Development of the Agenda
What Is the Role of Play in Any Business Organizations?
Meetings have a key role to play in any business organizations. Conduction of a formal communication in order to discuss any issue is termed as a meeting. The authorities of any organization or the manager of a team usually calls a meeting. A management or operational issue that has been prevalent in the organization is raised in a meeting and after completion of the meeting, the required actions needed are taken. This determines the success of a meeting. In order to make a meeting successful, planning and development of the agenda of the meeting has an essential role to play. However, before a meeting is conducted, it is essential to have a detailed planning of the meeting. The preparation of the meeting is done by the following stages:
In this stage, the topics that will be discussed in the meeting are highlighted and noted. The meeting agenda includes the meeting objectives, the meeting minutes, the financial reports of a company, the changes in the business plan that are being thought of (Ullman and Schroeder 2015). Moreover, the agenda of a meeting also contains the topics that will be covered in the meeting, the time that will be dedicated to each topic as well as the goals that are to be achieved after the meeting. Finally, the agenda also allocates some time for the other pertinent topics. Thus, the development of the agenda is essential such that the meeting has a timeline and a schedule to follow. If the agenda is not well-structured, the basic purpose of the meeting will not be met (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014).
The identification of the participants of the meeting has a key role to play. The participants who are chosen to be a part of the meeting have to be chosen strategically. The participant’s whose contributions play a significant role in the meeting has to be chosen only (Wolf 2015). Moreover, the topic of the meeting is also a determinant factor of who should be chosen as participants for the meeting. The topic of discussion decides the participants. Moreover, the people whose suggestions and advices have significance in making the business decisions are to be chosen as the participants. People, unaware of the topic of discussion or with limited knowledge of the topic should not be invited for the participation in the meeting (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). The participants who do not have much contribution are not invited in the meeting. Thus, only the people whose decisions and suggestions matter, in the particular topic are invited to the meeting.
Identification of the Appropriate Participants
After the planning of the agenda is done, and after the participants are selected, the next essential thing is choosing the venue and the time of the meeting. The venue of the meeting has an important role to play (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). The venue of the meeting is chosen in such as manner that the process of the meeting is facilitated. The venue needs to be a calm and quiet place such that the process of the meeting is not disturbed. Moreover, the venue needs to be big enough, such that the participants could be accommodated easily. The venue of the meeting should be chosen according to the number of participants. If the venue is too big, then the participants might be distracted or start conversation among them. The basic amenities needed for a meeting such as a projector or computers, mikes and speakers, basic stationeries has to be arranged before the meeting is hosted (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). The time of the meeting needs to be fixed in such a way that is comfortable for all and within the official working hours. Selecting the meeting time at odd hours might result in lack of active participation of the members of the meeting.
Once the time and the venue of the meeting is fixed, it is to be effectively communicated to the members. This communication is done in a formal manner such that a formal mail is dropped to every participant regarding the time, date and venue of the meeting.
While the meeting date and time are fixed, it is essential to prepare for the meeting. In order to take the necessary preparations, the essential papers are documents are to be made ready. These papers and documents include the agenda, the presentation that will be presented in the meeting, the financial reports as well as the other essential documents (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). Preparation of these papers plays an essential role since without these papers the meeting might become meaningless (Kolin 2013). Moreover, along with the preparation of the papers, it is essential that the agenda is prepared and shared with the participants. This is essential such that the participants are well aware of the topics that are needed to be covered, along with preparing themselves for the meeting.
Thus, before a meeting is conducted, it is essential that a good preparation of the meeting be taken. A meeting being conducted without any preparation is useless and will result in lack of achievement of the goals of the meeting.
Arrangement of the Time and Dates and Informing the Participants
The meeting papers after being prepared needs to be despatched on time, to all the participants of the meeting. This is because the participants need to go through the papers and prepare themselves for the meeting (Story et al. 2014). Moreover, they need to go through the papers such that they are able to understand the need for the meeting and are able to contribute to the achievement of the goals of the meetings. If the meeting papers are not despatched on time, then the participants are not able to prepare themselves adequately (Tropman 2013). The meeting papers have to be despatched in time. This is because, if there is delay in despatch, then the participants might not get adequate time to prepare themselves for the meeting. An in depth study of the participants and an analysis is essential before the meeting is conducted. Hence, timely despatch of the meeting papers are essential.
The conduction of the meeting is a critical task as the organizational goals are to be fulfilled after conduction of the meeting (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). While the meeting is conducted, it is essential that the participants remain focused and do not discuss anything else in the meeting, expect the set goals and the objectives to be achieved. The chairperson of the has a key role to play in making the meeting a success (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). The chairperson is responsible for initiating and monitoring the overall process of the meeting. The responsibilities of the chairperson also include taking a lead role in the meeting and ensuring that the participants abide to the goals of the meetings. While the meeting is in progress, if the participants tend to lose focus at any point of time, then the chairperson needs to ensure that the participants are aligned to the main discussion of the meeting.
The meeting first starts with the discussion of the topics that will be discussed in the meeting. Once the meeting starts, the real present scenario is first discussed. The issue that is faced in the current scenario is discussed, along with what the meeting wants to achieve (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). Moreover, the suggestions from all the participants are taken one at a time, and an in dept discussion is done. Finally, when all the agenda are discussed, the chair-person summaries all the essential take away of the meeting. Finally, the meeting ends and the participants ensure to work towards the achievement of the goals that are to be achieved at the end of the meeting. All the doubts regarding the topics discussed in the meeting and clarified such that the necessary actions could be taken immediately.
Preparation of the Meeting Papers
After the meeting is conducted successfully, it is essential to follow up the meeting. Creating a follow-up of the meeting assists the participants to remember the deliverables of the meeting and the goal that needs to be achieved after conduction of the meeting. A follow up mail of a meeting could be effective for the participants, reminding them the goals they are suppose to achieve (Oittinen and Piirainen-Marsh, 2015). The follow-up mail could include all the tasks that are completed in the last meeting and the tasks that are to be completed before the next meeting is scheduled (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). This follow up has a key role to play to ensure the success of the business organization. Follow up of meetings have a key role to play in ensuring the success of a meeting. If follow ups of the meeting are not done, then an effective discussion might not turn into a fruitful solution.
Business meetings are often very lengthy and after all the discussion, it might not be possible for the participants to remember everything that has been discussed (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). Hence, a meeting minute has to be recorded such that a summary of the meeting could be kept with each of the participants, which they can refer to when in need. The meeting minute of a recently attended meeting is as follows:
The current meeting information are as follows:
- The customer retention issue that has been recently seen in the business organization has been highlighted. This is a major issue for the organization, as the company has been losing customers in a significant number.
- The financial report that is evident of the rapid decrease in the customer retention of the brand is critically analysed.
- The factors that are identified includes the lack of prompt customer care services, casual approach of the employees, misbehaviour of the employees, unfriendliness as well as the lack of fulfilment of the organizational goals (Cahill et al. 2016).
- Actions that need to be taken includes the empowerment of the employees, identification of the issues that are being faced by the employees, that they are lacking motivation.
- Conduction of the meeting with the employees who are unable to perform according to what is expected of them (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014).
- Recent cases of customer dissatisfaction of the employees are discussed and the actual problem is to be identified. The complaints of the customers are highlighted and discussed in the meeting, such that the employees can understand the exact area of the problem.
- Identification of the issues are done and the potential causes of the problem are also highlighted.
- Suggestions are given by the participants to reduce the intensity of the problem that has occurred.
- The solutions and suggestions are sought from all the participants such that a variety of solutions could come up.
- The solution includes giving attractive discounts and offers to the customers who have lodged the complains. This personalised service might prove to be effective. Moreover, the best of the employees are assigned to deal with the arising issues regarding customer retention.
- The final version of the meeting minute is passed around to all the participants and each of them are asked to sign, as a sign of agreement. Thus, the minutes of the meeting are essential as it contains the brief of all the discussions that have taken place in the meetings.
The minutes of the prior meeting are also essential to ensure that all the goals of the previous meetings have been fulfilled. The minutes of the prior meeting are as follows:
- A prior meeting was conducted on the same issue. The prior meeting focused on highlighting the issue why the customers could not be retained, unlike the previous times.
- Most of the employees were of the opinion that due to the rise of a competitor, the company has been losing customers very rapidly.
- The strengths and weaknesses of the competitor company were identified. Various strategies were taken up such that the weakness of the competitor company could be changed into the strength of this organization (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014).
- The meeting was concluded on a note that the actual issues will be identified and a next meeting was scheduled at an interval of a month.
In this section, the main agenda of the meeting will be discussed. The main reason why the meeting was held is discussed in details in this section. The participants who spoke in the meeting were the senior operational manager as well as the assistant operational managers. The topics of the agenda were as follows:
The main cause of the conduction of the meeting is to focus on the issues that are decreasing the customer retention of the organization and device strategies in order to mitigate these issues (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). Another reason for conduction of the meeting is to ensure that customer retention could be achieved. The exact issues are discussed along with what measures needs to be taken by the employees such that the complains of the customers could be reduced and customer retention could be achieved.
Ensuring that the Meeting Papers are Despatched in Time
As all the participants came into the meeting room and settled down in their allocated seats, the meeting started. The chairperson of the meeting announced the topics that are to be discussed along with the agenda that is already present with all the participants. First, the chairperson announced the topics that were to be discussed (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). One of the managers started the meeting. He said that in the recent times, the number of repeat customers has been decreasing significantly in number and as a result, the loyalty programs are not being utilised effectively since the number of loyal customers have been decreasing significantly. The managers highlighted that the customer service employees have been neglecting their work and have been displaying a casual approach towards the employees. This resulted in the customers being dissatisfied with the employees. However, the dissatisfaction of the customers was not captured of late, until the issue took a massive form, affecting the sales of the company significantly. Moreover, the employees themselves were manipulating the feedbacks collected from the customers (Bagire et al. 2015). As a result, the managers were unaware of the rise in the issue with the behaviour of the employees towards the customers (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). Finally, when the sale of the organization decreased significantly, the managers realised that something went wrong with the customer service department. An in-depth analysis of the issue highlighted that the customer dissatisfaction have been an issue for a long (Jain et al. 2013). However, the customer service employee have been hiding and manipulating the issues for a long.
Once the real issue was identified, it was decided in the meeting that each of the customers who had lodged complaints against the company will be contacted by the managers and the details of each of the complains will be collected. This is an effective action that was supposed to be taken by the managers and the report of this action would be presented in the next meeting. The period decided by the managers was 2 weeks (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). In two weeks time, the action taken needed to be completed and a meeting was supposed to be held in two weeks.
Without an effective meeting minute, the effectiveness of a meeting could not be realised. The participants would think that the meeting was simply a waste of time, and the organizational goals would not have been achieved without a meeting minute (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014).
Conducting Meetings
The action items include the actions that are to be taken by the specific people. Once the issues have been identified and the strategies are devised, the actions that has to be taken by the specific people are defined. Some of the managers were asked to communicate with the customers who had launched complaints against the customer service employees. Each of the customers were supposed to be contacted by email or calls and what exactly has taken place were asked. In order to gain back these customers, special loyalty schemes and offers are given to them (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). Attractive gifts will also be given, to these customers such that they could be won back. Each person is assigned with one action within the stipulated time, such that one person is accountable for the completion of a particular task. The actions have to be taken within the time period such that the next course of action could be decided upon in the next meeting.
In order to follow up with the course of action, a next meeting is scheduled exactly after a week. The time and venue, along with the participants will remain the same. Moreover, in the next meeting, the effects of the course of action that has been taken will be analysed (Martínez-Fernández and Marques 2014). If the customers are seen to be successfully brought back, then the same actions will be continued. However, if the customers are not brought back successfully, then some of the current strategies will be changed.
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Problems |
Solutions |
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The first order was delayed by 24 hours. |
Since the first order was delayed by 24 hours, the client was upset as well as angry. However, in order to ensure that the client is retained, I sincerely apologized for the delay in the delivery of the order by 24 hours. Moreover, since our company transport refrigerated goods, hence a delay of 24 hours resulted in the meat being delivered rotten. I ensured that such mistakes would not be repeated again. Moreover, in order to compensate the delay and retain the customers, compensation is given to the client. As compensation, the client will be 50% discount on the next order. In this way, the previous mistake could be compensated. Moreover, I will ensure that fresh meat is supplied to the particular client such that this customer will also be happy like the other customers. Moreover, the cause of this delay by 24 hours is enquired about. If the delay is due to the transportation issues, then it is to be ensured that a backup transport is also available. However, if the delay is caused by error in the GPS tracking, then the drivers are to be ensured to use the correct GPS tracking. |
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The second shipment was incorrect. |
The client, whose first order was delayed by 24 hours, trusted the company once again and ordered for the second time. However, the second shipment was delivered incorrect. In order to compensate the incorrect shipment being delivered, the customer is not charged for the order that was delivered incorrect. Moreover, the client was given free delivery for the next two orders. In this way, the client was tried to be retained. However, in order to ensure that such mistakes are not repeated, the supply chain management employees are made to recheck the order ids and the products before they are packed and delivered to the shipment area. Moreover, the issue of delivery of the wrong order is compensated if the shipments are checked in various layers as it is being transferred to the delivery unit. |
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The third order had the incorrect invoice report (you charged them too much money) |
In this case, the client has been given the incorrect invoice, with extra cost charged to the customer. I sincerely apologized for the repeated mistake that my company has been making. I tried to ensure the client that our company is not an irresponsible one, as the client has been thinking. However, somehow of the other, there has been certain misunderstandings and that was unintentional. Moreover, I ensured that the extra charge was deducted from the client and was given heavy discount as compensation. |
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Problems |
Solutions |
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The first order was delayed by 24 hours. |
Your company delayed my first order for 24 hours. As a result, the meat that was to be delivered got rotten when I received y parcel after a delay of 24 hours. This is unacceptable from such a reputed company. You have been one of the pioneers in this field of delivering refrigerated goods. I have heard a lot about the goodwill of your company. However, my first experience with you is not at all a happy one. I feel this is the last order with your company, and I will look for better alternatives. My expectation from this company was very high. However, I am much let down by this excessive delay, that made the meat being delivered rotten. I demand that the same order be delivered to me at the free of cost without any further delay. I need assurance from your company that such issues will not arise ever again. |
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The second shipment was incorrect. |
I am extremely disappointed by your performance. This is the second time that I am being harassed by your company. My first order was delivered with a delay of 24 hours and this is the second time that the shipment is delivered incorrect. On assurance by the members of your company, I had placed my second order. However, I am disappointed yet again. You have delivered me the wrong shipment and as result, it incurred huge loss to me. Please ensure that I get my correct order in the earliest hour, and that too without paying additional charges. Please ensure that the order is delivered fresh, along with the correct shipment being delivered. I really do not understand how a big company like yours makes such mistakes repeatedly. This is more frustrating, since this is not the first time. |
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The third order had the incorrect invoice report (you charged them too much money) |
This is the third time that you have disappointed me so much. I have been tired of the disappointment that I am receiving from you. You have charged me more for what I have booked. The incorrect invoice has been sent to me with additional charges. Every time I rely on you, and each time you let me down. Please compensate all the mistakes that you have made and give me free delivery of the product that I have ordered for. |
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A |
Hello. Let me introduce myself, I am ……………. from ……………. Nice to meet you. |
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B |
I don’t think we have met before. I am…………… from ……………. Nice to meet you too. |
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A |
How was your journey? Did you arrive here ok? |
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B |
Yes it was fine, there was very little traffic |
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A |
Please follow me, we can sit in my office and discuss the current problems that you have been experiencing. I cannot apologise enough for the problems, but I promise that everything will be resolved by the end of this meeting. So please tell me exactly what problems you have been experiencing. |
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B |
I am very disappointed with the kind of services that I have been receiving from your company. |
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A |
I completely understand the repeated issues that you have been facing with our company. I would like to hear from you in details and by the end of this session, I ensure that your problems will be completely mitigated. |
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B |
Look, I have heard of the goodwill of your company a lot. Being influenced by the good services that your company provides, I had ordered for meat to be delivered. However, in case of the first order, the meat god delivered 24 hours later. The purpose of the meat was no more valid, when it was delivered. Moreover, since I received my shipment 24 hours later, hence the meat was no longer fresh. Hence, it could not be used. On assurance from one of your staffs, I too the risk of ordering for the second time. However, there was no significant improvement in your services. A wrong parcel was delivered to me, which was of no use. With such inconsistence in the services provided by you, |
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A |
I can understand the issue that you have been facing. I have spoken to our operations team regarding the issues that you have been facing. The delay of 24 hours was due to the delay of the supply chain management. However, whatever be the reason, we are extremely sorry for the inconvenience that have been caused because of us. |
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B |
This is not the end of it. The last time your company ended up sending me a wrong invoice with additional charges. |
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A |
Yes, I understand your problem and we have looked into the matter, investigating what might have gone wrong. We have reviewed our logistics and shipment department and made the necessary changes that are needed to serve you better. |
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B |
You have been telling this same thing me since long. But as of now, I have not seen any reflection in your services being given. Your verbal assurances do not match with that of your service. |
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A |
Please be ensured that such incidents will never be repeated. Moreover, we have special loyalty programs for you. We will give you discount on the next 3 orders you place with us. We shall ensure that your orders are successfully delivered to you, within the stipulated time. Be assured that we shall give you no scope of complains. |
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B |
I really hope that I will not have to come down to you ever again with such loads of complaints. |
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A |
Be assured that this is the last scope of complain that we gave you. Take care, have a safe journey back home. |
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B |
Thank you, it was nice to talk to you. I really look forward to place many more orders with your company. |
Thus, the importance of meetings have been realised in this assignment. The preparations of the meetings are essential since lack of preparation will reduce the significance of the meetings being conducted. Once the preparation phase is over, it is important that the appropriate participants are chosen for the meeting. Lack of appropriate selection will result in the meeting being ineffective. The agenda of the meeting is to be made effectively defining the topics that are to be discussed in the meeting. The agenda acts as a guideline to the meeting. Finally the venue and time of the meeting is distributed among the participants and the agenda is also shared with them. The agenda is shared before hand, such that they are able to prepare themselves for the discussion. The critical issues are discussed in the meeting, and the actions needed are taken such that the issue highlighted could be mitigated. Thus, effective meeting and communications help in mitigation of the business issues.
References
Bagire, V., Byarugaba, J. and Kyogabiirwe, J., 2015. Organizational meetings: management and benefits. Journal of Management Development, 34(8), pp.960-972.
Cahill, P.J., Lobb, E.A., Sanderson, C. and Phillips, J.L., 2016. What is the evidence for conducting palliative care family meetings? A systematic review. Palliative medicine
Jain, S., Babar, M.A. and Fernandez, J., 2013. Conducting empirical studies in industry: Balancing rigor and relevance. In Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Conducting Empirical Studies in Industry (pp. 9-14). IEEE Press.
Kolin, P.C., 2013. Successful writing at work. Cengage Learning.
Martínez-Fernández, S. and Marques, H.M., 2014. Practical experiences in designing and conducting empirical studies in industry-academia collaboration. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Conducting Empirical Studies in Industry (pp. 15-20). ACM.
Oittinen, T. and Piirainen-Marsh, A., 2015. Openings in technology-mediated business meetings. Journal of Pragmatics, 85, pp.47-66.
Story, J.S., Barbuto Jr, J.E., Luthans, F. and Bovaird, J.A., 2014. Meeting the challenges of effective international HRM: Analysis of the antecedents of global mindset.
Tropman, J.E., 2013. Effective meetings: Improving group decision making (Vol. 17). Sage Publications.
Ullman, G. and Schroeder, J., 2015. Guidance for Conducting Effective Work Zone Process Reviews (No. FHWA-HOP-15-013).
Wohlin, C., 2013. Empirical software engineering research with industry: Top 10 challenges. In Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Conducting Empirical Studies in Industry (pp. 43-46). IEEE Press.
Wolf, D., 2015. Conducting Effective PR in China. In Public Relations in China (pp. 174-192). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
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