Case Study


 


Dakota Office Products[ivl1] 


The Main Learning Outcomes from Analysis of the Case[ivl2] 


            Based on the analysis and investigation of the General Manager’s controller, Melissa Dunhill and director of operations, Tim Cunningham, the problem of the organization focuses on its relationship with the employees and the customers.


            Regarding its relationship with its employee the distribution center and the desktop delivery of the organization causes difficulties to the employees, because most of the personnel have more than enough to do. It is important to consider the number of the cartons that are being processed during the year 2000, thus the total number of the tasks is high compare to the current human resource of the company.


In addition, the process of entering and validating customer order data is also a tedious task. The data entry operators have to enter each line separately. In addition to that, it is important to consider that the data entry operators are processing 16,000 manual orders and then validates 8,000 EDI orders. Where in each manual order has an average of nearly 10 items per order or in total, 15,000 order lines.


            On the other hand, due to the new EDI system and Internet page, it had made the life of the data entry operator, due to the fact that it set up the orders automatically without much intervention, on the other hand, he or she needs to check it for some minor but important error. It would be better if the verification process would go from the logical design of the website.


             On the other hand, the accounts receivable balance of the customers is also important due to its relationship with the company’s working capital line of product.


            All over, it can be seen the problem of the company focuses on its ordering system and relationship with the customers. This is due to the fact that individual performance or productivity of each and every employee can affect the organization’s relationship with the customers that can affect their position in the market.


Organizational Application: Kudler Fine Foods[ivl3] 


            Kudler Fine Food is a premier gourmet grocery store in California that was established in 1998. It offers the finest meats, cheese and wines for shoppers. Since then, the company had showed amazing growth and expanded the business to Del Mar and Encinitas California.


            Due to the said growth as well as the increasing influence of different innovations and technologies, together with the ever-changing preference of the customers and their demands for fast and efficient service, it will be important for the company to focus on applying new solutions in order to make the life of the employees and the customers easier.


            As the company continues to develop an expand over the next years, there will be a significant needs to invest in the technology in order to help to increase the overall productivity of the tasks of the management that will help to allow more time in focusing on the strong values of the company.


            Just like the outcome of the case study, it can be seen that the work load that are being spend in the manual process of entering the customer and order data in the system of the company takes long time. This can affect the overall performance of the individual, due to the fact that he or she have to process a huge amount of data, thus it can also cause errors because there is a large intervention of human. It is important to consider that application of computerized system or Information Technology (IT) in the organization can serve as an aid to the employees by reducing their tasks, letting them to exert less effort, at the same time, offers effective actions. 


            Furthermore, it can affect the performance of other department of the organization such as the delivery and inventory. This can affect the cost that will be spent by the company towards the different resources that are needed in delivering products towards the customers.


            Above all, just like the case of Dakota Office Products, it can be seen that it has a great impact over its relationship towards the customers, due to the fact that Dakota is having difficulty in managing and monitoring the different financial obligations of the customers towards the company. Automating will also offer competitive advantage against the future direct and indirect customers by means of automatically monitoring the inventory amounts, providing information about inventory, and deciding on if an order for replacement inventory should be placed (Salvo & Morelli, 1998).


 


[ivl4] References


Dosi, D, Teece, D & Chytry, J 1998, Technology, Organization, and Competitiveness: Perspectives on Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, Oxford


 


Kudler Fine Foods: 2003 Strategic Plan, University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text, viewed 4 November 2008, University of Phoenix, MGT 521—Management Web site


 


Salvo, J J, Mackenzie, P D, Bennett, J S , Relyea, H A & Morelli II, T  A 1988, U.S. Patent No. 09/191910. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office


 


 


 


Borealis[ivl5] 


The Main Learning Outcomes from Analysis of the Case[ivl6] 


Due to the different external factors such as political, economical, social, technological and environmental aspects in the industry, it had affected the issue regarding the budget of Borealis. The case shows that one of the primary problems is the budget of the organization. A budget can be considered as a plan of action that is match by resources that are vital in order to implement the specific plan. It helps to compel the managers to think ahead by helping to formalize the responsibilities for planning, making it as one of the best frameworks in judging subsequent performance. Thus it also helps the managers to coordinate their efforts, in order that the plans of an organization will meet all of the objectives of the organization as a whole (Horngren 2005).


The business environment has been changing from the industrial economy up to the information economy. That is why in order to become competitive in the said situation, there is a great need to be flexible in order to react as fast as an organization can to take advantage of the different opportunities  and prevent future corporate problems due to external and internal threats. The said strategy will not be possible with the traditional fixed budgets, due to the fact that most of the budgets are created annually, however the creation of the budget takes around 9 months that is why the budget is already outdated when it is being announced. Thus, budgets need to be updated in continuous manner in order to be adjusted to the sudden changes in the economic environment (Drury 2003).


The said situation can be observed in the situation of the company before it had implemented the new financial system. The company replaced budget with the rolling financial forecasts, balanced scorecard, trend reporting, small projects and existing mandates and authority schedule. Under the new system, management can set performance targets for variable costs, fixed costs and operating margins by the process of benchmarking against the competitors. The said process is tougher compare to the traditional budgeting process; however it gives the manager the increased freedom for spending money in order to reach the competitive benchmarks.


Organizational Application: Hershey Food Corporation[ivl7] 


            More and more companies in the world are already abandoning the traditional budget, while some of them change the process considerably. Number of large European companies like Ericson, Volvo, Ikea, SKF and Diageo believe that budgets are often too late, too political in terms of tradeoff made, take too long to be developed, take too many organizational resources and then it can lead failure in measuring the critical things that make the successful in fast paced of today’s global economy (Babbini 1999).


            There are different studies that shows that fixed budget don’t work that effective today. A budget is considered as too static instrument that locks the managers into the past or into something that they thought last year that it was right (Daum 2007).


            The Hershey Food Corporation is considered as one of the most successful and high quality business in the entire food-business industry. The company was established by Milton Hershey in 1894 to produce sweet chocolate as a coating for his caramels. The said business is located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Hersheys.com n.d.).


            The company is considered as one of those companies that are not yet implementing the beyond the budget strategy. However, just like any company, it is also facing different forces in the external environment that could affect its overall performance in the global market.


            One of this is the financial crisis that is going on the global economy that could affect its relationship with the customers in different part of the world, therefore could reflect to the overall performance of the company in the global market.


            In addition to that, it is also important to consider the melamine scared that cause panic and fear for the consumer, primarily in Asia. The said phenomenon had affected the image of the brand, thus it had affected the company in terms of sales, thus in profit. That is why it is important for the company to focus on removing one of the most important barriers, and that is the budget.


            To be effective in the global economy that is characterized by rapid shifting market conditions and quick competitors, the company must adapt constantly with their priorities, at the same time putting resources where the company can create most value for all the stakeholders (Daum 2007).


[ivl8] 


 


References


Babbini, C 1999, Reality Check is Traditional Budgeting Under Siege?, CMA Marketing, AllBusiness, viewed 4 November 2008, < http://www.allbusiness.com/accounting/budget/363030-1.html >


 


Daum, J 2007, Beyond Budgeting, New Management Concepts for a New Era, viewed 4 November 2008, <http://www.juergendaum.com/bb.htm>


 


Discover Hershey: Company History, Hershey’s, viewed 4 November 2008, < http://www.hersheys.com/discover/history/company.asp>


 


Drury, C 2003, Cost and Management Accounting: An introduction, 5th ed, Thomson Learning, London


 


Horngren, S S 2005, Introduction to Management Accounting, 13th ed., Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey


 


 [ivl1]This is your chosen case study, which is case number 5, it was underlined in the attachments that you send to me.


 [ivl2]This tackles the different learning outcomes from the case based on your instructions.


 [ivl3] This is the organizational application, where in I uses the case of Kudler Fine Foods because I believe that the outcome of the study is applicable or suitable in its current situation


 [ivl4]TOTAL NUMBER OF WORDS: 750


 [ivl5] This is my chosen case study, since you didn’t mentioned the second case that I must used.


 [ivl6]This are the different learning outcomes from the analysis of the case


 [ivl7]This is the organizational application. I used the Hershey Food Corporation for the same reason as Kudler Fine Foods [ivl7]


 [ivl8]TOTAL NUMBER OF WORDS: 750



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