Case Studies 1, 2
ABC Company sells a range of exclusive products across Australia through 1 online and 100 retail stores. The organisation is committed to:
- Offer innovative product solutions and meet the changing needs of customers
- Providing high quality and innovative products and services to customers
- Deliver great customer service
- Employing professional and enthusiastic staff
- Adopting sustainable work practices and provide ‘green’ products
- Undertaking continuous improvement processes
The business has a 5 years plan which is to consolidate its position in the market as a lead retailer for ‘green’ and sustainable solutions for high quality exclusive products. To do this, ABC will focus on the following business goals:
Financial stability:
- Increase revenue by 15% (compared to the previous 12 months) by the end of the financial year
- Maintain annual profit levels of 15% of revenue for all products and services, calculated at the end of each financial year
- Reinvest 75% of profit back into the business at the end of each financial year
Market position:
- Maintain the number one rating in the annual national industry customer service awards
- Launch new high-quality exclusive consumer products to meet customer demand, ahead of competitors, within budget and by the agreed deadlines
Right people:
- Provide induction training at the commencement of employment to train new employees to be knowledgeable, helpful and enthusiastic
- Provide the physical, human and time resources to support an annual professional development program for all ABC employees
Stakeholders include senior management team, retail store manager, sales staff, online store manager, customers and recruitment agency.
| Activity
(What is to be done?) |
Objective
(Why will we do it?) |
Resources
(Where will it be done?) |
Procedures
(How will it be done?) |
Responsible person
(Who will do it?) |
When? |
Budget |
| Revisit sales budgets and develop outlet-by-outlet sales strategies that add onto the national sales strategy. |
To increase the sales of the services component of the business by 15% by 30 June |
It will be done across the 100 outlets. |
Update each outlet’s sales budgets to reflect the increased targets.
Each outlet is to develop a sales strategy to support the new targets. |
Outlet managers |
30 June |
$3,000,000 total and needs to be supported by a business case from each store |
| Acquire additional resources – video-conferencing equipment. |
To facilitate communication between all retail, online and phone outlets and reduce travel time and costs. |
Install a multi-channel dedicated video- conferencing facility at each outlet. |
Contact ABC IT service and support to arrange for supply and installation.
Allocate costs back to each outlet. |
Outlet managers |
31 August |
$5,000 per outlet |
| Acquire additional resources – delivery van. |
To provide a delivery service and provide brand recognition |
Purchase a new van for each outlet and detail it with the marketing logo. |
Contact suppliers obtain quotes and purchase the required delivery van.
Contact sign writers to have marketing decals attached to the vans. |
Head office marketing manager |
31 July |
$50,000 per outlet |
| Reorganize fixtures and fittings – retail outlet. |
To create additional space for installation of demonstration products |
It will be done across the 150 retail outlets. |
Have plans drawn up for each retail outlet.
Hire local shop fitters and installers for each sales region. |
Head office sales manager
Retail outlet managers |
30 September |
$10,000 per store |
| Train sales staff to provide after sales product support. |
To multi-skill retail product staff and to improve the level of after sales product support |
It will be done across all the 150 retail outlets. |
Deliver training programs |
Retail outlet managers |
31 August |
In house. Additional resources available but a business case is required. |
| Maintain full staffing capacity through rapid recruitment to fill vacancies. |
To maintain and increase sales capacity by recruiting new staff as soon as existing positions are vacated |
Thirteen new full-time sales staff will replace staff vacancies in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide CBD stores. |
ABC recruitment procedures |
Outlet managers
Recruitment agency |
31 August |
$2,000 recruitment costs per vacant position |
Consultation strategy
| Stakeholder |
Role in the problem |
Objective |
Consultation method |
| Senior management plan |
Made the decision to increase sales by 15% annually |
Keep informed |
Feedback session
Email communications
Newsletters
Videoconferencing |
| Outlet manager |
Develop an operational plan and implement the plan to increase sales in their outlet |
Implement plan
Consult |
Staff meetings
Outlet manager meetings via videoconferencing
Interviews |
| Sales staff |
Implementers of the plan to achieve the intended results |
Consult
Keep motivated and engaged |
Meetings
Feedback sessions |
| Online and phone outlets |
Provide sales not supported through retail outlets |
Consult frequently |
Videoconferencing |
| Major customers |
People who make major purchases of ABC products |
Consult |
Phone calls
Personal visits
Email communication
Newsletters |
| Customers |
People who make small purchases of ABC products |
Obtain feedback |
Email communication
Newsletters |
| Recruitment agency |
Involved in recruiting staff |
Consult |
Meetings |
If ABC does not meet these objectives, they have budgeted an additional 5% of training costs to employ a training consultant to provide additional training resources.
- You work as a retail store manager for ABC Company and your managing director of ABC Company requires you to create an operational plan on January. You must cover below points in your plan:
- resources requirements
- key performance indicators
- monitoring processes
- financial contingency plans
Executive Summary
In order to become more competitive ABC Company offered innovative product solutions to meet the changing needs for customers and provided better quality and innovative products and services to their customers. Here is the operational plan.
Business Goals
Financial stability:
- Increase revenue by 15% compared to last financial year
- Maintain annual profit levels of 15% of revenue for all products and services, calculated at the end of each financial year
- Reinvest 75% of profit back into the business at the end of each financial year
Market position:
- Maintain the number one rating in the annual national industry customer service awards
- Launch new high-quality exclusive consumer products to meet customer demand, ahead of competitors, within budget and by the agreed deadlines
Right people:
- Provide induction training at the commencement of employment to train new employees to be knowledgeable, helpful and enthusiastic
- Provide the physical, human and time resources to support an annual professional development program for all ABC employees
Consultation strategy
| Stakeholder |
Role in the problem |
Objective |
Consultation method |
| Senior management plan |
Made the decision to increase sales by 15% annually |
Keep informed |
Feedback session
Email communications
Newsletters
Videoconferencing |
| Outlet manager |
Develop an operational plan and implement the plan to increase sales in their outlet |
Implement plan
Consult |
Staff meetings
Outlet manager meetings via videoconferencing
Interviews |
| Sales staff |
Implementers of the plan to achieve the intended results |
Consult
Keep motivated and engaged |
Meetings
Feedback sessions |
| Online and phone outlets |
Provide sales not supported through retail outlets |
Consult frequently |
Videoconferencing |
| Major customers |
People who make major purchases of ABC products |
Consult |
Phone calls
Personal visits
Email communication
Newsletters |
| Customers |
People who make small purchases of ABC products |
Obtain feedback |
Email communication
Newsletters |
| Recruitment agency |
Involved in recruiting staff |
Consult |
Meetings |
Plan
Stakeholders include
| Activity
(What is to be done?) |
KPI |
| Revisit sales budgets and develop outlet-by-outlet sales strategies that add onto the national sales strategy |
To be able to increase the sales of the services component of the business by 15% by 30 June |
| Maintain full staffing capacity through rapid recruitment to fill vacancies |
Thirteen new full-time sales staff will replace staff vacancies in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide CBD stores by 31st August. |
| Acquire additional resources – delivery van. |
Purchase a new van for each outlet and detail it with the marketing logo |
| Reorganize fixtures and fittings – retail outlet |
deliver training programs across all the 150 retail outlets |
| Acquire additional resources – video-conferencing equipment. |
To facilitate communication between all retail, online and phone outlets and reduce travel time and costs
|
Financial contingency plan
If ABC has fail to meet these objectives, there is an additional 5% of training costs to employ a training consultant to provide additional training resources
KPIs for profitability
- To be able to increase the sales of the services component of the business by 15% by 30 June
- Purchase a new van for each outlet and detail it with the marketing logo
- Thirteen new full-time sales staff will replace staff vacancies in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide CBD stores by 31st August.
- Deliver training programs across all the 150 retail outlets
- To facilitate communication between all retail, online and phone outlets and reduce travel time and costs
Monitoring process
KPIs will be monitored by the designed stakeholder to make sure it has been assessed and determined. This will show the weakness part which needs to be improved. Identify under-performance employees and approach the employee and discuss their concerns in a constructive way so they are able to work as a team in order to achieve the organizational goals.
Assessor needs to use the below checklist to assess the Case Study 1.
| Items |
Yes/ No |
Comments |
| · develop executive summary
|
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| · develop business goals – financial stability, market position & right people
|
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| · create consultation strategy
|
|
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| · develop the plan (2 column table) with Activity (what is to be done) & KPIs
|
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| · develop financial contingency plan
|
|
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| · develop monitoring process
|
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|
Assessed by ______________________________________________
Assessor Signature_________________________ Date _________
- Read the issues below. You are required to develop implementation strategies for staff members to follow, ensure they achieve the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) defined in the Operational Plan.
- The organisation needs to maintain full staffing capacity through rapid recruitment to fill vacancies and there are 13 new sales staff needing to be employed, inducted and trained in the next 2 months.
- Outline a mentoring / coaching process to help the new employees settle in to the organisation effectively
- acquiring physical resources and services
- the marketing department has provided you with some details for the design of the signs for the delivery vans. You need to take this information to a graphic artist and request a design for use on the sides and back of the vans. Before entering into any purchasing agreement, prepare a short briefing document the outlines the intellectual property issues that may be associated with the supply of this design.
- Create an acceptable level of variation
- Use the KPIs to develop a monitoring process for the implementation of the detailed operational plan.
Assessor needs to use the below checklist to assess the Case Study.2
| Items |
Yes/ No |
Comments |
| · address selection & recruitment criteria e.g candidates have quals & experience, quality interview questions (5), reference testing, attended to training/ induction/ assessment prior to commencement
|
|
|
| · Outline a mentoring / coaching process to help the new employees settle in to the organisation effectively
|
|
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| · acquired resources and services relevant to the organisation
|
|
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| · addressed intellectual property issues
|
|
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| · created an acceptable level of variation |
|
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| · used the KPIs to develop a monitoring process for the implementation of the operational plan
|
|
|
Assessed by ______________________________________________
Assessor Signature_________________________ Date _________
