Arindam Basu was at the end of his tether. The mind boggling matrix before him was just not making sense. Basu was trying to see if there was a common thread in the work cultures of the various groups he was dealing with. But no matter how much Basu, the trashing manager at Morro Industries, juggled the variables, there were no signs of any similarity among the brands, product categories, geographical regions and market dynamics in which the various members of the sales force operated before they were brought under the Morro umbrella.

Twenty years ago, Morro was an oil manufacturing company with a small presence in dairy products. Over the years, Morro diversified and acquired skin care, foods and fabric care businesses. Morro`s hair oil brand Kesha had a steady market in the south. Its managing director, Shantanu Grover, felt that hair care was a natural complement to Morro`s cosmetic care business. So, in the mid-nineties, when liberalisation foreed companies to retook their portfolios, Morro bought Satin, a regional herbal shampoo brand, from the Karnataka-based Suraksha Enterprises. Morro also bought Suraksha`s mass detergent brand, Ujjwaia, which fitted in well with the company`s fabric care business. Likewise, Morro picked up an Uttar Pradesh based fruit processing company, Favor India. With Favor came a fruit drink brand Fruitola, and a range of jams and canned fruit.