Management Assignment: Forward Strategies for C Fit-Fun Shoes for Year 16 & Beyond

Question

Task

Working as a group and individually, you are required to prepare a report on management assignment of 1,200 words incorporating the following:-

1. A summary of your company’s performance to date (ie: Year 15).
2. Based on your evaluation of the performance of your company, develop specific strategies for Year 16 and beyond. Briefly explain the approach you have taken and the reasons why with reference to the industry and competitors within the industry.
3. You will then need to outline the BSG decisions you would make, specifically addressing each of the following aspects:-
• Financial Management– Based on your company’s current financial position, outline and justify your approach to the ongoing financing of your company. Include aspects such as investments in assess, debt and/or equity financing, credit rating, refinancing as required and cash flow.
• Operations – Justify your forward operational strategy based on your company’s overall strategy (Refer to lecture 2, slide 4 in particular) and tactical changes you may need to make. Include discussion on asset utilisation, plant upgrades, new plant, plant productivity, etc.
• Human Resourcing – Outline and justify your approach to ongoing resourcing and worker productivity.
• Marketing – Using the competitive intelligence data in the BSG, develop and justify the marketing activities for Year 16.

Based on 1-4 above:-

a. Briefly outline key decisions you would make in the Business Strategy Game.

b. Justify your decisions with reference to your strategy AND the current market (Year 15) conditions within your industry.

4. Discuss how you would ensure that the five key shareholder expectations continue to be met or how you will ensure that you address any shortcomings.

Answer

1. Summary of the performance of the company selected in the management assignment till year 15
The performance has not been quite proficient in all the markets that the company has initiated its operations in. The rival brands of the organisation have edged ahead of it in terms of operational and marketing activities. The overall evaluation of the performance of the company can be found from the analysis of the simulation.

Figure 1: Competitive Position of C Fit-fun shoes after Year 15

(Source: Extracted from the Simulation)

It can be observed that C Fit-fun shoes have been able to hold the 12th position amongst all the footwear companies that are performing in this business environment.

Financial Performance till Year 15
The overall financial performance of C Fit-fun shoes after the end of year 15 has been presented in the following section. Analysing various internal and external attributes of the financial activities of the brand will be essential in this regard.

Figure 2: Financial Position of C Fit-fun shoes after Year 15

(Source: Extracted from the Simulation)

It can be observed from the simulation data that the organisation has failed to gain in terms of its credit rating. After the end of year 15, C Fit-fun shoes showed a credit rating of C+, which signifies the higher amount of liabilities for C Fit-fun shoes(Antamoshkina and Zinina, 2019). On the other hand, the depleting ROE of the brand signifies the degrading return of the investments of its stakeholders.

Figure 3: EPS Trend of C Fit-fun shoes after Year 15

(Source: Extracted from the Simulation)

The above diagram shows that the earnings per share (EPS) value of the organisation is showing downward progress again after improving in the year 14. That means C Fit-fun shoes are losing their stock value in the market(Kotsakou et al., 2018).

Operational and Production Performance till Year 15
The productivity rate and the cumulative cost of production are the essential KPIs that are measured in the process of analysing the performance of the organisation in terms of its operational activities.

Figure 4: Production Trend of C Fit-fun shoes after Year 15

(Source: Extracted from the Simulation)

The Above performance result of C Fit-fun shoes shows that the company has failed to improve in terms of both costs of production and productivity rate.

HRM Performance till Year 15
The performance of C Fit-fun shoes in terms of its HRM performance will be presented through the workforce management strategies and pay grades of the company after year 15.

Figure 5: HRM Performance of C Fit-fun shoes after Year 15

(Source: Extracted from the Simulation)

It can be observed that the productivity of the workers in the North American market has been robust for C Fit-fun shoes. On the other hand, the performance of the workforce in Europe-Africa and Latin America was below expectations.

Marketing Performance till Year 15
The marketing performance of C Fit-fun shoes has been quite proficient in terms of the internet marketing activities of the brand(Liu and Kong, 2021). It can be observed from the simulation results that the sales per dollar value of the organisation in the year 15 for internet marketing activities was 15.84. On the other hand, this value was just 1.25 for the physical marketing activities.

2. Develop specific strategies for Year 16 and beyond
It can be observed that C Fit-fun shoes have faced a lot of issues in terms of the strategic activities of the organisation in all of the markets that it is performing in. Hence, it is required that the management of the organisation makes specific changes in its business process.

Financial Strategies
C Fit-fun shoes must improve their stock price, EPS and ROE immediately in the present period. As a result, the organisation would need to reduce its liabilities by selling off its unnecessary immovable assets(Uyar, 2019). Apart from that, enhancing the liquidity of the resources would also be essential in this process.

Operational Strategies
The productivity of the workforce of C Fit-fun shoes must be improved to get a robust result in this segment. The utilisation of some efficient tools and equipment can be helpful in the process of enhancing the performance of C Fit-fun shoes.

HRM Strategies
The organisation must invest more in employee training and orientation to improve productivity. The HRM Strategies of the organisation can be beneficial for the productivity of the company.

Marketing Strategies
C Fit-fun shoes must focus entirely on digital marketing strategies in the upcoming period to gain a competitive advantage.

3. BSG decisions of C Fit-fun shoes
The BSG decisions that would be made for C Fit-fun shoes for the period of year 16 and onwards will be presented in this section.

Financial Management

Figure 6: Financial Decisions of C Fit-fun shoes after Year 16

(Source: Extracted from the Simulation)

In this period, C Fit-fun shoes will try to repay the bank loans and enhance the liquidity of the asset of the organisation(Wellington, Hutchinson, and Faria, 2017). Also, the capital outlays of the brand will also be improved in this process.

Operations

Figure 7: Operational Decisions of C Fit-fun shoes after Year 16

(Source: Extracted from the Simulation)

The operational performance of the organisation can be improved with the utilisation of robot-assistance production in the manufacturing process of C Fit-fun shoes. It will enhance the productivity of the company by almost 50%.

Human Resourcing

Figure 8: HRM Decisions of C Fit-fun shoes after Year 16

(Source: Extracted from the Simulation)

It can be observed from the analysis that the workforce of C Fit-fun shoes has received a lower pay grade in comparison to the industry average in all the markets that it operates in.

Marketing
The marketing performance of C Fit-fun shoes has been presented in the following segment in year 16.

It can be observed that the organisation has not performed well in the internet marketing segment again as a result of its inadequate digital marketing efforts.

On the other hand, the wholesale marketing performance of C Fit-fun shoes has been competent in this period with a gross sale of $ 83,042.

a. Outline of the Key Decisions
The critical decisions that have been designed for the growth of C Fit-fun shoes are presented in the following section.

1. The implementation of a celebrity endorsement program for C Fit-fun shoes is necessary for the upcoming period.
2. C Fit-fun shoes must implement a cost leadership strategy in the future.
3. The organisation must increase its pay grades and incentive for its workers.

b. Justification of the Decisions
It has been observed from the simulation results that the organisation has faced a lot of issues in terms of sales of the shoes in all the markets. Apart from that, the organisation has faced a lot of issues in digital marketing efforts as well.

4. Key shareholder expectations and management plan
The fulfilment of the critical stakeholder expectations of the organisation will be nested in the following section.

Reference List
Antamoshkina, O.I. and Zinina, O.V., (2019, May). A methodology for assessing the prospects of modifying business strategy of an enterprise in the external environment. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 537, No. 4, p. 042023). IOP Publishing.https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/537/4/042023/pdf

Kotsakou, S., Walters, C., Groskopf, J. and Tigner, R., (2018). A Unique Marketing Education Tool: The Marketing in a New Era Simulation Game. Journal of Extension, 56(6), p.1.https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1515&context=joe

Liu, C. and Kong, D., (2021). Business strategy and sustainable development: Evidence from China. Business Strategy and the Environment, 30(1), pp.657-670.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/bse.2645

Uyar, M., (2019). The management accounting and the business strategy development at SMEs. Problems and perspectives in management, (17, Iss. 1), pp.1-10.http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?C21COM=2&I21DBN=UJRN&P21DBN=UJRN&IMAGE_FILE_DOWNLOAD=1&Image_file_name=PDF
/prperman_2019_17_1_3.pdf

Wellington, W.J., Hutchinson, D.B. and Faria, A.J., (2017). Measuring the impact of a marketing simulation game: Experience on perceived indecisiveness. Simulation & Gaming, 48(1), pp.56-80.https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1177/1046878116675103