Strategic Management of Jute Mills in Khulna Zone

INTRODUCTION:

                        Jute industry is the mother industry of our country. It is the most important industry of Bangladesh in terms of production, export and employment. It plays a dominant role in the economy of Bangladesh. In 1998-99, 6.5% of country’s foreign exchange was earned from export only jute goods. Though jute’s goods share in export has gradually declined, but it still remain the third largest export earner after Readymade garment’s and Fish, Shrimps and Prawns.

          Jute remains the major cash crop in the farm sector. Out of five million acres of cultivable land, jute is cultivated on around ten million acres. Jute, popularly known as “The Golden fiber” for the farmers in our country. About 30 lac farmers are dependent on jute cultivation. And raw jute to the tune of 50-60 lac bales is produced annually. In addition, about 10 lac people are engaged in jute trade and industry. At present raw jute and jute products account for around 10% of total foreign earnings and 4% of GDP.

          In the background of abundance of locally available raw jute, cheap labour and better technology, setting up of jute mills during fifties and sixties in this part of the world was considered as a worthwhile investment. Jute industry, by virtue of its location became the property of Bangladesh and was damaged heavily during the war of liberation. After liberation of Bangladesh, Non-Bengali mill owners, managers and supervisory personnel left the country and were replaced by inexperienced management. Abandoned jute mills were in a disarrayed position and the new Government of Bangladesh (GOB) had to take up the responsibility of rebuilding it . In 1972, with the Presidential Orders # 16,27 and 29 GOB took over the abandoned units and East Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (EPIDC) enterprises, and nationalized all units (Owned by Bangladeshis) in cotton, textile, jute and sugar manufacturing sectors respectively.

          The order of section 10(i) clause (a) provided that, Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation which shall have and exercise all the powers of a corporation in respect of the industrial enterprises engaged in jute manufacturing in the first schedule. The name of the mills were given in the schedule, Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) inherited as installed capacity of 23,836 looms in 73 Mills. BJMC started functioning in the month of May, 1972. For administrative efficiency the mills were placed under five Zones, i.e. Dhaka Zone-1, Dhaka Zone-2, Khulna Zone, Chittagong Zone and Adamjee Zone.

          Two years after liberation, up to 1972-73, can be termed as the initial period of crisis and reorganization for the jute industry, because of unskilled management, workers, frequent power failure, power stoppage, short supply of spares, labour unrest, wastage in production, short of finance supply etc. In that year no. of mills operated by BJMC was 77, installed looms was 23702 and average no. of looms in operation was 20004. The production then was  446000 tons, where 418000 tons were export and 30000 tons were internal consumption’s.

          With adaptation of denationalization and privatization policy in 1980-81, the Government disinvested 6 twin mills and two mills were merged with existing mills under BJMC. In 1982-83 the Government disinvested about 35 jute mills and placed under the ownership and management of private sector. Again 1983-84, 3 more mills were disinvested.

          So, we see that, there are three types of ownership cum management of jute mills during sixties in former East Pakistan namely EPIDC management, joint EPIDC/private management and private management. Where as in Bangladesh after the denationalization and privatization program, now we have Government owned and managed jute mills under the control of BJMC and privately owned and closely managed jute mills under the supervision of Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA). At present the number of mills under BJMC is 29 and BJMA is 40, and the installed looms is 15738 and 10232, the ratio between them is 3:2 respectively.

          Now BJMC have four Zones under their administration, they are, Adamjee, Dhaka, Khulna and Chittagong Zone. Out of 36 mills under BJMC, 3 of them are non-jute mills, and 4 of them are closed. So the rest of 29 jute mills, 2 mills are in Adamjee Zone, 8 in Dhaka Zone, 9 in Khulna Zone and 10 in Chittagong Zone. In the year 1998-99, loom operated was 11448, baled production 358000 tons, export volume 223843 tons and internal consumption was 30612 tons. No. of employees and worker’s involved was 16897 and 55525 respectively. The performance of public sector enterprises in terms of production and operating profit has not been satisfactory since nationalization. This is evident from the fact that BJMC incurred loss of Tk. 2327.55 crores from 1970-71 to 1996-97, with an average loss of Tk. 96.98 crores per year.

          One of the major causes behind these losses is the lack of managerial experiences/efficiency. After denationalization there has been no change in managerial performance of most of the jute mills in Bangladesh. The rapid privatization program of our Govt. introducing market economy concept created a greater pressure for the evaluation of managerial performance of the public sector jute mills in Bangladesh. Report of the Task Force on Bangladesh Development Strategies highlighted the problems of jute industry. In their report they mentioned that, initially jute industry developed and expanded under special protection and assistance in the form of indirect subsidy like bonus voucher, over-valued exchange rate, etc. Moreover jute being a seasonal agricultural crop inherently its supply and price is characterized by fluctuation over time and between years, making it difficult and nearly impossible to maintain a stable price for jute goods contrary to the norms of the international market. Jute is also facing severe market constraint due to losing ground in competition from the versatile synthetic products of better longevity and quality. They also found out that most of the jute mills are over 25 years (now 40 years) old and has no investment for their technological modernization, mechanical breakdown, inefficient machinery etc, are the cause of poor quality, low productivity and high cost of production is further aggravating the situation against the stiff competition from synthetics. Technological innovation for reducing the cost of production, improving quality and above all diversification of products is a must for the survival of this vital industry. The industrial growth of Bangladesh largely depends on how well the firms of the jute industry are being managed and to what extent their efficiency level can be increased. The success indicators include various socio-economic factors including managerial efficiency, and jute mills management can improve their efficiency through proper selection and implementation of strategy.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM :

          The success and growth of any modern organization depend mostly on its external and internal policy and strategy of management, the importance of which is increasing day-by-day in the face of growing complexity and severe competition. This reality induces management to adopt modern policy and strategy for smooth and successful business operations.[1]

          Bangladesh is one of the countries of third world and more particularly of Least Develop Countries. Her economy is agro-based. Maximum people live in rural areas. Unemployment, under-employment, under-utilization of labour etc., are some of the distinct features of our economy.[2] Jute industry plays a vital role in our economy. It is a very important crop for the agro-ecological environment of Bangladesh. Jute grows in 10-12 lac acres of land annually. Raw jute to the tune of 50-60 lac bales is produced annually.[3] The demand of jute and traditional jute products in the recent decades had winded down drastically in the international market and consequently affected the jute based economy of Bangladesh.[4] Moreover, modernization, expansion and diversification of jute industry are hindered due to lack of capital.

          After more than 29 years of independence of Bangladesh, losses of jute industry is growing at a rapid pace. A question may be arise in our mind that which factors are responsible for this situation? There are of course, many factors- controllable as well as uncontrollable. Such as inappropriate management practices, lack of managerial efficiency, lack of integrity on the part of employees, market constraints and social and political environment.[5] But according to me, the root causes may be “Strategic Management”. How the business enterprises is managed their situation strategically is the vital thing and success or failure depends on it. The importance of strategic management is now being accepted all over the World. It has been realized that the proper kind of strategy, business enterprises cannot be run efficiently. Impact of good strategic management on efficiency, production, finance, marketing, human relations has been widely accepted.

          Organizations, whatever may be type, exist in some type of general environment. In fact, the specific attributes of the environment have a direct impact on the management functions. For production and marketing of goods, the environmental opportunities keep the wheel of organization to move according to the facilities and avenues offered by them. As such it is rightly said that the events in the environment in which the company operates have a direct effect on the success or failure of that company. Corporate planning seeks, as one of its aims, to relate the company to its environment, and to identity in advance the threats and opportunities which environmental change brings.[6]

          Md. Solaiman made a study on “Environmental factors affecting organizational performance: An analysis from observations.” In his study he found out some Internal/Controllable and External/ Uncontrollable factors that affect the operational efficiency of jute mills. Internal/Controllable factors are:-

1. Lack of proper education and training of workers.
2. Inadequate accommodation and recreation facilities.
3. Inadequate fund for expansion and modernization.
4. Shortage of working capital.

1. Lack of provision for reward/punishment for fulfillment/non-

                 fulfillment of targets.

1. Absence of fixation of responsibility and accountability.
2. Lack of direct participation of the executives in decision making.

1. Apathy of work.
2. Absence of clear cut objectives and policies.
3. Limited delegation of authority and power .

On the other hand External / Uncontrollable factors are :-

1. Cost inflation.
2. Severe competition abroad for marketing products.
3. Uncertainty of raw material price.
4. Lack of Government subsidy to meet up gap between sale
5. price and cost price.
6. Dominance of fate in the attitude of workers towards life.
7. External influence (Socio-political).
8. Political influence on “Trade Unions.”
9. Unstable Government export and import policies.
10. Unstable investment policy.
11. Red Taoism in Govt. agencies.
12. Absence of effective fiscal and monetary policy.
13. Uncertainty as to Govt. political policy.

                   On the view of these factors of jute industry, strategic management helps the managers to examine the basic problems of the industry and to take better decisions makers. Strategic management allows an enterprise to base its decision on long range forecasts, not spur-of-the-moment reactions. It allows the firm to take action at an early stage of a new trend and consider the lead times for effective management. The strategic management process stimulates thinking about the future. Plans resulting from the process should be flexible enough to allow for unanticipated change. It helps educate managers to become better decisions makers, examine the basic problems of the company. It helps improve corporate communication, the co-ordination of individual project, the allocation of resources and short-range planning such as budgeting. Because of the studies of strategic management, many businesses make sure it is a part of their management development programs. It helps to build a knowledge of management and develops the attitudes necessary for being a successful business generalist and practitioner. Successful companies are successful for many reasons: adequate resources, good people, luck, good products and services and so on.[7]

          Strategic management does not reject the classical management practices. This perspective highlights the significance of devoting more and more attention to analyzing environmental factors that offer threats and opportunities. This present day business world has become so complex that no firm can think of surviving in the competition without giving much consideration to the changes in environments and developing strategies that directly relate the environmental conditions.[8]

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

          This study is an attempt to make a critical evaluation of the strategic management in some jute mills in Khulna Zone, pinpointing the major flaws in the vital area of management. More precisely the followings are the specific objectives of the study:-

1. To know the characteristics of strategic management practices in the jute mills of Khulna Zone.

2. To identify major internal and external factors leading to managerial inefficiency if any.

3. To find out the effectiveness of strategic management, the limiting factors and there impact on managerial performance of the jute mills.

4. To provide suggestions for development of strategic management models in view of the business environment prevailing in Bangladesh.

HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY:

                   In the light of the relevant literatures, The researcher had opportunity to review the concept of strategic management, its tools and techniques, management practices, present managerial conditions and managerial problems of the jute mills. Following hypotheses are formulate:-

    1. Firms which develop formal strategic management system have a higher probability of success than those which do not.

   2. Managerial inefficiency of the jute mills arise due to internal and external factors.

    3. Sickness of the jute industry is mainly due to lack of effective strategic management approach.

THEORETICALFRAMEWORK OF THESTUDY:

                    Strategic management is relatively a new concept to us. During the 1950s and early 1960s many American firms were confronted with disturbing symptoms that could be readily remedied by available management techniques and which had no precedent in recent experience. The rapid rise in the number of interest groups such as competitors, stockholders and consumer groups, making proliferation of mergers and acquisitions, began to strain the applicability of the relatively simple business policy approach management. To deal with these types of changes the managerial techniques of long-term budgeting, financial control, even then popular long-term planning, appeared inadequate and firms began to turn their energies to development of new management approach. The approach emerged through trial, error, and exchange of experiences became known as strategic planning. Today this approach is more frequently called strategic management approach.[9] Strategic management is a combination of strategy and management.

STRATEGY:

                   Strategy is an important concept to an organization since it determines to a great extent its success or survival. It involves a choice of particular actions or activities. That is, it involves “The determination of the purpose (or mission ) and basic long-term objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and allocation of resources necessary to achieve these aims.” Therefore, objectives are a part of strategy formulation.[10] Strategy concerns the direction in which human and material resources will be applied in order to increase the change of achieving selected objectives.

                   Thompson and Strickland[11] defined strategy as “The pattern of organizational moves and managerial approaches used to achieve organizational objectives and to pursue the organization’s mission.” Strategy is a course of action, including the specification of the resources required, to achieve a specific objective.  The “Specific objective” may be the corporate objective or it may be a unit/functional objective. The corporate objective is that objective that is corporate to the business as a whole organization, which should be clearly stated, capable of being measured and attainable with effort.[12]

          According to Smith, Arnold and Bizzle,[13] strategy is the overall game plan or map to help lead or direct the organization toward the desired objectives. These overall game plan forms the basis for policies and procedures, which are more specific statements outlining what the firm will do in certain situations.

          Strategies mostly refer to a general programme of action and deployment of emphasis and resources to attain organization’s objectives which should be based on self-appraisal and built up in the light of information of the environment in which management has to work. Management is to study weakness and strength of the company in the case of its product, market, technology, values, prejudices and quality of its managers and compare these to its competitors and build up its own strategy for maximum utilization of the available opportunities in the given environment.

          Managers develop strategies to give order to how an organization goes about its business and to achieve target objectives. Without a strategy, there is no established course to follow, no roadmap to manage by, no coherent action plan for producing the intended results. Good strategy and good strategy implementation are the most trustworthy signs of good management.

          For our purpose we may think strategy as the longer term deliberations and decisions which determine the direction the enterprise is to take, to achieve its objectives in the light of expectations about the activities of others in the field. Strategists are those involved in this  purpose.

 MANAGEMENT:

          Many eminent experts in different ways have defined the term management. Stoner and Freeman[14] defined it as, “The process of planning, organizing, leading and controlling the work of organization members and of using all available organizational resources to reach stated organizational goals.”

          Trewatha and Newport,[15] define management as the process of planning, organizing, actuating and controlling an organization’s operations in order to achieve a co-ordination of the human and material resources essential in the effective and efficient attainment of objectives. The activities in this process are called the function of management. These function must be performed by all persons in managerial position, whether administrators, directors, generals, department heads, or first-line supervisors. In addition, it should be recognized that the management process is best described by these functions, rather than by the status or rank held by certain managers in an organization.

          Glueck[16] defines management is the effective utilization of human and material resources to achieve the enterprise’s objectives. Good management is the key difference between the success and failure of enterprises. Firms can fail because of inadequate funds, improper marketing, incompetent product design, and for many other reasons. But they often fail because the basic managerial tasks are performed poorly or not at all.

STRATEGICMANAGEMENT :

          Strategic management is that set of managerial decisions and actions that determines the long-run performance of a corporation. It includes environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and evaluation and control. The study of strategic management therefore emphasizes monitoring and evaluating environmental opportunities and threats in light of a corporation’s strength and weakness

  According to Smith, Arnold and Bizzle, “Strategic management is the process of examining both present and future environments formulating the organizations objectives and making, implementing and controlling decisions focused on achieving these objectives in the present and future environments.” It is critical that management analyze both the external environments and the firms internal capabilities and resources. The firms internal strengths and weakness can be deployed to take advantage of external opportunities and to minimize external problems.[17] They mentioned about the advantage of strategic

management as : (i) It provides organizations with a clearer goals and direction. (ii)The strategic management approach helps management to focus on future opportunities and threats. (iii)The strategic management process helps relate a firm’s decision making process to relevant environmental conditions. (iv) It reduces the risk of catastrophic problems and increases the probability of a firms taking advantage of environmental opportunities as they arise.[18]

          Pearce and Robinson[19] define it as the set of decisions and actions resulting in the formulation and implementation of strategies designed to achieve the objective of any firm. The major areas of strategic management are mission of firm (purpose, philosophy and goals) company profile (internal condition and capability), external environment intern’s of competitive and general contextual factors, strategic choice of long term objectives etc. Strategies covers goal, market share, return on investment, growth etc, general direction and purpose while strategies plans comprise production plans i.e. what will be produced and how, how funds will be acquired and used, what kinds of skill will be needed and how products and services will be distributed, promoted and sold.

          Certo and Peter[20] define strategic management as a continuous, iterative process aimed at keeping an organization as a appropriately matched to its environment. They emphasized that managers engage in series of steps like, performing an environmental analysis, establishing organizational directions formulating organizational strategy, implementing organizational strategy and exercising strategic control. By the term “iterative”, they means that the process of strategic management starts with the first step, ends with the last step – and then again with the first step.

According to Griffin,[21] “Strategic management is a comprehensive and ongoing management process aimed at formulating and implementing effective strategies that promote a superior alignment between the organization and its environment and the achievement of strategic goals.”

          Thompson and Strickland,[22] mentioned five interrelated components of strategic management. These are (i) developing a concept of the business and forming a vision of where the organization needs to be headed. (ii) translating the mission into specific long-range and short-range performance objectives (iii) crafting a strategy to achieve the targeted performance  (iv) implementing and executing the chosen strategy and (v) evaluating performance, reviewing the situation and initiating corrective adjustments in mission, objectives, strategy or implementation in light of actual experience, changing conditions, new ideas and new opportunities.

Cliff Bowman[23] stated that strategic decisions are big decisions, decision which significantly affect the firms ability to achieve its objectives. Decisions about products to sell in particular market, to build a new factory, pay system, production system, organization structure, management style and promotions. Virtually strategic management is the process of strategic change. Strategic change arise out of the interaction of objective and subjective conditions. The objective conditions are present and future position of the firms environment, uses of firms resources. The environment consists of competitive situation economic and technological environments, political and social situation facing by the firm. These may be external and internal which are virtually adaptable to systematic presentation. Subjective conditions consist of social, psychological and political factors faced by the firm. Past management decisions, the external environment, formal and informal leadership, structure of the organization etc, are also relevant.

From above discussions we can say that strategic management as a series of steps in which top management should accomplish the following tasks:-

1. Analysis the opportunities and threats or constrains that exists in the external environment.

2. Analysis the organizations internal strengths and weakness.

3.  Establish the organizations mission and develop its goals.

4. Formulate strategies that will match the organization’s strength and weakness with match the organization’s strength and weakness with the environments opportunities and threats.

5. Engage in strategic control activities to ensure that the organizations goals are attained.

          Managers develop strategies to give order to how an organization goes about its business and to achieve target objectives. Without a strategy, there is no established course to follow, no roadmap to manage by, no coherent action plan for producing the intended results.[24] Although strategic management can be useful in all types of organizations all firms obviously do not have a strategic management perspective. Strategic management does not reject proven management practices; it is simply a way to give appropriate emphasis to a major responsibility to top management. The ultimate purposes of strategic management is to help organizations increase performance through improve effectiveness, efficiency and flexibility.[25]

TRADITIONAL  PLANNING vs. STRATEGICPLANNING:

                                    Traditional planing practices are quickly becoming absolute in our complex and changing environment. Typical public corporation planning has been characterized as being reactive, short-range, staff oriented, routines dominated by single issues, small-scale change, hierarchical in nature, and generally lacking in community support. The events and issues that now must be addressed require new planning techniques.

Traditional Planning vs. Strategic Planning.

 Long range strategic planning has become a common practice in the private sector. Strategic planning must be  applied to the public sector to enable officials to successfully adapt to the future. New planning models are available to assist public sector in optimizing their human and financial resources. Unlike traditional planning, strategic planning is proactive, long-range, and community oriented. Additionally, it involves multiple issues, is non-hierarchical in nature, and helps achieve a consensus on the issues and problems facing an organization.

MODELS OFSTRATEGICMANAGEMENT:

There are different types of strategic management process model. Some of them are discuss here.

According to Wheelen and Hunger,[26] the process of strategic management involves four basic elements. These are, 1) environmental scanning, 2) strategy formulation, 3) strategy implementation, and 4) evaluation and control.

Wheelen and Hunger’s Strategic Management Model

They mentioned that these four basic elements interact each other. At the corporate level, the strategic management process includes activities that range from environmental scanning to performance evaluation. Management scans both the external environment for opportunities and threats and the internal environment for strengths and weakness. The factors that are most important to the corporation’s future are referred to as strategic factors and are summarized with the acronym S.W.O.T., standing for Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats. After identifying these strategic factors, management evaluates their interaction and determines the appropriateness of the corporate mission. The first step in the formulation of strategy is a statement of mission, which leads to a determination of corporate objectives, strategies, and policies. Corporation implements these strategies and policies through programs, budgets and procedures. Finally, performance evaluation and feedback ensure adequate control of organizational activities.

Certo and Peter[27] defined strategic management as a process or series of steps. According to them, the basic steps include- 1) performing an environmental analysis 2) establishing organizational direction 3) formulating organizational strategy 4) implementing organizational strategy, and 5) exerting strategic control.

Certo and Peter’s Strategic Management Process Model

        Strategic management process begins with environmental analysis, the process of monitoring the organization’s environment to identify both present and future threats and opportunities. It encompasses all factors both inside and outside the organization that can influence toward the attainment of organizational objectives. After management has performed an environmental analysis, it is often better able to establish, reaffirm, or modify its organizational direction. In order to establish organizational direction appropriately, however, management must know what comprises an organizational mission statement, understand the nature of organizational objectives, and adopt an effective and efficient process for establishing organizational direction. Strategy formulation, then is the process of designing and selecting strategies that lead to the attainment of organizational objectives. In order to formulate organizational strategy properly, managers must thoroughly understand such various approaches to strategy formulation as Critical Questions Analysis, Strengths/Weakness/Opportunities/Threats (SWOT). In order to implement organizational strategy successfully, managers must have a clear idea of several diverse issues: how much change is necessary within an organization when it implements a new strategy, how it is best to deal with organization “Culture” in order to ensure that a strategy will indeed be implemented smoothly, how strategy implementation and various types of organizational structure are related, what different implementation approaches a manager can follow, and what skills are necessary in managers who hope to implement organizational strategy successfully. Last step of strategic control is a special types of organizational control that focuses on monitoring and evaluating the strategic management process in order to improve it and ensure that it is functioning properly.

STRATEGICMANAGEMENTPROCESS:

          From above discussion of different models of strategic management, we get following 6 stages/functions of strategic management process. These are:-

          1. Organizational Direction (Mission and Goals).

          2. Environmental Analysis (Internal and External).

          3. SWOT Analysis.

          4. Formulation of Strategy.

          5. Strategy Implementation.

          6. Strategic Control.

ORGANIZATIONALDIRECTION (Mission and Goals):

                   The first component of strategic management process is defining the mission and major goals of the organization. The mission sets out why the organization exists and what it should be doing. Major goals specify what the organization hopes to fulfill in the short to long run. The long-term goals and short term goals are the more specific targets or results the firm wants to achieve. The goals are drive from and must be focused on fulfilling the firm’s mission. After stating the mission and goals of the firm, everyone involved should know exactly what the firm wants to achieve.[28]

  ENVIRONMENTAL  ANALYSIS (Internal and External):

                   The total environment faced by an organization can be divided in to three levels. The internal situation, the macro-environment and the task environment.

Internal Environment:

                   The internal environment consists of variables that are within the organization itself but not usually within the short-run control of top management. Firm should attempt to determine their strengths and weakness by carefully analyzing these internal factors. Steps can then be taken to reduce any weakness and deploy available strengths to the best possible advantage. Key internal factors include the functional areas of human resources, research and development, production, finance and accounting, marketing and the overall organizational culture.

 Task Environment:

                   The task environment includes those elements or groups that directly affect and are affected by an organization’s major operations. It is a external factors to the firm that determine the nature and strength of industry competitors, buyers, suppliers, potential entrants and substitutes.

 The Macro-environment:

                   The macro-environment includes more general forces- those that do not directly touch the short-run activities of the organization but that can, and often do influence its long-run decisions. The macro-environment shape opportunities and pose threats to the company. The macro forces are, generally more uncontrollable than the task factors. The factors of macro-environment are- economic, political and government, socio-cultural, natural, physical and technological and international. Each of these macro-environment factors can influence an organization singly or in combination with other factors. As the task and macro-environmental factors are beyond the control of a firm, the industry’s success will depend to a very large extent on its adaptability to the environment i.e. its ability to properly design and adjust the internal variables to take advantage of the opportunities and to combat the threats in the environment.

 SWOT  ANALYSIS:

                   SWOT analysis is a useful tool for analyzing an organization’s overall situation. This approach attempts to balance the internal strength and weakness of an organization with the opportunities and threats that the external environment presents. The point of the analysis is to enable the firm to position itself to take advantage of particular opportunities in the environment

and to avoid or minimize environmental threats. In doing so, the organization attempts to emphasize its strengths and moderate the impact of its weakness. The analysis is also useful for uncovering strengths that have not yet been fully utilized and in identifying weakness that can be corrected. Matching information about the environment with a knowledge of the organization’s capabilities enables management to formulate realistic strategies for attaining its goals.[29]

 SWOT Matrix

 The SWOT matrix illustrates how management can match the external opportunities and threats facing the particular corporation with its internal strengths and weakness to yield in four sets of possible strategic alternatives (figure). This method helps itself to brainstorming to create alternative strategies that management might not otherwise consider. It forces strategic manager’s to create both growth and retrenchment strategies.

 FORMULATION  OF  STRATEGY:

                   Formulation of strategy determining appropriate courses of action for achieving objectives. It includes such activities as analysis; planning and selecting strategies that increase the chances then an organization’s objectives will be achieved. Strategy is formulated at three distinct levels: the corporate levels, business levels and functional levels.

 The Corporate Level Strategy:

                  Top management has four corporate-level strategies available to them. They may elect to pursue a strategy of growth, stability, retrenchment, or a combination of those. SWOT analysis helps in determining which of these corporate strategies is most appropriate for a particular firm.

Growth Strategy: A company may select a growth strategy to increase their profits, sales and/or market share. When a firm possesses valuable strengths and operates in an environment of abundant opportunities, a corporate growth strategy is appropriate. Growth may be attain a variety of ways, i.e. internal growth, mergers, horizontal integration, conglomerate diversification, vertical integration and joint ventures.

  Stability Strategy: Stability strategy is one in which a firm attempts to maintain its size and current line of business. It is more suited for a firm that possesses moderate strengths in an environment of moderate opportunities.

 Retrenchment Strategy: When a firm performance is disappointing or at the extreme, when its survival is at stake, then retrenchment strategies may be appropriate. Retrenchment may take one of three forms: turn around, divestment or liquidation.

  Business Level Strategy:

                    Michael Porter describes these competitive strategies presumed to be appropriate for a wide variety across diverse industries. Porter suggests that a business should thoroughly analyze its industry and then define a competitive niche by adopting one of three generic strategies: differentiation, cost leadership or focus. Differentiation strategy attempts to develop an image of its product or service such that customers perceive it as being different, the product or service might be differentiated by attributes such as quality, design and service. Cost-leadership strategy attempts to maximize sales by minimizing cost per unit. Low cost may be achieved through efficiencies in production, product design, distribution channels and similar means. In the Focus strategy an organization targets products or services at a specific area such as a geographic location or customer group.

  Functional Strategy:

                   Functional strategy focus on how the organization will approach its basic functional activities. Many organizations develop marketing, financial, production, research and development and human resource strategies. Marketing strategy issues such as promotion techniques to be used, pricing product mix, and overall image. Financial strategy specifies the capital structure of the organization, debt. policy, assets management procedures, and dividend policy. Production strategy is concerned with issues of quality, productivity and technology. Human resource strategy such as compensation, selection, performance appraisal, and other aspects of the organization’s human resources. And research development strategy focuses on issues regarding product development, licensing and the organization’s commitment to innovation.

IMPLEMENTATION OF STRATEGY:

                   Having chosen a strategy to achieve the goals of the company, that strategy then has to put into action; it has to be implemented. In order to implement organizational strategy successfully, managers must have a clear idea of several diverse issues: how much change is necessary within an organization when it implements a new strategy, how it is best to deal with organization “culture” in order to ensure that a strategy will indeed be implemented smoothly, how strategy implementation and various types of organizational structures are related, what different implementation approaches a manager can follow, and what skills are necessary in managers who hope to implement organizational strategy successfully.

STRATEGIC CONTROL:

                   Strategic control consists of determining the extent to which the organization’s strategies are successful in attaining its goals and objectives. If the goals and objectives are not being reached as planned, then the intent of control is to modify the organization’s strategies and/or implementation so that the organization’s ability to accomplish its goals will be improved. Strategic control process consists of several steps. At first, top management must decide what elements of the environment and of the organization need to be monitored, evaluated, and controlled. Then, standards must be established with which the actual performance of the organization can be compared. Next, management must measure the company’s actual performance. These measures will generally be both quantitative and qualitative. The performance measurements will then be compared with the previously established standards. If performance is in line with the standards or exceeds them, then no corrective action necessary. However performance falls below the standards, then management must be take remedial action.

Review of Related Literature:

                   An attempt will be made to review recent literatures related to strategic management and jute industries in Bangladesh. It is thought that a critical review of various empirical studies on strategic management and jute industry would provide a background for explanation and understanding the need for strategic management practices in jute mills of Bangladesh. The researcher therefore, make have an attempt to review the recent available literature related to management, strategic management and jute industry in both private and public sector in Bangladesh.

          It is important to note that during the past decade numerous research work have been completed on various aspect of jute mills by the renowned researchers, but comprehensive literature on management programs in jute mills is too limited to make a rich review. To the best of my knowledge no research was conducted on the strategic management program of jute mills in Bangladesh.

Md. Muinuddin Khan made a study on, “Operational performance of Jute Manufacturing Industry in Bangladesh: A Comparative Study of Public and Private Enterprises.” The objectives of this study was to identification of the performance indicators and evaluation of comparative operational performance. In this study he identified that the overall performance of private sector jute mills to be better than the public sector because of higher labour and other factors productivity’s, lower wastage, better utilization of raw materials, lower cost of production hence lower operating loss, which they achieved with smaller manpower, higher per employee sales income and comparatively smaller stock of unsold jute goods to carry, and due to economical and effective use of men, machine, material and money. Un-utilization of capacity, ever-increasing cost of production of jute goods, very low labour and machine productivies and trend towards production of lighter fabrics, high internal debt servicing cost and interest expenses on working capital finances, and above all very unfavorable international prices of jute goods comparing synthetics, all these contributed significantly towards making the jute textile sector depend on spoon feeding by the Government.

 Md. Salim Bhuiyan in his article entitled, “Objective setting: It’s Conspicuousness and the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC),” found that BJMC does not have any written objectives. His study confined within Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) and Latif Bawany Jute Mill Ltd., Dhaka. The main objectives of his study was to know what were the objectives of BJMC, objectives of their Division/Department/Sector, and the awareness between the employee. He found that in absence of any written objectives, there appears to be a lot of confusion among the executives regarding the objectives of the organization. As a result, they try to narrate objectives separately or differently on their own whenever asked. He also mentioned that some of the objectives that should have been made for BJMC had been narrated, some were so irrelevant as to produce only laughter, and some actual objectives were missing. Besides these, the management of BJMC at different levels accepted some of the national objectives in their mental frame work. He also found that their was only a tacit understanding about the overall organizational objectives and that also is not universally shared by all executives at all levels. He also mentioned that, the objectives of BJMC should be established for every department and every individual in the organization and stated clearly preferably in writing by the management and communicated through the organization, that could help to understand all level/departments about the nature of objectives and the management process.

Abhinaya Chandra Saha in his study, “An analytical View of Profitability of the Jute Industry in Bangladesh,” mentioned that the average percentage of negative earning power declined too .70 in 1974-75 from 9.19 in 1972-73. It rose to 4.12, 9.45, and 10.08 in 1975-76, 1976-77 and 1977-78 respectively or in other words the same had an increasing trend during 1975-76 to 1977-78. The purpose of the study was to analysis the extent of profitability of six jute mills in Dhaka Zone, and identify the factors affecting the same during the period 1972-73 to 1978-79. The researcher identified the major problems of the industry are high cost of production and un-representative sales price, the letter being due to absolute dependence on export sales, stiff competition with the synthetic substitutes and other jute goods exporting countries, decline in demand for the same in the international market, etc. High cost of production may adhere to absence of cost control measures, rising cost of raw jute, increasing pay-scale, rising prices of stores and spares, fuels and oils, under utilization of capacity, absence of systematic planning and control and even there is a absence of in-depth analysis and interpretation of the financial statements, cost audit, performance appraisal/efficiency, etc. He mentioned that, the survival of the jute industry depends to a great extent on the trade-off between the liquidity structure and profitability of the industry. This requires planned approach in working capital management and cost reduction program in consistence with in-depth market research.

Md. Moinuddin Kamal made a study on, “Export Pricing of Jute Goods : Strategies and Problems.” The objectives of his study was to identify the export pricing decision with a view to determine whether or not Bangladesh’s jute goods exporters are able to formulate sound pricing policies, and exporters efforts to unmark whether such efforts are in congruity with the present day’s challenges to meet competition in world market. The study covered only selected aspects of jute goods pricing. Pricing and Coordination Committee which constituted by the Government of Bangladesh have the responsibility to determine the price. In this study he found that the committee hardly assembles all the relevant information and considers factors affecting the formulation of pricing policy. For this reasons mistakes occur due to inadequate understanding of the market attitudes and conditions. Export pricing objectives are also not set in conformity with the firms overall marketing goals. They also identified that jute goods pricing does not orient pricing thinking around cost or consumer’s perceived value. Jute goods exporters also lack realistic attitude towards the need for motivating intermediaries and their stimulation’s are not in tune with the overall pricing strategy. Exporters are also found helpless to counteract escalation of jute goods prices. They found that the committee failed to evaluate pricing strategy in order to ensure successful implementation of export marketing strategy.

Md. Mizanur Rahman and Sharmina Arfin,[30] made a study on “Motivation and Job Satisfaction of Jute Mills Workers in Bangladesh : A Case Study in Khulna Zone.” In their study they aimed at finding out the employee motivation and job satisfaction with respect to special reference of jute industries located in Khulna Zone. The objectives of their study was to identify the present picture and barriers of motivation and job satisfaction of jute mills workers. Their study was limited to three jute mills. After interviewing 78 workers they observed that jute mills workers do not get neither significant financial benefits nor sufficient non financial incentives. They also identify the workers discontent with respect to poor salary structure, job security, promotion policy, working condition, etc. Therefore, it’s result in tension, strike, hartal, lock-out, disputes, etc. This study is a major study on jute mills workers motivation and job satisfaction in Khulna Zone, because these motivation and job satisfaction provides the basis of employee efficiency.

          Syed Masud,wrote an article on “Growth of Jute Industry in Bangladesh”. In this article he tried to present the historical development in this vital sector since the liberation of Bangladesh. He mainly discussed about the development of jute industry after liberation, starting of BJMC activities and its present situation. He also discussed the various aspects of jute industry between India and Bangladesh comparatively, like international consumption of jute goods, export of jute goods, cost of production, quality of jute goods, labour problem etc. The recent development of jute industry shows that a large number of mills have gone to the private sector. He expected that the industry in future will be playing an important role in supporting the economy of Bangladesh. Though his study is limited in the historical growth of jute industry but it helps me know the background of jute sector and their activities.

                   Shyam Sundhar Karmakar,[31] in his article “On Efficiency of the Jute Industry in Bangladesh,” holds the idea that the development of  jute industry largely depends on the improvement of  management system. He highlighted that until now, there has not been any integrated system of managerial control over the operations. The management information system is yet to develop in this sector so as to assess the real achievement and failures in this industry. Managerial effectiveness of the industry can better be judged by computing a series of indicators reflecting productivity aspects than by comparing either financial result or production in physical units. The efficiency level could substantially be improved if the system of maintenance management combined with the inventory management could be developed. Though he discussed about the improvement of management system but his

study is limited to managerial efficiency level and productivity level. He doesn’t discuss about other managerial aspect of jute mills. And his article  only based on public sector jute  mills in Bangladesh.

A.J.M. Nurunddin Chowdhury and S.M. Salamatullah Bhuiyan wrote an article named “Production Planning and Control System in the Jute Industry – A Case Study of Some Jute Mills in Chittagong”. In this study they tried to find out  the production and control activities of the jute mills and their problems. They found some problems that hinder smooth planning and control process of production, i.e. (i) Frequent power failure (ii) Variety of consumer orders (iii) Instability in raw material price (iv) Unsteady demand in the world market (v) Absenteeism of workers hampering production vi) Labour unrest affecting production and (vii) Use of out-dated and various brands of machinery. They also indicate that there are many common problems impeding the production planning and control process in both public and private jute manufacturing units and their solution lie to a great extent, on the carefully formulated Government policy and the gradual enhancement of enterprise management efficiency. Their study only based on production and control system in jute industry. They don’t discussed about others managerial function of jute industry like purchasing, marketing etc.

Khondoker Bazlul Hoque made a study on, “Problems of Communication on the Jute Industry of Bangladesh; A Case study of Four Firms.” In his study he attempted to assess the present level of efficiency with communication system works in industry and to identify the factors responsible for the poor performance of communication. He mentioned that the problems of effective communication in the jute industries of Bangladesh are many and varied in nature like, poor planing of communication activities, poor management information system, misunderstanding and mistrust among the different tires of administration, gap in the level of understanding between the top executives and low level employees (staff), misunderstanding between the labours and management, overload of information, insufficient facilities to communicate and absence of formal orientation courses. It is a important study because communication is a vital area of management which can influence management efficiency and effectiveness to a great extent.

          Md. Solaiman and Ataur Rahman Belal[32] made an attempt to examine the financing  pattern of working capital in the public sector jute mills in Bangladesh from their study on, “Financing of Working Capital in Public Sector Jute Manufacturing Enterprises in Bangladesh: A Empirical Analysis.” The objectives of their study was to find out the sources of financing working capital, pattern of financing working capital and evaluate the position of Bank financing in working capital gap. They identified that capital finance is a constant problem and paucity of working capital is a chronic disease for their enterprises. Equity contribution is  very insignificant, so the enterprises are heavily depend on Bank loans, through trade credit, bank credit, current position and long term sources, etc. But many a times they cannot procure their required fund from bank due to the arrears/uncleared loans. Corporation also cannot help sufficiently through providing fund for financing capital gap of the enterprises. In their study they mentioned that interest free loan to jute industry may be considered as an important measure to reduce interest thus minimizing liquidity problem to some extent. Though their study was limited to six public sector manufacturing enterprises in Chittagong Zone, but it is a important study in context of jute industry, because the profitability and liquidity of an industrial concern is significantly affected by working capital management.

          A.N.M. Abdul Muqtader in his study, “Cash Management: A Case Study of Some Jute Mills in Chittagong,” he found that cash management is not looked after with adequate attention by the management. It is of course, true that jute mills face difficulties to make up deficiencies of cash because they incur heavy losses. As such the enterprises meet the deficiencies through borrowing with involve further cost increase. Thus inefficient cash management and the inherent problems adversely affect operational performance of the enterprises. The position can be improved if the enterprises adopt recognized techniques of cash planning and cash control. Further attempt may be made to gear up collection from debtors. Moreover, variance analysis with references to cash budget should be given utmost importance which can pinpoint operational problems and lead to corrective actions.

          M. Shah Nowaz Ali,[33] stated in his article, “Fund Management of Rajshahi Jute Mills: A case study” that fund management practice of the jute mills is yet to be developed by the way of application of better planning and control mechanisms in the field of inventory, cash flow, loans and borrowings, current liabilities, cost of production, sales promotion etc. Mill management should try to generate internal generation of fund through identifying the major bottlenecks and preventing the same by way of utmost efforts of the corporation and mill management.

          Roger, L. Kemp made a study on “The Need for Strategic Planning in the Public and Non-profit Sector.” In his article he tried to find out the differences between the characteristics of traditional planning and strategic planning in the public and non-profit sector. He mentioned that traditional planning practices are quickly becoming  obsolete in our complex and changing  environment, and strategic planning or long range planning has become a common practice in the private sector over the past few decades. According to his article the characteristics of traditional planning are short range, single issue, organizational issues, hierarchical, low involvement, directive-based, staff oriented, management orientation, staff awareness, and operational focus. On the other hand the characteristics of strategic planning are long range, multiple issues, community issues, non-hierarchical, high-involvement, community-oriented, political orientation, community awareness, and policy focus. In this paper the researcher only discussed about the characteristics of traditional and strategic planning of public and non-profit sector, but don’t discussed about its implementation and control of this kind of planning. We know strategic planning is a part of strategic management process. Jute sector is a non-profit and public sector also, so this study will help my research work.

          Md. Solaiman wrote an article named, “Environmental Factors Affecting Organizational Performance : An analysis from observations.” In his paper he intends to highlight the impact of environmental factors on the performance of jute  industry of Bangladesh. He discussed about how social environment, political environment and economical environment affect the performance of jute industry. He reveals that the environmental factors are internal and external i.e. controllable and uncontrollable, have been unsatisfactory in the jute industry of Bangladesh. Due to the existence of unfavorable environmental factors, mainly internal, he said that the internal factors have direct effect on organizational effectiveness. He tried to find out the internal/controllable and external/uncontrollable factors of jute industry. This is a important study about environmental analysis upon jute industry, and environment analysis in one of the basic analysis of strategic  management. But this study only depends on environmental analysis of jute industry.

Shahedur Rahman,in his article on, “Strategic Management: A Conceptual Framework,” mainly discussed about the theoretical assumption about strategic management. He mentioned that strategic management is a rational process which involves  the following steps :-

i)        Identifying the mission of the organization.

ii)       Defining business and industry.

iii)      The strategy decision makers.

iv)      Defining organizational goals and objectives.

v)       Evaluating current goals, strategies and performance.

vi)      Identifying the threats and opportunities : Environmental analysis.

vii)     Analysis strategic gap or matching.

viii)    Selecting and evaluating the strategic options.

ix)      Making a choice and implementing the strategy.

x)       Strategic evaluation and control.

          He also noticed that  strategic management is not remedy for all diseases or troubles. It is only a theoretical work on strategic management. This theoretical concept will enrich my  study.

                    Anisya S. Thomas and Kannan Ramaswamy made a study on,                 “Matching Manager to Strategy: An Investigation to performance Implication and Boundary Conditions.” In their study they explores a series of relationship between top managers, strategic direction and financial performance. They also investigate the strategy-manager alignment under various environment and organizational constraints. They find out that under the influence of constraining factors, the presence of a strategy-manager match indicates some form of purposive action toward superior performance. Perhaps under these circumstances leaders are able to effectively harness organizational resources and counter the influence of inertial forces. Organizational effectiveness can be enhanced by choosing managers who have skills even in situations where the benefits of this match may not be readily apparent. And strategic human resource management is a critical element in the success of organizations regardless of their age, size or industry characteristics. He mentioned that matching managers to strategy is a significant component of superior performance.

           David H. Mason and Robert G. Wilson, wrote the article entitled “Future Mapping: A New Approach to Managing Strategic Uncertainty.” They discussed about future mapping and the ways  to deal with future uncertainty of industries. They mentioned that future mapping challenges managers synthesize information in new ways and allows them to develop new awareness of how their business environment could change. They also discussed about three ways to deal with uncertainty. The first is to react to situations as they arise. Second approach is to develop better forecasts. And the third approach is mapping a logical, recognizable path from today’s conditions to a few possible end states. Each would result in a completely different competitive environment, and thus each would require different business strategy.

          A.K.M. Mosharraf Hossain[34] made a study on “Public Sector Enterprises in Bangladesh: Problems and Challenges.” He tried to identifying the basic factors governing the functions of public enterprises (PEs), its management problems and challenges confronting these enterprises. He highlighted that the activities of public sector are often hindered by various rules and regulations of the Government, which are not appropriate for public enterprises. It is often said, public enterprises are subjected to rules rather than result. The powers and responsibilities of different tires of management of public enterprises are to be clearly demarcated. So that accountability can be meaningfully established. Delegation of authority is indispensable for having required operational flexibility to take advantage of the opportunities suddenly showing up. He also indicate that PEs should be allowed to run successfully allowing them required operational freedom, immunizing them from traditional government rules and procedures. On approval of the budget and target, the PEs management should be given full operation freedom, making them accountable for achieving the target both in terms of production and profit. This delegation of authority and trust, in terms of efficiency, would generate inspiration in them to take initiative and hold greater initiative and responsibility.

Larry Dwyer and Robert Mellor[35] wrote the article on “Production Innovation Strategies and Performance of Australian Firms.” They investigated the relationship between product innovation system strategies and new product success of some Australian firms. They identified five different types of strategies like – 1) Corporate fit, Defensive Strategy 2) Unfocused, and Differentiated Product Strategy 3) Technical Offensive Strategy 4) High Budget, High Risk Strategy 5) Conservative Strategy. These strategies had quite similar levels of reported success. Suggesting that firms adapt their product innovation strategies to allow for industry and market conditions. From their study the best performing strategy appeared to consist of technical offensive strategy. They observed that by adopting this strategy a group of firms had the highest percentage of successful new product and second highest in meeting performance objectives: their new product programs had the highest profitability level and the highest success rate relative to competitors.

Cristian N. Madu and Chu-hua Kuei, made a study on “Introducing Strategic Quality Management”. They introduced Strategic Total Quality Management (STQM) as an extension of Total Quality Management (TQM). They also comparing Strategic Total Quality Management ( STQM) to Total Quality Management (TQM) and Traditional Quality Assurance (TQA). STQM is defined as a quality management philosophy that views quality from the overall performance of a firm. The approach to STQM is to analyze the internal and external performance of a firm and consider the environmental as a critical component in measuring the performance of a firm. The article, also highlights the importance of corporate responsibility in influencing the perception of the quality of its services and thereby its performance.

CRITIQUE  OF  THE  PRIOR  STUDIES:

                   33 public sector jute mills under BJMC and 36 private sector jute mills under BJMA are running at present in Bangladesh, with many fold problems. All the mills under BJMC and BJMA are facing so many internal and external as well as controllable and uncontrollable problems and the accumulated loss is increasing year after year. To solve the problems, many researchers carried out research works in different areas like growth and development of jute industry, operational efficiency, production planning and control, environmental factors, fund management, motivation and job satisfaction, export pricing, profitability, managerial performance, etc. on the basis of primary and secondary data during past two decades. Most of the research work are based on BJMC, Dhaka Zone and Chittagong Zone, there are a few studies on Khulna Zone’s jute mills. But Khulna Zone plays an important role in this vital sector. The researchers ignored the strategic management aspects of jute mills and no such study on strategic management of jute mills. But the success in achieving the goals and objectives is directly depending on management’s business strategies. The strategy means the manner in which the sources, such as the men, the materials, the money and the know-how will be put to use over a period to achieve the goals. These encourage the researcher to fill the research gap and select the topic to focus the strategic management practices of jute mills. The present study is selected to have an in-depth analysis for the jute industries in Khulna Zone. This study will be a pioneering in nature and facilitate the formulation of multidimensional management strategies for the jute mills in Khulna Zone to survive in the face of present economic concept and globalization sprit.

 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY:

          Jute is the most important industry in Bangladesh from almost any standpoint: capital investment, industrial capacity, financial markets and political, social and even cultural issues. On the other hand jute is the most important cash crop for some 3 million Bangladeshi farmers providing employment and income for a large number of landless labourers and marginal farmers. The jute mills are one of the largest employers in the country. Bangladesh dominates the World Trade in jute, her exports of raw jute and jute goods accounting for over a half of World exports.

          In view of historical and economical importance of jute manufacturing industry of Bangladesh as well as the problem with which it has been beset with now, as it evident from the huge accumulated operating losses since nationalization and denationalization. Jute has certainly lost out in the international marketplace to synthetics and to shifting to bulk shipment after World War II. In actuality, the jute market is not shirking much in absolute terms, but it’s share in an increasing market is shirking.

There is a tendency to say, “Ignore Jute. It is a closing industry.” But the fact remains that jute will continue as Bangladeshis major industry, major foreign exchange earner and major industrial employer for some time to come. We cannot think of economic progress without jute as it is the life blood of our economy at the moment and is expected to continue to be so far an unforeseeable future period of time. Therefore every effort must be made to undertake measures that will improve the efficiency and hopefully, the profitability of the country’s most vital industry. It is true that the steady industrial progress of the country demand efficient management of this vital component of industrial sector like jute. The strategic management practice has a cardinal role to play to enable this jute sector to improve its overall managerial efficiency and profitability position. Unfortunately, the managerial performance of jute industry during the post liberation period was far from satisfactory leading these industrial units to incur losses for a number of years.

                   As stated earlier, many academicians consider various reasons like, operational inefficiency, poor production, old technology, lack of finance, decrease of market etc., for the creation of this type of situation. Science no attempt was made to focus and evaluate the application of strategic management approach of our jute mills, it is expected that the findings of this research will be of immense academic value and will add significantly to the sock of literature on the subject. Moreover, it may assist the national policy makers/planners, and individual jute mills management, Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) management, Ministry of Industry, Ministry of  Finance, Government of Bangladesh, to devise suitable measures for over coming the existing problems of the jute manufacturing units with manage strategically to ensure continued progress of this important sector of national economy. The present study would highlight the basic weakness of present management practice and explore the possible ways of developing strategic management practice.

METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY:

          It will be a survey type research. The researcher will select six jute mills, out of nine public sector jute mills in Khulna Zone. These sample will be selected on the basis of purposive sampling to make it representative of the large and medium size jute mills and availability of data. Virtually Khulna Zone is selected because as we see that many of the studies have been accomplished covering the jute mills in Dhaka and Chittagong Zone, no such study has been done in Khulna Zone. Following table shows the name and the loom position of the sample mills.

Table 1.1

 Name and Loom Position of the Sample Mills

Source: Annual Jute Goods Statistics 1998-99, BJMC, p.9.

  SOURCES OF DATA AND THEIR COLLECTION :-

                 In order to attain the specific objectives of the study, both primary and secondary sources of data/information will be utilized. Collected data will be both quantitative and qualitative. For the purpose of collecting data in the light of the objectives of the study, where the primary data could not be obtained, secondary data will be studied with care to develop possible explanation.

PRIMARY DATA:

             Primary data will be collected from the selected jute mills through direct interview method with the help of structured questionnaire, and these will be open-end and closed-end questionnaire. These questionnaire will be framed in the light of research objectives and will be presented before embarking on interviews with the General Manager, Dyputy General Manager, and Deputy Manager of Administration, Production, Marketing, Purchase and Finance Department of the sample mills. The head of the Zonal Office of BJMC in Khulna Zone will also be interviewed to ascertain the reliability of data and supplement of data gap here and there. The researcher will also conduct interviews with the executives of BJMC head office, Dhaka.

SECONDARY DATA :

            The main sources of secondary data will be the annual budget statements, annual account statements, organizational manuals, official documents, and publications and office memorandum of the selected mills. Secondary data will also be collected from the BJMC head office, BJMC Zonal office in Khulna Zone. Another sources of secondary data will be the existing literatures, reviews, reports, Ph.D. thesis, and researches on jute manufacturing industry. Annual Jute Goods Statistics, published by BJMC, Head office, Economic Survey of Bangladesh, Statistical Year Book published by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Government publications, Bangladesh Bank reports will also be the source of secondary data. The researcher also plans to visit the libraries of Rajshahi University, Dhaka University, Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Bangladesh Institute of Management (BIM), and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

          After collecting the needed data and information, these will be properly analyzed and interpreted to elicit salient findings.

PILOT STUDY: –

          Pilot study will be done in Rajshahi Jute Mills to judge the validity and reliability of the questionnaire before finalizing the interview schedule.

TECHNIQUE S OF  DATA  ANALYSIS :-

          As stated earlier, the informative data collected by the survey will be processed and analyzed through the application of statistical method. Data will be analyzed, examined and tested, evaluated and interpreted critically as follows:

i) Strategic decision making processes with mission and objectives of different level like, corporate level strategies, business level strategies, functional level strategies will be highlighted.

ii) Environmental analysis and diagnosis will be made through socio-economic sector, technological sector, Govt. sector etc.

iii) Internal factors like marketing and distribution factors, research and development / engineering factors, production and operations management factors, corporate resources and personnel factors, finance and accounting factors, strengths and weakness will be highlighted.

iv) Generic strategy alternatives, strategy variations, strategic choice, implementation process of resource allocation, organization and the planning system will by analyzed.

v) Evaluation and control of strategy, criteria for evaluation, evaluation and corrective action, management by objectives etc, will also be shown.

vi) Opinions of the management people in plant level, Zonal level and BJMC, head office level with Quantitative and Qualitative data will be analyzed through statistical techniques like correlation and regression.

vii) Managerial performance of the jute mills will be analyzed through various managerial tools and techniques like, ratio analysis, fund flow analysis, cash budgeting analysis, cost-volume-profit analysis, capital budgeting, return on investment, capacity utilization, value added, employment generation, foreign exchange earnings etc.

 SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

          The study will cover six public sector (66.67% of total Jute mills in Khulna Zone) jute mills located in Khulna Zone. The reason for selecting Khulna Zone is based on the consideration that it will fully represent the picture of a Zone being homogeneous in terms of location and other external environment. The study will cover ten financial years, i.e. 1989-90 to 1998-99. Strategic management elements, environmental factors, both internal and external, SWOT aspects, implementation, evaluation and control of strategies, managerial performance etc, will be the basic focus of the study.

EXPECTED RESULTS:

          The present study is expected to show the major weakness of managerial performance through various departments like, Administration, Finance, Production, Marketing, Human Resource etc., of the jute mills in Khulna Zone. Variation among the jute mills will be clear and the cause of variation in managerial performance will also be available as to take corrective measures through strategic models by jute mills management, BJMC executives, policy makers, industrial managers and also at the same time for the Government, who in its turn would be able to assess the degree of success or otherwise of its privatization policy and adjust the performance of public and private sector in the light of its wide-scale criticism at home and abroad.

PROJECTED THESIS STRUCTURE:

          The findings of the proposed research will be presented in a thesis form having the following tentative structure. This however will be subject to change while finalizing the thesis. After undergoing the research program it may need to add or subtract any chapter in view of the collection of primary and secondary data.

CONCLUSION:

                             It is to be made clear that the researcher cannot foresee so much in advance which of the above methods for data collection will be easy and at the sometime practicable to use for our research purpose. Therefore, any change may be necessary to handle new situation to improve the quality of data to be collected for the best available answers to the research questions. Finally it is a tentative one which may be changed through the suggestions and recommendations of my supervisors and class teachers in IBS.

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