Appex Corporation
...as minimal. Ghosh, Appex’s CEO, speculated that lack of communication was reducing the number of new product ideas. In addition, there were resource contention issues requiring management to purchase additional resources for each division. Finally, as the divisions grew, they became less transparent to and less accountable to senior management. Along with the continuous restructuring, Appex was faced with was the lack of employee discipline and lack of creativity. Employees didn’t seem to follow company rules. There were used to a non-hierarchy atmosphere, which was based on them doing their work when they wanted to. Often it was during times that were not convenient for the customer to get a hold of them One example is that of the employees assigned in the customer-service department. Often arriving at work around 10:00 a.m. wherein they are assigned to work at 8:00 a.m. They were not prone to do their respective jobs the moment they arrived at work, rather they would do it later in the day. In other words, everybody did things in their own time and was not customer focused. Another issue that was evident was the lack of communication/organization of Ghosh when he arrived at Appex. By his observation he realized that Appex was changing from entrepreneurial to chaotic. People arrived late to work and would react to whatever crisis the company happened to face that day. Employees did not have time to plan schedules or meetings. Eventually, it became difficult to accomplish basic tasks. He observed that there was no financial planning and all planning seemed useless. Based on his observation, Ghosh explained that Appex needed a system of accountability, and they needed structure. However, Ghosh failed to realize that Appex was a non-hierarchy corporation. What he was proposing was to institute a hierarchy corporation that would establish silos between department, and cause confusion amongst the employees. Ghosh did not address the employees with a clear vision on each of his reorganization, and that he never asked his employees what would work best for them. RECOMMENDATIONS All these issues and problems that the company has currently faced is not a piece of cake and if there are strategies being done to that, the result can't be found in just a short period of time. It takes patience, commitment both from the employees and the people of high authority within the company, hard work, and cooperation of everybody and the faith of being able to succeed. But, before strategies are to be done, it is important to reflect first on the company's problems and its strengths, its opportunities and its threats. With this information present, it is possible to determine what the company is good at and what they aren't. Moreover, it would also help them uncover the things that need improvement. The first recommendation for Appex is the continuation of the structure that includes divisional and functional structure. This would achieve a workable combination of functional elements while promoting cooperation and communication. With careful control of the resulting projects, Appex can achieve renewed customer focus. With the elimination of the competition between divisions, resource allocation problems will be reduced. Because the project leads report to the CEO, visibility will be restored to senior management. However, the risk of this structure has a key disadvantage. Ghosh should plan the evolution of Appex carefully with his senior management. The first step is continuing to combine the functional areas internal to each division and selecting individuals to head these new functional areas. This will eliminate the current duplication in management across divisions. After selecting the management for the functional areas, the remaining managers should be utilized as project leads when possible. Great care must be taken in identifying the individuals appointed as the project managers, who need to be strong individuals capable of balancing the demands from the different product and functional organizations. Difficulties will exist when establishing the initial projects. Initially, personnel from the same division should be grouped for existing projects to reduce confusion. However, new projects should utilize personnel from both previous divisions to increase cross-pollination. Second recommendation would be to establish a 6 month/12 month corporate plan. These plans do not reflect merely on the external and internal problems of the company but at the same time its financial information, quarterly tasks, and milestones, departmental tasks and staffing requirements. With these plans present, the company would be able to have plenty of options and alternatives in solving the company's problems. This recommendation can be done by listing out possible strategies and plans which can be of help to the company. To start with, it is helpful to determine the things in the company that needs improvement and then identify and list number of ways and methods that would possibly solve the problem. IMPLEMENTATION Before implementing any far-reaching changes, Ghosh will need to communicate his vision to the entire company within the next 30 days through a detailed plan with a specific timetable that emphasizes the measurable goals and benefits of the change. This will help to combat the inevitable ambiguity felt by the employees. Finally, a two-tiered compensation plan should compensate employees for corporate success through the functional areas and for project success directly. He should also establish a year end annual meeting that will address the annual financial information, as well as addressing the goals for the next 1-5 years. CONCLUSION Any company, b...