SYNOPSIS

On

BUSINESS STRATEGY OF

Submitted to

LINGAYA’S UNIVERSITY, FARIDABAD

In Partial Fulfillment for the requirement of

BACHELORS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

(BBA)

Submitted By

Annie Joseph

11BBA06

Supervisor

Dr. Mitu G Matta

(Associate Professor)

Department of Business Administration

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CONTENTS

Introduction …………………………………………………………………….3 Need of Study…………………………………………………………………...7 Literature Review……………………………………………………………….8 Theoretical Background………………………………………………………...10 Research Methodology………………………………………………………….11 Chapterization………………………………………………………………….. 15 References…………………………………………………………………….....16

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Introduction To the Topic

Business Strategy - The Art, Science, and Craft of Decision-Making

A business strategy is the means by which it sets out to achieve its desired ends (objectives). It can simply be described as a long-term business planning. Typically a business strategy will cover a period of about 3-5 years (sometimes even longer).A business strategy is concerned with major resource issues e.g. raising the finance to build a new factory or plant. Strategies are also concerned with deciding on what products to allocate major resources to - for example when Coca-Cola launched Pooh Roo Juice in this country.Strategies are concerned with the scope of a business' activities i.e. what and where they produce. For example, BIC's scope is focused on three main product areas - lighters, pens, and razors, and they have developed super factories in key geographical locations to produce these items.

Two main categories of strategies can be identified:

1. Generic (general) strategies, and

2. Competitive strategies

The main types of generic strategies that organizations can pursue are:

1. Growth i.e. the expansion of the company to purchase new assets, including new businesses, and to develop new products. The Inland Revenue has expanded from being just a tax collector, to other functions such as collecting student loan repayments and paying tax credits.

2. Internationalization/globalization i.e. moving operations into more and more countries. For example companies like Gillette, Coca-Cola, Kellogg's, and Cadbury Schweppes are major multinationals with operations across the globe.

3. Retrenchment involves cutting back to focus on your best lines. The Americans refer to this as 'sticking to the knitting' - i.e. concentrating on what you do best.

Competitive advantage

Competitive strategies are also important. Competitive strategies are concerned with doing things better than rivals. To be competitive a firm shouldn't just copy the ideas of rivals. They should seek to out compete rivals. There are two main ways of being competitive.

1. By selling goods at lower prices than rivals. This is possible when a firm is the market leader and benefits from economies of scale.

2. By differentiating your product from those of rivals - which enables you to charge a higher price if desired.

The airline industry is divided into two main segments. At one end of the market are the premium price category firms such as British Airways that concentrate on differentiation. They offer better service to passengers, more legroom, in flight entertainment, and more individualised attention. At the other end of the market the emphasis is

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on being the low cost producer and is exemplified by 'no frills' airlines such as Ryanair. Ryanair focuses on short haul destinations and keeping its planes in the air as frequently as possible in a 24 hour period.

Economies of scale - The advantages that large firms have from producing large volumes of output enabling them to spread their costs over more units of output.

Differentiation - Making a product different from rival offerings e.g. through packaging and labelling, customer care, additional extra features, etc.

Three Kinds of Business Strategy by Fred NickolsThree basic kinds of strategy with which people must concern themselves in the world of business: (1) strategy in general, (2) corporate strategy, and (3) competitive strategy.

Strategy in General

Strategy, in general, refers to how a given objective will be achieved. Consequently, strategy in general is concerned with the relationships between ends and means, between the results we seek and the resources at our disposal.

Corporate Strategy

Corporate strategy defines the markets and the businesses in which a company will operate. Corporate strategy is typically decided in the context of defining the company's mission and vision, that is, saying what the company does, why it exists, and what it is intended to become.

Competitive Strategy

Competitive or business strategy defines for a given business the basis on which it will compete. Competitive strategy hinges on a company's capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses in relation to market characteristics and the corresponding capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses of its competitors.

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Introduction of the company

Airtel to “Touch Tomorrow” with a new brand vision

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 4 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had nearly 287 million customers across its operations at the end of Dec 2013.

Bharti Airtel becomes the fourth largest mobile operator in the world

Education is now available anytime, anywhere with Airtel mEducation

Airtel was born free, a force unleashed into the market with a relentless and unwavering determination to succeed. A spirit charged with energy, creativity and a team driven “to seize the day” with an ambition to become the most admired telecom service provider globally. airtel, in just ten years of operations, rose to the pinnacle of achievement and continues to lead.

As India's leading telecommunications company, airtel brand has played the role of a major catalyst in India's reforms, contributing to its economic resurgence.Today we touch people's lives with our Mobile services, Telemedia services, to connecting India's leading 1000+ corporates. We also connect Indians living in USA, UK and Canada with our call home service.

The company complements its mobile, broadband & telephone services with national and international long distance services. The company also has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore.

The company provides end-to-end data and enterprise services to the corporate customers through its nationwide fiber optic backbone, last mile connectivity in fixed-line and mobile circles, VSATs, ISP and international bandwidth access through the gateways and landing station.

Bharti Enterprises has successfully focused its strategy on telecom while straddling diverse fields of business. From the creation of 'Airtel', one of India's finest brands, to becoming the largest manufacturer and exporter of world class telecom terminals under its 'Beetel' brand, Bharti has created a significant position for itself in the global telecommunications sector. Bharti Airtel

Limited is today acknowledged as one of India's finest companies, and its flagship brand 'Airtel', has over 24 million customers across the length and breadth of India.

While a joint venture with TeleTech Inc., USA marked Bharti’s successful foray into the Customer Management Services business, Bharti Enterprises’ dynamic diversification has continued with the company venturing into telecom software development.

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Recently, Bharti has successfully launched an international venture with EL Rothschild Group owned ELRO Holdings India Ltd., to export fresh Agri products exclusively to markets in Europe and USA.

Companies of Airtel

A brief introduction to each of its companies is given below:

1. Bharti Airtel Ltd Bharti Airtel Ltd is India's leading provider of telecommunications services. The company has 4 distinct Business divisions - Mobile & telephone services, broadband services, long distance services and enterprise services.

2. Bharti TeleTech LtdBharti TeleTech Ltd manufactures and exports world-class telecom equipment under the brand 'Beetel'

3. Telecom Seychelles Ltd

Telecom Seychelles Ltd provides telecom services in Seychelles, under the brand 'Airtel'

4. Bharti Telesoft LtdBharti Telesoft Ltd delivers best-in-class, revenue-critical VAS products and services to telecom carriers.

5. TeleTech Services (India) LtdTeleTech Services (India) Ltd is joint venture with TeleTech Inc., USA. It offers a range of Customer Management Services.

6. FieldFresh Foods Pvt LtdFieldFresh Foods Pvt Ltd is Bharti's venture with EL Rothschild Group owned ELRO Holdings India Ltd., to export fresh Agri products exclusively to markets in Europe and USA.Airtel is a brand of telecommunication services in India operated by Bharti Airtel.

Airtel is the largest cellular service provider in India in terms of number of subscribers. Bharti Airtel owns the Airtel brand and provides the following services under the brand name Airtel: Mobile Services (using GSM Technology), Broadband & Telephone Services (Fixed line, Internet Connectivity(DSL) and Leased Line), Long Distance Services and Enterprise Services (Telecommunications Consulting for corporates).

It has presence in all 23 circles of the country and covers 71% of the current population.Leading international telecommunication companies such as Vodafone and SingTel held partial stakes in Bharti Airtel.

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Need Of Study

Airtel has set an ambitious target of doubling the subscriber base in next 2-3 years. Through this study we will understand the strategic position, Strength,Weaknesses Oppurtunities and Threats that will play a role in achieving the Airtel’s Target.

To understand the Various Marketing Strategies which Airtel has adopted to survive in this highly competitive market

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Review Of Literature

Strategy is the fundamental pattern of present and planned objectives, resources, developments and intractions of an organizations with markets, competitors and other environmental factors.(Mullins,Walker,Beyd &Larreche, 2002 )for this reason , a good strategy should always specify;

What is to be accomplished Where the product, market, or industries that are to be focused. How resources and activities that will be allocated to each market/ product to gain sustainable

competitive advantage.

Marketing is a process for analyzing, planning and managing the organization‟s resources while identifying and serving current and potential client group and their needs profitability.Reason for developing marketing strategy Dirks & Danniel(1991)mention that company managers choose to introduced and / or reemphasize marketing strategy for a number of reasons, which may range from personal interests to corporate policies.

However the reason usually centers around an opportunities or an identified problem that the company management needs to explore. For example:

Introducing new products or services Expanding into new markets. Differentiating products or services. Revitalizing products, services or markets. Deleting or „demarketing‟ product or service Responding to a drop in sales or profits. Evaluating financial or legal risks of opportunities. Enhancing company image,brand or reputation.

According Armstrong,kotler, Cunningham & Mitchell(2004) strategic marketing planning are documents that outline in detail the marketing strategies which will help a company, product or brand accomplish its overall business objectives.

According to Nagasimha kanagal (2006),relationships as a focus on marketing aids in the understanding of consumer needs and wants, which is useful to implement profitable exchanges. Relationship marketing helps customising solutions to important customers, more efficientlythan otherwise,knowledge and application of relationship marketing helps in achieving customer satisfaction ,customer retention and customer Acquisition. Relationship marketing a tool of furthering the customer understanding and interactiveprocesses.

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Relationship marketing outputs can thus be usefully used, as inputs in product design and development, want identification, improving selling systems, pricing strategies. It is one of the supports to systematic action setting in competitive marketing strategy.

Author such as stanton,etzel & walker(1991;13)McCartly & Perrearelt (1993;46) and Kotler & armstrong (1997;52) agree that the traditional marketing mix has been defined as a set of controllable instruments to manage the uncontrollable and dynamic marketing environment and consist of four major element price, product, promotion or marketing communication and place.According to Donath (1999;14)there is an overemphasis on price and product as marketing instruments and an underemphasis on place and promotion. A danger exists that organizations will therefor make a misallocation of organizational resources betweenthe four marketing mix instruments ( Chintaganta & vikassinh,1994;87)

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THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian multinational telecommunications services company headquartered in New Delhi, India. It operates in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa, and the Channel Islands. Airtel has a GSM network in all countries in which it operates, providing 2G, 3G and 4G services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel is the world's second largest mobile telecommunications company by subscribers, with over 275 million subscribers across 20 countries as of July 2013. It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with 192.22 million subscribers as of August 2013. Airtel is the Second largest in-country mobile operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile.

Airtel is the largest provider of mobile telephony and second largest provider of fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services. It offers its telecom services under the "airtel" brand, and is headed by Sunil Bharti Mittal. Bharti Airtel is the first Indian telecom service provider to achieve Cisco Gold Certification. It also acts as a carrier for national and international long distance communication services. The company has a submarine cable landing station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and Singapore.

Airtel is credited with pioneering the business strategy of outsourcing all of its business operations except marketing, sales and finance and building the 'minutes factory' model of low cost and high volumes. The strategy has since been copied by several operators. Its network—base stations, microwave links, etc.—is maintained by Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Network whereas IT support is provided by IBM, and transmission towers are maintained by another company (Bharti Infratel Ltd. in India). Ericsson agreed for the first time to be paid by the minute for installation and maintenance of their equipment rather than being paid up front, which allowed Airtel to provide low call rates of 1/minute (US$0.02/minute). During the last financial year (2009–10), Bharti negotiated for its strategic partner Alcatel-Lucent to manage the network infrastructure for the tele-media business. On 31 May 2012, Bharti Airtel awarded the three-year contract to Alcatel-Lucent for setting up an Internet Protocol access network (mobile backhaul) across the country. This would help consumers access internet at faster speed and high quality internet browsing on mobile handsets.

The Indian economy has seen a significant development in the last two decades. Several hundred million people are benefiting from the country's progress. Concurrently, India's population too has risen to more than 1.2 billion, placing an increasing burden on existing resources. Access to basic services like education, health, financial services, banking etc. are often beyond the means of the common person.

Airtel's sustainability journey endeavours to contribute further to our society and to our environment. It is our firm belief that not a single man, woman or child should be denied access to education, health and prosperity.

We believe in social inclusion of people everywhere, and have made this the cornerstone of our sustainability programme.

We leverage our network presence, reach and accessibility, through mobile telephony, direct-to-home television and broadband services, to contribute towards a sustainable future, not just for people everywhere but also for our planet and economy. We are confident that we can be a force of good, positive change, in society and also augment the efforts of the government, public-private groups, Bharti Foundation and NGOs in the area of sustainability.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A research process consists of stages or steps that guide the project from its conception through the final

analysis, recommendations and ultimate actions. The research process provides a systematic, planned

approach to the research project and ensures that all aspects of the research project are consistent with

each other.

Research studies evolve through a series of steps, each representing the answer to a key question.

INTRODUCTION

This chapter aims to understand the research methodology establishing a framework of evaluation and

revaluation of primary and secondary research. The techniques and concepts used during primary

research in order to arrive at findings; which are also dealt with and lead to a logical deduction towards

the analysis and results.

RESEARCH DESIGN

I propose to first conduct a intensive secondary research to understand the full impact and implication of

the Company, to review and critique the Company norms and reports, on which certain issues shall be

selected, which I feel remain unanswered or liable to change, this shall be further taken up in the next

stage of exploratory research. This stage shall help me to restrict and select only the important question

and issue, which inhabit growth and segmentation in the Company.

The various tasks that I have undertaken in the research design process are :

* Defining the information need

* Design the exploratory, descriptive and causal research.

RESEARCH PROCESS

The research process has four distinct yet interrelated steps for research analysis. It has a logical and

hierarchical ordering:

* Determination of information research problem.

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* Development of appropriate research design.

* Execution of research design.

* Communication of results.

Each step is viewed as a separate process that includes a combination of task , step and specific

procedure. The steps undertake are logical, objective, systematic, reliable, valid, impersonal and

ongoing.

EXPLORATORY RESEARCH

The method I used for exploratory research was

* Primary Data

* Secondary data

PRIMARY DATA

New data gathered to help solve the problem at hand. As compared to secondary data which is

previously gathered data. An example is information gathered by a questionnaire. Qualitative or

quantitative data that are newly collected in the course of research, Consists of original information that

comes from people and includes information gathered from surveys, focus groups, independent

observations and test results. Data gathered by the researcher in the act of conducting research. This is

contrasted to secondary data, which entails the use of data gathered by someone other than the

researcher information that is obtained directly from first-hand sources by means of surveys, observation

or experimentation.

Primary data is basically collected by getting questionnaire filled by the respondents.

SECONDARY DATA

Information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for another purpose. Sources include

census reports, trade publications, and subscription services. There are two types of secondary data:

internal and external secondary data. Information compiled inside or outside the organization for some

purpose other than the current investigation Researching information, which has already been published.

Market information compiled for purposes other than the current research effort; it can be internal data,

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such as existing sales-tracking information, or it can be research conducted by someone else, such as a

market research company or the government.

Secondary source of data used consists of books and websites

DATA COLLECTION

Data collection took place with the help of filling of questionnaires. The questionnaire method has come

to the more widely used and economical means of data collection. The common factor in all varieties of

the questionnaire method is this reliance on verbal responses to questions, written or oral. I found it

essential to make sure the questionnaire was easy to read and understand to all spectrums of people in

the sample. It was also important as researcher to respect the samples time and energy hence the

questionnaire was designed in such a way, that its administration would not exceed 4-5 mins. These

questionnaires were personally administered.

The first hand information was collected by making the people fill the questionnaires. The primary data

collected by directly interacting with the people.The data was collected by interacting with 50

respondents who filled the questionnaires and gave me the required necessary information. The

respondents consisted of students,professionals etc. the required information was collected by directly

interacting with these respondents.

DETERMINATION OF THE SAMPLE PLAN AND SAMPLE SIZE

Target Population

It is a description of the characteristics of that group of people from whom a course is intended. It

attempts to describe them as they are rather than as the describer would like them to be. Also called the

audience, the audience to be served by our project includes key demographic information (i.e.; age, sex

etc.).The specific population intended as beneficiaries of a program. The group of people you are trying

to reach with a particular strategy or activity. The target population is the population I want to make

conclude an ideal situation; the sampling frames to matches the target population. A specific resource set

that is the object or target of investigation. The audience defined in age, background, ability, and

preferences, among other things, for which a given course of instruction is intended.

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I have selected the sample trough Simple random Sampling

SAMPLE SIZE:

This involves figuring out how many samples one need.

The numbers of samples you need are affected by the following factors:

* Project goals

* How you plan to analyze your data

* How variable your data are or are likely to be

* How precisely you want to measure change or trend

* The number of years over which you want to detect a trend

* How many times a year you will sample each point

* How much money and manpower you have

SAMPLE SIZE

I have targeted 50people in the age group above 20 years for the purpose of the research. The target population

influences the sample size. The target population represents the Delhi regions. . The people were from different

professional backgrounds.

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CHAPTERIZATION

The purposed scheme of research is as below:

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Objectives of the study

2.2 Methodology

2.3 Significance

2.4 Limitations

CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS & CONCLUSIONS

CHAPTER 5: SUGGESTIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

QUESTIONNAIRE

ANNEXURE

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REFERENCES

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