The particular report deals with a
small business organization based on UK. Small or big both companies needs to
have some strategic management and planning for their development. Contribution
of every member is very important. None of the members could be avoided whether
he is a CEO or a small employee. A small industry needs to pay more attention
on the aims and objectives. As a business consultant some strategic planning
and suggestion are needed to be given. The CEO of a small enterprise has
invited the business consultant for business development. As the company is a flat structure, so its
CEO needs to deal with various business issues. So finally the company needs to
take suggestion and planning from the business consultant. Now it is the duty
of the business consultant to give his best suggestion for the development of
the company. The reports which will be given to the CEO have been divided into
4 tasks. Task 1 deal with strength and weakness of business and measures of
performance. Task 2 deals with steps to overcome the weakness, how to maintain
strength in current performance and recommendation for expansion of business in
new areas. Task 3 is all about objectives and plans of the business, changes
required according to the plan and action plan. Lastly task 4 deals with impact
of changes, planning the change and improvement in the performance.
The selected small organization is “Littlewoods”.
This is a retail industry of UK based mail order and football pools. The
company was founded by Sir John Moores in Liverpool, Merseyside in England. The
basic job of this industry is that it deals with football betting. It was
started in the year 1923. Headquarter of the company is in Liverpool. Till
1980s it was the largest private company of Europe but very soon it was
declined because of tough competition and internet. Once this company was having
4,000 employees but no it has been broken up. In 2004 the company has been sold
to David and Frederick Barclay and its name changed to Shop direct group. In
the very first operation Littlewoods made a huge loss and thus another partner
withdraw its share. Then with the help of his family Moores continue to run the
company and expand the company into mail order retailing.
Figure 1: Logo of Littlewoods
(Source: www.littlewoods.com)
Strength-
A) Marketing-
● The company possess free returning facilities
as well as free shipping.
● Every month Littlewoods produced
magazine giving customers an editorial view (Storey et al. 2016,
p. 121).
● It connects with customer via social
platform such as face book, twitter or YouTube
B) Finance-
● Gets financial support from the
government in low rate of interest
● Entire public sector supply chain to
be paid within 30 days
C) Merchandising-
● It deals with varieties of products
and categories. This helps them to attract more customer and increase in sale.
● Initiative taken by UK government in
supporting small companies such as by providing them with central government
contract
Weakness-
A) Marketing-
● It strategy on producing magazine is
not successful one as many customer do not buy magazine.
● Lacks promotion of new products (Curran and Storey, 2016, p. 247).
● Advertisement lacks on marketing
platform.
B) Finance-
●
the free shipping facilities cost the company in millions in
annual basis.
●
Logistic process of shipping, cutting and delivery some cost
heavily. So it requires good logistic support.
●
Initiatives taken by cabinet minister Matt Hancock are not
implemented in every small company.
C) Merchandising-
● Lack of strategic planning and
management.
● As its business is based on online
platform so customers do not get chance for trail.
Measurement of business performance
can be down by developing right key performance indicators (KPIs). According to Blackburn
el al. (2013, p. 124), it is very
difficult for small firm to analysis the business performance with indicators.
The financial statement and sales result could be possible to measure the
performance. KPIs are the path for success and achieving target of the firm.
The above mentioned indicator will help to focus on what is important for the
company and its objectives. STP analysis for a firm is very important as it
gives clear idea about areas which needs more attention and help. Balanced
scorecard, result based management are some other management tools but KPIs is
very much simple to develop and analysis. Cost of goods, revenue and net profit
are some areas that are needed to be focused during the calculation of KPIs.
The outcome of the result should be interrelated with the aims and objectives
of the company. Change in business or change in firm will have change in its
objectives so KPIs needs to be updated (Sahin and Uslu, 2014, p. 145). Littlewoods should be very much focused from
manufacturing a product to its final delivery. There are few factors which need
to be focused while calculating KPIs:
● Focus on progress- Littlewoods needs
to focus on its progress or success report that is whether it is going on
proper tracks along with its objectives. Progress report should be matched with
the target of Littlewoods. If it do not match then it is clear that progress of
the firm is not in its proper track.
● Look towards customer satisfaction-
It is the duty of every company to make its customers satisfied. Talking to the
customer, knowing their view about company or product. If customer of
Littlewoods is satisfied then it is sure that its performance is very good.
Good business performance will always keep its customer happy.
● Focus on swot analysis- Littlewoods
needs to focus on its strength and weakness; this will help to understand its
position along with convert weaknesses into strength. This analysis will help
to have performance measurement.
● Customer satisfaction- It is the
duty of every company to make its customers satisfied. Talking to the customer,
knowing their view about company or product. If customer of Littlewood is
satisfied then it is sure that the company’s performance is very good. A good
performance always makes its customers satisfied (Camisón and Villar-López, 2014, p. 124).
● Production and sale- The two
department production and sale is very important for an organisation. If this
two are high then it is clear that business performance is good. Loss of order
and lack of business results in poor business market. Staff review is also
important for measuring business performance. For getting good results firm
needs to focus on what business is doing.
It is the duty of a business
consultant to convert its weakness into the strength. The above mentioned weakness
of Littlewoods is needed to be converted into its strength with the help of the
business consultant. The weakness section deals with the finance, marketing and
merchandise. . The merchandise weakness about exists only in online, Littlewoods
needs to have access in stores and retail outlet (Visnjic et al. 2016, p. 127). All its customers may not have
access over online so it needs to think over this point. The digital path of
interacting with the customers would be very much helpful for the company.
Implementation of more zoom features over a product could give customer more
accurate view about the product. Littlewoods needs to focus on advertising on
marketing platform because online would not be helpful. Advertisement on
different blogs would be benefited to the company. More accurate product is too
delivered so that return of product could be bringing down. Thus it requires
good logistic department. The initiatives taken by the ministry of cabinet
office focus on development of small industries, thus it is needed that these
initiatives should be utilized. Implementation of this initiative would help
the organization to improve its position and goals.
The working hour of a company is depending
on the size and type of business. Decision always creates a deep impact on the
organisation. It is the duty of organization to focus towards employees (Kastalli and Van Looy, 2013, p. 148). Littlewoods needs to focus
towards the every sector that is related to the company. Strengthen of existing
performance could be maintained with the help of following angles:
● Do not forget to set target- It is
very important for Littlewoods to set the target for all the members. After
setting target employees will get pressure to achieve those target and would
also work hard. Thus this would help to achieve the target and objectives.
● To have break- An organization
should also think about giving a break to its employees. As break is very
important. This gives refreshment to the mind and body. A healthy staffs always
gives a healthy business. This will increase the production along will making
its performance strong.
● Do work smart- The current owner of
Littlewoods needs to be smart thus it will help to handle responsibilities and
would save time for other work. Handle the most important issue along with
keeping its substitutes (Lechner and
Gudmundsson, 2014, p. 120).
● Professional development should not
be ignored- Experts and professional people should not be avoided. Littlewoods
needs to be attached with mentor as much as possible. This professional would
help the organisation to strengthen the existing performance.
Expansion of company to its new area
is the other angles of development and success of a company. According to Bergh et al. (2016,
p. 157), business consultant suggestion
could be given so that company would expand into new area. Some recommendation
is as follows:
● Collaborate-
It is the way in which skills and experience are bought together. When
Littlewoods needs to expand to new area than collaboration with a third party
is very necessary as it would give a support to the company.
● Franchise
the business- New location requires more hard work and focus for development so
company needs to give its business on franchisee. This means some other company
would take all the risk of maintaining the business in new location. The owner
will only enjoy profit.
● Target other market- Littlewoods main
target is youth and the football lovers but it need to focus on other market
such as people age above 40 years. Exploring other market would help the
company to attract more customers and thus it would even help to establish in
new area (Real et al. 2014, p.
128).
● Have connection with government- The
best way to establish into new areas to get connect with government. This would
help the company to handle issues related to government. As said by cabinet
officer of UK that government will give more support towards small
organisation.
● Start more brands- Introduction of
more brands into its collection is the main goals of Littlewoods. This would
help to retain customer and even it can attract new customers. More new brands
will help gain new customer from other age. As Little woods main focus on youth
but introduction of new brand will help to more customers.
● Increase market- According to Rosemann and vom Brocke, (2015, p. 75), the current owner of Frederick
Barclay the main objectives of the company is to increase its market all around
the world. More new customers will help to increase the financial position of
the company.
● Free shipping and customer
satisfaction- Littlewoods aims at giving free shipping facilities to its
customer. Due to shipping charge many customers avoid doing online purchase. So
free shipping attracts customers and even helps to satisfy customers.
Plans of existing company- As
declared by UK cabinet minister that small organisation would get more support.
So Littlewoods had planned to expand its market all over UK and to make
Littlewoods a top most brand. It wants to do more international business. From
the viewpoint of Rutter et al. (2016, p.35), due
to tough competition in the market the company had even decided to open retail
store all over UK so that people would all do not support online purchase.
Changes are to done according to the
objectives and aims of Littlewoods. Any types of changes are to be done with
the coordination of all the members.
Changes and plans helps in the organisation helps to transform from
present to future state. To continue with long term and sustainable result it
is required to have transition during change (De Mel et al. 2015,
p. 25). Peoples who ever are related to
the organisation have to change their existing behaviour to the new attitudes
and behaviours, as all this are very important to achieve the desired target.
Stakeholders are very important for any organisation; they must be favourable
with the change. Participation of all people during this change helps the
organisation to achieve target. Change in the organization is very helpful as
it develop the position of company in the market. It even gives tough
competition to its other competitors.
Encouraging the employees is as
useful as having teamwork in a company. Many renowned companies do not know how
to encourage their employee and thus the company faced many types of problem.
Some basic action plans are as follows:
● Team meeting is another aspect to
increase teamwork and encouragement. The meeting would also decide the means to
adopt target behaviour. The communication strategy will be strengthening by
holding more meeting (Cross,
2015, p. 145).
● A company should always try to
appreciate the employees who all are talented. This appreciation helps
employees to work more seriously and try to give its best. Talented employees
should get more chance to show his talent.
● Focus on the employee who possess
good behaviour and even encourage him to spread same quality among others. This
would help to have a fresh working environment. All this will directly have
positive impact on the company.
A change in an organization has two
types of changes such as positive change and negative change. Organization
should always focus on having less negative impact and more positive impact.
Both types of impact are as follows:
Positive
impact-
● New
opportunities will be created for the employee. With the change in plan an
employee will get more chance to learn new task. Employee who get bore due to
same work get refreshments Thus employees will be satisfied (Galbraith, 2014, p. 121).
● Change
in plans will increase efficiency of work processes, thus customer or employee
may get satisfied. When shift come to payroll process than the employee will
get commission sooner.
Negative impact-
● If change in plan force employees to
change their workspace then it create stress in their mind. As they were very
much comfortable with the previous environment. All this lower down the
production and sales of the employees.
● Change in plan may even create
disloyalty among the employees; it may force them to shift from one company to
another.
Before making any types of change in
plan, it is very important to understand what the meaning of change management
is. This refers to something that analysis the organizational structure and
handles the change. The employee of a
company bare normally prepared with the change and even knows to manage the
change (Tasevska et al. 2014, p.185). Some factors are very important
for change management such as effective communication, stakeholder’s aims,
providing personal counselling.
Change in management needs to follow
the following steps:
● Presentation is to be submitted in
front of the higher authority of Littlewoods. The plans are always based on the
inputs of managers and executives.
● After implementation of change it is
very important for employees to adopt that change and to be happy with that
change.
Kotter’s change management would
help to manage change. It has eight steps such as:
● Create sense of urgency
● Build guiding coalition
● Form strategic vision and
initiatives
● Enlist volunteer army
● Enable actions by removing barriers
● Generate short term wins
● Sustain acceleration
● Institute change
Figure
2: Kotter’s change management
(Source: Curran and Storey, 2016, p. 247)
The best feedback that can be given
to a company is by giving good performance. Innovation measures would help the
company to improve its performance. More care towards the employee will help to
increase performance of the company. Input measures are operating expenses,
capital expenditure and human resource implementation. Process measure is
amount of ideas generated, number of contributor involved in the performance (Curran and Storey, 2016, p. 247). The next step output measure
focus on the number of new customer and market share and satisfaction of
employees. Performance improvement should be so simple so that every customer
could use and adopt the product. Waste management should be focused, excess
production some results in more wastage and thus expenses increase. During
performance step should be by organisation should be accepted by all team
members. Improvement in the performance helps to create a fresh working
environment and thus encourage everyone to focus on their individual work.
Finally this result that Littlewoods’s market position, sale and customer would
increase.
The report concludes as that small
organisation like little woods could be a big organisation if it follows
certain planning and management. Focus on certain areas would help the
organisation to be world top most retail industry. Till 1980s it was the
largest private company of Europe but very soon it was declined because of tough
competition and internet. Once this company was having 4,000 employees but no
it has been broken up. The strength and weakness analysis is very important as
it help to understand where the firm needs more attention and help. The digital
path of interacting with the customers would be very much helpful for the
company. Littlewoods is focusing on changing its target consumer. As it want to
shift to all age group. A successful company knows to adopt the change and also
to manage with the change.
No comments:
Post a Comment