The Working of Enterprise Rent a Car - Case Study Example

Introduction and overview of case study: Introduction: Enterprise rent a car is an established in the field of transportation and services in United Kingdom. The company’s services stretch over upon multiple decades of customers’ satisfaction and services delivery. Over period of time it has expanded its services chain and network and provides services in number of major metropolitans across the world. Its main specialized services domain include trucks being used for heavy load transport and shifting, commercial transportation of small sized vehicles and management of fleet at different levels both for private as well as large sized commercial usages by passengers and companies respectively. Its network functions to provide for emergency transport, alternative usage of vehicles. It has a broadly expanded structure consisting of over 370 stations through which it connects itself to the customers in different ways. The company operates on a global level with services being provided in other parts of Europe, and North America namely United States of America and Canada. The company undertakes certain set of professional business management rules and communication patterns that enable the company operating to excellence and customers’ satisfaction. Company’s motto: ” Take care of our customers and employees and profits will take care of themselves” Overview of the case study: The case study provides an insight into the working of Enterprise Rent a car. It also gives details of its original existence, its basic spread out in the various countries, its motto and its reasons to success along with the principle policy of customers’ considerations. Further, it addresses the aspect of communication, how it takes place within the organization. The fact that enterprise rent a car is a internationally operating entity, it therefore needs to engage good communication means and channels and for that purpose the company undertakes certain set of activities and course towards operating in a smooth manner. This case study largely reveals and looks into the communication channel mechanism of the enterprise rent a car. Further it addresses the potential challenges faced or that may be faced in a scenario such as that of enterprise rent a car that operates at multiple stations and is connected globally directly or indirectly to its other branches and regional offices. Key difference between small and medium sized enterprises? The size of enterprise largely defines the nature of project and activity undertaken by it. The size of enterprise also defines the scope of operation and its undertaking of various functions, individuals and the supply chain relationship as a whole. The size of enterprise reflects upon the trust and confidence of investors and business partners. The larger the size the larger the interest of business partners owing to the improved and possible higher rate of project investment and project capacity. Subject to the size of enterprise, the decision making factors, the hierarchy within, the roles assignment, the supply chain network, the human resource management functions, all these are equally dependent upon the overall size of enterprises. Since communication is an integral part to any organization’s success or failure, the size of the enterprise also co relates to the importance of communication as a whole. Large sized enterprises require effective and more spread out communication channels engagement. Small or medium sized organizations may undertake activities with relatively smaller sized network of communication channels. Further, the formal and informal means of communication channel operations also depend upon the size of organization at hand. Other major differences between the small and big sized business management is the financial factor. Large sized business management enterprises undertake projects that may include heavy financial investments. This in return also includes the increased trust shown by the investors. Owing to the capacity of the organization, the investors and the governments and multinational organizations engage into mergers and joint ventures. Small sized organizations often have reduced financial spectrum which reduces its overall capacity of expansion and large scale projects engagement. Bench strength: The number of employees directly reflects upon the size of organization and business management system. A small sized business organization will have direct small number of employees. This comes in correlation and response to the overall budget of the organization. Further, this number of sub departments and organizational framework based divisions also reflect upon the size of organization. Smaller organization will have limited number of sub compartments within, the large sized organizations directly come along with the strict hierarchy and more decentralized operations with sub departments and various specialized units within. Decentralized versus centralized operations are also another characteristic feature of the size of organization at hand. Discuss the potential management issues faced by Enterprise rent a car? Enterprise rent a car is ever expanding in its infrastructural existence. Its number of branches within the United Kingdom has increased up to 370 in total, and also it is on a growing tilt in United States of America and other major hubs. As a result it needs to maintain a smooth operational engagement and live up to the brand name. it must ensure that all the outlets, and sub chains ensure for client oriented business services. Further, the effective communication system establishment and maintaining the timely engagements is also a management issue that is faced by the company. Poor communication is a strong bottleneck against the customers’ satisfaction. It becomes an obstacle towards reaching out to the customers or the customers being able to reach out in an effective manner. Slight delays in response or service delivery to the customers results in disappointment and resentment of the customers as a whole. Co ordination suffers a direct blow as a result of poor communication mechanism within the organization. This is largely due to the excessively divided and decentralized structure leading to the multiple tiers and layered operations which in turn lead to an overall lag and dissatisfied customers owing to the poor performance delivery. Relative ambiguity in terms of the roles definition when it comes to broader operations engagement is also a challenge faced by the enterprise rent a car. What solutions would you suggest to resolve them? Owing to the problems faced by enterprise rent a car, number of steps and strategy based policies must be undertaken. The first and foremost is that of clearly defining the roles. This will provide for a clear task accomplishment and duty undertaking. The second most important element is that of communication establishment. This may be done so in number of ways. The first and foremost is that of communication between the levels working on internal level. The second is that of the communication chain establishment and network connection with the stakeholders involved. It must be ensured that the processing activities and other functions are performed in a timely manner. Further, clearly defining the communication models and patterns which will allow for timely actions is another step that is needed to be taken. During the overall system of communication establishment, the formal as well as informal means of operation and activities must be addressed with regard to the routine activities and interactions that take place between the different stakeholders on internal and external level. For the purpose of effective communication, it is not just the system of hardware and network spread out, rather the role of the management and individuals who function to ensure for smooth communication must be improved. Proper trainings, guidelines and research studies must be focused towards bringing about improvement in the overall activities. This improvement should look into the working of the top management how they convey their instructions, and in parallel the response of the employees and the lower staff ensuring that they are clearly conveyed the instructions messages. Furthermore, the timing and the medium of communication must also be taken into account for effective operations. The medium of communication includes the language usage subject to the cultural context and the digital media as a choice and option for reaching out and solving the problems faced at present. Read More