Conference - Assignment Example

Conference For an organization to thrive in business and be at par with other organizations, it ought to have full comprehension of all its weaknesses and strengths. Proper knowledge of a company’s strength and weakness usually not only result to proper communication between different departments in the organization but also helps the organization in maintaining company’s strengths and improving the weaknesses for more production. Large companies such as UPS normally have many responsibilities hence require proper management skills (Katsioloudes, 135).

The company, whose objective is delivery of packages to customers, requires proper management for the business to run smoothly and ensure that all customers receive their packages on time. This is possible due to the company’s internal assessment approach that includes assessment and auditing of all internal departments and staff. The essay will relay information on internal auditing and its benefits to an organization. All companies have weaknesses; the only difference is how these companies handle the weakness.

For instance recently during December holidays, UPS Company made headlines for its failure in delivering packages in time. According to Bloomberg TV, many people did not receive their Christmas packages in time. This occurred because of unexpected increase of online sales (Bloomberg TV). According to Bloomberg, UPS Company had braced itself to ship 132 million packages in the week of Christmas. Before the Christmas week, UPS hired extra 55000 part time staff. The company also acquired 23 additional jets and doubled the number of tracks delivering the packages (“Bloomberg TV”).

All this was in a move to keep up with the increased demand. Unfortunately, these efforts were enough because the number packages surpassed UPS’ anticipation (“Bloomberg TV”).Apart from numerous of blames from angry customers, UPS also received more blames from online shopping firms and other retailers, for instance, Amazon accused UPS for not delivering packages on time even after Amazon processing their deliveries on time. As the company’s CEO, I would have taken a number of steps in identifying weak areas that resulted to low package deliveries during Christmas holiday.

First, I would have requested an internal audit in all the responsible departments such as finance, marketing and production. It is evident that package delivery delayed due to the large number of packages bought from online stores and other retailing companies. According to marketing principles, product demand always increases or declines depending on the season (Lilien, Arvind & Bruyn, 12). For instance since it was Christmas, it was obvious that there would be high demand on certain goods such as gifts and other shopping.

All companies have some weaknesses and UPS is not different either. What makes the companies different is how they handle their weaknesses. UPS will use the weakness identified during Christmas and convert it into strength in order to be at par with other competitive firms. Apart from doubling its current fleet of trucks, the firm will also hire more planes and working staff especially in the departments of packaging and transportation. One method of converting identifying company weaknesses and converting them into strengths is through implementation of IFE matrix.

This strategic management technique involves evaluation and auditing of various organizational firm departments in a process to identify company’s strengths and weaknesses (Katsioloudes, 103). The matrix normally involves four important steps. The first step is usually identification of the company’s strengths and weaknesses that is normally achieved through conduction of internal audits. After the identification of organizational strengths and weaknesses, the next step is assignment of weight, which normally ranges from 0.0-1.0.

The weights are assigned to key factors identified in the organization, whether they are strengths or weaknesses (Katsioloudes, 103). The total of all the weights assigned to factors identified normally add up to 1.0. After weight assignment, the third step is rating the strengths and weaknesses of identified factors. The rating is normally classified depending on how major or minor the strength or weakness is, for instance, a major weakness is rated 1 whereas minor is 2. Conversely, a minor strength is rated 3 while a major strength is equals to 4 (Katsioloudes, 103).

After successfully accomplishing the first three steps of IFE Matrix, the final step is usually adding all variable weighted scores in a move to determine the firm’s total weight score. Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) Matrix for Walt Disney Company Key Internal Factors Weight Rating Weighted Score Morale of Employee 0.15 2 0.30 Management 0.25 3 0.75 Financial Status 0.15 1 0.15 Pension Plan 0.30 4 1.20 Quality of Service 0.15 3 0.45 Total Weight Score 1.00 2.85 Standard Average =2.5 Ratings 1=Major Weakness 2=Minor Weakness 3=Minor Strength 4=major Strength Walt Disney Company has a total weight score of 2.

85 and since this surpasses the company’s standard average weight of 2.5, it is now clear that the company has more strength factors compared to weaknesses. For any company or organization to succeed in business, it is mandatory that it have a proper understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. Although no company lacks a weakness, what makes them different is how they tackle the differences. For instance whereas some companies do nothing about their weakness, others normally take the weakness as a lesson and convert it into strength.

One main idea of solving company weakness is usually conducting an internal audit, which normally enables proper communication between departments hence identification of a lasting solution to the weakness. An IFE matrix is used in order to identify the level of weakness or strength a company has. Work Cited “How Did UPS Miss So Many Christmas Shipments?” Bloomberg TV. 2014. Retrieved on 28th March 2014 from http://www.bloomberg.com/video/how-did-ups-miss-so-many- christmas-shipments-EiozJnLSRQKGZrvl~6x4EQ.

html Katsioloudes, Marios. Strategic Management. London: Routledge, 2009. Print Lilien, Gary L, Arvind Rangaswamy, and Bruyn A. De. Principles of Marketing Engineering. State College (Pa.: DecisionPro, 2013. Print.