TCS: ‘Hazir SubKuch’—Making Everything Present

Abstract

The case describes the journey of TCS as it became Pakistan’s leading logistics service provider. It highlights how and when TCS acquired different logistics and other value-adding capabilities and how these capabilities, in turn, complimented the diverse logistics services that TCS offered to a wide variety of businesses.

TCS had been offering a top-notch Express and Logistics service around Pakistan for 30 years. TCS started as a company providing secure distribution of letters and packages. Customers perceived TCS as a shipping solution provider for all their goods transportation needs which included parcels, documents, E-commerce products and even their groceries. Table 1 of the case study highlights that TCS had taken up some unique and new initiatives. TCS handled four main clientele areas: Corporate, Consumer, International and E-commerce. For consumer wing, TCS oversaw bookings of documents and parcels at the express centres, door-to-door containerized shipments, domestic and international air ticketing, visa application drop box facility for various countries and financial services in the form of insurance plans. On the corporate side, TCS provided warehousing and distribution, digital printing and bulk mail solutions. International and e-commerce both catered consumer and corporate segments. Over the last decade, TCS had established a warehousing and distribution wing and a mail management and printing facility. Other ventures and services that TCS offered were Visatronix, Hazir, Home Movers, E-COM, TCS Aviation, Mail Management System, Warehouse and Distribution, Intiana, Sentiments express and Octra.

The case focusses on the decision of whether or not to run an ambitious new logistics service, that is, Hazir SubKuch (HSK), meant to deliver anything non-prohibited that a customer wanted, on a crowdsourcing model. In the proposed crowdsourcing model, after training and evaluation, anyone could assume the role of a customer service provider by connecting to the system remotely. Similarly, pickup and delivery jobs could be performed under an Uber-like model by anyone who owned a ride and had smartphone connectivity. The service was a brainchild of the new CEO, hired by the founder and chairman as part of the new management team to bring a fresh dynamism in the company.