Silvio Napoli at Schindler India (A) Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Introduction

Schindler is the largest manufacturer of escalators and elevators in the world. It was established in 1874 by Robert Schindler in Switzerland. In addition to this, Schindler started manufacturing escalators in 1889. Alfred N. Schindler got the hold of the company in the year 1987 who modified the culture of the company from the engineering-based manufacturing to a customer-oriented service company.

The company did not have the local market presence in India until in 1950s Schindler was appointed as a local distributor. Schindler earned the revenue of 6.6 billion Swiss francs (US$4 billion) in 1998 and was considered as technology leader in escalators. Moreover, Schindler have more than 38,000 employees in 97 subsidiaries, but so far the company did not have its own operations in the Indian market.

Additionally, the Indian elevator market has a great and substantial potential of growth that encouraged Alfred Schindler to take the bold step to enter the Indian market by its completely owned subsidiary. Schindler had cooperated with two companies in order to sell its elevators in the Indian market, but it terminated both agreements because of the contradictory differences with them.

Therefore, after a long and unsuccessful experience in the Indian market, Schindler started considering the options to establish its own operation in India to take the advantage of the opportunities present in the Indian elevator market. In order to implement the strategy to enter an Indian market, the corporate executive committee (VRA) appointed Silvio Napoli to create the company’s Indian subsidiary.

Question 1

Yes, Silvio Napoli was the right choice made by Schindler for the position of general manager of Schindler’s India operations. As Silvio Napoli was young who knew the company’s products and people along with this, he was flexible, trustworthy and a generalist. In addition to this, he was also enthusiastic to go India that contributed in his favor. Silvio Napoli also has the close relationship with the corporate executive committee members at Schindler that creates a benefit for him.

He has a vast knowledge of the Indian market as Silvio Napoli spent nine months in order to develop a detailed analysis of the Indian elevator market. In addition to this, he greatly and effectively understood the market size, competition situation as well as legal environment of the Indian elevator market. Another important factor that determines that he was the right choice for the position of general manager for Indian subsidiary was his early involvement in this project. This was because his early involvement in this project gave him major understandings and better knowledge of initiating new subsidiary India.

However, he has the abilities and skills that are required in order to launch and lead the Indian subsidiary. The main problem was with the business plan of the company not with the leadership style of Silvio Napoli. Although there were some weaknesses of Silvio Napoli but these were not much significant as compared to the strengths that he had. At that time Silvio Napoli was the best available option for the company to offer this job position due to Silvio Napoli’s in depth study of the Indian elevator market. Also, the competition in the Indian elevator market was high and strong that required giving the responsibility to create the Indian subsidiary to someone who had great knowledge of market conditions.

His qualities included being well-disciplined, energetic as well as having risk taking abilities. These leadership qualities were necessary in order to start up a new subsidiary in a country having different culture and working environment like India.

Question 2

Silvio Napoli performance has both positive and negative aspects that impact the overall productivity of Schindler in India. Silvio Napoli has showed a very positive performance on a few events that reflected his qualities as leader. The techniques that Silvio Napoli used for selecting the management team for his Indian subsidiary were extremely constructive. The selection of the management team with the experienced managers having a strong background in India was a very thoughtful and logical idea of Silvio Napoli.

An experienced management team was needed in order to effectively implement the plan of lunching new subsidiary. In addition to this, due to the strong competition in the Indian elevator market a strong team was required in order to tackle the competition............................................

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The young Italian Swiss multinational MBA works sent to India to establish subsidiaries and the strategy he prepared at the headquarters of a strategic planning process. This case focuses on three main strategic decisions he has to make, as his plan to challenge their local Indian team management and Schindler's European plants, which supply it. Rewritten version of the previous case. "Hide
by Mikhail Y. Yoshino, Christopher A. Bartlett, Perry L. Fagan Source: HBS Premier Case Collection 19 pages. Publication Date: February 12, 2003. Prod. #: 303086-PDF-ENG