Sydney Apple Company - Service Improvement and Expansion - Example

Running heading: Service improvement and expansion plan: Sydney Apple Company Service improvement and expansion plan: Sydney Apple Company Name Course Tutor Date Outline Executive Summary Company Summary Products and Services Market Analysis Summary Market Segmentation Target Market Segment Strategy Market Trends Market Growth Market Needs Business Participants Strategy and Implementation Summary Management Summary Financial Plan Executive summary Outlined clearly in this plan is the strategic step that should be observed in order to enhance effectiveness and productivity of Sydney Apple Company. We as Sydney Company have high expectation of increasing our sales turnover and profit margins in particular, and this has created this big need to lay down strategic measures to bring this to realization. A higher profit margin is expected with regards to this plan and this can only be achieved through key support from senior management in implementing this plan alongside keeping to our business objectives. Our highly experienced staff in the field of sales and marketing have previously exhibited dynamism in their marketing and sales approaches and it is expected that this plan, will bring fourth widen the sales and marketing activities of our product through further creation of enthusiasm and will on the part of management to make more sales revenue through strategic steps as outlined. Sydney Apple company, being an export oriented conglomerate faces lot of challenges today that call for a speedy strategic plan that will ensure it stands up to the challenges owing to the ever changing environment. The company puts up this plan in the backdrop of increased preference of Competition from other countries such as Kenya, Israel and South Africa. These plans are therefore meant to check this trend and ensure that the company’s products still remains as the most preferred in terms of quality (Hamel & Breen, 2007). Objectives The objective of this plan is to facilitate increase in sales of the company’s products. This is through looking at the various past operations of the company towards this goal ad relating it to the current situation. As such the main objectives include: -Customizing of the company’s products to the customer needs-accessibility to products. -Ensuring the high quality of our company’s products. -Dealing with the challenge of the protection of the employee turnover at the company. Mission Being an electronic based company for some time now, the company recognizes the increased need to develop better ways of marketing our products in the overseas markets. This calls for better knowledge management. This comes in two ways on the side of our customers and more so, on the side of the company and its employees. The delivery of the products should also put in mind the interest of the customers in terms of punctuality and mode of delivery. As such our products marketing is the key to the growth of our sales. However such marketing can only be successful through the application of proper knowledge management (Mathis & Jackson, 2007). Our terms of service are to be specifically tailored towards the expectations of the customer. The monitoring of the products distribution in the market requires thorough work to deal with abrupt changes in the market so as to minimize any losses or inconveniences. As much as the demand for our products in the past has been on the decline, this trend can be checked by ensuring the proper marketing of our products in the overseas markets. Proper marketing can better be done through sharing of suggestions from the knowledge management plan that can enable proper marketing strategies to be developed. Keys to Success The success of Sydney Apple Company has been pegged on; -Ensure proper functioning of the information system -The marketing of our products. -The availability of our products in all parts of the world. Company summary Sydney Apples is an International company with that deals with production and export of Information technology hardware... The company happens to be the leading IT exporting company in Australia and the fifth largest exporter of ICTs in the World. The company has a responsibility of availing various types of electronics mainly phones and computer hardware. The Company also ensures the development of new technological equipments that characterize the revolutionized world. Products and services description Consulting Apple, in its plans will approach a consulting firm to try and find out how the expansion plan of its offices can be carried over the various parts of the world. The consulting firm will also be charged to do an analysis of the security of its products especially the Windows. This analysis will help the corporation to be able to take nec4essary steps to ensure the high security standards of its products especially windows is achieved. The phenomenon that is the occurrence of virus attacks will also be studied. Training Sydney Apple is keen to ensuring that the users of its products find it easy to use the products. As a way of boosting this need, the company will facilitate more training on the use of all of its products. The design of the training will be greatly boosted by a well established knowledge management plan. Interface The establishment of more offices and staff on the ground will help reduce the gap between our customers and the company. We as Apple hope that the implementation of this plan will help address more issues concerning the company’s products which would have been otherwise not raised. The plan is expected to foster unity among the staff of the company hence enabling it to work effectively towards the achievement of its goals (Dess, 2009). Competitive Comparison By dealing with the security aspect, the company will ensure that the development of antivirus is checked regularly. This is through fast development of the counter active measures that will involve faster anti virus development. Once this is done, Windows can be able to check the rising take up of the Linux programs. Technology As we are much well aware, Apple does not deal with the software of the computer. This is left in the hands of other companies such as Microsoft, Nokia, Motorola, Siemens and Sony Ericson. Our main competitors include: Dell, Compaq, ABM, Toshiba and Mitsumi. These companies have always been developing better and better hardware that have at the end of the day made the hardware cheaper and cheaper. As such, the increase in computerization is a sign of technological revolution the world is going through. The Apple has been operating with the pressure to provide cheap yet quality products due to competition from these companies. It is expected that the development and the implementation of the Knowledge Management Plan will come in handy in reducing the operating costs (Sadler & Craig, 2003). Market analysis summary With the ever increasing up take of the computer technology, the market has dictated for our expansion yet there is still the need to maintain the quality of our products. As such the company in this plan has put into consideration the need to face the challenge that is the security of our products and the accessibility of our customers to our services. Market Trends The computerization rate in the world over is always on a high increase at any one time. The need and the importance of communication have brought in a high demand for multipurpose phones. There is hope and high level of expectations for many years to come. As such the company has to make provisions on its products that are tailor made to suit the ever changing needs of the customers (Bilton, 2007). Market Growth The growth of the market has posed a great challenge even as a good size of our customers is opting to go for the Linux and let the windows aside. High rate of computerization is attributed to the reduced prices for the computer hardware. With the high rate of computerization and the take up of technology the company finds the need to seal these loopholes. The increase in the number of people with computers has led to complex challenges as concerns management of our software and the check of the authenticity of the company’s products. This is what has prompted our plan to widen our presence on the ground. Market Needs The needs of the market have been well factored into the plan. This comes in way of considering the ever changing technological advancement. While the company does not participate in the manufacture of the software, it is this software that allows the company to sell its products. The market at the moment is wide but with very specific needs. The need to have software free of virus has been the negative aspect that has worked against the company. While one will acquire their computers, the fact that the programs installed are prone to viral attacks, they still do not feel that secure (Pearce & Robinson, 2010). The need for accessible customer care services has been on the upward trend. This is what has prompted the company to formulated this plan so as to help boost our presence on the ground and deal with the outstanding issues that would have otherwise not be dealt with. The market has been working against the company through selling of counterfeit products. This has been a difficult issue to deal with considering that our presence on the ground has not been up to the task with the rate of computerization. Strategy and implementation summary Strategy Implementation As outlined above the company sees the need to incorporate Knowledge management plan as a tool for competitive advantage over our competitors. In implementing this plan, the following actions point out to the activities that will be carried out. The senior management is compelled to make an announcement that will be in form of a unilateral decision in support of the knowledge management. Clarity should be assured on this declaration on the staff’s responsibility of making this plan a success. Staff should for that matter be encouraged to share knowledge within the company. Considering the importance of Knowledge management, there will be need for proper coordinating office. As such a manager will have to be appointed that will specifically be charged with the duty of spearheading this plan. Regardless of the department that the manager will come from, qualification is that he should be conversant with our office operations hence should be able to point out the areas that have the need for generation of knowledge. The inevitability of forming a working group to foresee the knowledge management plan will see members from all the departments of Sydney Apple Company being included in the group. They will as such be charged with working out on: a) The sources of the data generation and the areas that the information is to be generated. This for example may include the cost of a tone of the apples in form of the dollars. It might also be for example the changes in the market price of the flowers in the world market per dollar. b) Dealing with the methodology in the information transformation to concrete knowledge that will be valuable to the company. A case in point could be for example the concrete analysis of the complaints submitted by the customers on the quality and the durability of the products. This can be analyzed comprehensively to find out the bearing of the complaints and reasons for the reduced period of perish ability. This will help in dealing with the problem once and for all. c) The proper export means, storage and the training of the staff in terms of the knowledge that is learnt. Each member of this group, who is a representative of a given department, has a responsibility to ensure that as the knowledge is generated, it is learnt by the members of her department. This group has to be meeting twice every month in laying up strategies for the generation of ideas and also to trey and find out the impact of the generated ideas in the welfare of the company and to the staff. In bid to ensure the application of multi-perspective approach, there is need for the cross-departmental teams to manage the projects. There should be no other means unless dictated otherwise. To ensure that everything is on course and going according to the expectations, brainstorming workshops shall be conducted. This should be done in a span of six months for every project. One can be done during the inception of the project (deals with tendering on packaging of the apples and transportation) and the other after the awarding of the contracts. According to this plan, there should be management functions which must be held regularly so as to facilitate the sharing of knowledge. This will also work well for the socialization of the audience in which new innovative ways of doing things will be done. These forums can be held thrice in a year. Diverse structural diversity is the key to the performance of an organization. As such an organization with less diverse structure will be at a disadvantage of performance compared to one with diverse structure. The Human Resource Department has therefore to incorporate structural diversity especially when is comes to hiring of staff. There is need for the yearly performance appraisal to be pegged on the staff’s innovative ideas and the learning experience they go through. This should be done to boost up the culture of Knowledge management and innovation. Record keeping is important for this project. As such a directory will have to be kept to protect the ownership of knowledge. The limit set for knowledge management should take about eight months for this system to work. Constant evaluation should be done to make the necessary changes. Estimation of the Budget The implementation if the Knowledge management scheme does not necessarily entail the hiring of new staff as this can be in sourced from the organization. This entails both the technical and managerial personnel that will be charged with the responsibility of implementing the personnel management. The administration assistant or the secretary is the only knowledge management staff that will have to be hired to facilitate the coordination of the plan. With the new technology it is not expected that the knowledge management will require new major equipments in terms of hardware (Levine, 2003). Estimated budget for the execution of this budget can be as follows: The budget for executing knowledge management is estimated as follows: Items Cost in (US$) 1. Administrative Assistant US$300,000 per year-salary and benefits inclusive. 2. Sundries and minor items for information technology system: US 60,000. In a summative form we can say that the initial and the recurring cost will sum up to $60,000 and $300,000 respectively. Performance indicators Knowledge management plan can be evaluated by basing on: 1. The defects so far received 2. Cost reduction and time saving in defect handling rectification. 3. The innovative design number applied in the projects on yearly basis. 4. Working partners feedback including import agents. 5. The number of accolades in the form of trade awards won. 6. Government or institutional rating that is laid down by the government in Canberra. 7. Response through questionnaire on the consumers (customers). The assessment of all performance indicators have to be done on regular basis suggestively thrice in a year. This should be done always before the work group meetings for follow up. Competitive Edge Sydney Apple Company being an international company has always been having a good reputation for provision of quality products. Even as one may argue of the challenges that the horticultural industry has been going through, the company has tried to put up mechanisms to ensure that its products can still compete favorably with the international competitors The philanthropically work provided by the company and its top managers both as a company and on personal basis has given the company a good name (publicity) that has worked well for it. Our success is pegged on building on these strengths (Hill & Jones, 2007). Marketing Strategy The company will establish the customer care centers only in large urban centers to facilitate accessibility. The new recruits in the centers will have to be taken through som4er form of in-service to ensure that they are well versed with how the company works and the nature of its products. The recruits should be dwellers or have a sizeable knowledge of the lifestyles of the local residents. This will boost the customer attendant approach (Brinckerhoff, 2009). To market its products, specifically Computers and mobile phones, the company has to develop a mechanism of detecting and developing of the viruses as soon as possible. At the same time the company has to keep on improving on its software applications. Knowledge Management Plan Effect -Sales Forecast The company foresees a sharp increase in the sales with the implementation of this plan. This can be attributed to the high prospect that lies ahead especially in the less developed countries that have their automation still on the lower side. With the changing trend in population control and the need for the up take of automation, we foresee a sharp rise on the needs for the products that are provided by our company in the markets. Automation will work well with the knowledge management plan as it will facilitate faster transfer of information from one place to another. The ever reducing cost of purchasing the hardware parts of a computer is an indicator of good things to come. The cheaper the cost of buying a computer, the more the number of customers the company gets. With knowledge management plan the company foresees an increased number of customers. This is expected to happen especially in Africa. With these expectations, we expect that even with the high cost of initiating and implementing this plan, the revenues achieved after the first six months will be able to foot down this expenses and at the same time achieve an increase in profits by about 10% by the year ending August 2011.This would be a good thing to the company as the company exists to make profit. (Cruikshank, 2006). With the expansion of our coverage and increase in staff, a projection of 32% increase in profits from the sales of our products is expected. This is due to the marketing of the products by the increased number of staff and good attendance to the outstanding issues that affect the customers that were earlier not attended to. Knowledge Management Plan Effect-Financial Forecast. The most important issue that has to do with our plans is the expansion of or coordinating centers Africa and Asia. This will call for the recruitment of more staff hence the driving mechanism for our operations. The running of this customer care and service centers is going to be expensive at the start but is expected to be business friendly in the long run (Linzmayer, 2004). One of the greatest challenges would be the searching for the premises tom put up these centers. This would require that in the meantime the premises are hired. The cost of searching for personnel to serve in these new centers is also a great cost to bear considering that the interviews will cost a lot of monies. The new recruits will also have to be in serviced so as to fit in and perform their duties to their expectations. The company will have to invest in mores research on the Windows security so as to take care of the viruses in the shortest time possible. Projected Cash Flow To implement this plan the company is projecting that it’s going to use up to the tune of US 50 Billion. Most of these funds will be used in the actual implementation of the plan. While this is quite a huge chunk of money, the company in return expects the outcome of the implementation of the plan to result in profit margin increase of US$ 15 Billion in the long run. This is in a span of 3 years. Conclusion For our company the knowledge management will be very important in ensuring that the company forges ahead with improvement of its products and services. The knowledge management is good for the company because it’s relatively cheap compared to the capital and the intangible assets the company put in it. References Bilton, C. (2007). Management and creativity: from creative industries to creative management. New York: Wiley-Blackwell Brinckerhoff, P. C. (2009). Mission-Based Management: Leading Your Not-for-Profit In the 21st Century. 3rd ed. Sydney: John Wiley and Sons Cruikshank, J. (2006). The Apple way. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional Dess, G. G. (2009). Strategic Management: Creating Competitive Advantages. Sydney: McGraw-Hill Hamel, G. & Breen, B. (2007). The future of management. London: Harvard Business Press Hill, C. W. & Jones, G. R. (2007). Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach. 8th ed. New York: Cengage Learning Levine, R. (2003). Persuation power sold. New York: John Wiley and Sons Linzmayer, O. W. (2004). Apple confidential 2.0: the definitive history of the world's most Colorful company. Sydney: No Starch Press Mathis, R. L. & Jackson, J. H. (2007). Human resource management. Sydney: Cengage Learning Pearce, J. & Robinson, R. (2010). Strategic Management. 12th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Sadler, P. & Craig, J. C. (2003). Strategic management. 2nd ed. Sydney: Kogan Page Publishe Read More