Ausbloom PTY LTD, Case Study Example

Introduction

In assessing the Ausbloom company case study, specifically for the company’s budgetary options and most effective methods, it’s clear that due to entry into international markets, to ensure profitability the company needs to invest in communication tools and infrastructure designed to better enable correspondence across  different departments of the business.

Critical Analysis

What are the major parts of the business that have to be organised, planned or coordinated?

The company has been demonstrating a continuous increase in export volume, but this alone will not ensure its profitability. The two major issues that must be coordinated involve the time of blooming and transportation. As each crop varies in respect to their ideal time of blooming, they are reliant on seasonal changes and environment, as well as weather conditions. This means ample attention must be invested in regards to coordinating the growth period per flower. Transportation of the flowers is also a major concern that must be coordinated as a single region cannot supply a full range of flowers over the whole season. As flowers choose their own time to bloom which is even further impacted by the local conditions and region in which the flower is grown, special attention must be placed on the logistics of the growth process. This entails being mindful of weather conditions from region to region, and estimating the potential annual production based on this information. Supply chain management must be incorporated to ensure that that is an even spread of resources across the globe to account for the variance that unexpected weather conditions can provide. This is especially true in regards to overseas markets as entry into new markets can come with their own added risks, if one is not familiar with the cultural and ecological climate of the industry within that region.

How would you coordinate these parts of the business?

I think the best way to coordinate these parts of the business is to establish a sound network of local growers who have a vested interest in the success of the company a whole. Staff should feel as though they are valued stakeholders, and not just employees. As profit margins can be fickle in this industry and fluctuate easily in response to change in the weather or political factors, an effective business model to motivate local growers into making a collaborative effort to coordinate with one another would be to provide them with stock options, and retirement plans. In addition, to providing a sense of security, this method would also enable Ausbloom to cut back on worker compensation, reducing upfront labor costs. Communication between sheds is essential for Ausbloom’s success. It is very easy for one region of growers to exceed the needed quota of a certain flower while a select flower growing in another region falls short of its market demand. In order to prevent this sort of pitfall, setting up a network, either through online methods, or via phone conference would better enable growers and transportation vendors to feel as though they are part of a collective unit. Currently, Jill manages the responsibility of matching the blooms (supply) to the blanket orders (demand), but as the company expands this responsibility could become more demanding and too hectic for one individual. The total supplied on each order as well as the  outstanding amount is decided based on  as a result of a series of phone calls with the managers of the other packing sheds every Friday. If, for example, Geraldton Wax begins to bloom first she must determine which customers are likely to want to buy it. If they have a surplus of blooms Jill may decide to send a “spec” consignment to the market.

Who should be involved in planning the future of the company and why?

Operations at Ausbloom’s headquarters and packing shed should be handled by Bill Kelly and Jill Schmidt as they are the sole permanent staff members working for the company. Both Bill and Jill have the added benefit of being born and raised within the district. Bill also has farm experience making him an excellent candidate to engage with growers and work hands on with the production process. His over forty years experience as a flower grower gives him expert insight into the industry.  Jill, while she lacks the growing experience Bill has, she provides and in depth understanding of overseas markets, which helps for importing and expansion for suture business dealings. She is new to the industry but she has been specializing in the overseas markets and has taken trips to Japan and Europe. Jill is now assisted by the collaboration of  Shikako, the daughter of a Japanese importer who joined the group to gain some experience with the growers and exporters. She just completed an MBA at Harvard and is expected to takeover operations in Japan. Her business sense and educational background will come in handy once she has familiarized herself with the industry. It might be beneficial to provided Shikako with more managerial responsibility of overseas markets, not just Japan.

Who are the major people and/or groups in the situation?

The people, and or groups, involved in the situation include Ausbloom, the grower, the packing shed, local carriers, government agencies, insurers, freight forwarders, importers, and airlines. These are the main stakeholders involved in the industry. As the industry expands into overseas markets, it’s vital that the proper channels are put in place to keep information flowing, especially in regards to needed changes in procedures that might have to be implemented.

How might they be motivated to achieve Ausbloom’s plans?

The case study notes that for the enhanced collection, manipulation, storage, and retrieval of up to date information pertaining to work at the respective packing sheds,  it would be necessary for local employees to be willing to adapt to changes in procedures. This might entail providing them with training programs to shorten the learning curve time, or even bonuses for those willing to take on the responsibility of instruction and new procedural administration. It’s also noted in the case that there are some political problems where some political problems loose federations of growers who used Ausbloom’s marketing expertise but they were not completely open to the advise provided or the process in enhancing their productivity. Dr Mueller’s relationship building skills were tested as he was forced to engage with many of these growers  in an attempt to motivate them to be more open about their practices. One tool Dr. Mueller can utilize to motivate the growers as well as the other members of the staff across the different departments of the company is to implement cross-indexing. Hayashi notes that, “truly inspired decisions, however, seem to require an even more sophisticated mechanism: cross-indexing. Indeed, the ability to see similar patterns in disparate fields is what elevates a person’s intuitive skills from good to sublime” (Hayashi, 182). In this regard Dr. Mueller would utilize his expertise in other fields and apply it to what he recognizes as a cause for concern or an avenue for change and development as it relates to the growers. This method can also be used in reverse  to get feedback from the growers and perhaps inform other departments of Ausbloom on how they could better supplement the growing process of the local sheds.

Conclusion

In sum, the most essential aspect of Ausblooms budgetary structure can be seen through their use of communication tools to establish dialogue across all aspects of their business. As managing all of these stakeholders plays a substantial part in their business specifically within overseas markets.  The management always has a duty to meet the expectation of the stakeholders through steering the organization to success amidst the various challenges that might be met along the way. A status report keeps the management up to speed with the progress of the employees and helps the employee to keep track of their various assignments. Mochal (2006: 1) asserts that communication is a very important factor in status reporting. This is due to the fact that a status report contains the status summary, accomplishments, significant milestones, comments, and attachments.

Work Cited

Ahsan, K. “Project management.” 2nd ed. Australia: McGraw-Hill. (2008)

Mochal, T . “Manage project expectations through status reporting.” Techrepublic.(2006): 1-25

Cunningham, A. B., S. T. Garnett, and Julian Gorman. “Policy lessons from practice: Australian bush products for commercial markets.”GeoJournal 74.5 (2009): 429-440.