How to Improve the Smart Technologies Inc Turn Over Growth in the Long Run - Research Paper Example

P.O Box ------------- The Manager Smart Technologies Inc. P.O Box --------- Dear Sir, RE:  How To Improve The SMART Technologies Inc. Turn Over Growth In The Long Run To begin, I would like to stress that in a broad-spectrum I am gratified with performance of the company through the dedicated endless efforts of the able leadership; however I believe more can be done towards ensuring continuous growth in the company to allow SMART Technologies Inc. position itself as the market leader. I did a research on this with findings and recommendations which I believe can be important in driving the company to greater heights. I want to stress that this is not a criticism but a solemn and sober way of bringing my input to ensure continuous good work the company is doing to this to this nation in terms of job creation and making learning simpler. I believe that the preceding information when followed will be very important in ensuring the success of the company and help it remain at the top of the game. I therefore submit this non- legally binding document with the full knowledge that its implementation is at management’s discretion. I restate that any of the recommendations will help improve the company’s performance. Respectfully Submitted By TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 4 Introduction 5 Background and the purpose    6 Methodology 7 Findings – discussion 8 Conclusion  14 Recommendation 14 Works Cited   15 Appendix 16 Abstract     It is axiomatic to argue that the quest for increased revenue to firms has no end. To imperatively discuss the above, it is crucial and prime to digest, conceptualize and internalize the dichotomy in the unembellished key word ‘Turn over’, which is the amount of money generated from the company’s total sales. This non-monolithic term is common in myriad of professional and academic studies when it comes to understanding the company’s performance. A sustainable high turnover is one of the most important objectives of any company that is in operation and wishes to remain the trailblazer in market. It determines whether the company is budding or stagnated and if the policies formulated by the management are germane. The pursuit of ensuring increase in turnover does not stop because of constant competition and globalization. New companies emerge with interesting and appealing products and any company that cannot do this will lag and in worst scenarios face a shut down. SMART Technology Inc. is not exceptional. Through this research, some of the questions which come up when discussing ways of helping SMART technologies Inc. increase its turnover are tackled and they include; why turnover growth is vital to the company, how the turnover can be increased in the company and finally some of the challenges that can sojourn it from achieving the same. These areas of scrutiny lead to a number of findings which are discussed in the discussion area in relation to literature. The paper also presents a number of recommendations in relation to the findings of the research. Introduction Smart technology which has been in operation for twenty five years was founded in 1986 by David Martin and Nancy Knowlton in New York. The company was distributing projectors from Canada to America and this was the major products which generated revenue. The generated revenue was directed towards research and building of a white board with the computer. The company that boosts as being defined by innovation always desire to improve the learning environments globally. The company’s customers include teacher’s students and businessmen who have always admitted that SMART Technologies Inc. have really helped new ways of learning and collaborating. The company created the first world interactive whiteboard in 1991 which is being used by over 40 Million students in over 175 countries across the globe and remains the world’s leading producer and supplier of the same (SMART Technologies Inc 1).They admit that they are the core values of excellence and innovation that drives them to manage receiving those thriving profits every financial year. The products which started with the introduction of the whiteboard has since grown to other products which includes interactive flat panels, student response system, interactive tables, audio enhancement, interactive pen displays, conferencing software’s, wireless slates, document cameras, full time learning interactive software among others.(1)       The early years of the company’s operation characterized a lot of uncertainty and analyst wandered the continued operation of the company. The firm therefore decided to forge ways to start forging alliances with a number and cooperates all over the world. In 1992 the company formed an alliance with Intel Cooperation which led to joint products and marketing strategies development and Intel’s equity ownership of the SMART Technologies Inc. which really improved the operations within the company. Besides the alliances and cooperation’s the company also used her retained earnings to fuel her growth. The alliances and funds from retained earnings helped the company to develop more advanced soft ware and hard ware development. SMART Technologies Inc. just like any other company is not contended with its current state of operations and therefore it envisions meetings rooms and classrooms where images applications and information can be shared at everyone’s fingers tip. The company hopes to allow students experience the benefits of learning whether it’s both seeing and hearing. Through the interactive whiteboards the company dreams to improve collaboration and further developments and therefore allowing communications and quick decisions making with other groups in various locations. The company envisions the next two decade of innovation and constant increase in their turn over.(2)    Revenue growth for SMART Technologies Inc. is vital for a number of reasons. To retain her place as the market leader, it cannot be possible for the firm to operate under negative sloping graph in terms of revenue. This is the reason it must continue focusing and funding a lot of resources to implement finding from its research department to ensure that there is constant innovations in the company. SMART Technologies Inc. in this sense must focus on developing new products as it ensures quality control in the existing ones. SMART Technologies Inc. also wish to increase her revenues to allow its workings to feel the experience of working for the company. Making the workers feel as if the company is theirs is only possible when they are involved in the operations and are remunerated well. Good and hefty salaries can only be possible when the company is doing a very high turnover. Through this workers will always be motivated to focus on identifying new products and also the sales people ensure the company sales is  on the upward and consistent slope. Finally the company desires to have higher revenues to prosper not just to survive in the market. Prosperity can mean nothing least of revenue increase because it is one of the fundamental parameters through which observers can know whether the company is growing or not (Small business digest1). Background of the Study and Purpose of the Study Revenue growth requires a lot of determination and direct focus from the management. According to (Lafle 2) the programs which the company is exposed to should be those that are meant to drive the company’s performance. This can be done in a number of ways as will be discussed in the subsequent sub topics. The importance of revenue growth which to SMART Technologies Inc. will depend on innovation cannot be downplayed. Since time in memorial there has been focus to all cooperates to embrace innovation new ideas if they desire excellence. Technology has made this and saw companies businesses flourish. When discussing revenue growth in companies there are a number of questions which should be answered. The purpose of this research is therefore to lead to better understanding of the issues surrounding SMART Technologies Inc. revenue growth through answering the vital questions which crop up in its discussion. This basically entails establishing the different ways through which management can ensure revenue increase, measuring the impact of this growth on the employees and the shareholders and their ability to remain and continue offering their services to the company. This study also seeks to establish the challenges faced by SMART Technologies Inc. in increasing their revenues and whether this can affect the managerial decisions in terms of expansion. (67) Methodology In order to complete this research successfully, there are different aspects of methodology which were put into use. The information was gathered from the company’s website indicating the constant performance of the company since its inception in 1986. Other secondary data were also found from various players and professional who advised on how companies can improve their revenue narrowing down to SMART Technologies. The company’s website also proved to be powerful resources to allow one come up with suggestions on how they can increase their revenues. All these information were analyzed, presented and discussed in the discussion section below. Discussions    No one can deny that the sole dream of the company is to ensure constant revenue growth. Anything that can hinder this is treated as a challenge which must be fought to ensure that the goals, objectives, mission and vision of the company is achieved. Depending on the sector the business is operating, it has at least an option in ensuring the success of the business. There are a number of options which are available to SMART Technologies to ensure they experience constant growth. The company might be doing a constant growth or losses in the short run but the long run projections and real results achieved is the most important thing. SMART Technologies Inc. long run projections are very important because there are new players who are coming into the market. (Gray 7) One of the reasons of ensuring increase in revenue growth in long run is through new products creation. According (Gray 34), with advanced technology the company can develop software which allows students and teachers to share pictures as they see one another. Teachers through the product should be in a position to guide the students as they watch and follow what they are doing. This will not only make learning interesting but also ease in supervision. It is a fact that new product is the linchpin of companies strategies because it gives clients a reason of coming back to buy a product with the company again. We know in business a customer is only regarded so when he transacts with you more than once. Therefore with new products being brought to the market the company will be sure increasing her revenues. (12)     Another important way Smart technologies can increase their revenue is to increase both offline and online sales productivity. When the sales force is productive then the cost of sales will be reduced. They should focus in tapping the client base through ensuring that there is no dormant account. The dormant customers if exists should always be given frequent calls to inform them about the improvements in the products and the introduction of new products in the market. If the sales force is not finding any leads and potential buyers in a given segment they should always divert their sales to other segments. Smart Technologies should always ensure that there is a macro conversion rate in their website. They should enhance credit card transactions with very high level of security to close the gap between the pessimists and the optimists. When both the offline and the online mode are exploited then SMART technologies Inc. will be in a position to overcome objections, communicate value and constantly reliable client’s pipeline. (Lafley et al 7)     (Most 72) The company should also beef up stream marketing to remain the market leader in the long run. Currently Smart technologies apply a mode of marketing which is downstream in nature. The company currently applies advertising, brand building, promotion, communicating with customers through public shows and relations, trade shows among others. Upstream marketing which they have not exploited involves developing a clear market segmentation map and precisely defining the customers to focus on. It dictates how the products should be packaged to match and meet the wishes of the end users and at what price they would wish to buy the product. This will help the company build a data base of potential customers who will be part of the company growth to greater heights.    SMART Technologies should also create a social engine to help in accelerating revenue. In the belief that a company is a social system the explicit growth agenda should be understood by everyone. When this is done everyone will view the revenue growth as the role of every employer and not the sole duty of senior management. This social engine will reduce the growth in revenue being perceived as a misnomer. The social engine when adopted by the Smart technologies will help them develop a laser-sharp focus streamlining employees silo priorities and therefore making the right tradeoffs (Most 92).      Fixed costs are very important in the management and controlling the daily expenses in the organization. It might appear hard to restrain the cost which does not change in the organization but that’s what dictates the managerial skills and ability of the managers. Smart Technology chief can costs of things like building, rent, by so either buying their own or building permanent office.  Other expenses like sales expenses and staff expenses can be lowered further when the company exploits more of online trade than offline. This should be the core of their sales as they are doing it though not fully exploited in my understanding. (Gray 9).        Cross selling which Smart Technologies have exploited in the past is very important when it comes to increase in revenue, although the company has not fully and rightly exploited this. They have approached in a wrong direction and therefore not meeting their targeted projections. Effective cross selling should not start by asking what should be sold to existing clients instead they should focus in looking at outside first before inside the organization. Smart Technology should select a segment of customers and then working backwards to define the customers’ needs and then designing the products which appeals to the clients and meeting all their needs besides the cost effectiveness. This will ensure maximum sales because the products are customer driven. The products they will be presenting will be according to the customer’s proposition and spells out the affordability, matching the physical and geographical location and a post purchase benefit to the client. (Most 97)      According to Spoelstra 4, Customer loyalty is very important when it comes to creating internet traffic. It is very important that Smart Technology adopt mechanisms to increase the number of people who visit their websites because the online profitability is determined by a number of people who visit the websites. This is because the number of people visiting a website is a reason to increase sales. The website must therefore be built enough to ensure that creates a need and an appetite for the visitors to return. When this is exploited they will remain on top of the game. Besides this, they can also exploit referrals, making those who have visited to encourage other potential buyers to visit the website. (7) Management of the Smart Technologies have always confused that customers always make judgments going the price which is pegged on their products. It is very important that the company appreciates that it is not about the price clients considerers first when making their sales. It is a wrong notion that most companies have even forced themselves into lowering prices which leads them into losses. It is high time they realized that customers are busy with the quality and whether the products answer their fundamental needs. That’s the reason we said that all their products should be directed towards meeting their clients’ needs. They should not waste a lot of their time worrying about the actions taken by their competitors in lowering prices. They should maintain a reasonable price after carrying out a thorough research and reading the market mood. In this way they will specifically produce only those goods which are in line with the needs of the customer and they will buy it high price, notwithstanding (Lafley et al 11).      Smart Technologies must always remain focused to ensure that they retain the alpha effect which drove customers to their products. An alpha effect could be quality, availability, customer support, after sale service, discounts. It is from this clip of small things that attract customers to our company. After identifying all these it is important that the company set internal controls of ensuring that they are maintained throughout the business cycles. When this is done then instead of coming up with new products competitors will copy what the company is doing. During this time the company will build on the existing clients as it works on attracting new ones into the company. (Spoelstra 7).     The company must also invest on the existing customers so that they retain them through provision of the right services as defined by the customers’ needs. Investing means spending a lot of money to ensure that the sales are increased through variables like, after sale service, discounts to customers. The customer’s performance will improve and it will be at the top of others. The company’s turnover will rise because customers will always have a reason of coming back to get a product from them. (Most 59)         Blending a number of factors can also work well. SMART technologies Inc. can blend increase in price, increasing number of customers and the amount each customer spends in each transaction. For instance when the company raises the price by 10% and the number of customers by 10% and then ensures that all these customers spend $100 every visit. The turnover will automatically increase when the management considers this magic way of boosting the revenues. (Small business digests 1)    The company should do SWOT analysis and also identify her profitable clients. The analysis will help the customer know the strengths so that it can enhance most of her spending on this group of clients. Comparison of the products is vital in identifying and knowing what should be offered to a specific client. This will help SMART Technologies serve the most profitable customers. In a way the company will be discriminating the market to achieve the best result from all quotas. Even though SMART Technologies Inc. has in the past entered into mergers with companies I still believe that there is still an option of going into merger with other companies in other countries all over the world. Apart from mergers the company can also do acquisitions of relevant companies to increase her presence and customer base. Through this I believe the revenues will substantially increase to this company and remain the market leaders. Conclusion From the research findings above, it is clear that there are varied opinions with regard to the different questions which crop up when discussing helping Smart Technologies improve their revenues in the long run. It is evident from the discussions that okay attitude is never right in management, because it portrays stagnation in a business. Smart Technologies Inc. must work to ensure that they exploit each and every opportunity to enhance her growth. Growths in revenue always dictate the direction of the company. Perusal study of turnover in business only proves that the need to earn more is the exquisiteness of delving into a subject. In gist the emotional hope of high turnover is never an ending process due to scarcity value of money and development of new ideas everyday with inventions and time.     In a nutshell I present this with a review of implementation so that the company can remain the market boss. Smart Technologies Inc. has more than one reason to have a constant growth in their revenues. They have the technological power, capital base, customer base, good products with very talented sales team. All these puts them a head, cognate with the above the company without any doubt will have very high turnover which in turn translates to high profits when expenses are minimized. Recommendations   In the light of the above gathered information and findings I wish to recommend to the company the above given ways of improving revenue, with a hope that when  followed then they will remain on top of what they are currently doing. When the advised information is followed to the letter then there is no doubt the company will still remain the market leader in the long run? The recommendations which run from efficiency, introduction of new products, proper financial and staff management will assist in ensuring that Smart Technologies increase her profits. Works Cited Gray, Alice More stories for the heart: over 100 stories to warm your heart, Multnomah ,Publishers  Sisters, 1997.Web Lafley A. G. and Charan Ram, The game-changer: how you can drive revenue and profit growth with innovation, Crown Business, New York. 2008 Print. Most Bernard, Turn over. Prentice-Hall Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1980 Web Small business digest Six rules of increasing revenue and profits,2012 Retrieved from http://www.2sbdigest.com/Six%20Rules-for-Increasing-Revenue-and-Profits Smart Technologies Official website http://smarttech.com/. Retrieved on 1st July 2012 Spoelstra, Jon . Marketing outrageously: how to increase your revenue by staggering amounts! Bard Press  Austin 2011 Appendix   The Company in the last quarter of its operation had a turnover ratio of 6.601 with the minimum being 6.552 in 2011. Maximum level of turnover ever attained was 6.601 this year in putting the company’s turnover ratios at 6.579. The above ratios receivables turnover shows the company ability to collect liabilities and debts. The ratios are very important for investors as it helps them know the efficiency of company’s credit policies. The above standing figures puts Smart Technologies in better place as high ratio indicates a high efficiency in debt collection. It translates that the company can attract large number of investors. I highly believe that this can be improved. Recent quotes of the SMART Technologies Inc. showed a price of 1.82 with a negative change of -0.13 and a change which is the percentage of the market capital is -6.67 %.It has a market capitalization of 76.40Million. Read More