Experience Hands-On Application of SPACE Matrix and Design Thinking for Business Strategy

Prof. Govinda Sharma holds a master’s degree in engineering from IIT Madras and a master’s degree in business administration from Bangalore University. He has four decades of expertise in consulting, research, and teaching. He taught “Strategic Management,” “Ethics & Values in Management,” and “Managerial Economics” to postgraduate management students at the SDM Institute for Management Development in Mysore between 2008 and 2016. He was the Chairperson of the Post Graduate Diploma in Management Committee. He taught “Marketing Management” and “Change Management” to MBA students at NMIT between 2006 and 2008. He was the Director of NMIT’s Department of Management Studies. He is passionate about research and has delivered various papers both in India and overseas.

His article, “Innovative Pedagogy in Management with Special Reference to Strategic Management,” won the “Best Paper” prize at an international conference.
He has co-authored a book for postgraduate management students called “Strategic Management.” In the book “How of Strategy,” he provided a chapter. He has written essays on ethics and has evaluated various books on ethics and values. RNS First Grade College’s Assistant Professor and Placement Coordinator is Prof. Madhusudan TK. He has roughly 4 years of industry experience in sales and marketing, as well as 10 years of management teaching experience. He is the author of a book for the UG Foundation subject “Environmental Studies” at Bangalore University. He is working on his Ph.D. at VTU right now.

A one-day workshop on SPACE Matrix and Design Thinking was organized by Dr. Guru Aradhya, Associate Professor, Department of Marketing & International Business, ISBR Business School. This report contains detailed information about the event that took place on 25 th March 2022.

The flow of the event – The workshop started around 9:00 AM in the morning. Sweta Rajak was the anchor for the event. She introduced the guests, Prof. N. R. Govinda Sharma sir & Prof. Madhusudan TK sir. The event started with the presentations of the teams that were selected to present on the SPACE Matrix of different companies. Prof. N.R. Govinda Sharma sir has clarified the rules and regulations for the presentations. After this, the teams were called up for presentations one by one. The first team was STRATAGEMS from section A PGDM and the topic for them was Dabur India Ltd. They covered all the topics like QSPM, SWOT analysis, SPACE Matrix, etc. The presentation was followed by a Q/A session from the guests. The second team to present was INFINIQUE from section B. The topic for them was Flipkart and Walmart Acquisition. They have also covered the topics like SPACE Matrix, QSPM, SWOT Analysis, etc. The third team to present was KURIEN from section C. They presented on the topic Amul. They covered the topics like CPM, SPACE Matrix, SWOT Analysis, QSPM analysis, etc. The next team was ECO-GEEKS from section B and their topic was Mamaearth. All the presentations were followed by a Q/A session from the judges as well as the students. After the competition of all the presentations, the guests shared their experiences regarding all the presentations. He mentioned some points which need to be taken care of by every student while making the presentations. After sharing his experience, he announced the results. The team that secured first place was Team – ECO- GEEKS from section B. The participants were Shweta Dutta, Mrinal Pradeep, Sristhi Sankhalika, Shantanu Barat, Pragya Singh, Mohammad, and Ranjan.

The team that came second is Team – KURIEN from section C. The participants were Himanshu Mandal, Sweta Rajak, Rajveer Tiwari, Anshu Kumar, Urmila Jain, Sushma Swaraj, Preeti Yadav, and Anushree Raghuvanshi. The team that came third was STRATAGEMS & the team that secured the fourth position was INFINIQUE. All of them congratulated the winners for their presentations. After 20 minutes of break, the workshop again resumed. Prof. N. R. Govinda Sharma sir started the workshop with a statement – “It’s nice to be with friends”. He explained what is strategy and why it is important for any business its survival. He shared the three stages – The input stage, the matching stage, and the decision stage. He explained the principle of competitive strategy and he also said that strategy is the game of winning competitive advantages. He explained the concept of strategic groups. He asked the students, how strategies are generated.

He emphasized that one needs to be very specific, choosing the right strategy is very much important. He also emphasized subjective decisions. Strategy analysis and choices involve making subjective decisions based on objective information.

Decisions are based on economics and behavioral factors such as –
 Politics
 Culture
 Ethics, and
 Social Responsibilities
In addition, he said that numbers are accurate and objective rather than subjective. Words are more powerful in terms of conveying emotions and energy. It has the potential to limit communication, debates, and disagreements. As a result, let the number aid in the conversation. As a strategist, he believes that analytical methods such as the SPACE Matrix, QSPM Analysis, SWOT Analysis, CPM Analysis, and others should be used. Following Sir’s lecture, there was a question-and-answer period during which students may clarify their issues. Prof. N. R. Govinda Sharma sir has answered all of the students’ questions. After the workshop, Akeel Ahmad, the student assistant, presented the guest with a sapling, and Sweta Rajak gave the event’s vote of appreciation.

Learnings from the event
 Understood the concept of SPACE Matrix
 Understood the importance of competitive advantage and subjective decision-making.

About ISBR: ISBR Business School, Bangalore-based, Top Class B School for PGDM or MBA, Consistently ranked as best B School in India, AICTE-CII Platinum Category, with multiple specializations.