Introduction
Wobble Corporation which is a medium type business has been in the industry of widgets manufacture and sale for the last 15 years. The basis of establishing a competitive advantage and strategies for relevance in the industry not only call for value oriented sales, but addressing the issues facing the corporation at an earlier stage so as to take necessary steps to enable the corporation maintain and improve its success levels.
This analysis acknowledges that Wobble Corporation desires to meet the needs of the stakeholders in the sector benefiting them both at an individual and corporate level. This presentation provides an analysis of the solution that I recommend to enable Wobble Corporation not only address its issues, but also achieve benefits to its various stakeholders and competitive advantage over competitors in the lucrative industry.
The presentation covers the summary analysis of the widget market in Australia to form a clear industry perspective for better leverage, the situation analysis, problem analysis, implementation analysis through the evaluation of the suggested solution in terms the effects of the problems facing Wobble Corporation, then applying the solution as regards this , as well as the needs payoff for the probing of the explicit needs of Wobble Corporation as this would be adequately covered in the solution.
Summary of market analysis of widget industry in Australia
The rapid development in technology and innovation in the structures and processes of businesses has changed the industry sector globally. Australia is a lucrative market for both the products and services industries with the increased foreign investment especially in industry because of the openness of the economy to other nations with the influence of globalization and technological factors together with the social, geographic and economic factors (Rainer and Turban 15).
The volatility of the currency thus has increased the number of participants in industry. The widget industry has faced increased growth both in demand and supply due to the fact that it has very many applications. The demand for widgets is predicted to likely drive the manufacture sector with the industry participants seeking ways of cost reduction to benefit from the demand growth (Kotler 102).
The supply of widgets has also grown with the online market increasing both for the offline sales stores which are more focused on quality and service that come additional with the sale. There has been a considerable growth of the online market both for buyers who give the reasons of convenience from the sales and lowered costs, as well as sellers who seek to diversify their marketing both local and international manufacturers and retailers (Friedman and Furey 34).
The market of widgets in Australia is also expected to grow with increased supply and demand. However, analysis of the sector shows that there is considerably increased concern for customization of widgets to meet the requirements and unique needs of the customers. Further, competition is expected to increase with the need for value oriented customer service in which sales have changed where customers look for value in the products and services they want to buy (Rackman 17).
Thus, they are willing to pay a higher cost for a better quality service rather than a cheaper one for lower quality services or products. Value has also been shifted to the manner customers are treated, with them desiring to be respected and for customization of products to fir to their unique needs and requirements. Further analyses do show that there is a great potential for not only local growth for Australian widget companies, but also the opportunities for global expansion.
Analysis of the main issues facing Wobble Corporation
This analysis of the main issues is to provide the foundation for understanding how the recommended solution comes in handy for the situation.
The analysis also shall reveal the better understanding of the issues and their implications to the future of Wobble. This consists of the situation analysis with the presentation of the actual situation on the ground, the analysis of the problem in which we shall engage on help raise a clearer picture of the actual implied needs of the corporation.
It shall then focus on implication analysis to assess the effects of the problems to Wobble Corporation. This then shall provide a great opportunity to present and analyse the solution as it applies in solving the issues at hand. Then the need payoff which shall provide the opportunity to gauge the exploit needs of Wobble Corporation for establishing future success.
Situation Analysis
This is based on establishing a clearer understanding of the actual situation on the ground of the corporation for all the stakeholders. This relies on questions on the actual premises and locations, sales levels, issues on the sites, production levels and the actual level of technology applicable in your corporation (Johnson 50).
What is the organizational structure of your corporation? Wobble Corporation has a board of directors, line managers and senior executives. The key management personnel are in the departments of chief executive office, general management, operations management, sales, information and technology, finance, logistics, product management, plant supervision and office management.
What are the locations of operations for your corporation? Wobble Corporation, although having many different offices in Australia, runs 80% of the manufacture of widgets in the factory in Brisbane. The other factory is located in Perth and responsible for 20% of manufacture of widgets.
Wobble Corporation has four major warehouses for the products located in Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. The larger offices for sales and administration of the corporation are se in Melbourne which also services Tasmania, Brisbane and Sydney. The smaller offices for such sales and administration work are located in Adelaide and Perth.
What issues does your corporation face regarding the sites that you operate? Rackman (21) asserts that the location of a business determines the costs it incurs in making the goods available for sale, warehousing needs as well as the ability to serve the needs of the target customers within the shortest span of time ever yet in the highest quality ever. Wobble Corporation having runs many different sites.
The issues from them as received from you, is that the branch site in Sydney is very expensive due to the high rents charged for its use. Although many of the warehouses are not half filled in capacity, the warehouse at Brisbane is fully filled and in fact needs more space. The other major issue given and identified is that owing to the difference in the hours of operation in many of the sites of the corporation, customers have expressed frustration especially with the inability of being served early or late despite being at the location at those hours.
What are the levels of sales for your corporation and what other issues regarding sales are you facing as a corporation? The established sales records have shown that the SA sales have been declining which is linked to the delay in deliveries in the process of shipping widgets interstate.
The Tasmanian sales have been increasing and booming raising the issue of having a small office opened there and have permanent staff employed. In this regard, an online sales portal has been suggested as opposed to opening an office with staff in Tasmanian office by Sue who is the IT manager. The records for your corporation are locally kept in the local offices.
What are your production levels, capacities and other production issues that your corporation experiences? The Perth factory was acquired three years from a competitor who built and had operated it earlier. This factory has however been integrated to the main factory in Brisbane to a degree of 20%.
It makes widgets that are unique enough and out of which demand has been increasing especially in the states on the Eastern region. The Brisbane site is the main production plant but requires retooling to make unique widgets; hence they are shipped from Perth. This however is faced with the challenges of either expensive costs for fast shipments or long time taken for their arrival.
There are issues of stock since many completed orders have to be manufactured without some part of the order being met from the warehouse stock. There is an alarming increase for customization of widget since many clients are beginning to demand products that are specialized.
What are the technology levels at your corporation? The administration offices of Wobble have increased in the country although no standard information technology is deployed.
The hardware, software and operating systems are varying from one site to another. The phone systems are disparate and transferring calls between sites is not possible. A national network exists although very little bandwidth is used for the legacy EDP software while the sending of email is done through local internet connections.
Problem Analysis
This section of analysis helps to raise a clearer picture of the actual implied needs of your corporation. This involves use of questions and their analysis (Rackman 20). Considering the Sydney warehouse, is it difficult to maintain your operations in the warehouse? This can be linked to the raised issue that the warehouse is faced with high costs that are there due to the high rent that is charged.
Are you worried about the quality of profits that you are likely to gain from Sydney warehouse after the reduction of the high rent? Would it be useful to have another option that caters for warehousing at lowered costs of maintenance of operation? Are you worried about the capacity of Brisbane that is already stretched?
Would it be useful to get another option to cater for this storage needs? Regarding the hours of operation, would it be useful to increase the hours of operation to open at earlier hours and close at later hours? Would this change be difficult to apply in your corporation and industry? If we could improve the hours of operation, how would that help you?
Concerning the sales issues, are you worried about the declining sales in SA? Would it be useful to reduce the delivery delays in shipping? Is this operation being difficult to perform? If we could avoid shipping of products, how would that feel for you? Would it be useful to lower the costs of shipping? Are you enthusiastic of the booming sales for Tasmania? If we opened a new office and employed permanent staff in Tasmania, how would that help you?
What if we opened an online sales portal instead, how would that be useful to you and in comparison with the earlier recommendation? Would it be useful to have an online store for your corporation? Would it be useful to you on increasing the quality of staff in Perth? If we could improve the supervision of staff in Perth, how would that help you? Would it be useful to avail the records of clients in all office locations?
The production issues at hand were identified in the situation analysis. If we could increase the integration of Perth factory to Brisbane, how would that help you? Would it be useful to increase the speed of shipping delivery? What does the cost of shipping imply to you in this case?
If we could increase the costs of shipping of widgets while lowering the costs involved in this, how would that help you? If we could fill out more orders from the warehousing and lower the number that would require to be manufactured, how would that help you? Is widget customization part of your growth plans? Is this operation too difficult to perform? Would it be useful to increase the use of IT in your corporation? If we could improve the quality of information operating systems through interconnection, how would that help you?
Implementation Analysis
This section seeks to assess the effects of the problems identified to your corporation (Rackman 21). The high costs of Sydney warehouse being an issue of rent is one of the problems and fears that you have elicited. Since rent forms part of the operating expenses, how is this costs likely to impact on the costs of operation and maintenance?
The operating expenses are usually deducted from the gross income amount so as to get net income which is the actual income that is distributable as dividends for the business. How will this problem of operation costs affect your profitability in the future? The profitability levels of any business usually do affects the place or ranking of the business in comparison to other similar businesses in the industry.
The level of performance in the industry affects the brand name and ranking (Stuart, Kinnear and Deighan 77). How is the effect of increased costs in operating expenses influence the brand Wobble Corporation? How would this affect the level of performance in the industry?
The hours of operation have elicited frustrations of customers who wish to either to visit the stores early in the morning or late in the evening. Davies (33) argues that most businesses are directed by customer service through adding value to their customers. The customer service levels do determine their satisfaction.
The customers being frustrated over the inconveniences they receive due to the operation hours of the store, what effect does this frustration; have on the overall customer satisfaction? How does this customer satisfaction affect the levels of customer retention and loyalty in the future? The delivery delays have been attributed to the issues of shipping either slow speed or high costs incurred in fast shipment.
This does not only affect the sales in SA, Brisbane factory but also the overall level of performance for your corporation. What impact is this likely to have on the costs of operation and profitability levels in the future? The problems of lack of standard information system and an online store have been in place in your corporation. The records of the customers and other contacts are also found in the local offices.
Additionally, it is not possible for you to have transfer calls between sites. How is this likely to affect customer satisfaction especially those that are involved in business or in interstate travelling? How convenient is this for future customer satisfaction? Since you do not have an online store, is this part of your future growth plans? What is the overall effect on costs of operation and customer service in the future? What is the effect of this on dealing with competition from online stores and retailers?
How competitive are you in maintaining a competitive edge despite the lack of an online store? The corporation has the records kept locally at the offices in each site and with different software, hardware and operating systems for the sites and transfer calls not possible between sites. How would this impact on the growth plans for the corporation? What is the overall effect on the service speed and quality? How will this affect your management?
Recommended Solution
The solution that I recommend is based on the aim of enabling Wobble Corporation not only address its issues, but also achieve benefits to stakeholders and competitive advantage over competitors in the lucrative industry. This solution makes use of strategic analysis of the industry and markets in general to enable Wobble maintain a competitive advantage (Friedman and Furey 13).
The objective of the solution is to provide a means that meets your actual implied needs. I recommend that certain measures would be beneficial to help you achieve the actual implied needs you have identified and to be able to strategize for future growth and prospects.
I would advice you to have an online store for sales of widgets, improved connection and integration of operation systems between sites such that it is possible to communicate and connect between the sites and offices with similar technology applied in all the sites for compatibility, investment in customization, and employee plans.
The market place has changed over the years and the businesses that have to maintain a significant share in the market place, have to make use of the necessary strategies possible to remain relevant to the industry. This change has been brought about by the increased advancement in technology that has changed how businesses are operated in the sector (Ireland, Hoskisson and Hitt 98).
Customers are focusing more on the online market to both learn more about a product and get a chance to choose from a wide scope of suppliers in the global market online. The online market has been preferred because it is of a much cheaper costs as compared to offline sales. This is because of the ability to avoid incurring a sales tax. Additionally, customers are looking for more convenience.
This is where businesses have an open door policy so that any time a customer wishes to check something about the business; they are able to do it. As Porter (67) points out, the convenience of customers is also from being able to locate the business on the online market may it be at the comfort of their homes, or in different places.
This would be beneficial to your corporation because customers would be able to make sales without having to be at the offline business. Further, the online market does not offer more service details to the clients thus saving on costs. The online store would also benefit you as a brand name through experiencing recognition in the online market (Stuart et al. 102). This is likely to thus enable the management get more value to the shareholders since they will be able to provide good results to them hence adding to their value also.
The industry trends show the need for customization to fit the needs and requirements of the customers. Therefore, it is recommendable for you to focus on investing more in customization of products and services. This will be based on increasing focus on the customer so as to gain an understanding of their needs. This can be made possible through the online market where customers are able to communicate what they really want.
Although the customers may be interested in your products, designing them according to their needs is likely to satisfy them, which as Davies (51) argues is to make them to be loyal. Customization will provide you the flexibility opportunities of adding value to the customers and the ability to apply market segmentation (Johns 49).
This is also to benefit you as management in getting to relate and know your customers better. Customer loyalty is likely to increase your sale due to their consistency which would have effect on the levels of shareholders value. Customization would ease the burden of the high costs of manufacturing due to the ability of controlling stock.
It is recommendable that you improve connection and integration of operation systems between sites. This will allow for transfer of calls and the ability to communicate between sites. The integration is also to ensure that there is homogeneity and compatibility of the operating systems.
This if applied, will help the Perth factory increase its production capacity from 20%. The integration has the possibility of making management much easier especially in the general section, operations, sales, IT, and supervision. This is because, the systems shall be similar.
Additionally, the finance will be reduced to the extent that the though integrated, the sites have independence and similarity. This will lower the costs of maintenance since the checking of the sites will be much easier.
Further, the warehousing control and stocking will be made much easier because of the ability to order products from other sites in case they are not available from there without necessarily having to get to manufacturing of such products. Ideally, it would be much easier for the customers since they are able to have their orders met from whatever location hence convenient for them and their ultimate satisfaction. This will shorten the cycles of selling for higher gains (Breithaupt 67).
Warehousing control through site interconnection would also provide the advantage of lowered costs of warehousing and maintenance. This would be handy especially as far as the high cost of rent of the Sydney warehouse is concerned. The administration office can serve and the warehouse stop operation.
The interconnectedness of sites would ensure that the customers in Sydney would be able to receive their orders through the stock in other near stores. Further, this would lower the costs of operation especially with the high costs of rent. This then would benefit the shareholders; management and personnel through the higher returns received. It is also recommendable to consider employee selection, training and motivation.
This is because of the fact that he employees are the actual people involved in customer service and implementation of the policies of the management. This is necessary since the online sales and in the customization process. Further, training would be beneficial especially for the staffs of Perth who are experiencing low performance. The motivation to be offered to the staff is necessary through bonus packages, and other incentives to increase their performance.
Needs Payoff
The recommended solution would however require actual implementation plan. The online store would require a Wobble Corporation website to be designed so that the customers can be able to access and get any necessary information as well as place orders at their own convenience while the other recommendations would involve change of modalities for the integration of the systems. Would it be useful for you to start an online store? Would the recommended solution help meet your needs as a corporation?
Conclusion
This recommendation presentation offers the necessary solution to meet the actual implied needs of Wobble Corporation. The solution has taken into consideration the market analysis to ensure that this is taken note of. Further, the situation has been analysed, the problem identified as the actual implied needs, the implementation analysed through the evaluation of the effects of the problems to the corporation.
The solution has then been analysed through the benefits it offers. The needs payoffs have been identified as expected. I believe that this recommended solution meets the actual implied needs of your corporation and will enable it not only address them, but also maintain a competitive advantage in the lucrative industry.
Works Cited
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