Harvard Business and Marketing Managing Change Essay

MANAGING CHANGE
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Introduction
Section A
Gold Touch Wholesales Company
Gold Touch Wholesales Company is an American public limited company listed in the American Stock Exchange and one that opened its operations 10 years ago. It is an organization that purely deals with homecare products, detergents, cosmetic and all forms of baby products. It focuses on more than one product and has a geographically wide coverage for its products. It has since then been expanding its operations to the international market. The company has its sub branches spread all over the United States and other countries world wide.
I was recently employed in the organization and asked to undertake a project feasibility study on Gold Touch Wholesales Company. The Company has been undergoing a lot of problems lately which made the Company experience a reduction in prices for goods and services as well as a loss of customers.
Key information that needs to be addressed is as follows:
As a company, you should make long term plans which will assist you in making reliable predictions. It is proper to draft a sound strategic plan that focus on details for measuring delivery and establishing of immediate actions not medium to long term plans. Furthermore, you need to arrange for communicating methods and forums to enhance immediacy in decision making and reviews (Kalyani, 2011). It is also essential to encourage the participation of interested people so as to allow their input to be gained and their expectations and commitment to be secured.
Delegation of power and responsibilities will empower individuals to make crucial decisions at the local operating level and thus make recommendations which can be approved instantly. Moreover, there is a need to remove autocracy and interference within the organization which acts as obstacles to establishing a sustainable and successful culture. There is also a need to establish an environment of trust through two-way feedbacks and open door policies. There is need to listen without interfering or defending any of the feedbacks even when they are critical views or notions. Lastly, failure is inevitable whenever employees and the management work towards implementing change. Individuals should accept failure as an inevitable part of learning and sending positive views to consumers (Agboola, 2011).
After taking notes from interviews and questionnaires from employees and managers it is clear that Gold Touch wholesales is in dire need for change. Some of the issues that were dominantly addressed include:
Most employees argue that, there have been increased failures and unplanned consequences occurring in the company and no one has been addressing these issues because there have been fears related to job sacking. Monotonous activities and programmes have led to a lack of improvement in design and implementations thus the same brand of products have been circulating in the market. Team members have no time for learning, planning and reflecting on how they should come up with new brands. In addition, Gold Touch Wholesales has suddenly lost the initiative to attempt something different that would help them come up with new ideas and goals in the near future. Evidence has it that, the Leadership of the company has been inconsistent and in a way it has de-moralized most of the staff members and employees in the organization. Some employees have raised concerns on how they have been kept in the dark since a majority of the projects and payments have been made without their consent.
Other possible reasons for Gold Touch Wholesales organizational change were as follows:
Even though Gold Touch has been expanding its territories it is experiencing tough foreign regulatory requirements from competing companies existing in the outside countries. This has a long term effect on the production of goods and services. Moreover, Restrictions on monetary terms has been a major challenge on the company’s functioning systems. It has been hard to operate or even link with outside branches due to these monetary restrictions. In addition, administrative layers of bureaucracy which act as buffers and censors vital information have been a common practice in the company over a long period of time. This has led to insufficient information to be passed on to the direct service level. At the same time, Kirst-Ashman, Karen and Hull (2001) are for the idea that an organization may opt for change when the client’s needs change. Customers vary in tastes and preferences thus they tend to be attracted more to a product that is of high quality than a previous one which had lacked the required qualities.
Section B
According to Thompson (2003a), it is important for any company or enterprise to conduct a project feasibility study. Feasibilities studies are important since they indicate whether a company will progress with the proposed ventures of change or not. If the company finds it crucial and that all the requirements are quantifiable, then it can be at liberty to draft a business plan which now puts all the ideas and thoughts presented into reality. It is advised for any enterprise or company not to proceed with the project plans and changes if the venture itself is not satisfactory. According to Aziz (2007) and Wang et al. (2000), the crucial merit of a Project Feasibility Study is that managerial experience of any company enables it to quickly implement projects and with a desirable quality. Project Feasibility Study touches on issues and areas related to the target market, technical advances, organizational requirements and financial overviews.
Project Feasibility Study Outline
This project feasibility study will help the organization in locating obstacles, determine the viability of the project concept and devise necessary changes to be done in your organization. The success and future of any organization will entirely depend on how well the manager handles change. The means of managing change depends on a company’s growth and success. Organizations can achieve sustainable organizational excellence through evaluation of products and services, target market and other factors.
Product or service
The following criterion has to be applied in order to evaluate the products or services.
Use simple language when it comes to describing your company’s products or service. There is need to give the company a product mix since it focuses on more than one product.
Give descriptions on how the consumer would purchase and make use of the service or product. Detailing of your products or services will help the user judge the effectiveness of your market and position plans.
Give descriptions on raw materials or key ingredients that are to be used in the new product and detail how the company will source these raw materials according to their availability.
Give descriptive plans on how to upgrade your product or how you should expand your product line. Ensure that your product and services are not an imitation or a copy of your competitors by establishing methods on how to make them differ.
Target Market
The following criterion has to be applied in order to evaluate your target market.
Give descriptions and definitions about the target market t...