Innovation in procurement from rural India using enterprise mobility strategy: a case study

Abstract

Purpose – The fundamental rule for sustenance in the business world for organizations is to explore new ways to discover themselves and to realign the business strategies with the changing environment, apply new management concepts and adopt new technologies so as to have a faster response to the changing business situation. With more than 600 million user base of mobile phones in India, it may be useful for the Indian companies to set up an enterprise mobility strategy akin to their information technology strategy and take maximum advantage of this mobile wave. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses methodology adopted to bring in and manage change in its process of procurement in a big organization “Marico,” one of the largest players in the Indian FMCG sector. A detailed process which “Marico” adopted to bring change in procurement process and its supply chain was studied with the help of long interviews and available secondary data. Findings – Heindl mode (2008) on the steps on continuous innovation are what Marico followed though process started in Marico much earlier. The case emphasizes how innovation models can be followed even to bring change in big corporate houses. Practical implications – Marico did formulate an enterprise mobility strategy as an innovation in its procurement process can pave the way and learning for other FMCG companies to benchmark its strategies against the one adopted by “Marico” the company of the study to find out the gaps exiting and therefore, the scope for improvement. Originality/value – “Maricio” is a unique example of continuous innovation and change in procurement from rural India which revolutionized the industry and bought bigger revenue and less hassles for the company.