My Desired Goals and Objectives - Essay Example

? ACCOMPLISHING DESIRED GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Anita Kovacsne-Toth of the of the School My Desired Goals and Objectives About 10 years ago, my husband was awarded with a high value job in the United States of America. As it was a high value job, my husband did not want to lose it. We decided to take on the challenge and move to the United States. So we packed up our little family and became ready for the adventure. We were native Hungarians so it was really an adventure to move to a different country. I also wanted to explore opportunities for me in the United States. After our arrival in the United States, I decided to do some job so that I could remain busy. My strength in speaking fluent English, German, and some French immediately gave me the idea to look for a job at an international firm. As I was going through job advertisements, I realized that bookkeepers were quite in demand in the United States. So I joined an accounting training program to learn how to do bookkeeping with the QuickBooks software, learning the American way of accounting at the same time. Graduating from a business high school, I already knew how to do bookkeeping. Moreover, I had also gained some management skills by completing an associate degree in Fashion Merchandising Management from the Budapest Business School and by working as a professional in a company located in Budapest. Working for the Levi Strauss Ltd. in Budapest provided me with the managerial experience in an international environment. After four months of continuous job search, I was able to find a bookkeeper/office manager job in Les Metalliers Champenois (LMC Corp.), which was, at that time, an affiliated company located in New Jersey. The parent company was located in France whereas LMC was the affiliated company having French owners. The reason behind affiliation with the American company was the change in the market trend in France. Due to change in the market trend, the parent company started developing a new line of product, reorganizing its facility, and developing a new production line. The bronze casements, such as, windows and doors, were not unique in the market. Therefore, the parent company in France decided to start a new affiliated company in the U.S. to sell the new line of products, bronze windows, and door casements. Although both companies shared the same name and had the same line of products but they were different in organization and management. During my interview for the job in that company, I tried to stress on the benefits that the company could get by hiring me instead of talking about the great opportunity of doing job in that company. I also did not talk anything about how the job could allow me to do the things that I had never done before. I was very focused about the benefits which I could bring for the company, allowing the interviewers to see how deeply I was interested in that job. I had learned a long time ago that taking on additional responsibilities would definitely provide me with an experience that would pay off later in my life. As the location was just across the street of their other affiliated company, I was hired to set up a new office and to perform all administrative tasks with a help of a French intern. Although the task was quite challenging but it was very exciting at the same time. In the new building, we really had to start from the scratch. We had to purchase furnishing, computers, office machines, and supplies for the new building. There was also a bathroom that had to be remodeled to accommodate all New Jersey regulations. I had to find a suitable contractor who could perform the work in the shortest time with a friendly budget. I was able to find a contractor who was willing to work with one of our employee from our LMC workshop that also helped to reduce the final cost of remodeling. After submitting all documents and a copy of work permit to the city of Paterson, the work started. Our budget was somewhat tight, so we tried to save money on labor and buy used office furniture in order to make the best use of the available budget. The cost reduction idea of management made us able to save some money to add a small kitchen in the building. Finally we had to set up our computer system and find a way to connect wirelessly to the LMC Corp. database from across the street. As our products and the business name were new in the market, we needed the French affiliate’s resources to start functioning. I searched for the companies that could help us to accomplish such a task. At that time, internet access was quite limited in our area and data transfer by cable was quite an expensive solution requiring different kind of permits from the city of Paterson. I was able to locate a company which was specialized in providing wireless data transfer facility. That company installed a satellite dish across the street. Now, that we had the access to the database of the LMC. Corp., our QuickBooks software had to be set up. To accomplish this task, I located an accounting firm and with the help of that firm, we became able to start operating as an independent company within the period of 7 weeks. We were all set to finally start the actual work in our newly established office. I had to register this new company called Horus Bronze Corp. in each of the states where LMC Corp. was doing business in order to start working in those states. Since our parent company had to ship finished and unfinished goods to our office in the U.S., I had to apply for an importing bond number in order to be able to import such products without any legal problem. We also needed to be fully insured and for that, we hired the same insurance company that the LMC. Corp. was using for insurance for a long time. Looking for a perfect and suitable insurance firm is very important just like anything else. However, in our case, we did not spend much time on that because we had a very limited time, and we needed to start our operations as soon as possible. Therefore, using the insurance company of LMC seemed to be the best solution at the time. The French Intern who helped me to set our representative office became our sales person who used to visit architects in the New York City. It was really difficult to sell the Bentley of windows directly to the client/building owner in the private sector since it was an architectural product. Other than basic administrative work and bookkeeping, I also used to supervise the work of the sales person daily. Both of us worked together on the tasks of designing business cards, envelopes, brochures, and on the development of the company’s website. The casements arrived in the early days and were ready for installation. For installation, the crew arrived from France, and I had to organize and manage their trips and stay in the USA. Some of the core tasks related to management of the crew included purchase of the plane tickets, reserving accommodation near the jobsite, and car rental. Since the casement was new product, the installation needed to be done by the crew who actively participated in fabrication and was able to handle all sorts of technical difficulties on site. I had to utilize my project management skills to ensure availability of all of the tools and machinery on site. To organize such an installation event, I had to work closely with the parent company. Good timing really played an important part in successfully managing the installation event where just one day delay could have caused unnecessary and avoidable extra expenses. The crew was diverse with respect to culture and work ethics. Some members of crew belonged to Germany, Austria, and Hungary. However, majority if the crew was French. Some of crew members were new in the United States and were facing a cultural shock. My role was not only to prepare them for a new lifestyle but also to make them adhere to the standard workplace ethics of the company. I also had to perform the task of arranging legal documents for all foreign workers regarding their stay and work in the United States. I performed this task with the help of our company’s lawyer. As the years have passed by, I gained more and more experience of managerial decision making, ability of setting priorities, and timing and organizing tasks and events. A major change occurred in the company’s structure in 2007 when the French parent company and its first affiliated U.S. Company, LMC Corp., split their businesses. However, our newly developed company, Horus Bronze Corp., stayed connected with the parent company. LMC Corp. continued its business in the field of ornamental architectural metalwork whereas Horus Bronze continued selling bronze casements that were fabricated in France. Following the split, our lease was terminated, and we were not desired to be located across the street from LMC Corp. anymore. We were asked to move our facility immediately. Besides the challenge of finding a new location, we were also facing some new challenges of making the customers and the market aware of the split and keeping and retaining our old and recent customers. A new chapter had begun for this very new two-employee company. Before going to find a new office with a decent sized warehouse, we had to develop a new budget. This operating budget included the financial plan that controlled our revenues, expenses, and profits. We used the so called zero-based budgeting in order to consider and justify everything to be included in the budget properly. We listed the company goals for the fiscal period and then identified the people and other resources that were needed to achieve the goals. We had to identify and list the costs of all resources to create an accurate budget. This way, we were forced to examine the company’s operations and explore more efficient ways of doing things that we had done differently in the past. Another reason behind using this form of budgeting was that we were totally relying on our own where we could not borrow anything from across the street anymore even for an hour. The change of our location was a very good opportunity for me to reorganize my daily workflow based on the previous experiences. The tasks like determining the layout of our office, determine the physical location of a fax machine, printer and large size plotter, developing a new documentation and work flow, and restructuring the communication in and out of the office really helped me gain a valuable managerial and administrative experience. With a help of a real estate agent we were able to locate a potential office that was close proximate to a major road and had a large warehouse with two overhead doors that could accommodate our large shipments from France. The only problem we were facing was the condition of the new office. The office needed complete renovation. Besides the total renovation of the new office, we had to rebuild the office from communication and computer system through setting up the new warehouse (forklifts and heavy machinery) along with finishing and maintenance departments. The sales person being in and out of our office, working on drawings, and visiting clients and the parent company in France left me alone with the challenge of organizing the remodeling on my own. During the past couple of years, I was able to develop good working relationships with different people that I was going to use in this period of difficulty. I was able to locate a great contractor to do the renovation. We temporarily set up our office in the attic area, so that the renovation could be started downstairs. I set up appointments with the Paramus City Hall and Fire Department in order to get the permits that we needed to accomplish our goal as soon as possible. I was continuously monitoring the progress of the work while fulfilling my daily office tasks, such as, arranging daily shipments and installations, ordering supplies and hardware for our products, general administrative work, bookkeeping, and following-up the new contracts as well. After the renovation was finished, I had to concentrate towards the administrative tasks of the new office. I had to handle the company as a new physical location doing the business of the same product. In the mean time, the sales person had come back to join me. Now, we needed to expand our target market, research new prospective clients, and develop new strategy to reach the clients using new marketing tools. As the business started to expand to the level where we needed to handle multiple projects at the same time, we decided to build a strong and efficient team of 4 to 10 employees and educate them about the product and the nature of the company’s business. After properly considering the planning and budgeting of the company, we decided to hire 4 high skilled workers and 2 sub-contractors along with their helpers. To implement the decision, we started looking for talented and skilled individuals. We worked really hard to find the qualified people. By that time, our facility was fitted out with all of the required machinery and the equipment to facilitate the large scale projects going on all across the country. All projects were unique and the products were custom made including the closing and locking mechanism, hinges, and glass. Development of the designs depended on the architects but the technical development, fabrication, installation, and the high-end service were our responsibilities. One project lifetime could be measured in months in case of one casement or years in case of100 casements from development to installation. The installer crew had to return to the same job site multiple times and continue the same quality of work always in a different environment because the building was in the stages of its development. The close supervision of all crew members was critical and essential. As they used to be on some remote location from our office, the crew leader had to report daily and summarize the work weekly. During the processes of construction and installation, many difficulties used to occur that needed to be handled either on site or from the office. Our crew, which was actually representing our company and the product in front of our clients, field architects, engineers, and in front of the private owner, had to communicate with our office daily to make the correct decision to handle any issue. Usually the crew leader used to organize the daily work but I had to be in contact with the general contractor who used to plan and organize the work of all other treads. I had to be in contact with the general contractor to make sure that all framing and watertight insulations were being installed as planned and that everything was being documented correctly as approved by the architect. We used to remain in continuous contact with the crew members and record all unexpected issues or design changes in order to avoid the inconveniences. This continuous communication allowed us to manage our workers and projects effectively and efficiently. This position with Horus Bronze Corp. not only provided me with the opportunity to expand my skills but also to prove to myself and to my employer that I possess the required skills and abilities to do well on my own. References Not required. Read More