Unit 16 MCKI Assignment Solution - Dyson

Home

Solution

Introduction

The technological advancement of the organisation has led many organisations to operate in many different ways to gain competitive advantage over other organisations. In recent years, many new organisations have emerged and are capturing the market with their innovative thinking and design to retain consumers. However, with growing time and technology many organisations are losing their grasp on the market as they are not able to retain their patrons. Under such situations, organisations are proposing different ways to alter the information and communication pattern to attract new consumers and retain the old consumers. In this assignment, the learner discusses different strategies with the help of relevant theories to implement new decision making processes that can help the organisation to sustain in the market. The learner explains the business process of Dyson that recently opened its retail store in UK.

Unit 16 MCKI Assignment Solution - Dyson

Task 1

AC1.1 Discuss the range of decisions taken by management at Dyson in relation to expanding further

Any organisation has to make several decisions before releasing it to the market. It is necessary to understand the various forms of marketing strategies that can help in the development of the business (Argenti, 2015).Under such situations, Dyson has to understand the potential market and understand the needs of the consumers and make decisions accordingly to ensure success in the sales figure. For this, the organisation has to undergo various levels of decision making processes that are segregated in various levels such as,

Decision Making Stages

Figure 1 – Decision Making Stages

(Source: Argenti, 2015)

Strategic Decision

Market Expansion: Expanding to new markets like India and China can help Dyson to increase business market. Presently, Dyson has expanded its market to UK, which is not making any positive impact on the organisation’s sales performance. As there are many competitors with a wide variety of services, Dyson is not able to retain consumers in UK market.

Tactical Decision

Innovation: With the advent of technology and engineering, Organisation can develop new innovative products that can help Dyson to gain consumer attention and retain consumers. These levels of decision making process help an organisation to operate under various stages of the business operation and help them to take decisions wisely. It is crucially important to understand the nature and the demand of the product in the specified location of business.

Operational Decision

Overseas Production: Moving the production to Asian countries can be beneficial for the organisation as it will help them to lower the cost on the manpower and help them to maintain the quality of their products. Presently, Dyson has been operating for a while now and their operational costs are considered to be huge for their quality. This reflects on the overall pricing of the products that fails to attract new consumers. Under such circumstances, the organisation when relocating their production to Asian countries like China or Japan, it can help them to lower the price on the products and help them to attract consumers.

These decisions put forward by Dyson management helps them to regain control of the market as they have good brand value in the global market place.

AC1.2 Examine the information and knowledge needed by management to ensure effective decision making

Information type	Characteristics of the decision
Information type	Internal or External	Explicit or Tacit	Time taken to collect	Cost of collecting	Orientation; current or Future
Strategic Information	External	Explicit	6 months to 1year	3 – 4 Million	Future
Tactical Information	Internal	Explicit	6months to 1 year	1 – 2 Million	Current
Operational Information	External	Explicit	6months to 1 year	1 – 2 Million	Future

Table 1 – Effective decision making

Strategic Decision making in an organisation is considered to be very important and crucial. It has to look over various factors to understand their competitive edge in the market. As opined by Shwom and Snyder, (2015), in order to evaluate the organisation’s status in the market, it is essential to identify the strength, weakness, opportunity and threats. A SWOT analysis becomes handy for any organisation because it shows the business in a simplified process.

AC1.3 Assess the internal and external sources of information available to management at Dyson

Source of information	Example	Strengths	Weaknesses
Primary Sources	Newspapers and surveys	Information is extracted by the business organisation itself	This process is considered to be very costly to extract up to date information
Secondary Sources	Internet and government publication	Fetching the information is reasonable at cost because the data is already present	Chances are that the information may be out of date.
Internal Sources	Financial Performance, and managing assets	The information is necessary for all management levels as it is collected internally	Information comes from all departments of the organisation and therefore sometimes does not produce the required data
External Sources	Market Research	Helps the seniors to identify the potential sources and understand the flaws in business	Information is generally derived through external places and does not provide appropriate data
Formal Sources	Sales Figure, Health and safety statistics	Contains ordered structure that has all the information available	Information are traceable and documented.
Informal Sources	Voice Calls, Memos	Information discussed are crucial for the organisation	Has no relevant structure or format.

Table 2 – Internal and external sources of information

The information gathered is extremely essential for the organisation and should be assessed accordingly with time. Dyson has up to date information with the management that has helped them to take the respective decision. The decision making process is completely unbiased.

AC1.4 Propose and justify recommendations to improve information and knowledge available to manager at Dyson

In order to improve information and knowledge, the manager has to improve the information system of the organisation to develop appropriate flowchart to store the necessary information. Management Information System is considered to be useful in this matter as it helps the organisation to store relevant data and information. The information stored are for each term that is quarterly or yearly and then evaluate the information to predict the business prospect accordingly. Apart from that, Decision Support System are another area to store information as they have appropriate database that includes information input procedure for statistical analysis, then comes the processing which involves statistical simulation analysis to generate proper results and after that comes responses to statistical test results (Bovee and Thill, 2000, p.96) . MIS and DSS are considered to be effective in terms of storing and improving the information and knowledge to the manager as it helps them to view the present and predict the future. These reports are handy when communicating to the internal stakeholders of the organisation. When the manager decides to store this information, the data are stored and then used for future purposes to measure the success of the business. This also helps the manager in communicating to the stakeholders and providing them with proper information.

AC2.1 Identify and explain briefly the key stakeholders of the decision making process of Dyson

In order to make an effective decision making process, the manager has to ensure information are being delivered to the shareholders of the company. The manager can involve the stakeholders of the organisation by producing periodic reports, press conferences and other modes to communicate with the top level management. It is essential for the manager to understand that without appropriate data and information, communication will be invalid and therefore the use of information system is very crucial as it has all the necessary information and data that can be produced to the stakeholders (Guffey and Loewy, 2010, p.127). With the help of necessary information, the manager can seek the involvement of stakeholders in the decision making process.

The shareholders and the investors are considered to be an integral part of the decision making process of Dyson because of their shares in the organisation. As the company promised them with good returns, it is the responsibility of the organisation to provide proper information. Communicating with the stakeholders is useful for the organisation. It also helps in maintaining long term relationship with the organisation. Apart from those publications, annual reports and seminars to inform the shareholders of the organisation (Coombs, 2015, p. 143). This helps them to provide clarity and maintain transparency.

AC2.2 Draft at least two different communications that you will send to two of the stakeholders to make contact with them to develop business relationships (201)

Letter to the stakeholder of the company

Respected Stakeholder,

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued participation in our organisation. It has been a genuine pleasure to have you all as an esteemed pillars of the organisation.

As you might expect, we have received certain flaws in the organisation in relation to communication within the management. We are continuously trying to improve our communication pattern and would appreciate your presence in the board for decision making process. For example, we have received suggestions to improve our web portal services to include more information to bring transparency within the organisation.

Therefore, it is my request that you join us on the improvement phase to improve our business communication in a better way.

Sincerely,

______________________

Email to respected stakeholders

Dear Stakeholder,

I would like to hereby inform you on the current affairs of the organisation and expect your sincere participation in the decision making process to improve our communication channels and bring transparency among the managements of the organisation. We recently reviewed a lot of request to provide training on the groupware of the organisation to make the information and knowledge available to the employees of the organisation. Therefore it would be really appreciable on your behalf if you joined us in the improvement stage for a better tomorrow.

Thanks and Regards,

AC2.3 Design at least three strategies that can be adopted by Dyson to involve stakeholders in the decision making process

In order to involve the stakeholders in the decision making process, it is necessary for the organisation to provide them with appropriate information such as newsletter, mails and other formal ways to approach the stakeholders. Since they are an integral part of the organisation, the responsibility of the manager is to communicate this information to the stakeholders to ensure that they are informed of the current affairs of the organisation and therefore can be involved in the decision making process (Lauring and Klitmoller, 2015, p. 48),

Press Conference
Meetings
Newsletter

In a press conference, the stakeholders are gathered to discuss on the core issues and present the solutions to the esteemed members of the organisation. In press conferences, the organisation discusses the various problems that they are facing in the market and communicate to come to a proper solution. Apart from that, newsletters are another way of communicating to the stakeholders of the organisation by providing them information on the organisation’s status in the business market (Castelli, 2016, p. 219). Meetings among the top level management are also important to discuss the operational costs and other resources that are essential for the business operations. These are some of the ways in which an organisation can draw the attention of the stakeholders of the organisation and involve them in the decision making process.

AC2.4 Make and explain proposals as to how the participations of each of stakeholders can be improved

In order to improve the participation of the stakeholders in the decision making process of the organisation, Dyson has put forward two proposals that can help them to engage the stakeholders in the business decision. The first and the foremost action taken by the organisation are to arrange quarterly meetings with the board and discuss the loopholes of the organisation in the market place. This helps the company to receive innovative ideas and suggestions that can benefit them for their future run (Dale, 2016, p. 588). Secondly, the organisation has decided to increase the profit percentage that will keep the stakeholders satisfied and they will be motivated enough to involve in the decision making process of the organisation. With these two proposals, the organisation can increase the communication amongst the stakeholders and expect their participation for a better future of the business. It is essential to understand the demand of the market and with the involvement of the stakeholders in the decision making process, the decisions can be expected to be on the positive scale (Hwang and Chung, 2016, p. 236).

Task 2

AC3.1 AC4.1 Report on the current processes of communication and existing approaches to the collection, formatting, storage and dissemination of information and knowledge

Being the communications officer of Tesco, the current processes of communication and existing approaches to the storage of information and knowledge are presently out of date. The management level system of the organisation serves in monitoring the management activities by controlling the information, administrative activities through the decision making process. The decision support system (DSS) and Management Information System (MIS) needs to be updated to store the collected information to circulate the information to the respective stakeholders of the organisation. Usability is a major concern for management information system. Despite having an appropriate system to store data, the information is not circulated among the employees thereby draining the costs of the company in information system (Jablonsky, 2015). Therefore under such circumstances, necessary actions are required to bridge the gap between the managements. Apart from that, the information captured by the system requires security that demands regulation.

AC3.2 AC4.2 Design ways to improve the appropriateness of the current communication processes and how you will carry out appropriate changes to improve the collection, formatting, storage and dissemination of information and knowledge

Under such situation, the organisation can propose new ways to improve the communication process by using Intranets, web portals, groupware. These are some of the best ways to ensure protection of the data and with the help of web portals, new information can be collected and stored in the servers. It is important to understand that data collection is an important part of the organisation’s research and development (Stoichev, 2014, p. 97). Another area to make improvement can be measured by installing intranet facility within the organisation so that the employees are informed about the necessary changes. Intranet serves as an effective mode of communication within the organisation and can spread the information and knowledge within seconds (Kneale, 2007, p. 33). The DSS and MIS are aligned according to the system security and therefore ensure proper security that can improve the current communication process.

AC3.3 AC4.3 Propose improvements to ensure greater integration of communication systems and implement a strategy to improve access to systems of information and knowledge to others

To improve the information and knowledge facility, installing and testing the new hardware equipment to configure the network infrastructure. In addition to this, implementing the use of Web portals, intranet and groupware will be helpful. The organisation must train users of their new system and then transfer data from the previous system to the new database thereby securing the old data and adding new data and information (Messner, 2007, p. 126). However, this requires cautious planning to ensure smooth flow of data and information. For this the organisation has to ensure proper testing and implementation of IT resources such as,

Procurement of the new system
Electrics
Accommodation of the new hardware
Operating system
Application
Network file system
Domain structure
Network accounts and services
Data transfer
Training
Testing

With the help of this flowchart, Tesco can make proper improvement in relation to the integration of communication systems and improve access to systems of information and knowledge thereby minimising the errors

Task 3

AC3.4 Create a personal plan to improve your own communication skills

In order to improve the communication as a manager of Dyson, it is essential to understand the complications and then develop appropriate actions that can enhance the professional experience of the organisation (Tapinoset al. 373). For this, the manager of Dyson must undergo communication programme to enhance the communication skills. With the help SMART objectives, the manager can trace the development of his/her professional course.

Specific	Under soft skills development programme and public speaking course to improve communication skills
Measurable	It is measurable by the degree of communicating with other personnel and the ease of solutions
Achievable	With the help of proper training it is achievable
Relevant	Highly relevant as it is an integral part of business
Time Bound	2months

Table 3 – PDP

(Source: Designed by Learner)

Conclusion

The learner has used some of the most promising secondary research journals for the assignment. After analysing the discussions and identifying the loopholes, the learner has presented some of the most promising solutions that can help the organisation to improve the business communication, information and knowledge. In order to improve the business functions of the organisation, Dyson must adopt these proposed strategies that can help in improving the business functions of the organisation. The organisation has to develop short term courses to shorten the barriers and work as a team to increase the transparency among the personnel.