Channel and SalesForce Audit Concept - Research Paper Example

Leica Camera AG Channel-Sales Force Audit Table of Conten Section I: Channel and Sales Force Audit Concept 3 Section II: Introduction to Leica Camera AG 4 Section III: Leica Camera AG Channel and Sales Force Audit 4 Organizational Culture 5 100 years of success 5 Leica Services at a Glance 6 Organizational Structure, Employment and Physical Flow System 6 Competitors 8 Sales and Distribution 8 Purchasing and Quality Management at Leica 9 Human Recourse Management and Salary Policies at Leica Camera AG 10 Section IV: Conclusion, Alternatives and Recommendation 10 Section V: References 12 Allendale, J. (2013). The awards and distinctions earned by the company, “Awards and Honors : Leica Camera AG Voted German Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young”, DIReporter: Focused on the business of Images, Retrieved from: http://www.direporter.com/article/leica-camera-ag-voted-german-entrepreneur-year-ernst-young/1 12 Erik, P. (2014). Ad breakdown: Has Leica made the most boring advert ever?, BBC News Magazine Monitor, 13 Doi: 27221912 13 Babej, M. (2012). The brand recognition and high value of Leica, “How Leica Camera is Generating Momentum for a Passion Brand” Forbes, Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcbabej/2012/11/26/how-leica-camera-is-generating-momentum-for-a-passion-brand/ 13 Zhang, M. (2012). About Leica, “Leica: The Little Privately-Owned Engine That Could” PetaPixel, Retrieved from: http://petapixel.com/2012/10/04/leica-the-little-privately-owned-engine-that-could/ 13 Section VI: Appendices 15 Section I: Channel and Sales Force Audit Concept 3 Section II: Introduction to Leica Camera AG 4 Section III: Leica Camera AG Channel and Sales Force Audit 4 Organizational Culture 5 100 years of success 5 Leica Services at a Glance 6 Organizational Structure, Employment and Physical Flow System 6 Competitors 8 Sales and Distribution 8 Purchase and Quality Management at Leica 9 Human Recourse Management and Salary Policies at Leica Camera AG 10 Section IV: Conclusion, Alternatives and Recommendation 10 Section V: References 13 Section VI: Appendices 14 Section I: Channel and Sales Force Audit Concept Channel and Sales force audit is a measuring tool used for an evaluation of the operations of an organization or company. Such an audit is a comprehensive and thorough analysis of people, operations, processes, company’s structure, culture, management and workforce, customers, products, services, technologies, customers, sales channels, target markets and other various types of activities that can contribute to the company’s reputation and profitability. Additional to the internal factors, it is important to consider external factors while performing a channel and sales force audit for a company because external factors can easily put the effect on internal compatibility of an organization (Sales Xpert, 2013). On the basis of the results of channel and sales force audit, recommendations are made for the effectiveness of the company. The recommendations should be made with a clear implementation plan so that the company can implement certain changes in an effective and accurate manner. Implementation plans should be clear, precise, flexible and realistic because a company’s future success and effectiveness are based on such a plan (Panda,T. & Sahadev,S. 2012) Channel and sales force audit is essential for an organization that wants to identify incremental revenue opportunities for the future. It also helps a company to judge its capabilities against its competitors, market trends, product launches, expansion and growth decision and other relevant decision regarding a successful future. Section II: Introduction to Leica Camera AG Lieca Camera AG is a privately owned German optics company founded in 1849 and was headquartered in Wetzlar, Germany. Leica Camera AG is one of the three companies of the formerly known Ernst Leitz GmbH which is popularly known for Lieca Cameras. The company changed its name from Leitz to Lieca in 1986 because of the strong customer base of the brand Lieca. Later on, the company moved its headquarters to Solms, Germany, and in 1996 the company was became a publicly held company after separation from the Leica Group. The Leica group made two independent companies in 1998: Leica Microsystems and Leica Geosystems. Leica Camera made a merger with Swiss Sinar Photography AG and the final announcement was disclosed on 26th November 2013. However, both the companies agreed not to disclose further details about the merger. The merger of Leica Camera with Sinar Photography AG diversifies the product portfolio of these companies as Sinar Photography AG possessed large format cameras, shutter system and lenses. Today, the company has a vast variety of camera products including C-series (point and shoot), Mini-series, M-Film series (Rangefinder), Digital M-series (Rangefinder), R-series (35mm film SLR ad DSLR), S-series (medium format DSLR), T-series (Compact System Camera), Digilux-series (Digital cameras) and Digital Compact Camera series. The cameras of Leica Camera AG are popular among professional photographers and journalists due to its superior quality, strength and image quality. Leica Cameras are presenting a true picture of photography’s evolution, therefore; it has a very unique position in the industry. Section III: Leica Camera AG Channel and Sales Force Audit To get some authentic information about the Leica Camera AG, I approached a former vice president of Marketing and Corporate Retail at Leica Camera AG and a former chairman of the supervisory board. Both the members had spent some important years of their career with the company and now they hold leading position in the company’s expansion and marketing strategies. During an interview with the marketing and corporate retail executive of Leica Camera AG, I explored following very precious information about the company. To this report effectively, I also performed some secondary research which is also carefully stated in this report along with proper citation. Organizational Culture Leica Camera AG has a complete focus on a single, but diverse types of portfolio therefore; in this unit of the company they have developed a single cultural mindset. The focus of the company is on manufacturing superior quality cameras while building an iconic brand without thinking about anything else or anyone. The company has emphasis on long lasting values, therefore, they offer unique, innovative and outstanding performance products to the end consumers so that they could enjoy a long lasting and valuable companion from Leica for decades. Leica has a very encouraging culture and environment for talented people because continuous innovation is one of the secrets of their positive image in recent years. The company has a respectable, trustful and fair culture and personal freedom is the true essence of this culture (Leica Camera AG, 2014). 100 years of success In 2014, Leica Camera AG will celebrate its 100th year of photography because 35mm Leica photography was born in 1914. The very first camera of the Leica brand was designed by Oskar Barnack a century ago and had set a foundation for the talented workforce and engineers to build a strong brand in the coming years. The company has now top class engineers whose focus is to manufacture superior quality, innovative cameras, whereas the devoted service providers of the company are ensuring quality and satisfaction in delivering their services. Leica Services at a Glance Leica Camera AG has a worldwide service network to support its customers across the globe. Leica promises to preserve the value of Leica products, therefore, they have a network of factory trained experts to provide efficient, quick and reliable services to their customers. For each type of camera, Leica has its well trained experts who are offering their services to all types of users. To place a repair order customers are required to send the product to the company/dealer or store via mail, courier or parcel along with the complete details of the customers, including name, address, phone number, fax, e-mail address, warranty card and the details of the malfunction. For the convenience of the customers, Leica Camera AG offered a printable/downloadable “Repair and Service Form” on its official site and has also offered a downloadable “Repair and Service Pro Forma Invoice” for customers outside the European Community (Leica Company, 2014). Organizational Structure, Employment and Physical Flow System Leica Camera AG is a multinational company whose headquarter is located in Werzlar, Germany and a 2nd production unit is located in Portugal. The company has its branch offices in France, England, Japan, Singapore, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, South Korea and United States of America. Dr. Andreas Kaufmann is the majority shareholder and the chairman of the Advisory board of the company and he is the most responsible person of the company’s strategies and values. The board of directors of the Leica Camera AG is composed of well educated, highly skilled and experiences executive. Most of them have built a strong track record in their career with the German company. The CEO of the company is Alfred Schopf since August 2010. He is responsible for sales division, marketing and communication, product management, sports optics and customer care (BOD, 2013). Ronald Marcel Peters and Markus Limberger are CFO and COO at Leica Camera AG respectively. The company has its operating branches in more than 50 countries all around the world and has more than 1,200 employees. For a successful journey Leica Camera AG believes in partnership with some other well known companies including classic car companies, nature care and culture supporting organizations, etc. the purpose of making partnership with such companies, institutes and organizations is to foster new talent in photography and to pay prestige and homage to the classic ones. Leica Camera AG has an academy named Leica Akademie where they are offering their services to those who are the potential learners of photography. The emphasis of the academy is to bring a real and total Leica experience to the new talent. Under their academy they are offering experimental workshops for enthusiasts worldwide where they are offering different types of programs for learners throughout the year. Leica Akademie’s branches are present in different geographic regions such as in North America for American enthusiasts, in Moscow, Germany and Mayfair for European learners and in Singapore and Australia for Asian fans. Leica has a special pictorial culture, therefore they are doing the work of creative photographers accessible to the people of entire world through their galleries. Leica has a number of galleries in different regions of the world where they are paying homage to prominent Leica photographers as well as to emerging talent. The first Lecia gallery was opened in 1976 in Wetzlar and today it has its galleries in Frankfurt, Kyoto, New York, Los Angeles, Prague, Tokyo, Salzburg, Singapore, Warsaw, Vienna, Zingst and of course in Wetzlar. Leica Camera AG is a true supporter of potential photographers. Additional to its Akademie and photo galleries, Leica offers its LFI magazine eight times a year. The magazine features test studies of Leica products, ancillary equipment, digital and analogue photography, technical reports, exclusive reportages and interesting user tips. Leica Camera AG also launched its free downloadable LFI magazine app to access more customers worldwide. Competitors Leica Camera AG is a manufacturing brand therefore; it has a number of competitors just like other products and services offering companies. The key competitors of the German company are Sony, Canon Inc., the Olympus Corporation and Nikon Corporation. However, among these competitors, Sony is assumed as the nightmare for Leica for rapid growth, success and strong image in the market (Leica, Official website). Sales and Distribution Being an International company, Leica Camera AG has a very strong and well maintained distribution network for strong sales of its products and services. In 2006, the company announced to open its own stores in different countries to access their customers worldwide. Leica has its stores in almost all the big regions of the world, from USA to Russia, Germany to Japan and France to China. Leica Stores are well designed and very attractive where customers and photography enthusiast can explore the true essence of Leica with the help of their factory trained, cooperative and devoted experts. Leica has about 48 stores across the globe and it has plans to open some new stores in other parts of the world in the future (Anonymous 1, 2014). Due to the precision and best services of Leica experts at its outlets, in 2011, Leica announced record sales for the year that was EUR 248.9 million with an increase of 8.5%. The company maintained its record and now its annual sales are around $395.95 million with net income of $52.33 million (Hoovers, 2013). Purchasing and Quality Management at Leica Leica Camera AG is using a centralized approach for purchasing equipments and capital, whereas it’s operational units are employing a decentralized approach to get more output. The headquarter of Leica at Wetzlar is responsible for strategic purchasing which includes quality management, suppliers assessment, project and production start-ups, basic agreements, cost agreements, price agreements and volume contracts. Strategic purchasing is completed by the headquarter in close collaboration with the operational purchasing where they regulate different activities including material ordering and planning, management of all projects and its scheduling, assessment of serial production process, audits and supplier assessments. On the other hand, operational purchasing is decentralized in terms of contact and partnership under the serial production conditions. They are fully free in making decisions regarding material planning, acquisition in terms of volumes and deadlines (representative, 2014). Leica Camera AG believes in building strong and positive relationship with its suppliers to meet the increasing challenges of the industry. The company has clear criteria for choosing suppliers and the one who meets all the expectations are termed as A-rated supplier. Leica is covering 75% of its purchasing needs from A-rated suppliers. This is the way through which they are ensuring superior quality through effective management. Leica has a separate team of purchasing who are expert in judging the value, reliability and quality of purchasing material. For quality management, Leica has also a separate quality management team with experts who has been serving the company for years and are fully aware about the quality limits of the company (Quality Management, 2014). Human Recourse Management and Salary Policies at Leica Camera AG Leica Camera AG restructured its human resource management to strengthen centralized corporate communication. Holger Thrum is hired as a head of corporate communication and he will directly report the CEO of the company. Leica Company has a strong believe in building loyal relationships with its employees because these are the people who are working sincerely for the success of the company. For the welfare of its employees, Leica has several programs and training session for them. They are offering pretty attractive salary packages to its employees to keep them satisfied and to improve their moral and loyalty. Leica employees are highly satisfied with their employer and their policies, therefore, they have been working with the company for years and other people are also grabbing opportunities to work there (employee1, 2014). Section IV: Conclusion, Alternatives and Recommendation After a thorough analysis of the Leica Camera AG, it became obvious that the quality of products and services of this company is very excellent. Along with its profit and loss concerns, the company has an understanding of the importance of a uniform organizational culture, personalized work environment and ethics and the importance of superior quality and innovative products. The company has a diverse product portfolio and multiple operating branches in different parts of the world however; it has maintained a uniform system under its centralized approach and continues the assessment of its operations. The competition for Leica Camera AG is quiet intense because all of its competitors are trying to capture more market share through innovation and quality control. In such a scenario, it will become difficult for Leica Camera AG to continue its journey towards success with traditional policies and infrastructure. The company needs to focus on its growth strategy because it still has some opportunities available in the market. In case they avoided such opportunities, any of their competitors will exploit that opportunity and will get a competitive edge over them. Key opportunities that are available with Leica Camera AG include opening stores and photography galleries in emerging markets, partnership with Smartphone manufacturing companies and the company can develop tablets without GSM and should offer Facebook, twitter and other social media apps, email and web surfing features. By exploiting these opportunities the company can strengthen its position in the market and can also minimize the degree of risk from its competitors. Although all the three alternatives are pretty much strong and it has potential to strengthen the position of Leica Camera AG, however, a good and effective recommendation for the company is to exploit opportunities with a proper strategic plan. For instance, Leica Camera AG should make partnership with smartphone companies as well as they should develop some tablets like products for their customers to increase their Leica experience. Such a move will reduce the rapid growth and success of Sony as Sony has a more diverse product portfolio compared to Leica. Leica Camera AG should develop a separate research and development team for the market assessment. In this way Leica Camera AG can not only exploit potential opportunities but can also keep a close eye over the activities of its competitors and on market trends. Section V: References Sahadev, S. & Panda, T. (2012). The concepts of sales and distribution strategies, Sales and Distribution Management, Ed. 2nd, pp. 99-154. Kaufmann, A. (2010). The Shareholders analysis and company’s profit distribution Strategies, Wetzlar Network: Optics, Electronics and Machines, Retrieved from: http://www.wetzlar-network.de/Magazine/People/Andreas-Kaufmann-a139.html Admin, L. (2011). The effectiveness of the company’s Sales force, “Leica Camera AG with record sales for 2011, intends to pay dividends”, Leica News and Rumors, Retrieved from: http://leicarumors.com/2011/06/01/leica-camera-ag-with-record-sales-for-2011-intends-to-pay-dividend.aspx/ Allendale, J. (2013). The awards and distinctions earned by the company, “Awards and Honors : Leica Camera AG Voted German Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young”, DIReporter: Focused on the business of Images, Retrieved from: http://www.direporter.com/article/leica-camera-ag-voted-german-entrepreneur-year-ernst-young/1 Admin, L. (2012). Sales Report of the company in 2011/12, “Leica Camera AG reports 8.5% sales increase for Q3 of 2011/12”, Leica News and Rumors, Retrieved from: http://leicarumors.com/2012/02/10/leica-camera-ag-reports-8-5-sales-increase-for-q3-of-201112.aspx/ Erik, P. (2014). Ad breakdown: Has Leica made the most boring advert ever?, BBC News Magazine Monitor, Doi: 27221912 Babej, M. (2012). The brand recognition and high value of Leica, “How Leica Camera is Generating Momentum for a Passion Brand” Forbes, Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcbabej/2012/11/26/how-leica-camera-is-generating-momentum-for-a-passion-brand/ Admin, L. (2012). The Pricing of the product, “The Mystery of Leica Pricing Explained by J Shin” Leica News and Rumors, Retrieved from: http://leicarumors.com/2012/05/19/the-mystery-of-leica-pricing-explained-by-j-shin.aspx/ Timberlake, C. (2012). The Franchising strategy of Leica, Why Leica is opening so many stores”, BloombergBusinessWeek: Companies and Industries, Retrieved from: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-14/why-leica-is-opening-so-many-stores Zhang, M. (2012). About Leica, “Leica: The Little Privately-Owned Engine That Could” PetaPixel, Retrieved from: http://petapixel.com/2012/10/04/leica-the-little-privately-owned-engine-that-could/ Steve, E. (2013). About Lieca, Lieca’s Bold and Risky Strategy, Kafeneio, Retrieved from: http://scourmanop.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/leica%E2%80%99s-bold-and-risky-strategy/ Section VI: Appendices Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, majority shareholder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Leica Camera AG Source: http://www.wetzlar-network.de Leica Camera AG Headquarters in Wetzlar, Germany Source: http://en.leica-camera.com/ Leica Camera AG Stores Worldwide Source: http://en.leica-camera.com/ Leica Gallary New York Source: http://en.leica-camera.com/ Read More