DIP037 Assignment 3: Submission 1: Titles 369 words

Darren Broderick

Candidate Number: 4202141

Unit 5005 Meeting stakeholder and quality needs

Introduction

This report investigates and applies the knowledge gained on unit 5005: Meeting stakeholder and quality needs, and unit 5008: Marketing planning.

Learning outcome 1: Be able to identify stakeholders and their requirements

1.1 Determine organisational stakeholders and their expectations

A stake holder is a loose term that describes people inside or outside an organisation who feel that they have an interest in the activities of the business. In the case of my KTP project the stakeholders are:

American Bureau of Shipping;

IHC Merwede;

Jotun Coatings;

Meulhaham;

Newcastle University.

Figure 1 shows the current state of the ‘closeness’ of the working relationships within my project. Newcastle University will remain close throughout the project as the knowledge based supervisor, is also one of my PhD supervisors. Currently I have been working with IHC Merwede in order to gain an insight into the coating process and challenges that structural design can present. The other three stakeholders currently have not had a great deal of involvement however, this is sure to change as the project develops and the parties expertise becomes more relevant.

Figure 1: Diagram of current stakeholder’s proximity

If the project as a whole is examined it is the flow of information, knowledge and expertise from the stakeholders that forms the cornerstone of my work. In that if I cannot manage the flow of information from the stakeholders then I will struggle to deliver the aims set out in my project proposal.

In order to maintain the flow of information and expertise from the stakeholders in my project it is important that I manage their expectations throughout the project. This can only be achieved by good communication. It is inevitable that there will be some conflict during the project, which in some cases will be a good thing such as a difference of opinion on the direction the project should take. As it is imperative that I receive continual input from the stakeholders, disruptive conflict must be avoided by ensuring that communication between all parties is preserved.

The cost of not sustaining these lines of communication could be catastrophic as to achieve the overall objective of the project requires the continued cooperation of the stakeholders. The monetary value could simply be calculated has the value of the investment in the project, however the overall cost could be substantially higher if factors such as loss of confidence of the stakeholders in me and Safinah Ltd are included.

As the project is still in its early stages, it is difficult to say with absolute certainty what the needs and expectations are, other than the driving factor in all businesses to reduce costs. This could be achieved either by increasing productivity or generating more revenue by offering a new/novel service to their customers, whilst reducing costs.

The benefits of using a stakeholder-based approach are that: You can use the opinions of the most powerful stakeholders to shape your projects at

an early stage. Not only does this make it more likely that they will support you, their input will usually improve the quality of your project.

DISPRO

IHC Merwede

UNEW

Jotun Paints

Muehlhan

ABS

KTP advisor

Gaining support from powerful stakeholders can help you to win more resources, making it more likely that your projects will be successful.

By communicating with stakeholders early and frequently, you can ensure that they fully understand what you are doing, and that they understand the benefits of your project. This means they can support you actively when necessary.

You can anticipate what people's reaction to your project may be, and build into your plan the actions that will win people's support.

1.2 Discuss methods of meeting stakeholders expectations or requirements

It is possible to breakdown stakeholder expectations into five key areas:

Reliability; Responsiveness; Assurance; Empathy; Tangibles.

In a generic sense it is often difficult to define the exact nature of stakeholder’s expectations, as they are often very subjective. As individual stakeholder’s may react differently to the same experience. It is possible to define bad, good and excellent service; bad service in simple terms is when the service does not meet expectations, good service meets expectations and excellent service exceeds expectations.

From this it is clear that in order to provide a good or even excellent service, it is imperative that the stakeholder’s expectations are identified early in the process. This process will involve good communication with the stakeholder’s throughout the process as their needs/wants may change over time.

You now need to know more about your key stakeholders. You need to know how they are likely to feel about, and react to, your project. You also need to know how best to engage them in your project, and how best to communicate with them.

Key questions that can help you understand your stakeholders are:

What financial or emotional interest do they have in the outcome of your work? Is it positive or negative?

What motivates them most of all? What information do they want from you? How do they want to receive information from you? What is the best way of

communicating your message to them? What is their current opinion of your work? Is it based on good information? Who generally influences their opinions, and who influences their opinion of you? Do some of these influencers therefore become important stakeholders in their own

right? If they are not likely to be positive, what will win them around to support you?

If you don't think you will be able to win them around, how will you manage their opposition?

Who else might be influenced by their opinions? Do these people become stakeholders in their own right?

Thus it is possible to conclude that it in order to need or even exceed your stakeholders expectations it is vital that you much identify what they require from you. The results should be as detailed as possible as possible, whilst being reviewed and updated on a regular basis. It is important to note that in some cases the stakeholder may not know exactly what they want. Thus a key skill as a manager is identifying this and finding an effective communication method to establish what they actual want rather than what they think they want.

1.3 Identify methods of communicating stakeholders requirements with team members

Having identified the stakeholders for a business or particular project and acknowledged their expectations and/or requirements, it is then necessary communicate this to members of your company team. In some cases it may be prudent to also to disseminate some/all of this information to the other stakeholders. There are a number of different effective methods of communicating information:

Face-to-face;o This method ensures that all information is received and feedback can be

obtained immediately. However it is expensive and time consuming. Email;

o This method is very quick and cheap, and retains a written copy of replies.

There’s no guarantee that the information within has been read, and misunderstandings often occur.

Letters;o Cheap and written copies can be kept, however its relatively slow and again

there is no guarantee that they are read or that the message is accurately portrayed.

Briefings/meetings;o These allow all information is conveyed and allow feedback to be gained

instantly. They can be expensive if man hour costs are considered and difficult to ensure good attendance.

Telephone;o Calls tend to be short thus relatively cheap in terms of man hours and they are

immediate. It is often difficult to maintain accurate written records of telephone conversations, and misunderstandings can occur.

Reports.o This is effective as there is opportunity to review the contents of the report

ensuring all areas are covered. However they are often longwinded meaning they are not read in detail if at all, and the act of reading takes time meaning if any feedback is given it has an associated time lack.

In practice success will be achieved only by using a combination of these methods to ensure that effective communication is established and maintained with stakeholders and team members alike. A good manager is able to quickly identify with method is the most effective with different groups/individuals.

1.4 Explain processes for updating information on stakeholders requirements

‘The only constant in life is change’, Rochenfoucauld (1613-1680), this is very true in business. As stakeholders expectations will be continually changing, and it is essential that information is regularly updated on these changing needs. Within Safinah the Management Board’s expectations are based around financial targets set out at the beginning of the year based on previous year’s performance. During the monthly management meetings the expected and actual performance are presented and compared, reasons for poor or improved performance are discussed. Based on the presented results management may wish to increase the daily charge out rate for a particular business sector for example megayacht inspections. Other example may be to reduce the daily charge for another sector to effectively buy into a market such as the offshore wind and wave market. Minuets of the meeting are kept meaning that a written record of any change of the expectations of the board can be updated.

As mentioned before choosing the correct communication vehicle is vital to obtaining stakeholders actual needs. To aid with this decision it is useful to ask the following questions:

Which method or vehicle will increase the likelihood that the message will be actually received and understood?

How much information will be included and at what level of detail? Which method is most appropriate for the type of message? Which method does the stakeholder prefer?

Table 1 identifies which method is best suited to each of the different stakeholders.

Collegiate project services 2007

Once the most effective method has been identified it is critical that records are kept. This is important both in terms of recording and updating stakeholder’s expectations and requirements, but also which method of communication was most successful. As it conceivable that over time the most effective method of communication may also change. A case in point is the change from using the telephone to emails, now I’m often told if it’s important to use the telephone, due to the amount of emails currently being sent.

Learning outcome 2: Be able to apply and improve quality standards

2.1 Discuss the meeting of quality to an organisation

Feigenbaum, (1991) identifies quality as being determined by a customer, not an engineer, marketer or by management. It is based upon the experience of the customer with a given service or product. This is measured against their requirements which may or may not be stated, be conscious or merely sensed, technically operational or entirely subjective. He defines service quality as:

“The total composite product and service characteristics of marketing, engineering, manufacture and maintenance through which the product and service will meet the expectations of the customer”

For Safinah Ltd, quality is defined as “ensuring that the service meets the agreed standard”. This ‘service expectation’ may refer to an external level expected by customers or an internal level, such as ensuring that a report requires a minimum amount additional input from other colleagues. Whichever standard is taken will vary depending on the organisation and the market which it operates. The internal standard for a manufacturing firm may be defined and monitored in terms of defective parts per million. For Safinah Ltd the external model of ISO 9001 sets the standard. Quantitative measures must attached to the standards used be it internal or external for example, Safinah requires that all enquires must be replied to within 24 hours.

2.2 Identify and apply organisational quality policies and procedures

Safinah Ltd is accredited to EN ISO 9001: 2008 a national standard ensuring quality management within the organisation. To this end Safinah has developed a quality manual which is a integral part of the Business Management System (BMS)

This Quality Manual provides a statement of the structure of SAFINAH Ltd (SAFINAH), the responsibilities of its Board, Managing Director, consultants and staff and the procedures and controls, which have been implemented and maintained so as to conform to the requirements of EN ISO 9001: 2008.

The emphasis of the BMS is on aspects of quality, customer satisfaction and continuous improvement and successful business growth. The requirements of the Quality Manual extend to all employees or staff who have been given the responsibility for implementing and maintaining the procedures detailed in or referenced by the Manual. Employees, in whatever capacity, including management, supporting staff and contractors, are expected both to follow and contribute to the Business Management Systems at all times.

The Company constantly monitors its quality performance, its industry reputation and its products and will implement improvements as appropriate to sustain this policy and sets objectives to do so.

One of the quality procedures that has been introduced by Safinah is a standard format for delivered reports. A template has been developed which includes heading, sub headings and numbered paragraphs. This allows for more efficient feedback on draft versions of report as this can be conducted over the phone as it is far easier to locate sections and paragraphs as a result of the number system. Safinah has received many complements on the professionalism of their reports, in terms of both contents and appearance as part of the feedback collected from various clients during the course of any year as part of the IS09000 2008 Quality Management System.

2.3 Determine how to encourage staff to contribute ideas to improving quality

The practice of encouraging staff to contribute ideas for improving quality is well known. However in order to suggest methods to improve quality it is first necessary to be familiar with the current operating standard. As part of my mini-project for the KTP within Safinah I undertook a review of the calibration register. The previous system had been highlighted as an area for improvement during the last ISO 9001 audit. For my mini-project I introduced a much simplified new system based upon an excel spreadsheet. This allowed control to be re-gained over the system. Once the system was stable it was possible to then begin adding functionality to it to provide improvement. Many of these improvements came as a result of team members using the system and indentifying changes would provide enhancement. The most notable suggestion was to include a simple visual colour indication of the time remaining before each item of equipment requires re-calibrating. This was added to the register to include a colour box, which is green if it is more than 45 days before calibration is due, the box turns yellow between 45 and 14 days and red at less than 14 days. Two weeks was selected as the cut off point as this the calibration turnaround time quoted by the equipment manufactures.

2.4 Conduct a quality audit and make recommendations for improvement

Learning outcome 3: Be able to promote continuous improvement and change

3.1 Discuss the concept of, and need for, continuous improvement

Kaizen (Japanese for "improvement" or "change for the better") refers to a philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, supporting business processes, and management. It has been applied in healthcare, government, banking, and many other industries. When used in the business sense and applied to the workplace, kaizen refers to activities that continually improve all functions, and involves all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. It also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, which cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain. By improving standardized activities and processes, kaizen aims to eliminate waste. Kaizen was first implemented in several Japanese businesses after the Second World War, influenced in part by American business and quality management teachers who visited the country.

Continual improvement requires change, and the effective control of this process is an important management activity. Change management is defined as to facilitate the development of a framework and environment that enables all people affected by the change to:

Know what is needed in the change and why it is happening; Understand what personal change will be required from them; Commit to develop new skills, knowledge and behaviours required from the change.

Living with continuous improvement and change needs to become second nature in the rapidly changing world. It is useful to know why change is so common within organisations. PESTLE considers the effect of political, economic, social, technical, social and environmental factors on the current and future activities of a company. This analysis can be used to consider the external environment in relation to the operations of your organisation, as many changes result from the impact of the environment on the organisation.

PESTLE considers the factors that are external to an organisation, however in many cases change can be driven by internal factors. In many cases it is imperative to change, merely to stand still, thus if an organisation wishes to get to/remain at the leading edge, change is a must.

3.2 Assess work activities and identify areas for improvement

Stakeholders, quality standards and continuous improvement/change are all interlinked. That is to say until you know you stakeholders and their needs and wants; you have little chance of determining the level of quality that they require/expect. It is also true to say that quality of service/product that a stakeholder expects is unlikely to remain constant, thus the need for continual change and improvement.

As mentioned above PESTLE analysis can be used to identify areas for improvement within an organisation. The results of this analysis can be used to explore the influences of external factors and how these can encourage change, leading to improvements across the company.

One area that was identified as an item that could be improved when I assessed the work activates within Safinah was that of the used of company templates. In the past the MD set up standard templates in Word and PowerPoint. However these templates were developed in office 2000 and are currently running in the compatibility mode of office 2007. This has resulted in a number of factors which impact on the day to day work within the company. Firstly some of the functionality of the 2007 programs is unavailable and secondly and possibly more importantly is the file size of the documents. As documents saved in the compatibility mode have vastly greater file sizes, which impacts on available storage and on the time taken to save a piece of work. I am working on development of new templates in Office 2007 format, currently I am canvassing team members to identify any improvements or changes that will improve the overall quality and usability of the templates.

3.3 Encourage staff to contribute ideas for continual improvement

“Safinah Ltd values every employee and will ensure they have the competencies necessary to do their job. In return every employee, in whatever capacity, including management, supporting staff and contractors, will be expected both to follow and contribute to the Business Management Systems at all times”. Quote from the Safinah quality manual.

The knowledge and expertise of the staff of many businesses is among one of the most important resources of a business. This is especially true for Safinah as the business operates on the experience and skill of its consultants.

The employees who perform a task daily know best what may go wrong and why, whilst they may also provide the simples most practical ideas on how to improve the process. To improve quality, a manager must recognise and value the knowledge and experience of all staff members. Staff should be empowered to improve quality which often results in problems being solved quickly and effectively.

Workers who participate in decision-making typically feel committed to making the proposed course of action work Participation generates enthusiasm and increases workers' motivation Solving problems, even small or simple problems, gives staff members a sense of achievement and boosts their self-confidence. To aid in this process Safinah has introduced the ‘Safinah circle’ whereby staff meet regularly to discuss a problem or a potential diversification avenue for the business. There have been occasions where an industry expert has been invited to present to the team on a particular topic that has been identified as a possible route to innovation.

Unit 5005 Marketing planning

Learning outcome 1: Be able to understand the meaning and role of marketing in achievement of organisational objectives

1.1 Explain marketing as a management process

“The management process responsible for identify, anticipating and satisfying customer needs at a profit” the definition of marketing as given by the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Piercy (1997) made the distinction between ‘marketing plan marketing' – the activities that

traditional marketing departments do – and the concept of ‘going to market’ – a much more

general management issue. He writes:

“‘Marketing’ belongs to marketing specialists but ‘going to market’ is a process owned by

everyone in the organisation”.

Piercy describes marketing as managing an exchange process. In an organisation such as

Safinah, money is exchanges for products and services. Whilst in non-profit organisations,

goods and services are sometimes exchanged for money and sometimes also to support ideas

and beliefs. The distinguishing feature of the approach suggested by Piercy is that it

emphasises that is not just the marketing department that is involved with the customer; it is

the responsibility of every department within an organisation.

My role in the marketing process within Safinah has to date been more of an advertising

function. As to date I have written a press release for my KTP project which has been

published in three major marine/industrial coatings. Also I have written and presented a paper

at a Royal Institute of Naval Architects (RINA) conference on marine coatings, and have had

a paper accepted in the Practical Design of Ship and other Floating Structures (PRADS). All

of these activities serve to raise the profile of both myself and that of Safinah in the area of

‘Design for coating’. All of this has served to advertise to the market the work that we are

doing, the idea behind this approach being that the industry as a whole will be aware of the

work I am conducting. The hope that at the end of the project Safinah will be able to offer a

design review service to owners/shipbuilders to assess the complexity of a proposed

structure; thus giving and indication as to difficulty with which it can be coated. The second

part of the service would provide solutions to reduce the complexity thus making it easier to

coat.

1.2 Describe the role of marketing in identify and predicting the needs of current and potential stakeholders

It is important to the survival and growth of an organisation that the current and future needs of stakeholders are identified and met. One method of enabling organisations to predict these needs is by conducting market research, into end user requirements for a product or service and those offered by competitors in terms of unique selling points (USP’s). The information gathering process can be divided in to two sections, primary and secondary activities. Primary activities could be conducting surveys, whilst secondary research could be classed as analysis existing market reports.

For example it was as a result of some market research that was conducted in combination with one of Safinah’s clients that highlighted the need for research to be carried out into

improving the design of water ballast tanks to improve the in-service performance of coatings. This forms the basis of the KTP project I am currently undertaking. The service described about will be offered to existing clients such as shipbuilders and ship owners. Has it has been predicted that by reducing the complexity of a structure it will be possible to reduce not only the initial application coats associated with the coating process but also to reduce the through life cost as a result of a reduction in maintenance costs Broderick et al. (2010). As shipbuilders and owners continually strive to reduce cost, it is expected that they will begin to examine vessel operations with more emphasis placed ‘life cycle analysis’. Through the design review service it may be possible to demonstrate that a vessel has been designed and will be operated in a more environmental friendly fashion. By being able to demonstrate a ship builder/owner/operators green credentials, it is expected that this will expand the current client base of Safinah.

Learning outcome 2: Be able to identify the organisation’s current and future position in the sectors or markets in which it operates

2.1 Discuss the current position of the organisation within its chosen sector or market

Safinah has been established for the last 13 years and currently is only one of a number coating consultancies operating in the marine sector. Safinah is unique in that it employs people from across the marine coatings industry, from naval architects to paint chemist. The main services it currently offers are:

Marketing consulting;

Loss adjusting;

Yacht coating project management;

Technical consulting;

Training;

Insurance guarantee inspections;

Failure analysis.

All focussed on the marine and protective coatings market sector, with marine being the dominant sector.

The company has 7 full time employees and these are supported by 2 retained associates and the board comprising 5 non-executive directors with a background in shipbuilding, coatings and financial and quality control. In addition further support is provided from its shareholder base of 19 shareholders (in total including some directors and employees). The support varies form actual project work, to market intelligence and sales leads.

Feedback form clients and prospective employees indicates that Safinah enjoys a very high reputation in the international market place, This is further reinforced by enquiries from about 7 companies in the last wo years who have indicated an interest in the acqusistion of the company and by a number of smaller coating consultant companies making contact to see if Safinah would be interested in acquiring them (2 to date) or to assist in their start up. Safinah

also has a number of enquiries pending for agency agreements in differnet countries (Turkey, Greece, Singapore,Malaysia).

Against the background of the current global recession, Safinah has benefited because it is a relatively small company addressing a market with an estimated value of some $300-350 million per annum, thus, even within the current recession Safinah has been able to continue to grow its business and market share, with the finacial year 2009/10 looking to be the best ever in the companies history. This is perhaps the first signs of the benefits of the longer term approach of investment for growth.

2.2 Determine a future market or sector position for the organisation in line with organisational objectives

In order for Safinah to grow the success will hinge on a number of key factors:

Ability to recruit and retain high calibre personnel

Ability to offer an attractive salary and work ethic package.

Ability to maintain target daily charge out rates for its services

Continued professional management of the business.

Increasing marketing and sales efforts.

Sustaining repeat client business.

The market is set to grow as the worlds shipping fleet has grown by some 30% in the last 10 years and hence there are many more ships afloat to service. The worlds’ yacht fleet is set to grow by 25% and the need for protective coatings is set to increase in line with the industrialisation in general. At the same time offshore installations are also on the increase. The current recession has to date not impacted Safinah. At the end of financial year 2009/10 the company has reported record turnover and profits. It remains to be seen if the recession will have a delayed impact, however it is anticipated that the potential for growth even in a reduced market, will be greater than the reduction in global demand for ships, in particular as other activities come on line, such as offshore wind turbines and other alternative energy systems.

It is within the offshore wind and wave turbine market that Safinah expects to see and increase in the demand for its services. This is a result of the UK governments commitment to reduce its CO2 emissions and increase the percentage of energy produced from renewable sources. The target of has been set to produce 20% of the UKs energy from wind turbines by 2020. As the wind in offshore locations is both faster and more consisted there has been a drive recently to develop more offshore wind farms. As this is a relatively new emerging technology it is envisaged that as these structures begin to age, there will be an increased number of paint/coating failures. It should be noted that in Safinah’s experience the paint consumption increases dramatically once a vessel has passed its 7 th year. The first generation of wind turbines have been operating in British waters for around 7 years, it is expected that that there will be an increase in the number of paint failures on these structures.

The Safinah target market has to date been focussed on Blue Chip companies. The target has been set this way as these are the types of companies that will have the budgets and the

demand for the high end consulting that Safinah can offer. What has happened is that the reputation of Safinah has been enhanced by Blue Chip clients; other companies seek Safinah advice on a “me too” basis thus resulting in a cascading down of demand through the market.

2.3 Identify other parts of the organisation which are impacted and involved in a future market or sector plan

If there is a large increase in the work generated for the offshore sector it may have an impact on the work load of the team as a whole. Currently if one person is getting overloaded then another member will help out by picking up some work from them. However there is a finite amount of times that this method can be used before there becomes a need to employ extra staff to cover the increased work load.

Employing of new staff will have an impact on a number of different aspects of the organisation. In terms of human resources, an advert must be placed (unless in the rare instance a suitable candidate has already been identified), and interviews conducted all of which has an associated time frame. Once an appropriate candidate has been found it is unlikely that they are going to be able to ‘hit the ground running’. Simply becoming familiar with the companies operating systems will take time. The combination of these factors makes it difficult to react quickly to increased demand for services. Another aspect to consider is that of space within the company’s office, currently there is not space for any extra desks that would be required for new staff. Therefore it would be necessary to change the working practices within the office or move to large premises. Neither of these changes would be simple to implement; as there are few occasions where all members of staff are present in the office it may be possible to change to ‘hot desk’ type system, where no one has a designated desk.

Finance

Learning outcome 3: Be able to devise and implement a marketing plan that contributes to achievement of organisational objectives

3.1 Construct a marketing plan that supports current market or sectors and targets potential new markets or sectors

A marketing plan broadly contains three items: an analysis of the current situation, strategic plans for 3-5 years and tactical 1-2 year plans. To analyse the current situation a marketing audit is usually conducted. At Safinah, the strategic planning is carried out by the Board, with input from all staff members.

Essentially a Marketing Plan:

Forces the marketing personnel to look internally in order to fully understand the results of past marketing decisions.

Forces the marketing personnel to look externally in order to fully understand the market in which they operate.

Sets future goals and provides direction for future marketing efforts that everyone within the organization should understand and support.

It is a key component in obtaining funding to pursue new initiatives.

The Marketing Plan is generally undertaken for one of the following reasons:

1. Needed as part of the yearly planning process within the marketing functional area. 2. Needed for a specialized strategy to introduce something new, such as new product

planning, entering new markets, or trying a new strategy to fix an existing problem. 3. Is a component within an overall business plan, such as a new business proposal to the

financial community.

There are many ways to develop and format a marketing plan. The approach taken here is to present a 6-Part plan that includes:

1. Purpose and Mission 2. Situational Analysis 3. Marketing Strategy and Objectives 4. Tactical Programs 5. Budgets, Performance Analysis and Implementation 6. Additional Consideration

This plan is aimed at individual products and product lines, however, it can be adapted fairly easily for use in planning one or more strategic business units (SBU). The page length suggested for each section represents a single-spaced typed format for a plan focused on a single product. Obviously for multi-product plans lengths will be somewhat longer.

Part 1 of the plan is designed to provide the reader with the necessary information to fully understand the purpose of the marketing plan. This part also includes organizational background information, which may be particularly important if the audience for the plan is not familiar with the company, such as potential financial backers.

This part of the plan contains two key components:

1. Purpose of the Marketing Plan 2. Organization Mission Statement

Some of the information, in particular the mission statement, may require the input of upper-management. The information in this part will prove useful later in the plan as a point of reference for material that will be introduced (e.g., may help explain pricing decisions). In cases in which there are separately operated divisions or SBU, there may also be mission statements for each.

3.2 Evaluate the support necessary to implement the plan

Diversification into different market sectors, particularly end users and builders means that we are working to reduced lead times. The production planning department will have to respond to this requirement which retaining the quality standards currently in place at CDW. Furthermore, the shop floor employees will have to be responsive to change and will have to be driven to succeed in an environment where pressure can escalate. This transfers through to the warehouse and dispatch department. Initial investment in PTH has been considerable, and so the maintenance of the marketing plan is relatively low – we are able to produce our graphics in house through our design department. As we aim to invite clients to the design office, we aim to utilise the skills of our new product development team with CAD software and designing for purpose.

As the business unit manager, I will be responsible for the implementation of the marketing plan, so the amount of support needed is questionable, as there is no in house marketing department.

3.3 Implement the marketing plan

The marketing plan includes specific objectives that have already been implemented at CDW, such as job sheets to monitor our pricing policies. Over the next 6 months the whole plan will be implemented as the separate business unit develops. The business unit will monitor the outcomes of the marketing plan, and ensure that each stage is implemented effectively through S.M.A.R.T objectives. A Gannt chart will be set up to monitor each stage of the marketing proposal, and will be presented to the monthly management meeting to ensure buy-in from all department heads. Each department will also be responsible for putting in place key measures of performance (KPI’s) specific to the project. For example, Production will monitor that internal quality is being achieved at 98% success rate for each product.

3.4 Assess the progress of the plan, through monitoring reviewing and end evaluation, in the achievement of organisational objectives

As mentioned in the previous section, during the implementation of the marketing plan KPI’s will be put in place to monitor progress and development. These in turn, will filter into the organisation’s policy deployment matrix; a visual management tool that is designed to demonstrate how each department’s activities contribute to the organisational objectives of a company. At monthly management meetings, I will present my policy deployment to the team, including the implementation of the marketing plan through S.M.A.R.T objectives as described above. Policy deployment at CDW is set over two tiers, the second being a more time focussed and detailed plan from the aims and objectives. It is not only important to monitor results monthly, but to evaluate after 6 months how the business unit was performing before and after the marketing plan, and in turn how this reflects in the success of the organisation.

References

Collegiate project services 2007www.collegiateproject.com/articles/How%20to%20Choose%20the%20Right%20Communications%20Vehicles.pdf

Feigenbaum, Armand V. (1991), Total Quality Control (3 ed.), New York, New York: McGraw-Hill, p. 109, ISBN 9780071126120.

Masaaki, M., (1986). Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success.

Piercy, N. (1997) Market-led Strategic Change, Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann.