Question

Select and examine one public listed company and answer the questions below, you will need
to conduct extensive research.
 You will also need to combine the findings from your research with your knowledge from the
course. Use an essay format for the written paper.

 Be sure that you have clearly answered all parts of all questions.
 Both content and writing style are important in this assignment.

Question 1
a. What are the names of the company and what product(s) or service(s) do they provide?
b. Who are the owners of the businesses (an individual, a family, partners, stockholders, etc.)?
c. How do the key financial ratios for the companies look like? (Liquidity, Asset Management,
Debt Management, Profitability, Market Value)

Question 2
a. What inputs do the companies use to produce their product(s) or service(s)? (While your
companies’ input usage may differ from that discussed in class, a review of your course notes
on fixed and variable inputs may be helpful here.)
b. Which of the companies’ inputs are variable inputs? In other words, suppose the companies
wanted to produce more or less than they had been. For which inputs could the quantity used
be easily changed in a relatively short amount of time, such as a month?
c. Which of the companies’ inputs are fixed inputs? That is, for which inputs, can the quantity
used not be changed in a relatively short amount of time?

Question 3
a. What is the businesses’ largest expense per month? (Be specific; “operations” and “sales and
administration” are not satisfactory answers.)
b. How many employees do the companies have?

Question 4
a. With whom do the companies compete? Be specific.
b. Does the companies’ product(s)/service(s) differ from that of their competitors and, if so,
how?

Question 5
a. What do the companies do well?
b. What do the companies not do well? (Even in well-run organizations, there is room for
improvement.)

Answer 1

1. a. The name of the company : Kerala State Poultry Development Corporation Ltd. It provides poultry meat, poultry egg, live layer birds, chicks, day old broiler chicks, poultry feed, poultry manure, etc. to the public according to their specific need.

1.b. It is a Public Sector Undertaking established under the Company's Act. It is an orgheanization under the government of Kerala.

1.c. It helps both central and state government financial assistance time to time for certains projects beneficial to the pople of Kerala, who mostly belongs to below poverty line (BPL) category.

2. a. The inputs are the poultry eggs. The day old chicks (broiler and layer) are distributed to the farmers according to their capacity (number  of chicks in thousands they can manage). Poultry feed, poultry medicines, free transportation, etc. are also provided free of cost. Time to time service of supervisors under the guidance and close monitoring of veterinary doctors is another attraction. After 45 days these birds will be collected back and the farmers will provide rearing charge. The charge is calculated considering the weight of each bird in case of broilers. On other hand layer birds' rearing charge will be calculated according to its numbers.

2. b. The same organization also manufactures poultry feed, which they used for feeding thousands of birds (both broiler and layer category) rearing in each integration farms. The raw materials used for the prodction of these poultry feed are imported from far away places. This can be considered as a variable input because it varies time to time depends upon the requirement. There are certain state governement  schemes running for the benefit of the rural folk, most of them are women beneficiaries, and this organization is the implementing agency. If there are no schmes running there is no need of more amount of raw materials, which is considered as a variable input, for the production of poultry feed in larger units.

2. c. As it is a production unit fixed cost almost remains the same. The remmuneration for security officials, drivers' remmneration, production unit supervisors, managers, veterinary doctos, and other head load workers, etc. remains the same. Building tax, electricitybills, water bills, etc. are the other expenses the organization has to manage in the form of fixed costs.

3. a. Poultry meat, dog pack special, poultry feed, poultry egg, poultry manure, day old chicks, layer birds, etc. are the products which comes for marketing. The price of each unit of each commodity varies according to the current market rate.

Administration of this organization is under the Board of Directors along with the Managing Director as the Head of the Institution. It comes under the Department of Animal Husbandry. Hence each activities both physical and financial should be informed to Department and prior approval of the state government should be obtained.  

3.b. In addition to the Head Office where more than 100 employees are working, there are 2-3 branch offices in different districts. Each unit has a Veterianry doctor as farm manager and approximate more than 50 employees are working under each farm manager.  

4.a. The organization has to compete with the local market.

4. b. In the current economic situation, people are more advanced in the way of spending each unit of their income, they focused more on hygeine related issues, Kerala State Poutry Development Corporation, under the brand name of KEPCO, proudly presents its product to the public. Technologically advanced method of production, and the 'government of Kerala undertaking' label adds the confidence level of the public to KEPCO products.  

5. a. The organization provides poultry meat and poultry egg to  the public. These poultry meat are from their own farmers providing their own poultry feed. Time to time vaccinations are provided under the close monitoring of the veterinary doctors. Technologically advanced method of meat processing in especially hyeinic enviornment are its unique features.  

5.b. Number of integration farming units can be increased. There by more job opportnites can be provided and the state will become more self sufficient in the production of poultry meat and poultry egg. More poultry processing units in different parts of the states can be implemented. At present with the only meat processing unit attached to the head office alone cannot manage the total requirement of the state, because poultry meat is a highly perisahable item, and it is not possible to transport to far away places.  

Disatisfied work force is another issue. Most of them who are working under daily wage basis are getting very few working days, face it is very difficult to meet their both ends, most of them are the only bread winners of each families. In addition to that, the spread of Covid - 19, which changed the world economy into a Corona Economy, added fuel to the fire.

However the strong and whole hearted support from the part of the Animal Husbandry Department and State Government as a whole and time to time financial assistance of the Central government for the selected projects, altogether helped the organization to perform well and remain unique among other Public Sector Undertakings of the State.