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Emerald Case Study: Corporate brand building at SRF: challenge of selecting the brand consultant Jaydeep Mukherjee, Mukund Trivedy

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Corporate brand building at SRF: challenge of selecting the brand consultant

Jaydeep Mukherjee and Mukund Trivedy

Jaydeep Mukherjee is an Associate Professor at the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, India. Mukund Trivedy is an Associate Vice President in the Department of Corporate Communication, SRF Limited, Gurgaon, India.

It was the morning of 8 October 2008. SRF Ltds corporate leadership team (CLT), led by Ashish Bharat Ram, Managing Director, was to decide one of the short-listed brand consultants for the companys image makeover. Ashish had seen the corporate communication departments internal survey and had realized that there was considerable divergence among the business heads understanding of the companys branding needs and their expectations from the prospective brand consultant. SRF being a multi-division, multi-location organization, Ashish expected the meeting to be difcult as tradeoffs were to be made. Ashish had taken over the reign of the family rm a couple of years ago and was getting impatient with the lack of public appreciation of the companys accomplishments. Apart from arriving at a decision in the meeting, he wanted to achieve consensus. This need for consensus was driven by the need to ensure organizational cohesion in the implementation of the strategy that would be devised by the consultant. So, Ashish felt the pressure of having to not only select the most appropriate brand consultant for an under-the-radar SRF but also to get everybody to back the initiative. SRFs corporate communication department had been working on the project for the last six months and had completed the background research for the decision. Though there were no signicant differences of opinion about the relevance of the brand building exercise for SRF, there were divergences on whether it should be product branding (as was currently the case) or a corporate brand, which Ashish was pushing for. The prime reasons for the divergences were emanating from two points; one, SRF was predominantly dealing with diverse set of business customers and two, failure of corporate branding initiatives in the past. Given the current position of the different members, which was in the document available to all the CLT members (Exhibit 1, Figure E1), Ashish was quite worried about the prospect of arriving at a consensus on the matter. The meeting had signicance much beyond what appeared to be a simple agenda of deciding the brand consultant from a set of choices. He needed to develop a decision-making criteria and follow a decision-making process which could overcome resistance and build the necessary company wide support for this project.

Company description
SRF Limited traced its origin to Sir Lala Shri Ram, one of the leading Indian business visionaries of his times. The groups existence spanned more than a century, starting way back in 1889 when its parent company Delhi Cloth Mill, now known as DCM Group was founded. In the ensuing period DCM turned into a large business house, manufacturing a vast variety of goods like textiles, sugar, wines, chemicals, vanaspati (a form of edible vegetable oil), pottery, fans, sewing machines, electric motors and capacitors. SRF was originally incorporated in 1970 as Shri Ram Fibres. Beginning its life as a tyre cord manufacturing company, the company over the years diversies and grew to be a

Disclaimer: This case is written solely for educational purposes and is not intended to represent successful or unsuccessful managerial decision making. The author/s may have disguised names; nancial and other recognizable information to protect condentiality.

DOI 10.1108/20450621111201257

VOL. 1 NO. 4 2011, pp. 1-18, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2045-0621

EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES

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multi-business entity manufacturing chemical-based industrial intermediates. The name of the company thus changed to SRF in 1990. Head quartered in Gurgaon, near New Delhi (capital of India), SRFs business portfolio covered Technical Textiles, Chemicals, Packaging Films and Engineering Plastics. SRF was the market leaders in most of its businesses in India and also enjoyed signicant global presence in some of its businesses. SRF products touched everyones lives in many ways. But the irony was that the end consumers were blissfully ignorant about SRF products since they could never get to see, touch or feel them. All SRF products were industrial intermediates, which were invisible to the end-users, except for coated fabrics, which are largely used as awning, tarpaulins and cricket pitch covers. Ashish would often draw an analogy between SRF products and Intel. Inspired by the success of Intel Inside concept, in 2007, SRF tried asking its customers to replicate the model and depict the SRF name clearly on the nished goods. However, it failed as customers refused to cooperate by saying that their consumers did not see any special value in the name SRF. With seven production units in India and one in Dubai, the company exported its products to over 60 countries. The product portfolio and business structure of SRF has been depicted in Exhibit 2 (Figures E2-E3) and applications of different products are given in Exhibit 3 (Table EI). Some of the worlds leading companies like Michelin, Carrier, MRF, LG, etc. Figured on the companys customer list. SRF had recorded a Prot after Tax of $72 million on net sales of $450 million during 2006-2007, and the company did not have any borrowing for working capital. It had only long-term borrowings aggregating to $100 million. Some select nancial data are given in Exhibit 4 (Table EII).

Growth plans
SRF was growing in tune with its aspiration to achieve global leadership in its chosen eld of business by the year 2020. Recently, the company had announced its investment plan to install additional industrial polyester yarn plant at its factory located in Gummidipoondi near Chennai, India. With its maiden entry into the polyester yarn, SRF planned to become a one-stop shop for reinforcement fabric to the tyre companies in India. Among other projects, the company was also planning to set up a new Chemical Complex at Dahej in Gujarat, India. In view of its healthy nancial situation, the company was actively considering expanding its business operations through the inorganic route in its core area of business both in India and abroad. The growth plans are given in Exhibit 5. The company had intermittently taken initiatives to manage its identity and image aspects in the past. SRF had its logo redesigned by a reputed professional designer, based on its aspiration and growth plans in 2005. The logo comprised a symbol of innity and the name SRF (Exhibit 6, Figure E4). The logo was meant to symbolize excellence, progression and dynamism. The free owing shape of innity also epitomized the continuity which the company wanted to stand for. However, the exercise was limited to a logo redesign and not really extended to brand building initiative.

Realization of identity crisis

It was 15 December 2007, a cocktail reception was organized by a well known Industrial body in New Delhi, capital of India. The venue was buzzing with whos who of the corporate India. Moving around in the elite gathering, Ashish, who had become MD of his family-owned business entity SRF in 2006, had felt honored to be in such an august company. But his elation was short-lived for when he began mingling with the select group of corporate chieftains who were attending the event, he was shocked to nd that hardly anybody seemed to know about his company, SRF. Ashish initially struggled to help the audience understand the nature of SRFs business, its product attributes and product applications. He attempted to introduce the company in a manner which was easily understood by the common people:

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If you are sitting in your car, I would like to imagine that the tyres that your car is running on are made stronger and safer with reinforcement material from SRF; the plastics used in your car are made by SRF, the refrigerant being used to cool your car is made by SRF; if you are moving in your Jeep then the soft top is made of SRF-coated fabrics, the potato chips or biscuits your children may be eating while you drive are packed in material provided by SRF, and the plants that you see all around are protected by the pesticides that are made of the uorospeciality molecules developed by SRF scientists.

Ashish reasoned that the lack of customer familiarity with SRF products was not only because the products were essentially intermediate products and used by business customers. Part of the problem also lay in low media coverage of the company. The company had never made a conscious attempt to communicate to or through media. The company was quite happy at approaching the business customers directly and making the sales based on product features, its quality and support service. SRF did not advertise in the media. Ashish in hindsight, also recollected his own previous experiences and interaction with different business partners, journalists and job aspirants in SRF. He realized that the recall of the specic attributes of the organization such as a rich legacy of more than hundred years in business; promoted by one of the most respected business families in India; and founder of iconic academic institutes of the country like The Lady Shri Ram College and The Shri Ram School was very high, but people generally could not relate them with SRF. It could be that rebranding of the company as SRF, thus losing the prex Shri Ram also contributed to the disconnect with the legacy of the group. Ashish was many a time confronted with different interpretations of the name SRF by users, mostly erroneous. Many condently referred to SRF as a fertilizer or a nance company, mistakenly identifying with some other similar sounding companies. Others would confuse it with other group companies. And, still others would mistake it for SKF, the famous bearing company. Though Ashish was aware of SRFs low resonance with the general public, he knew that the company was known to its customers as well as preferred by them, which was evident from the business growth. However, the experience at the cocktail party acted like a wake-up call for him from a different perspective. He realized that the fact that someone never really got any recognition from the environment outside the organization for working in SRF. He wondered about the impact of such a situation on the pride and bonding that employee (existing or prospective) enjoyed with the organization. He concluded that there was something amiss in the corporate branding of his company. On his way back home from the party, he pondered about the impact of low brand awareness in general public. Especially, the fact that a majority of job applicants applying for various positions at SRF would write: No, I had not heard of SRF before. In almost 30 per cent cases, the candidates would either not appear for interviews or decline offers despite getting a good position and salary. The absence of brand recognition by the general public had an impact on the quality of manpower that SRF was able to attract and retain. The fact that it also affected the employee motivation and pride was not really apparent at all levels of the organization. SRF was losing out on their ability to acquire high-quality manpower which it desperately needed to support its global expansion plans. By the time, Ashish reached home from the party, he had made his decision: he would act quickly to rectify this gap. Next day, he was impatient to reach the corporate head ofce of SRF, located in very premium locality in Gurgaon, a half an hour drive from his home in New Delhi. He eagerly waited for the arrival of Kartik Bharat Ram, his younger brother and Deputy Managing Director at SRF, to share his concern about the urgent need to work on building awareness about a corporate identity for SRF. After the two had conferred, Head of Corporate Communications, Mukund Trivedy was called. Ashishs brief to Mukund was:
We need to systematically work on building a corporate brand for SRF, which could be useful and relevant for our diverse gamut of stakeholders. I dont want you to get into solution mode immediately. Explore the options and follow a process which would help build an organization

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wide consensus for the initiative. More importantly, internal alignment with the desired brand promises is critical.

The corporate brand building initiative SRF being a total quality management (TQM) driven organization, adopted a systematic approach for its activities. The way forward on corporate branding was discussed between Kartik and Mukund. They realized that the visibility and mindshare of SRF among the general public did not match its market share. This could be an impediment to achieving its aspiration of achieving global leadership in most of its businesses by 2020. They also realized that understanding the perspectives of key stakeholders was critical. It was, therefore, important to understand the image of SRF in the minds of its targets as well as to understand how best to build relationships with them. The rst step was to list the fallout of low visibility of brand SRF as perceived by the employees across the entire set of businesses and across different levels of the organization.

Brand audit internal

Preliminary background work conducted by Mukund in the rst six months of 2008 revealed that the SRF brand had following weaknesses:
B

The SRF name did not evoke instant recognition or association while some of its products were known. The corporate brand was unable to emerge as a clear choice for customers while some products were very clear winners. SRF was unable to charge a premium for its products across categories by leveraging some high selling and powerful product brands in its portfolio. The company had difculty in attracting, motivating and retaining talent. Investors did not perceive it as an attractive proposition for investment. Media did not seem to be interested in the company.

B B B

The study also indicated that the employees were concerned about the need to improve the companys image. One of the key issues that emerged was the irrelevance of the current tagline Making our nation proud in light of SRFs plan to acquire companies abroad. The obvious concern was: whether the foreign employees of the acquired entities would relate to the concept of nation as their own nation? Such ambiguity regarding the brand message did not augur well from the perspective of integrating global workforce with that of the parent company. On further examination and deliberations, it became clear that the company suffered from low-brand image due to the following reasons:
B B

No sustained effort to reach out to the general public. Absence of product differentiators that could make the company stands out against competition. Lack of strategic focus on creating and leveraging sustainable competitive advantage. Lack of attention to corporate and product branding. Absence of an effective corporate identity creation and image management program.

B B B

Need to bring in the specialists These preliminary ndings were presented to the CLT, which approved the proposal to hire a professional brand consultant for the job (as it required specic expertise not available within the organization). Now, the immediate challenge for Kartik was to get a proper brief prepared for the consultant and identify competent consultants for the job. He formed a core team consisting of himself, the MD and Roop Salotra, President and CEO (Chemicals Business) for the project on branding. Mukund was assigned the operational responsibility

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of the project and to frame the scope of work and key deliverables for the consultant along with the brief. Mukund started off by trying to understand the specic expectations behind the branding exercise across the organization. Intensive interviews with heads of sales and marketing of each of the different SBUs helped him understand the branding challenge from perspectives of the different business verticals and their specic market dynamics. He followed it up with one-to-one interactions with CEOs and Presidents of the SBUs as well as some important customers. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed.

Key insights
It was clear from the analysis of the statements recorded that though SRF would like to be a place where employees felt at home, it was not a place where the younger people really felt like they could be themselves. The SRF brand was thus internally diffused. People were proud of SRFs credentials but they were not excited by, or engaged with the brand. Senior management of course wanted to see more passion and aggression in the employees for driving growth. Its internal approaches were, however, seen as barriers to realizing the companys full potential. Though, SRF offered a caring, inclusive, systems-oriented work culture, people who did not have the staying power to learn the system did not easily settle. The detailed ndings of Mukunds preliminary research have been consolidated in Exhibit 7 (Table EIII).

Purpose dened
It was a strange coincidence that each one of the CLT members independently seemed to agree that SRF should preserve and protect its unique work culture which essentially revolved around mutual respect, employee friendly approach and integrity. They also concurred that SRFs eld of competence lay in operational excellence. Taking the process forward, the core team discussed and deliberated on the ndings of the preliminary study for nalizing the brief for the prospective brand consultants. The minutes of the deliberations are summed up in Exhibit 8 (Table EIV).

Brief for the consultants

The salient points of the brief prepared for the brand consultants were as follows: 1. SRF plans to build and nurture a distinct corporate brand to grow in todays ercely competitive business environment. 2. The purpose of the branding exercise is to create a distinct corporate brand of the company so that the mere mention of the name SRF inspired trust, respect and admiration of the people. The desired objective would be to reach a stage when:
B B B B B

Customers perceived SRF as a trustworthy and quality producer. Employees felt proud to be working in the organization. Students/prospective employees aspired to make a career in SRF. General public looked upon the company with respect and admiration. Investors felt secure about their investment.

The branding exercise assumes urgency as SRF is poised to grow inorganically as well as organically. A powerful brand would enable SRF to initiate new ventures and partnerships with greater agility and speed. It would also improve the speed to access new markets across its diverse product portfolio. The scope of work The objective is to build an overall corporate brand of the company. The work would include the following:

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Analyzing what the company stood for Dening the brand promises/offerings (like unique features of the companys products and services, environment conducive to work, commitment to community development, etc.) that the company is committed to deliver consistently. Ensuring that the brand promises are in tune with the companys aspiration, corporate culture and values. Developing a clear roadmap with brand building strategies.

Search for consultants

Most of the agencies Mukund contacted appeared to offer only advertising led brand creation strategies. This was possibly because most dealt with fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies who needed to reach out directly to large number of consumers. A majority of the agencies admitted that they had never worked on assignments such as the one offered by SRF which had only business customers. A few individual brand strategy consultants refused to pitch in saying they would work only on invitation. Budget was another constraint that inhibited SRF from approaching the really big agencies. However, since this was a very critical project for SRF, it was imperative to hire the best that their limited budget could afford. After an intensive search of two months, Mukund nally short-listed ve consultants including some of international repute (Exhibit 9, Table EV, presents the key credentials of the agencies) who were invited to make a presentation to his team, based on the brief. The comparison of the offers revealed that the proposed costs were similar and the timelines were also matching. However, none of the agencies/consultants had earlier handled such a project for a company with predominantly business customers. Finally, based on the team composition and the methodology proposed, three were short-listed. The nalization of the brand consultant was left to the CLT. The summary of the key differentiators of the three short-listed consultants are presented in Exhibit 10 (Table EVI). To help the CLT to take a more informed decision, the three short-listed agencies, A, C and D were once again asked to present their revised proposals along with the details of the process to be followed, project timelines, key milestones and deliverables to the CLT. Short listing consultants Advertising agency A, which was of international repute, created quite an impact given their background of creative solutions for national and international clients. They also offered to engage another brand consulting agency from Bangalore to work on the project to bring in domain expertise relevant to SRF. The CEOs of both the entities, located in Bangalore and Mumbai, were not only personally present at the meeting to pitch their case but also offered to get involved in the strategy formulation exercise for SRF. The chairman of the agency, who was an advertising professional, had been involved with many prize winning advertising campaigns. He had also produced some television documentaries. The agency proposed to use their tried and tested standard framework of brand building strategy in the SRF case. The agency A had grown from a start-up advertising agency in the UK to a global creative communications company headquartered in the USA with close to 150 ofces in around 75 countries. The agency was part of one of the worlds largest communications groups. The global advertising agency was a full service, integrated communications network. Through their creative ideas across all media and all disciplines, they claimed to turn brands into something people fell in love with, which generate loyalty beyond reason. They believe passionately in the power of ideas to differentiate and motivate. Agency C, which was also of international repute, gave a very detailed proposal, especially developed for SRF with well dened processes, milestones and deliverables. Another feature of this agency was that its core team that was supposed to work on SRF account was situated in Delhi, 45 minutes drive from SRF head quarters. They claimed to have a large number of their clients located in Gurgaon. However, this team which looked knowledgeable and impressive during the presentation was much younger and had considerably less experience.

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The agency had helped build many of the worlds most valuable brands and successful marketers. Together with its patterns, they claimed to have the capability to put together a meaningful human purpose at the centre of their clients brand to transform the way people thought, felt and ultimately behaved. They further claimed that everything they did for brand was designed with human purpose in mind. They also presented a framework for dening the brand charter, i.e. dening what the company did, what it stood for and what made its unique. This exercise was based on (a) detailed one-on-one interaction with the companys senior leadership team and qualitative and quantitative brand survey among different stakeholders including employees, (b) developing organizational capability to deliver relevant brand experience, i.e. ensuring people are trained in demonstrating the right experience at every touch point and (c) external activation of the brand at an appropriate time in future when the organization was ready to defend its promises. The agency also presented a framework for measuring the effectiveness of their brand building initiatives. Agency D claimed to have experienced people on board and also made an impact with their suggested methodology. Most of their work shown in their credentials seemed to revolve around advertisements only. This agency was a start up, set up by two very experienced professionals, one from the advertising world and the other from academics, they claimed that their overhead cost was signicantly lower and hence they offered to reduce the cost even further. In fact, the chairman of the agency was the founder of a well-known consulting rm that specialized in branding, marketing and brand audits. He had also written two books on communications and branding. A graduate engineer and an MBA from Indias premiere academic institute, the chairman, had over 25 years of experience in the brand management at Indians top advertising agencies. He had developed a proprietary brand building process, which he called the Brand Culturalization process that had already worked for many Indian and multi-national companies. Someone who conducted brand workshops even for the advertising fraternity had a unique brand mantra: start Thinking Customers, Thinking Emotions. He strongly projected his belief that building brand and organizational strategies around consumers could help companies transform their business.

Decision dilemma
It was obvious that it was critical for SRF to keep the momentum of its business growth going in order to fuel its global expansion plan. Ashish was condent that a corporate branding exercise would be a step in the right direction. However, which was the more appropriate agency for SRF, as there were disagreements in the CLT. There were also reservations in sections of the CLT about the quality of the short-listed agencies leading to considerable doubt about the value they could deliver. Some of the CLT members had also expressed their concern about the near absence of requisite experience of the brand consultants in similar kind of industrial set ups. Ashish, however, did not consider lack of experience to be a major handicap in doing a good job for SRF. Besides, there were differences of opinion in the choice of consultants as well; whether to go for experienced individuals or work with a reputed agency. In the recent past, SRF did not have a good experience with a consulting rm where the team members kept changing at regular intervals. Another general perception that existed among the CLT members was that the reputed agencies would charge exorbitant fee for any additional work beyond the pre-specied scope of work, and they recommend expensive solutions including advertising which were not the best solutions for SRF. There were also concerns about the ability of individual consultants to tie up with other agencies when required. Moreover, working with an individual in a long-term project seemed to be a risky proposition. Desirable vs available Ashish knew that many of the questions raised were valid but he felt that the decision in this case had to be based on what was available, and not what was ideal. The problem was compounded by the fact that all of the agencies which were short-listed had some or the

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other limitations. None of the agencies was likely to get the wholehearted approval of the entire CLT. Consensus building Ashish was keen on achieving a consensus among CLT members about the selection of a brand consultant. He was, however, more concerned about zeroing in on the right consultant who would understand SRF way of doing business and thus provides tailor-made strategies. Implicit in the consensus was the buy-in of all the CLT members, so essential for successful implementation of any company wide initiative. He combed through the interviews of the CLT members, which was part of the le given to him. He started looking for the relevant parts and underlined what he felt were signicant for different members (Exhibit 11 gives the underlined part of the report). Ashish nally agreed on the following set of selection criteria: Keywords: Selecting brand consultant, Corporate branding, Brand building, Consultants
B B B B

well dened milestones for the project in order to avoid any cost and time overrun; brand consultants ability to comprehend SRFs unique culture and values; value-match with the consultant; and ease of working relationship.

Exhibit 1. Composition and prole of CLT of SRF

Figure E1

Chairman

MD

Deputy MD

President (HR)

President & CEO (TTB)

President & CEO (CB)

President & CEO (Proj R & D)

President (C.F.O)

Arun Bharat Ram (Chairman) Arun Bharat Ram, Chairman of SRF Limited is an alumnus of the University of Michigan, USA. A mid-handicap golfer and a keen musician, having learnt under the renowned maestro Pt. Ravi Shankar, he plays the sitar whenever possible. Arun Bharat Ram belongs to a renowned industrialist family of Delhi, well known for its contribution in the eld of education, art, culture and sports. Ashish Bharat Ram (Managing Director) Ashish Bharat Ram took over as managing Director of SRF Ltd in 2006. He has assumed various responsibilities across different verticals since he joined SRF in 1994. Under his leadership SRF has grown into a multi-location global entity with operations in four countries. Kartik Bharat Ram (Deputy Managing Director) Kartik Bharat Ram took over as Deputy Managing Director of SRF Limited in February 2007. In his current role, Kartik is largely involved in creation and strengthening of a culture of total excellence across the organization with studied focus on TQM as SRF way of management. He is passionately involved in driving aspirations of the company through value-based

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leadership. Kartik is also striving to build SRF into a trusted corporate brand one that is respected for its commitment to deliver sustainable growth through total excellence. He has also been associated with designing business processes with Coopers & Lybrand for setting up a new factory under SRFs business in UAE. Rajendra Prasad (President and CFO) Prior to joining SRF as CFO in March 2006, Rajendra Prasad worked with American Express for 17 years summing up his tenure as the Lead Controller for the entities in India and adjoining countries. Earlier, he also had a brief stint in the civil services of the Government of India, the hospitality and the manufacturing sectors. With over 29 years of diverse experience Rajendra Prasad is currently responsible for designing, dening and implementing policies and process improvements in nance. He has also been spearheading a task of putting into place a company wide risk control mechanism. Roop Salotra (President and CEO Chemicals Business and Packaging Films Business) Roop Salotra is actively involved in Montreal and Kyoto Protocol initiatives on behalf of the Indian industry and has acted as support for the Indian Government in the negotiations of the protocols. Under his leadership SRF acquired a unique distinction of being one of the rst industries in India to invest in clean development mechanism (CDM) under Kyoto protocol to reduce carbon emissions. He has also been instrumental in ensuring successful phase out of the production of ozone depleting refrigerant gases at SRF as per the Montreal Protocol. Suresh Tripathi (President Human Resources) With over 27 years of experience in the eld of Human Resource, Suresh Dutt Tripathi has been spearheading his passion of Institution Building through value-based leadership at SRF. Currently, he is deeply involved in integration of the companys recently acquired units in Thailand and South Africa. Recently, Suresh has also taken over additional responsibility as CEO of Shri Educare Ltd, a new venture of promoters of SRF in the eld of education. Sushil Kapoor (President and CEO Technical Textiles Business) Sushil Kapoor is at the helm of the largest business segment of the company, the Technical Textiles Business. With over 28 years of diversied experience, he assumed many roles spanning purchase, projects, operations, sales and marketing across engineering, chemicals and technical textiles industries. His authority on technical matters, hands-on approach to leadership and inter-personal skills have enabled him to turnaround many of the operational units in SRF, a feat that has earned him a title of turnaround expert. He also played a key role in two successful overseas acquisitions for SRF during 2008, the one in Thailand and the other one in South Africa in addition to commissioning projects for SRFs maiden entry into the arena of Polyester Industrial Yarn and Laminated Fabrics. Rajdeep Anand (President Projects and R&D) Rajdeep Anand drives the companys vision of creating value through innovation in refrigerants and life science products. He has been involved in building the companys in-house R&D capability in high end of technology in new generation refrigerants and speciality chemicals that is recognized and respected by the leading global players in these spaces. Source: The report given to CLT members.

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Exhibit 2. The product range and business structure of SRF

Figure E2

Figure E3

Notes: TTB, technical textiles business; CB, chemical business; PFB, packaging film business; EPB: engineering plastic business; IYB, industrial yarn business Source: Companys Office Diary (2010)

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Table EI
Product Applications

Business

Technical textiles business Nylon tyre cord Belting fabrics Coated fabrics

Industrial Yarns (both twines and yarns) Refrigerants

Exhibit 3. The product applications

Chemicals business

Chloromethanes Fluorospecialities Engineering plastics Polyester lms/biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate lms

VOL. 1 NO. 4 2011 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 11

Engineering plastics business Packaging lms business

Reinforcements for all kinds of tyres ranging from bicycle to car to heavy commercial vehicles Reinforcement for conveyor belts used in mining and utility companies Fabricated into awnings, tarpaulins and canopies that are used on trucks and jeeps, covers that keep cricket pitches, tennis courts and sports elds dry when the rain gods spoil the show, smart sports kits and even makeshift tents used for wedding parties Used as shnets, ropes, industrial sewing thread, chafer fabrics used in cycle tyres and narrow industrial tapes Used for refrigeration and air-conditioning in a variety of industrial, commercial and household applications. HCFC-22 is the cooling agent in domestic air-conditioners, and is a raw material for making Teon, the coating that adds non-stick to kitchenware. HFC 134a is a new generation ozone-friendly refrigerant, used in refrigerators and in cars and as propellants in pharmaceutical applications such as inhalers Used as solvents and foam-blowing agents Used as organic building blocks/intermediates in pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries Used in cars and 2-wheelers, switchgear, MCB housings, CFL bulb holders, bulb holder housings, pulleys and industrial gear boxes Predominantly used in exible packaging applications. Also used by converters for making packaging material for a wide variety of FMCG products such as soaps and detergents, tea, shampoo sachets, packaged wheat our, etc.

Source: Company documents

Exhibit 4. Consolidated nancial gures of SRF Ltd, all gures in Rs million

Table EII
Particulars Year ended 31 March 2008 Year ended 31 March 2007 18,865.2 132.5 18,997.7 14,039.1 (207.0) 9,267.7 14.7 1,504.0 778.2 846.0 1,835.5 366.1 166.8 4,425.7 1,318.2 191.7 32.3 2,883.4

Net sales/income from operations 16,835.3 Other income 187.9 Total income 17,023.2 Total expenditure 14,458.2 (Increase)/decrease in stock 87.0 Consumption of raw materials 9,456.0 Purchase of traded goods 20.8 Power and fuel 1,470.5 Employee cost 869.6 Depreciation 997.0 Additional depreciation 48.5 Other expenditure 1,508.8 Interest and nance charges (net) 357.2 Exchange currency uctuation loss/(gain) 210.0 Exceptional items 13.3 Prot/(loss) from ordinary activities before tax 1,984.5 Provision for tax current 430.6 Provision for tax deferred 212.1 Provision for tax earlier years (4.8) Net prot/(loss) from ordinary activities after tax 1,346.6 Segment wise revenue, results and capital employed Segment revenue Technical textiles business (TTB) 9,088.0 Chemicals business (CB) 4,789.4 Packaging lm business (PFB) 2,275.7 Segment results (PBIT) TTB 199.1 CB 2,552.8 Packaging lm business (PFB) 213.6 Capital employed (segment assets in production less-segment liabilities) TTB 9,103.7 CB 2,905.2 PFB 1,815.4 Source: Published company records

8,699.9 7,294.4 2,031.0 466.8 4,834.2 (53.4) 8,863.2 1,580.1 1,891.7

Exhibit 5. Growth plans of SRF

Recent acquisitions. As part of its growth strategy SRF has recently acquired two foreign entities, one in Thailand, and the other one in South Africa. Thai Baroda Industries Ltd, Thailand. SRF acquired this plant, a manufacturer of tyre cord in 2008. After acquisition the unit has been renamed SRF Technical Textiles (Thailand) Ltd With this acquisition, SRFs world ranking improved from 3rd to 2nd in the production of Nylon 6 tyre cord. Industex Technical Textiles (Pty) Ltd, South Africa. SRF acquired this unit, a manufacturer of belting fabrics, in 2008. After acquisition he unit has been renamed SRF Industex Belting (Pty) Ltd. With this acquisition, SRFs world ranking improved from 3rd to 2nd in the production of Nylon 6 tyre cord. Planned projects in immediate future. Expansion of coated fabrics the board has approved a capex proposal to enhance the capacity of Coated Fabrics by 170 lakh m2 per annum at SRFs existing plant location in Gummidipoondi at a total investment of approximately Rs 143 crore. The new facility when completed will enable SRF to offer new products such as lacquered tarpaulins and fabrics for tensile structures and awnings as well as polyurethane coated fabrics which are emerging applications in India.

PAGE 12 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 1 NO. 4 2011

Multi-purpose chemical complex SRF is currently in the midst of planning a chemical complex at Dahej in Gujarat. The plant that is driven by R&D on commissioning will produce around 20,000 tonnes of a chemical product. The project is scheduled to be completed by the rst quarter of 2012. Source: web site of SRF Ltd.

Exhibit 6. The SRF logo

Figure E4

Source: Website of SRF Ltd

Exhibit 7. Summary of the preliminary research report

Table EIII
Target audience Employees Future employees Investors Customers Their perception of SRF An employee friendly company Not very sure of the future plans Do not know much Making money through CDM only A reliable supplier Desired perception A proud workplace Clarity on companys future plans Aware of the company, its future plans and potential A blue chip company A reliable supplier The only supplier for their requirements of both products and services A good corporate citizen

Community

Not many know about its CSR activities

Purpose statement of SRF Make our nation proud by being the best at what we do. Desired public perception about SRF
B

An Indian company that is expanding in a big way beyond the shores of India through large international acquisitions. An employee friendly organization. An Indian multi-national business group. A professional organization with ethical management. Professionals are valued.

B B B B

Something that should never change about SRF

B B

care and respect for people; trustworthiness;

VOL. 1 NO. 4 2011 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 13

B B B

its business practices dependability and reliability; ethical management; and equal opportunity.

Insights on why did employees leave SRF?

B

SRF was not among the top quartile of employers in terms of salary and growth opportunities within the organization. People usually left within the rst six months of joining because of the obsession with the TQM way of doing things at SRF.

Critical insights (verbatim representation) of CLT members of SRF

B

We are very good at what we do. We are innovative, reliable, quality oriented and environmentally sensitive. This was the image we need to build because it was inherent in what we are trying to do. No other company in India does all that. All of our products are intermediates and are in the commodity segment. R&D holds the key to the companys success. It strives to create niche products out of commodity products. Innovation and technological breakthroughs are extremely critical for the future. We do not recognize this enough. Growth will be both through acquisitions and innovation. Now the company was actively considering its choices in diversifying its product portfolio as well as exploring the international markets, and a full-edged corporate brand building exercise was required. Each business has its own set of competitors but what makes SRF stand out is that its business partners can trust SRFs word. Commitment is something that SRF stands by even if there are uctuations in the market. The group SRF was running on trust and that was the strongest pillar! The customers of SRF know that SRF will never resort to any unfair means. In terms of Fluoro-specialities verticals, we have become the leader but overall as a company, we are far from being the leader in research. In the tyre cord and refrigerant business there should be no one in the industry who doesnt know of SRF. But the end consumer does not know SRF. To be a leader, the business space ought to know of us. We are the trustworthy solution providers, who are working towards solving customer needs versus just giving a product. SRF was known for the quality of its products among its customers. Customers prefer buying from SRF for ease of dealing, quality of products, and tradition of honoring commitments.

B B

B B B

Source: Company records.

PAGE 14 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 1 NO. 4 2011

Table EIV
Advantages of corporate branding for SRF

Advantages of product branding for SRF

The products had very distinct and different customer bases with diverse needs

Technology driven products and sold essentially to a select set of customers

All the businesses were prot centers and hence they were more likely to support the brand building spend as they reaped direct benet The manpower was mostly in the factory. The skilled manpower was likely to be aware about the product and product brand was likely to be more helpful In attracting the right talent. For unskilled manpower, brand might not be critical Disadvantages of product branding for SRF Successful product could not be leveraged across categories

The company was diversied and a strong corporate brand was easier to leverage across categories The B2B companies depended on referencing and the product specic references were difcult to leverage across categories The amount of money required to support many small brands was likely to add up to a very big amount Corporate brand was likely to provide synergies and could be leveraged with larger number of stakeholders like nancial institution and global audience

More money would be required in total as well as the entire synergy could not be utilized The control on brand building lay in the SBUs and hence the brand as a resource would not be developed and hence harnessed to its full potential

Exhibit 8. Product vs corporate brand deliberations

VOL. 1 NO. 4 2011 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 15

Disadvantages of corporate branding for SRF It may be a time consuming and costly which may not generate the desired business specic impact The effectiveness is difcult to measure and hence resource utilization may not be most efcient The businesses are diverse and hence creating a corporate brand which integrates all of them as well as take advantage of the synergy is quite a challenge and resource intensive

Source: CLT le

PAGE 16 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 1 NO. 4 2011

j
Remarks by Mukund

Table EV

Brand consultant

Credentials

Exhibit 9. Agency credentials

j
They are one of the best in the business Their participation will give us a new perspective on the project They are favorably located in Gurgaon They are keen to take up the SRF project and hence may even quote a competitive price They are one of the best in the business The digital media was an upcoming eld which SRF could leverage in future They did not have any small budget clients They are one of the best in the business and most of their clients were in Gurgaon, so coordination would not be a problem Owners were well known professionals, having a reputation of developing several successful brands Their rates are likely to be competitive He has experience and reputation to develop successful brand building strategies He could not provide all the services, but would be resourceful in arranging different services required in brand building exercise

An international agency, with 138 ofces in 82 countries They have their own model for creating a brand which enjoyed high-brand loyalty Client prole: nearly half of the top 100 most valuable global brands, including ve of the top ten A part of an international agency that operates out of over 150 countries In India, they are ve years old, with ofces in Delhi and Mumbai Among the largest agencies in Delhi with close to 100 committed professionals working under one roof Client crole: some of the multi-nationals including biggest advertisers in India Uniqueness: offered an array of services from brand communication to digital and mobile marketing to on ground activation solutions through a single entity Was one of the worlds most reputed advertising agencies Their major clients included multi-nationals and they held most of the accounts across the world The two owners were experienced in the eld of advertising with excellent academic and professional credentials Over 25 years of corporate experience with top advertising agencies Strategic marketing, sales promotion and CRM consultant Last assignment as executive vice-president of an international advertising agency Actively involved in academic front currently teaching brand building and CRM at some of the top management institutions in the country Brand building associations with six to seven big advertisers Owner had 39 years of experience in the communications industry He began his career with an international agency (was posted in London and India) where he spent 22 years He was past President and CEO of another international advertising agency which exited India

Exhibit 10. Key differentiators of the three short-listed consultants

Table EVI
Agency A Individual/agency Advertising agency Team The agency proposed to hire another agency as brand expert for the SRF project. The CEOs of both the organizations were present in the meeting. The two CEOs seemed to be very keen and claimed to be personally involved in the project It was a two member team headed by an expert who had worked in the USA on brand strategies. Both the members had around six to eight years of work experience Comments of the Corporate Communication Team They seemed to have a single model for developing brand strategies for all organizations They, however, did not present the details of their methodology and project milestones

Advertising agency

Individual consultant

It was largely a two-member team, both having more than 25 years of experience. They were also running a small advertising agency

They seemed to have done a preliminary research on SRF brand. They not only presented a detailed outline of the process with clear milestones but also presented a possible solution based on their limited research, which impressed everyone present in the meeting. The focus was on creating a brand charter before launching brand activation plans They presented a model for corporate brand identity building framework with a strong emphasis on creating a culture of brand internally

Source: Internal report of SRF

Exhibit 11. Relevant excerpts from the interviews as in the transcripts, underlined by Ashish
Arun Bharat Ram All our products are products which are converted by others to end products. SRF in many ways is as good as DCM and theres no reason why we should not be recognized for it. We are a signicant player in the world yet we get no visibility. Why visibility is important? Share price is not as important to drive up. But the fair price of the share should be there. It is extremely important to be known as a strong ethical player to attract talent. We want everyone in the organization to feel pride in SRF. Investors are less of a concern. That will come. Maximum recognition should be with people who are current and prospective employees. Customers are less of an issue. This is based on customer relationships. The public at large is of secondary importance. International customers are important, because in future, we hope to build many relationships. SRF would be a humane person who respects people, recognises competence, does not necessarily reward adequately. Reasonably risk averse, and lives by its integrity codes. An open person who gives opportunities to others to say what they want. Kartik Bharat Ram As one of its objectives, SRF aims to achieve a certain level of familiarity among the general public, especially potential recruits (employable people). SRF now recruits from tier 2 towns but aims to get the cream from those institutes. To these potential employees, SRF aspires to be sought as a caring company, not overtly aggressive but not too conservative either, a company which aims for nancially prudent growth. Each business has its own set of competitors but what makes SRF stand out is that it the business partners can take SRFs word. Commitment is something that SRF stands by even if there are uctuations in the market. Rajendra Prasad By the end of 2009, the goal is to get stake holders know that there is a multi-national multi-business group. At this moment, there is a muddled up issue of the identity of SRF and the objective is to make them understand this group better. For the employees, SRF should create an identity so that they are recognized as employees of a multi-national business

VOL. 1 NO. 4 2011 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 17

group. Experience of handling multi-national brands across multiple locations would be useful for SRF. Roop Salotra I would like SRF to be recognized as a good company to work with. People should know what SRF stands for. SRF is a strong, promoter-driven yet professionally managed company. It is a place where you can get the best of both worlds. It is a brand that believes in corporate governance, a professional environment. It is compassionate, has long-term vision and does not get bogged down by rules and regulations. SRFs strategy is to expand in a big way beyond the shores of India. We are actively pursuing large, international acquisitions. Internal employees should understand SRF well as it can get more challenging because our acquisitions are adding a larger number of employees who are unfamiliar with what SRF stands for. Communication to these new employees is especially important and that has to very innovative and interesting for them to register. Floron is the only product with a clear, recognized branding. The goal of brand building is to reach mechanics as reaching end-users is too costly. Rajdeep Anand SRF should be seen by people around as a professional organization with ethical management, and growth oriented (not seen as one today). Not just a brand for products but a strong corporate brand. In refrigerants, we should be big and this is where we require a string product brand but when it comes to other business verticals, we need a strong corporate brand. The brand strategy should be appealing, workable and it should just not be just about creative excellence or good presentation. S.D. Tripathi SRF, being in the commodity market, should not be degraded down to the level of an unethical and a hardcore business oriented company. The perception of a commodity manufacturer is that in the market mainly due to the smaller manufacturers who usually sell out of places like Chandni Chowk (an important wholesale market in Delhi). The brand can only be understood and delivered by people who are going to put adequate time and effort in understanding the nuances of the market.

Corresponding author
Jaydeep Mukherjee can be contacted at: jmukherjee@mdi.ac.in

PAGE 18 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 1 NO. 4 2011