Unformatted Document Excerpt Coursehero >> Pennsylvania >> DeVry Ft. Washington >> BIS460 460 Course Hero has millions of student submitted documents similar to the one below including study guides, practice problems, reference materials, practice exams, textbook help and tutor support. Project Senior Final Report TITANS DeVry University Professor Edick BUSN 460 June 22, 2011 Executive Summary TITANS has completed its extensive research into CanGo. This assessment concentrates on your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. While CanGo is a small company that has experienced success, it has done so through haphazard means. CanGo has succeeded through teamwork but needs to revise itself to compete at the next level of business. It is the purpose of this report to address CanGos senior staff and board members concerning analysis made while reviewing your company. CanGo has developed a successful company. You have successfully met the purchasing needs of your customers. To enable CanGo to remain
Transcript
Unformatted Document Excerpt
Coursehero >> Pennsylvania >> DeVry Ft. Washington >> BIS460 460
Course Hero has millions of student submitted documents similar to the one below
including study guides, practice problems, reference materials, practice exams, textbook
help and tutor support.
Project Senior Final Report TITANS DeVry University Professor Edick BUSN 460 June
22, 2011 Executive Summary TITANS has completed its extensive research into CanGo.
This assessment concentrates on your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
While CanGo is a small company that has experienced success, it has done so through
haphazard means. CanGo has succeeded through teamwork but needs to revise itself to
compete at the next level of business. It is the purpose of this report to address CanGos
senior staff and board members concerning analysis made while reviewing your
company. CanGo has developed a successful company. You have successfully met the
purchasing needs of your customers. To enable CanGo to remain competitive and grow,
changes will be necessary in the following areas: Planning, Communication,
Organizational Structure, Management Issues, and Employee Issues. While these areas
might cover a large cross section of your company, TITANS has carefully considered
how these areas affect the other. Building an improved foundation and getting back to
basics will enable your company to be a permanent business fixture. Our goal is to
increase your core competency so that your sales revenues increase and to build you as a
focused team that can weather the storms of the business world. TITANS has spent
several weeks researching your company. We believe the changes will allow you to
continue and have successful ventures. We have laid out an analysis covering the main
topic areas and have included a plan that will unify various aspects of the company into a
stronger and more effective business. Planning CanGo has been very successful in its
efforts to establish itself as a contemporary and vital business. You have reached several
levels of success including the recognition of your CEO as business leader of the Hudson
Valley Professional Business Association. CanGo has moved from a small startup to a
recognized growth company having a recent IPO offering. CanGo is currently lacking in
a critical area for any business. It needs to focus on Strategic Planning. According to
McNamara, strategic planning determines "where an organization is going over the next
year or more (McNamara, 1997). Strategic Planning is intentional actions to direct the
movement of a company within the business world but with the purpose of reaching a
destination. Strategic Planning will benefit CanGo by allowing it to: 1. Clearly define its
goals consistently with its Mission and Vision statement. 2. Communicate effectively its
goals to all of the organization. 3. Provide a foundation on which to direct future efforts.
CanGo should begin by creating Mission and Vision statements. The Mission statement
will define why CanGo exists and what it wishes to accomplish. It addresses the What,
Why, and How of your efforts. The Vision statement is the aspirational description of
what an organization would like to achieve or accomplish in the mid-term or long-term
future (Vision, n.d.). It is the big picture of what a company wants to achieve over the
medium and long-term of its existence. Yet this is only a part of the complex Strategic
Business Plan. The process can be broken into three steps: Formulation, Implementation,
and Evaluation (DeVry, n.d.). The Strategic Management Process Source: Mastering
Strategy TITANS can help CanGo complete the critical Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats analysis. The remainder of the tools and processes will build
from this important tool. TITANS is capable to researching deeply into CanGo, its
competitors and the marketplace. This information will allow CanGo to develop a
business plan that will take it into its next evolutionary step. CanGo is now in that stage
and your customers are currently thrusting it upon your company. CanGo needs to
undertake this process and TITANS can help them reach its successful completion. We
have the ability to help you research, document, and complete all the necessary steps to
achieve the goal of beginning your Strategic Planning process. We can also see you
through the changing times when rework of the Strategic Plan is necessary to keep
current with the changing business landscape. Planning is critical not only to the big
picture but in the everyday task, goals, and projects that CanGo will be carrying out over
the next few years. How CanGo decides to address this problem will either make or break
the company. TITANS believes that CanGo is a viable company and is willing to place
its professional and focused efforts in your company. Communication CanGos success,
like other organizations, is tied to the ability of your employees and managers to
communicate effectively with each other. Messages are only effective if the message
enables the receiver to think and send a response. There are five characteristics of
effective business messages, and they are: Provide practical information. Describing,
explaining, highlighting, and/or discussing. Give facts rather than impressions. Using
concrete language and specific details, give clear, accurate, and ethical information.
Provide evidence, not opinions, on an argument. Present all sides of the argument before
committing to a conclusion. Clarify and condense information, using visuals to clarify,
explain, or emphasize important information. Precisely state responsibilities and direct
your messages to specific employees or managers. Explain exactly what expectations will
be. Persuade others by offering recommendations. Show how a product, service, or idea
will benefit the business specifically (Bovee, Thill, Schatzman, 2003). Over the last
several weeks, we have noticed that your employees, as well as your management team,
have room for improvement when it comes to sending effective business messages. When
you called the management team into a meeting for entering into the online gaming
market, you and Andrew did not provide enough information or evidence of why CanGo
should enter into the market. In addition, the rest of the management team was not able to
discuss the issue with you. Although Andrew and yourself were committed to entering
into the market, neither of you were persuasive enough to get the support of your
management team. Our recommendation to you is to review the characteristics of
effective business messages, use them, and train the rest of your employees on using
them as well. Communication is successful when the receiver understands the message
entirely. If any step in the communication process experiences interference, the intended
message will be lost on the recipients. One of the communication barriers that we noticed
in CanGo is distractions. There are physical distractions such as background noise. Nick
and Gail spend too much time insulting each other and interrupting each others
conversations. It makes it that much harder for the message being sent to be recieved.
There are also emotional distractions such as Nick being very fearful of his performance
appraisal and Warren not being able to give Nick an accurate apprasial because of his
friendship with him. Nonverbal communication often speaks louder than words. It is
obvious that Nick is not interested in what Warren had to say during the appraisal
process. Nick did not pay attention to Warren while he spoke. His body language showed
that he was very uncomfortable during the process. Because of these factors, Warren had
a hard time starting the appraisal process. TITANS agrees that your company needs to go
over the four guidelines for overcoming these barriers. They are: Adopt an audience-
centered approach. You want to make your message meaningful to all of your intended
audience. Your managment team must remember to keep thier employees in mind at all
times when communicating any messages (Bovee, Thill, Schatzman, 2003). Foster an
open-communication climate by getting all of CanGos employees to participate and
openly share their ideas and feelings with everyone else. Commit to ethical
communication. Ethical communication includes true and accurate information. Do not
hide negative information behind an optimistice attitude as did Warren when he gave
Nick his performance appraisal. Create efficient messages. Minimize the physical and
emotional distractions throughout the company. Everyone at CanGo needs to work on his
or her listening skills. The ability of management and employees to listen effectively is
directly related to your success in team relationships. Improving listening skills will:
Strengthen relationships. Expedite product delivery. Highlight opportunities. Support
workforce diversity. Build a foundation for trust. Enhance performance. There are three
types of listening: content listening, critical listening, and empathic listening. Content
listening is to understand and retain the speakers message (Bovee, Thill, Schatzman,
2003). In this situation, your employees should listen to you speak even if they do not
agree at the time. They should listen for and understand only the content of what you are
saying. Critical listening is to understand and evaluate the meaning of the message on
many levels (Bovee, Thill, Schatzman, 2003). When a meeting is called, a critical listener
should be looking for the logic of the issue, the strength of the evidence and the validity
of the conclusions. An empathetic listener attempts to understand the feeling, needs, and
wants of the speaker. This type of listener is allowing the speaker to vent their emotions.
TITANS recommends that you and the rest of CanGos employee review the above
communication information. It is crucial that you improve your communication or it will
be hard for CanGo to be a successful company where communication is key.
Organizational Structure CanGos organizational structure is that of a hierarchical
organization. By definition, a hierarchical organization is one that has different layers
when it comes to the people that make up the company (Bryce, 2007). In CanGo you
have a CEO and Founder (Elizabeth) who would be on the top of the hierarchy. You then
have five directors who report to the CEO: Director of Marketing (Andrew) Director of
Accounting (Ethel) Director of Operations (Warren) Director of Human resources
(Maria) Director of Finance (Clark) Then the final level of the hierarchy is the senior
staff members that will include Gail, Nick, Whitney, and Debbie. CanGo has the layers
for a hierarchical organization (Wikipedia, 2008). CanGo will work well within a matrix
management structure. Matrix management pools a group of people together with similar
skills to work on different projects (Nikki, 2008). The organizational structure at CanGo
should be designed as a balanced matrix. In this matrix, there will be project manager
overseeing functional managers who lead the groups. In CanGo, you have the different
directors, such as marketing, accounting, operations, human resources, and finances. All
these directors have to communicate with to stay abreast of current operations. If the
director of marketing is working an upcoming marketing strategy for product, then he/she
must talk to the director of accounting and the director of finance. They will need open
communications so that they can discuss financing for that project. It important is for the
directors of different departments to communicate with the senior staff members. The
senior members will need information in order to do the research and come up with the
ideas for the projects. Directors of the different departments need to be open with their
staff so that the projects run smoothly and everyone knows all the information they are
going to required to do their jobs. Management Issues TITANS has witnessed several
issues with the senior management staff through observation over the past several weeks.
Management is sliding into negative habits, which employees are beginning to follow.
CanGo managers do not have goals or prioritization of job tasks on projects. Further,
managers are personalizing projects. Management is not allowing employee decision
making which is a CanGo objective. When management takes on decision making
without employee input, they are not researching and analyzing information for the
decision. There are other issues as well such as evaluating, training, and motivating
employees and team building. CanGo management has many strengths. They are
hardworking and competent in their jobs. Managers also have solid educational
backgrounds (CanGo, n.d.). Although the managers possess these strengths, weaknesses
are becoming habit forming. Managers are not following through project processes. The
projects are to be scattered. Job tasks for these projects follow the same mannerisms. The
management team is overly concerned about personal relationships in the office and not
about job performance. As a rule, a management decision seems to be justified not
according to a decision making process. Senior managers have many opportunities to
solidify employees as a team as they often interact with employees daily. The time with
employees should be valued as time to guide and edify. Managers should offer support
for job tasks, motivate and encourage problem solving and ideas, and to help build team
cohesiveness. The management team also has project management tools, appraisal forms,
and other tools available to help in productivity and morale. CanGo managers also face
internal and external threats. The internal threats include low employee productivity and
morale, failing projects, over spending, and low return on investments. External threats
are not as obvious from the managers perspective. These threats are serious and range
from losing competitive advantage, experiencing decreases in market share, and facing
company bankruptcy. The issues addressed above concerning management have viable
solutions. Management needs to prioritize projects with company objectives. This will
help schedule resources for projects and keep all projects on schedule. The projects need
to be tied to company objectives. One tool needed at CanGo is Microsoft Project.
Microsoft Project will allow managers to stay on schedule, schedule employees for tasks,
give managers a visual to show employees working on the project, and to stay within
company resources. Personalization of projects is a problem. Each individual manager is
trying to use the same employee resources for their projects. Because each manager
wants their project to succeed, employees have become over used and are becoming
unorganized. An example of personalization is the AS/RS project. Jacks flowchart made
in the IT department had The house that Jack built as the title (Prentice Hall, 2002, Week
3, Introduction). The name attached with the project will lead others to believe that it is
Jack who wants the project to succeed. It not only hinders resource management, but the
decision making process behind the projects acceptance. Decision making by managers is
not following a formal process. A reflective thinking process will give structure and
formalize decision-making. Problems should be identified will be introduced, defined,
and then analyzed. Then, criteria will be established, possible solutions addressed, and
solutions are evaluated (OHair, Friedrich, & Dixon, 2005). Once managers are
comfortable with the process, employees should be involved. Employees that will be
required to work on the project should have input on that decision. Your employees on
the floor have valuable input for decision-making. When employees become involved in
the decision-making process, managers will find individual employee skills that need to
develop and see skills that need to be utilized. For example, Debbie is a trained teacher
and CanGo has employees that need training (CanGo, n.d.). Managers can also increase
morale and productivity through employee involvement. The involvement gives the
employee a stake in the project and job tasks. Finally, TITANS has identified several
managerial issues that require additional training by the management team. Department
managers need to be trained in all job functions of their department, so they can assist
employees and help train new employees. Managers also require training on giving
employee performance appraisals, follow up, and corrective actions. We have noticed
managers letting poor performance reviews receive good or better ratings to keep
personal relationships intact. There is no room for personal relationships in performance
appraisals. Motivation and team building are also struggling due to managements
inability to offer constructive criticism to avoid crating personal issues. One tool that will
help managers evaluate, motivate, and build teams is the Zenger-Miller Leadership
Course. It is a course designed by Achieve Global to help managers in areas such as
personal communication, defusing defensive employees, establishing performance
expectations, and corrective actions (Frontline, 2000). Employee Issues The employees
of CanGo are dedicated, hardworking individuals. They are an essential ingredient of the
success CanGo has had thus far, and they will be even more instrumental in CanGos
future success. CanGo has been fortunate to have such a talented group of employees. It
is important that management work hard to understand their employees and treat them
more as teammates rather than subordinates. Employees want to feel appreciated and
believe that they are an integral part of their company. Based on TITANSs observations,
we have noticed several areas in need of improvement in order for CanGo to keep their
current employees satisfied. Currently, employees do not seem to have a secure support
system. Management merely distributes projects without fully explaining their
expectations or offering their support. Employees feel they are scrambling to grasp how
to complete their assignments and hoping they do a find a way to do a good job. In
addition, the current performance appraisal system has left some employees fearing both
the process and the results. The appraisal system should not be perceived as a scare tactic,
it should be used to ensure employees that it will set and help them reach goals. As a
result, some of the employees at CanGo have demonstrated poor organizational skills,
lack of confidence, and an overall inability to lead. If these employee issues are not
properly handled, CanGo faces several threats that will hurt the company. A major
looming threat is the loss of employees as well as a deficit of skills and talents. If the
employees do not feel their issues are a priority, many may simply walk away and be
snatched up by competitors. Loosing employees will lead to many negative results:
Decrease in productivity Negative employee morale Increase in the stress of remaining
employees and managers Even a decline in sales CanGo also faces the risk of these issues
getting worse over time. The negative results might reach an incurable stage of
development. The faster these issues are dealt with, the more the focus will return to
growing your business. The silver lining is that CanGo has the opportunity to implement
motivational, organizational, and tactical techniques to run a strong, efficient company in
the foreseeable future. All of these employee issues can be resolved with time, effort, and
change. Employees need to be invited to attend seminars hosted by upper management
and third party companies who teach important skills and techniques-such as
organizational skills and multitasking. Offering this type of employee education will
positively affect the future of CanGo. Teambuilding is another area that needs to be
addressed. There needs to be additional team building opportunities available for all the
employees of CanGo. Something as simple as a monthly social outing or a company
potluck is a great way for employees and management to interact and get to know one
another. These activities will ultimately lead to an increase in trust and a better
understanding between everyone at CanGo.
References
Bovee, Thill, Schatzman, C.L., J.V., B.E. (2003). Business communication today. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Bryce, T (11/16/2007). Management 101 (part II of III).
Retrieved October 9, 2008, Web site: http://www.articlesbase.com/management-
articles/management-101-part-ii-of-iii260931.html
CanGo. (n.d.). Home page. Retrieved October 1, 2008, from
