Aligning AL Company with the Gramen Equipment Operations - Essay Example

Aligning AL Company with the Gramen Equipment Operations Case Scenario As documented by Hill and Beckam (2011), Attain Learning is a profit oriented organization that offers customized business training solutions that combined with the traditional corporate training methods that also features cases studies and dynamic multimedia contents. Attain focused on the development of financial knowledge among non-financial managers, as well as offering a solution for leadership, communication, presentation, project management and strategy. Attains financial program is now part of the Online self-paced courses, pre-recorded podcasts, facilitated webinars and off-site seminars. The company popularity has grown and even attracted media attention for the innovative approach to training. On the other hand, Gramen Equipment Company deals in designing, manufacturing and marketing agricultural equipment. The company is also popular. In 2010, the company had succeeded in recording as substantial as 3 billion dollar profit from its sales and increased its staff to 9, 000 employees. The company has been focussed on realizing growth through acquisitions. As a way of keeping abreast the trending developments, Gramen has looked to employee training to keep abreast, has been extended to those of the acquired firms. The training services would be sought from Attain Learning. Attain Company services would include offering customized online financial courses to a number of middle-level managers from Gramen Company. After the Completion of the Course, Attain Learning would conduct a seminar to reinforce the learned financial principles. Gramen was concerned about extending the training to other product lines offered by Attain learning. There were even chances for having Attain establish a hosting professional Centre for Gramen Company. Thus, two firms have to work together. Attain Learning strategic management structure requires that only the Account Director is to be the person of direct contact with the client. The problem lies in aligning the Attain Learning Organization with the Gramen Equipment firm for efficient operation. Importance of Strategic Fit Before coming up with a strategic fit, it is imperative to acknowledge the importance of having a strategic fit. Undoubtedly, this will inform some of the points to give considerations to in designing a strategic fit. The problem with lacking an appropriate and well defined strategic fit is role overlap, ambiguity and miscommunication that result in organizational conflicts (Solomon, Bamossy and Askegaard 2011). Such a situation is depicted in real life encounter between Gramen and Attain Learning management. The challenge comes out clear when Kay Sunderland, the accountant director, while busy in his office, received a call from Juan Nunez, a chief learning officer at Gramen, one of the Attain Learning esteemed customers. Nunez wanted Sunderland to call him, as soon as possible. He called back only to be informed that Attain Learning content development officer, mike Morgan, had contacted Nunez. Nunez point was that he did not want to deal with Morgan and did not any interference from him. Sunderland was concerned that no one else was supposed to deal with the client directly other her. In this regard, there is the need of devising a strategic fit that shuns such challenges. Strategic fit is an expression of the degrees in which organizations matches its resources and capabilities with the opportunities that exist in the external environments. The matching process assumes the strategic processes, including human resource management and organization restructuring (Bird, 2000). Strategic fit can be effectively employed in the evaluation of the company situation, including the divestitures of the divisions in the organization. In this case, strategic fit pertains to the resource-oriented management paradigm that affirms the pathway to success does not lie in the industrial selection and position, but in internal focus that seeks to optimize the capabilities and resources. Eventually, a strategic combination of capabilities and resources may build a competitive advantage that profits the organizations (Cheverton, 2012). In this regard, a strategic fit to align Attain Learning and Gramen Company operation is particularly crucial. As far as Attain Learning and Gramen Company service exchange is concerned, the secret in the strategic fit lies in developing an appropriate organization structure. An organization structure is defined as the arrangement of groups and jobs in organizations. Organization structure is aimed at enhancing operation and reporting relationships in the working environments between people, groups and departments. An appropriate organization structure is composed of departments, hierarchies of management, goal, rules procedures and committees. It is also worth noting that an organization structure should be designed in line with the organization goals (Evans, O’Malley and Patterson, 2004). Indeed, it cannot be disputed that putting in place a suitable structure, that which addresses the needs of the organization, is the most appropriate approach to success. Understanding the Problem underlying the AL present Management Strategy Before coming up with a strategic fit, it is imperative to single out the problem that underlies the present management approach, as signalled in practice or as highlighted in strategic fit theory. First, the Attain learning structure can be described as that which is flat and this was aimed at increasing flexibility. The company is head by the CEO, who directly heads Business development, Office management, Product Management, Accounting and Human Resource Departments. COO also reports directly the CEO. However COO directly heads various directors, who are placed at the same level. These include the content development director, event planning director, technology director and two account directors. One account director heads a hierarchical chain comprising of Account Executive, his assistant and administrative assistant, respectively. Furthermore, the content Development Director heads various departments that fall at the same level, including the Graphic Design, Web Programming, Copy writers. One of the weaknesses that could be pointed out is that there are two account managers that are operating at the same level. Undoubtedly, such a structure is associated with role confusion. One would question the role of both managers, considering that it is confusing. Moreover, what is the use of having a hierarchy under one of the account managers, in the case of a fully fledged organization? Even of great concern is the fact that the account director is supposed to play a crucial role in the organization by intermediating between the company and the clients. If the management structure is retained, client would be confused on who to report to. This is aggravated by lack of direct association between the account directors, as much as they are tasked to perform a similar role. There is the need to come up with a strategic fit that eliminates these discrepancies. Secondly, it is widely cited that decision making processes are likely to be low in the hierarchical structures, considering that authorities and responsibilities are often concentrated amongst few individuals. Indeed, this is also reflected in the case of Attain Learning. As insisted of Attains desirable organization structure, the accountant director should be the only person to mediate with the clients. The account director is supposed to report to the COO, who the channels it to the CEO. The CEO will then relay the feedback to the COO, who will then communicate with relevant departments, in case there is an issue that pertains to them. The relevant department would then have to relay the feedback to the COO, who may further relay the information to the CEO. To complete the communication, The CEO will relay the information to the COO, which would then be relayed to the account director. Eventually the account director will relay the information to the client. Such a communication chain is unnecessary inconveniencing and slow. Slowed decision-making process is likely to be the case when the organization management is not well structured, as in the case of the Attain Structure was retained. Thridly, retaining the structure would impose limits on the individual responsibilities and authorities while limiting the ability of the organization to adopt the changes that accompany working with Gramen Company. The top-down organization structure, such as that exhibited by Attain Learning, will not effectively respond to the emergent issues. This has often been the account drastic spiralling of small firms to overtake the large firms, yet large companies with hierarchical structures have often been successful in leading innovations (Bird, 2000). This is an indicator that an appropriate organizations structure could effectively overcome such potential challenges. In this regard, in designing an appropriate organization structure, crucial questions would be whether the strategic fit assures flexibility and enhances the decision-making processes. Moreover, another role of the account director, as indicated in the Attain management approach, includes monitoring projects and ensuring their execution through coordination. The account director will not dictate other departments, but will only ensure they are in line with the strategic requirement of the clients. Such a role places the account director in a certain position that should be above the departments, which happen to operate at the same level. This is also another flaw. In this regard, if the account director is to function effectively buy liaising with other managers, there is the need to elevate his position. The management structure at Attain is that which can be described as that which might have only been suitable during its growth from scratch. It does not reflect the present company needs, as it works with Gramen; hence, requires to be changed. Nevertheless, the inherent problem of having an account director as the sole mediator with the client is that it could be inconveniencing whenever the accountant is committed to other tasks, such as meetings (Jobber, D. and Lancaster, 2012). Therefore, when designing a strategic fit, the question of how such an issue may be checked. Proposed Strategic Fit for Attain Learning and Gramen Company Figure 1: Proposed Strategic fit model The Proposed Strategic fit comprises of the CEO, who is in charge of the Business development, product development, office management, human resources and Account departments. The COO operates under him. Under the COO is the senior accountant. Under the senior accountant are the assistant accountants, content developer, and event planning director, technology director and content specialist area. A hierarchal chain consisting of the account executive, assistant account executive and the administrative assistant, respectively, come under the assistant account director. Clearly, such a strategic fit is advantageous over the initial structure in two ways. In one way, it eliminates the event of role confusion. Secondly, it eliminates chances of delayed decision-making, as had earlier highlighted in about the old strategy. Conclusion This paper has proposed a strategic fit for Attain Learning Company, as it works with Gramen Company, one of the esteemed customers. Attain Learning strategic management structure requires that only the Account Director is to be the person of direct contact with the client. The solution to strategic fit lies in the restructuring of the management structure. As a management structure that was means to stir the company from scratch, the strategy is outdated, especially now that the firm is large and faces demanding operation. Such a structure is associated with slowing down the decision-making process, as well as limiting creativity. Another weakness of the structure can be singled out has having the potential of resisting creativity and even innovativeness. The top-down organization structure, such as that exhibited by Attain Learning, will not effectively respond to the emergent issues. The proposed strategic fit model will effectively address the problems. References Bird, D (2000), How to write sales letters that sell, Oxford University Press Cheverton, P. (2012), Key Account Management, Kogan Evans, M; O’Malley, L. and Patterson, M (2004), Exploring Direct & Customer Relationship Marketing,Thompson. Hill, L. and Beckam, H. (2011) Kay Sunderland: Making the Grade at Attain Learning, Havard Business Publishing. Jobber, D. and Lancaster, G. (2012), Selling and Sales Management, London: Prentice Hall. Smith, P. (2010) Marketing Communications: An Integrated Approach, Kogan. Solomon, M; Bamossy, G. and Askegaard, S (2011), Consumer Behaviour, Lopndon: Prentice Hall. Read More