You will play the role of Gina Zhang, Business Development Specialist for Angel Solutions Australia (ASA). ASA is a consultancy service providing assistance with compliance, finances, human resources, information technology and other business needs to ensure that businesses have the expertise and support that they need to survive and prosper. You should familiarise yourself with what ASA does, the company's services and history, its organisational structure and its employees. Ensure that you read the ASA Business Plan to understand the company's mission, vision and business objectives.

Part A - Stakeholder consultation to identify business improvement

Read the following email and its attachments, then complete the tasks that follow:

To:

Gina Zhang

From:

Nicole Thomas

Date/time:

Monday 11:19 a.m.

Subject:

Projects to Identify Innovative Practices

Attachments:

Strategic Plan Overview.docx, Operational Performance Data.docx

Good morning Gina,

The Australian Government Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research has recently developed a Business Fund to support innovation in small to medium sized businesses. To meet the criteria of the funding offer the idea is required to support sustainable practices and take maximum advantage of new opportunities that are emerging in the global economy. The idea could:

• Demonstrate potential to deliver a net economic benefit
• Lead to increases in productivity
• Create jobs or transition staff to skilled roles
• Support the growth of the organisation through increased supply chain engagement
• Improve the services delivered

The ASA board has also identified a lack of innovation in our business operations.As this is an opportunity for the organisation to receive a grant for innovation, the MD has asked you to gather innovative ideas or concepts that offer the possibility of benefiting the organisation.The MD believes that ASA will have a higher chance if a number of team members are involved in generating ideas and thus asked you to consult relevant stakeholders.

ASA prides itself on its key values, including a strong commitment to quality, customer service, innovation and excellence, and a satisfied workforce.

However, we are facing a number of issues. I have summarised these issues below:

• high number of customer complaints
• high staff turnover & personnel burnout
• not meeting strategic goals
• high carbon footprint

To this end, I want you to refer to the strategic goals of the organisation, and the operational performance data that I have attached, so you have an understanding of where things stand currently, and where the organisation wants to go.

Kind regards

Nicole Thomas

PA to MD

Bourke Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000 Phone: 1000 111 222

Attachments

Strategic Plan Overview.docx

Strategic Plan Overview

Mission statement: Helping businesses to help themselves.

Vision statement: To become Australia's largest business advocate.

Core Values

Our commitment is to:

• implement innovation and excellence
• provide ways to help customers grow, so they are successful
• empower and inspire our customers
• behave honestly with respect for all individuals
• act professionally with our customers, and each other
• continually pursue new knowledge and share this openly with others.

Strategic Plan 20XX

Strategic objectives for this year include:

• acquiring five new clients per month
• maintain a 90% retention rate of our existing customers
• grow our business financially by 25%
• implement three new services for our clients
• grow our workforce to support new services and expected growth.

Operational Performance Data.docx

Operational Performance Data

Strategic Goal Performance Measures

Business data is gathered every quarter and reported to managing director for review. The first two quarter's results of strategic goals performance are provided below:

Performance measurement
Goal	1st Quarter	2nd Quarter
Acquire five new clients per month	Two new clients per month	Two new clients per month
Maintain 90% customer retention rate	80% retention rate	75% retention rate
Grow business by 25%	The financial growth of 5%	The financial growth of 15%
Implement three new services	No new services implemented	No new services implemented
Grow the workforce to 32 employees	Workforce numbers stable at 29.	Workforce numbers increased to 30.
Reduce Carbon footprint by 10%	No reduction seen	No reduction seen

Service Delivery Issues

• An average of five client complaints is received each month.
• Complaints generally relate to the following themes:
• customer service staff are unable to provide adequate service advice
• customer service staff are not friendly at times
• lengthy wait times on the telephone to discuss services or chase up appointment scheduling
• differences between appointment stated and actual appointment time staff member is turning up on.
• There also appears to be some further issues relating to the time in responding to complaints and identifying and implementing procedures to address issues identified through complaints.

Operation Issues

• Excessive wastage of paper has been reported
• The Employee lounge has too many resources that are being ordered and then wasted such as paper cups etc.
• The energy usage has been increasing manifolds.

Staff Turnover Analysis

For the previous year:

• at the start of the year, there were 27 employees
• at the end of the year, there were 29 employees
• two new roles at the organisation were created
• there were two employees that left throughout the year.

Annual staff turnover ratio: 2 29 100 = 6.89%.

Reasons for leaving for the two employees were given as follows:

• moved interstate.
• left to raise family.

For the current year:

• At the start of the year there were 29 employees
• at the end of the year there were 29 employees
• there were six employees that left throughout the year.

Annual staff turnover ratio: 6 29 100 = 20.69%

Reasons for leaving for the six employees were given as follows:

• low pay - got a higher paying job at a competitor
• high workload expectations - feeling overwhelmed and stressed
• feeling undervalued and not being listened to by management
• job did not meet expectations
• growth opportunities not available
• moved with family overseas.

Post the consultation session with the stakeholders, detailed report to be submitted to the management discussing the two (2) innovation ideas that you feel are the best for business improvement and innovation. You must test the ideas against the ASA strategic objectives and the issues the business faces as well as the criteria for funding set by the Australian Government Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. The report must clearly identify & discuss the following:

• Analysis of changing trends and opportunities in the business environment, relevant to the workplace.
• Data analysis and identification of Gaps in the supply chains and/or operational and service systems for ASA.
• Two (2) innovative ideas for business improvement to bridge the gap identified.
• Risk management and cost-benefit analysis for the new innovation ideas.
• Impact of change & any consequences needing a transition plan.