Problem Statement
From its establishment West Midlands Designers and Architects Ltd. (WMDA Ltd.) used to be a very profitable company with a great amount of orders and completed projects. However, 3 years ago, with the collapse of the property market, business of the company decreased. Reduction of orders’ quantity may signal a threat of a total collapse of WMDA Ltd.
Analysis
Company’s Management and Structure
WMDA Ltd. is a private company run by Russell Quinn. He managed to establish a warm and friendly atmosphere among his staff. This may have caused a relaxed state of staff during the working day as significant part of their conversations are sure to deviate from work related issues. Company consists of 10 hired architects and the owner himself.
Salary and Payment Systems
There was no mention of the payment system of this company, though it seems that piece-rate pay is established in this company. This opinion is based on two facts: WMDA Ltd. is a small company and colleagues are friendly, so to make everyone feel happy, such kind of payment is the best way to choose.
Competition
In the past a lot of architect companies were in-demand, as the economic position was stable and people tended to buy new houses and a lot of new buildings were appearing. High demand on architect projects provoked growing of a great amount of architect companies. Since the world financial crisis shattered the property market, demand tends to reduce. Therefore, rivalry between architect companies tends to grow higher and conditions to survive became more severe.
Products
WMDA Ltd offers architect projects and all facilities connected with it. In past, this company was of great popularity with such great quantity of offers that it hardly managed to fulfill all of them.
Staff/Personnel
WMDA Ltd consists of ten architects of different age, sex and qualification and of its chief Russell Quinn. Almost all of them are considered to be bright specialists in their field, though some of them tend to be more sociable, than hard-working.
Company finances
As the world financial crisis struck property marked making it almost collapse, the financial side of the company also suffered a lot. Quinn can no more afford ten architects in his staff.
Recommendations
Considering the situation with WMDA Ltd., I think that there are several ways to make Mr. Quinn’s business better. So here are my recommendations:
- LIFO (Last-In-First-Out) method. It means that the architects who were recently employed (within two or three years) must be fired. Under this category fall Donna and Paul. But firing Donna will be no good decisions as she receives orders from the government which are sure to bring company big money. Concerning Paul I think that his firing will be sufficient as he has no peculiar architect talents, but he tends to be too sociable organizing different parties. So he is the first candidate to lose his job.
- Voluntary Redundancy method. It implies that some of the personnel members will agree to take early retirement. And again, we have two candidates for this point: these are Felicity and Matt. Felicity isn’t very good as there is no word concerning her professionalism, but too much is said about her social abilities. She should be persuaded that she have to retire, providing enough money for her comfortable life. Concerning Matt I would also offered him to retire providing good money support. He has an ill mother and taking care of her is sure to take too much time from him. He must be very tired working and caring about his mother simultaneously. And tired person won’t work good enough to bring profit.
- Selection on Merit method. It implies that a person with the least professionalism will be fired. I think that with this method Simon will be fired. As he doesn’t make an impression of a serious person and his characteristics is missing some words about his professional achievements. So he should be fired.
- Peer Selection method. This means that stuff will choose on their own who is to be fired. I think that this may seem attractive to Hiroshi. He tends to be more Japanese-oriented, so why shouldn’t he fulfill his dream and join Japanese architect companies?
To my mind, all the recommendations given above are sure to help WMDA Ltd. And make it profitable again.
References
Colleagues and Friends. (2007). Web.