Internship report

Internship report on Edison Electronics Ltd.’s business strategy

changes, “Single Brand Showroom to Multi-Brand Showroom”.
(Financial point of view)

Submitted to:
Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed
Professor
BRAC Business School

Submitted by:
Mohammad Kamrul Hasan Razib
ID 15264024
Course Title: Internship

Date of submission: August 8, 2018

ii
 Letter of Transmittal

August 8, 2018

Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed

Professor
BRAC Business School (BBS)
BRAC University, Mohakhali, Dhaka

Subject: Submission of Internship Report.

Dear Sir:
It gives me enormous pleasure to submit my internship report that I have completed as a part of
fulfilling the requirement for the Internship course of Masters of Business Administration,
BRAC University. I am doing a full-time job in Edison Electronics Ltd. for more than three years
and for that reason I have prepared my internship report on a topic which is - Edison Electronics
Ltd.’s business strategy changes, “Single Brand Showroom to Multi-Brand Showroom”. The
report contains a comprehensive study on a company’s business strategy change. I have prepared
this report in a details format with adequate information search and I tried my level best to conduct
this in a professional manner.
It has also to be mentioned that without your expert advice and cooperation it would not have
been possible to complete this report. I hope you will assess my report considering the limitations
of the study.

Yours sincerely,

Md. Kamrul Hasan Razib

ID: 15264024

iii
 Acknowledgement

This is high time for me to convey my deepest gratitude and sincere submission to the Almighty
Allah for giving me the Opportunity to accomplish such a huge task of preparing this report.

Then I would like to acknowledge guidance and effort of Internship and placement committee for
arranging such a nice program for co-relating theoretical learning with real life situation. It’s a
pleasure to convey my heartiest gratitude and greeting to my honorable supervisor Dr. Salehuddin
Ahmed, Internship Supervisor, BRAC Business School. Without his co-operation, it would not be
possible to prepare the report into a nice ending.

I would also like to acknowledge and thanks the following personnel who has extended their
whole-hearted co-operation for preparing the report. I would like to thank Mr. Quazi Jahir Uddin
(Business Head, Edison Electronics Ltd.) and Mohammad Asaduzzaman (AGM, Finance, Edison
Electronics Ltd), who helped me the most to prepare the report.
I would like to convey my gratitude to my internship supervisor Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed for giving
me such excellent Opportunity to work on “Edison Electronics Ltd.’s business strategy
changes, “Single Brand Showroom to Multi-Brand Showroom” (Financial point of view)”
and particularly for his continuous guidance while I was doing my fulltime job in Edison
Electronics Ltd.
Finally, I would like to convey my heartiest thanks and gratitude to all of my teachers, friends, and
my parents and other family members for their extended support and sacrifices during preparation
of this report.

iv
 Executive Summary

Mobile phone has become an essential part of our daily life which is not a luxury product anymore
due to technological advancement and innovation. EDISON Group, one of the encouraging and
evolving business groups in Bangladesh founded with the aim of enhancing all aspects of life for
the customers with powerful brands, reliable products and services. ‘Symphony’ is the brand
launched by the EDISON Group in 2008 which became the market leader in 2010. In November
2013, EDION Group started a new company ‘Edson Electronics Ltd.’ for their retail mobile
business of Symphony. The aim of starting Edison Electronics Ltd. (EEL) was to server the end
customers directly with their best products and services. EEL did very good business in 2014 to
2016, but after that the whole retail mobile market scenario changed because of some new global
brands availability in the market. EEL tried their level best to compete with their only brand
Symphony, but for the growing customer demand and in competitiveness of the brand Symphony,
Edison Electronics Ltd. changes their business strategy and became the first authorized multi
brand mobile seller in the retail market.

v
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 2: Organization Overview ................................................................................................. 4
Background of the company ....................................................................................................... 5
Function of the Organization ...................................................................................................... 9
Chapter 3: Internship Experience.................................................................................................. 11
Job description........................................................................................................................... 12
Job Responsibility ..................................................................................................................... 12
Learning Outcome..................................................................................................................... 13
Chapter 4: Report .......................................................................................................................... 14
Retail Mobile sales sector and its Challenges in Bangladesh ................................................... 15
Challenges of Symphony .......................................................................................................... 17
Symphony and Edison Electronics Ltd. .................................................................................... 19
Reasons for going to sell multi-brand mobile ........................................................................... 19
SWOT Analysis......................................................................................................................... 22
Strength.................................................................................................................................. 22
Weakness ............................................................................................................................... 22
Opportunity............................................................................................................................ 22
Threat..................................................................................................................................... 23
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 25
References..................................................................................................................................... 27
Appendix....................................................................................................................................... 28
Internship Report Proposal........................................................................................................ 29

vi
List of abbreviations

Abbreviations Explanation
EEL Edison Electronics Ltd.
BO Brand Outlet
FBO Franchise Brand Outlet
ZSM Zonal Sales Manager
TSM Territory Sale Manager
TSO Territory Sales Officer
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
EMI Equated Monthly Installment
MIS Management Information System
IT Information Technology
ROI Return On Investment

vii
Chapter 1: Introduction

Page 1 of 30
In BRAC Business School students has to do an internship of three months to earn their MBA
Degree. Students have to do internship program as a practical orientation to the work place where
he/she can combine the theoretical knowledge with practical work experience and also helps the
student to understand the corporate culture, professionalism attitude and behavior and how theories
are applying into real life. I have been working in Edison Electronics Ltd. as a Senior Executive
under Finance Department for the last 3 years. So to fulfill the internship requirement, I have
selected my Research Report title as “Edison Electronics Ltd.’s business strategy changes,
“Single Brand Showroom to Multi-Brand Showroom” (Financial point of view)”

Origin of the report

The report was assigned to me as a requirement of the Internship program, a prerequisite for the
completion of the MBA Program at BRAC University.

Scope of the Study

This report is made only for academic purpose and to fulfill the requirement for internship. The
scope of the study is to understand the Mobile retail sales market of Bangladesh which includes
different challenges faced by the retail brand outlets, customer demand shifts, financial problems
faced by the business owners and the employees working in the company

Objectives of the Study

To find out whether the decision of going to multi-brand from single brand was successful or not
(Based on the current position of the company)

Specific Objectives

 To present a schematic (general scenario) of Retail Mobile sales sector in Bangladesh with
a reference to Symphony Mobile and Edison Electronics Ltd
 To identify the challenges of Retail Mobile sales sector in Bangladesh and Recommend
few suggestions to overcome those problems
 Enlighten the past and present business strategies taken by Edison Electronics Ltd. and
analyze whether they are fruitful or not
 Find the problems and give recommendations by analysis and observations

Page 2 of 30
Methodology of the Study

I have practically observed the company’s business for a long time as an active executive member.
The company uses two databases for their daily operation, one for the direct sales to customer and
other for the financial reporting. Both the systems will be used for collecting relevant data for the
report.

Both the primary and secondary data are used to make the report richer and informative.

Primary Sources

Face to face communication with the on-site supervisor and employees of Edison Electronics Ltd.

Secondary Sources
 Official Website of the company
 Financial data from Tally ERP 9 and DreamApps ERP software

Limitations

 Time constraints for this report

 Access to information
 Lack of cooperation from customers and clients

Page 3 of 30
Chapter 2: Organization Overview

Page 4 of 30
Background of the company
Mobile phone has become an essential part of our daily life. This is not a luxury product anymore
due to technological advancement and innovation. In Bangladesh telecommunication industry is
showing a positive growth trend. Various local brands are performing well in the market along
with international brands. Local mobile brands are slowly winning the heart of people due to low
cost and improved performance.
EDISON Group, one of the encouraging and evolving business groups, is founded with the aim of
enhancing all aspects of life for the customers with powerful brands, reliable products and services.
The group has diversified investment in Technology, Communication, Power, Real Estate,
Electronics & Value Added Service sectors in Bangladesh. Presently, EDISON Group has more
than 15 strategic business units operating in the market which are
 SB Tel Enterprises Ltd. (SYMPHONY Mobile)
 SIEMENS Bangladesh
 EDISON Electronics Ltd.
 EDISON Logistics Ltd.
 EDISON Express Ltd.
 E2E Logistics Bangladesh Ltd.
 EDISON Properties Ltd.
 EDISON Power Bangladesh Ltd.
 PETELCO
 EDISON Technologies Ltd.
 Edison Accessories Ltd.
 MoMagic Bangladesh Ltd.
 Edison Footwear Ltd.
 PinkCreative Bangladesh
 HEXAGON
 Pickaboo.com

Edison group’s first company SB Tel Enterprise Ltd. established in 2005, started mobile phone
business under SYMPHONY brand in 2008 providing new experience to the consumers through
continuous innovation and product diversification. The brand has been enjoying indisputable
leading position in mobile phone industry. Another two supporting businesses - Symphony

Page 5 of 30
accessories and mobile application (value added service- “Fun Store” powered by MoMagic
Bangladesh) added significant value to the Symphony mobile phone users since 2011.

Within short period of time since its introduction at the end of 2008 the brand Symphony has
emerged as the fastest growing leading mobile handset brand in Bangladesh. Relentless work of
the company to ensure exemplary service at all times and ability to provide stable and consistent
solutions made Symphony the market leader in the handset segment in 2010. Aggressive pricing
strategy, contemporary features & styling, international quality builds a strong distribution
network and after sales service have contributed to make Symphony Mobile the preferred choice
of Bangladeshi customers. The core focus of the company is to consistently provide outstanding
customer service as it continues to explore new horizons to deliver newer and better solutions to
its most valued premium asset, its customers.

Vision: To be a responsible, respectable and prominent company.

Mission: Delivering difference to be the best in every market we serve, to the benefit of our
customers and our stakeholders.

Page 6 of 30
Milestones achieved by Edison Group

Page 7 of 30
Edison Electronics Limited, a sister concern of Edison Group started its journey from November
2013 with an aim to provide sales and service to the primary customers directly. With this aim,
Edison Electronics Ltd. (EEL) started to set-up authorized Brand Outlets (BO) all over
Bangladesh. EEL started to make agreements with various dealers all over the country also who
opened their outlets known as Franchise Brand Outlets (FBO) as same as BO’s. All the BO & FBO
have the same interior decoration which made them different from any other ordinary mobile shop
from the very first day of their opening in any area. Customers all over the country became very
much attracted to these outlets and in a very short period of time and the mobile brand “Symphony”
won the best mobile phone brand award in Best Brand Award 2015, 2016 & 2017.

Photo: Edison Electronics Ltd. Brand Outlet (Symphony)

From the starting of EEL, all the retails outlets sold only one brand’s mobile and accessories which
was “Symphony”. After June 2017, the company decided to sell Multi Brand Mobile in all of their
outlets. Currently the company is selling Multi Brand Mobile Handsets & Mobile Accessories
from its Own & franchisee Brand Outlets named as "Edison Smart Plug In". From its 166 Brands
outlets, Edison Electronics Ltd is serving almost in all the divisional towns and major district
towns. The Brand Outlets are focused to ensure customer satisfaction with wide range of product
line and services.

Page 8 of 30
 Function of the Organization

Edison Electronics Ltd. started its business with only one goal which is to serve the customers all
over the country with best products and service. For this reason, the company is divided into two
major divisions which are the Sales department and the Executive Management. The executive
management departments consist with Finance, MIS & IT, Human Resource, Warehouse and
Distribution, Business Development and Administration.

Chairman, Managing Director

& Business Director

Business Head

Warehouse
Accounts Human MIS & IT Business Administration
Sales &
& Finance Resource Development
Distribution

Figure: Edison Electronics Ltd.’s executive management hierarch

Page 9 of 30
All the brand outlet employees are under the sales department. The Sales department is directly
monitored by the Business Head. There are two different channels of brand outlets which are BO
(own Brand Outlet) and FBO (Franchise Brand Outlet or dealer outlet). Both these channels are
continuously managed by the dedicated team of ZSM (Zonal Sales Manager), TSM (Territory
Sales Manager) and TSO (Territory Sales Officer). There is no difference seen from the outside
between the BO and FBO, because all the interior and exterior decorations are similar. The only
difference between the BO and FBO is, all the BO’s entire human resource and structural
maintenance are completely managed by the EEL management, whether the FBO’s are owned by
the franchisees who are known as dealers in our country. All the FBO owners have signed
individual agreements with the EEL management through which thy operates their business.

Business Head

BO FBO
Channel Channel

ZSM TSM TSO ZSM TSM TSO

BO BO BO FBO FBO FBO

Figure: Edison Electronics Ltd.’s sales management hierarchy

Page 10 of 30
Chapter 3: Internship Experience

Page 11 of 30
Job description
I joined in Edison Electronics Ltd. in September 2014 which is located in Niketon, Gulshan-1,
Dhaka. I joined as an Executive of Finance and Procurement under the finance department. My
job descriptions were:

 Maintain Head Office & Showroom Cash Disbursement daily

 Preparation of conveyance & other expenses claim and taking management approval after
checked & verified with policy
 Daily transaction with bank like cash & chaque deposit, withdrawn and maintain register
in accounting software
 Posting all kinds of voucher into Tally software
 Collect quotation from vendor and prepare work order after taking approval from
management
 Bank Reconciliation
 Job Related voucher preservation

In January 2017, I was promoted to Senior Executive of Finance and my job descriptions were
changed to the following:

 Ensure all brand outlets sales and bank deposit collection through cash or bank
 Maintain receivables ledger for all own brand outlet
 Update the Revenue, Discount & Bank deposit data into Tally
 Prepare report for Sales, Collection & Cash in Hand for all Brand Outlet
 Prepare inventory report for all brand outlet & central warehouse stock daily
 Prepare monthly Profitability Report for all brand outlet
 100 % Daily Sales & Collection Reconcile with bank statement for all brand outlet sales
 Collect and process all EMI forms from all brand outlets
 Bank Reconciliation
 Various type of Jobs as per Departmental requirement

Job Responsibility

This was my first job after I completed my BBA from BRAC University. I came to learn various
new things like using accounting software Tally ERP9 which were completely new for me. I
basically learned what it takes to be an executive in a corporate office. My favorite experience of
the job wasn’t necessarily the job itself, but every time I learn new things and met different types
of corporate peoples.

Page 12 of 30
Learning Outcome
My job at Edison Electronics Ltd. has taught me more than I could have imagined. As a finance
executive, I feel my duties were different, and ever-changing. Sometimes it’s tough to recall
everything I have taken in over the past months, but I feel that these are some of the most beneficial
lessons I have learned.

I’m not alone

Coming into this position, I felt that I had no idea where my career was going and I lacked
confidence about what I could do and what I am really good at. My job has definitely given me a
better understanding of my skill set and where my career may take me, but most importantly, I’ve
come to learn that I am not alone. This job has taught me that almost everybody is in my same
position. Very few students know what they want to do, and it is something that is simply not
worth worrying about.

To keep presenting

This was huge experience for me. I have always enjoyed making report, and always felt that I was
pretty good at it. Yet, what this position taught me is that I really didn’t have the reporting skills I
thought I had. Preparing financial reports for a company and preparing reports on your average
term paper could not be more different. I had to learn to adapt new techniques with my reporting
skills, something that took a little getting used to. This position kept me making something new
every day, and I can say that my reporting skills has improved drastically.

How to behave in the office

This being my first position in an office atmosphere, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. The
environment here at EEL is quite relaxed, yet it taught me how to behave in the workplace. Simply
working in the office and getting used to everything here has definitely prepared me for the
corporate culture. Just observing the everyday events has taught me more about teamwork, and
how people can come together to get things done. Although sometimes I have to remind myself to
use my inside voice, I feel I’ve adapted to the office life relatively well.

Page 13 of 30
Chapter 4: Report

Page 14 of 30
Retail Mobile sales sector and its Challenges in Bangladesh

Smartphone has seen an unprecedented growth in Bangladesh in recent years. The value of legally
imported smartphone in 2015 was $316 million, up from $262 million in the previous year.
According to Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers’ Association (BMPIA), it will be $613 million
by 2020.
According to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) the total number
of Mobile Phone subscribers has reached 150.945 Million at the end of June, 2018

The Mobile Phone subscribers are shown below:

Operator Subscriber (in Millions)
Grameen Phone Ltd. (GP) 69.170
Robi Axiata Limited (Robi) 44.729
Banglalink Digital Communications Limited 33.282
Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd. (Teletalk) 3.764
Total 150.945
Note: *Subscriber means the biometric verified subscribers/subscriptions who have any activity
(voice, data, SMS etc.) at least once in the preceding 90 days.

The handset market has become extremely competitive in the recent years. Local brands like
Symphony and Walton, have taken over the market from previously dominant Samsung. Apart
from the existing players, there is an ever-growing list of new entrants, including now aggressive
Oppo, local importers like Maximus, Okapia, Indian brand Micromax and more.

Bangladesh has been experiencing an incredible mobile handset growth for the last couple of years.
Until 2012, this growth was largely dominated by basic phones. But since 2013, smartphones have
started to pick up and now dominates the market. Although, customers prefer smartphones but the
market remains largely price sensitive.

The affordable pricing of Chinese manufactured phones has contributed largely to this growth. At
$123, the average retail price of a smartphone in Bangladesh is the lowest among 17 developing

Page 15 of 30
markets analyzed by Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report for 2016. Yet, most average people
in Bangladesh can’t afford smartphones.

Bangladesh is a different market and changing rapidly due to the economic growth and rise of a
middle class with increased spending muscle. But consumers are still price sensitive. While people
want a budget phone, they also prefer brand and good quality. Edison Group with their Symphony
brand and its strategy is offering low-cost smartphones which has already grabbed the growing
middle-class consumers base.

Symphony is one of the most successful local handset brands in the history of Bangladesh. The
company has dominated the market with its price competitive feature phones manufactured in
China and then price competitive smartphones when people started to move to the smartphone for
a long time. When Symphony started, it faced very little competition because Samsung another
dominant player in the market at that time did not pay much attention to the low-end smartphone
category in the market because it was the seemingly best decision to make for Samsung leadership
given that it was already earning a premium serving the high-end segment in the market. But things
are changing fast for several reasons:

 Relatively new and aggressive players like Huawei, Oppo and a handful of other brands
are eating into both ends of the market
 At the same time this is changing the nature of the overall market that Symphony has served
successfully for a long time
This change continues fast eroding Symphony’s market share. A couple of new players, who offer
relatively low price phones are helping accelerate this process along with a few decisions
Symphony made in the past. In recent years, particularly over the last two years, most international
brands made a comeback with their quality products, strong Research and Development (R&D)
strategy and after-sale services. There are hardly any districts where international brands have not
opened up their showrooms to reach out their products to smartphone users.

Page 16 of 30
Challenges of Symphony

From Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma: “An innovation that is disruptive allows a whole new
population of consumer’s access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to
consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill.”

This is what Symphony has exactly done. It took feature phone that was expensive for many people
across the country and made it accessible to all. In doing so it built a huge business. However, this
alone does not explain Symphony’s success. It must be acknowledged that it has been able to build
a massive and equally strong distribution network and execute on it as well.

Edison Group’s Former Senior Director Rezwanul Hoque said to Bangladesh Monitor:

“Symphony, a brand of Edison Group, has emerged as the fastest growing mobile handset brand
in the country. A brand of Edison Group, Symphony earned an indisputable leading position in
mobile handset industry within a short period since its introduction at the end of 2008. Edison
Group’s first company SB Tel Enterprise Ltd, established in 2005, started mobile phone business
under Symphony brand in 2008 providing a new experience to the consumers through continuous
innovation and product diversification.”

Symphony was the first to introduce Android mobile phones in Bangladesh. Now Symphony
mobile handset of smartphone market share is 43 per cent in Bangladesh and feature phone market
share is 50 percent. After its massive success in feature phones, Symphony launched Smartphones,
although low and medium-end rage, and quickly became the market leader again until Samsung
started to eat into its market share and eventually other Chinese brands.

Despite the growing competition in the market, Symphony continued to dominate and grow largely
contributed by a few factors

 Symphony largely served the low-end market segment with a better quality phone for a
better price and Samsung along with other high-end brands did not compete in that market
because they already had a profitable business selling high-end phones and they did not
consider the low-end market as a highly profitable segment, a classic example of how
disruption works in most markets. This allowed Symphony to build a solid business and
scale and in fact, in some cases go up in the market.

Page 17 of 30
  The initial segment that Symphony targeted was a new segment of customers that high-end
phone manufacturers were not targeting at that time largely because they thought there was
no profit in that market and because they were making ample profit in the high-end space.

After its initial success, the company remained focused on growing its existing business mostly
through better distribution instead of investing in the future growth. In a sense, it became, for a
period of time, the incumbent that it was competing with. In the case of Symphony a few things
have happened:
 The company, till to date, has failed to launch significantly successful high-end and
medium range phones which means Symphony failed to move up on the ladder.
 Symphony has over the years built a low-cost phone brand. Higher quality but lower cost.
This positioning is now causing the company much of its trouble to break into the high-
end market.
 Technology has become extremely modularized making low-cost phones a less
sustainable advantage. Every phone company now offers low-cost phones intensifying
competition in that segment
Mobile is an essential product and then when one can afford it, also becomes a status symbol.
That’s why Apple has such die-hard fans all around the world and the maker of iPhone maintains
such dominance in the high-end phone category. And this is exactly where Symphony is facing
challenges. The company has been unsuccessful so far in building a high-end image and die-hard
fan base which put it in challenges of dealing with price-competitive customers who are
transitional in nature and are seldom loyal. Over the past few years, mobile handset market has
changed in many ways:
 The rise of a new middle class with growing purchasing power that craves status even when
they are price sensitive
 A host of new competitors entered the market with competitive pricing and more
aggressive strategies
These two changes have caused a significant impact on Symphony’s business.

Page 18 of 30
Symphony and Edison Electronics Ltd.

From the very first day of Edison Electronics Ltd. started their journey, their only aim was to
provide the best products and services to the customers all over Bangladesh with most affordable
price. At that time, Symphony was the market leader in the mobile phone market and the executive
management of Edison Electronics Ltd. were also the owner of the brand Symphony. For this
reason, all the EEL showrooms started to sell only Symphony branded mobile phone and the
showrooms were named as “Symphony Brand Outlet”. For a successful completion of the year
2014, all the showrooms were renamed as “Symphony Smart Plug-in” focusing more to sell the
smartphone mobiles. In 2015, Symphony won best Mobile Phone brand award in Bangladesh.
Business of EEL becomes larger with more than 100 showrooms all over Bangladesh. In 2016,
various new global brand like Xiaomi, Huawei and OPPO started to enter the mobile phone market
of Bangladesh. The global smartphone giant Samsung also did a massive change in their product
line with low and mid-range smartphone mobile and started to open their brand outlets in most of
the popular places.

Reasons for going to sell multi-brand mobile

When all these things were happening in the market, EEL were only selling the Symphony branded
mobiles where most of the models failed to compete with the other brands smartphone. Consumers
also wanted to go with the newer models with attractive features which were offered by the other
brands. For all these reasons, EEL started to lose their regular Symphony mobile sales every day
and at 2017, this becomes a major concern. Majority of the showrooms were failed to generate the
desired sales which resulted consecutive losses for the company.

The following graphical data shows the Gross Sales and Profit earned by all the EEL showrooms
during the year July 2015 to June 2017. It is seen that there is a steady amount of profit earned
against sales in every month until the ending of 2016. Then the amount of Sales and Profit, both
started to decrease over the month except the months which had some religious festivals like Eid-
Ul-Fitre, Eid-Ul-Azha or Durga Puja.

Page 19 of 30
 232,048,414 304,892,803
11,232,684 12,101,884

253,249,438 247,099,091
11,272,126 9,675,213

267,094,303 297,682,614
12,418,502 11,779,272

204,202,901 205,982,361
10,353,034 9,589,703

188,025,956 180,466,235
8,835,892 8,309,520

178,726,559 212,250,977
8,952,974 9,612,376

182,645,802 141,478,157
8,570,518 7,588,488

YEAR 2015-2016

YEAR 2016-2017
161,421,494 195,662,632
7,989,342 9,719,345

191,122,038 221,473,146
9,293,806 11,150,591

173,182,327 204,120,956
8,586,574 10,438,521
Symphony mobile sales & profit

Symphony mobile sales & profit

167,582,975 219,779,721
8,310,420 10,979,360

230,881,001 350,656,485
10,184,949 14,059,558
Sales

Sales
Profit

Profit

Page 20 of 30
By the starting of 2017, global brands like Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo became very much popular
among the smartphone users and at the same time Symphony was losing its market share gradually.
At that time most of the young people would like to buy smartphone with the latest features like
upgradable operating system, latest processor, best front camera for taking selfie and stylish
outlook of the mobile. Symphony mobile did knew all these requirements of the customers but
they failed to fulfill these demand. Although Edison Group tried to launch a new premium brand
“Helio” for fulfilling those customer demand, but the brand did not succeed much.

As all the EEL showrooms were selling only Symphony mobile and they were losing their daily
sales gradually every day for the above reasons, the executive management decided to change their
business strategy. They saw huge Opportunity in future as the customers buying trend are shifting
from exclusive store to multi brand with variety of product ranges and one stop destination store
for mobile phone purchase.

After June 2017, they decided to re-decorate all the existing EEL showrooms and start to sell multi-
brand mobile phones with a tagline - “The junction of the Bests!”. This means that all the popular
mobile brand can be found under one roof and people can choose any brand whichever they like.

By providing multi-brand mobile from one place to all the customers, EEL showrooms started to
gain their lost share of sales gradually which can be seen from the following data:

Symphony mobile sales & profit

212,310,813

150,201,696

138,477,468
138,232,186
135,869,082

122,817,031

87,892,627
84,210,616
83,179,379

81,913,496

79,304,427
76,830,106

Sales
Profit
10,646,619

8,260,103
8,158,695

8,043,469

7,888,242
7,773,048

7,640,280
7,245,084

7,244,134

7,230,118
7,139,607

7,091,809

YEAR 2017-2018

Page 21 of 30
SWOT Analysis

Strength Weakness Opportunity and Threat, all these four types of analysis are pronounced as one
word which is known as SWOT Analysis. For going to Multi Brand from Single Brand, the SWOT
analysis is given below.

Strength
 Skilled Manpower: EEL has a large number of skilled salesman who have been working
in different outlets from the beginning of the company since 2013.
 Massive Brand Outlet Visibility: EEL has more than 150 authorized brand outlets all over
the country which is easily recognized by the general people.
 Strong distribution network: EEL has a strong distribution network which is developed
over the years.
 Retail business professionals: For the past five years, EEL is managing their business with
the best professionals recruited from the market.
 Strong financial position: EEL has a strong financial position in the retail mobile market.
 ERP System: All the departments including the retail sales operation of EEL uses the
DreamApps ERP system which is a world class ERP software. With this ERP system, EEL
can obtain various real time data for taking important decisions.

Weakness
 Lack of variations: EEL brand outlets sales only Symphony brand mobile phone which
now-a-days has lack of variations compared with the other brands mobile
 Lack of Premium price and features phone: Symphony branded mobile does not offer
premium price phones with high features compared with iPhone, Samsung or OPPO.
 Meet the customer demand: Now-a-days customers want to compare different brands
mobile before purchasing any mobile. With only one brand, EEL showrooms fails to meet
that demand of the customers.

Opportunity
 All Brands under a Single umbrella: With starting to sell multi-brand in EEL showrooms,
customers can find all brands mobile in a one place.

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  Increase Customer footfall: By offering different brands mobile, EEL showrooms will
attract the others mobile brands customers. This will increase the footfall in the showrooms
which results in increase in sales revenue
 Customer comfortability for choosing the product: Customers can compare and choose
from various brands offered by the multi-brand showrooms
 Ensure healthy ROI: With multi-brand selling from all the EEL showrooms, Return On
Investment from every showroom will increase.

Threat
 Non authorized multi-brand in market: Now-a-days, some mobile retail stores are growing
fast in the market which are not authorized by the mobile brands they are selling.
 Non-warranty products and customer sufferings: Most of the times, unauthorized multi-
brand showrooms sale non-warranty products which results customer’s sufferings like
warranty issues, unavailability of customer care etc.
 Price war: Different brands are now offerings attractive features with their mobile with a
very competitive price compared with Symphony. With only one brand in an authorized
showroom, it is much difficult to survive in the market.

For all these reasons, EEL management decided to change their business strategy. They
redecorate all of their showrooms and start to sell different brands mobile. They change their
showrooms name from “Symphony Smart Plug-in” to “Edison Smart Plug-in”.

A multi-brand showroom of Edison Smart Plug-in

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By taking decision of selling multi-brand mobile phone in their showroom, not only the
company fulfilled the customers demand, but also they have secured the profitability of the
company which is shown in the following graph.

Sales & profit over the year (Symphony)

Sales
Profit

YEAR 2015-2017

Sales & profit over the year (Multi-Brand)

Sales
Profit

JUL-17 AUG-17 SEP-17 OCT-17 NOV-17 DEC-17 JAN-18 FEB-18 MAR-18 APR-18 MAY-18 JUN-18
YEAR 2017-2018

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Conclusion
Some questions were raised when the conversion process of single brand showroom to multi brand
showroom were ongoing. The answers of these questions are given below:

 If Edison Electronics Ltd. starts to sell multi-brand mobiles in their outlet, how much
impact it will create upon the mother company’s signature brand “Symphony”?
 The main goal of EEL showrooms was to serve the customers according to their
demand with best products and services. As the customers are now more cautious
and they would like to compare all the available options in one place, EEL
showrooms start to sell the premium branded mobile phones in all their outlets. The
mother company’s signature brand Symphony is also one of these brands. Besides
EEL has only 150 showrooms and the mother company has more than 14000 outlets
all over Bangladesh. So, selling multi brand mobile in EEL showrooms will not
have a major effect over Symphony.
 What will the impact on the general customer’s mind who used to know the old outlets as
“Symphony Brand Outlet”?
 The EEL showrooms have started to change according to the customers’ demand.
So, this will create a positive impact and increase the sales.
 Is the decision of selling different brands mobile in a single showroom will be fruitful for
the company?
 The executive management took the decision based on various market analysis and
customers demand. They knew that they have the best sales executives in the
market and if they offer all the available options under one roof, they will succeed.
After the decision of selling multi brand mobile in a single showroom in June 2017,
one year have been passed and the results are positive for the company.
 Will the company be profitable as a latecomer in the market of multi-brand mobile sales?
 When EEL showrooms started, they were the only authorized brand outlet of
Symphony. Before EEL, there were no companies which have such a wide
authorized brand outlet network with multi brand available in their showrooms. So,
EEL showrooms will the first authorized multi brand mobile sales showroom and
they will succeed in multi brand mobile sales.

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 If all this rebranding process do not come profitable for the company, is there any action
plan set by the management?
 Back in 2013 the EEL management started their Symphony Brand Outlet business
when the brand Symphony were the market leader and the idea of this business
became profitable for the company. Now for the technological advancement of the
mobile sector and customer demand, no single brand can sustain majority shares of
the market and for these reasons the EEL management decided to change their
business strategy. Based on all these facts, the EEL management believed that they
will not fail and as a result they did succeeded.

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References

 Edison-bd.com. (2018). Overview | EDISON Group. [online] Available at:

https://www.edison-bd.com/overview.php [Accessed 12 Jul. 2018].
 Symphony-mobile.com. (2018). About Us - Symphony || New Experience. [online]
Available at: https://www.symphony-mobile.com/about-us.php [Accessed 12 Jul. 2018].
 Btrc.gov.bd. (2018). Mobile Phone Subscribers in Bangladesh June, 2018. | BTRC.
[online] Available at: http://www.btrc.gov.bd/content/mobile-phone-subscribers-
bangladesh-june-2018 [Accessed 4 Aug. 2018].
 Kader, R. (2018). Innovator's Dilemma - Future Startup. [online] Future Startup.
Available at: https://futurestartup.com/2017/12/12/symphony-disruptive-innovation-poor-
mans-phone-symphonys-future [Accessed 12 Jul. 2018].
 Future Startup. (2018). Huawei’s Rise To Prominence In Bangladesh’s Smartphone
Market - Future Startup. [online] Available at:
https://futurestartup.com/2016/08/16/huaweis-rise-to-prominence-in-bangladeshs-
smartphone-market/ [Accessed 12 Jul. 2018].
 Clayton Christensen. (2018). The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause
Great Firms to Fail. [online] Available at: http://www.claytonchristensen.com/books/the-
innovators-dilemma/ [Accessed 12 Jul. 2018].

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Appendix
Internship Report Proposal

As a part of MBA program at BRAC Business School, I have to submit an internship report to
fulfill my MBA program. I have been working in Edison Electronics Ltd as a Senior Executive
under Finance Department for the last 3 years. In this regard, I have selected my Research Report
title as “Business strategy change, Authorized Single Brand Showroom to Authorized Multi-
Brand Showroom. (Financial point of view)”

Edison Electronics Ltd

Edison Electronics Limited, a sister concern of Edison Group started its journey from November
2013. From the start, all the retails outlets sold only one brand’s mobile and accessories which was
“Symphony”. After June 2017, the company decided to sell Multi Brand Mobile in all of their
outlets. Currently the company is selling Multi Brand Mobile Handsets & Mobile Accessories
from its Own & franchisee Brand Outlets named as "Edison Smart Plug In".
From its 166 Brands outlets Edison Electronics Ltd is serving almost in all the divisional towns
and major district towns. The Brand Outlets are focused to ensure customer satisfaction with wide
range of product line and services.
Scope of the Study
The scope of the study is to understand the Mobile retail sales market of Bangladesh which
includes different challenges faced by the retail brand outlets, customer demand shifts, financial
problems faced by the business owners and the employees working in the company
Objectives of the Study
To find out whether the decision of going to multi-brand from single brand was successful or not
(Based on the current position of the company)
Specific Objectives

 To present a schematic (general scenario) of Retail Mobile sales sector in Bangladesh with
a reference to Symphony Mobile and Edison Electronics Ltd
 To identify the challenges of Retail Mobile sales sector in Bangladesh and Recommend
few suggestions to overcome those problems
 Enlighten the past and present business strategies taken by Edison Electronics Ltd. and
analyze whether they are fruitful or not

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Methodology of the Study

I have practically observed the company’s business for a long time as an active executive member.
The company uses two databases for their daily operation, one for the direct sales to customer and
other for the financial reporting. Both the systems will be used for collecting relevant data for the
report.

Both the primary and secondary data are used to make the report richer and informative.

Primary Sources

Face to face communication with the on-site supervisor and employees of Edison Electronics Ltd.
Secondary Sources
 Official Website of the company
 Financial data from Tally ERP 9 and DreamApps ERP software
Limitations
 Time constraints for this report
 Access to information
 Lack of cooperation from customers and clients

Research questions to be raised and addressed

 If Edison Electronics Ltd. starts to sell multi-brand mobiles in their outlet, how much
impact it will create upon the mother company’s signature brand “Symphony”?
 What will the impact on the general customer’s mind who used to know the old outlets as
“Symphony Brand Outlet”?
 Is the decision of selling different brands mobile in a single showroom will be fruitful for
the company?
 Will the company be profitable as a latecomer in the market of multi-brand mobile sales?
 If all this rebranding process do not come profitable for the company, is there any action
plan set by the management?

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