HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Movie Review
Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year

Submitted to:
Dr. Shibani Belwalkar, Associate Professor

Prepared by:
Group 5 (Division F)
Lakshit Baheti (F06)
Siddharth Kumbhojkar (F033)
Dhruv Laleja (F034)
Purvangi Shah (F053)
Monika Wavhal (F065)
 Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year (2009)

Core Q1. Assume that Sunil Puri is replaced at AYS. You are now the new MD. You
desire to bring in fair and transparent processes of measuring performance, especially
for the frontline staff. You need to define the criteria and method for measuring
performance for field executives at AYS.

As the new MD, we have to clearly change the current system of performance evaluation
that exists in AYS, as the current system is only concerned about the monetary benefit that
the organisation is getting. Also, the company is only focussed on the number and amount
of each sales order, and not on the services that customers are demanding for the products
thereafter.

There should be a proper induction that the company should hold for each of its salesforce
person, which would clearly lay down the tasks that one is supposed to do. It should also
mention certain principles that the organisation stands for. A fair and ethical system of
conducting business should be introduced in AYS Computers.

Induction

Part of induction - when a new member joins the sales team, he should be conveyed the
following -

 What their current responsibilities are,

 What activities they must engage in,
 How you are going to measure their performance, and
 How to predict what future growth they may have in the company, enabling them
to see the stages an average person that joins the company goes through in the sales
timeline. Doing this allows the team member to measure their own performance,
giving them the ability to determine whether they are competent or not.

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Standards

Also, to make it a strong and well-managed company, there should be some clear standards
that are expected to be followed by every employee who is a part of AYS. Minimum
standards to be followed are important, and should include:

 Ethical standards
 Appearance standards
 Performance standards

These standards would ensure the development of a culture, thus helping to foster
teamwork, a feeling of oneness with the overall vision of the company and boost
enthusiasm.

Currently, the sole performance parameter is the total sales achieved by the salesperson.
AYS should instead have a combined score to evaluate the employees. This evaluation
score, also called the Mark Number, would take into account many different factors, using
predetermined weightages for each to come up with a single number to measure the
performance.

By incorporating the following factors into its final evaluation score, the Mark Number can
prove to be a fair indicator of performance, one that is accepted by the employees too.

1. Total sales amount, not no of orders

2. No of orders repeated by the same client / Client repeats
3. No of client referrals activated
4. Client Satisfaction Rating - (to be taken from the client one week after the sales order
is confirmed)
5. No. of initiatives taken towards any new venture/activity or passion displayed towards
the organization's vision

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By measuring and rating each individual factor independently, and multiplying the
weightages attached to each factor score, the Mark Number can be arrived by adding all
the factor scores, as shown in the table below -

Thus, by incorporating the important factors of client satisfaction, referrals, and initiatives,
the Mark Number can be a true indicator of the performance of the frontline employees and
salespersons on AYS.

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Core Q2) What were the primary drivers of engagement for all 5 members? Design
an employee engagement model for “Rocket Sales Corp”.

The primary drivers of each of the five employees of Rocket Sales Corporation are as
follows:

1) Harpreet Singh Bedi - Harpreet Singh Bedi is a recent commerce graduate who had
never scored good marks throughout his education. He had the zeal to become a good
salesperson and marks had never stopped him from dreaming of an exciting and
adventurous career. He believed that a good salesman may not have good marks on the
report card but he does require certain skills, viz. persuasion and negotiation.

However, after being hired by AYS Computers, he came across the ground reality of the
industry and his idea of success began to drown. He strived to find a balance between the
maddening demands of the professional career and what his heart wanted him to be doing.
In a meeting which included rampant demands of bribery by the client, he realized that it
is not a very honest profession. Thinking of doing the right thing, he complained against
that person, which landed his job in jeopardy at the AYS Computers. The MD, Sunil Puri,
did not appreciate what he had done. Though being bashed and bullied by his seniors and
colleagues for this, he continued to generate leads for sale for the organization. He
eventually came to know that the real price for assembling a computer is much lower than
what big companies demand. One day eventually, he stumbled upon a crazy way which
turned his world upside down and his career right side up. He founded Rocket Sales
Corporation which offered excellent services and low prices, something unheard of in the
industry till then.

The main driver for him to form this corporation was to offer fair prices and good services
to the customers. Rocket Sales Corporation wanted to build healthy relations with their
customers. He also wanted to have fair practices running at his office, unlike, AYS, where
bribery was celebrated.

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2) Girish Reddy - An assembly engineer, who was extremely efficient with his work, but
did not get the right opportunity and motivation to channelize his talent. While working
with AYS Computers, he delegated his work to Chhotelal. He knew he had a fixed salary,
and when he got an opportunity to be a partner in Rocket Sales Corporation, he was
motivated as he was offered a fifty percent share in profits.

The main driver for him to be a part of Rocket Sales Corporation was the money he was
getting in collaborating with Bedi.

3) Koena Sheikh - She worked as a receptionist at AYS Computers and was expecting to
be promoted as the office manager, as that post was vacant. Koena was already handling
all the required tasks of that position. So, naturally, she would have been the most logically
preferred candidate for that position. However, AYS hired a new employee externally for
that post.

Bedi recognized her talent and offered her the same position in Rocket Sales Corporation.
Thus, the main driver for her to join RSC was the position and the opportunity to be a
partner.

4) Chhotelal Mishra - He was employed as the peon in AYS, and regularly entrusted with
all the random work of the office. Being free most of the time, he whiled away his time
gossiping or arranging the office files and computer peripherals. Since his primary job was
to ensure tea was served to everyone regularly, Nitin often used to call him by the name
Cup-Plate. Though he resented the tag, he couldn’t rebel against his boss. Only when
Harpreet came into the company, did he greet Chhotelal by his actual name - “Mishraji”.
This small gesture by Harpreet won him over, and he felt his own importance for once.

Girish being the lazy employee would often call Chhotelal to repair and assemble PCs on
his behalf. From just his verbal guidance, Chhotelal would easily assemble the entire PC,
and it was this quality of being efficient in his work that reminded Girish to include him in
their team when they had to expand their business and upscale to finish more orders in time.

Thus, the main drivers for Chhotelal to join as a partner in RSC were being respected and
recognized for the work he was capable of doing.

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5) Nitin Rathore - He was employed as the area sales manager of AYS Computers. Being
an experienced salesman himself by working in the industry for many years, he knew how
to get his way with most of the customers, and how to effectively seal a deal. He himself
was a fresh graduate when he joined this industry, and he too believed in working honestly
and truthfully. But after being sidelined by his more “successful” colleagues who got
promoted by bribing and other malpractices, he too resorted to such practices.

His main drivers for joining Rocket Sales Corporation was to prove that he wasn’t someone
to be sold by the future prospects of a promotion to do something illegal and unethical.

Employee Engagement Model

Building on these employee drivers, an employee engagement model can be designed to

better motivate employees and induce enthusiasm among them.

Taking from Sirota's Three-Factor Theory of Fairness, Achievement, and Camaraderie, we

have to lay down the principles of the expected work environment at Rocket Sales
Corporation when working at Rocket Sales as a Partner -

1. Never lie to a customer, even if the order is at stake. Customer’s trust in the company
is more important than any monetary gain.
2. Focus on providing proper service to the customer, rather than just driving the sales up.
3. Bribes are a strict no-no, even if the client asks for it.
4. Delivery dates should be communicated realistically, and adhered to at all costs.
5. Service would be available 24x7x365, even during the night.
6. All the partners are equal shareholders in the company, and all profits would be equally
divided amongst the five partners.

By ensuring a corruption free policy, Rocket Sales communicated clearly that money is not
a driving force for their business, instead, customer service was. This was one big
motivation for Nitin, who felt that since he was in a habit of giving and receiving bribes,
he was always looked upon as someone who could be offered monetary benefits in
exchange of favors. He wanted to change this image, and hence Rocket Sales offered him
the right opportunity to do so.

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By ensuring equal rights as shareholders, Rocket Sales offered them equity, while the
recognition for their work made them feel proud of any order they managed to complete.
Thus, the feeling of achievement was quite prevalent in the case of Girish, Koena, and
Chhotelal, helping to build on enthusiasm in the team.

Sirota's Three-Factor Theory of Employee Motivation

Harpreet Singh Bedi as the leader of the organization has ensured that by keeping the
customer’s interests foremost, and utilizing the talents of his team in the right direction,
providing better services at competitively lower prices is not a dream job but a real one.

He also ensured that delivery and maintenance continued even during the night, thus Rocket
Sales Corporation managed to win the hearts of its clients very quickly, as such a level of
dedicated service was unheard of in the entire industry.

By having such a positive work environment and strong work ethics, everyone was
motivated towards actually providing valuable services to the clients. All the clients were
wholly satisfied with their products as well as their services, so much so that the client base
of AYS shifted almost entirely towards RSC.

The loyalty of the clients towards the RSC Services was significantly visible when, even
after taking over RSC, AYS was not able to properly provide service to the clients as per
their expectations. After constant complaints and major loss of big-time clients, Sunil Puri,
MD, AYS, had to give back Rocket Sales to Harpreet Singh. Thus, by engaging the
employees actively and making sure the clients’ needs were fulfilled, RSC managed to
retain customers and fuel their performance to new heights.

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