Culture Cook Book - Role, Task Duties, Efficiency Analysis, and Personal Attempts to Overcome Problems - Report Example

INDIVIDUAL REPORT Table of Contents Introduction 3 2. Role, task and duties 3 3. Efficiency analysis 5 4. Personal attempts to overcome problems 75. Suggestions for improvement 7 6. Appraisal of other group members in their roles 8 7. Appraisal of teamwork 9 8. Personal learning and discovery 10 Reference List 11 1. Introduction PROWest (Culture cook book) is a company dealing with customer in experiences of various local culinary dishes and making guaranteed customer satisfaction and expanded knowledge on diverse cultures (Selinger, 2006). Currently, the headquarters of company is situated in Plymouth, UK. The company aims at satisfying its loyal customers with many new recipes that the company has invented. The services offered include affordable recipes within a booklet that can be prepared in minutes that would offer a sense of satisfaction to the customers who are fond of innovative dishes (Selinger, 2006). The employees in the company are hired depending on respective qualifications and duties to undertake. The main aim of the research paper is to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the company and the efficiency of the managers to run business. The research offers a scope to the researcher to examine the overall performance of the company as the financial leader of the company. 2. Role, task and duties The company uses the most cost efficient techniques in order to satisfy its clients. The main customers to the company are the students of University of Plymouth. The company offers cook books comprising of the low cost recipes. The cookbook contains around 20 recipes from various countries and these books give the details for the preparation of the dishes within a short span of time (Morawski, 2013). Further, the company expanded its business in other parts of UK and has gained some brand loyalty from its customers. However the company needed to take some initiatives for creating some brand awareness in the market. Additionally, the company started its own social media pages directly related to students from Plymouth University and it tried to create its brand awareness advertising in the local newspapers (Morawski, 2013). In order to carry out the operations the company has hired me as the financial leader who is supposed to supervise the accounts department of the company. This position deals with the role of ensuring the clients with better management system within the company. The financial leader of the company is expected to make the transaction decisions and the proper allocation of money in different projects (Morawski, 2013). Furthermore, the job’s tasks included providing the clients’ payment, opening accounts, offering professional advice as well as guiding the clients through the online transactions. The duties that came with this job included making decisions, ensuring whether the initiatives taken by the organization are profitable or not, and having records of the funds that are available to the organization. Besides serving clients the financial leader of the company is responsible for conducting the company’s monetary transactions. The financial manager understands the financial implications of the company’s activities and takes decisions accordingly. The financial manager must be able to report the financial position of the organization in the markets (Morawski, 2013). Further it is the duty of the financial leader of the company to keep track of the debtors who are supposed to pay their bills on time. Every day there would be a meeting where each member was expected to give their experiences in their respective roles. Furthermore, these duties do not need the highest portrayal of professionalism since many of the clients are from Plymouth University. Finally, the duties and tasks demanded discretion and high level of ethics observation because one had to look at the client’s account. The financial leader of the company dealt with opening of the account by the client to fill the blank spaces but confirmed and approved by the officer. Receiving of personal calls was prohibited during the working hours, and clients could only call through the company-provided phone. Promotion regarding the cook books launched by the company was on social media pages and PR events directly related to students from Plymouth University (Morawski, 2013). As well as these promotional activities, we are going to choose to follow a ‘social enterprise’ scheme in which half of our profits will go to a local charity agency. 3. Efficiency analysis The position came with its share of challenges, some of which were handled effectively with only a few proving a bit complex. Firstly, the company needed a communicator to understand the demands of the clients as well as the desires of the customers (Morawski, 2013). Secondly the financial leader of the company must be efficient enough in handling the monetary transactions within the organization because money plays a key role in the company’s decision making process (Morawski, 2013). In order to ensure this problem did not generate into a misunderstanding, I would calmly explain to the client why it was necessary for the filing to be done by them. While a significant number of these clients understood and went ahead to fill by them, others simply could not, and it is here that professionalism was important. As it is with other business, ethics ought to be an important aspect in order to ensure both the employee and the company retains a good image before clients (Davies, 2008). In full understanding of this, I ensured that no filling of the forms was done in any way that contradicted the company requirements. According to researchers at the beginning, PROWest Company produced good books on cooking that helped the customers in preparing delicious dishes within a short span of time. Financial leader within the organization is responsible for maintaining accounts as well as participate in the company’s decision making process. Therefore, multitasking capabilities of the newly hired financial managers were tested since I had to handle the clients seated at the desk and others calling on the phone and online. As noted by Lotila (2009) an employee’s capability to work under pressure determines how productive the company becomes. Additionally, it goes on to improve the skills of the employees. Nevertheless, it is not advisable to induce unnecessary pressure on the employees in order to make them perform well. If the employees and the managers are strong enough to deal with the challenges that the company faces then the company would gain high reputation in the international markets. Firstly, it is always imperative to understand the power of delegating responsibilities (Selinger, 2006). Secondly, understanding the client’s needs and solving them within the shortest time helped greatly. When supervising the accounting decisions of the company, my strengths of performing speedy calculations and skills in accounts management has been helpful. Notwithstanding these strengths and success cases, some weaknesses hindered my potential including not talking too much. Even though relations with the other staff and clients were unaffected by my personality, the same cannot be said while conducting the financial decision making process of the managers (Davies, 2008). Promotion of the company products was not easy because some of them were similar to others offered by the competitors. As a result, it called for convincing people to buy especially mortgages but the personality trait collided with the demand of this job. In addition, not having been used to working for long hours was a weakness that may have somehow hindered productivity. The role played at PROWest Company required working hours to be about seven per day with Saturday having to be about four. Prior to taking up this position, the experience did not entail this tedious work (Davies, 2008). Rather, it was working a few hours, having ample resting time without having to work during the weekends. Conversely, the PROWest Company had all these requirements, which led to burnout and occasional lethargy. In a bid to ensure this weakness was overcomed, several including having daily exercise were undertaken. 4. Personal attempts to overcome problems As reported one of the problem was maintaining a huge database of financial accounts and making decisions on the financial transactions of the company. Hlasny (2007) asserted that the financial leader hired for the company has to be efficient enough to take valuable decisions for the company. It is the duty of the financial leader to comment about the company’s position in the market and the strategies that can be taken to overcome the challenges. He is supposed to act as the analyst as well as the forecaster who predicts about the financial future of the company. The new financial leader hired for the company has to be knowledgeable as well as capable of understanding the financial status of the company (Albino Garavelli and Schiuma, 1998). 5. Suggestions for improvement The financial leader is responsible to carry out detailed analysis of the company’s accounts and balance sheet. It is advisable that if the concerned person prepares a monthly report on the transactions that took place in the company and that are likely to take place within the economy. Some of the areas that need urgent improvement include limiting the duties of the financial manager of the company (Davies, 2008). While the position offers an officer with an opportunity to be more productive, it creates a loophole for loss of business. This assertion is made due to the interests of the customers in purchasing the cook books online rather than visiting the shops. It sometimes becomes difficult to keep track of both online as well as offline sales simultaneously within the company. Ernst, et al. (2004) argued that duty allocation to employees ought to consider other qualities besides the qualifications. Moreover, providing some information on the wall about the procedure of filling the forms could assist greatly. Additionally, improvements could be done when it comes to analysing the annual balance sheets of the company manually. It becomes a time consuming process for carrying out a detailed analysis and then derive conclusion regarding the financial position of the company in the market. It is highly recommended if a team of financial assistants are created by the financial leader who can be well trained to deal with the company’s accounts department (Morawski, 2013). This suggestion is line with Morawski (2013) who asserted that sometimes, an organisation’s success lies in understanding staff’s strong areas and subsequently utilizing them. Had these areas been analysed and improved accordingly prior to my involvement in this company, the output would have been different. 6. Appraisal of other group members in their roles The Financial leader can distribute the entire work of financial accounting among the other team members and train them accordingly to carry out the detailed analysis. Further the higher authority can conduct the board meeting by involving the board members and deciding regarding the company’s growth prospects (Selfridge, 2003). The team members dealing with the financial records must ensure that the accounts are up to date. The board members are expected to provide a solution for the profit allocation of the company and the members need to consider the YE corporation tax and other dividends related to the company. PROWest needs to allocate the profit earned in various sectors as well as distribute them among the employees. The employees are to be rewarded for their performance that contributed to the company’s profit (Rowe, 2001). However, the board members are to decide regarding the corporate social responsibilities that are to be handled by the managers. The financial leader is responsible in deciding the amount that is to be allocated for the funds as well as donations. The leaders need to record the annual sale of the company and the profit that is earned and likewise prepare the balance sheets. They are needed to forecast the future growth prospect of the company and the strategies that would be useful. 7. Appraisal of teamwork It is often stated that any business that hardly works on enhancing teamwork seldom gets far in terms of growth. While academic qualifications account for a certain portion of success, teamwork is thought to be the major driver of growth. This is because talents in different individuals help in the overall growth hence the need to cultivate it (Hemelrijk and Wantia, 2005). PROWest being such a start-up company has realized this importance, and the teams worked perfectly well. The interns were accorded the necessary advice on how to do conduct the financial accounting and prepare the balance sheets for the company as well as participate in other financial decision making process. There were not many communication hurdles since many of the employees and interns communicated well in English. With the competition coming from a number of other players, this issue was handled through various methods including advertisement and strong sales teams. 8. Personal learning and discovery Without a shadow of doubt, the experience at PROWest Company has provided the much-needed experience, which will prove to be beneficial in the near future. The opportunity of working with the company had provided me with lot of experience regarding handling the financial accounts of a company. It also helps me to deal with the challenges relating to the financial decision making and the initiatives that are to be taken by the company to improve its position in the market. Further preparing a company’s annual balance sheet needs lot of competency and my role of a financial leader has taught me to handle such situation. As noted, the company’s strength lies in the higher performance to pricing, and this is one quality that helps in attracting new clients and retaining the loyal ones. Nonetheless, the experience helped in exposing some weaknesses but this will be important in handling such duties in the future. While the experience at PROWest may not have defined precisely what will pursued in the future, it has the changed the approach that will applied. In short, it has equipped me with precious skills on how to handle a number of issues in an organisation. Reference List Albino, V., Garavelli, A. C., and Schiuma, G., 1998. Knowledge transfer and inter-firm relationships in industrial districts: the role of the leader firm.Technovation, 19(1), 53-63. Davies, I., 2008. Alliances and Networks: Creating Success in the UK Fair Trade Market. Journal of Business Ethics, 86(S1), pp.109-12. Ernst, A. T., Jiang, H., Krishnamoorthy, M., Owens, B., and Sier, D., 2004. An Annotated Bibliography of Personnel Scheduling and Rostering. Annals of Operations Research, 127 (1-4), pp. 21-144. Hemelrijk, C. and Wantia, J., 2005. Individual variation by self-organisation. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 29(1), pp.125. Hlasny, V., 2007. Shill-bidding in private values auctions. Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society, 5(4), pp. 307-320. Lotila, P. 2009. Corporate Responsiveness to Social Pressure: An Interaction-Based Model. Journal of Business Ethics, 94(3), pp.395-395 Morawski, M. 2013. Knowledge sharing processes with the participation of key employees. Management, 17(2). Rowe, W. G., 2001. Creating wealth in organizations: The role of strategic leadership. The Academy of Management Executive, 15(1), 81-94. Selfridge, C. 2003 A unique selling point. Computer Weekly, Nov 25, 2003, p.41. Selinger, C. 2006. The art of delegating. IEEE Spectr., 428, pp.62-63. Read More