MOVING TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY WITH THE HELP OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY RESOURCES FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Assignment Taken

Hiring Retention and Training Paln for 2021-22

Case Understanding

India has an increasing energy demand to fulfil the economic development plans that are being implemented. The provision of increasing quanta of energy is a vital pre-requisite for the economic growth of a country According to the World Resource Institute Report 2017, India is responsible for nearly 6.65% of total global carbon emissions, ranked fourth next to China (26.83%), the USA (14.36%), and the EU (9.66%). Climate change might also change the ecological balance in the world. This way, the country will have a rapid and global transition to renewable energy technologies to achieve sustainable growth and avoid catastrophic climate change. Renewable energy sources play a vital role in securing sustainable energy with lower emissions The increase in India's energy consumption will push the country's share of global energy demand to 11% by 2040 from 5% in 2016. Emerging economies such as China, India, or Brazil have experienced a process of rapid industrialisation, have increased their share in the global economy, and are exporting enormous volumes of manufactured products to developed countries. This shift of economic activities among nations has also had consequences concerning the country's energy use In 2020, India was the fifth-largest auto market, with ~3.49 million units sold in passenger and commercial vehicles. It was the seventh-largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in 2019. Renewable energy has great scope in India. The automobile industry is one of them, the Automobile sector has taken several giant steps recently, but the Indian market is still an infant. As compared to other countries, the market share of electric vehicles is meagre in India. It is already accepted that renewable energy technologies might significantly cover the electricity demand and reduce emissions. In recent years, the country has developed a sustainable path for its energy supply. Awareness of saving energy has been promoted among citizens to increase the use of solar, wind, biomass, waste, and hydropower energies. It is evident that clean energy is less harmful and often cheaper. India is also a prominent auto exporter and has strong export growth expectations for the near future. In addition, several initiatives by the Government of India and significant automobile players in the Indian market are expected to make India a leader in the two-wheeler and four-wheeler markets globally by 2020. According to some estimates, the total number of registered vehicles in India is 230 million, and the market is growing continuously. This also leads to India's dependence on fossil fuels. Taking a reformist measure, India's Government aims to promote electrical vehicle usage in the country.

BCS Solution Summary

The idea of our start-up is to manufacture a solar panel that can be fitted over any car roof as an external enhancement. The purpose of this solar panel would be to act as an alternative charging for electric vehicles. This panel would enable to charge the batteries for four-wheelers used for short commutes within a city independently, whereas, for long-distance commutes, this would act as an alternative medium for charging the battery in addition to the conventional charging stations. This feature would be highly beneficial to the users travelling to places with inadequate charging stations. As a company, we target these two specific groups of customers: users going for long trips in remote areas or users who only use their vehicles for short commutes like travelling from workplaces to homes, going to markets, etc. The product of the company has been generated following the 6-step procedure, i.e., the ideation phase, research phase, planning phase, prototyping phase, sourcing phase and costing stage. The ideation of this product has come keeping in mind the major pain point of electric vehicles in our country, i.e., the inadequate charging infrastructure and lack of option of fast charging. Our product would be a solution to this major challenge for users of personal electric vehicles. In addition, our product being in the cost range of INR 45,000 – 1,25,000 would also be cost-effective and can be afforded by the domestic electric vehicle owners. The company's operations would initially start in Bangalore and gradually expand across the other parts of the country. The organisation's financial projections and human resource planning have been executed, keeping this agenda of operation and future expansions. The distribution of our product is conducted in two models: B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business 2 Customers). For the B2B model, we are focusing on selling our product to India's top manufacturers of electric vehicles to incorporate our solar panels in their design. The major companies that have been considered for this purpose are TATA, Hyundai, Maruti Suzuki and MG, among several others. The branding of our product has been done with the use of printed media, social media, and digital marketing. In addition, various community marketing strategies have also been proposed like printing merchandise for employees and users, customising the logo according to the company objectives and in line with sustainability. The company also focus on building relations with the clients by providing premium pre-sales and post-sales service.

Solution

The idea of our startup is to manufacture solar panels for the roof of electric cars so that the vehicles get equipped with an alternative medium of charging the battery of the vehicle. This panel is beneficial for users who goes on long trips or to places where charging infrastructure is not adequate as this panel can recharge the batteries independently. This panel also enables the cars to operate without charging when used for short commutes and thus, would be a cost-effective alternative to charging for the urban dwellers.

The functions of our company have been divided into

manufacturing and designing division, marketing and distribution division and Automation division. To execute the functions of these three divisions, the following human resources would be required for as mentioned below:

• Manufacturing and Designing Division

This division would look after the designing of the product and the manufacturing process. The responsibilities of this division also entail other operational activities like procurement and ordering of raw materials, inventory management, among others. The following workforce would be required in this division:

a) Technical Executives:

i) Electrical Engineer (01) – One electrical engineer would be required to design the solar panel and supervise the manufacturing process. The Electrical engineer would also be responsible for improving the designing of the panels and executing research for enhancing the product.

ii) Mechanical Engineer (01) - One mechanical engineer would assist the Electrical engineer in designing. The mechanical engineer would also be responsible for planning and optimising the manufacturing process of the business.

b) Other Staff:

i) Machine Operators (05) – The machine operators would be supervising the labours involved in the manufacturing process and assist the technical executives.

ii) Labours (50) – The labours would handle the manufacturing processes' grassroots level operations.

 

• Marketing and Distribution Division

The marketing division would be handled in 2 sub-divisions: one subdivision would be handling the promotions and marketing communications, while the second subdivision would be handling the sales and distribution strategies of the product. This division would also be responsible for customer service in both the pre-sales and the post-sales phase.

i) Snr. Marketing Executives (02) – Each senior marketing executive would be handling the two divisions, i.e., one Senior Marketing Executive would handle the marketing communication while the other Senior Marketing Executive would handle the sales and distribution.

ii) Jr. Marketing Executives (02) – The junior marketing executives would be assisting the Senior Marketing Executive (Sales and Distribution) in outreaching the product. This subdivision would require more workforce as our product being a niche product would require more efforts for sales and distribution. The Junior Marketing executives would also be responsible for the customer services, i.e., dealing with the prospective and existing clients in both pre-sales and post-sales phases.

 

• IT Division

This division majorly focuses on maintaining and revamping the websites and the applications of the organisation. This division is also responsible for managing other IT operations required in the organisation.

i) Computer Science Graduate (01) – The Computer Science Graduate would be responsible for handling the automation industry, managing the website and the application for the company. The computer science graduate will also be responsible for overseeing the IT operations for the internal coordination among the divisions.

• HR and Administrative Division

This division is responsible for the administrative functions of the organisation. It also looks after the human resources aspects of the organisation like hiring, retention and training plan of the employees and labours. Several other functions of this division would be employee welfare, evaluation of employee performance, maintain labour relations and functions related to adhering to government norms and regulations.

i) Administrative Executive (01) – The administrative executive would be responsible for looking after the organisation's administrative and human resource operations. This executive would also handle the inter-coordination among all the divisions of the organisation.

 

• Finance Division

This division would look after the financial transactions of the company. This division would also be responsible for handling the accounting and auditing activities for all the organisations' operations executed. The division would be handled by an accountant as mentioned below:

i) Accountant (01) – The accountant would be responsible for maintaining the accounting records, preparing the financial statement and other necessary financial operations like internal auditing, quarterly financial assessment, among others.

In addition to the above, 7 truck drivers would be required for logistics purposes. The logistical arrangement would be looked after by the manufacturing and designing division and the marketing and distribution division. The administrative executive would facilitate the coordination between these two divisions.

Organisational Structure: The organisational structure for the company is illustrated in the figure "Organisational Structure".

 

Salary Structure for each Employee

S.N.	Posts	Salary/Head (in INR)	No. of persons employed
1	Technical Executives	50,000/-	2
2	Administrative Executive	50,000/-	1
3	Marketing and Sales Executives	50,000/-	4
4	Accountant	25,000/-	1
5	Machine Operator	20,000/-	5
6	Labours	20,000/-	50
7	Truck Drivers	20,000/-	7

Hiring and Retention Plan

As per the abovementioned human resources requirement, the company will only retain seven employees from the previous team, and hence the company will lay off one mechanical engineer.

In addition to retaining these seven employees, the company will hire for the following posts:

• 1 Administrative Executive
• 1 Accountant
• 5 Machine Operators
• 50 Labours
• 7 Truck Operators

In addition to the above recruitments, new employees will only be hired when the company's production gets upscaled in the coming years. The hiring and retention plan of the startup has been formulated by optimising the utility of the skill and expertise required.

Retention Strategies

To retain these six employees, the following retention strategies would be adopted for the financial year 2021-22:

• Open Communication: The company employees would be treated as a team, making communication transparent and fair.
• Incorporating suggestions of employees: The company would take a bi-monthly review meeting where the companies would ask the recommendations from all the employees regarding the operations and the marketing strategies of the product.
• Maintaining work-life balance: The employees would be working for a certain period, and employees' work-life balance needs to be maintained.

Training Plan

To enhance the company's efficiency and boost team coordination, bi-annual training needs to be arranged. The modes of the training that would be implemented are as follows:

• Interactive methods of training, including simulation, role-playing, facilitation, etc.
• Hands-on training
• E-learning.

Conclusion

Team ' Energiana' achieved its objective of providing a renewable energy source to drive electric vehicles. The electric vehicle is an essential element in the plan to reduce the carbon footprint, but solar energy to drive the vehicle will further lower the carbon footprint. The product is unique in its application and offers a long-term prospect, with most customers shifting towards electric vehicles. The uniqueness and the value contribution of the product enabled Team Energiana to list it at a higher gross margin of 30 percent. Using the SCAMPER model to develop a new model helped reduce the time associated with product ideas. It is one of the most time-consuming steps in the entire product development stage. Altering the application of an existing product like a solar panel to drive the electric vehicle enhanced the feasibility of the product. The high interest shown by the investors during the fundraising simulation was one of the critical aspects in the product validation stage. The industry outlook looks positive with increased awareness among the customers to purchase products that promote the environmental cause. The expected increase in trend will further bolster the business prospect for the company.

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