Prakash Dall & Flour Mill: Change Management for Marketing Department

This report analyzes the implementation of a new marketing department within Prakash Dall & Flour Mill, a medium-sized flour and dall manufacturing company. The author identifies the need for a dedicated marketing and public relations department to replace the current broker-dependent system, aiming for direct customer engagement and market expansion. The report details the reasons for change, including the need for direct customer contact, cost savings, and adaptation to modern business trends. It outlines the aims and objectives of the new department, focusing on market research, segmentation, product decisions, and promotion. The report also includes stakeholder analysis, force field analysis, and a proposed implementation plan, addressing organizational readiness and change management steps. Recommendations include the unfreeze-change-refreeze model and a timeline for implementation, highlighting the benefits of the new department for the company's growth and market share.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................... 2
IDENTIFYING THE CHANGE-...............................................................................................3
REASONS FOR CHANGE:....................................................................................................5
AIM AND OBJECTIVES:........................................................................................................6
CHANGE AGENTS:............................................................................................................... 6
STAKE-HOLDER ANALYSIS:................................................................................................7
FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS:....................................................................................................8

CRITIQUE AND SOLUTION:.................................................................................................9
STEPS TO IMPLEMENT CHANGE-......................................................................................9
UNFREEZE-............................................................................................................................ 10
CHANGE-.................................................................................................................................11
REFREEZE-..............................................................................................................................12
OVERVIEW-......................................................................................................................... 13
TIMELINE-........................................................................................................................... 14
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION-......................................................................15
Introduction
The organisation chosen by the Author for the purpose of this study is Prakash Dall
& Flour Mill ( “Company” ).This Company was established in the year 1989. The
Company is based in various parts on India including the states of Maharashtra,
Gujarat and is spread across various states in the South of India. The Company is
medium in size. The underlying function of the Company is to manufacture Dall and
Flour.
The Company has a man power of 400 workers which includes all the kinds of
employees working for it. Conclusively, five departments form the basis of overall
functioning of the Company: Production, Quality, Sales and purchase, Technical
Planning ( Engineer ) & Accounting. Each department has a manager who guides
the entire department towards doing their job right according to the goal of the
company, production manager will be managing the production department to

increase efficiency of this particular department, the Quality manager will be
inspecting the Quality of the production done by the production department and fine
tune the products. Sales and purchase is a very common department in every
business and as the name says it all the manager is supposed to focus on increasing
the sales of the company and also focus on required purchases for the company, the
technical department focuses on smooth functioning of the latest technology
machinery such as in this company would be Cylo’s, dryer’s, milling machines and
keep the company updated with the new technologies entering the market every day
and the last department that is the accounting department the name says it all is
supposed to keep the accounting books of the company clear and updated with all
the purchases and sales made by the company and all the other smallest details
affecting the company’s balance sheet / financial statement for the year.
Identifying the change-
The change that the author would suggest to be implemented by the Company is a
change in the composition of the Company by introducing a new department that
conclusively undertakes the marketing functions and public relations. There is no
specific department that undertakes only marketing per se at the moment in the
Company. The only way of reaching the customers is through the brokers. So these
brokers who are in contact with the customers promote the Company and send in
the requisite demand. A certain percentage of brokerage is paid to them for their
service. These brokers basically act as interface with the Company and the
customers. The current marketing process is explained in the chart below-
Company’s marketing ——> brokers ———> Customers

However, the new department will eliminate this and help the Company get in direct
contact with the customers. After the change has been implemented and the new
department is in action, the Company need not depend on the brokers but rather it
can directly reach its customers. The post-change structure would be as shown
below-
Company’s Marketing department ———> Customers
A brief idea of the department would be as follows:
The workforce in this new department would take in the responsibility of identifying
and analysing the needs of the customers and maintaining public relations as to the
post sale reviews. The initial activities of the managers of this department would
mainly include the following-
• Market Research − It would include making an understanding of the
environment, staying tuned with the economic developments,
analysing customer needs, and strengths and weaknesses of peer
competitors.
• Understanding Market Segments − This would include dividing the
entire flour market into smaller market segments. It also includes
setting a target on a particular market segment and accordingly
positioning those products to draw consumers.
• Product Decisions − This would include deciding or modifying the
quality or feature of a product and/or contemplating decisions about
the development of new product on the basis of customers
requirements.
• Promotion Decisions − Promotion is the main objective and function of
the new department. This would include giving widespread awareness
to the target market about various products that they may want to
consume. Further, the department would join hands with publicity
agencies such as radio, television, and website management agency
to promote the product.

Reasons for change:
The Company is composed of all the major departments, however in order for it
to expand, the promoter needs to have conclusive information about the market
segments along with better public relations. Further, the Company currently does not
have direct contact with the customers as the brokers break the direct chain. In the
current marketing system the agents or as we call them, the brokers are the
intermediaries who earn a certain percentage of commission for their service. Thus
by introducing a new marketing department, the Company will then have a direct
connect with its customers and can focus more on marketing or advertising its
products efficiently and maintain relations with its customers thus resulting into more
and more people and various segments of the market being aware of the Company
and its products. One of the major reasons is also that eliminating the link between
the Company and the customers ie. the brokers, the company will save its external
costs if it chooses to introduce its own marketing department. This would be justified
as the remuneration paid to its own in-house employees would be far less than the
commission charged by the brokers. A new and efficient set of employees will also
help the Company form corporate alliances with other such prospects in the market
as well (What Is Organizational Change Management? | HBS Online, 2021).
Further more, internet has a dominating influence on all markets today, the
company needs to be up-to date with the current business trends in order to stay in
the market. This being another reason for the change- a new department would
assist the company as it would interalia, set its focus on marketing via the internet
and since there is no third party hinderance, the Company can adopt its own ways to
do the same.
Aim and Objectives:
The main objective of this change, that is, introducing a new department
would be to spread and expand the market segment as much as possible through
marketing and advertising. It would aim at creating public awareness for the product
and focus on capturing the flour market as much as possible. Along with the

marketing of the product, the new department would also aim at forming alliances
with other corporate bodies in the segment. This would help the Company to have a
better understanding of its competitors, thus allowing it to survive strongly in the
market.
Maintaining public relations would be an ancillary objective of the departmental
change. Customers are the key aspects of any business. Thus, aiming to keep them
updated and satisfied with regards the product would be a key goal of the new
department which would help the Company gain more goodwill and thus attract more
customers.
Change agents:
An introduction of a new department, even though certain personnels from the
existing department will be transferred, a large amount of the team would be
recruited. Thus the change agents would be the manager and other specialised
workforce of this new department. These new recruits would be personnels
specialised in the field of marketing, advertising and maintaining public relations. And
as aforesaid, this would mainly include using the internet, the employees would have
to have basic IT knowledge as well. However, managers of other departments and
other employees as well as the promoter would play an important role as the change
agents in this case, as all the essential assistance would be provided to the new
department by them.
Change Project Analysis-
Bringing about any change in the organisation would be a big decision the Company
has to make. Change is an essential factor for every organisation to remain stable
and viable in the market. Whether the Company is onboarding new employees, or
growth of a department, or merging with another company, all these changes can
have a significant impact on the trajectory of your business.
Organisational readiness for change is a basically a multi-level, multi-faceted
construct. As an organisation-level construct, readiness for change refers to shared
resolution of the organisational members to implement a change or the commitment

towards change and shared belief in their collective capability to do so or the
efficiency of change (Business Departments - Tutorialspoint, 2021).
As for the Company, in order to introduce a new department all together, some
employees of other departments who have certain knowledge as regards the product
and the marketing aspect, would be transferred to the new department.
Since introducing a completely new department would mean transformational
change in the Company, it can be taxing. All kinds of resources would be required to
implement this change. In order to verify the readiness of the employees, a survey
was undertaken where in the opinion of the employees potential for transfer was
considered. It was concluded that more than 75% of the personnels are ready for
this change. Whereas the remaining fear the unknown and thus were a little reluctant
(Weiner, 2009).
Since majority the employees of the Company value the change and favourably
appraise the implementation, readiness hereof would be high. With respect to other
factors as well, the readiness of the Company with regards this change is
considerably high as all the members are eager to initiate the change exhibiting
great amount of persistence for the implementation of new marketing strategies and
thus meeting higher demands and providing better returns for the Company. Thus
this would help an effective implementation of the process of change.
Stake-holder analysis:
As stakeholder analysis basically refers to identifying the stakeholders that would be
affected by the proposed change and analysing their needs, it becomes essential to
undertake this analysis. Thus as for bringing in a new marketing department,
the stakeholders that would be concerned are interalia the customers, the
employees, the investors and other communities (Stakeholder analysis, 2021).
Undertaking the stakeholder analysis, if the author were to scale the stake of the
stakeholders affected by the change in the Company (on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is
the lowest and 5 would mean the highest level of stake) , the customers being the
target mark for our change- are external stakeholders and thus should be marked at
5 as their interest and response to the advertising and maintaining of public relations
online is at stake. This is also because they are used to the brokers being the
intermediaries but this change would bring them in direct contact with the Company

and its way of functioning. Similarly the investors would be marked at 4 since this
new department would require additional investments and according to the response
of the customers, their investments are at stake. As for employees, the new manager
of the marketing department to be recruited, would be marked at 3 where as the
other employees of the Company at 2. This is because their stakes aren't high,
rather the employees transferred to the new department would be paid their share of
the remuneration irrespective of the response (What is Stakeholder Analysis? |
Definition and Overview, 2021).
Concluding the analysis, even though the stakes maybe high, the interest and
influence the stakeholders on this project is positive as the results expected are in
favour of the Company as well as the stakeholders.
Force field analysis:
Force field analysis would mean a study/comparison of the forces, whether external
or internal that drive the change or resist it. Considering our change in the Company,
the factors that would drive the change would be- a need diversify and capture a
large share in the market, to increase public relations in order to stay in tune with
customer expectations, market and advertise the products using up to date
techniques, changing trends, need to survive in the competitive markets and a need
to increase profits. Whereas, the forces or factors resisting the change would
include- resistance of a certain employees to the introduction of this new department
or being transferred to such department; fear of the unknown, that might be the use
of new digital technology or fear of customer expectation and so on; fear of change
in the existing structure of the organisation when a new department is added etc
(Force Field Analysis: Analyzing the Pressures For and Against Change, 2021).
To conclude this analysis, the pros weigh more than the cons. A fear of change in an
organisation is a common instinct, however, promising returns from the change help
in implementing the change.
Critique and solution:

The existing organisational structure of the Company is not digital at the moment. It
is mainly production and labour based. However this new department would bring in
the digital aspect. Thus once the marketing team grows digitally, it can be a
possibility to equip the purchase and sales department with digital technology as
well. Further more, efficient advertising strategies and public relations would lead to
an increase in the demand of the product and thus the supplies would have to
increase. This would also help the business to expand. Recruitment of new
employees and manager level personnels would mark an increase in the number of
employees and thus might call for better human resource organisation, increasing
the possibility of introducing a further new department in that respect. Thus this one
change in the organisation would invite various other changes to be incorporate in
the near future- and this could possibly be one of the reason of resistance to any
kind of change- the fear of the unknown and the fear of losing stability (Home et al.,
2021).
However there are ways to mitigate this, proper planning and building resources for
the future would be a considerable plan of action to be taken. Further, training the
staff for all kinds of outcomes to the change is necessary.
Steps to implement change-
Change cannot be directly implemented. The Company would have to under go an
entire process and follow steps in order to implement any kind of change. Lewin in
his theory set an observation that it is likely for people to resist change, stay
gravitated towards what they are familiar with and thus seek out zones of comfort.
On the basis of his research, Lewin sought to simplify change management strategy.
In order to implement change successfully, simplicity was required.
It would be wise to use Lewin’s model of change since: It’s relatively easy to
implement; it helps the change to last; since it has a gradual approach, it helps in
creating momentum in the organisation. Thus the change in the Company could be
undertaken using the steps suggested by Lewin in his theory with regards the

changes in an organisation. In his model, Lewin broke down the entire process into
three different stages: Unfreeze, change and re-freeze (What Makes Lewin’s
Change Theory Ideal for Businesses | Lucidchart Blog, 2021).
So a brief idea of the incorporating a new department can be implemented by the
following steps:
Unfreeze-
In the step, Lewin suggests that the organisation must unfreeze its current process
and perceptions. For our Company this would primarily mean unfreezing the existing
chain of marketing and removing the intermediaries that assist the Company reach
its customers. This would be essential to move onto the next step. Secondly, this
step includes unfreezing the tasks of the employees of all the exciting departments
especially those who are to be transferred to the new marketing department.
Unfreezing would help the team to approach the change of incorporating a new
department with a clean slate without being biased towards working for their old
departments. Past behaviours, way of thinking, and the work processes, etc would
have to be thoroughly examined to demonstrate the necessity for change to
establish or uphold a competitive edge in an evolving marketplace. This would make
it easier for the employees or manager level personnels working for one particular
department who now have been asked to work for the marketing and public relation
of the Company. Since they are habituated to working for their respective
departments and might hold prejudice for the working of the new department,

unfreezing becomes essential. This will help in the re-organisation of the structural
change will more efficiency.
Further, unfreezing helps in changing the perception of the teams while preparing for
the upcoming change. Here, that becomes an essential factor as well. This is
because the perception of the employees towards this new department would pay an
essential role in the efficient incorporation of the same. For instance, the perception
of the employees who are resisting their transfer to the new department, would be
considered and unfreezing would help them the Company in changing this
perception
Change-
Now this step is important as the main change is implemented in this phase. Once
the organisational structure is unfrozen, the Company is ready to implement change.
This is the step during which, employees commence to learn new behaviour,
changed processes, and ways of thinking. This is the reason, continuous and clear
communication within the entire organisation is critical as they become familiar with
the change both during and after deployment. As regards our Company as well, this
is extremely essential as once the link between the customers become direct, the
main role of the marketing department will come into force. When a new department
is being incorporated, it would become very important for all the employees, whether
being transferred or newly recruited or other existing ones, to have a constant
communication system. Every development with respect to the change should be
communicated to the employees and any such concern or opinion with further
development should be considered. This will help them in accepting and learning the
new behaviour with ease and more efficiency (A comparison between Lewin´s and
Kotter´s models of change, 2021).
This is the step in which the existing employees will be transferred to the new
department and the recruitment of additional personnels will take place. All the
requirements for this marketing department will be set in place. The necessary units
required will be incorporated and the technology will be updated. The staff will be
trained and given full information about the Company and its functioning. Since this
is the main implementation stage, it becomes more time consuming. However

considering the readiness of the Company in this aspect, the amount of time
expected to incorporate and commence the functioning of this department is around
six months.
Once this new change has been incorporated and the employees and other
resources are in place, we move on to the next step.
Refreeze-
This is again a crucial step. Once the change is incorporated, it is time to refreeze.
Lewin found this step particularly critical as it is essential to maintain the equilibrium
and make sure the employees do not devolve back to their older practices. This step
basically locks the new aspect introduced in the organisation and it is further
essential to keep the functioning move forward and make sure it’s not interrupted.
For our Company, once the new department is set, the organisational structure
needs to be locked ie. refreeze. So once the employees are transferred and new
employees are recruited and the marketing department comes into existence, the
final step is to lock this new structure. Now after this step the consistent functioning
of the new department is what matters. The existing employees that have been
transferred should not look back to their previous work profile or the departments
that they assisted or the Company should not devolve back to the traditional practice
of working on marketing through its brokers- this is the essential criteria of this step,
thus ensuring that the change continues to be implemented.
However a general stage wise implementation of overall working would be as
follows:
To begin with, a basic plan of the introduction to the new department will be made
and this idea of change will have to be communicated. The initial process would
include- the elimination of brokers and setting a brief plan in theory as to how the
marketing team would proceed in taking their place and what kind of resources
would be required. And in order to commence the primary implementation, a team
will have to be formed. This team will be given detailed idea of execution and every
member of the team will be given a role to play. For instance, recruitment of
personnels, research and so on. Next stage would be to have a review procedure of