1. MANAGING CHANGE
Discuss about managing change……………….. IntroductionSection AGold Touch Wholesales
CompanyGold 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 and loss of customers.Key information that needs to be
aIDressed 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
aIDressed include:Most employees argue that, there have been increased failures and
unplanned consequences occurring in the company and no one has been aIDressing 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
2. 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
aIDition, Gold Touch Wholesales has suIDenly 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 aIDition, 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 been 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 BAccording 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 the 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 OutlineThis project feasibility study will help your
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 serviceThe following criterion has to be applied in
order to evaluate your 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
3. 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
MarketThe following criterion has to be applied in order to evaluate your target
market.Give descriptions and definitions about the target market thus it will help in
distinguishing between customers and end users.Give clarifications on how the end-user
and customers would benefit from the products and services, their reasons for buying and
how they are purchasing the products and services. Establish your opportunities and
strengths to determine the level of projected market demand versus the actual market
demand. From your projected needs, find out whether the products and services are
fulfilled.Establish the market size of your targeted users and where they are located and
find out more if the target market is expected to expand in the future.Evaluate your
competing scale or graph by identifying your competitors in the market and examine if they
are a mature industry or not in relation to their pricing. Get to know learn more about their
strengths and weaknesses since it will help you know where to grade yourself in the market
environment.Examine your competitor’ s reaction upon your entrance in the market and
look for ways on how to gain a market share. It will help you to analyze the opportunities
and threats of your competitors and devise better ways of improving products and
services.Find out what industry the target market is in, the key players, how frequently they
purchase the products and their purchasing power for this will play a big role when it
comes to pricing of goods and services.Determine the demographic factors such as the level
of education, religion, gender, age and ethnicity. It will assist you to know the consumers’
tastes and preferences thus you will be in a position of retaining a consistent graph in
quality and quantity of products and services.Evaluate the psychographic factors and
relevant behavioral factors such as shopping behavior and the frequency of product
purchase.Marketing and sales strategyThe following criterion has to be applied in order to
evaluate your Marketing and sales strategyYou need to find out whether the company has
any strategic partnership or is in the process of forming one. Ask yourself whether you
provide necessary market access. By doing so, it will help you to lay down your rights and
responsibilities.You should find out the nature of your distribution strategy and the
methods you use in selling products and services to your clients. Furthermore, establish
ways of selling for example you can sell through internet, direct mail or other social
networks such Skype.You must ensure that you provide a projected mark-up expectation,
commissions and profit margin and an inclusion of other expected compensations.Give a
description of the pricing justification, strategy and the required gross profit
margins.Ensure that you give a description of the intended terms of payment for your
customers by spelling out issues such as warranties and their impact on the user.You should
ensure that you quantify the marketing budget for the first year since it will help you in
knowing your company’ s performance.CompetitionThe following criterion has to be
applied in order to evaluate your competitors and competition in the market.Give a
description of indirect and direct competition with regards to the targeted markets by
4. conducting a strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis. In aIDition you
should make a list of all key barriers to market entry and establish methods of getting rid of
these barriers.Ensure that you describe your product’ s uniqueness in comparison to your
competitors. In this case, consistency is crucial so as to maintain customers’ loyalty.On top
of this, you should state the degree of complexity and ambiguity of your product so as to
make it impossible for the competitor to imitate your brand.Give a description on how your
competitors would react upon the launching of your product. It is important to know their
reactions so that you would be in a better position to improve on the flaws of your product.
In aIDition, you should also estimate the time it might take a competitor to copy your
product or service.Financial overviewThe following criterion has to be applied in order to
evaluate your financial overview.List down your sources of finance and the uses,
applications of these finances.Give a brief description of the total start-up costs that you
require in order to begin your new operations. For example find out the capital costs of
equipment, plant and land. Also include other costs such as accounting and legal
costs.Evaluate your operating costs and the daily costs involved in running your business
for example, utility costs, rent, electricity bills, and water bills. This will assist you in
determining the cash flow requirements.Be in a position to describe your revenue
projections and how you will determine your pricing arrangements. This will help you in
estimating your break-even points.Clearly state your possible sources, your possible
lenders and general limitations and terms of borrowing.Advantages of the project feasibility
study and change processThe project feasibility study will help the team members and the
managers to focus on the project objectives and outline the alternatives. This feasibility
study will assist in the change processes and progress as the business tends to narrow its
alternatives. Furthermore, as the organization undergoes an investigative process, it will be
in a better position to identify new opportunities. The study will also help managers be in
better positions of making decisions whether to undertake the project process or not. In
summary, the company will also be in a better position of securing funding from other
monetary sources and lending institutions.Disadvantages of change processAccording to
Agboola (2011), Change may not be easily accepted by all and thus it needs to be managed.
Not everyone is excited about change and so most of the employees may not like the idea of
change since they assume that changes come with huge responsibilities ahead. He aIDs that
as changes occur in the organizations, deviant behavior among people become
rampant.Adapting to the new environment may take a long time. Most people are unwilling
to work in new or hostile environments since they were familiar with the previous ones.
Therefore, some opt to shift and look for new places of work.RecommendationsAccording to
Kalyani (2011), for an effective and efficient working environment, managers need to
enable, develop and encourage teams to be actively participating in other areas of the
organization so as to get rid of monotony and boredom in one given sector of the working
unit. In order to enable an effective information management and establish active team
working capabilities, there is a need to optimize information and communications
technology (ICT) systems.Moreover, to implement accountabilities and method, agree short
term action plans and review priorities, there needs to be arrangement done on how to
establish workshops and seminars.Furthermore,in order to accelerate the development of
5. people to contribute to a culture of empowered dynamism, adjustments in training and
recruitment programmes have to be made. Employees need to embrace change and as the
managing board you should welcome their inputs so that they will better accept and
appreciate the reasons for change.In conclusion, change has become the key aspect of any
organization since we are in highly competitive environments where innovations are
consistent and competition is stiff. Therefore, no company can afford to remain stagnant as
others progress because this will lead to them being knocked out of the competitive
market.ReferencesAgboola, A. (2011) managing deviant behavior and resistance to change.
International Journal of Business & Management, Vol.6 Issue 1, (p242.)Aziz, A. M. A. (2007)
Successful delivery of public-private partnerships for infrastructure development, Journal
of Construction Engineering and Management-ASCE, 133(12), pp. 918– 931.Kalyani, M. et al.
(2011) human resource strategy: A tool of Managing Change for organizational Excellence.
International Journal of Business & Management, Vol. 6 Issue 8, (p280-286).Kirst-Ashman,
Karen K. & Hull Jr., Grafton. H. (2001) Generalist Practice with Organizations and
Communities. (p 165-220) Belmont, CA, Wadsworth/Thomson.Thompson, A.
(2003a).Business feasibility studies: dimensions of business viability.Perth, Best
Entrepreneur.Wang, S. Q., Tiong, R. L. K., Ting, S. K. and Ashley. (2000) Evaluation and
management ofPolitical risks in China’ s BOT projects, Journal of Construction Engineering
and Management-ASCE, 126(3), pp. 242– 250.Press order button now………………….
