Handling Contemporary Management IssuesJoin now to read essay Handling Contemporary Management IssuesThe Industries within the country of Amberzan have been, in the past, operating in a regulated environment. Recently the government has liberalized the economy. The National Poste, Amberzan’s governmental postal service is losing share in the country’s delivery service market. Other couriers are beginning to take over market share within Amberzan. The National Poste’s competitors have more flexibility to respond to market changes. The global competitive landscape for postal service is changing irreversibly. Foreign competition offers a wide variety of services. The National Poste needs to act quickly in order to survive this changing competitive situation. They need to identify the problems and respond quickly with changes.
Amberzan’s Competition Committee has set up a new body, the National Mailer Association, to facilitate the delivery of professional parcels to all customers in our district. Visit the ABA at http://news.aupa.org/. The National Mailer Association is a regional government organization of AUP members, organized as part of the National Association of Private Delivery Services. To join: Apply for membership Visit the Contact Information for a member of AUP. The National Mailer Association is a multilingual agency of a small nation with a proud history of public service in our nation’s capital. The group began operating on a local line, but has now expanded to a national and international basis. To join: The National Mailer League has been established in order to promote and expand delivery service in AUP communities. The League’s members are registered at AUP’s local offices and work as local mailmen. The League takes on large and sustained work on public service, and is interested in helping it to grow rapidly in the local public sector. To join, please visit: http://www.aupr-info.org This group has already established mailmen in the city of Amberzan, AUP’s new office in the town hall building, and in the town plaza, the AUP headquarters near town hall. Visit the AUP website (http://www.aupr-info.org) This is the official Association of Post Mail Men. To join: Visit the AUP website, www.aup.org This is the National Postal Service Association. To join: Visit the National Postal Mailers Association of Amberzan (NPSMA at http://www.aup.org) This is the National Postal Service Association of Private Delivery Services. To join: To join, please contact the AUP by registering for support (or by visiting www.aup.org) This organization has many of the same interests associated with domestic and international mail. For more information on the National Postal Service Association see: http://www.aup.org Visit the Web Site of the National Postal Service Association for information on the organization. To join: In addition to our other local mailmen, we have various commercial and military customers. The National Postal Service Association is pleased to have a full-service mailmen’s association formed in this city.
In the first part of the simulation I was given a budget of 90,000 to purchase relevant information that would help us analyze the situation and define the problem. The right information will provide a clear idea of the competitive and market situation. The optimal choices were to buy business information, as it provides data on competition, supplier power, and buyer power within the industry. In order to analyze a scenario accurately we need data that helps identify the problems and indicate possible solutions. The purchase of Industry information provides data on competition, supplier power, and buyer power within the industry. It also provides information on the constraints within which the organization has to plan, and the industry variables that will affect the organization. Industry information is a comprehensive source of information that can help shape the organization’s business plans. Primary research on customer preferences provides customized information about customers and competition which makes it a valuable source of information. This data provides specific information about the business from direct sources such as customers and competitors. This information would help the organization to gauge the existing customer preferences and competitors strategies which is important to have while launching a new product or service. Secondary research on postal expenditure is a comprehensive source of information that provides valuable indirect information from libraries, databases, specialized direct mail magazines and surveys, and other public information. Although it provides non-specific, generic information such as how much a customer is paid for a product last year, or how supplier trends have changed over the last year, it is a valuable source of information while extending business into new markets, or while adding new services or product lines which is why buying secondary research data on postal spends is important.
For the second part of the simulation we were asked to identify the problem areas within the Business plan of the National Poste. The first problem area identified is product development. The National Poste has not focused on developing new and improved products and providing value added services to their customers. The second problem area identified is their logistics and operations. This area is a cause for concern. The benchmarking report reveals that the National Poste is far behind competition when it comes to the number of orders processed each day and the time taken to deliver mail. The last problem area identified is customer service. They do not seem to be focused on value added services and customer care. It takes more time to redress customers’ grievances than competitors. This gives competitors an edge and loses a lot of customers for the National Poste.
The last section of the simulation addressed the reasons behind the problems within the areas of logistics and operations, product development, and customer focus. The problems I have identified are lack of research and development, inadequate customer support, and weak technical infrastructure.
The forces of change that I have identified within the simulation are foreign competition, liberalization of postal systems in neighboring countries, new technology, changing business needs and changing customer practices. The companies Post Net and Zen are moving in to the major cities within the country. This illustrates competition that needs to be seriously taken into consideration. The fact that technology is constantly being updated and improved means that there will constantly be change.
Some methods and resources that are helpful for anticipating change are training, team building, management development, survey feedback, open communication, and to reward those who contribute to change. If companies are about to go through some kind of change, they need to prepare for it by opening the lines of communication between employees and management. The employees need to know what is happening and what they should expect. There should also