The seven managent and planning tools Case: The Creative Design Group This case
ID: 386120 • Letter: T
Question
The seven managent and planning tools
Case: The Creative Design Group
This case presents background information and various scenarios related to the strategic planning of an organization. The purpose of the assignment is to utilize various management and planning tools to determine strategies that will increase competitiveness by leveraging knowledge assets and core competencies.
The Creative Design Group (CDG) designs brochures for companies, trade groups, and associations. Their emphasis on customer service is based on speed, quality, creativity, and value. They want each brochure to “wow” the customer in its design, meet or exceed the preparation deadline, and be of superior quality at a reasonable price. Value is emphasized over price, because the president, Trendy Art, believes that CDG’s experienced staff should emphasize high quality and creativity instead of price. They accomplish their primary objectives 97 percent of the time.
To carry out their objectives, the small company has four designers, a customer service/estimator (CSE), and Trendy, who is the creative director and strategic visionary. The work environment, in a converted garage behind Trendy’s house, features modern (though not always state-of-the-art) computer hardware and software, excellent lighting, and modern communications for sending design documents to clients and printers. Designers generally work independently of each other, consulting with the CSE about requests for status updates or client-initiated changes. They also consult with Trendy, who signs off on the creative design, after consultation with each client. A casual dress code and work policies, and a number of perks for workers, such as health insurance, flextime, generous vacation and sick leave benefits, a 401(k) retirement plan, and competitive wages have, in the past, made it easy to attract and retain talented people. However, with fewer talented people graduating from design schools in the area, and more competitive firms bidding up salaries, turnover has become an issue.
The CSE, Green Ishied, is the contact point for all projects, which may number 10–20 active at any one time. He must ensure that projects are carefully estimated and prepare proposals, track progress of each project, and communicate with clients on status and change requests. He is also responsible for advertising and promotion of the firm.
Trendy’s husband, Hy, is a CPA and part-time accountant for the company. He noticed recently that costs are increasing, the percentage of their bids accepted is decreasing, and the ROI s slipping.
Part a
Given the situation ,trendy determined several long-range objectives, among which are outdistancing the competition to grow the business by 10 percent per year for each of the next five years (a 61 percent compound growth rate), and adding a new designer every two years. These factors should be the key ingredients for her goal of increasing her profitability by 10 percent per year. To accomplish her objectives, she must deal with the two major issues of the increasing competition and employee recruitment and retention in order to develop effective action plans to support her long-range plan.
a. Develop a tree diagram, starting with “Develop action plans” as the main theme. At the next level, include the two main issues. One, for example is, “Develop a plan to meet competition.” Then break out each of the issues into two or three feasible proposals, such as “Make advertising more effective,” under the previous item of “Develop a plan to meet competition.” Finally, add another level of specificity with two to four items, such as: “Place ads in business newspaper,” “Redesign Web page,” and so on, under the “Make advertising more effective” item.
Using the results of Parts 1 and 2 of the case, Trendy Art decided that, along with improving her recruiting processes for new and replacement hiring, it was time to replace the computer system with state-of-the-art hardware and software. Knowing that no one at CDG had the expertise to design the type of system that they needed, Trendy looked around, analyzed three competing firms’ proposals, and finally settled on Creative Computer Group (CCG) to act as consultants and system integrators. Before signing the contract, Trendy decided to ask Hy and Green Ishied (the CSE) to meet with her and the CEO of CCG to clarify the system design requirements and the wording of the contract.
Trendy, Hy, and Green all agreed that the system needed to be completely integrated, with the capability to gather cost and scheduling data directly from the designers, and to produce all necessary business reports, as well as having graphics capability. Both cost and design information would have to be available to everyone in the firm. Therefore, the network should be capable of interfacing both Macintosh and PC desktops via USB connections, with common printers. It should also provide for high bandwidth Internet access and capability to send and receive graphic and text data files. Charlie Nerd, the president of CCG, said that all of those requirements could be met by the system that he would design. Because it was such an important project for his company, he would personally be the project manager for the installation and testing of the new system. After outlining the plans for the system, Charlie asked if they had any questions. Trendy, Hy, and Green had no immediate questions, but promised to get back to Charlie with a few within three days.
question
a. Given the following information above perform a matrix data analysis to determine if CCG should get the contract to install the computer system.
b. Justify your analysis. What questions would you suggest that Trendy, Hy, and Green get back to Charlie on?
supplier characteristics weights rating ccg rating for cog rating for cow
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
system design 0.3 8 6 5
delivery timelines 0.2 7 4 9
cost 0.2 5 7 6
system service 0.2 9 6 4
experience 01 4 9 6
TOTAL 1.0
Note: Independent ratings on a scale of 1- 10 ( where 10 is best ) were performed by small busineess council of Qualdale , where CDG is located.
Suppliers: CCG= Creative Computer Group
COG= Computer Organizational Group
COW = Computer Operation Workgroup
question
a. Construct a process decision program chart, but closely reflecting CCG’s training needs.
b. What special considerations would need to be included in training graphic designers with little business knowledge and business-oriented people (such as Hy and Green) with little artistic design knowledge, about each other’s areas of work to use an integrated system?
Explanation / Answer
Currently, firms are in the race for reinforcing their ability so as to outlive in the competitions of the brand new century international market. Consequently, organizations are attempting to boost their agility degree with the aid of bettering the selection making procedure to be extra effective and extremely potent to satisfy the successive fluctuations of the market. So that you can achieve this, many modern-day businesses, both mid or huge sized, have concerned with a cycle of modern investments in and adopted new management information techniques add-ons. Throughout last decade, a high percentage of economic businesses on the whole used administration knowledge methods to facilitate the availability of offerings; and that the pace of the adoption is anticipated to grow further because the science expands.
Whitten et al. (2004, p.12.), stated that "understanding is an arrangement of folks, knowledge, approach, and expertise technological know-how that engage to collect, approach, store and provide as output the information wanted to help an organization," which indicates that understanding procedure is an arrangement of agencies, knowledge, tactics and science that act together to build up, system, retailer and furnish information output wanted to enhance and velocity up the process of determination making. In a bank's understanding procedure, there is always a abilities concern which makes the bank suffer an insufficiency; as a result, a complicated know-how system supported by means of a superior mechanism manipulate is required to make exact that an understanding method has executed the specified methods.
If the principal knowledge required in a resolution-making process or an organization planning is not on hand at the appropriate time, then there is a good alternate to be a negative institution planning, inappropriate decision-making, bad priority of wishes, and defective programming or scheduling of movements (Adebayo, 2007).
Understanding is important for the endurance of a monetary institution within the international and competitive market.
The nature of globalization and competitiveness available in the market stress on the significance of developing an group ability by way of higher enhancing MIS.
Thus, the stored information have to then be recalled and allotted for the use of an organization leadership and top management as good as mid-degree managers to take strong long term (strategic) and short term (Tactical) resolution-making. MIS is deemed to be a method which presents corporations top administration and, even lower stage management, with right expertise situated on knowledge from each inner and outside sources, to permit them to make potent and timely choices that pleasant obtain their group ambitions and fulfill stakeholder specifications (Argyris, 1971, p. 291).
The idea of knowledge catches the awareness of exceptional specialists from exceptional fields corresponding to computer science, economics, business and management, political science, records, conversation and information reviews (Newman 2001). Nonetheless, the query is "what type of knowledge"? How know-how management can play an main position within the selection making process? How can the coordination between different departments (interior and/or outside) and sharing knowledge at the actual time accelerate and enhance the system of resolution making and preclude resolution making blunders?
This paper makes a speciality of how understanding management is required to generate right planning after which decisions at both strategic and tactical phases within the two selected fiscal businesses.
The system of coping with the financial institutions was tainted by way of quite a few sensitivity, considering of the refusal of those associations to disclose their selection-making mechanism because of their Disclosure rules. So we decided to name the first selected institutions case one and case two relating to the 2d chosen companies.
Few authors have explored that the critical understanding required via midlevel and strategic stage administration is efficaciously furnished by way of MIS. A small amount of study has deliberated that the limitations and deficiencies in the procedure of administration understanding system performance are the principal purpose for diminishing the effectivity of choice-making approach in the organization (Fabunmi, 2003; Knight Moore, 2005).
The questions concerning what extent the managing of those knowledge methods assists distinct choices at exclusive management phases and the variety of accountability of the economic college's senior and tactical administration in improving the management know-how has been raised with low empirically investigation and examination.
The motive of the study
The rationale of this research is to discover the extent to which management expertise systems are used to make robust selections of long and brief time period planning in two monetary corporations at the Kingdom of Bahrain. The study will compare whether the government monetary school (Case one) and the private financial school (Case two) range as to the use of administration expertise techniques for leadership choice makes briefly and long run planning.
This paper pursuits to evaluate the affect of current MIS models being developed on the chosen organizations, and the way a long way they observe this thought in an effort to enhance their tactical and strategic planning.
The study institution
The the rest of this paper is equipped as follows. Sections 2 and three talk about the literature assessment and research ways. In part 4, we gift outcome and analysis. In part 5, a dialogue will likely be awarded. Subsequently, conclusion and suggestions are offered in sections 6 and seven, respectively.
2 LITERATURE assessment
there's a lof of research on the techniques, systems and applied sciences for the design and progress of MIS. However, there are a few articles that cover the affect of management knowledge techniques on planning techniques and resolution making. While there are not any universally accredited definitions of MIS and those who exist in literatures are just prejudices of the researchers (Adeoti-Adekeye, 1997). Lee, (2001) defined MIS as "a system or procedure that presents information needed to manipulate businesses comfortably".
Moreover, Baskerville and Myers (2002) broadly define MIS as "the progress, use and application of information techniques through members, corporations and society". In his gain knowledge of, Becta (2005) describes an expertise procedure as "a system together with the network of all communication channels used inside an institution". Of their be taught, Laudon and Laudon (2003) have defined MIS as "the be taught of knowledge systems specializing in their use in business and management". The abovementioned definitions showed that MIS has underlined the progress, software and validation of primary theories and units in makes an attempt to inspire first-class work in the area.
Referring to the literatures, the discipline of management understanding techniques (MIS) has had a variegated development in its slightly short life span. MIS has developed its possess theme of study and reports (Baskerville and Myers, 2002).
Tracing earlier literatures, we can record that throughout its first few decades, MIS targeting the understanding within the context of:
⢠digital data processing which includes out transaction processing functions and files special factual data.
⢠administration reporting programs which scrutinize the operational routine of an institution, offering summaries, know-how and suggestions to management.
Most effective during the final two decades, the MIS subject has shifted to the most important, viewed the 2nd form of verbal exchange, namely, guide-centered. This has come to be referred to as the domain of knowledgeable methods (Sasan Rahmatian, 1999). In makes an attempt to review published reports on MIS and articles, Alavi and Carlson (1992) have recognized fashionable research issues, the dominant study perspective, and the relationship between MIS study and follow. In contrast, Baskerville and Myers (2002) have examined the MIS discipline and discovered a steady shift of MIS study from a technical focal point to a technological know-how-organizational and management-social focal point.
Skyrius (2001) underlines the selection maker's attitudes closer to one-of-a-kind explanations influencing the fine of industry choices; these reasons comprise information sources, analytical instruments, and the function of know-how technologies.
Handzic (2001) also pays awareness to the affect of understanding availability on folks's capability to method and use understanding briefly and long term planning and in selection making duties. He printed that the simpler the availability of expertise, the better the have an impact on on each efficiency and accuracy of trade choices.
Liu and young (2007) talk about key information models and their relationships in business decision aid in three specific situations. The authors proved that international organizations are prematurely due to the company applications procedure furnished by means of modern day IT tools such as company resource Planning (ERP), talents administration techniques (KMS) and consumer relations administration (CRM) to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the resolution Making approach.
In an effort to strengthen the monetary organizational capability and enhance its level of competition out there, fiscal businesses will have to realise the dimensions of the knowledge administration, and obviously define and improve the assets in case of human, technological, and internal operations, among others,, and manage them well throughout the organizational boundaries. Nevertheless, opening the hyperlink between expertise procedure administration, planning and selection making is, at quality, tricky.
In a piece of writing by way of Shu and Strassmann (2005), a survey was once conducted at 12 banks in the united states between 1989 and 1997. They observed that although understanding technological know-how had been one of the vital pretty much dynamic motives relating all efforts, it could no longer support banks' profits.
However, conversely, there are many literatures approving the confident influences of understanding science charges on business value. Kozak (2005) investigates the influence of the evolution in knowledge technology on the profit and rate effectiveness of the banking zone during the interval between 1992 and 2003. The be trained shows an constructive relationship among the completed understanding science, productivity and cost savings.
Companies that do not need formal knowledge sharing practices will fail to leverage their managers' mental capital for industry innovation and progress (O'Neill & Adya, 2007). MIS makes it possible for the trade of experiences, which transfers the specified expertise to the management phases to sustain aggressive advantage considering the fact that it influences the determination making to reinforce the satisfactory of services supplied. As a result, Barachini et al. (2009) supported that it is valuable that these organizations constantly motivate their staff to share valuable know-how so that their intellectual capital can be leveraged.
Administration information process will give the banking administration a brand new dimension in managing its expertise and support in carrying out and maximizing the administration's initiatives in harmonizing the right procedures in the brief and long planning (Edmondson, 2002).
In his be taught, Obi (2003) prompt that MIS is indispensible in the field of determination-making as it could actually monitor by means of itself the instability in a method, verify a course of motion and take action to hold the procedure in control. Literatures also instructed that non-programmed selections are primary as they provide aid through offering knowledge to the hunt, the analysis, the analysis and the alternative and implementation method of resolution making.
Extra recently, Adebayo (2007) explained that the existence of MIS is required to toughen and increase selection making on the issues affecting human and material resources.
From the literatures awarded, we will quite simply perceive that the significance of the function of each core and top administration to keep a consistent process to increase, use, and evaluate MIS techniques within the school. To monetary institutions, MIS is used at quite a lot of stages via top-administration, center and even through the operational staff as a help for selection making that pursuits to satisfy strategic ambitions and strategic objectives.
The above literatures additionally discover the importance of MIS in delivering selection makers with data, which thus help and increase the entire resolution-making procedure. In addition, at the most senior level, MIS and DSS deliver the data and required knowledge to help the board of administrators and management stages to make an correct and on time strategic decisions.
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