Scenario 1: Declining Customer Share
A well-known Australian tyre retailer, with a 25 per cent market share in the Australian market found their market share declining steadily year by year. Despite selling trusted, well-known brands like Dunlop and Good Year they are steadily losing their customers. When a new CEO joined the company, she decided to do a walk through and visit to 20 of their key retail stores, visiting both stores located in regional areas and in cities. She made a few key observations, firstly the stores had very high counters, where store managers hid behind and only some customers, like tall men, could comfortably stand there and talk to the staff in the stores, yet half of their cash customers were women. The stores required customers to stand and the magazines on the counter were trucking and car magazines. Most women who entered the stores were quite uncomfortable and often tried to leave as soon as they could. The new CEO got the impression from her store visits that the retail environment was unwelcoming for their customers, however as there were more than 700 stores, she decided more research was needed.
The specific problem that the company wishes to address is the factors contributing to the steady loss of their customers.
Upon knowing this, the company will be able to put in place various measures to ensure that customers do not run to their competition.
Management decisions such as providing training to their staff on customer service will be made.
The question the company should focus on is how to retain their customers, and in the process, acquire new ones. To answer this question, the company requires information on their customer reviews about their service and about the environment in their stores. (Fornell, 2012)found that “The significance of customer satisfaction and its place within the overall strategy of a firm cannot be underestimated.”
Mr. Yusof Hoe has recently joined an established Singaporean management consulting company and realised that this company needed to implement a number of innovation initiatives to keep up with their competitors and the fast-changing trends in management consulting. He knows that developing a supportive, innovation climate is critical to the productivity, profitability and reputation of their company. Before developing and implementing an organisational development initiative to stimulate new ideas and develop client-focused innovation, he needs to determine staff’s perception to the current innovation climate and decides that the most cost-effective, evidence-based way to do this would be to conduct in-house research.
Scenario 2: Maintaining Supply Chain Agility
A German chemical and consumer goods company, organized around three business units: adhesive technologies, beauty care, and laundry and home care, is very aware that supply chain management is critical to their business performance. The CSCO of the Laundry and Home Care division regularly tells his staff: ‘Supply chain impacts the business in two ways. First of all, we need to ensure agility. As an FMCG player demand can change by a factor of two or three over a few days. Secondly, as a branded goods manufacturer, up to 40% of sales are generated from products launched over the last three years. Our ability to launch new products fast and reliably is key to our business strategy.’
While a number of supply chain initiatives have supported the company’s business transformation, it is critical that they maintain supply chain agility, as competition is intense and markets are volatile, while cost pressures remain constant. To ensure that the Laundry and Home Care division maintain and improve their performance, you have been asked to help with an assessment of the current situation, before additional initiatives are implemented to ensure the supply chain performs well.
In your own words, please advise this company on:
Fast Moving Consumer Good (FMCG) Supply Chain
Problem and management decision (what is the specific problem or issue to be investigated? What is the company seeking to find out? What do they not know, what management decisions will be made?)
The specific issue is how the business transformation will affect the supply chain. Will the change be positive or negative?
The company will need to make decisions on whether to go ahead with the transformation or not, putting into consideration the market changes and forces affecting the market.
Research question (What is the specific research question they should focus on? What information is required to answer the management problem?).
Will the new initiatives maintain and improve the supply chain in the Laundry and Homecare division?
The information needed may include past records on the supply chain, future projections of the supply chain from a credible analyst, all market forces present that may affect the chain. (Bowersox & Closs, 2013) found that “In today’s competitive marketplace, companies need to find new ways to create and deliver value and cost reduction and improved service can go hand in hand.”
3.3 (Information/Research) Objectives (Given the research question, what are the smaller sub-questions or information objectives related to this research question that should be answered? As a guide, minimum of three and no more than six).
Scenario 3: Attracting Travelers to a Health Festival
Have other companies done the same thing?
How will this initiative affect the other divisions?
How soon should the initiative be set up?
3.4 What is the subject area of business management that is relevant to this problem? (ie what is your parent discipline e.g. marketing, HRM, strategy etc) and what are the keywords to use when conducting a literature search of research that has been done about this issue? (about 10 words)
Subject area: Supply Chain Management
Keywords: cost reduction, demand planning, inventory, audit, quality control, logistics, procurement, profit and loss.
Health Festival
As an experienced event organiser, your local tourism organisation, have asked you to help them develop a plan and strategy to host a local health festival, attracting local, regional and international tourists to your region. The tourism organisation views your region as a great place to hold such a festival, since the natural beauty of the area, large number of outdoor activities and world class health practitioners in the area, represent part of the regions’ strengths. However, as you speak to them and participate in meetings, you realise that they may not be aware of traveller motivation for choosing particular destinations and choosing to attend festivals. From your previous experience you know that this is critical for developing effective tourism marketing strategies and these need to be aligned to visitors’ specific needs and wants. As there are multiple factors involved in festival visitor motivation such as themes of festivals and socio-demographic characteristics, research is needed focused on visitor motivation and situation-specific factors.
In your own words, please advise your local tourism organisation on:
Problem and management decision (what is the specific problem or issue to be investigated? What is the company seeking to find out? What do they not know, what management decisions will be made?)
What are the factors that affect traveller motivation?
You seek to find out what influences tourists to visit a certain place.
Management decisions on this issue may include advertisements on the media to promote certain destinations and events, putting in place effective strategies aligned to the needs of travellers.
Research question (What is the specific research question they should focus on? What information is required to answer the management problem?).
What can we do to make sure that travellers are attracted to this event?
Information needed includes famous sights in the region, availability of safe and clean accommodation, travel ease and costs, best themes that travellers are attracted to, safety in the specific region and availability of basic social needs and amenities in the said region.
(Morgan, Pritchard, & Pride, 2007) found that “In today’s competitive market, many popular destinations are adopting branding strategies in an effort to emphasize on the uniqueness of their product.”
(Information/Research) Objectives (Given the research question, what are the smaller sub-questions or information objectives related to this research question that should be answered? As a guide, minimum of three and no more than six).
What is the most successful theme ever applied for events in the region?
What is the average cost of travelling to the area?
How best can we market this event?
Which companies are sponsoring or affiliated with the event?
What will be the major tourist attraction in the area?
Is there good accommodation available at that time?
What is the subject area of business management that is relevant to this problem? (ie what is your parent discipline e.g. marketing, HRM, strategy etc) and what are the keywords to use when conducting a literature search of research that has been done about this issue? (about 10 words)
Subject area: Marketing and Advertising
Keywords: demand, advertising, commissions, media attribution, video billboard, sales, brand, affiliate 5
An aged care facility has called in your help. They are finding that many of their employees who work with elderly patients and residents like nurses and age care workers are frequently off sick. The medical certificates they are receiving often state burnout, fatigue, or work-related stress as a reason for these absences. The CEO of the aged-care facility has recently attended a conference on employee well-being in the health service sector and found the keynote speaker’s speech very insightful. By attending the conference, she now realises that the working conditions within the aged-care facility is emotionally and physically draining and have limited programs in place to address the issue. In addition, there is pressure on employees to view residents, more like customers, than patients, staff are often expected to learn new IT (information technology) systems or have to learn how to handle new technical equipment. She realises that all these pressures have an impact on the burnout staff are experiencing. She wants to find out more about this in her own organisation, the health sector and how to address this and have called you in to do a three-month research project but is somewhat lost of where to start.
In your own words, please advise the CEO of the health-care facility on:
Problem and management decision (what is the specific problem or issue to be investigated? What is the company seeking to find out? What do they not know, what management decisions will be made?)
The specific problem here is how to reduce the pressure on employees and staff so as to avoid cases of fatigue and stress related illnesses.
The company seeks to find out ways of reducing this stress, pressure and illnesses
Research question (What is the specific research question they should focus on? What information is required to answer the management problem?).
How can we reduce all the pressure that is causing the frequent burnout on the staff?
The information required includes staff work schedule inclusive of their work hours and work load, patient register with all their needs, staff wages, the facility human resources rules and regulations. (Fallon & McConnell, 2013) “Understanding applicable principles in addressing staff training and development needs is crucial to the growth of the healthcare sector.”
5.3 (Information/Research) Objectives (Given the research question, what are the smaller sub-questions or information objectives related to this research question that should be answered? As a guide, minimum of three and no more than six).
How many hours do employees work per day?
How many patients is one employee assigned to at a go?
What is the medical history of the employees?
What are the expectations of the patients in the facility?
5.4 What is the subject area of business management that is relevant to this problem? (ie what is your parent discipline e.g. marketing, HRM, strategy etc) and what are the keywords to use when conducting a literature search of research that has been done about this issue? (about 10 words)
References
Bowersox, D. J., & Closs, D. J. (2013). Supply Chain Logistics Mangement. McGraw-Hill.
Fallon, L. F., & McConnell, C. (2013). Human Resource Management in Healt Care: Principles and Practice 2nd Edition. Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Fornell, C. (2012). Customer satisfaction in business:A case study of Moon Travel LTD, Finland. Customer satisfaction in business: a case study of Moon Travel Ltd, Finland, 1-53.
Morgan, N., Pritchard, A., & Pride, R. (2007). Destination Branding: Creating the Unique Destination Proposition.
Sinkovics, R. R., Penz, E., & Ghauri, P. N. (2008, December). Enhancing the Trustworthiness of Qualitative Research in International Business. Management International Review Volume 48, pp. 689-714. Supply Chain Logistics Management. (2013). McGraw-.
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