Business Finance – Management

    Learning Activity #1 – Theme 1 & 2 

    One of the long-term goals set out by the LLB owners (from wee k4) is to increase sales in the cowboy boot line by 15%.  The short term goal to accomplish this is to create a sales campaign that targets the tourist trade.  This campaign includes: Creation of an Internet website (this is part of a larger plan to instigate Internet sales in general), Create a Boot blog, Exposure to local hotels and tourist eateries through pamphlets, Discount plans for hotel guests, Boot delivery service to hotels, Free shipping for purchases.

    The current budget for the cowboy/tourist portion of the marketing project is $40,000. Mohammed Abul is the marketing director. He wants to hire an assistant to oversee the cowboy/tourist boot line.  The assistant will be in charge of the three current part-time sales associates, give purchasing direction to the purchasing department, run the boot blog, create new copy for the Internet website on a monthly basis, and execute all other duties related to the implementation of new boot tourist campaign.  Salaries for the assistant and the associates are not included in this portion of the budget.  Additional useful facts include: 

    Currently the structure of LLB has been adhoc in nature. The long-term decisions are made by the family, Joseph Abul (father, and his sons, Mohammed Abul (marketing) and Ali Abul (store manager).  Fatima Abul (mother) oversees staff and Adoul Abul (brother of Joseph) does the purchasing.  Yara Abul (daughter) handles the finances. There are two full-time sales associates and 8 part-time associates not including the new assistant and the cowboy boot associates.  Store hours are M, T, W, F, S 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Thurs 10:00 am to 8:30 pm

    Complete the following based on the information provided above:

    Create a plan that organizes the physical and monetary needs to accomplish the goal of 15% sales plan. This plan would entail defining the physical and monetary requirements that must be used by the assistant to implement the goal.

    Create an organizational structure for the business and the cowboy boot project.

    Explain why you chose the structure as opposed to others that you did not choose and what the decision making flow and job tasks are for each person.

    Illustrate the structure in an organizational chart. 

    CLASSMATE RESPONSES

    1. Guy Wharton 

    Long-term Goal: Increase sales in the cowboy boot line by 15%

    Current Budget for short-term goal of creating sales campaign: $40,000 over a 2-year period

    Sales Campaign:

    Internet Website Creation and Boot blog

    Target: Within 5 – 7 months,

    $7,500 – 10,000 towards developing the platforms and preparing to go live with each

    Pamphlets, Discount Plans, Boot Delivery Service, and Free Shipping

    Target: Within the following months, 5 – 6 months until end of year 1

    $10,000 towards purchasing paper/ink for pamphlets (including printing) and business travel expenses related to meetings with local hotels

    The assistant will arrange business meetings and pitch the benefits of outlined shoe discount plans

    Within the year, half of the original $40,000 budget will be exhausted ($20,000). Transitioning to the information, social media age and going live will be a priority by the end of the second quarter. Related discounts and distribution will be prepared for implementation at the end of the first twelve-month period.

    A cushion is vital to successfully achieving the 15% sales increase, therefore the remainder of the budget ($20,000) will be contributed towards Internet maintenance, further development of external relationships related to various hotels, and preparing for boot delivery services and tentative shipping.

    Joseph Abul is the line manager (managing director) of LLB, overseeing five specialized business functions in the direct chain of command, with direct authority. Staff authority consists of: marketing, purchasing, finance, personnel management, and store management.

    Mohammad Abul is Responsible for marketing LLB through print and social media. He hires an assistant to oversee the new sales campaign for cowboy/tourist boots. The assistant has line authority over three part-time sales associates and provides Adoul Abul in purchasing with direction, website maintenance, and execution of other duties.

    Adoul Abul is Responsible for the staff position of purchasing store inventory as well as paper and ink related to pamphlets.

    Yara Abul is Responsible for the staff authority position of finances, including quarterly earnings and payroll.

    Fatima Abul is Responsible for human resource management, developing new-hire personnel and staff/functional authority over current LLB store employees.

    Ali Abul  Has functinoal authority over LLB's storefront, reporting directly to M.D. Joseph Abul

    The staff/functional authority organizational structure defines two positions: line and staff. Line represents a managing director, responsible for the achievement of the company's goals. Staff positions report directly to the M.D. and specialize in a specific business function. Line managers are unable to command all aspects of the business; therefore, staff personnel are given expert functional authority (Chand, n.d.). LLB is a smaller company and requires a flatter organizational structure with fewer levels of management involved. With only five defined departments, consolidating the chain of command according to the staff/functional authority structure was appropriate. The experience of various groups accomplishes individual tasks and thus associated projects. LLB is best arranged by specific functions, furthering the firm's mission and reporting to the line manager (Suttle, n.d.).

    RESPONSE #2

    Amber Clark 

    Learning Activity #1

    The Planning

    Secretary

    Set up purchasing direction to purchasing department

    Manage daily activities of consultation and sales associates

    Set up deadlines for blogs and pamphlets

    Monitor monthly sales increase or decrease

    Set up monthly spending budgets for advertainments

    Give boot consultation $30,000 to set up pamphlet, and Internet sites

    Use 10,000 to contract vendors for delivery 

    Boot consultation

    Set up deadlines for blogs and pamphlets

    Monitor monthly sales increase or decrease

    Interact with sale associates

    Assist with interact followers

    Give each associate $10,000 budget to create and start internet sites and pamphlet

    Exposure to local hotels and tourists eateries through pamphlets

    Sale Associate #1

    Create Facebook page

    Display products and new features

    Interact with followers

    Offer free shipping for purchases

    Update with products and features

    Sale Associate #2

    Create blog

    Interact with bloggers

    Update products and features

    Daily monitoring of blog

    Interact with followers

    Sale Associate #3

    Create pamphlets

    Offer discounts plans for hotel guests

    Boot delivery service to hotels

    Responsibility:

    CEO:

    To lead and oversee company long and short-term goals

    Make sure company is properly staffed

    Makes sure company abide by local and federal laws

    Assess risks of company and minimize to best of ability

    Assistant:

    Give purchasing department direction in what to purchase

    Oversee daily activities of sale associates

    Report to marketing manager with statistic data

      Store Manager:

    Monthly inventory

    Hire employee

    Managing revenues

    Training of employees

    Abiding by state and federal laws

               Marketing Manager:

    Develop and implement internal and external market programs

    Create and develop ways to existing customers

    Found ways to increase revenues to support long and short-term goals of company

               Financial Officer:

    Handles finances of company

    Provide financial report and financial forecast

    I decide to use the organizational line structure because it is “simple to understand, it tends to simplify and clarify authority, responsibility, and accountability relationship, and it promotes fast decision making.” This structure offers check and balance because everyone is aware of their position and who they report to. Also, because this organization is small, it allows that managements and employees closeness.

    Learning Activity #2 – Theme 2

    Explain the type of culture that will enhance the organizational alignment of people in LLB; Explain what organizational culture is and how it relates to the structure of the organization; Explain why you chose the organizational culture as opposed to others that you did not.

    (DO NOT RESPOND TO THE LEARNING ACTIVITY, RESPOND TO THE CLASSMATES RESPONSES, GIVE A REFERENCE TO SUPPORT YOUR COMMENTS)

    1. Amber Clark

    Learning Activity #2

    Organizational culture is the "shared assumptions, values, and beliefs that guide the actions of its members". (2017).  This relates to the structure of the organization because it set up the foundation of how the company will operate. It explains why management make the decisions and implement them different from another department. It helps understand why hours and days might varies in some companies. For instance, you might experience a company that believe in giving parents with children late hours to come in so they can see their kids off to school versa a company that is will not. One company might be family oriented, while another is not. It's all about values and belief. One culture that would be perfect for this small company is "disseminated leadership culture allows managers to build better working relationships with employees while still supervising employee performance and reporting to company owners". This type of environment shows that management respect the employees but also create a relaxed environment that would create more productive and employee's motivation to work. The culture that will align to people in LLB would be values and beliefs because the company is a family business that has catered to the community for years providing quality, long lasting boots. Their mission seems to care for their business and whom they provide service to because their customers are loyal customers that seem to come back.

    2. Arnold Ceballos 

    Learning Activity #2

    Explain the type of culture that will enhance the organizational alignment of people in LLB

    The type of culture is a competitive culture because it helps organize the tasks provided to all the different employees. The beliefs, values, and rituals are shown to the people with their chain of command and the unity can be a comfort to LLB. Making sure the relations with employees is solid to operate the business (Davoren, 2017).

    Explain what organizational culture is and how it relates to the structure of the organization

    Organizational culture begins with the chain of command present and passing down its beliefs to keep the company in place. The company culture revolves around the company structure; the interaction between employees and how they carry themselves around work. A functional organization is in place for LLB, and the culture is organizational so everything can flow from each person with authority. The values and beliefs are the environment of the organization, and how it will be during work hours. Without any cultural organizational structure will not succeed its objective because of moral (Davoren, 2017).structure therefore; the interaction between employees and how they carry themselves around work. A functional organization is in place for LLB, and the culture is organizational so everything can flow from each person with authority. The values and beliefs are the environment of the organization, and how it will be during work hours. Without any organizational cultural the structure will not succeed its objective because of moral (Davoren, 2017).

    Explain why you chose the organizational culture as opposed to others you did not.

    Organizational culture will be the best because the company is a family business owned and any ideas they have about the business can be made to the business. The culture is present for the family to come together with the decision making. As a family they have in place the culture and the beliefs, and translating the beliefs to the employees will be easy to occur. Organizational culture is the best to keep the work environment with efficiency and productivity (Gilsdorf, 2017).family they have in place the culture and the beliefs, and translating the beliefs to the employees will be easy to occur. Organizational culture is the best to keep the work environment with efficiency and productivity (Gilsdorf, 2017).

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