network Weaknesses to Avert Threats ............................................. xxxi

HUM Network Business Lines ............................................................................................xxxii

Interview Schedule...............................................................................................................xxxii

Summary of Meetings ........................................................................................................ xxxiii

Statement of Contribution ........................................................................................................liv

Introduction

As compared to yesteryears, television in Pakistan has grown tremendously. The proliferation

of satellite channels and cable TV networks has made it possible for a large number of

Pakistanis to have access to information around the world which had hitherto remained

inaccessible. The number of TV channels is expected to grow further in the coming

months/years as many channels are waiting in the wings to enter this thriving field.

One of such media companies Hum Network Limited, a public listed entertainment content

company formerly known as Eye Television Network Limited, aims at providing great variety

of cultural heritage by launching satellite channels that can operate internationally. The

company covers a wide variety of programs regarding entertainment, information, education,

news, food, music, health and society. Today, it operates different satellite channels like Hum

TV for entertainment, Hum Masala for cooking, Hum Sitaray for entertainment as well as

narrative shows, Hum News for information and Hum World for viewers outside Pakistan. The

network had been enjoying significant market share, however recently HNL’s revenue failed

to increase, and the company struggled to maintain its share in the market.

Analysis of Vision and Mission Statement

HUM TV’S Vision Statement

“Inspired by the finest cultural, corporate and creative values to present

content which entertains and enriches audiences.”

Analysis of Vision Statement

Like most organizations, Hum TV’s Vision statement is a single sentence which answers the

question of what the company wants to become. The statement elucidates Hum’s commitment

to adding value to the lives of its audience by entertaining and enriching its audiences via a

fusion of cultural, corporate and creative content. However, there is a certain ambiguity to the

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statement as it lacks specifics and in turn may be rendered ineffective due to lack of connect

with the employees.

HUM TV’S Mission Statement

“To enable the origination of outstanding content on subjects of interest

and relevance to a range of audiences while using the best professional

practices and ensuring long-term continuity.”

Analysis of Mission Statement

Hum Tv’s Mission statement includes many of the nine (09) characteristics required for the

development of an effective mission statement. The company’s mission is customer centric

rather than product centric. It instills a sense of mission in its employees by “enabling the

origination of outstanding content for its audiences”. The mission also expresses the company’s

intent to act as a responsible citizen of society and uphold its Corporate Social Responsibility

by committing to make use of international best practices in all that it does. The mission

statement is also broad and enduring as it focusses on the company’s long-term growth.

Organogram

Figure 1: Organogram as at 7th May 2019

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External Environment

The external environment has a direct impact on an organization’s strategy and future course

of actions. The external environment not only presents opportunities and threats to the

organization but also it gives the insight of changes in trends occurring outside the organization

for which the organization can adjust is strategy to draw benefits from the external

environment. These factors in the external environment faced by HNL are detailed as under:

Political Environment

The Political environment of Pakistan is currently crippled with hostile neighboring country,

and cross border violations. This has directly affected the content coming from India, which

enjoyed wide acceptability in Pakistan due to similar culture and language. These cross-border

hostilities have resulted in boycott of some Indian film producers for release of their movies in

Pakistan, due to which the number of cinema-going audience has declined thus, creating

problem for film-distributors to keep up with their revenue targets.

However, the recent ban on Indian TV Channels by the Supreme Court of Pakistan1 and boycott

of screening of Indian films by Pakistan Film Exhibitors Association (PFEA)2 has provided

Pakistani content producers to capture screen time both on TV sets and cinema, vacated by

cross-border content producers.

Economic Environment

The Pakistani media industry functions around the advertisement revenue brought in through

private and public advertisements. As such, with the recent cut in public advertising rates by

the current Information Ministry3, the income stream of TV Channels has shrunken. Hum News

itself has experienced a negative 82% decline in per minute public ad revenue.

1
Complying SC order, banning Indian content, The News, February 20, 2019
2
Govt imposes ban on Indian films, content aired on TV channels, Pakistan Today, February 26, 2019
3
Info ministry slashes ad rates for TV channels, The Nation, December 23, 2018

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The main business of HNL comes from its TV Channels. Ever since, the liberalization of media

in 2002, PEMRA has issued 88 licenses for indigenous satellite TV, of this 37 licenses are of

entertainment category, 26 news & current affairs, 18 Regional category, 04 educational TV,

01 Health, 01 Sports and 01 Agro TV channel as per latest Annual Report issued by PEMRA.4

As such, the environment for HNL has become very competitive due to the fact that private

TV Channels have grown rapidly as compared to the private advertisers, therefore, the

Channels face stiff competition for directing private advertising income towards themselves.

The situation resulting due to above reasons and drying up of campaign revenue post 2018

elections, has resulted in cuts in salary of employees of Media houses and lay-offs in many

cases5. If this situation persists then it could lead to closure of poorly managed media houses

as well. As such, an imminent need has arisen to explore avenues for revenue generation other

than conventional TV adverts.

Social Environment

The HNL operates at a national scale and is positioned primarily towards Pakistani audience.

Pakistan being a cultural melting pot of Indo-Aryan and Islamic cultures enjoys great

receptibility of content dominantly from India because of similar spoken language and

subsequently from the Muslim world because of resemblance in culture. As such, media

regulatory body i.e. PEMRA frequently monitors the content coming into Pakistan to ensure

the content is in line with National interest and free from exploitation of National sentiments.

In this regard, PEMRA has frequently advised non-news channels to observe decency and

avoid shows that depict narratives controversial to the norms of Pakistani society.6 This curbs

4
PEMRA makes public it’s report for Financial Year-2015-18, Daily Times, February 24, 2019
5
Journalists protest layoff by media group, Dawn, December 18, 2018
6
PEMRA asks TV channels to observe decency in non-news content, Dawn, January 9, 2019

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down the content of other countries being aired in Pakistan, thus providing more room to

Pakistani media outlets.

Legal Environment

On the policy front, the newly elected government has announced plans to merge the existing

separate regulations for print, electronic and online media into a single powerful regulation

body. Under the proposed regulation one mega regulatory body to be called Pakistan Media

Regulatory Authority (PMRA) would be created with the merger of existing regulatory

authorities including Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and Press

Council of Pakistan (PCP). Most media bodies including The All Pakistan Newspaper Society

(APNS), Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) and PCP have strongly opposed the

proposed law.7

In September 2018, government also constituted a Content Committee that would approve

advertisements for the print and electronic media. The newly formed body will work to see that

no advertisement should be released to the print or electronic media by the provincial or federal

government without prior approval of this committee. Further, PEMRA is also in process of

enacting web based content by media houses.8 Accordingly, due to regulations becoming

stringent, the growth within media industry will take some toll.

7
State of Pakistani Media in 2018, Pakistan Press Foundation
8
PEMRA to start web TV, OTT regulation soon, The News, March 2, 2019

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Competitor Analysis

The main business of HNL comes from its TV

Channels. Ever since, the liberalization of

media in 2002, PEMRA has issued 88 licenses

for indigenous satellite TV, of this 37 licenses

are of entertainment category, 26 news &

current affairs, 18 Regional category, 04

educational TV, 01 Health, 01 Sports and 01

Agro TV channel as per latest Annual Report

issued by PEMRA.9 As such, the environment

for HNL has become very competitive due to

the fact that private TV Channels have grown rapidly as compared to the private advertisers,

therefore, the Channels face stiff competition for bringing advertising income towards

themselves.

The dominant players in the media industry are Hum Network, ARY Network and Geo

Network. These companies are competing against HUM Network in entertainment, news, food

and fashion industry. HNL mainly depends on Hum TV as source of revenue. In 2016-2017,

HUM TV was ranked #1 and ARY digital was ranked #2 but this year the rankings have been

inverted. It has been reported that their market share is similar, this year (i.e. 10%), meanwhile

ARY Digital’s TV spend is more than that of HUM TV. One of the reasons could be the fact

that Hum TV has failed to gain market share for other categories except drama. Also, they have

been focusing on a specific segment as their target audience (that is SEC A and SEC B) while

ARY digital has been diversifying its content for the masses to enjoy, for example, Jeeto

Pakistan. ARY Network has also been able to TV Spend Breakup for FY 2017-2018 (Source : Aurora Fact File)

9
PEMRA makes public it’s reports for Financial Year-2015-18, Daily Times, February 24, 2019

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expand their product offerings by increasing the number of Channels, expanding into categories

like Music and Islamic channels.

The sales strategy of the company is to focus on high margin and low sales volume, which

gives it competitive edge. Hum Network’s strong brand image and higher profits distinguish it

from its competitors. This allows them to charge premium, especially for the dramas that can

generate more ratings. Whereas, ARY Network’s sales strategy is to generate content according

to the interests of the audience, so the CAT (Commercial Airtime) is sold in advance, to

generate volumes. This strategy has helped ARY to generate more revenue in the previous year,

compared to HNL.

Through competitive analysis, it was found that HNL falls in between ARY Network and Geo

Network as indicated by total weighted score of 3.04 (Appendix – Competitor Profile Matrix).

All three companies have the finest picture quality, have to equally negotiate with cable

operators in terms of availability and have equally competent management. All the channels

are doing timely research to stay up-to date and present audience with the content that is

relevant and entertaining. However, Geo Network has the best Research and Development

team for that matter. As opposed to its competitors, Hum Network has failed to generate unique

content other than dramas. The management is too satisfied with the status quo while

competitors like ARY and Geo have remained proactive in diversifying their content and

production structure. HNL exhibits negligence towards the development which seems to

become a huge opportunity for the competitors.

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Financial Analysis

The five-year analysis (FY 2014-2018) is as follows.

In the FY 2015, HNL experienced a sharp dip in

their share price from Rs. 107 to Rs. 16.12. It was

primarily due to a stock split. It was a decision by

the company's board of directors to increase the

number of shares that are outstanding by issuing

more shares to current shareholders. The primary motive was to make shares seem more affordable

to small investors even though the underlying value of the company did not change. This did not

add value to the overall equity of the shareholders.

HNL’s share price is depicting a downward trend with a decline of 27% on average (over a period

of 5 years). Currently, the company stands at Rs. 3.75/share from Rs. 8.10/share in the FY 2018.

The sluggish performance can be associated with the economic crunch prevalent in the industry

due to the rise of digital media leading to a decline in advertisement revenue. Mr. Shahbaz Khan,

Manager Finance, quite conveniently attributed their failures to the external factors and was

confident that HNL will manage to pull through these turbulent times.

HNL’s revenue shows an upward trend but in FY

2018 it grew only by a meek 0.5% which can be to

5% and 13% decline in ad and production revenue

respectively. Even though ad revenue is still the

major contributor to HNL’s income, it started to

decrease in 2018. In 2016, HNL saw a growth rate of only 6.3% in the ad revenue as compared to

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a 30.3% in 2015. The company did manage to pick

up on some lost ad revenue by achieving a growth

rate of 12.4% in 2017 but in 2018 a decline of 4.3%

in ad revenue was recorded. The poor performance

of ad revenue can be attributed to the fact that

multinationals and FMCG companies are cutting

down their advertising budget in the process of moving away from traditional media and going

towards digital media. In the year 2018 ad revenue in the industry decreased by Rs. 4 million

(9.5%) whereas digital revenue increased by Rs. 2.5 bn (46%)10. In addition, withdrawal of

government advertisement from all networks as per the revised policies in the year 2018 further

affected the industry’s ad revenue. HNL has been trying to diversify its income stream. Hum Films

has been involved in the distribution and production of films which led to an increase in production

and film distribution revenue but a decline is being predicted in the distribution revenue from

Indian films after the recent Pulwama Attack which has left the relationship between India and

Pakistan hostile. To tap on the opportunities in the digital platform, HNL signed a contract with

Netflix leading to an upward trend in the company’s digital revenue but it is in its infancy stages

and hence not in a position to contribute a significant share.

The company leaves its money tied up for too long which eventually leads them to write off some

as bad. HNL’s debt to equity ratio increased to 0.294 times from a meek 0.004 times due to the

massive amount of long-term debt of Rs. 1.095 million the company obtained to assist in funding

of the launch of Hum News. For this purpose, the company made capital expenditure amounting

to Rs. 1.288 million including Rs. 693 million for land and Rs. 72 million for building. This

10
Source: Aurora Fact File 2018 provided by Mr. Umair Ali (General Manager, Sales).

9
combined with debt turnover and decreasing creditor turnover is putting a strain on HNL’s interest

coverage which went down from 97 times to 28.75 times. The Finance department is coordinating

with the Recovery Department to ensure timely recovery of receivables. This has had a positive

impact on the bottom line by reducing the Bad Debt expenses. However, the financial charges,

including mark-up on the recent long-term financing has offset this effect.

Cross-Functional Financial Analysis

The Finance department has recently undertaken the task of integrating itself with the other

departments for evaluating and monitoring the performance. What used to be a rudimentary budget

meeting has now been ameliorated to a quarterly evaluation, whereby the Finance department

reviews the KPIs and monitors the areas where the functions are lacking. A key part of the

challenge is recognizing that high resource utilization is not a healthy indicator of resource

management. Thereby, a concept of ‘shared resources’ has been implemented ensuring that the

resources, including the employees, are utilized on projects that are aligned to the strategic

corporate goals, mutually agreed during the quarterly meetings.

Taking a look at the top line of the Profit & Loss statement (shown in the exhibits), roughly 87%

of the entire revenue (in 2018) came from the advertisement revenue. The team under the Head of

channel time slot (CTS) and Sales ensures scheduled commercial airtime (CAT), the duration of

the broadcast of a commercial the time slot for which the advertiser is billed and utilize actuals to

assess performance and understand trends to improve future planning. The slight dip in ad revenue

in FY18, in light of withdrawal of Government advertisements from all networks and revision of

rates, has been mitigated.

10
Moving down, the major cost associated with production is the cost of outsourcing programs

(about 52% in 2018). This is primarily due to the inability of the network to develop in-house

programs. The recent downsizing across the network and industry which led to a decrease in

resources employed within the already small in-house production department would mean this cost

is likely to increase in the future as more programs would be outsourced. The salaries and benefits

associated with production up to FY18 have increased by 109% (base FY15). A major proportion

of these costs are in respect of staff retirement benefits which too have increased by 66% in FY18

(base FY15). Salaries and benefits are the biggest contributors to the Administrative expenses and

make up nearly 60% of the expenses incurred in FY18. However, these costs are likely to be

reduced given that the network has downsized its workforce.

The Sales department does its work diligently in bringing in advertisement revenue but at a cost

which is nearly 50% of the total distribution costs incurred during FY18. This primarily includes

costs incurred for promotions and selling CAT. Although a necessary cost but has been gradually

reeled in since FY15. The Sales team is still confident it is able to sell its quality ratings to clients.

The Finance department, in coordination with the Recovery department, is working to reduce the

debtor turnover and ensure timely recovery of receivables. This has had a positive impact on the

bottom line by reducing the Bad Debt expenses. Although the financial charges, including mark-

up on the recent long-term financing has offset this effect. Perhaps a better way to finance the

launch of the HUM News channel would have been through equity rather than a conventional

long-term loan. Given the economic conditions and rising interest rates, this wasn’t the ideal time

for HUMNL to procure a large loan. Despite the fact the market is undergoing a severe crunch at

the moment, we still witnessed a recent successful IPO in the case of Interloop. This is an indicator

11
of positive investor sentiment although the market is bearish. HUMNL already believes it has the

confidence of its investors, especially the ones abroad. They could have utilized this going forward.

Internal Environment Analysis

Human Resource

HNL currently employs around 300 people working across various departments. There is no

formal hiring, training, performance measurement and appraisal procedures are being carried out

by the HR function at HNL. Lower level hiring is done on an ad-hoc basis as per every new

program added to the portfolio and once the tenure of the program is over the respective layoffs

are carried out whilst others are rotated to other multi-functional departments. This points towards

the fact that HUM TV’s HR department performs in a nonsystematic and chaotic manner. Even

though the department claims employees have a strong sense of shared values, as per the

McKinsey’s 7-S framework, HNL’s structure and staff come across as deficient. The recruitment

and selection process is carried out in an informal manner whereby proper job descriptions are

seldom prepared, candidates are called in through referrals and contacts of the existing employees

in the company and training is mostly done on the job. Mr. Hasan Javed, for e.g., is playing

multiple roles as the Head of HR, Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) and Head of Interactive (digital

media) where as in an ideal situation these roles should be performed by three different people. He

was initially appointed as the CSO and within his first few months at the company, the Head of

HR retired; given the urgency of the matter and to save money and time, Mr. Duraid Qureshi

requested Mr. Hasan to accept the role which he did. Furthermore, a role as important as the head

of digital media should be given to someone with a fresh and young mindset, suitable skills,

experience and acumen to propel HNL towards digital media but the management’s failure to

analyze and look at the big picture did not allow them to do so.

12
There is a group people, brought in from PTV, working at HNL as senior vice presidents. Although

they have an immense amount of experience and expertise which HNL respects them for, but their

mindset and approach to work differs people who have not had a chance to work at a government

organization. The work environment these days is becoming more and more about flexible hours

and work from home but the presence of archaic minds in the hierarchy and that too at the top

level, who still believe in 9 to 5 work timings, does not allow the company to evolve.

Despite the lack of proper governance in the HR function, HNL prides on its reputation of

providing one of the most hospitable culture and friendly work environments in the industry.

Employees who moved from top notch MNC’s also expressed a sense of motivation, willingness

to come to work every day and the satisfaction of job security. The Company actively practices an

open-door policy. The C- suite executives believe and participate in having “real communications”

with employees on all levels and taking continuous feedbacks.

Programming

Programming function works closely in terms of coordination intra-departmentally. They have an

open-door policy propagated by the head, CCO who herself is highly easily accessible. Overall,

the department is highly understaffed as each individual is assigned multiple tasks to cater too.

Despite that, the cultural environment of the company keeps the staff motivated and has that sense

of ownership in work. It was observed that employees seemed to be enjoying their work.

Interestingly, there was discovered to be an over-looming conflict of interest in production houses.

Since, Hum Network does not operate any production house itself, it has its sister concern by the

name of Momina Duraid Production House (owned by Momina Duraid w/o Durraid Qureshi –

CEO). Most of the productions of Hum Network are outsourced to MDPH. Apart from this being

an internal conflict of interest, MPDH competes with another concern by the name of Moomal

13
Entertainment (owned by Shunaid’s wife; director and brother of CEO). This is a serious concern

in terms of competing against each other, which inadvertently affects Hum Network Limited.

Marketing

As a publicly listed premium entertainment network, HUM Network focuses highly on creating

new dramas for their TV segment rather than having a market driven approach towards business,

they feel that they have already established a sustained market through HUM TV in which they

have deeply penetrated in and therefore, marketing activities are not really needed to improve other

business lines or attract more client base. The marketing department at HUM Network deals with

promotions of their network through above the line (ATL) and below the line (BTL) activities as

instructed by the senior management with no information or idea flowing from the bottom-up

hierarchy.

The number of people working in the Marketing department is considerably less than other

departments which a proper hierarchy and structure within the department in terms of designations

and job roles, but the senior management appears to be the blockers in terms of information flow.

The senior management has too much influence on the strategic level decisions followed by the

high involvement of Programming in Marketing related promotional decisions which has resulted

in a decrease of cross functional collaboration between the two departments highlighting lack of

goal congruency.

HUM is only active on the product front in relation to 4 P’s of Marketing. The board of

management is highly involved in establishing new businesses for their viewers by providing

quality content and products in each segment of the entertainment business.

14
Sales and Distribution

The company has an established brand name and continues to be the brand with strong viewership

base among the premium segment of customers. However, the dynamics of current sales strategies

seem to be negating the sustainability of brand existence during the economic downturn. HUM

Network sales is highly dependent on the brands who advertise their products on their platform for

which the eyeball is sold to different players. The pricing strategy is set by the senior management

who do not allow reducing prices even for previously associated long-term clients.

The senior management doesn’t believe in making HUM Network a brand for masses and doesn’t

authorize sales to discount their product even during economic recession which has caused

companies to reduce their marketing budgets. The top management has too much influence on the

decisions taken by this department which does not allow them match competitors tactics in terms

of pricing.

Unlike Marketing, Sales department promote culture of respect from within in terms of

empowering their employees. While Marketing has to follow a proper hierarchy to get ideas

approved, Sales has the authority to directly interact with the COO and has the autonomy.

Moreover, the distribution department lags in meeting KPIs due to the high budget constraints and

struggles with maximizing reach faced to external factors. The team directly reports to sales and

receives a greater cross functional collaboration from the reporting department.

International Operations

This department is responsible for running the channels in the international markets like Europe

and US. There are multiple levels of hierarchy inside the department starting from associates who

15
report to associate managers, associate managers’ report to manager operations who reports to a

general manager who ultimately reports to the CFO of HUM network.

The plans are mostly made by the top management and they are divided into smaller tasks and

delegated to lower levels of the department. Most of the tasks have short deadlines, and due to the

extensive downsizing inside the whole company, meeting these shorter deadlines with limited staff

becomes extremely difficult at times. There is less emphasis on a common vision/mission and the

major concern for most of the time is to get done with the assigned tasks within the due time. The

department needs to be in close sync with the other departments like production and finance due

to the nature of the international markets. There are different time zones and different markets

therefore extensive planning has to take place to ensure there is premium content available at the

right times in the right markets.

Integrated Root Cause Analysis

HNL operates in a seemingly healthy manner where people are happy to be a part of the HNL

community but unfortunately it appears to be a case where everybody is involved but the CEO’s

view prevails. The active participation of old hands in the company is not just leading to

demotivated staff but also rigidity towards change can be sensed. The company fails to recognize

the importance of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) whereby an organization aims

to ferret out tacit knowledge present within and to use its HR capital to achieve organizational

goals. It is imperative for an organization to deliver quality, efficiency and responsiveness at all

functional levels. Lack of integration of the finance department with the recovery department has

led to issues such as high debt turnover. Improvements have recently begun to take place.

Furthermore, functional area managers must perform the role of a CEO for their departments. This

is not entirely possible in a hierarchy where there is overlapping of roles and one individual is

16
supervising more than one department and not being able to dedicate themselves to one functional

area only.

Even though HNL seems to be diversifying its business, but it is not practicing strategic

management to the best of its ability. At this point in time, HNL is operating like a reactive (type

3) organization, trying to survive these turbulent times which the management believes is short

lived hence not aggressively tapping on the digital media. In fact, as part of the survival strategy

the company has downsized a number of people in the FY 18 in order to control their costs which

has further affected the staff morale. Instead of introducing Hum New, resources could be deployed

against better utilization of the digital platform which could have lowered their chances of entering

a strategic drift in the future. The company prides on its positive brand image so much that it has

led to building of arrogance and complacency in the management; self-serving bias is prevalent in

the organization whereby they take credit for prior successes and associate failure with factors

beyond their control. It seems appropriate to apply strategy definition #2 here i.e. strategy is

allocation of resources to achieve goals and HNL’s goal remains to target the conventional media.

Minor Problems

Dysfunctional HR department

At HNL, the Human Resource function lacks a proper system and structure through which HR

functions can be rightfully implemented and administered. Subsequently many senior employees,

the C-suite executives, bluntly exercise their power and dominance over functions like Sales and

Marketing. Their opinions are given higher weightages and veto powers against the factual

research carried out by the department itself. Not only do the employees fall victim to the multiple-

boss dilemma, the employees get demotivated and restrain themselves from working over and

17
above; unable to give their optimum input to the department. This has resulted in the under-

performance and under-utilization of resources within the department.

Unresponsive to changes in external environment

It has been observed that the staff at HNL is still harping along on the glorified days of the old,

referring back to the successful streak of dramas. This has created a lethargic atmosphere amongst

the staff which in essence is a trickle-down effect from the top management. There has been no

significant strategy formulation to lessen the widening gap between the clash of internal values

and external market demand. Furthermore, the government rates cut and changes in external

environment, specifically pertaining to economic factors, are seen as something which is affecting

everyone, therefore shouldn’t be worrying and inaction is visible along those lines as well. Overall,

with the demotivated staff due to layoffs, unfavorable external environment and the lack of will

from the top management the company is nose-diving into the realm of management by hope.

There is a high mismatch between the content desired by the customer and the content offered by

Hum Network Limited. The market research exhibits the audiences’ inclination towards “mirch-

masala” in the content being aired, however, Hum Network stays strong to its vision and mission

and adheres to providing content which reflects their principles, beliefs and morals. This

incongruence has caused HNL to take a direct hit on its financial statements in the form of

decreased Advertisement Revenues as the highest grossing advertisements were captured by the

channels with more viewers and higher ratings; eventually contributing to continuously declining

profit margins. The strict adherence to the values has handicapped HNL in meeting customer

requirements and in effectively balancing between what is being demanded to what is being

offered. Moreover, the extreme scrutiny of content has also left writers annoyed and deterred

redirecting them to the competitors.

18
Internal Resistance

A small group of senior vice presidents who were brought in from PTV are being the barrier to

change process at HUM TV. The CEO indulged in nepotism when appointing them to their

respective positions. There was a time when HNL did value from their expertise and experience,

however in the present, they have failed to incorporate the changing internal and external dynamics

into their mindset. A clear example of this was exhibited in the fact that HNL, a media company

with irrational working hours, has been trying to implement flexible timings for their employees

but this small and powerful group has been hindering the process as they still believe in the

conventional 9-5 work timings. Many executives at HNL feel that their presence and archaic

mindset is not allowing HNL to evolve as actively as it should, bringing about a cultural clash at

HNL. This further proves to be a catalyst in the derailment of HR department, demotivation of

staff due to non-involvement in strategic planning.

HUM News

Hum Network Limited took on an ambitious project during FY 2017-18, the launch of HUM News.

This news channel has been positioned towards the already saturated infotainment section of the

media industry. Initiation of this venture has caused the costs to escalate resulting in a decrease of

gross profit by 16% compared to last year. Furthermore, with the added channel and the increased

inventory, HNL should have capitalized this opportunity to increase advertisement revenues;

however, that was not the case, the advertisement revenues declined significantly instead. Even

though, HNL enjoys a strong brand loyalty for its entertainment channel, HUM TV, the creation

of similar brand loyalty for its news channel amongst existing players swill be an uphill task due

to the changes in external environment in addition to the contrast of internal values. Moreover,

19
such a heavy investment in a period of economic downturn would require concerted and ingenious

effort to ensure timely payback.

Absence and poor implementation of policy framework

After thorough analysis of the interviews conducted and the performance of HUMNL monitored,

it has been deduced that there exists a significant void in critical aspects of a structured policy

framework to regulate the strategic front of functional operations of the company. This is evident

in the top-down approach of strategies and planning with no input from lower tier staff.

Furthermore, the existing functional level policies have found to be poorly implemented and at

contrast with each other. This is exhibited in the discrepancies found in the hierarchical setup of

the company where there are special positions, disparity between similar positions for different

functions.

Major Problem

Lack of peripheral vision, unstructured professionalism and absence of iron-clad will

exhibited by CEO.

The company currently seems to be operating under clouds of “Management by hope” which is

further strengthened due to the prevailing strategic myopia and lack of peripheral vision from the

top management to effectively engage with the internal and external environment.

Professionalism, having broad and relative applications, can be narrowed down on “how to do

something, when to do it and doing it right.” His indulgence in nepotism and creating a haphazard

hierarchy has trickled down to informal practices into the systems, procedures, and structure of

Hum Network. Lack of control, monitoring, and accountability is preventing the ball from rolling

in the right direction.

20
Even though the CEO has managed to instill a sense of vision and mission within the employees

and they do understand what HNL stands for, the progress towards achieving it is considerably

slow, the cultural clash being partly responsible for it. Moreover, this brings about the risk that if

the external environmental stresses keep accumulating, combined with the current unprofessional

practices, HUMNL might face severe distress in keeping up with competition and sustaining a

competitive advantage.

Strategic Alternatives

Creation of a dedicated cross-functional team to implement strategies and monitor progress

A dedicated cross-functional team from the existing pool of employees should be crafted,

assigning them additional roles, not limited to but majorly, of monitoring progress, assigning tasks,

capturing innovative ideas from grass roots, and most importantly keeping the employees driving

and striving towards the vision of the board.

Even though, this strategy may seem to be address a lot of conflicts internally and accelerate the

pace in achieving their set targets as compared to the current pace at which Hum Network is

operating, however, this choice of action may incur some reservations.

Revamping and empowering of HR Department

The HR department should be revamped and empowered. The hiring process should be made

transparent and nepotism should be avoided. There should be proper programs aligned for training

and development of employees. Empowerment of HR department should also be able to address

the cultural conflicts and the underlying sycophantic culture. Furthermore, proper implementation

of balance scorecard and other tools should be efficiently and effectively utilized in assessing

terms.

21
Structured pro-active participation of CEO in all departments & board composition:

A regular formal pro-active and structured participation of the CEO should prevail in the firm. The

CEO, himself, should be structurally involved in addressing the pace of strategy implementations,

external trend and counter-solutions, internal cultural conflicts, determining the root cause, and

abstaining from them. The composition of the board of directors should involve a few more

independent, unrelated-to-the-founding-family members to keep in check the CEO and provide

valuable insights and perspectives.

Strategic Choice

Structured pro-active participation of CEO in all departments & board composition

Even though all alternatives may have their advantages and disadvantages, the selected choice

addresses the minor problems much more comprehensively than others. This alternative is

preferred over the others because of the following reasons.

 Strategically sound in terms of longevity and sustainability.

 Addresses the strategic myopia currently prevailing in the organization; the comfort zone

of internal values widening the gap with external environment trends.

 In line with incremental change; does not further aggravate any of the symptoms and

problems.

 Offers pre-emptive measures to neutralize possible conflicting issues (such as with

production houses)

 Master-strategist approach – Employees are confident in his leadership and are

inspired/motivated by his charismatic personality.

22
Appendix
Industry Overview

Pakistan’s media industry has always been critically evaluated under the public eye. Over the years

the industry has been acknowledged for increasing public awareness about several political and

social issues and also heavily criticized for starting fake propagandas’ and spreading fake news

leading to uncertainty inside the country. The sudden boom of private TV channels started a whole

new stream for entertainment and news for the locals in Pakistan. However, the entry of such a

massive number of players triggered intense competition for “Breaking News” which has greatly

compromised the industry’s credibility and overall public trust. Today, the media industry of

Pakistan is enjoying an unprecedented amount of freedom as almost majority of the population

can watch or listen a news broadcast or an entertainment show.

As of elections 2018, all media houses enjoyed large amounts of business from the local and

federal governments in the form of promotional ads, however since the new government has come

into power, the government revenues have declined considerably. To date the new federal

government has not run a single promotional campaign over the TV, as a result most of the media

houses are now forced to downsize. A number of employees in the industry are now complaining

of delayed salaries with some receiving salaries after a period of four months. Despite this, new

channels are still blossoming up inside the industry. Notable names recently have been Public

News, HUM News and GNN TV, however most of the investment seems to be in the news genre

with very few names still existing in the entertainment category.

At present, Pakistan media industry has had an increased number of years under its belt now, it

has seen a number of evolutionary periods and continues to see drastic shifts in public opinion

about the work/service it is overall doing to the nation.

i
Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) Matrix

Key Internal Factors Weight Rating Weighted Score

Strength
1. Principles driven 0.04 4 0.16
2. Strong research and development team 0.09 3 0.27
3. Culturally representative, strong
0.1 4 0.4
content
4. Incorporating good messages and
0.05 3 0.15
values (Example: women empowerment)
5. Reliable to work with (public listed
0.02 4 0.08
company)
6. Increased attention on employee
0.08 4 0.32
benefits (Example: Salaries on time)
7. Built an image as large-scale organizer
0.06 4 0.24
of events all over Pakistan
8. Answerability and accountability 0.08 3 0.24
9. Transparent environment with open
0.05 3 0.15
door policy
10. Good picture quality 0.05 4 0.2
Weaknesses
1. Low salaries compared to other
0.05 2 0.1
networks
2. Too much power in the hands of MD 0.1 2 0.2
3. Unable to attract market share for other
0.08 1 0.08
categories except drama
4. Overlapping of job roles among
0.07 1 0.07
different departments
5. Cultural clash 0.03 2 0.06
6. Industry Perception 0.03 2 0.06
7. Declining financial performance 0.01 2 0.02
7. Rising production costs 0.01 2 0.02
TOTALS 1 2.82

The IFE matrix of HUM shows some of its key strengths and weaknesses. The chief strength of

the network appears to be its superior brand image inside the market which appeals to both, the

advertisers and the audiences. Due to this valuable image, the network is able to charge high prices

ii
for its media slots leading to increased revenues. Equally important strength of HUM appears to

be its powerful content, which is usually based on the current social issues, highlighting the social

biases and on occasions even challenging those biases in front of the general TV audience. The

people and the culture also play key roles in the success of the organization, people of different

departments seem to be understanding of each other’s needs and the organization promotes an

open-door policy for it top management.

Looking at the weaknesses, the whole business portfolio of HUM seems to be heavily dependent

on just one of its products, HUM TV, which is a family entertainment channel providing dramas,

serials and morning shows. This could be a huge problem if that one cash cow sees a decline in

the foreseeable future. Unclear internal communication also seems to be a major weakness of the

organization.

iii
External Factor Evaluation Matrix

Weighted
Key Internal Factors Weight Rating Score
Opportunities
1. Capitalizing international markets 0.05 4 0.2
2. Increase in digitalization 0.20 4 0.8
3. Different mediums of showcasing content
0.02 1 0.02
including aircrafts
4. Transition of successful dramas into movies 0.02 2 0.04
5. Scope in other business lines of magazines
0.04 3 0.12
and news channels
6. Assigning big anchors to drive brand equity of
0.06 2 0.12
HUM News.
7. Diversifying women related drama content. 0.08 1 0.08
Threats
1. Move from digital to conventional
0.10 4 0.4
entertainment
2. Too much uncertainty in terms of research 0.02 3 0.06
3. Regulations in content production compared
0.12 3 0.36
to other networks
4. Currency risk on account of rupee devaluation 0.09 2 0.18
5. Diversification of other networks into dramas 0.2 4 0.8
TOTALS 1 3.0
The EFE Matrix of HUM paints the picture of the external environment of HUM consisting of

opportunities which HUM should capitalize on and threats which it should avoid. Digitalization

seems to be the biggest opportunity which the network should concentrate on as the culture of

online viewership has suddenly and gradually crept inside the customer viewing patterns. Although

most of the researches show that currently traditional media is still far, far bigger than the digital

media in Pakistan, HUM should start soon to grab some ground on the digital space before its

competitors do. International markets also post a great opportunity for the network, although the

channel is catering to customers internationally however the current territories are not that too

iv
many and the international reach can be greatly increased in the future leading to international

releases of HUM films and lots of foreign revenues.

Looking at the possible threats, there is an increased possibility of HUM’s cash cow being directly

attacked by the competitors. As previously stated, HUM TV (family entertainment) is the biggest

revenue earner for the network, and if it faces increased competition and lower revenues in the

future then the whole network will get a major hit. Changes in consumer patterns also appear to

be a big threat for which HUM should have a prior plan in place and lastly the network must also

be ready to face any uncertainty because of the arrival of a new government which may decide to

introduce some new laws for the TV production and content.

IE Matrix

By analyzing the total weighted scores of IFE & EFE, HUM Network lies in Quadrant II which

essentially means that it can be best managed by grow and build strategy which can be done by

horizontal, vertical integration, market penetration and product development.

v
Competitive Profiling (CPM) Matrix

HUM Network ARY Network Geo Network

Critical Success Factors Weight
Rating Score Rating Score Rating Score

Gross Rating Point 0.12 2 0.24 4 0.48 3 0.36

Commercial Airtime 0.12 4 0.48 4 0.48 3 0.36

Market Share 0.12 4 0.48 4 0.48 2 0.24

Well diversified content 0.11 2 0.22 4 0.44 2 0.22

Financial Profit 0.1 4 0.4 3 0.3 2 0.2

Distribution Channels 0.1 3 0.3 3 0.3 3 0.3

Bandwidth (Picture quality) 0.1 4 0.4 4 0.4 4 0.4

Research and Development 0.06 2 0.12 3 0.18 4 0.24

Digital Platform Presence 0.05 2 0.1 3 0.15 2 0.1

Employee Satisfaction
0.04 4 0.16 2 0.08 1 0.04
(salaries on time)
Management Competency 0.04 2 0.08 2 0.08 2 0.08
High paid employees 0.02 2 0.04 3 0.06 3 0.06
Product Range 0.02 1 0.02 4 0.08 3 0.06

TOTAL 1 3.04 3.51 2.66

Hum Network has a lot of direct and indirect competitors, but the closest competitors are ARY

Digital Network and GEO Network. These companies are competing against HUM Network in

entertainment, news, food and fashion industry.

According to the CPM Matrix, HUM Network is ahead of its competitors in terms of commercial

airtime, market share, financial profit over the years and employee compensation. However

recently, ARY digital has been able to generate slightly higher revenue as compared to HUM TV.

HUM Network gives more benefits to its employees and even though the salary scales are low, the

salary is on-time which makes it an employer of choice. All three companies have good picture

vi
quality (HD), and all three have to equally negotiate with cable operators in terms of distribution

and availability. All three have equal digital platform, however management at ARY Network

realizes that this is an opportunity whereas HUM network showed reluctance to immediately

switch to digital media. They were confident that this change will take years to dominate

Television Media. Since all three companies are Seth-owned, their management competency is

regarded as minor weakness. Sometimes, the decisions are based on the instincts of the owner,

which gives him too much power.

Generally, Hum Network enjoys greater market share; however, the market share and gross rating

point are decreasing as compared to its competitors. Recently, ARY Network has been able to

attract more audience as compared to HUM Network primarily due to game shows like Jeeto

Pakistan and dramas with grasping content to attract the audience like Cheekh. Hum Network, on

the other hand, has not been able to provide well diversified content to its audience, as the top

management is satisfied that the current content is able to generate the desired ratings.

The intensity of competition in media industry increased with aggressive participation of the new

and existing competitors. All the channels are doing timely research to stay up-to date and present

audience with the content that is relevant and entertaining. However, Geo Network has the best

Research and Development team for that matter.

ARY Network has the greatest number of Channels, expanding its offerings to Music and Islamic

channels. This, however, gets tricky to deal with in terms of negotiation with the cable operators

as the idea is to get a position that is easily accessible to the audience and with greater number of

channels, this gets difficult. Also, for HUM Network, HUM TV is unable to attract market share

for other categories except drama.

vii
 Current New Rate (per Rate
S. No TV Channel AD/Campaign Duration
Rate minute) Difference
1 Aaj News 60 seconds 175,000 45,000 130,000
2 Abb Tak 60 seconds 245,000 35,000 210,000
3 Apna TV 60 seconds 210,000 25,000 185,000
4 ARY News 60 seconds 245,000 91,000 154,000
5 Business Plus 60 seconds 182,000 12,000 170,000
6 Capital TV 60 seconds 210,000 25,000 185,000
7 Channel 24 60 seconds 175,000 30,000 145,000
8 Channel 5 60 seconds 175,000 5,000 170,000
9 Dawn News 60 seconds 210,000 55,000 155,000
10 Din News 60 seconds 210,000 10,000 200,000
11 Dunya News 60 seconds 273,000 75,000 198,000
12 Express-News 60 seconds 245,000 65,000 180,000
13 Geo News 60 seconds 290,000 89,000 201,000
14 GNN 60 seconds 122,500 10,000 112,500
15 K-2 60 seconds 140,000 6,000 134,000
16 K-21 60 seconds 210,000 10,000 200,000
17 Khyber News 60 seconds 210,000 15,000 195,000
18 KTN News 60 seconds 210,000 30,000 180,000
19 Mashriq TV 60 seconds 105,000 8,000 97,000
20 Neo News 60 seconds 210,000 15,000 195,000
21 News One 60 seconds 240,000 35,000 205,000
22 Public TV 60 seconds — 35,000 -35,000
23 Punjab TV 60 seconds 105,000 10,000 95,000
24 Royal News 60 seconds 175,000 5,000 170,000
25 Roze News 60 seconds 245,000 5,000 240,000
26 Sama TV 60 seconds 245,000 85,000 160,000
27 Sindh TV 60 seconds 210,000 12,000 198,000
28 Such TV 60 seconds 147,000 10,000 137,000
29 VSH 60 seconds 175,000 5,000 170,000
30 Waseb TV 60 seconds 190,000 10,000 180,000
31 7 News 60 seconds 227,500 12,000 215,500
32 Star Aisa 60 seconds 130,000 3,000 127,000
33 92 News 60 seconds 245,000 45,000 200,000
34 Lahore News 60 seconds 210,000 15,000 195,000
35 Hum News 60 seconds 245,000 45,000 200,000

viii
Porter’s Five Forces

Potential Development of New Substitutes

As of March 2019, there are a total of twenty-one (21) General Urdu Entertainment Channels in

Pakistan. In contrast, there are currently twenty-nine (29) Urdu News Channels11 airing in the

country. Since television is a thriving business in Pakistan, it is likely that other players can

introduce similar offerings as Hum TV. However, whether Hum TV’s position will be threatened

by new entrants, is a different story altogether. Established in January 2005, the company has a

good 14+ years under its belt during which it has achieved many milestones which includes

introduction of new variants of entertainment channels and according to a survey conducted by

Aurora Magazine in December 2017, Hum TV earned the highest revenue in the Industry during

FY 2016017 which was at Rs. 4.3 Billion12.

Potential Entry of New Competitors

While analyzing Hum TV with regards to this force, there are two (02) things to be taken into

account:

 How easily other players can enter the market?

 How threatened is Hum TV’s position in such an event?

As has already been explained in the 1st force, it is possible for new entrants to enter in the same

market as Hum Tv, However, given the tenure and financial standing of the company, it is unlikely

that the new entrant will be an immediate threat to the organization.

Bargaining Powers of Consumers

Bargaining power of consumers is usually dependent on the options available with the customer

and on how easily consumers can switch a brand. It reflects the pressures that can be exerted by

11
(https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/List_of_television_stations_in_Pakistan.html)
12
Hum TV Annual Report 2018

ix
Hum TV viewers to offer higher quality products and/or better service levels. With numerous other

channels available, consumers have a fair bit of bargaining power with them to switch as and when

needed.

Advertising clients are also Hum TV’s major customers and being one of the major sources of

revenue, have a reasonable amount of pressure they can apply to reduce costs and offer better on-

screen time slots.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

Hum TV’s suppliers include but are not limited to technology, programs, information and

consultants etc. Supplier’s bargaining power is the manifestation of competition between them and

Hum TV. For instance, TV media that has exceptional content owns a much higher bargaining

power over Hum TV owing to application of various branding strategies and highlighting

differentiation.

Although Hum TV produces much of its TV content, there a private production houses who attract

strong demand from Hum’s competition. Such firms usually end up selling exclusivity

broadcasting rights to the best offer available at the time.

Rivalry Among Competing Firms

Rivalry among competing firms or internal competition is usually considered as the strongest of

all the forces. Although, high rivalry exists between Hum and its competitors, Hum has been able

to carve out a sizeable piece of market share for itself since its establishment in 2005. FY 2016-17

brought in Rs. 4.3 Billion for the company in revenues, the highest in the country (as per surveys

conducted by Aurora Magazine). In 2006, the company launched “Masala TV” the only 24-hour

live cooking channel which has successfully been able to fend of competition that has popped up

x
every now and then. In 2013, the company launched “Hum Sitary”, a hybrid offering of narrative

as also format based entertainment. Other prominent offerings of the company include venturing

into film distribution, support of local fashion industry by hosting Hum Style awards & Couture

weeks etc.

Hum’s major competition is Geo TV which is a private TV channel was established in 2002. Geo

TV competes with Hum via offerings such as Geo Entertainment, Geo News, Geo Tez, Geo Super,

Geo Kahani etc. Further, it has also ventured into fil production and distribution to compete with

Hum. ARY Digital Network with is sister channels ARY Sports, ARY News, ARY Family, ARY

Entertainment etc.

Meetings with Hum TV’s Programming, Marketing & Salespeople revealed the team’s

commitment to ensure that Hum Tv excels past its competition using peripheral vision and

instilling a sense of ownership in its employees.

xi
Strategic Map13

Ratings and market share can be defined as the following:

Rating (%): Average proportion of TV household or persons who watched a given program

Market share (%): Based on proportion of tv media spend by ALL channels. HUM TV has the

highest among all channels of all genres in Pakistan with a TV spend of Rs. 3.96bn followed by

ARY Digital’s spend of Rs. 3.84bn.

There are three major players namely HUM TV, Ary Digital and Geo Entertainment. HUM TV

has the highest market share while ARY Digital is leading with highest rating due to their program

Jeeto Pakistan.

13
Source: Aurora Fact File 2018 provided by Mr. Umair Ali (General Manager, Sales).

xii
Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM)

Alternative 1 Alternative 2
Acquire Competitor Expand Internally
Key Factors Weigh Attractiveness Total Weigh Attractiveness Total
t Scores Attractiveness t Scores Attractivenes
Scores s Scores
STRENGTHS
Biggest Market Share 0.20 4 0.8 0.20 5 1
Public Listed Company 0.05 1 0.05 0.01 3 0.03
Employee Satisfaction 0.05 2 0.10 0.05 4 0.20
driven by values
Women Empowerment 0.10 3 0.30 0.05 4 0.20
Brand Image as large-scale 0.03 0 0 0.02 1 0.02
event organizer
Transparent Environment 0.04 2 0.08 0.05 2 0.10
with open door policy

WEAKNESSES
Uncompetitive Salary 0.10 0 0 0.08 2 0.16
Structure
Heavy reliance on drama 0.08 3 0.24 0.09 1 0.09
for revenues
Overlapping of Job Roles 0.08 1 0.08 0.10 1 0.10
Declining financial 0.05 1 0.05 0.02 1 0.20
performance
Incoherent mindset and 0.02 2 0.04 0.08 2 0.16
culture across the
organization
Decision Making power 0.20 3 0.60 0.25 4 1
concentrated at the top
Sum Weights 100% 100%
OPPORTUNITIES
Big Scope for International 0.05 4 0.2 0.04 4 0.16
market
Move towards digitalization 0.20 4 0.8 0.08 3 0.24
platforms like Netflix
Airing of drama and news 0.02 1 0.02 0.03 3 0.09
content on aircrafts
Conversion of successful 0.02 2 0.04 0.20 5 1
dramas into movies
Scope in other business 0.04 3 0.12 0.04 2 0.08
lines of magazines and
news channels
Promote Hum News by 0.06 2 0.12 0.05 2 0.10
aligning big anchors to join
the network
Diversified Content other 0.08 1 0.08 0.15 3 0.45
than women related issues

xiii
THREATS
Move from digital to 0.10 4 0.4 0.04 1 0.04
conventional entertainment
Difficulty in research due to 0.02 3 0.06 0.02 3 0.06
different mediums of
content airing
High market regulation in 0.12 3 0.36 0.20 3 0.60
terms of content
Currency fluctuations 0.09 2 0.18 0.13 4 0.52
causing less advertisements
by multinational brands
Diversification of other 0.2 4 0.8 0.02 2 0.04
networks into dramas
Sum Weights 100% 100%
SUM TOTAL ATTRACTIVENESS SCORES 5.52 < 6.46

Strategic Position & Action Evaluation (SPACE) Matrix for Hum Network

Competitive Position Score Average Score Axis Plots

Biggest Market Share -1

-2.4 0.6
Employee Satisfaction driven by values -3

xiv
Big Scope for International market -2

Move towards digitalization platforms like Netflix -4

Airing of drama and news content on aircrafts -2

Industry Position

Transparent Environment with open door policy 5

Overlapping of Job Roles 2

3
Decision Making power concentrated at the top 1

Diversification of other networks into dramas 4

Stability Position Score Average Score Axis Plots

Women Empowerment -2

Scope in other business lines of magazines and news channels -4

-3.25
Diversified Content other than women related issues -6

Conversion of successful dramas into movies -1

Financial Position 1

Public Listed Company 7

Brand Image as Large Scale Event organizer 3

4.25
Declining financial Performance 2

Currency Fluctuations causing less advertisements 5

xv
The BCG Matrix

The BCG matrix is one of the most commonly used tools to assess the business portfolios and

product lines of a company. The matrix divides the offerings into four different groups on the lines

of growth and relative market share. If we assess the portfolio of HUM Network, it includes quite

diverse market offerings. Hum TV is for family entertainment providing dramas and serials for the

households, Hum Sitaray offers more of a hybrid channel offering both narrative and format based

entertainment shows. Hum Masala and Style 360 offer dedicated channels for food and fashion

inside the country. And the newly launched Hum News offers an entry for the HUM network into

the news market.

xvi
If we try to place the HUM offerings into the BCG matrix, the two one-of-a-kind channels, Hum

Masala and Style 360 will classify as Stars. These are the two channels which have zero

competition inside the market, there is no other 24 hour dedicated food channel inside Pakistan

than Hum Masala and similarly there is also no other 24 hour dedicated fashion channel than Style

360. They both are innovators and sole players inside their respective market. Hum Sitaray will be

classified as Question Mark as it has a low market share of the entertainment channels market

however the market for hybrid channels is expected to grow as more and more viewers demand

for a bit of everything from the same channel. Hum TV will be classified as the network’s ultimate

Cash Cow, it is the biggest revenue earning drama channel inside the industry and its revenues are

practically feeding all the other newer offerings from the company. Hum TV has a huge share of

its market however the market now sees a sudden explosion of several other competitors leading

to a rather cluttered market as more and more viewers now switch to content on demand platforms

like Netflix and Iflix inside the country. Lastly, Hum News will be classified as Dog as it is a new

entrant having very little market share inside a fairly saturated market with very dim expectations

of future growth.

xvii
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS AND RATIOS

xviii
Common Size Analysis

Trend Analysis

xix
Ratio Analysis

xx
xxi
xxii
 Symptoms
Root Cause Analysis

Minor Problems Finance Department:

 Unintegrated approach
 Lower gross margins
 High debt-turnover
Major Problem
Absence and poor HR Department:
implementation of
 Over-workload on staff
policy framework
 Demotivated staff
 Overlapping of roles
Dysfunctional HR
Lack of Department Marketing and Research
peripheral Department:
vision,
unstructured Internal resistance  Digital platform not utilized
professionalism on optimum levels
and absence of  Govt. revised rates crunch
iron-clad will Unresponsive to
exhibited by changes in external Sales Department:
CEO. environment
 Arrogance of brand image

HUM News
Operations Department:
 Incompetent salary structure
 Improper hierarchy

Strategy Department:
 Non-involvement of lower
staff in planning formulation
 Complacent approach

xxiii
CS Level SWOT Matrix

CS LEVEL SWOT

STRENGTH WEAKNESS

1- One of the largest 1- The salary structure is

media industries of incompetent leading

Pakistan with the to high employee

biggest market share turnover.

of 11%. 2- The major revenue is

2- Being a Public Listed highly dependent on

company with board Drama segment

of directors has leading to an

increased the uncertain future

reliability image of sustainability

company from the 3- Incoherence in the job

investor point of view structure of

3- Company values organization leading

distinctly regard to different perception

employee satisfaction of events that takes

as their prime focus place for instance

i.e. timely salary Shutting down of

payment, perks, morning shows

incentives. seemed like lack of

profitable business to

xxiv
4- Women marketing while

empowerment is also programming

one of the key focus department regarded it

of organization which as a clash of their

can be seen by HUM principles.

TV appointing a 4- The financial

female president and statements show a

giving lead roles to deteriorating

females in all dramas. performance because

5- High reputation in the of the high costs

market for the large- involved in the

scale events of HUM production of good

Style Awards, Bridal quality content

Couture Week and negated by the

Masala Family average performance

Festival driving brand of other business

equity. lines. The share price

6- The transparent also Rs. 3.75.

environment and 5- High demotivation

open-door policy of among employees

CEO allows to share who do get to

issues faced by contribute new ideas

employees. but mostly do not get

xxv
 7- Values are promoted it accepted since the

within and outside the decision-making

company authority lies with the

environment. top management.

8- High quality and 6- A traditional approach

premium image in the and an incoherent

industry for HUM TV mindset towards

Segment. entertainment industry

resulting in less digital

presence.

OPPOTUNITIES S-O STRATEGIES W-O STRATEGIES

1- Capitalize on the • Netflix, YouTube and • Meeting revenue

international markets HUM TV application targets faced by

like Indian channels to helps shift their target economic crunch by

meet high revenues. audience towards right sizing. (W4, O5)

2- A high shift of millennials. (S8, O2) • Increasing saturation

millennials and • Localized content by Ramzan offers and

women towards where women campaigns in HUM

digital platforms. empowerment is Mart and Morning

3- A high scope of highlighted in every Show at HUM News.

Pakistani content to aspect, so their (W4, O5)

dominate the aircraft viewers can relate as • Interdependence

space which is created by advertising

xxvi
 saturated with English well as educate Masala TV in the

and Indian content. themselves. (S4, O4) HUM TV affiliating

4- Mass Appeal of • Masala Family the consumer base to

International citizens Festival and Fashion relate with the other

towards Pakistani Awards to attract a channels as part of

content. wide customer base. Hum network. (W2,

5- Scope of other (S1, O4) O5)

business lines to • Big events like IIFA

contribute towards Awards held in a

more revenue. country and also

6- High unsaturation in increasing reach of

promoting ideas other content aired outside

than women Pakistan (S5, O4)

empowerment.

THREATS S-T STRATEGIES W-T STRATEGIES

1- The move towards • Addition of good • Creation of new

digitalization and the quality dramas like opportunities for

change in the target Suno Chanda during employees by

audience is shifting Ramadan and carrying out research

the market from TV to religious events when inhouse creating a

other entertainment morning shows, and dynamic structure

platforms. entertainment can’t be involving high

aired. (S7, T3)

xxvii
2- Lack of significant • Creating digitally commitment. (W1,

analysis of research Competitiveness by T2)

due to the transition of airing dramas on other • Adopt a proactive

conventional to digital digital platforms like approach in other

platforms. Netflix which also business lines to

3- High regulation and shifts their customer address high

variety of limitations base. (S1, T1) viewership base. (W2,

in terms of content • Barter being done O1)

being produced due to with different • Allot eye ball to

high association with channels like radio brands that bring high

the culture for content and PSL to increase revenues during the

writers. their viewership. (S2, start and end of

4- Currency risk on T4) commercials. (W4,

account of rupee • Focus on premium O4)

devaluation causing quality of content to • Research conducted

multinational brands retain the selected inhouse to better

to allocate less budget target audience by understand the

in advertisements. showcasing it as competitor strategies

5- Proactiveness and premium brand. (S8, and consumer

competitive nature of T5) perceptions (W4, T2)

competitors like ARY

shifting their focus to

Dramas.

xxviii
CS Level SWOT Analysis

Maximizing HUM Network Strengths to capitalize on Opportunities

Hum Network has a diversified base of different business lines which is particularly strong in

HUM TV but not limited to it. Its portfolio consisting of HUM News, HUM Sitaray, Masala TV

has also tried to reach out to different types of viewers. But with the changing needs of millennials

who are not focused to the TV viewership seek for convenience options like digitalization. HUM

Network has created a digital department who taps this generation through Social Media and

Digital Platforms of Netflix and YouTube. However, they do not approach this target through on

ground activations due to the high costs involved. The management is more focused towards

achieving their KPIs which are easily done by the TV Segment.

HUM Network has a value driven mindset which is focused upon by Sultana Siddiqui, the

President of HUM Network who focuses on women empowerment which reflects in the

organizational culture as well. The company does not tolerate any kind of harassment issues and

also educate their viewers on sensitive issues.

HUM TV realizes the scope of other business lines and uses its premium brand image to hold high

class fashion shows like LUX Style Awards or events like Masala Film Festival to drive the brand

equity. The brand image is also very popular in different countries like Canada which they have

catered to by holding IIFA Awards and also increasing reach of their dramas and events to different

regions.

Maximizing HUM Network Strengths to avert Threats

The competitive pressures and economic crunch have resulted in the entire industry to cut back on

prices due to less advertising budgets. Companies like ARY and Geo has cut prices and also

capitalizing on drama segment whose market leader has been HUM TV and being proactive in this

xxix
segment by allowing diverse and rapid content. Having a premium brand image, HUM is

struggling to retain its position because the cultural brand image is very strong. While the

competitors appeal to the masses by different game shows, HUM faces limitations and backlash

from the audience (which is primarily SEC A and B) if any vulgarity is portrayed in their media.

Therefore, they focus on the screen quality and color while also promoting family-oriented dramas

to avert the competitor takeover.

With the high move to digitalization, HUM also started to air Aangan on Netflix, but the progress

has been slow due to lack of revenue from this platform and customers who are more focused on

YouTube for Pakistani dramas. Therefore, they strive on other lines where they have a high scope

of improvement like News Channels, Magazines while also creating barters in different grand

events like PSL to promote its brand image.

Overcoming HUM Network Weaknesses to Capitalize Opportunities

Like all other entertainment players, HUM also faced an economic setback. They are aware of the

big customer base which was proven by the IIFA awards conducted in Canada. They have already

addressed the issue of economic crunch by right sizing and having the required number of

employees at HUM who work towards increasing the customer base especially the international

segment.

HUM is also working towards their business lines since their market is highly unsaturated which

they relate as a very big opportunity. While they already are a market leader in HUM TV, Masala

TV and Magazines (which is at par to Harold), they have diversified into News Channel and HUM

Mart which are the new segments and have a huge scope due to their different campaigns and

credit card discounts for digital users and Morning shows for the news segment. The company is

already in place of looking after big anchors to promote their news channel but their loyalty lies

xxx
with their previous channels and asks for high price to join the HUM News Segment. Since HUM

has already taken a big loan for this particular segment, they can’t afford a higher salary quotation

such early in the business. HUM Mart also being new in the industry has started Ramzan

Campaigns to increase reach of their customers. However, the company is not particularly focused

towards HUM Sitaray because they only air it to show reruns and do not want to shift the viewers

from HUM TV to HUM Sitaray by making the business another HUM TV.

Overcoming HUM Network Weaknesses to Avert Threats

HUM has not been able to successfully overcome its weakness of deteriorating financial

performance due to decreasing advertisement budget of multinational companies. This is due to

the premium brand image that the company has to carry forward. The network doesn’t believe in

cutting down prices like its competitors because it is a premium selling brand and once the rates

have been cut, it would be very difficult to bring back its prices. Companies like Unilever who

have shifted most of their advertising budget to digital platforms are also being catered to by the

competition. HUM has not cashed this to a great extent because it does not allow cluttering of

advertisements during their show which is also one of their USP.

There also appears to be different views/ perceptions within the organization since outside research

doesn’t give an exact perception about their viewer base and progress of their content due to a high

transition from conventional to digital platform. HUM has started addressing this by starting a

small research department which checks competition and ways to increase viewership by

conducting focus groups and surveys.

xxxi
HUM Network Business Lines

Interview

Schedule

Interview Schedule Designation Date Interviewer

Name
Mohsin Naeem Company Secretary 28th February, 2019 Adil Faiyaz, Aisha Tariq
Muhammad Shahzad Head of Content 1st March, 2019 Adil Faiyaz, Mohammed
Javed Sarim Khan
Syed Faaz Ali Associate Manager, 1st March, 2019 Adil Faiyaz, Mohammed
Programming and Sarim Khan
Strategy
Mr. Hasan Javed Corporate Strategy 1st March, 2019 Aisha Tariq, Maryam Rashid
Officer (CSO) and Head
of HR
Shoaib Ali Khan Associate Manager, 1st March, 2019 Aisha Tariq, Maryam Rashid
Human Resources
Maliha Sarwar HR Executive, Human 1st March, 2019 Aisha Tariq, Maryam Rashid
Resources
Umair Ali General Manager Sales 1st March, 2019 Amna Urooj, Farah Rasheed
Dania Alvi Assistant Manager 30th April 2019 Mohammed Sarim Khan,
Finance Amna Urooj, Farah Rasheed,
Shahbaz Khan Manager Finance 30th April 2019 Mohammed Sarim Khan
Amna Urooj, Farah Rasheed,

xxxii
 Syed Owais Naseem Associate Manager 22nd April 2019 Maryam Rashid, Amna
Sales Urooj, Farah Rasheed,
Khursheed Haider Head of PR& 26th April 2019 Aisha Tariq
Publication
Sonia Shekda Assistant Manager 29th April 2019 Amna Urooj, Farah Rasheed,
Marketing Maryam Rashid
Umar Rehman Producer and Director 30th April 2019 Amna Urooj, Farah Rasheed,
Mohammed Sarim Khan
Hareem Haris Manager Sales 29th April 2019 Amna Urooj, Farah Rasheed,
Maryam Rashid
Syed Muhammad Abbas Head of CTS and Senior 29th April 2019 Amna Urooj, Farah Rasheed,
Manager Sales Maryam Rashid
Nasir Jamal GM International 07th May 2019 Adil Faiyaz
Ahsan Khawaja Manager International 03rd May 2019 Owais Atiq
Operations
Muhammad Faizan TV Host 03rd May 2019 Owais Atiq
Najeeb
Irma Masood Associate Producer 04th May 2019 Owais Atiq
(former)
Danial Shahid Intern – Finance 04th May 2019 Owais Atiq
(former)
Ali Altaf Rasool Senior Manager 9th May, 2019 Farah Rasheed
Strategy and Research,
ARY Digital Network

Summary of Meetings

Interview #1

Name: Muhammad Shahzad Javed

Designation: Head of Content
Phone Number: 111-486-111 Ext: 330
Place of Meeting: Plot No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi-74000.
Time of Meeting: 15:30
Date of Meeting: 1st March 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 30 minutes
Summary of Findings: Mr. Shahzad Javed has been with HUM Network since 2017 as Head of

Content. He has been in the field for the last 10 years and has headed some of the major TV

networks’ content, scripts, production, programming, strategy and planning departments.

xxxiii
He described the process of content development from the point of origination to the time it

actually gets aired on the channel. The process is quite rigorous in terms of ensuring the right type

of content gets through to the TV audience. He elaborated on how HUM TV has set a benchmark

for quality content in the Pakistani industry and touches audiences both at home and abroad.

He further explained how they abide by numerous regulations and must always ensure the content

is culturally appropriate and is not offensive in any form. In fact, the management takes a keen

interest on their own accord in order to influence the what type of messages are delivered through

the content. The CCO, Ms. Maimoona Siddiqui, along with Mr. Shahzad play an active role in

editing and refining the content that comes their way through script writers or novel adaptations.

The management acknowledged that too much tinkering and prodding is a big deterrent for the

writers and authors, but it is a process that still occupies most of their time and efforts.

Unlike the competitors, Mr. Shahzad prides HUM’s approach for not chasing the ratings. Having

recently divested the loud and tasteless morning show program, they have set an example of

abiding by the principles and vision of the organization.

Interview #2

Name: Syed Faaz Ali

Designation: Associate Manager, Programming and Strategy
Phone Number: 111-486-111 Ext: 239
Place of Meeting: Plot No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, Off. I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi – 74000
Time of Meeting: 16:00
Date of Meeting: 1st March 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 30 minutes

xxxiv
Summary of Findings: Mr. Faaz joined HUM Network in 2011 and has been serving as a

programming and strategy manager. He explained the significant process of Research and

Development and how HUM Network gets valuable insights from the potential viewers.

Through focus groups, the qualitative analysis is done in order to gauge the preferences of the

audience. He stated that this is not something that is exclusive to HUM, however, the way this

information is utilized by the programming department is one of their key competitive strengths.

He reaffirmed how HUM would never compromise on its principles, in terms of the type of content

they air. This, however, does not always go in favor of HUM as depicted by the discrepancy

between viewership and TV ratings.

While talking about the organizational structure, Mr. Faaz stated that HUM follows a matrix

structure. This, he believes, has given each employee a sense of ownership and the will to

participate actively in the decision-making process.

He stated that approximately 80% of the producers and writers are automatically screened out

cause of the stringent quality checks that HUM has in place. Both Mr. Shahzad and Mr. Faaz talked

about the changing technological, demographics and preferences of the viewers. However, they

seemed unperturbed by these changes and strongly believe that “TV is not going anywhere”.

Interview #3

Name: Mr. Hasan Javed

Designation: Corporate Strategy Officer (CSO) and Head of HR
Phone Number: +92 21 111 486 111
Place of Meeting: Plot No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, Off. I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi – 74000
Time of meeting: 4:30pm
Date of meeting: 1st March 2019

xxxv
Duration of the meeting: Approximately 45 minutes
Summary of the findings: Mr. Hasan Javed is playing multiple roles in the company as the Head

of HR and CSO. He primarily came in as the CSO and at the same time Head of HR retired. The

company thought he knows the company well enough and since HR is now being seen as not a

separate department, but a part of every department.

He told us that HNL sometimes outsource their consultancy, recruitment and training functions to

keep up with the market trends and manage talent better. HNL is a company that has an open-door

policy with about 300 employees which makes it a loosely knit organization. He also claimed that

the company has a very safe working environment since no harassment incidents have taken place.

He also talked about the cultural clash at Hum Network because of the people who moved to

private media houses after leaving PTV; their mindset and approach to work is different from the

people who have not had the chance to work in a government organization. Mr. Hasan believes

it’s going to take 5 more years to change.

Strategy is designed by an executive committee headed by the CEO that consists of heads of all

the departments and other people related to the project on hand. The heads of department supervise

the performance of the people working under them and evaluate them against their KPIs.

Mr. Hasan also talked about the social responsibility activities it conducts such as airing ads of

Indus Hospital and SIUT even though it costs them Rs. 200,000/min, conducting blood drives,

helping some hospitals and school with their operations financially.

Interview #4

Name: Shoaib Ali Khan

Designation: Associate Manager, Human Resources

xxxvi
Phone Number: 111-486-111 Ext: 337
Place of Meeting: Building No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi-74000.
Time of Meeting: 16:00
Date of Meeting: 1st March 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 30 minutes
Summary of Findings: Mr. Shoaib is comparatively new to the organization and joined HUM

Network in 2017 and has been serving as Human Resource Manager. He explained how the HR

function at the media industry is significantly different from the one at other mainstream

organizations such as the FMCG sector.

Previously working as the HR manager at Abu Dawood, he distinctively outlined the practices that

were carried at Abu Dawood and those that could not be carried out HNL. For every program that

is added on the HNL portfolio, a new set of hiring has to be carried out to facilitate the program.

By the time the tenure of the program is over, either the hired staff is laid off or strategically shifted

to another program. Moreover, no formal training or organization development practices are

carried out at HUM TV.

With the recent market crunch and budgets being slashed, the HR department coped with the wage

gap crisis by laying off numerous employees in the last quarter. Pertaining to the same reasons, no

significant appraisals were done for the fiscal year 2018.

Even though, the employees were not being motivated on a monetary basis, HNL strived to keep

their employees inspired by providing a hospitable culture and organizing events for the employees

and their families such as The Family Festival where the CEO personally met each and every

member of the employee’s family.

Interview #5

xxxvii
Name: Maliha Sarwar
Designation: HR Executive, Human Resources
Phone Number: 111-486-111 Ext: 212
Place of Meeting: Building No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi-74000.
Time of Meeting: 16:00
Date of Meeting: 1st March 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 30 minutes
Summary of Findings: Miss. Maliha, a young and energetic soul, is a recent hire to Hum Network

Limited. Moving from HBL, she joined HNL only 3 months ago. Her specialty is the separation

department. Once asked about her experience at HUMNL, she claimed that unlike HBL she is

actually motivated to come to work every morning at HNL. She professed HNL to having a

friendly and open culture, where employees treated each other like family and not like competition.

Although when asked about the recent layoffs, she was reluctant to share the facts and figures and

only stated that the layoffs were done in a smooth manner. She claimed to be performing

recruitment activities at institutes and shortlisting of CV’s and basically following the standard

hiring procedure for new intakes. However, to our knowledge HNL has not really approached any

known institutes for new hiring and the CSO affirmed this by stating that most hiring is done on

referral or through head hunters.

Interview #6

Name: Umair Ali

Designation: General Manager, Sales
Phone Number: +923333222369
Place of Meeting: Building No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi-74000.
Time of Meeting: 16:15
Date of Meeting: 1st March 2019

xxxviii
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 1.5 hours
Summary of Findings: Mr. Umair Ali briefed us about all departments’ functions, highlighting

key functions of Sales, Marketing and Distribution Department. He explained us how media

planning works, how HUM Network get their channel/program ratings and how advertising is the

major source of revenue for the company. He focused on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities

and threats of the organization and emphasized on the fact that HUM Network works on its

weaknesses and reacts to the threats. They rely heavily on their research department to produce

more relevant content for the viewers and closely monitor their competitors by analyzing the rating

system on per-hour, per-month and per-year basis.

Interview #7

Name: Dania Alvi

Designation: Associate Manager Finance
Phone Number: 111-486-111
Place of Meeting: Building No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi-74000.
Time of Meeting: 15:30
Date of Meeting: 30th April 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 30 minutes

xxxix
Summary of Findings: Ms. Dania Alvi has been with HUM Network since a year as Associate

Manager Finance. She explained the rationale behind decisions that were undertaken in order to

diversify at Hum Network. The management at HUM seemed quite content with the performance

of the network and decided they had done satisfactorily well with their core TV channel. That is

primarily why they decided to diversify into other businesses, not exactly as part of a broader

vision, but rather a survival strategy to avoid stagnation. We now see the network integrating itself

with the digital streaming platforms, iflix and Netflix, along with the more accessible YouTube

and Dailymotion video sharing technology platforms.

She also talked about the problems that are just now being addressed at HUM after she took her

position, despite the fact that the financials show a constant increase in the debtor turnover cycle

over the past 5 years. They have only now decided to reach out to the recovery department with

this regard. We can’t help but conclude the management is slow to react to changing internal issues.

This only reaffirms the viewpoint that it’s a classic ‘type 3’ organization.

Interview #8

Name: Shahbaz Khan

Designation: Manager, Finance
Phone Number: 111-486-111
Place of Meeting: HUM NETWORK LTD. Building No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, I.I. Chundrigar
Road, Karachi-74000.
Time of Meeting: 16:00
Date of Meeting: 30th April 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 30 minutes
xl
Summary of Findings: Mr. Shahbaz joined HUM Network in 2016 and has been serving as

Manager Finance since December 2018. He explained the reason behind a sharp dip in the stock

prices after an all-time high of Rs.177 during 2014. It was primarily due to a stock split. It was a

decision by the company's board of directors to increase the number of shares that are outstanding

by issuing more shares to current shareholders. The primary motive was to make shares seem more

affordable to small investors even though the underlying value of the company did not change.

This did not add value to the overall equity of the shareholder.

When discussing the current sluggish performance of the stock, Mr. Shahbaz claimed that it’s on

account of the prevailing economic crunch. He has associated the underperformance wholly to the

market conditions which to us seems a bit inclined towards self-attribution bias, attributing prior

successes to business acumen and failures to factors beyond their control. When asked whether

they had anticipated the changing external economic environment he simply concluded that it’s

the norm and “we will pull through”. Keeping the “Caterpillar” case in point, this sort of

management by hope is perhaps the single costliest mistake a business can make in turbulent times.

xli
Interview #9

Name: Syed Owais Naseem

Designation: Associate Manager, Sales
Phone Number: 111-486-111
Place of Meeting: Building No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi-74000.
Time of Meeting: 16:30
Date of Meeting: 22nd April 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 30 minutes
Summary of Findings: Mr. Owais talked about how companies have cut down their advertising

budget in the process of moving away from traditional media and going towards digital media.

This has affected revenues of TV channels in the entire industry. Furthermore, platforms like

YouTube have allowed the audience to watch their preferred shows at their own convenience

which has contributed to the reduction in HUM TV’s viewership and ratings. Upon asking as to

what HNL has done so far to tackle this issue, Mr. Owais said the fact that HNL has a diversified

portfolio has allowed them to focus more on special shows such as HUM Awards and fashion

shows like Bridal Couture Week; apart from conducting HUM Awards, the company for the first

time coproduced Lux Style Awards in 2017. Also, such shows bring in not just mileage but on

ground business as well and are aired on a 20-30% premium. Other streams of income include

content integration; HUM TV partners with renowned brands and place their products in popular

shows such as Suno Chanda where they integrated with brands like Continental Biscuits Limited

and Al Karam. However, there is still very little attention being paid to the digital platform.

According to Mr. Owais digital media only makes up about 3-4% of HNL’s business which is

quite low given the pace at which digital media is growing.

xlii
Interview # 10

Name: Sonia Shekda

Designation: Assistant Manager, Marketing
Phone Number: 111-486-111
Place of Meeting: Building No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi-74000.
Time of Meeting:
Date of Meeting: 29th April 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 30 minutes
Summary of Findings: Ms. Sonia briefed us about the functions of marketing department. She

shared some of their pricing strategy tactics for Masala family festival in order to change consumer

perception about the event. Sonia mentioned that although marketing department has a smaller

number of people in it, it still has to follow proper hierarchy. She also opened up by telling us that

the top management is not that supportive of new ideas while the senior management encourages

lower management to come up with ideas. For instance, she came up with an idea of digital

advertising in airlines believing that digital advertising is the next big thing, but this idea was

turned down by upper management due to budget constraints. She confessed that mindset in lower

management was very different from that of top management. She expressed her view that there

was limited cross-functional collaboration among different department and said that digital, sales

and marketing department should collaborate together.

xliii
Interview # 11

Name: Umar Rehman

Designation: Producer and Director
Phone Number: 111-486-111
Place of Meeting: HUM NETWORK LTD. Building No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, I.I. Chundrigar
Road, Karachi-74000.
Time of Meeting: 4:30 PM
Date of Meeting: 30th April 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 30 minutes
Summary of Findings: Mr. Umar Rehman told us that he was the producer and director of the in-

house shows for Hum Tv. He highlighted the fact that Hum TV shows have failed to create much

needed hype in the market, that is one of the reasons why they had to shut down their morning

shows. He admitted that in order to get enough ratings, they had to compromise on the quality of

the content in their morning shows. Their content was basically driven by the competitors and the

ratings of their episodes.

Mr. Umar also said that Hum Network has a bigger role to play and they have been working on

women empowerment which is pretty evident in their dramas. He also mentioned that all the

dramas basically revolve around women and Hum Network has failed to generate diversified

content because they are scared that they won’t get enough ratings if they show something

different. This might be one of the reasons of the repetitive content on Hum Network as opposed

to ARY.

xliv
Interview # 12

Name: Hareem Haris

Designation: Manager, Sales

Phone Number: 111-486-111
Place of Meeting: Building No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi-74000.
Time of Meeting:
Date of Meeting: 29th April 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 30 minutes
Summary of Findings: Ms. Hareem informed us about the different tier client base and how the

sales manage those tiers according to the discounts provided followed by the different strategies

they have opted for regarding the external threats. Hareem had a very complacent attitude

regarding the future of HUM Network and highlighted a positive image of the company regardless

of the changing economic factors. She was also not concerned about competitors like ARY

addressing that they have a very diversified content while HUM Network’s forte is drama.

She identified that HUM is a premium selling brand and dollar price increase did affect the

advertisement/ marketing rates of companies. However, she remained persistent that HUM never

allows to cut rates since it is very difficult to keep up with the image they have built for a long

time. She concluded that the other players in the industry are business driven but HUM Network

is a value- driven organization.

xlv
Interview # 13

Name: Syed Muhammad Abbass

Designation: Head of CTS and Senior Manager Sales
Phone Number: 111-486-111
Place of Meeting: Building No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi-74000.
Time of Meeting:
Date of Meeting: 29th April 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 45 minutes
Summary of Findings: Mr. Muhammad Abbas started off a brief introduction of how he started

by leading 6 departments of operations and then eventually moved to sales identifying that HUM

provides opportunities of employees within the organization. He overlooks both sales and traffic

department and believes a programming person would be able to better understand the business

and hence can lead sales.

Mr. Abbas had a very traditional approach regarding sales and was defensive about the strategies

that were currently being implemented. When the concern of digitalization was brought up, he was

not worried because he had the view that the digital media is not responding due to customer lack

of trust. He also did not trust the rating system since it was not authentic according to him because

they can’t track the target being addressed for that. He was therefore not concerned about less

ratings and believed that the only chunk they have lost is due to the government policies and not

the company itself. He voiced that TV has always brought high revenues and will continue to do

so in the future. This again related to their attitude of approaching the changing environment with

mindset that the strategy that has worked in the past will work in the future and hoping that drama

will retain their success.

xlvi
Interview # 14

Name: Nasir Jamal

Designation: GM International
Phone Number: 111-486-111
Place of Meeting: Building No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi-74000.
Time of Meeting: 2:30 PM
Date of Meeting: 7th May 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 60 minutes
Summary of Findings: Mr. Nasir Jamal, being with HUM Network since its inception,

highlighted several valuable insights of the company. He emphasized on the lack of employment

of proper strategy to proceed further in the market. This mostly referred to implementation phase

of strategies in a professional manner. Furthermore, it was made probed to understand that there

are several honorary positions awarded in lieu of old favors taken by Mr. Duraid. These positions

were often Senior Vice Presidents (SVPs), who at times took a position of internal power block

for various interests. It was deduced from his talks that often than not the top management,

specifically the CEO, prefers to assign work on ad-hoc basis, often causing overlapping of roles

and internal resentment amongst employees.

However, Mr. Nasir Jamal strongly conveyed his take on high cultural values within the

organization. It is taken that the employee satisfaction amongst the staff is high. It could be inferred

that there exists potential conflict of interests within the organization, specifically pertaining to the

family of the owners.

xlvii
Interview #15

Name: Ahsan Khawaja

Designation: Manager International Operations
Phone Number: 03018294758
Place of Meeting: Building No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi-74000.
Time of Meeting: 15:30
Date of Meeting: 3rd May 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 25 minutes
Summary of Findings: Ahsan Khawaja started off by telling us about the structure of his

department. The hierarchy goes up from associates to associate managers to manager to general

manager international operations to ultimately the CFO of the whole organization. According to

him there is not much emphasis on the company’s vision inside the department instead, the

department is mostly focused on current tasks in hand and the short-term plans and targets.

Meetings usually take place on weekly basis where the head of department provides briefing of

the new plans to the whole department. Plans and strategies are usually made at the top, they are

broken into smaller tasks and assigned to the lower levels of the department according to the

international markets. Due to the recent industry downturn, there has been a lot of downsizing

inside the company meaning a lot of people have left and new hires have not come in leading to

the current employees being overloaded with tasks. And the cherry at the top seems to be the short

deadlines which are assigned to the employees because of the nature of the work. However, on a

more positive side he believed that the top management including the CEO is pretty approachable

and there is generally an open-door policy inside the organization.

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Interview #16

Name: Mohammad Faizan Najeeb

Designation: Show host at HUM Masala
Phone Number: 03342323722
Place of Meeting: Telephone
Time of Meeting: 17:30
Date of Meeting: 3rd May 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 30 minutes
Summary of Findings: Faizan has been a host of a street food show at HUM Masala and he was

quite vocal about the on-going problems at HUM. He also reiterated the problem of industry

recession and provided two causes for it, one the new government is not advertising on the private

channels and two, the media governmental body, PEMRA, has drastically reduced the rates of

slots for media buying meaning lesser revenues for the channels. He believed that private channels

had been spoiled by the previous governments and now they are used to earning abnormal profits

which have taken a hit after the new government came into power. He also highlighted the problem

of overloaded employees, telling us that each director is asked to direct 3 to 4 shows instead of just

one and report to the office at 9 am in the morning even if the show shooting has to take place in

the evening. He believed making directors do a 9 to 5 desk job is killing their creativity and energy.

However, they are forced to do whatever is asked of them as there is increased job insecurity inside

the company and lack of jobs inside the industry.

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Interview #17

Name: Irma Masood

Designation: former Associate Producer-HUM
Phone Number: 03332698899
Place of Meeting: Telephone
Time of Meeting: 15:30
Date of Meeting: 4th May 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 15 minutes
Summary of Findings: According to Ms. Irma, if she had a choice to work at any one of the

mainstream television channels she would always choose HUM Network mainly because of the

support of women empowerment at the organization which is absent at her current organization

(ARY). She believes because HUM is led by a woman, Sultana Siddique (Sultana Aapa), there is

immense respect and equal opportunities for females. She also provided a key example of how

well the females, both seniors and juniors, are heard inside the organization. When Ms. Irma was

leaving the network for her new job elsewhere, she was asked to draft a report providing feedback

about her time at the network. She submitted the report which also contained a few complaints

against her seniors and after few months, to her astonishment, she heard that her report was taken

seriously inside the company and actions were taken against those seniors about whom Ms. Irma

complained about. She agreed that employees at HUM are usually overloaded with tasks and there

is a lack of job security however she believed that it was more of the industry’s problem rather

than HUM’s alone and the network should not be given the blame solely.

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Interview #18

Name: Danial Shahid

Designation: former intern-finance
Phone Number: 03142576166
Place of Meeting: Telephone
Time of Meeting: 16:30
Date of Meeting: 4th May 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 15 minutes
Summary of Findings: Reflecting on his experience at HUM, Mr. Danial complained about the

lack of structure at the organization. There was no prior planning done for the new interns and no

clear timelines defined. His manager sat with him on the first day of the internship and since then

Mr. Danial never got any face to face time again with his supervisor. He also recalled the

department employees dividing themselves into different groups rather than being just one unit.

Especially during lunch hours, he recalled, there used to be 2 to 3 different groups eating together.

The head of the department used to conduct regular meetings inside his own office and had a quite

informal relationship with his employees.

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Interview # 19

Name: Khursheed Haider

Designation: Head of PR and Publication
Phone Number: 111-486-111
Place of Meeting: Building No. 10/11, Hassan Ali Street, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi-74000.
Time of Meeting: 9: 00 PM
Date of Meeting: 26th April 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 30 minutes
Summary of Findings: Ms. Khursheed shed light on government ad budgets being slashed due to

the new government policies. Due to this, HNL and the entire industry has taken a big hit on its

profits, however since HumTV was never that dependent on government ads and did not air them

as frequently as its competitors did, HNL managed to cope with this change in external

environment in a more relaxed manner. She also highlighted how HNL does not do marketing per

say and instead is the medium of marketing for many organizations, thus whatever marketing is

done is through promotions, sponsoring and event management. She discussed the grave matter of

how top FMCG firms like Unilever and P&G are shifting their marketing platform from the

conventional TV to digital and how HNL needs to pro-actively cater to these changes in market

dynamics.

When questioned about her time at HNL, she claimed to absolutely enjoy it. Even though the

working hours are immense and irrational, she claimed it’s a given with the media industry. It is

something you are fully aware of which you will be signing up for. She emphasized on the happy

go-lucky environment at HNL, their open-door policies, and their strong stance at women

empowerment. She said HNL is reputed in the industry for being a female friendly organization

where the female gender does not feel insecure regarding her workplace.

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Interview # 20

Name: Ali Altaf Rasul

Designation: Senior Manager Strategy and Research, ARY Digital Network
Phone Number: +923222119519
Place of Meeting:
Time of Meeting: 1:10 PM
Date of Meeting: 9th May 2019
Duration of Meeting: Approximately 30 minutes
Summary of Findings: Mr. Ali helped us in comparing Hum Network with ARY. As an

experienced media person, he said that Hum Tv sticks to a very specific segment of the audience.

He claimed that Hum network won’t be able to attract masses like ARY if they continue with the

same strategy and growth might become stagnant for them. He mentioned that digital platform is

a good opportunity and it actually helps them gain popularity.

He mentioned that as Hum Network increases ratings for their most frequently watched content,

they don’t really need to cash in on shows that are getting high ratings since they basically

dominate the ratings all day. This is a sales strategy, their CAT (Commercial Airtime) gets sold

well in advance for them to increase their rates for every hit drama. Their employees get paid well

however, not always on time since the media industry has issues with payments.

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Statement of Contribution

Topics Contributed By Signature

Organogram, interview summary, interview

schedule, functional analysis of Programing,

Adil Faiyaz
strategic alternatives, strategic choice, Root

Cause analysis.

Organogram, Functional analysis of HR, three

interview summaries, symptoms, minor

Aisha Tariq
problems, major problem, Interview schedule,

Editing, proofreading and compilation

SWOT Matrix, CS Level SWOT Analysis, EFE

Matrix, IE Matrix and Analysis, Functional

analysis of Sales, Marketing and Distribution

department, interview summary of Sales General Amna Urooj

Manager, Manager Sales, Head of CTS and

Senior Manager Sales, attended 8 Interviews

Printing of the report

Introduction, Competitive Profiling (CPM),

Analysis of CPM Matrix, IFE Matrix, Competitor

Analysis, Functional analysis of Sales, Marketing Farah Rasheed

and Distribution Department, interview

summaries of Sales General Manager, Assistant

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Manager Marketing, Producer and Director Hum

Network, Senior Manager Strategy and Research

ARY Digital Network, Attended 9 Interviews.

Functional analysis of HR; financial analysis;

integrated root cause analysis; attended

interviews with the Head of HR/CSO, Associate

Manager HR, HR executive, Manager Sales,

Maryam Rashid
Assistant Manager Marketing and Associate

Manager Sales; summarized interview findings of

the Head of HR/CSO and Associate Manager

Sales; strategic map; HNL’s business lines

Functional Analysis of International Operations,

Industry Overview, Analysis of IFE Matrix,

Owais Atiq
Analysis of EFE Matrix, Construction & Analysis

of BCG Matrix, summaries of four interviews

Organogram, functional analysis of Programing,

Ratio analysis, common size analysis, trend

analysis, cross functional financial analysis and Sarim Khan

interviews + summary of findings (finance +

programming)

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Analysis of Mission and Vision Statements,

Porter’s five forces, QSPM Matrix, SPACE Salman Malik

Matric

Comprehensive External Environment Analysis –

Syed Fahad Ahmed
PESTEL

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