Human resource initiatives to address Maruti Suzuki's competitive challenges

¶ … entity, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), an affiliate of Japan's Suzuki Motor Corporation, is the biggest passenger vehicle firm in India, consuming a large proportion of the local automobile industry. MarutiUdyog Limited is a public sector entity that was incorporated in the year 1981. Years later, the organization came into a joint venture with Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) and came to be a front runner to high-tech cars. The following business plan delineates the different key business challenges faced by Maruti Suzuki and the proposed human resource initiatives to solve these challenges. Finally, the proposal will provide an evaluation plan that will make it possible to assess the proposals given.

Primary Business Challenges

There are a number of primary business challenges identified for Maruti Suzuki Ltd. In particular, emphasis is placed on general business challenges that might or might not consist of direct human resource areas. One of the business challenges is increasing competition. The company is facing increased competition from different international players such as BMW, Toyota, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Indian companies such as Tata Motors as they entered into the manufacturing of small cars. The competitive market situation for the company is that it faced about 17 competitors, a challenge that it has to deal with and overcome. Another general business challenge is that the company did not have any growth oriented planning. This is a challenge faced by Maruti Suzuki, particularly with more and more companies eating out on its market share. The other overall business challenge is that the company does not have any importation or transfer of new technology. This is in the sense that research and development was being piloted in Suzuki Motor Corporation Japan yet the business manufacturing premises are set in India. In addition, the company also has new priorities and objectives. For starters, the company has to increase and sustain customer satisfaction, increase the profit amount generated by the company in the subsequent financial years, such as 15% in the coming year and 5% after each of the subsequent financial years. Lastly, the company has the priority of recruiting extremely competent and skilled personnel and also making certain that they are maintained in future periods.

Evaluation Plan

It is imperative to have a strategy of appraising and assessing the proposed initiatives to ascertain their effectiveness. The major proposed HR initiatives encompasses training of personnel within the organization. In particular, the evaluation plan that is proposed for the company is using the Kirkpatrick's Four-Level Training Evaluation Model. This approach will aid Maruti Suzuki to objectively examine the efficacy and influence of the training, so that the company can improve in the forthcoming periods. The four levels include: reaction, learning, behavior and results. The first phase encompasses measuring the reaction of the employees to the training provided. This is imperative as it helps the organization to determine how well the training was received by the personnel and also aids in enhancing such training for impending personnel (Arthur et al., 2003). The second phase is measuring what the employees have learnt, which is significant as ascertaining what the personnel are learning and what they are not will aid the company in enhancing training in forthcoming periods. The third phase is assessing the behavior and determining the extent to which their behaviors have changed founded on the training they were given. Lastly, the evaluation plan will undertake an analysis of the final outcomes of the training. This will take into account results that the company have ascertained to be proper for business, for the personnel and for the bottom line (Mind Tools, 2016).