The case study highlights the factors affecting strategy formulation and the decision areas involved in art-metalware handicraft units of India where the output and its quality essentially depend on the artisans’ hand skills, their frame of mind and their willingness to contribute to their respective organizations. It will go a long way in suggesting the employers in art-metalware industry in specific that quality of work life measures can actually help the organizations in achieving their desired end. Growth is not the outcome of making strategies for dealing with external environment; rather the soft resources (artisans here) play a vital role in achieving the winning situation for a firm. The intention of this case study is to focus on those strategic aspects of art-metalware industry which need special attention of public associated with it. The work is an outcome of personal meetings with the artisans, manufacturers and exporters of handicrafts sector during the seminars/workshops held at EPCH Moradabad and the authors’ own research in this area.

According to Export Promotion Council of Handicrafts (EPCH, 2011), “handicrafts may be defined as items or products produced through skills that are manual, with or without mechanical or electrical or other processes which appeals to the eye, due to characteristics of being artistic or aesthetic or creative or ethnic or being representative of cultural or religious or social symbols or practices, whether traditional or contemporary. These items or products may or may not have a functional utility or can be used as a decorative item or gift” (EPCH Circular, 2011). Artisanal products are crafted by the artisans with the usage of hand skills by which intricate carving is done on metalware. Hence, any piece of handicraft is largely dependent on the skill set of the artisan involved in crafting it (Dhingra, 2015).

Industry Framework, Indian Art-Metalware, Handicraft Industry