The Management of Gemcom Software International Inc - Case Study Example

NAME: UNIVERSITY ID NO: INDUSTRY ID: TUTOR: TUTORIAL DAY: TIME: EXECCUTIVE SUMMARY Gencom software international inc. is a company situated in Perth, western Australia and we deal with industry mining software. My name is Peyer librish and I am the managing director of Gencom all over the world. We have branches in Africa, Europe, north America and Latin America that i manege. An issue I had is with a long standing agent that used to develop softwares for us. This business relationship lasted for over seven years and was solid and strong. The business was doing very well and there were no conflicts between us, we liked and trusted him very much and so did he. He also invested a lot in our business and had established a powerful team whose sole responsibility was representing us which they did so well and were good at it. In the course of our relationship his employees left him and their leader approached us and requested that we continue with the us business arrangement that existed earlier and they would confine to serve us in the same capacity as before. This report will seek to suggest to the management how the decision criteria should be guided by the vision and mission statements of the company and also they should be towards the attainment of the company’s goals and objectives. The report will further analze the the problems that the company is facing and suggest recommendations of solving the identified problems. The report also explains the implementation and implications that would be encountered as a result of adopting the recommended solutions to the problems. ISSUES Gemcom Software International Inc. has been identified to have various issues affecting the operations of the company on a daily basis. It is therefore important that they be identified and resolved so as to improve the performance of the company (Ahmad et al.,2003). One notable issue is the staff turnover, which has the consequences of delaying service delivery. The staff turnover reduces the capacity and therefore the organization will end up being ineffective and inefficient in its operations. Notably, the company has a limited number of employees who require the technical know how. Specifically, there are few mining geologists and engineers (Chiaro & Joklik, 1998). Gemcom Software International Inc. was in the business of mining software industry, it will not operate effectively without such staff. The company risks operation delays and it would not be operating optimally. Just like any other business, Gemcom Software International Inc. has faced stiff competition from its competitors in the industry and it is a high time that the management decides on which investments to funds so that the company may gain a competitive advantage against its competitors (Omalu & Zamora, 1999). For example, its competitors are using automated machines in enhancing their mining operations. The same should be adopted and more innovations identified to place the company at a position of advantage from its competitors. Finally, there is an issue of lack of loyalty from the agents that the company engages itself with. They are driven by their personal gains and interests and not the attainment of the company’s goals and objectives (Thomson & Joyce, 1997). CAUSES The mining business faces a lot of challenges, one of those challenges is low staff turnover where there is very limited workers or people with the expertise with the technical know how to do these jobs. When the situation at hand happened, it was very significant to us since our agent was left in a capacity that rendered him powerless to serve in his original capacity and the company was losing a lot of revenue in the process this meant that something had to be fast. I think Boash saw an opportunity to strike put his boss and he did this on personal Issues and objectives alone. There were no disputes between him and his boss and in fact Boash was brought in by his boss from Serbia and he was taught all the trades of the business that were required to know and he made him his right hand man. This left us in a very tricky situation where our agent was left in no capacity to represent our interest and a very capable team that we had no trust in. At that time the french market was very large business in terms of percentage of revenue. It was a thriving business hub with a good profit stream. It was contributing to 20%-30% of our earnings at that time . There was no heavy risk in that revenue as it was stable. We had just invested in translating six of our products into the French language which we thought would make quite a market boom and bring in heavy profits in the process and we had a long term view of increasing our market share. ALTERNATIVES Gencom  software international inc. as shown in the video link has tried to tackle the issue of staff turnover, but not to the maximum, a lot should be done so that they can improve on this or at least try and eradicate this phenomenon. Gencom has created scholarship programs for students and they have partnerships with a couple of universities in Australia, but this is not enough (Warhurst, 1999). The company should partner with several universities across the globe so that they can diversify and get more students to learn about mining and thus creating competition for this job and by doing this they would get the best quality of employees. this would on turn improve their work ethics due to qualified personnel at their disposal. if they do this they are certain that the future will be definitely be brighter for them (Ahmed, 2003),They also should partner with the government so that they can create more awareness about the courses associated with mining in social media, print media and even on the internet in order to attract the young generation into this career.  Gencom software international inc. should try and eliminate the use of agents by eliminating them and employing the own personnel to take care of this and this will help them monitor their work much closely and would the likely ness of takeovers (Omalu & Zamora, 1999). Since agents can be unpredictable and their personal objectives always get in the way of business transactions and bring about difficulties in the industry and unwarranted tension. They also bring about mistrust in the business platform that causes business not to trust them since they might be doing shady things (Thomson & Joyce, 1997). Thus this report advocates for great need for the company to set rules and regulations governing employment. The company needs to clearly embrace a common culture of employment across all it's business units. If employees are to be  outsourced or permanent employees be employed the rules and regulations should be met. DECISION CRITERIA The following steps are suggested for the development of a decision criteria for Gemcom Software International Inc. 1. Establishment of company objectives and goals These will ensure effective operations. They include; provision of quality services, meeting the set sales target in a given period as well as provision of professional service contracts. 2. Establishment of a vision and a mission statement Every organization should define the path in which it intends to meet its objectives and how it intends to achieve them. This is why Gemcom Software International Inc. should come up with a vision and a mission statement that acts as a guide in to their decision making. Their decision should be to enhance the vision and the mission of the company. 3. Selection the decision criteria to be used The decision criterion for the company should elaborate the hierarchies to be used upon arrival of a decision. It should also be clear on what level of authorization for every decision arrived at. 4. Prioritization of decisions The decisions arrived at are to be prioritized so as to make a ruling as to the most effective decision that would be adopted.The criterion is to be evaluated so as to determine the relevance of each decision. 5. Develop metrics The metrics for Gemcom Software International Inc. is to be developed on the basis of relevance and consequences. Summary of the decision criteria The decisions should be interdem with the vision and the mission of the company. For the attainment of the goals and objectives of the company, they should endeavor to employ and retain their employees (Warhurst, 1999). A decision is to be arrived at as to whether the company is to partner with institutions of higher learning to improve on the skills of the employees they have or they should employ new staff who will be required to be fully qualified as per the employment policy of the organization. RECOMMENDED SOLUTIONS An organization will thrive if it has a competitive advantage against its competition. It is therefore recommended that the company invests in research and development to aid in analyzing the environment in which it operates in and in the identification of ways to lead in the market. Some of the suggested ways are creating ample awareness to its customers and this could be achieved through online advertisements and online postings of the company’s info and this will eventually attract potential customers and employees to the organization. I also recommend a proper employment policy to be adopted so as to have clear set rules and regulations guarding the recruitment and retention of employees in the organization. This will solve the problem which the organization is currently facing on the use of agent which are not loyal to the company. My recommendations are that Gemcom Software International Inc. should consider partenships with financial instititutions to assist in availing of funds to facilitate smooth operations.This is because the poor liquidity of the company is consequently affecting the daily operations which can on;y be resolved by having a reliable source of funds. Also, due to the deficiendy of geologies and mining engineers, the company should embark on training programs for the technical teams as it is clear that the organization is not sufficiently endowed with the skills from its personnel. IMPLEMENTATION AND IMPLICATIONS The management of Gemcom Software International Inc. should hae an intended deliberation to reslute the current issues facing the company for its continuity and the suggestions in thios report should therefore be considered as they are elaborate on how change is of essence for the sake of company’s growth. Therefore, the various stake holders should have a meeting to come up with an implementation plan of the changes proposed . The criteria for choosing the future partners should be that these organizations to be financially stable and they should share both the values and interests of Gemcom Software International Inc. If it is agreed that the company needsexternal financial assistance, various financial institutions should be suggested and the one that will be supported by a majority of the stakeholders to be adopted. The future implications of successful implementation of the recommendations are to be instantly recognizable. For example, if the company decides to have a financial institution assist with funds, the cashflow probl;em will be solved and hence the daily operations of the company will not be interrupted and a smooth running of the operations will be achieved. The suggested changes will result to effective management of the company and this is expected to boost the earnings of the company and the profitability is therefore expected to improve as well. If improved service delivery is attained, then the satisfaction of the customers will lead to a growth in the customer base of the company and hence increased sales and in the overall performance of the company. In return the organization should device ways of motivating their employees so as to retain them for a longer period as this improves on service delivery as well. Therefore, it is the best interests of Gemcom Software International Inc’s. managent to implement the proposed changes and the suggested solutions to their issues. References Ahmad, R., Baker, J., Birkedal, K., Charlier, R., De Guzman, S., & Prescott V. (2003). Minimising the impact of mining operations. http://www.csiwisepractices.org (Accessed 02-02-06). Chiaro, P.S., & Joklik, G.F. (1998). The extractive industries. In D.J. Richards & G. Pearson (Eds.). The Ecology of Industry: Sectors and Linkages, Washington, D.C. National Academy of Engineering, 13–26 Matthews, .(2007) . Mining. Calgary: Weighl Educational Publishers. Omalu, M.K., & Zamora, A. (1999). “Key issues in mining policy; A brief comparative survey on the reform of mining law. Journal of Energy and Natural Resource law 17, 38 Thomson, I. & Joyce, S.A. (1997). Mineral exploration and challenge of community relations. In G. McMahon (Ed.). Mining and the community workshop, Quito Ecuador, World Bank Washington D C. Warhurst, A. (1999), “Environmental Regulation, Innovation, and Sustainable Development,” In A. Warhurst (ed.) Mining and the Environment: Case Studies from the Americas Ottawa, Canada. Read More