Knowledge Management in Mountville Fashions - Assignment Example

? Knowledge Management Contents Contents 2 Mountville Fashions 4 Organization Structure and Culture and Business Strategy of Mountville Fashions 4 Organization Structure 4 Organization Culture 7 Organization Strategy 7 Knowledge Management in Mountville Fashions 8 Knowledge Management in Stores 8 Knowledge Management in Human Resources 8 Knowledge Management in Supply Chain 9 Knowledge Management in Projects 9 Knowledge Management in Audit Functions 10 Assessment of the Current Position of Mountville Fashions 10 Problems and Needs 10 Depiction of a Knowledge Management Strategy in regards to Mountville Fashions 11 Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Proposed Knowledge Management Strategy 12 References 14 Mountville Fashions Mountville Fashions, located in New York is a high street fashion wear company that mainly focuses on the production of fashionable wear for women, men and children. Mountville came into operations since 1970s and now operates based on a network of 20 outlets across United States. The garments produced by the company involve trendy wear that is largely adored by teenagers and also by other people interested in high street fashion clothes. Mountville Fashions does not resort depending on the production of stylish wears meant for only one season. Rather the company conducts a large amount of market research based on both internal and external teams to understand the realms of change in the fashion wear collections wore by different categories. Further the company also conducts fashion and trade shows along different periods to help gain customer and trade networks involved in the expansion of business for the fashion wear company. The company also integrates effectively with its supply chain network to gain knowledge of the new designs and fashion wears brought about by the category teams. Such new designs are well communicated to the different people in the organization both in regards to the head office and stores in order to conduct sales and operations effectively. The paper in this connection aims to conduct an in depth analysis of the organization structure and culture of the concern and thereby aim to reveal the knowledge management effectiveness in the concern. Organization Structure and Culture and Business Strategy of Mountville Fashions Organization Structure Mountville Fashions being a mid-sized fashion department store has an effective organizational structure headed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Company. The Chief Executive Officer of the company is followed by the Head of Finance and Head of Operations of the company. Again the Head of Finance is followed in by managers taking care of the account and credit operations. The Head of Operations would be the Coordinator of Fashions, Head of the Merchandise Display and Promotional Activities and the Head of Operational Activities in regards to Stores and Supplies. The same can be depicted as follows. Figure 1 (Diamond, 2007, p.58) The above organizational chart depicts specialization rendered in regards to the organizational functions thus focusing on the development of skills and business productivity. Through the organizational hierarchy reflected in the chart given the company can effectively work in enhancing the mode of store visuals and the different marketing and promotional activities in relation to such. Thus the head of such teams are expected to work on large amount of innovation in regards to the bringing out of effective visual merchandising ideas in regards to design of the store layout, the interior color to be used and the design of the displays. Such enhancement of the store displays conducted by the visual merchandising teams would certainly help in cultivation of brand awareness in the minds of the consumers. Again the supervisory teams in regards to such project of enhancing store displays are required to effectively communicate the ideas with the teams working in the store thereby enabling them to gain hold of newer ideas and knowledge. In regards to the enhancement of supply chain activities the head of merchandising had effectively introduced application based software programming like SAP that would help integrate the supply chain activities of the company spread along different warehouse centers of the company. Such integration of supply chain management activities helps the managers to effectively locate particular merchandise in high demand by the consumers desiring to go for repeat purchase. The operational head of the company is also required to bring out an operational guideline that would govern the day to day activities of the different outlets spread along United States (Pradhan, 2006, p.260). Store managers of the company are required to gain the knowledge of the operational guideline prepared by the operation head and thereby manage the store’s daily functions and operations in an effective manner. This function would thereby tend to bring about uniformity in the manner the different outlets would be centrally managed by the head office. Moreover the store managers of the different outlets are required to communicate with the operational head on a weekly basis stating the operational parameters like footfalls in the store, the pattern of purchase and other retail parameters like basket size of individual customers and conversion rate along with cumulative sales and margin (Stecker, 1996, p.265-267). Such discussion types would help enhance the analytical knowledge of the unit heads while communicating the daily operational parameters to the operation head. Organization Culture The organizational culture of Mountville Fashions reflects that the organization works based on large scale innovation and effective knowledge sharing activities. Employees pertaining to different levels are empowered to take key business decision on their own in regards to displays and in managing operations though sharing the same with other team members and supervisors. Moreover the operational culture of the company also depicts large amount of motivational activities wherein the people pertaining to different departments and of different levels are aptly rewarded and recognized for their performance in the weekly Saturday meetings. Thus this set of practices creates a more challenging organizational structure in Mountville Fashions. Organization Strategy In regards to organizational strategy the company works in enhancing its knowledge base both at the frontline level and also in the strategic level to help in gaining newer markets and large number of customers. Again the company also operates based on a strong supply chain network linking it up with the store functions through use of effective software. This strategy helps the company to help reduce the piling up of merchandise level in regards to the outlets and thus reduces the cost of inventory and working capital involved. Further the needs of the customers can be met accordingly and much quickly through effective searching of the stock in the warehouses and thereby reaching the same to the outlets. Through the above business strategy the company can work in building up its competence level in gaining hold of newer markets and consumers in an effective manner. Knowledge Management in Mountville Fashions Knowledge Management in Stores The knowledge management activity of the company is enhanced through the creation of knowledge portal wherein newer designs procured by the design and purchasing teams are reflected through the use of codes. This knowledge portal is created in each of the different outlets to help the store staffs gain adequate knowledge of the new merchandises and thereby can sale the advantages and features of the same to the consumers. Further the employees in the different outlets are required to take a note of the newer designs and fabrics introduced and thereby conduct adequate role plays to display the same before the unit heads. This process enabled helps in enhancing the knowledge base of the internal people about the different category of designs brought about and thereby helps them in attracting the customers. Moreover the internal people pertaining to different levels are rendered adequate knowledge of the software used in the company to help track the merchandise at the warehouses in case of demands for repeat purchase from the consumer’s end (Berman and Evans, 2007, p.331-332). Knowledge Management in Human Resources The management body at Mountville Fashions also takes care of the employee development functions in the company headed by the human resource head. In the employee development category effective activities are conducted to provide formal training to the people at different levels of any type of newer processes and systems introduced in the enterprise. Thus the people feel quite equipped to work in the change environment in the company and thus help in generation of productivity and revenue generation for the company. Similarly the company also works to help in enhancing the effectiveness of the trainer involved in imparting the training programs to the staffs through effective train the trainer programs. ‘Train the Trainer’ program helps to enhance the effectiveness of the training modes and modules of the company’s training programs and thereby helps the trainer in incorporating innovative actions like role plays in the module (Bhatia, 2008, p.159-160). Knowledge Management in Supply Chain Working along with other stakeholders the company also conducts frequent meetings with the procurement teams to enhance the effectiveness of the company’s supply chain networks. Category managers pertaining to the different categories are called by the head of merchandising and are asked to for newer designs through conducting effective market research activities and at the same time keeping prices low. Again the supply chain teams are also required to enhance the quality of the products through effective resourcing functions and to reach the products to the outlets in the due time. The employees are also given effective training on the changes brought about in the store operation scenario involving the incorporation of technology and changes in the operational procedures (Dawson and Lee, 2005, p.63-64). Knowledge Management in Projects Furthermore the company also works in the expansion activities of opening around 10 more outlets in addition to the existing 20 retail shops. The next 10 outlets of the company would be comprised of standalone units and also can be outlets incorporated within a large shopping mall. For the above activity the company already involves a project management team that would tend to first evaluate the feasibility of the region where such outlet would be opened in terms of socio-economic and geographical conditions. Herein effective knowledge is shared between the operations head and the project management unit to rightly evaluate and assess the region in terms of the return that ought to be gained from the investments that would be incurred in setting a store. Further knowledge is also imparted to the project teams in helping them to make effective utilization of the available resources to bring alive the project in the time allocated (Palmer, 2004, p.205). Knowledge Management in Audit Functions Louisville Fashions works in the development of the auditing framework in the company through the enhancement of knowledge of the people pertaining to the different types of audits in place. The internal people can be trained to effectively counter customer service audits, safety audits apart from other statutory audits conducted by external agencies. Similarly the management body of the company also incorporates a mystery audit conducted by an external agency where a mystery shopper visits the store outlets and rates the operations carried out depending on key parameters set beforehand. The feedback of such audits is shared via the knowledge portal amongst the different employees situated in the different stores and is briefed by the store head to help improve the service quality (Male, 2003, p.35-38). Assessment of the Current Position of Mountville Fashions Problems and Needs The above analysis of the knowledge management activities in Louisville Fashions reflect that the company has largely incorporated technological use both in regards to development of employee skills and potential and also for the effective integration of the supply chain teams to help meet customer demands. However the creation of knowledge portal through intranet activity in each of the different outlets would turn successful when the information gained from the same is effectively shared by the different team leads amongst the unit staffs. The team lead or the managers of the specific departments are required to assess the manner in which such information gained from the knowledge portal are used by the staffs for their professional and personal knowledge development. Again the people needs to be effectively coached on the manner the programs like SAP and Enterprise Resource Planning would be used by the people in meeting the consumer demands for particular merchandises. Herein for the ease of understanding special hot keys can be created by the knowledge management teams to help the front line people quickly earn access to the merchandise available in other outlets or in the regional warehouse. Thus the management of the integration of people and system functions in the company is required for the effective utilization of knowledge management resources and concepts used in Mountville Fashions. Depiction of a Knowledge Management Strategy in regards to Mountville Fashions The knowledge management framework used in Louisville Fashions can be better enhanced through countering effective strategies in terms of the technology and process used in retrieving and sharing such amongst the different team and store members. In terms of technology incorporated the knowledge management team is required to view the number of queries mailed by the different stores in regards to its usage. Moreover the knowledge management team is also required to see the frequency of visits to the knowledge portal by the people of the different stores. This can be conducted by assigning different codes to each of the different outlets both existing and new. In terms of the knowledge management process pertaining to gaining knowledge of market conditions, enhancing the auditing framework and other project management functions strategies can be put into place to assess the level of understanding of the employees. Herein it would be observed as the process through which knowledge is imparted amongst the team members and whether transparency is maintained by the higher authority. Again the employees or staffs are required to generate effective feedbacks for the knowledge shared in terms of proper recommendations placed whether at formal or at informal levels to the higher authority. Moreover real time chats can be incorporated on an online basis with the consumers by the marketing team of the company, responses to which would be shared amongst the team members or the store staffs on a weekly basis. This process would further enable the people to understand the views of the customers in regards to the services rendered and thereby can effectively work in redesigning such. Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Proposed Knowledge Management Strategy The above strategy would rightly help to effectively assess the number of people in the organization who had made the effective use of the knowledge management resources of the company in both enhancing their performance and also in augmenting the productivity of the company. It would also help in improving the quality of service delivered by the team members in the different outlets and also of the quality of the merchandises dispatched at the different outlets. Moreover effective sharing of the knowledge management resources and information gained from external sources also helps the company in countering external risks pertaining to both market forces and also in regards to the safety measures. Thus the store can gain effective points as to the audit conducted by the external agencies and thereby can become a healthy and high ranking store. Again it is observed that gaining of effective knowledge of the region beforehand or prior to the opening of any new outlet would help the company largely in gaining large amount of profits and revenue based on the investment made (Ghuman, 2010, p.604-605; Carugati and Rossignoli, 2011, p.145). Thus through the above evaluation activities the knowledge management activities in the company can be vastly recognized and thereby subjected to a manner of improving the sales and business dynamism of the retail company amidst its various competitors. References Berman, B., and Evans, J., 2007. Retail Management: A Strategic Approach, 10/E. Pearson Education India. Bhatia, S., 2008. Retail Management. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. Carugati, A., and Rossignoli, C., 2011. Emerging Themes in Information Systems and Organization Studies. Springer. Dawson, J., and Lee, J., 2005. International retailing plans and strategies in Asia. Routledge. Diamond, E., 2007. Fashion Retailing: A Multi-Channel Approach. Pearson Education India. Ghuman, K., 2010. Management: Concepts, Practice & Cases. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Male, S., 2003. Supply chain management for refurbishment: lessons from high street retailing. Thomas Telford. Palmer, A., 2004. Fashion: a Canadian perspective. University of Toronto Press. Pradhan, S., 2006. Retailing Management 2E. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Stecker, P., 1996. The fashion design manual. Macmillan Education AU. Read More