ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCES.

Analysing the organization, in terms of its system and subsystems
and their functioning is the core of organizational diagnosis. For the analysis of the Express Malayalam Daily, 7-S model, developed by McKinscy & Co., has been used. The model has helped to develop a more effective way of perceiving and cutting through the complexity of the organizations.

3.2. SUPER ORDINATE GOALS.

The Express Malayalam daily was started in 1944. It was an age of intellectual awakening. The second world war was going on and the Indians all over the country were under the struggle for independence. A spirit of enquiry engulfed the society and people were interested in news from the battlefield as well as from the fields of war of independence. A spirit of unity was also present in all walks of life.

This spirit of enquiry and unity of the people of Kerala substantially contributed for the success of the Express Malayalam daily during its early periods of inception. The management as well as the employees of the newspaper has also got the same spirit of unity and commitment towards the organization. There was a feeling of belongingness, stability at the top level management, a healthy team spirit and a corporate discipline. All these led to the sharing of super ordinate Goals beyond the established objectives of the organization.

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Afterwards Kerala witnessed its first communist led government in 1957. This was a favourable wind to the newspaper. Because the management of the paper was pro communists supported by a legion of pro communists readers. So in effect the paper had an effective management machinery as well as a team of journalists, non-journalists and a legion of readers committed to the social causes. Accordingly the paper has to protect the regional and local interests of the people. This localization of the paper was one of the reasons for its confinement to the local market.

Time has changed . Society has witnessed revolutions in the fields of print media and other areas of mass communication. The rate of literacy has grown considerably and people were exposed to newer information technologies. The print media has grown to new corporate and multi-national dimensions. The thirst for knowledge increased and it has grown to the global level. People were interested in informations that go beyond the local network. And there was competition.

This transition affected the newspaper heavily. It could not compete with the others in the industry. The lack of competitiveness with the newspaper has forced its readers withdrew and opt other papers which catered them well. This return of the readers deteriorated the circulation of the newspaper and the company went sick during 90's.

In 1993, the major shares of the company were purchased by Dr.Subramanyam Swamy of the Janata party. The new management has to shoulder the company's liabilities and also to face so many legal suits filed by the old management. Hence there is a stagnancy in the company's functioning.

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This unhealthy change in management has adversely affected the morale and the commitment level of its employees as well as its readers.

Because Express has a tradition of fifty years of being a pro communist newspaper. Media persons even considered it as a substitute for Desabhimani-the party newspaper of communist Marxists party in Kerala. The party on the other hand encouraged its growth and development. It was for this reason that the party abandoned the venture of starting a Thrissur edition to Desabhimani; even though there was a scope for it.

So the editorial staff, journalists and the readers of Express could not adjust with this political transition in management. This created a total ideological conflict among the employees and the readers. As a result, the company lost its long cherished super ordinate goals.

3.3. STRATEGY.

As far as Express Malayalam daily is concerned it has worked out a corporate level strategy in 1988. It was to start a best seller type Malayalam weekly as a part of widening the range of its products. This was a successful attempt. But it worked only for a short period. The reason for its failure is in its implementation.

The implementation of any strategy depends on two things: i). Strategy's suitability to the culture of the organization and ii). Structure of the organization. The newspaper and its editorial staff and journalists have a deep rooted pro communist culture. This cultural framework is not adaptable for the launching of a best seller type weekly. This was the main reason for its failure. Besides, the structure of the organization

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especially the marketing system was not potential enough to market the best seller type weekly. As such at that time there was not even a marketing system. Above all these there was not a contingency planning to face the uncertainty.

3.3.1. Business level strategy.

The Express Malayalam daily never took any attempt to devise a business level strategy to compete with the other newspapers. In the early 80's and 90's there were two news papers, Mathrubhumi and Malayala Manorama having sound corporate structure entered into its area of production and marketing. But the paper could not do anything solid either in technology or marketing to compete with those newspapers.

However the company introduced the scheme of preference subscribers. According to the scheme a reader can avail life time subscription of the Express Malayalam daily with a one time investment of Rs.3000. But the company could not sell the scheme properly because of its crippled marketing machinery. This scheme incurred a great loss to the company for it was not economically feasible. If proper strategic analysis conducted periodically, the company would have been possible to devise some business level strategies. This is one of the strong reasons for its sickness.

3.3.2. Operating level strategy.

In Express Malayalam daily there were no serious operating level strategies taken so far. This is mainly because of the fact that the company is void of professional management system. As a result there are no proper production, finance, marketing and human resource management systems.

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However the company invested an amount of Rs.60 lakhs for modernizing the plant and machinery during 1988. This modernization programme failed. Because it was an incomplete programme as well as a piece meal type modernization by purchasing second hand obsolete technology. This is because of company's premature decision without the support of proper strategic analysis.

The company at present is suffering from lack of modern printing technology which can only devise an effective turnaround strategy. The modernization strategy has to be taken at the operating level. But the company paid no attention to the operating level strategies and the lack of the same has contributed to its sickness. There are two strategic options open for the Express:-

•   Total modernization of the production unit.
•   Choose a hybrid route of partial modernization along with partial renovation of old production facilities.

3.4. STRUCTURE.

The organization structure of The Express Malayalam daily is still positioned in stage I model. The owner entrepreneur is still managing all pertinent and strategic operations of the organization. As far as the Express newspaper is concerned, the owner himself is the printer and publisher and the chief executive editor. The duties of the printer and publisher and the heavy responsibilities of the chief executive editor are very much limited to the media management. Therefore he will not Constitute an effective marketing management system that can formulate innovative marketing strategies to suit the tastes and preferences of the market segment.have enough time for the general management of the business.

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The newspaper media business is a growing business. Every day it has to find a new reader across the country. A newspaper published from a remote city may have readers, agents and advertisers all over the country. So it should have definitely the functional lines such as human resource, finance, production, advertising and distribution and marketing. The Express Malayalam daily being in such a framework, it should have a Stage II model of organization structure. The present structure of the organization is illustrated below:-  

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3.5. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.

The financial position of the Express Malayalam Daily is reflected in the balance sheets tabulated year wise in annexure I. The liabilities of the company increased from 247.00 lakhs during 1994-95 to 317.00 lakhs during 1998-99. The accumulated losses also increased during the period from 13.00 lakhs to 83.00 during the same period. The average yearly loss during these period is 17.75 lakhs. The accumulated loss seen low during the period 1997-1999. This is because of the surplus labour fall out (60%), sympathetic introduction of salary cut (50%) and strict inventory control by the new management.

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Fixed Assets: The company does not own land and buildings. The balance sheet for the year 1998-99 shows that the plant and machinery have a depreciated value of Rs.60.00 lakhs. The other assets are furniture and fittings and miscellaneous assets which includes vehicle, library, canteen etc., of which value calculated to Rs.10.00 lakhs and 15.00 lakhs respectively. (Total:85.00 lakhs)

Current Assets: The current assets includes inventories, sundry debtors and loans and advances. These are calculated to Rs.18.00, 41.00 and 90.00 lakhs respectively (Total:149.00 lakhs). The accumulated loss for the year is calculated to Rs.83.00 lakhs. The total assets including accumulated loss for the year is calculated to Rs.317.00 lakhs.

Current liability: The company's current liabilities includes Paid up capital, Deposits from employees, Accrued liabilities, Bank over drafts and the Loans and advances. These are calculated to Rs.50.00, 72.00, 75.00, 30.00 and 90.00 lakhs respectively (Total: 317.00 lakhs). The old management of the company has collected an amount of Rs.72.00 lakhs from the newly recruited employeesas deposits on 14% interests. The accrued liability for Rs.75.00 lakhs is towards the suppliers of newsprint and machinery. An amount of Rs.30.00 lakhs has been drawn from Lord Krishna Bank Ltd. Thrissur as over draft. The new management has invested an accumulated amount of Rs.90.00 lakhs as advance.

3.6. MARKETING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.

The media industry at present is highly competitive. Almost all newspaper has more than one product. The products are all related

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products like a morning daily, general weekly or monthly, a weekly or monthly for women, a weekly or monthly for children, an annual issue, an annual calender and a diary. With the emergence of new information technology and satellite channels, some of thenewspapers are operating their own news channels and many of them are operating their own internet editions.

The publishing of related products, telecasting of news channels and the net editions constitute the marketing strategy of the media industry. The profitability aspects of this strategy are as follows:-

•   High capacity utilization with the existing resources.
•   Each products contribute to the general advertising effect.
•   News channels updates maximum news coverage.
•   Net editions satisfies the growing population of information technology.

In such a highly competitive media scenario, Express Malayalam Daily becomes an odd unnoticed event. The paper could not satisfy its limited readers in any way. This is mainly because of the lack of marketing awareness. It is a highly noticeable fact that the company does not have a marketing division or a marketing manager. The company has never taken any measures towards product development or product innovation. The company never conducted any market survey or readers survey since its inception. The Express Malayalam Daily is still the same what it was in 1944, the year on which it was started.

The survey conducted on the basis of tastes and preferences regarding the paper among the readers, advertisers, local political and cultural activists have resulted in following inferences:-

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•   The quality of the newsprint should be improved.
•   The quality of printing should be improved by modernizing the technology.
•   The news coverage now limited to the local should change and more national-international news should be covered.
•   More investigative stories has to be included rather than agency news.
•   The pages such as educational-employment-business-sports-cinema-science etc. has to be more routine and quantitative.
•   The language and style has to be more innovative and modern.
•   The total lay out of the paper should change and colour pages preferred.
•   More readers participation programmes and schemes preferred.
•   More pages and supplements preferred.
•   Clients prefer colour to black and white advertisements.
•   Paper should be marketed country wide in order to increase the circulation which is a potential parameter for getting more advertisement releases.

3.7. PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.

The production management system regarding print media industry, concentrates more upon the production methods which includes technology and techniques and quality control. Printing technology is growing very fast side by side with the information technology. The modern technology has changed the total lay out of the paper in terms of editing, page making, photo paste up and lay out and quality laser printing.

In this context, it is indeed a relevant fact to notice that the Express Malayalam daily is still using the age old obsolete printing technology. This is one of the strongest reason behind its rejection from the market. The survey conducted for this case study shows that 95% of the readers as well as the advertisers strongly demand for modernization of technology.

The area of production planning and control is neglected. There are lot many incidences of delayed printing and delayed despatching. This is due to poor production planning and control. Delayed despatch of any newspaper will reflect the readability of the paper. Because

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readers are eagerly waiting for the news in the morning and it is often an ingrained habit of the reader to read the paper in the morning itself.

Materials procurement and inventory control system is the other neglected area. The survey shows that 90% of the readers of the Express are not satisfied with the quality of newsprint. They prefer in fact good quality newsprint. This is indeed a significant area where materials management to focus.

The inventory control system is also equally poor. The main inventory here is the newsprint. From the despatch section records it is evident that substantial quantity of unsold newspaper accumulation in every month. This is because of the poor inventory control system. A small newspaper establishment like Express should definitely concentrate in this area.

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The transportation management is the other area to be concentrated well in media business. Unlike other business newspaper business has its own time limit. Because the life cycle of a daily newspaper is limited to a few peak morning hours. A newspaper received after this peak hours is a useless one. This problem area is to be solved by the effective transportation management. The newspaper is transported to different geographical locations by road, rail, air and water transports. The most commonly and economically used transportation is road and rail.

The transportation management is very poor in Express. The paper at present does not have any vehicle of its own. Usually vehicles are hired for this purpose on attractive terms and conditions. But here also Express could not compete with the other newspapers. So the paper is transported by private buses that ply in the early mornings to the local destinations. This is often not reliable because the private

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buses have no particular interests in the business. This also has its negative impact in the transportation management.

Quality management is the other area neglected by the Express. there is no meaning in production with out quality. Quality design and quality of conformance are equally important for satisfactory performance of the ultimate product. Quality is not one shot proposition. But it is a process.

Quality of a newspaper is determined by the quality of newsprint, quality in editing, lay out, photo setting and printing. For the effective monitoring of the quality of the product, quality management system should be constituted. But in Express there is no such a system. The paper is often produced with out proper editing and proof reading. The survey conducted on advertisers shows that 90% of the advertisements produced in Express is of below average quality. The poor quality in advertisement production has generated an ill-feeling among the clients and it resulted in poor advertisement turn over.

3.8. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.

The importance of Human Resource Management system in media industry is very remarkable and significant, because the efficiency of the media is in the efficiency of its people. The efficiency of the people can only be ascertained by the efficient functioning of the Human Resource Management system and Human Resource Development system.

In the Express Malayalam daily, Human Resource Management System and HRD are totally unidentified areas. There is no planning of human resources requirements, recruitments, selection and training.

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The area of human resources forecasting is also neglected.

The company is also void of spirit of organizing. It is very essential to carry out the determined courses of actions. The organizing spirit was there in its olden days where the company was in a small configuration. Later the company was expanded and it needed more organizing spirit to keep up the relationships among the employees. The spirit of organizing can only be obtained through the proper functioning of the Human Resource Management system.

In the absence of a proper Human Resource Management, the company has lost the essential forces of direction and controlling and it resulted in labour unrest and disintegration. The directional force can only be obtained through proper motivational and coordinating drives. The controlling force involves the checking, verifying and comparing the actual with the plans executed by the top management.

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The efficiency of the controlling is determined by auditing training programmes, analyzing labour turn over records, directing morale surveys, etc. It is due to the lack of these two forces the company lost its good relationships, team spirit and coordination and this resulted in the labour unrest and strikes during 1997-98.

Training and development is the other area totally neglected by the company. Modern journalism is a fast developing area in terms of its technology and techniques. The age old concept of journalism is quite inefficient to tap the new sources of informations. But the company has never conducted any training programmes to its journalists since its inception. The lack of proper training and development programme also badly affected the career and succession planning of the company. With the emergence of sickness so many key personnels from the editorial have left the company seeking better oppertunities. But the company could not bridge the gap due to the lack of succession planning.

HRD is a shared belief by the management in the development of individual and involves a strategy of linking organization development with individual growth. Since it is a very important part of media business plan, it should ultimately result in more effective utilization of human resources for the growth of the media. But in Express HRD area is not identified. As a result performance appraisal, management development and organization development are not activated.

3.8. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM.

Performance appraisal system has a significant role in the newspaper media, because the performance of a newspaper depends

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upon the performance of its reporters, news photographers and editors. So the management should monitor the performance of the journalists and identify the areas of strengths and weakness of its human resource. According to the feedback obtained the management should reward the good performers and impart training to those who are trailing behind. The Malayala Manorama daily in Kerala is following such an appraisal system. They used to reward the journalists in terms of money and status for the production of good news stories and editorial write ups.

The performance appraisal system does not exist in the Express Malayalam daily in any form. As a result of this, the paper could not identify the areas of its strengths and weaknesses of the paper in terms of the news explored by its reporters from different parts of the country. Besides, the management also could not retain some of its good journalists and boost up the professionally weak journalists. The capability of retaining the good employees and retraining the inefficient employees is the main output of an ideal performance appraisal system.

3.9. STYLE.

The style of a newspaper organization is exclusively depended upon the style of its chief executive editor and his editorial team. A newspaper is the collective output of so many skilled professionals such as reporters, news photographers and editors. Therefore the reporting relationship among the employees should be participatory rather than hierarchical. The chief executive editor should provide sufficient freedom and motivation to the journalists in order to have the desired output.

The style or organization culture in the Express Malayalam daily

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is in its most disintegrated form. The organization culture is neither identified nor shared by the employees. As a result of this different reporters send their reports in different style. These reports are further edited by different editors in different style. The net outcome of these processes is a newspaper with out an identical style. This lack of identity of the paper has very much affected its readership and it resulted in sickness.

Periodical editorial board meetings and reporters meetings are very important for ensuring better performance of any newspaper. But it is a surprising fact to note that such meetings are conducted only once in a year in the Express Malayalam daily. The journalists working in the fields as well as the editors working in the desks are therefore not coordinated or motivated to work in a common platform with a monolithic style.

3.10. STAFF.

Staffing is a very important area in a newspaper media organization. Because the journalists should have a highly sensitive nose for news. This characteristic feature has to be identified at the stages of recruitment, selection and placement. The training and development will be of no use if the above mentioned basic instinct is absent.

The Express Malayalam daily has no proper staffing policy. During its sickness, the old management has recruited about 36 staff and collected 72 lakhs of rupees from the recruits as a part of raising the working capital. The company observed no particular selection criteria except the collection of deposit. This recruitment adversely affected the organization in five ways:-

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•   It created surplus human resources.
•   It affected the performance of the newspaper due to the poor contribution of the newly recruited employees.
•   It affected the morale and status of the existing journalists due to the postings in the key positions violating the    norms of seniority and professional excellence.
•   It lowered the human resource productivity.
•   It created labour unrest and disunity.

3.11. SKILLS.

The dominant skills or distinctive competence of an organization are a part of the organizational character. As far as newspaper media is concerned marketing skills and professional skills are very important. Professional skills refers to the skills of the reporters, news photographers and the editors. It is these skills promote qualitative performance of the paper. The marketing skills on the other hand will promote the quantitative performance of the paper.

The skills are neither cultivated nor sharpened in the Express Malayalam daily. This is because of the lack of professional management and the unscientific recruitment and promotional policies of the company. The skills can be increased and widened by the modernization of technologies. Such skills can be sharpened by training and retraining programmes. The Express Malayalam daily is very poor in modernization of technologies and in conducting training and retraining programmes.

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