Group Assignment

Introduction to Management Group Assignment

A group of four or five students will choose a company to write on management issues or challenges faced by that company .From the theories acquired from this course , give your groups recommendation to this company for solving those issues or challenges . The input for the assignment must be based on direct interviews of senior manager of that company .

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Table of Contents A.Introduction ............................................................................................ 3 1. Group .................................................................................................... 3 2. Trang Thi Company ................................................................................ 3 3. Interview ............................................................................................... 4 B.Case ........................................................................................................... 5 1. Plan........................................................................................................ 5 2. Mr.Vu s plan :....................................................................................... 5 3 .Groups Recommendation .................................................................... 8

C.Executing the plan............................................................................... 11 1. Interview status ..................................................................................... 11 2. Problems ................................................................................................ 11 3. Groups Recommendation .................................................................. 12 D.Conclusion .............................................................................................. 13

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A.Introduction
1. Group
-Mac Xuan Tung FB00516 tungmxfb00516@fpt.edu.vn -Nguyen Minh Duc FB00418 ducnmfb00418@fpt.edu.vn -Nguyen Yen Chi FB00506 chinyfb00506@fpt.edu.vn -Pham Quang Hieu -FB00517-hieupqfb00517@fpt.edu.vn -Nguyen Vu Hoang FB00519-hoangnvfb00519@fpt.edu.vn

2. Trang Thi Company

- Is a multi-purpose company - Founded on 14-02-1955 , Trang Thi company has been experiencing the development and changes in Vietnamese economy system & market for more than half a century . - Started with only 40 employees , Trang Thi company has become a large company with more than 800 full-time workers , and expanded widely to the whole country . - Received many national awards for its success . Main services :

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+Commercial services : Numerous services including wholesale , retail of various kind of goods , hotel business , rent offices +Import : Materials , chemicals , vehicles , electronic product , interior decoration , medical equipment +Export : handicraft , sewing product , chemicals , food , mineral , technology . +Real estate

3. Interview
- Name : Tran Tuan Vu - Role : Head of Trang Thi companys sale department . - Main task : Marginal analyze , plan & execute new business , manage product quality , find new source of supply , sell product , organize import , export , organize event & exhibit , prepare plan for special occasion .

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B.Case
1. Plan
Trang Thi company set up an annual goal to expand itself , while still maintain a positive growth . As the head of the sale department , Mr.Vu and his co-workers have a lot to do every year . This includes making new plans , investigating the market , designing new products . Mr.Vu appears to be a head of this , and already has some successful plans . Our group also want to make some minor suggestion based on what we have learned from the book Essentials of Management .

2. Mr.Vu s plan :
a. Summary :
Move in to new market such as provinces around Ha Noi , with some careful market investigation .

b. Interview :
Question : This sounds like a very tough job , do you have any plan to help expanding your company ?

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Answer : This year , Trang Thi company needs at least a 15% increase in profit . My department has already agreed on how we can achieve that goal .Since most of our commercial center is based in Ha Noi , we havent taken much interest elsewhere . We shall expand our sale and offices to provinces around Ha Noi , such as Hai Duong , Nam Dinh , Lang Son . However , we are still planning on how to move in those market . We need to know more about the needs of people in those provinces , diversify sale and product ,also take special care for marketing in the near future . We can improve our brand by marketing on newspaper , magazines , television , the internet , or at some live exhibitions . Question : How important is market investigation to your plan ? And what have you been doing to investigate ? Answers : Of course market investigation is a must .And we have been doing a lot of things . First of all , we make specific plans to investigate the market . This can be done by both on desk , and real market investigation . We divide the department into groups to research each parts of the intended market . After this is done , I will compile the reports , and then report back to the company . We have been doing this for a while and gained some success . For example , last winter , we were successful in selling a lot of products , especially Infrared heater and warm clothes . We had a full stock so we made more profit than we thought we would . So yes , I can say that market investigation is very important .

Question : You mentioned that Trang Thi had a full stock of winter goods , so do you have any kind of charts or formula to avoid redundant ?
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Answer : Not really . It was done mostly by skill and experiences from many years of business . It cannot be based on any kind of formula . c. Analyze the process of planning Base on the interview and information from the company , our group has analyzed and summary the situation . Follow the framework for planning , we can see thought the planning process of this company , there are 7 step : 1. Define the situation : the company has successful in the area of Ha Noi but now it has many competitor . In order to growth , this company must expand their market to increase profit . 2. Establish goals and objectives : This company has set up the goal to increase profit by at least 15% and expand the market to other provinces in northern viet nam . 3. Analyze environment in terms of aids and barriers to goals and objective : - Aids : this company has co-op with many big company and its brand is well established . So they have a positive chance to expend well in other range. - Barriers : - Vietnamese customer is very hard to please , they must invest the market carefully before develop . Beside this , they must care about the financial problem and find a good way to manage the resource of company , especially the employee to archive the goal. 4. Develop action plans to reach goal and objective : the company has implemented some action like market research , looking for investment to ensure that the company can deal with financial problem. 5. Develop budget : The company has use this own fund and loan from bank to develop the budget.
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6. Implement the plant : after doing market research , through analysis , company has invested in some strategic good and obtain a positive results. 7. Control the plans: we control process for fine-tuning after implement the plan. For instance, fine-tuning the budget that has been set too high or too low in implement plans to have

3 .Groups Recommendation
In this particular situation , our group has some in-depth plans to help Trang Thi company to achieve its goals . a. Boost market investigation operations : In many companies , including Trang Thi , this is being largely overlooked . So first , we have to boost market investigation activities into a whole new level . - Inform the board of director about the effectiveness and importance of market investigation . Also we must have market investigation activities active at all times , not just before implementing new products or services because the market always changes as we speak . Improve the quality of market investigation activities , update information about changes in market daily . This must be done in a quick fashion , to immediately get information , changes in the needs of people . At the same time , Trang Thi company should get feedback from customers and providers . For example we can set up some public suggestion mail boxes , surveys for customers .

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- Establish new department entirely for market investigation . The purpose is to evaluate correctly and accurately the flow of the market . Currently , this is being done by the sale department alone , which is probably too much work for them . They do not have enough time as well as in-depth , specific skills in market investigation .

b. Plans to improve marketing , offer more sales promotion : In Trang Thi Company , electronic & digital products marketing activities have not been attached special attention to . We mainly introduce our products on our main website . We need to implement marketing on other public media . This has already been stated by Mr.Vu , but we want to go for a more in-depth view of the situation . This is what we suggest :

- Trang Thi company should take special attention into marketing and consider it to be the companys main weapon in the business war . And high-tech weapons like newspaper , magazines , radio , television is strongly recommended . - Set up a high annual budget for marketing . As of now , the budget is still low and insufficient for its importance role . - Besides marketing , sales promotion is also another sharp knife , which when used accurately can cause great result . Trang Thi does not have a lot of sales promotion while other competitors have many attractive promo . So to gain and encourage more customers , our company needs to develop a smart sales promotion , especially in special occasion such as Tet holiday .
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c. Enhance skill level of the market staff and sale personnel : Because Trang Thi companys products and services requires good technical knowledge to sale , the company need to recruit , or train the market and sale personnel thoroughly and carefully .

- Employees must have high responsibility for their job , high ability , high flair , must be decisive so they can work independently when needed . This is most important for the company , because it fits with Trang This goals and business plans . - Sale personnel needs to be friendly but also politely , actively greet customers to build up a good impression . Must be able to listen to and understand customers information & feedback . Patience , honesty is also a plus - Trang Thi should hire some marketing experts for marketing plans .

d. Develop and expand to new markets : Mr.Vu told us that Trang Thi was planning to move into the market of some provinces around Ha Noi and Northern VietNam . The biggest obstacle to this is market investigation , which we have already solved above .

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C.Executing the plan

1. Interview status
To implement the sale departments plan , Mr.Vu explained that theyve got a lot of problems on their hands . Even though there was no clarity in his talk due to personal reasons , we still managed to catch some glimpses of the challenges Trang Thi Company will have to face in the near future .

2. Problems
a. Summary :

-The lack of budget -Too many complicated procedures with government - Complicated procedures within the companys structure -The lack of human resources - Upward communication is hard
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b. Interview :

Question : So when you are implementing your plans , what kind of challenges your department have to overcome ? Answer : Oh challenges and hardness are tremendous . The most important issue is about money , the funding to execute our plans . Also we have to go through many complicated governments procedures which take a long time , and we may not even be able to pass them . The last difficult thing is human resources . All companies want good employees for their firm . Good employees demand high salary in return . We have a limited salary budget , and for some other personal reasons , therefore we cannot pay high enough . This results in the resignations of many good employees . Upward communication to higher directors is a bit lacking , which is again personal reasons .

3. Groups Recommendation
- Loans from bank and implement company capitalization. - Restructure some department to simplify procedures in company. - Companies need to use a number of measures to increase efficiency of employees working and recruit good staff .

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D.Conclusion
- Through interviewing with manager of the company's business and commercial services Trang Thi we can see that this is a state trading company typical of Vietnam, with many pros and cons. With planning for the department and the company, the manager did the right thing fundamentally important steps in thinking and planning to implementation. - But there are many steps taken based only on experience but no scientific basics. The manager starts by analyzing the company's situation and then researchs the market ... but not in any approach.It will be much more effective if using SWOT, Ganttcharts, breakeven analysis and some other formula.He anticipates some problems which make it difficult for companies without a lot of flexible activities to resolve.The manager should promote the role of employees with their comments to set up plans as well as using methods of teamwork. More over he needs to pay attention to the factors affecting the decision making to plan. The work planning for the company as an important task and affect the future of the company, so the manager need to learn more about the planning skills that can help company reach up one new level. - Finally, our group hopes these suggestions can help useful to manager as well as company and would like to thank the company for helping us complete this assignment.

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