Implementation and Action Plan of CSD Manager - Essay Example

As the new CSD Manager it is my responsibility to inform the rest of the executive managerial staff about the quality control issues with the widget products. The severity of the problem represent a major business risk that could cost the company millions of dollars and even put the firm out of business if actions are not taken immediately to remove all defective products out of circulation. The managers are schedule for a meeting with the Chief Executive Officer soon. This is the perfect opportunity to bring the problem to the table. I have to carefully plan my strategy to introduce the subject matter in an effective manner without blaming anyone and with the objective to obtain the full support of the decision makers of the enterprise. It is important in any negotiation to clearly establish the importance of the action plan. In order to persuade the managerial staff my approach is to prepare a short 10 minute presentation full of qualitative and quantitative data and research of the importance of the problem. Within the content of the presentation business topics that will be covered include mitigation plan, business risks, civil liability, customer retention, and corporate social responsibility among others. I would hand out a pen drive with the entire presentation and additional research to each of the executives and would ask for a 10 minute allocation for me present the problem to managerial staff. SWC has to handle the situation in a sensitive manner in order to reassure the customer’s the firm cares about their well being. The enterprise must admit their wrong doing and must provide an explanation why the defects occurred irrelevant of the repercussions. Honesty is the best policy right now to establish a bond of trust between SWC and its clientele. An alternative solution to communicate the problem to the customers is to hire a public relations consulting firm in order to formulate a campaign to tell the general public about the problems with the widgets. The customers are considered the most important stakeholder group of a corporation because their support directly affects the revenue generating capacity of a firm. Companies that are customer centered are in a better position to identify new opportunities and set courses of action that promise to deliver long-term profits (Kotler, 2003, p.273). The occurrence with the widgets at SWC is an indicator that the company lacks accountability. This issue must be dealt with because the company has focus on the long term consequences of their actions. The findings of my initial audit are that it is possible that some of the employees including members of the managerial staff might have been aware of the defective widgets, but for some unknown reason they failed to reveal the problem. Such behavior can be interpreted as a lack of profession ethics among these individuals. Ethics can be defined as the rules of conduct of a person or the members of a profession which deals with decisions between right and wrong (Credo Reference, 2009). A long term solution to change the corporate culture at SWC is to establish a code of professional conduct. The organization structure and corporate culture of SWC has to change in order to become a customer friendly enterprise and to prevent deviant behavior from occurring. The company must implement control mechanisms to provide greater oversight over managerial actions. The managers of the company cannot place their interest above other important stakeholders such as the customers and the shareholders. One of the primary objectives of corporations is to maximize shareholder’s wealth (Beasley & Brigham, 2000). An alternative solution to implement better managerial oversight is to create a protocol that mandates one external audit per trimester. The results of the audit would be given to the board of directors in order to for them to decide whether or not the executive staff is doing their jobs correctly without incurring in any conflicts of interest. Another initiative that could help improve the corporate culture is for employees of the company to take seminars on ethical conduct in the workplace. It is possible that a lot of the employees may not be aware that some of their actions may be unethical. The CEO of the company should meet with the controller of the company to determine if the company is currently complying with the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002. Implementation and Action Plan The company is facing a public relation nightmare problem due to the incompetent behavior of its managerial staff. SWC allow had poor quality assurance practices which caused major defects in its widget product line. As indicated earlier the first step of the plan is to notify the entire executive staff including the CEO about the problem. The method chosen to achieve this task is to provide a short presentation to the executive staff along with supporting evidence of the severity of the problem. It is imperative for the entire staff to agree that the problem is a serious issue that must be deal with. Within the content of the presentation material I must include generic benchmarking case studies of companies in other industries that went through similar situations in order to clearly show the executives the potential repercussions of the issue. An additional action that I must take during this first step is to have a private one on one meeting with the CEO. The CEO must be aware that this problem could have been prevented and that the reason it occurred is due to poor management practices. The CEO should start an investigation to determine who is responsible for the action. There is possibility of collusion among the managerial staff. The investigation would be a separate initiative not associated the action plan to remedy the situation immediately. It must be performed because it is totally unacceptable for the company to introduce defective products to the marketplace. The second step of the action plan is to communicate the defective widget product problem to the general public. An alternative solution is to hire a public relations agency to help the enterprise in the process of communicating the error to the population. This is not the only alternative. The CEO could also schedule a press conference with the media to send a message to the public about the defective widgets. Irrelevant of the method chosen for the initial communication SWC needs to be honest and offer the customer an apology and a financial retribution solution to the customers. All defective widgets must be recalled immediately and the firm must provide a refund to the end-state customers and the distributors in its supply chain. The last step of the plan is the creation of code of professional conduct along with a series of control mechanisms to increase the accountability of the managers of the company. The best oversight framework is to follow the guidelines of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Sarbanes Oxley Act framework increases accountability and raises investor confidence because compliance can be demonstrated and accurately monitored and reported (Cnet, 2009). Organizational Situations The problem at SWC is an organizational situation that can occur in any business if the managers do not pay close attention to the operations of the corporation. Prior to the commence of the 21st century Nike Corporation faced a major public relations scandal due to the existence of company sponsored sweetshops in developing countries. This revelation at the time hurt the company’s public image and it took years for the firm to reassure its customer such actions would not occur again. SWC is facing a similar situation, but if firm is smart it can minimize the collateral damage. In many industries such as the auto industry product recalls are customary and customers respect companies that admit their mistakes and implement action plans to fix the problem to ensure the customers do not incur in any financial losses. The situation SCW is going through should be seen as an opportunity to improve the operations of the company. It is obvious that there were major internal issues at this firm. If the enterprise had not taken a proactive stance to deal with the issue the public perception of the company along with its image could have been tarnish forever. When a firm reacts after the fact concerning a defective product issue the customer perception is that a company is taking an action because they have too. Proactive actions on the other hand create an impression that the firm cares about the well being of its clientele. The implementation plan described in this paper provides a good solution that will minimize the damages to the image of the company and will help SWC maintain the highest possible customer retention rate. The creation of a code of professional conduct will provide the employees with clear guidelines of what constitutes unacceptable behavior in the workplace. The proposed action plan is the best way to ensure the company continues to be a profitable business entity in the long run. References Besley, S., Brigham, E. (2000). Essential of Managerial Finance (12th ed.). Fort Worth: The Dryden Press. Credo Reference (2009). Ethics. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Retrieved December 30, 2009 from Credo Reference database. Cnet.com (2009). Lowdown on SOX. Retrieved December 30, 2009 from http://news.cnet.com/Sarbanes-Oxley-cheat-sheet/2030-7349_3-5465172.html Kotler, P. (2003). Marketing Management (11th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Read More