New Start for Coldwell Banker Real Estates Company Limited - Example

New Start for Coldwell Banker Real E s Company Limited Coldwell Banker Real E s Company Limited Restructuring Introduction Coldwell Banker Real Estates Company Limited is a private limited company which was established in the year 2004. It’s a relatively small company which only specializes in the buying, selling and renting of real estates in the affluent neighborhoods of the major cities in USA. After the construction of permanent, well furnished en suite buildings, they are rented by the city dwellers. During its earlier years, this company was registering a very encouraging progress. With an annual growth rate of 63% in the first four years, it was quite appealing to the existing and new potential investors who were always willing to join as shareholders. Despite such a tremendous growth, things started changing in 2009 when the company hired a new Managing Director. Given that this was his first managerial position, the new manager lacked the experience to run such a highly progressive organization. Thus, he was faced with several challenges such as misappropriation of funds, demoralization of the employees and uncontrolled expansion. This was witnessed when he decided to introduced a dictatorial leadership and broke up the initially existing effective communication channel amongst the stakeholders. This not only created disunity, but also created a bad blood between him, his juniors, employees and clients. Things became worse in 2011 when he opened two branches without the approval of the Board of Director. Because it was hurriedly done without a proper plan, the company soon found itself in a financial crisis. The profit margin reduced from $100 million to 600 million between 2010 and 2011. Thus, it became extremely difficult for the company to support itself. As a result, it opted to look for loan from commercial banks, a decision which finally crippled it. In 2012, the company was greatly affected by the economic recession which befell the nation. Thus, it reached a point when it could neither repay all its debts nor make any profit. This led to the closure of all the sub-branches, change of management and retrenchment of many workers. For this reason, the company is now planning to restructure its operations. This, in the opinion of the Board of Directors and the management, will help in restoring the company into its past financial position it was before the ordeal. The Restructuring Plan for Coldwell Banker Real Estates Company Limited Given that the company has been making constant losses in the recent past, the management has felt that this is a very unfortunate experience which needs to be amicably addressed. No shareholder can be happy to associate with a company which is constantly running at a loss. Moreover, the intended absence of the business owner for the next five years implies that a new office needs to be set up. In case this is done, measures will be taken to restructure the entire organization by introducing changes in the business plan, hiring process, recruitment process, Human Resource Management department, marketing strategies and management approach. This will re-energize the company and give it strength to recover its lost glory as it seeks to accomplish its short and long term goals (Swanson, J. et al., 2009). Business Plan During its inception, Coldwell Banker Real Estates Company Limited was having one of the best business plans so far. As a real estate business, the owners were very much aware of the challenges that lay ahead. Therefore, they took the initiative to consult and create more time to draft a well designed and feasible business plan. This would contain their vision; mission; objectives; sales and marketing strategies; financial and management throughout the lifetime of the business. However, the arising situation implies that the business plan must not have been effective. This might be due to the unpredictable market forces and the changes in the management of the company. The existence of the company for ten years means that there are observations which have been made based on its performance. In this regard, the management should consider restructuring the business plan. Meaning, several changes should be made to reflect the level of competition in the market, clients’ changing demands, government policies and the inflation rates which has of course stemmed from the ravaging economic meltdown. If this is properly done, the organization will come into terms with the on-going realities and be able to device ways on how to deal with it (Sullivan, A. & S.M. Sheffrin, 2003). Business plan is a very important document which must just be revised in order to help this company to streamline its operations so as to be in a position of accomplishing its mission, vision and goals. Therefore, if there is any area which was overlooked during the formulation of the business plan, it should be restricted and amended so as to conform to the new standard based on the real situation on the ground. The prevailing conditions in the market must be looked at. Recruiting Process One of the most significant categories of stakeholders in any business is the employees. As a matter of fact, it is the workers who are responsible for service delivery within the organization. Whether they are highly skilled, semi-skilled or non-skilled, without them, nothing so far can be achieved. Therefore, it means that the management of this organization, in its restructuring program, should focus on the employees. Unlike it was done before, the hiring process of the workers should be restructured. As revealed by the discontented stakeholders, many of the workers were not employed on merit. There were lots of canvassing and shrouded activities which were done during the interviews. Many observers report that the interviews were merely conducted for formality. Very few (if any) of the current workers were employed on merit. Meaning, new measures should be introduced to provide a clear guideline which can be strictly followed during the recruitment process. Unlike it was done before, the recruiting agencies should be closely monitored in order to ensure that there is no favor or discrimination practiced at all. It is illegal and morally wrong to discriminate on potential job seekers based on their geographical, political or racial diversities. Instead, when a proper restructuring is done, all such practices will be abolished (Kershaw, D., 2009). However, in order to promote transparency and accountability, external consultancy firms should be contracted to execute the recruitment of employees. If this happens, there will be cases of corruption, favoritism or canvassing as it was done during the past collapsed management. Human Resource Management (HRM) Department According the company assessment, employee dissatisfaction was one of the major causes of its decline. As a matter of fact, all the organizations should be concerned about the welfare of their employees. All workers, regardless of their hierarchy, should be motivated. In case they feel demoralized, they will definitely lower the quality of service delivery. This is what used to happen in this company during the previous regime. The management was not so much concerned about the welfare of the employees. Those who were lucky to get engaged were poorly remunerated, stagnated and not offered adequate incentives such as salary increments, promotions, housing, recreational or insurance schemes. Thus, they lost confidence in the organization and its entire management. However, in order to rectify this problem, there is a need to restructure the HRM Department and equip it with highly trained and experienced officers to handle the welfare of the employees. They should be given all the necessary finances and resources to use in the management of workers. Besides, they should be committed to the organization’s policies and accept to act in accordance to the ethical standards of their office. In this case, they will have to discharge their duties with the due diligence and faithfully hire the employees, motivate them, promote them, remunerate them and provide them with all the necessary recreational, housing, health and insurance schemes to motivate them and restore their confidence as a recognized part of the entire organization. In case this happens, their morale will be boosted to enable them work very hard for the sake of accomplishing the company’s short and long-term goals. Marketing Strategy Marketing is a very significant component of this company. During its inception, it was properly strategized. However, all the marketing plans were not implemented as they were supposed to be done. Meaning, the Sales and Marketing department did not take its work seriously. Instead of concentrating on the outlined marketing policies, they really became over occupied with unnecessary activities. Hence, the target clients could not be reached and supplied with the right commodities that they require. With a poor marketing department, the organization had to collapse because not many sales could be made. Based on this, the new restructuring program should not single out marketing. Deliberate measures will be done to reinstate the Sales and Marketing department in its former position. Meaning, since the company is dealing in houses, the target clients have to be accessed and informed about the availability of housing facilities which can suit their needs. All this will be done by the marketing department because it falls right within their docket. For a very long time now, several complaints a have been lodged against this department. Although it consists of professionals, a lot still need to be done in order to put everything in the right path. Meaning, in the restructuring program, the department should be seriously assessed to ascertain the level of the performance of its employees. Once it is proven that they are not up to standard, they should be replaced by other competent, highly qualified and experienced staff that can spearhead the activities they are charged with. Because they have a hand in the failure of the organization, one way to correct the situation is to restructure their department. This will help in injecting a new blood into the department. If this happens, the new recruits will have to be rigorously inducted and given tight goals to meet. In collaboration with the other committed staff, they will definitely take the company to another step of development (Julien, P.R., 2001). The other important area to focus on while restructuring the marketing framework of this company is to concentrate on sales promotion. A small unit should be created within the department of sales and marketing to deal with the advertisement of the company’s commodities. Everyone knows the role of product promotion in the creation of awareness about the introduction and improvement in the quality of services offered by the company. A part from helping to market the company’s products, the sales promotion will be used to rebuild the damaged reputation of the organization. Therefore, it will have to conduct market researches to understand the prevailing market conditions and place adverts in all the available broadcast, print and online media which can be easily accessed by the target clients. Through this, the clients will have to get all the necessary information that they need before making the right decision on what to acquire. Without proper marketing strategies, it will be futile to be part of this highly lucrative, but competitive real estate business. It must be part of the planned restructuring mission. Management Approach Management is the major pillar of this company. With a team of highly qualified top managers, the company definitely has a bright future. However, this might not be realized if the adopted management approaches are not viable at all. According to the company records, the company was in the right path during its earlier stages. At this time, the management was committed to accomplishing the short and long term goals which had been set by the company. Therefore, everything was done as planned. Meaning, all the departments were properly distinct with well defined boundaries. Besides, there was an effective communication between the top management and junior staff. This made everything to be smoothly done. However, with the recent reports, management strategies have shifted to the tasks. With the breakup of the communication channels, the workers now feel harassed, neglected and exploited. The same applies to the suppliers and the shareholders who feel exploited by the top managers. This has actually disintegrated the entire organization (Marquis, C. & Tilcsik, A., 2013). While restructuring the company, emphasis should be put on the management. The first thing to do is to change the management approach. It should not be dictatorial, but democratic. Meaning, the senior managers should consider being both task and human oriented in their approach. Regardless of their high position within the company the executives should treat all the other stakeholders with the dignity and respect that they deserve. Meaning, they should not take advantage of their seniority to trump on their juniors. All of these stakeholders are very important because they have a contribution to make. Hence, the restructuring program should not fail to address the conduct of the top managers who are out to ruin the company. While restructuring the management, deliberate efforts should be made to introduce bureaucratic and behavioral approaches in the management of the organization. When regulations are made to outline the hierarchy of the organization, there will be no mo0re conflict of interest. Instead, the sub-division of the company into departments will help in promoting accountability and hard work. This is because each departmental head will have to be accountable and responsible for the performance of their staff members. Meanwhile, the pegging of promotion on qualification, experience and expertise will be a motivating factor to the workers. Their moral will be boosted if they are supervised by their seniors who are more qualified than them have the capacity to effectively manage them. Lastly, the other approach to adopt in the restructuring program is behavioral. Under this system, the organization will have to focus on its employees. Meaning, their welfare should be properly checked in order to ensure that they are motivated and in a position of delivering their best for the sake of the organization. One of the ways of doing this is to introduce a democratic system in which both the junior and senior staffs feel free to operate and express their ideas without any hindrance (Gomez-Mejia, L.R. et al., 2008). For example, when such an approach is enforced, even the subordinate and junior staff will be involved in the major decision-making processes for the company. In this case, they will feel recognized and motivated as an important part of the organization which has a say on major matters. This approach should be implemented if the organization is restructured. It has a lot to offer. Conclusion All businesses are established with the primary goal of making profit. In any circumstance, profit maximization should be the ultimate achievement based on the organization’s short and long-term goals. The collapse of Coldwell Banker Real Estates Company Limited proves that it has a lot of problems. Therefore, in order to address them, there is need to restructure the company and come up with new measures to help in reviving it as it prepares to enjoy a significant share of the market as it used to do. Starting from the business plan to the management approaches, a lot need to be changed. This is the only way through which it will regain its earlier position and appeal to the shareholders, clients, employees and the general public. References Gomez-Mejia, L.R. et al. (2008). Management: People, Performance, Change, 3rd edition. New York, New York USA: McGraw-Hill. Julien, P.R. (2001). "Enhancing the effectiveness of organizational change management". Human Resource Management 22 (1–2): 183–99. Kershaw, D. (2009) Company Law in Context. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Marquis, C. & Tilcsik, A. (2013). "Imprinting: Toward A Multilevel Theory" Academy of Management Annals: 193–243. Sullivan, A. & S.M. Sheffrin (2003). Economics: Principles in Action. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458: Pearson Prentice Hall. Swanson, J. et al. (2009) A Practitioners Guide to Corporate Restructuring. London: City Financial Publishing. Read More