XLRI Jamshedpur J. Singh

The PGP Company

The PGP Company was a large concern making many types of consumer products. It had six plants spread around the country. Their purchasing procedures had never been completely coordinated. In fact, the head office of the company had encouraged each of the plant managers to operate with their staffs as separate independent units in most matters.

In 2005, when it began to appear that the company would face increasing difficulty in securing essential raw materials, Mr. Seth, the CEO, recruited an experienced purchasing executive, Mr. Ghosh, as VP in charge of purchasing—a position especially created for him. Mr. Seth gave Mr. Ghosh wide latitude in organizing his job, and assigned Mr. Murthy (who had served the company in various capacities for many years, and knew most of the plant executives personally) as his assistant. Mr. Ghosh’s appointment was announced through the formal channels usual in the company, including the house magazine.

One of Mr. Ghosh’s first decisions was to begin immediately to centralize the company’s purchasing procedure. As a first step he decided that he would require each of the executives who handled purchasing in the individual plants to clear with the head office all purchase contracts which they made in excess of Rs. 1 lakh. He felt that if the head office was to do any coordinating in a way that was helpful to each plant and the company as a whole, he must be notified that the contracts were being prepared at least a week before they were to be signed. He talked his proposal over with Mr. Seth, who presented it to his board of directors. They approved the plan.

Although the company made purchases throughout the year, the beginning of the peak buying season was only 3 weeks away at the time this plan was adopted. Mr. Ghosh prepared a letter to be sent to the 6 plant purchasing executives. The letter follows:

Dear….. The board of directors of our company has recently authorized a change in our purchasing procedures. Hereafter, each of the purchasing executives will notify the VP (Purchasing) of all contracts in excess of Rs. 1 lakh which they are negotiating at least a week in advance of the date on which they are to be signed.

I’m sure that you will understand that this step is necessary to coordinate the purchasing requirements of the company in these times when we are facing increasing difficulty in securing essential supplies. This procedure should give us in the central office the information we need to see that each plant secures the optimum supply of materials. In this way, the interests of each plant and of the company as a whole will be best served. Yours very truly,

Mr. Ghosh showed this letter to Mr. Murthy and invited his comments. Mr. Murthy thought the letter was an excellent one, but suggested that, since Mr. Ghosh had not met the purchasing executives, he might like to visit all of them and take the matter up with each of them personally. Mr. Ghosh dismissed the idea at once because, as he said, he had so many things to do at the head office that he could not get away for a trip. Consequently, he had the letter sent out over his signature.

During the following weeks, replies came in from all the plants. The following reply was typical:

Dear Mr. Ghosh, Your recent communication in regard to notifying the ehad office in advance of our intention to sign contracts has been received. This suggestion seems a most practical one. We want to assure you that you can count on our cooperation.

During the next 6 weeks, the HO received no notices from any plant that contracts were being negotiated. Executives in other departments who made frequent trips to the plants reported that they were busy, and the usual routines for the time of the year were being followed.
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*Adapted from The Dashman case