CanGo Company Analysis Essay

Issue 1: Absence of planning for the startup business. Analysis and Recommendation: The founder of the CanGo Company had given little thought to the long range plans and direction of the company beyond the basic steps required to get the business in place. The organization’s successes could be attributed to the unique niche the CEO was able to fill for consumers mixed with old fashioned luck. Yes However, relying on these attributes to carry the business indefinitely would be ill advised. The largest risk in not utilizing strategic planning is failing to anticipate for fundamental changes in customer expectations, employee morale, regulatory requirements, competitive pressures, and economic changes. The company may lose valuable lead time and momentum when trying to catch up to these changes that could be severely detrimental to the company (Olsen). The first order of business for CanGo to move the company to the next stages and build a sustainable business would be to generate a vision statement, mission statement, and a specific strategic plan that can be used as roadmaps for the company’s next two to five years of operation. These elements should be considered the most important and immediate objectives for the top management of the company. They will form the basis of all other business decisions to be made in the organization’s foreseeable future. Issue 2: Missing strategic planning for  the future of the company. Analysis and Recommendation: The failure of management to have a realistic plan is clear when analyzing the speech given to the Hudson Valley Business association. Liz fails in her ability to outline the steps she took in order to create a successful business. Instead she covered her tracks with analogies of the ideas that were used to start the business. While having a good entrepreneurial concept is a commendable start if will not maintain a profitable business in the long term. The speech highlighted the disorganization of the company’s management. There was no mention of setting goals, strategic planning, market analysis, or financial considerations, or any other type of due diligence. The lack of a comprehensive plan will also impact the health of the internal portion of the organization. The reaction of other employees to the speech was that of disbelief of just how much of their livelihood has been left to chance. Employees clearly have a lack of confidence in the leadership of the company. This becomes even more apparent at the staff meeting that shortly followed this speech that announced the changes in the company’s direction to move toward online gaming. What is the recommendation? A comprehensive plan? Issue 3: Deficiency exists in research for decision making. A formal structure to company decisions is nonexistent and there is a failure to utilize team strategic planning. Analysis and Recommendation: The company was looking to start a new venture in the new and fast growing market of online gaming. The key employees of the company did not seem to be very interested or enthusiastic about the idea of online gaming. They proposed other ideas that were quickly shut down or were completely ignored. When starting any new product or service in a company there is a need for designated teams who can do the research to find out if the product or service will work well in the designated market. Along with the research team the company needed to involve their financial department to see where the company stood financially and risk analysts to analyze the risks associated with the new product or services. It is clear that CanGo did not have any type of formal strategic plan for moving forward. All the members  of the planning team needed to be on the same page. Andrew, the company’s Director of Marketing, just seemed to be thinking about having fun. â€Å"I know this is a hard concept, but we’re talking about fun. You know fun? Remember when you were young?† (Prentice Hall, 2002) while Ethel, the Director of Accounting, was concerned more about the financial aspects of online gaming, how it’s going to impact the organization, and where it is going to take the company. Elizabeth, the CEO and company founder, needs to have another meeting with the key members of all the departments and pay attention to her staff’s concerns pertaining to the online gaming venture before moving any further with the online gaming plans. Issue 4: Lack of direction and good communication practices Analysis and Recommendation: The Director of Operations assigned Nick, a senior staff member, the task of developing an implementation plan. There was a brief description of the different tasks involved with this project. The conversation was purely one sided. Without the necessary feedback the result was a loss of clarification. In order to create the type of motivation and momentum for such an implementation plan a simple project diagram or network could have been used. â€Å"The project network is the tool used for planning, scheduling, and monitoring project progress. The network is developed from the information collected for the Work Breakdown Structure and is a graphic flow chart of the project job plan† (Larson & Gray, 2010). In order to get the online gaming implementation plan going there needed to be an organizational hierarchy. A Gantt chart, project network diagram, or just a simple prioritized to-do list would have helped Nick to give his task a good start. Good. Instead he had to depend on his co-workers for guidance. This took them away from their own work and created inefficiencies. In project work there is no time to lose on assumptions. The only way that a project will succeed is with good practices of communication and organization. The CanGo implementation team had to play catch-up when they should have been breaking down the tasks into a Work Breakdown Structure format which could have been shared by all team members involved. Issue 5: Deficiencies exist in communication and  organizational/prioritization skills. Analysis and Recommendation: When assigned to launch a new gaming project on behalf of the company, Nick didn’t exercise any structured plan of action. Neither had he requested for any supervisor help when it was required for project implementation. Nick should have visualized a proper project plan for introducing a new online gaming system on behalf of the company. Nick and his team members were able to initiate the project implementation based on management approval. By using a Gantt chart, Nick should have prioritized his team work assignment according to project goals. By using proper project planning Nick would have performed better and allowed him to address all identified issues such as hardware, software, recommendations, price comparisons, and testing. Nick did not ask the right questions during project implementing nor during the assignment of the project to him. When projects were allocated to him, his statements were obscure and incomplete. He should have informed management if he knew about his personal shortfalls in the first place. During the project implementation, he should have gathered more knowledge and direction from supervision to successfully implement the assigned project. Issue 6: Absence of clear direction and prioritization from management. Analysis and Recommendation: Employees were presented with the news that sales were about to be increased by five hundred percent. The â€Å"coach† discussed different tasks that needed to be completed due to the increase in sales. He gave priority to order fulfillment. The significance of other tasks was debatable because the coach did not necessarily put the rest into any kind of order. The Coach gave a timeframe of October and I am assuming that he expected the team to decide in what order the tasks were to be completed. I like most that he opened up the floor to discussion to decide if there were any other tasks that were needed to be completed that he may have left out. This was a good way to include his subordinates in the planning process but again there was not any indication on priority for any suggestions that were given. I feel that too much leeway was given to the team. The coach should have used a Gantt chart to explain the tasks at hand, what needed to be completed, and given specific deadlines. References: Larson, E., & Gray, C. (2010). Project management, the managerial process. (5th ed., p. 158). Olsen, E. (n.d.). Risks of having no strategic plan. Retrieved from http://www.dummies.com/ how-to/content/risks-of-having-no-strategic-plan.html Prentice Hall (Publisher) (2002). Mastering management: Planning. Retrieved from http://www.devryu.net/re/DotNextLaunch.asp? courseid=8122292&userid=8123623&sessionid=02bf3430d3&tabid=3hOXWa4X+vEY bMogOOfyF/Y92qckiqw5bkr3INJJiCQ=&sessionFirstAuthStore=true&macid=MKq5/ WI0XIZJfxogF9ZSb8WSMMXJQO4uX3qPSN9LnLH61T9jATzfp X4V+WdAFCff8okk3HfeqPJT1u4URUXCDuBTt6q2Rv8h3nkOlI/ bowSZIVwVacF6cGBZ6dIyKpp8ojt9strwWUQ2rz0UTljeefD9/ maBRs+49nMB+RDjmwSFQ1vJvleOgIJwFo/e8j+aJWL8/SUmKonAXixcZgSL6w== Prentice Hall (Publisher) (2002). Mastering strategy: Concepts of strategic management. Retrieved from http://www.devryu.net/re/DotNextLaunch.asp?courseid=8122292& userid=8123623&sessionid=02bf3430d3&tabid=3hOXWa4X+vEYbMogOOfyF/ Y92qckiqw5bkr3INJJiCQ=&sessionFirstAuthStore=true&macid=MKq5/ WI0XIZJfxogF9ZSb8WSMMXJQO4uX3qPSN9LnLH61T9jATzfp X4V+WdAFCff8okk3HfeqPJT1u4URUXCDuBTt6q2Rv8h3nkOlI/ bowSZIVwVacF6cGBZ6dIyKpp8ojt9strwWUQ2rz0UTljeefD9/ maBRs+49nMB+RDjmwSFQ1vJvleOgIJwFo/e8j+aJWL8/SUmKonAXixcZgSL6w==