Marketing and Project Management Combined? You Bet!

Posted on September 30, 2014 by gina30111f14

When I first signed up for this Management Operations course I thought to myself, “When will I ever need to use this in my marketing career?” I didn’t understand how management operations and marketing could go together or benefit one another. After reading this article on what marketers can learn from project managers I learned the many ways it can improve their work habits, create successful results, and not to mention increase pay.

The top six behaviors that marketers should adopt from project managers are

1. Project cost tracking

2. Independent and collective task management

3. Project Planning

4. Return on investment analysis

5. Document and task management

6. Organized document storage

The responsibilities of a project manager and someone in marketing have similarities when it comes to customers, communication, allocating resources, cost efficiency, time management and many others. Using these techniques of a project manager would help to create stronger campaigns to drive more customers. It would also help to organize the time certain projects are due for clients. As we learn about crashing projects to shorten their duration it helps me to understand how I could utilize this behavior in the work place.

As a marketing major I can clearly see how these elements would help fix any and all the typical issues that occur in the marketing department. Most people believe that marketers don’t worry about reducing costs or fixing slack they say that’s for the finance or operations department to handle. But these types of issues could easily be solved by someone who is educated in marketing and project management rather than sending it to another department of a business to figure out.

Just by taking into account what I’ve learned already about calculating crash costs, slack, and project duration I can understand how useful these skills would be in the workplace. For example if I’m working on a project for a customer or a client, I’m going to be worried about how much time it will take, how much it will cost, and delegating responsibilities evenly and to the right people. I can already tell that operations management will help me go a long way in my marketing career and I’m looking forward to everything else I will learn.

How do you feel about integrating operations/project management to your marketing degree? Do you think it would be beneficial?

What elements of this course, that we have learned so far, do you see helping you in marketing?

Even if you aren’t a marketing major, how do you fit the course material into your major?

Why do you think it’s important to learn the different aspects of each business to benefit not only yourself, but the company as a whole?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2014/09/06/what-marketing-experts-can-learn-from-project-management-pros/

Inventory IS Important

Posted on September 30, 2014September 30, 2014 by vestina30113f14

According to Brightpearl, a business management software company, keeping track of accurate inventory is not only essential for great customer service, but also for keeping accurate accounting records and having an efficiently running business. For certain business inventory may be as simple as office supplies for the employees, or as important as goods that are being sold to customers. Brightpearl has emphasized 10 main reasons for why keeping accurate track of inventory is important.

Loss of sales due to out of stock items
Loss of cash in overstock of inventory
Improve accounting and profit reporting
Identifying issues early on
Customer Service
Efficient Re-ordering
Minimizing theft and losses
Trust in your information systems
Minimize warehouse costs
Efficient stock take and end-of-year process

All ten of these reasons are great motivators to implement a more accurate inventory count within a business. I have witnessed firsthand what happens to a business that has no inventory tracking structure. I previously worked at a fitness club that had a section dedicated to nutrition and athletic clothing sales, and in the two years that I worked for that company I never saw a productive account of inventory. Every so often we would have a group of corporate representatives that came in to take count of our inventory. I was not surprised that they would report a huge loss for us; the thing that did shock me was they acknowledged the loss as if it was completely normal and acceptable. When looking at the ten reasons as to why taking inventory is crucial, I can definitely point out several things that took a hit by not being proactive with it.

In regards to customer service and losing sales, there were multiple instances where customers decided to opt out of a purchase because we didn’t have the products that they wanted. As customer service and sales representatives we had two options to help them; we could either try to transfer a certain product that they wanted from another location, or we could ask our manager to check if it will be on our next purchasing order. The problem with those solutions was that we weren’t able to close that sale, since nobody would want to pre-pay for a product they were not receiving.

Another huge issue was that our inventory would consistently cause inaccuracies with our purchasing orders. Since there was no theft or loss reported, purchasing managers thought that we still had certain products and wouldn’t place an order for them. The fact that we were not aware of the losses as they were happening, would carry over for when corporate would come in and result in a huge sum of money that was being lost.

In our case, upper management was not interfering with the fact that their investment was being accounted for as a loss. In order to make other people want to be responsible, they had to implement it at the top.

From a managerial standpoint, would you rather invest money into keeping an accurate inventory, or save your time and money and focus on making sales, accepting the loss as a natural aspect of business?

https://www.brightpearl.com/sites/default/files/10-Reasons-Why-Accurate-Inventory-is-Important_0.pdf

Creating a Virtual Culture.

Posted on September 30, 2014 by jeffreyd30113f14

I want you to think about the culture at your place of work. Everyday you go into work, see your co-workers and form relations with the people that you work with. Whether this interaction between co-workers is positive or negative, it creates a sense of culture and teamwork.

I read the article “How to Build a Culture Across Your Virtual Workforce,” written by David and Carrie McKeegan, the co-founders of Greenback Tax Services. Greenback Tax Services is a global firm that prepares tax returns for expats living all over the globe.

The workforce of Greenback Tax Services employs associates stationed all over the world. Having a staff that is completely virtual normally does not constitute the ability to offer employees a sense of culture and unity due to the fact that they do not interact in face-to-face communication processes that a normal “office experience” provides.

The McKeegan’s believe that just because their associates do not participate in the traditional work environment doesn’t mean they can’t create a sense of comradery and relationship building within their company. They have used some interesting but practical installments to facilitate this development.

One installment in Greenback Tax Service’s internal build is something that they call a “virtual water cooler.” The company uses two online database systems, Podio and NIng, which are an intricate part of each employee’s experience. Within these systems, personal experiences are shared between one another as daily questions and discussion boards are created for employee participation. These databases bring everyone together and let people connect on a personal level; much like the interactions that occur within closely knit office “families.”
Another issue that the McKeegan’s found and addressed was the inability for virtual employment to establish employment principles, guidelines and a code of conduct for the associates to follow. Using feedback from their team, the two established over thirty principles in which each employee must follow. Once a month, through their online databases, they focus on a certain principle, which keeps these ideas fresh in the employee’s heads. Focusing on these principles ensures that employees don’t lose pride or forget the importance and professionalism of their company is.
Recognition is something that every employee, no matter what industry, strives on. The lack of face-to-face contact constrains a manager the opportunity to recognize a job well done. The McKeegan’s have introduced two practices to recognize star employee work. “High Five Fridays” and “Best Practice Mondays” are two systems that facilitate recognition. “High Five Fridays” posts the names of employees that have gone above and beyond quotas and exceptional work every Friday; “Best Practice Mondays” posts a case study of someone within the office that has innovated a process or experience. These establishments give employees the credit they deserve along with creating a sense of community within the virtual employment team.
Greenback Tax Services also encourages teamwork, acknowledging that employees are in different locations, time zones and environments. This sense of teamwork can be seen in the proxies that are instituted which allow employees to brainstorm ideas and submit them for review by other employment. This system brings employees together on the same projects while also establishing a sense on control within the business hierarchy.

I appreciate and am very impressed with the recognition and institutions against the lack of community found within a virtual work environment. David and Carrie McKeegan have found much success by ignoring the business norm and have institutes policies to create the teamwork that can now be seen within Greenback Tax Services.

McKeegan, David & Carrie. "How to Build a Culture Across Your Virtual Workforce."

     Entrepreneurship.com. Entrepreneurship, 26 Sept. 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.

<http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237813>.

Mauro, Vanessa. "John Coates: Insights From The Virtual Community Summit #VICROMM13." 25 Mar. 2013.

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10 OM Decisions: Rebuilding the Chicago Blackhawks

Posted on September 30, 2014 by rachel30113f14

In 2004, “ESPN named the Blackhawks as the worst franchise in all of professional sports” (English). So how did the Chicago Blackhawks go from one of the worst teams in the NHL to one of the best? While reading several articles, the answer became apparent to me: they made alterations in their operations management (OM). It suddenly became clear how easily operations management can be linked back to almost any topic. I became in engrossed in finding out exactly which OM decisions were made that resulted in this significant change.

In 2007, owner of the Blackhawks, Bill Wirtz, passed away leaving his son, Rocky Wirtz, in charge of this franchise. Rocky wanted to correct his father’s mistakes and was dedicated to make this change happen; “He wanted to get Chicago back on the Blackhawks’ side.” (English). First, he made job position changes by signing John McDonough (president) and Stan Bowman (Vice President). He began to build a new team of individuals all devoted to a resurgence of the Blackhawks. From there, changing the coaching and players came next.

Ultimately, he wanted to “re-brand” the Blackhawks experience for the fans who had lost faith in the franchise. To make this possible, he renovated the United Center; he added more entertainment outside of the arena so no matter where you were sitting, you would be having the same level of enjoyment. By partnering with the White Sox and WGN, he was able to bring back televised home games. Fans were getting excited about the team again. By adopting his method of “long term thinking”, he was able to create the change this franchise needed.

Why is this related to Operations Management? By looking at the 10 OM decisions one can pin point how Wirtz was able make this change happen.

The Strategic Decisions:

Design of goods and services
Managing quality
Process and capacity design
Location strategy
Layout strategy
Human resources and job design
Supply-chain management
Inventory management
Scheduling
Maintenance

These strategic decisions reflect the alterations made in the Blackhawks. Designing services is seen through the signing in new players and changing the coaching, while wanting to create the best experience for their fans is an example of managing quality. By adding services and a new design to the United Center, Wirtz was catering to the desires of their customers. His consideration of costs, logistics, technology, and “flow of materials, people, and information” is an example of their location and layout strategy. He demonstrated human resources and job design decisions by employing motivated individuals dedicated to his mission. These are just a few of the multiple operations management decisions that were implemented while rebuilding the Blackhawks.

I believe this is an excellent example of how operations management can be a great tool to improve a struggling organization. The definition of operations management is “the set of activities that create value in the form of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs” (Heizer & Render). Wirtz was able to create value in the Blackhawks by changing the players, coaching, and the building. By altering these inputs, the output that resulted was this new Blackhawks team that is better than ever before. This turnaround of the Blackhawks has brought back to the fans the sense of pride and devotion to hockey. Now it is almost impossible to walk down a street in Chicago without seeing a piece of Blackhawks merchandise. It is safe to say that Rocky Wirtz accomplished what he set out to do.

What do you think about employing these operation management decisions to “rebuild” a franchise? Can you think of any other organizations/companies that similarly had to change their business approach?

Sources:

Heizer, Jay, and Barry Render. Principles of Operations Management. Upper Saddle River. 2013. Print.

http://thesouthern.com/sports/english-rocky-wirtz-saved-the-blackhawks/article_5252a858-e5f4-11e2-8d27-001a4bcf887a.html

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140711/sports/140719804/

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/04/22/Franchises/Blackhawks.aspx

Product Management Pitfalls

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Marco

The first activity we did as a class was the paper puppet project. This was done as a fun way to introduce us to Project Management. The main point was to show the class how a basic supply chain worked and how to identify a bottleneck. Additionally, as a class, we learned the importance of product quality and communication. We also touched on the idea of crashing when talking about the complexity of the second task. Throughout this demonstration I kept thinking about how it was similar to a project I worked on this summer.

I started an internship a few weeks after school ended at a mobile second hand ticket broker called Ticket Scalpr (which is like a mobile stubhub). My six coworkers and I were tasked with creating stadium guides for all the NFL and NCAAF Big Conference teams, 120 in total. Each guide included a few paragraphs of stadium history, fan pictures, videos, restaurants, and a top ten best features list for each stadium. The end result would be a website new where visiting fans could find enough information about the venue to enjoy each game like a local. Even though team member had their assigned stadiums, communication was key. When one of us found a good source of information or pictures, it would get shared so that everyone start adding content as quickly as possible, working together to knock out the bottleneck task of finding pictures and video as quickly as possible. We also talked about quality. With no real quality control until a final review; we had to judge for ourselves what to use.

The project manager used many of the concepts we learned about in class. He would often ask us how long we thought it would take each one of us to complete a task so he could estimate the earliest completion time. Once the project manager identified our bottleneck he took it upon himself to crash the project for us. He shortened the project duration by a few weeks through outsourcing the gathering of pictures and video to another contractor. We liked this because finding the pictures and video was one of the more tedious factors of developing the guides. Overall the project took much longer than anticipated based on the quality they wished to present on the website. Thus, the initial goal of moving on to social media by mid July was missed, we finished all the stadium guides by the end of summer with a high degree of quality.

Right now the website has yet to launch. I’m not sure what else needs to be added or changed to get everything ready to go, but the project has already taken longer to complete than anticipated. The only change I could really see to make this project go smoother would be to add manpower and possibly create a information sharing library to enable the reuse of content.

What else would you recommend to management to speed up the project?

www.ticketscalpr.com

The Fast and the Furious

Posted on September 30, 2014 by cristian30111f14

Recently, I spoke with a former retail executive and got into the topic of fast fashion. I learned some interesting facts about the industry and think it’s a great topic to discuss. I bet that many of us have been to or purchased from fast fashion retailers such as Zara, H&M, or Forever 21. Do you ever wonder how they are able to mass produce some of the trendiest pieces and sell them at such low costs? Well, you will now get an idea of how they do it and how these retailers have become so successful.

Two words that come to mind when talking about fast fashion’s success: Speed and Volume. Zara, fashion retailer based out of Spain, can design, manufacture and get new product into their stores in less than a month’s time. How do fast fashion retailers do this? According to the former retail executive, they have workers go to Italy, France, or wherever they are taking fashion trends, purchase designer garments, and take them to a mass producer in countries such as China or Korea. The manufacturers copy, but alter the piece in 9 different ways, to avoid legal troubles, and then mass produce the new items. Companies might have different strategies, but that is a prime example of fast fashion.

Many of the retailers mentioned do not only provide speed, but they also provide volume. In 2013, Zara produced around 450 million garments for its 1,770+ stores. I can only imagine how much H&M produces with its 2,629+ stores! As these retailers are able to mass produce with low wage manufacturers, they are able to offer their clothing at dirt-cheap prices. Many retailers, such as Forever 21, are then able to charge less for their clothing as they have their manufacturers produce with cheaper, synthetic materials. With prices so low, consumers like you and I find ourselves leaving these stores with at least one item and usually fall into the dilemma of not bothering to make our way back to the stores to make a return.

It is evident that fast fashion’s quick and efficient supply chain management is crucial to their success, but there has to be some downside to the system, right? Since most of the products coming out of these retailers are cheaply made, it is without a doubt that these garments are not going to last forever. As some of you know, some of these garments won’t even last 2 or 3 wears. It is a pain, but at such low prices, what can you expect?

Food for thought:

Can you think of any possible flaws in the fast fashion system?

From a consumer’s standpoint, are you willing to give up quality for quantity?

From an ethical standpoint, what do you think about retailers exploiting low wage workers overseas?

Sources:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-14/2014-outlook-zaras-fashion-supply-chain-edge#p1

http://www.npr.org/2013/03/11/174013774/in-trendy-world-of-fast-fashion-styles-arent-made-to-last

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2012/09/21/the-wasteful-culture-of-forever-21-hm-and-fast-fashion

U.S Postal Service Takes Back Its Territory

Posted on September 30, 2014 by mariam30113f14

Earlier this month, the U.S Postal Service announced that they have made a deal with Amazon delivering groceries on a test basis. The U.S Postal Service is a big player in mail delivery services, handling 40% of the world’ mail and visiting homes and businesses alike six days a week.

USPS is now lowering their parcel delivery prices during a time where their competitors (FedEx and UPS) plan on increasing their prices. Both FedEx and UPS fear that with the recent changes USPS has been making with their services and prices will steal away their customers. This rings true in the case of Amazon, when just last December both FedEx and UPS misjudged the amount of holiday packages and many customers did not receive them until after Christmas.

FedEx and UPS however do not think it’s fair for their companies because USPS a is a government owned delivery service and has a monopoly on the business. This being said, it is also true that USPS has been suffering from a decline over the years due to the creation and embrace of e-mail.

One possible solution that Lenoard proposed was that congress could allow for the USPS to leave the letter monopoly and let firms and couriers compete for this business like European posts have done. This would give the USPS the opportunity to focus soley on the parcel delivery service and would also avoid financial collapse. Lenoard also goes into the topic of USPS becoming more attractive to private investors that have helped European posts. If this were to happen, then the money that could come from private investors could help USPS with their aging trucks, making it more cost efficient and possibly speeding up their delivery.

USPS’ recent business decisions displays examples of the three strategies of competitive advantage we discussed in chapter two. First USPS competes with FedEx and UPS in differentiation in their deal with Amazon by delivering groceries. I personally think this is pretty unique because it breaks away from the association that USPS has with just letters and packages, they open up the idea to their customers that they can now deliver groceries, creating a more universal delivery service. Secondly, USPS uses competitive advantage in competing on costs by lowering their prices, allowing for cheaper shipping and delivery services than that of their competition. Lastly, USPS is becoming more responsive. They are allowing themselves to be cost effective, flexible by matching market changes in their new grocery deliveries, and reliability by meeting delivery schedules.

I personally am an USPS person, I have my packages delivered by them and I receieve majority of my packages through the USPS. I find their services of great quality and timely delivery.

What type of delivery service do you use and why? If you use either FedEx or UPS would you change your mind after hearing about their delays in their delivery, why or why not? What else could USPS do to give them a competitive advantage?

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-11/amazon-casts-its-vote-with-the-postal-service

Telecommuting and its advantages

Posted on September 30, 2014October 15, 2015 by merhawi30111f14

Imagine this, you wake up in the morning take shower, if you’re lucky you might grab a quick a breakfast and head to work. According to USA Today, about 8% of workers in the USA have commutes of an hour or longer, and nearly 600,000 full-time workers endure “megacommutes” of at least an hour-and-a-half and 50 miles, according to new U.S. Census data on commuting. So, we generally waste two hours in just commute during the day. So, now you are finally at work and adjust to start your day. What if I tell you that working from home was a better solution to have better performance, and reduction to cost.

James Liang, cofounder of the Chinese travel website Ctrip conducted an experiment. They gave the staff at his company’s call center a chance to work from home for nine months. Half of the workers were allowed to telecommute while the other half remained in the office as a control group. Performance data was collected as well as survey. When results were compiled it showed in comparison with the employees who came into the office, the at home workers were not only happier and less likely to quit and more productive.

The study showed the increase in productivity, employees working more hours. They started on time, unhampered by a delayed commute; they took fewer breaks (less talk about last night affairs) and had fewer days off sick. The other productivity increase was because they took more calls per minute. Their quiet working environment allowed them to concentrate more.

What’s more impressive is that, employees who worked from home reported higher job satisfaction and were 50% less likely to leave than their colleagues who stayed in the office. But interestingly, after the 9-month trial, half of those who’d worked from home chose to go back to the office. Clearly, the peace and quiet of working from home feels like isolation for some. Or it could be more of a cultural aspect as the east is more community oriented and they probably felt isolated the main thing here is choice. Once employees could choose where to work, the performance impact of working from home more than doubled.

I can definitely see this trend grow in the near future as more and more companies are tech geared access and opportunity to work from home will be more readily available. I see more advantage such more flexibility, less distractions, proximity to home and family and more importantly a better balance of work/life and health. What would you do, If you had the option to work from home? Would you take it? Do you think you can be more productive and perform better? Or do you prefer to work from office and see your coworkers?

– http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/05/americans-commutes-not-getting-longer/1963409/

– https://www.odesk.com/blog/2012/08/large-scale-experiment-shows-working-from-home-improves-performance-reduces-costs/

http://www.bayt.com/en/career-article-1601/