Prospective strategy for Copyfix Inc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Prospective strategy for Copyfix Inc - Essay Example A lack of communication will also result in management becoming distant from the shop floor, and this is where all the work is carried out. The lack of communication has manifested itself in the management area and the production area. For instance: A look at the organisation chart revealed that the departments were fragmented and isolated from the shop floor. This resulted in the decision making excluding those who knew the processes. This isolation also resulted in inter-departmental conflicts, as each department was not aware of the other's roles and responsibilities, which had led to a series of problems. There are no clear lines of communication between managers with each of them reporting to one individual, and so there really is not much scope for discussion. This organisation is lacking in strategy as decisions are not thought out and rather spontaneous. For instance, a proposal was put forward that 50% of profits go towards shareholders. This figure does seem too high, and there is no mention of any discussion about this issue or where this proposal came from. The main emphasis seems to be on making the shareholders and not on improving products they manufacture. A long term strategy that is focussed is therefore required to help with managing the cash flow problem, as profits have to be diverted to the organisation in the first instance. The lack of a strategy has also resulted in massive quality problems at this organisation, and as a manufacturing organisation, the importance of quality cannot be emphasised (Hall 1987). The organisation is due to pay penalties for environmental standards, as their equipment and production line did not meet the required standards. Whilst this is tied in with strategy, as in value and quality are not built into the process, it is also a communication problem as it has not been addressed and remained undetected. Failure to build in quality will result in financial wastage (Slack et al 1997) which the new executive board are keen to avoid. The previous board also stated that they were old and had been with the organisation for a while and this may have clouded their judgement and affected the organisation. This is a call for new management styles and leadership, and the organisation really needs to look at major changes. The chair of the executive board was rotated on a regular basis and this resulted in an approach to the strategy that was inconsistent as the chair was never stayed in post long enough to see any changes or projects carried through to completion, which impacted on feedback, as the organisation has no way of finding out how well their systems are. The short-term costs also do not build loyalty, trust and are a disincentive to team working (Bartol and Martin 1998). Sales and Marketing This organisation is not maximising its marketing and sales, which is what gets their product sold. The graphs indicate that revenue is evening out, which means it is time to innovate, by either improving the product or introducing a new product (Slack et al 1998). However, this ties in with quality and it is evident that the lack of quality assurance