Keys to Success of a Startup Company Tesco Security - Assignment Example

Executive summary TESCO Security is a startup Company offering security services based in Dubai. The company will provide security audits, security guards, and referrals to those who provide equipment to commercial buildings, and finally special event venues and other individual clients. The business intends to source funds from angel investors and will expand to other cities in UAE and even beyond if it becomes successful In the present increase, in political instabilities, rising fears of terrorist activities, and the contemporary economic climate within the country, which promises an increase in outsourced and general services y, the launching of the company comes at the right time to fill this gap. The company will first target supermarkets and large retail stores and building management business so as to establish a solid base of clients in Dubai. TESCO Security Company will carefully increase its employee base of security guards, basing on the contracts of clients, and employ both part-time and full-time security guards. The business anticipates good amount of sales during the first one year, and almost double by the end of the third year. Gross margins will be same to the average of the industry, basing on the security guard labor costs vs. billings. After launching the initial investment, a lean first year, and the formation of a training space and office in the second year, the company will be on the edge of expanding through its own internal source of finance after the end of three years. After the business is proved to be successful in other cities, the business may sell its shares to provide an exit strategy for the original founders and investors. Mission TESCO Security will eliminate worries for customers who needs security guards for their facilities, buildings, and events by offering excellent customer services for customers and comprehensive training for their staff Objectives Employ 30 full-time and 10 part-time equivalent guards by the end of the year two of operation Earn $3 million in returns with net profit of over $400000 in its third year of doing business Offer security guards to 20 buildings on full-time by the end of the third year of year three. Keys to success 1. TESCO security Company believes some of its key to success in the security industry includes: Listening carefully to the concerns and the objectives of the client so as to come up with a customized guard packages 2. Providing effective training to security guards and constant maintenance of their training and certification 3. Having deep knowledge on what the customer does not know (bringing deep security expertise together with knowledge of liability and legal regulations to the table) 4. Regular monitoring on the quality of services provided by security guards so as to provide quality assurance Forecasting Forecasting simply provides prediction of the happening of a future event. Some of the techniques used by our company to forecast include: Extrinsic forecasting technique- future forecast is based on external factors that are related to the service being forecasted. Straight historical data is used to forecast future demand Intrinsic forecasting technique­- comprises of qualitative and quantitative methods. In qualitative method, forecasting is based on subjective method in case of qualitative data is absent. It is based on opinions, best guesses and personal judgment. Contrary, quantitative forecasting is based on formulas and mathematical models. This model believes that what happened in the past will likely happen in the future. The ability to carry out accurate forecasting affects the profitability of our business. Furthermore, the ability to enhance the demand forecasting for client demand then sharing the information downstream allows effective arrangement and inventory management in the entire organizations. Forecasting provides the business with estimates of timing, the occurrence, or magnitude of uncertainty in the future happenings. Product /service design Our team, workflow and experience have come up with a richer appreciation for the strategic importance of good design in our business. While we focus on the usability and the look of our services, we believe that the greatest value of design goes deeper than the glossy outlook that attracts our customers. To us, design is the basic soul of a man-made creation that expresses itself at the end in a consecutive outer layer of the service. It is a small romantic, but we believe the utmost asset of this basic soul is the capacity to influence dramatically the service quality and the culture of the business before offering the services. We have this thought that it is shameful when developers argue the advantages of design after the core product or service is already done, since it misses the true potential of the design: to have an impact on the internal business. In our company, good design does only sell products. Effective service design enhances collaboration, sets expectations, communicates strategy, enhances team efficiency, and above all motivates and inspires like nothing else So as to get and retain customers, one has to set high expectations and surpass them on a regular basis. A better way to start is to set the table a quality table inside the organization and this can be achieved through service design. On the other hand, service design helps getting things done within the organization. It offers a holistic understanding and strategy for what is required to be achieved. As in the case of factors affecting the product design, policy of the quality standard and cost to price ratio are some of the factors that are during the designing of our services in our company. Furthermore, coming up with the needs of the targeted customers is an important element when designing our services. This mostly assists during marketing segmentation as it assists a company to identify the needs of different segments. During the service design, some of the issues to be addressed by our company include the level of disparity in service requirements and also the level of customer involvement and contact. Other sources of design ideas are sourced from marketing research websites showing the scholars who have done extensive research in product and service design Ethical and legal considerations Several organizations are governed by government agencies and these regulations are there to prevent harmful substances from being used during the process of product and service design. Harm caused as a result of consuming a product is the responsibility of the manufacturer or service provider. Manufacturers are supposed to take the responsibility of the damages or injury caused by their products as a result of its workmanship or design, also regarded as a product of liability. When a product is defective and can cause potential harm, manufacturers are left with several remedy options to the situation. As in the case of our security company, when the service is defective, we have to fix the problem or withdraw the service for further consideration. If, at all the services, we provide to our clients cause some injury, we are ready to face a lawsuit. If our services are tailor-made to suit our customers, our company is most likely to be successful in the market. On the contrary, rules and regulations are there to provide a competitive level ground where are the companies in the industry can have healthy competition Capacity planning It is the effective use of resources by projecting by giving a projection on the future use of resources. It is applicable to our company’s storage computer network and workforce maintenance. Capacity planning offers various benefits to small businesses in terms of financial and logistical benefits. Some of the benefits of capacity planning to our company include: Budgeting- capacity planning outlines the equipment and personnel of the business will need so as to reach goals and maintain current operations. The information becomes paramount when designing annual budgets and spending portions of marketing plans. It becomes easier to design financial projections when there is proper estimation of expenses. Dynamic change- capacity planning process collects important data on how the company operates. So as to remain competitive, our company utilizes capacity data to make changes in our organization and keep up with the competition. For instance, if our competitor increases its customer service staff by 25%, then our capacity planning can let us know what we require exactly in terms of facilities, personnel and money so as to keep up with the level of competition Capacity measurement One of the ways in which our company can measure the capacity is stated in terms of the number of clients served per year. This depends on the number of other factors, for instance the location of our customers and their size. Increase in the number of business premises manned by both full-time and part-time security guards is a clear indication that our company has the capacity to handle even more customers. This is an effective way of measuring our capacity since it shows the progress of the company it terms of clients Considerations when making capacity alternatives When making capacity alternative in our company, some of the important factors considered include the amount of capacity required, extent of flexibility of facilities when making changes, proper timing of changes and the need to strike a balance between the current capacity and the intended capacity. Strategic importance of process selection to the business Process selection is an important aspect of organizational development where a series of actions are taken to identify, analyze and make necessary improvements on the current business processes so as to meet the new goals and objectives. These new actions often follow a certain strategy or methodology to increase the possibility of successful outcomes. Strategic process selection may include the restructuring of training program of the company so as to increase the effectiveness. In addition, process selection introduces changes so as to improve the quality of the product or service so as to match the customer and the customer needs Strategic process selection focuses mainly on doing things right rather than doing the right things; in essence, process selection in our organization works by: Defining our organization’s strategic goals and objectives (what we do, who we are, and reasons as to why we do it) Defining our stakeholders (who do we serve?) Matching the business processes to achieve the organizational goals (how can we do it better?) Process of service delivery In order to offer effective services, same guards will be sent constantly to same clients. Nevertheless, substitutes will be essential from time to time and the company will ensure that full data regarding the job is sent out to substitute security guards on those occasions. TESCO Security will build trust with customers as a partner, instead of simply specific security guards whom they are comfortable with. Security guards will be in regular communication with their team through two-way portable radios and with the TESCO office, as required through mobile phones. The main office will not be staffed full-time in the beginning, but the CEO and operation officer will be within reach by use of phone. Guards in operation who experiences criminal activities will alert the relevant authorities immediately instead of going through communication center. Security guards will be stationed either at desk or patrol all the facilities by foot. Clients must provide vehicles in case their jobs require vehicle patrol (i.e. for a facility comprising of many buildings), although this will not be the main focus of TESCO Security Facility layout is one of the greatest components of the entire operations of our company, both in terms of making use of production effectiveness and meeting employee needs. The main aim of the layout is to enhance the smooth flow of work and information through our system. The key to good layout and design are the incorporations of various needs of people i.e. customers and personnel, materials, and machinery in a manner that creates a well-functioning single system. Importance of work designs Work design refers to the specification of contents, relationships and methods of work so as to satisfy organizational and technological requirements as well as personal and social requirements of the work holder. It helps the organization do organizational activities in a more effective and efficient manner. Job design helps to specify procedures and content of doing various tasks in the firm, thus helping in designing the organizational structure. In fact, the job design determines the organizational structure. It also the type of organizational culture, values and norms that the workers should follow in achieving the set goals. Job design is an organized approach of giving job related information and data on knowledge, skills and the capacity to carry out the task. From the information provided by the job design, job specification and description are prepared. It also provides a milestone of selecting the most competent workers to work in various within the company. It is a source of motivation to workers to strive for better performance. The challenging and enjoyable work provides good pay for workers which motivate them to work harder. Apart from motivation, it also brings a high level of commitment to achieving organizational performance. This helps the organization increase its productivity and promote employee satisfaction. A well-organized job design enhances harmonious relationship between the top management and the workers. Functional structure – this is the most suitable work design because it is very simple. In this design, the workers are grouped into various work functions, which are arranged into a hierarchy. These categories include sales, marketing and finance. For a security firm, the workers are grouped into categories to facilitate easy management. The security guards are answerable to the supervisors while the supervisors are answerable to the branch managers. As the rank goes high, all the junior management are responsible for the general manager. Concept of work design and measurement The work of the operations manager is to manage the personnel that promotes the firms products and services. It may be challenging the duty to manage the organization in a complex arena. The diversity of educational and cultural workforce calls for coupled management skills. The main aim of having a centralized management of the personnel is to increase the productivity of the organization without compromising responsiveness, quality or service. The manager in charge of operations uses the techniques of work design to structure various duties so as to meet both behavioral and physical needs of the employees. Worker measurement techniques are meant for determining the most effective means of executing given tasks as well as setting reasonable standards. In a security firm, the branch managers, through the supervisors, will reward committed guards. Location planning and analysis Planning is a routine activity that every organization should do. It helps to determine the direction in which the organization is heading to and what is doing to achieve its goals. Nevertheless, all organizations should make use of location planning techniques. As a firm increases its operations, location planning helps in giving alternatives of how to operate. For security firms, security officers are distributed to various operation sites. Before making commitment, there is a need to carry out location analysis to identify the location factors that may affect security operations. This will help in making sound location decisions. Therefore, these decisions will aid in laying out good strategies to meet the standard operations. TESCO Security Company is located in Dubai’s central business district with a lot of government and commercial premises. The town is currently growing rapidly with a lot of businesses sprouting up. Recently, there is an increase in insecurity in the CBD with a lot of businesses forced to close earlier than operating hours. Robbers have molested the businessmen and robbed off their belongings. As the TESCO takes its way in town, there are a lot of premises in need of security guards to man their facilities (Barry J. Witcher, 2010). Nevertheless, choice of the site has been influenced by: Availability of high demand of security guards in the town- the reports from the state security suggests that there is a need to recruit security guards to man government and commercial premises. The government has given financial and moral support to security firms. Security firms will have support from the government to aid in curbing insecurity in the town. The rise in the upcoming businesses has coincidentally call for an increase in security firms. This is because of the government policies which have supported businesses operations. Most of the shops are being opened due to few legal procedures. This business requires security guards to man their operations. This has facilitated TESCO Company to open security agency in the town. Quality control and management of quality Importance and consequences Quality control is a prime factor that all organizations should follow. However, the application of this discipline to organization operations has been overlooked by several organizations. It is not unless they realize the importance of the quality control, they will not perform effectively. According to Wood (2002), quality control ensures that the all the defective products and services are reworked, returned or scrapped completely within the company. It implies that the organization strives continuously to produce quality products and services. Quality management of operations, therefore, will uphold the loyalty of the customers and encourage them to trade with the company. For security firm, quality operations and management of quality will ensure that the services satisfy the clients. Other potential customers will be attracted to the company due to the quality of service they offer. Quality management will promote the good reputation of the company. The better service offered will sell a good name of the organization. As a matter of fact, customers would want to associate and trade with reputable organizations as this is a sure way of their operations. On the other hand, failure to comply with quality standards will negatively affect the organization’s perception at the marketplace. Customers will shy away from the company and trade will other reputable organizations for better services. Similarly, the organization will distract potential customers from the company, thus few customers. The organization will have few customers to deal with and poor sales volumes. The workers will be ill-motivated and some may even quit from the company. Practically, the organization will run at a loss due to high costs of operations with limited profits (A, 2013). Factors that drives TESCO Company’s quality Strategic focus- every organization has a vision of succeeding in its operations. This focus will ensure that it operates under the required standards to achieve its targets. In maintaining a strategic focus, the organization has to ensure that it produces quality products and services to attract customers. This includes working effectively to improve the quality of service. People- key success of the organization depends on the people. People includes the customers and the staff of the organization. From their experiences and opinions, the organization can set standards to satisfy their needs. People drives the organization to produce products and services that suit their needs. Without them, the organization may not have a measure of the recommended quality (Kaplan, 2009). Customer relations- TESCO Company aims at maintaining good relations with its customers for effective operations. However, it is through the quality of service that maintains or kill customer relations. TESCO’s quality operations will ensure that customers are retained whereas its laxity to offer quality service limits cordial relations. Control chart The chart below shows the number of complaints per week versus the number of weeks. The increase in a number of complaints per week calls for an alert for the quality of services. If the company records a lot of complaints above the optimum level, then it has to check on the quality of its products. Likewise, few complaints below the optimum level mean the company is operating fairly, but it can rectify the few challenges. No complaints (absolute level) means the company is operating normally. When conducting a run test process record the number of complaints per week sort the complaints according to the customer needs draw a control chart of number of complaints per week versus the weeks Identify the time there were a lot of complaints and rectify the fault Bibliography A, G., 2013. Operations Management. 3rd ed. s.l.: John Wiley. Bamford, D. R. & Forrester, P. L., 2010. Essential guide to Operations Management: concepts and case notes. s.l.:John Wiley. Barry J. Witcher, V. S. C., 2010. Strategic Management: Principles and Practice. s.l.:Cengage Learning EMEA. Kaplan, R. S. &. N. D., 2009. The balanced scorecard: Measures that drive performance. Harvard Business Review,, p. 70–79.. Wood, J. C. & Wood, M., 2002. Henri Fayol: Critical Evaluations in Business and Management. NY: Taylor & Francis. Read More