Tombopharma – Possible solution
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Social Sciences & Solvay Business School
2022 - 2023
Assignment 1.
What is Tombopharma’s current strategy and structure? To what extent are
these facets aligned?
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Strategy: Considering the need for efficiency, we concluded that cost leadership
is the current dominant strategy. What stands out in the case is the focus on
smooth processes, efficient distribution and the importance of procurement and
sales: Everything should be organized as efficiently as possible to save money
and time. Differentiation may come to mind first, because of the complementary
products that Tombopharma offers, but we believe that it is easy for competitors
to offer comparable products and that therefore the product range does not
provide sustainable competitive advantage. Tombopharma’s advantage results
from the company’s focus on efficiency which shines through in all its activities.
Structure: We recognize elements of a functional structure, where there is a
clear divide between the departments. For example, Tombopharma has people
grouped together working on purchase, sales, distribution including the different
warehouses), and support activities. The fact that Tombopharma is a young firm,
has a limited number of product lines (two), and only operates nationally (for
now) provides indirect evidence that there might be a functional structure in
place. It is also clear that the organization went through a period of organic
growth and that currently the coordination and communication between the
different business functions are suboptimal. We can see that at the top
Tombopharma has a large span of control (i.e., large amount of people working
under one manager/department lead), and, paradoxically, that Marc finds it
difficult to delegate. Eventually this combination is not sustainable. A large span
of control does not go along with direct supervision. So, Marc is advised to
change his leadership style and instead of direct supervision he may consider
coordinating the work by means of standardized procedures, by standardizing
the output (e.g., delegating to department heads who are then evaluated based
on the departments’ results).
There is good alignment between strategy and structure. The main advantage of
a functional structure is that it creates economies of scale. That fits the strategy
of cost leadership.
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Social Sciences & Solvay Business School
2022 - 2023
What is Tombopharma’s ideal strategy and structure?
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Strategy: Cost leadership is a good strategy, so there is no need to change this.
Structure: Marc’s span of control is too broad for him to be an effective leader.
He does not have enough time to micro-manage. He may consider relying more
on his department heads for decision-making. The functional structure works
well and can stay in place, unless Tombopharma wants to expand and compete
with Big Pharma by selling prescription medication. The latter requires a shift
towards a more flexible structure, by switching to a product structure or
geographical structure (if expanding abroad), and by using liaison persons, such
as account managers.
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Social Sciences & Solvay Business School
2022 - 2023
Assignment 2.
Create an HR scorecard based on the strategy you identified in the previous
question. Identify the following elements:
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3 HR Drivers:
o High conscientiousness; employees who score high on this personality
trait tend to be responsible, reliable, hard-working and organized. We
expect these employees to work in a more efficient way.
o Good time management; employees with good time management skills
will be able to work in a more efficient way, which is very important for
the cost leadership strategy.
o Low waste mindset; these employees will be aware of the waste they
produce and they will try to limit this. As waste costs money,
Tombopharma does well in hiring these people.
3 HR Deliverables:
o Number of safety incidents; safety incidents cost the organization a lot of
money and it breaks the efficiency. A low number of safety incidents
indicates a smoother/more efficient process.
o Amount of waste (kg); this is linked to the low waste mindset. Here we
measure the amount of waste. For our strategy we would want to see a
low amount.
o Duration of the end of the day delivery; in order to see how efficient the
end of the day delivery is we would time it. The shorter the time the less
money it will cost the organization.
3 HR Enablers:
o Percentage of people following a safety training; this is linked to the
number of safety incidents. In order to lower this amount the organization
should invest in correctly training their employees.
o The use of gain sharing; with gain sharing employees would receive a
percentage of the money that is saved by lowering the waste costs. This
method will motivate employees to produce less waste.
o The use of referral plans; here employees get a one-time bonus when they
bring on a new employee that stays for at least one year. This investment
by the organization help to find good employees, but it also eliminates the
need for an expensive recruitment strategy.
2 HR Doables:
o Time spent on socializing newcomers
o Turnover rate
Please send your feedback about the case in the chat on Canvas.
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