Manage Operational Plan For Most Efficient Retail Store

Business Goal

Describe about the Manage Operational Plan for Most Efficient Retail Store.

Business Goal 

The office assistant is one of the most efficient retail store in Australia , with around 25 stores across the country under its brand name. The company deals with office supplies, ink ad toner needs, electrical equipment and office furniture, and all the other equipments for office needs. Along with the products, the retail store provides various services such as photocopying, printing, equipment hire, packaging and posting services. The company operates in a competitive environment, which leads it to form a prime goal of growing the product sales and grow the services aligned with the business, within a year. The company aims at formulating efficient operational strategies that would help in achieving the goal of the firm easily.

Objectives

The office assistant deals in a competitive environment, where one of its basic objectives is to set their brand name on the top of the list among the other retailers in their field. In order to fulfil its desire to do so, the basic objective of the company is to raise the sales of their products and services, thereby increasing revenue. The company should acquire mergers and alliances with various stationery and printing brands, that would help the company to acquire customers and employ cost efficient methods of product the goods. This would reduce the cost and raise the revenue thereby creating a greater profit margin and an effective market share. By implementing an effective operational strategy framework, the company would be quite efficient in achieving its objectives.

Strategy

The operational strategy in order to achieve the aims and objectives  of the company should be as follows :

Conduct a survey on the products , services add prices of the leading office equipments retail stores in the country.

Introduce the concept of graphic design services as one of the newest features as the service being offered by the company.

Employ efficient professionals who are good at graphic designing, good salesperson,

Acquire important instruments such as delivery van, printer, photocopier, which would help the company to take up more orders.

With new inclusion of service, implementations must be done to increase the area of the stores in some of the most important business areas of the country, thereby creating special sections for each and every products being sold.

An efficient management system must be organizes that should look after the cost effective methods, employ competitive pricing strategies on the goods and services sold in order to raise market share and manage the functioning of the company.

Objectives

Key Actions

In order to operate the above mentioned operational strategies, the company must perform a step by step approach, defining each and every  characteristics of their future actions that are to be integrated. These key actions could be explained s follows :

Deliverables –  the deliverables that would be provided by the office assistant on being efficient in practising the operational strategies are various office equipments, office supplies, ink ad toner needs, electrical equipment and office furniture, and all the other equipments for office needs. Along with the products, the retail store aims to provide various services such as photocopying, printing, equipment hire, packaging and posting services and a new service of graphic designing.

Timeline – in order to sustain the operational plan, a planned timeline is necessary which provides the employees of the company with a pathway to work accordingly. the timeline for the office assistant in order to achieve their objectives of raising the sales and market share by 30^th June, 201x is as follows :

Gantt Chart (Week)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Vision and Undertaking
Objectives
Situational Analysis
Scope analysis
Identifying Client and Value Proposals
Market Segmentation
Buyer’s Behavior
Operational Plan
Recruiting new employees and acquisitions
Exceeding sales
Analysing balance sheet
Determining break even point

Table: Gantt Chart (Weeks)

Source: (Created by Author)

The office assistant must form a budget of $50,000, in order to plan for the expansion, recruitment and  buying new equipments.

The Office Assistant will have to maintain a growth rate of 3% in the initial 6 months of the plan of expansion of sales.

The debts for the previous issues needs to be termed with the debt of the company, which is 781,261 and funding, provided through $50,000. However, the company is in a need to acquire alliances with some other brands in order to initiate a cost effective measure of production.

In order to hire new employees, professional fees and occupancy costs in the prospective of meeting the cash requirement of cash, needs a part of the budget to be spent for the recruitment section.

Break-Even Analysis
Projected Sales	50000
variable expenses as a % of sales	15200
Fixed Expenses	78000
Contribution Margin	22000
Sales per week	1.447368421
Breakeven Point in sales	2895
	2000.181818

(Break Even Point in Sales)

Key Performance Indicators

In order to analyse the key performance indicators of a company, and to analyse whether the company is performing up to the planned level, one of the most efficient ways to understand the performance is to use the SMART KPI technique (Lusch,  Serpkenci and Orvis 2015).

Specific : the performance of the company is focussed on the target of raising their sales of products and services, thereby raising the market share of the company.

Measurable : the calculation for new sales must be easily performed with the help of some high professionals that are newly appointed in the company.

Strategy

Attainable: attainment of sales is quite easy, as the office assistant is already  a well known company with a large retail chain of stores all over australia. Achieving the target and measuring the sales would not be a hurdle for a company like this.

Realistic : with the view to recruit people, thereby introducing graphic designing , recruiting more personals, organizing each store of the company all over australia, would amend the prime steps of initiating the raise in sales for the company. Thereby the aim of maximising market share and revenue is quite realistic in nature.

Timely : depending upon the gantt chart, provided above, it could be seen that the plans and implementations of the policies have been done as a 15 weeks schedule, whereas, the processing period of the company is of 20 weeks approximately. Therefore, the objective of the company is quite realistic in nature.

Contingency plans

In order to follow the operational strategies initiated in this section for the office assistant, the company has some risk mitigant associated with the plans as follows :

New employees : with the recruitment of new employees, there might be a risk associated with the performance of the employees. Therefore, in order to recruit efficient people, a thorough check must be done on the background of the employee.

Competitive price : in order to raise the sales of the company, the office assistant needs to price its products and services that are lower than its competitors. Hence, in order to generate such a price, care must be taken that the price must nit be lower than the cost of production as that would result to loss of for the company.

Graphic designing : graphic designing would be a new addition to the services along with the other services provided by the company. It may or may not be successful in attracting the attention of the customers. Initiative must be taken by the organization, to advertise and let people know regarding their new segment of service, that would help in attracting the customers.

Outcome

With the operational strategies and plans assigned, the office assistant efficiently raises the sales of its products and services , thereby generating high revenue for the company and maximising its market share. The company must be successful in achieving its target within six months of the year 201x.

Approvals

Approvals must be attained by the office assistant from government offices, in order to increase their store space area. License must be advance in order to implement the plans for introducing graphic designing as an important service provided by the company.

Key Actions

According to the operational strategy, as framed in task 1, the basic objective of the company is to raise the sales of the company thereby enhancing the market share. The office assistant needs an efficient group of employees that would help the company to reach their target. In order to attain the competent and well organized group of employees, a recruitment strategy must be framed by the company that identifies the human resource requirements along with formulating various strategies in accordance with the training, source and assessing the employed people.

Identification of The Human Resource Requirements

Number of resources required – with the objective to raise the sales of the company, the office assistant need to assign sales person who would look after the sales of the products and services at the retail stores. with the introduction of a new segment of graphic designing, the company must appoint professional graphic designers. in order to accomplish the above mentioned strategical plans, the company needs to appoint 10 employees, which consists of 4 retail assistant, 2 account managers and 4 graphic designers.

Full time or part time – the employees would be hired in order to help in maximising the sales of products and services of the company. to achieve the outstanding results all the employees would be working fir full time hours.

Permanent or casual – the employees would be permanent in nature, as this attribute would instigate the thought of commitment within them and their eagerness to do their work efficiently.

Required start date – the date from which the company needs to initiate the employee training should be 1^st February , 201x. this would provide the company and its employees ample of opportunities to implement the operational strategies, thereby achieving their target progress by 30^th June, 201x.

Expected length of employment – the expected length of employment for all the employees would be on going.

Skills required to  perform – the people who are supposed be recruited as per sales personal, they must have the skills of implementing good customer service, have complete knowledge about the office products and services and communicative in nature. This would help them gave new customers by being a good host to them and assist them in the retail stores. In order to attain good account managers to record the sales revenue and profit calculation of the company, the account managers must have the skills of being fluent in numeracy. With the inclusion of graphic designing, the company must hire people who are experts graphic designers.

Budget

Training – the training program for each employee should be of minimum three weeks, that would help them groom their skills and provide them with the organized methods of accessing the customers.

Qualifications – the qualifications required for the graphic designers should be that they are well equipped in the skill of designing.

Pay levels – the retail assistant would receive $14 to $20 per hour depending upon their experience with work, along with 25% loading for casual employees. The accountant would receive $20 to $22 per hour depending upon their fluency with work, along with 25% loading for casual employees. Graphic designer the accountant would receive $22 to $25 per hour depending upon their experience , along with 25% loading for casual employees.

Sourcing students

Depending upon the process of recruiting employees in the office assistant, the company has to apply an organized strategy for sourcing the students or employees for the company. The strategies could be as follows :

Generating an advertisement for the vacancy of the three job roles to be offered by the company, retail assistant, account manager and graphic designer, along with the perfect job description. The news for recruitment must be advertised through social media, newspaper and magazines, that would help in attracting the attention of the job seekers.

Assessing students

The recruitment procedure would consist of three steps. In the first step resume from the applicants would be accepted and analysed, which would later be shortlisted within one week.  The shortlisted candidates would be organized whether they are internal or external students. The unsuccessful students must be informed regarding their failure , that would help them to overcome their weaknesses in future. The shortlisted candidates would be called for interviews either in the support office or in the stores. The interview would be done on the basis of behavioural attribute and on the basis of skills. The last step for assessing the students would be the testing phase, where the students are supposed to go through an aptitude test conducted by the company. The retail assistant must give the retail aptitude test where a minimum score of 80% must be attained by the employee, and the accountant and graphic designer must give the psychometric test , where they must score 90%.

 Inducting and Training Students

The training program for every employee would be for 7 days , which would include the following aspects :

Days	Aspects
Day 1	• Introduction to the office assistant • specifying job roles and induction program
Day 2	• Understanding Requirement, Structure of the job profile.
Day 3	• basic performance of the initial level job responsibilities.
Day 4	• testing the ability of the employees, depending upon their skills.
Day 5	• practically employing the skills of the worker at on field jobs.
Day 6	• practical test ·         fun activity
Day 7	• calculation and estimation of every employee ·         probation period knowledge

Break-Even Analysis

(Training Plan)

The company, the office assistant has prime ten resources, namely, office computer, office desk and chair, office stationery, registers, delivery van, store colour photocopiers, store colour printers, staff room fridge, staff room table and ten chairs, and store stock. This section helps in analysing these physical resources and acquisition methods of these resources. With the help of the table, these resources have been explained as the current method of acquisition, recommendations, comments on the change method of acquisitions and stakeholders comment.

Resource	Current Method Of Acquisition	Recommendations For The Method Of Acquisition	Comment On The Change	Stake Holders Comment
Office computer	Purchase	No recommendation needed	No change is required for the methods of acquisition as office computers are better purchased.	The company officials have agreed to the old acquiring method.
Office desk and chair	Purchase	No recommendation needed	No change is required for the methods of acquisition as office desk and chairs are better purchased.	The company officials have agreed to the old acquiring method.
Office stationery	Purchase	No recommendation needed	No change is required for the methods of acquisition as office stationery are better purchased.	The company officials have agreed to the old acquiring method.
Registers	Finance lease	The company can  rent the registers .	The registers would be used to analyse the growth in sales of the company, hence purchasing the register in place acquiring them by lease is quite appropriate.	The company officials have agreed to the new form of acquiring the source.
Delivery van	Finance lease	The company should purchase delivery vans in order to enhance their products delivery.	Delivery van would help in enhancing the function of the company, hence investing in purchasing such assets are advisable.	The company officials have agreed to the new form of acquiring the source.
Store colour photocopiers *5	Operating lease	The store must be renovated and each section of the store must be organized in order to create a clear atmosphere for the customers.	Innovation in organizing different sections in each store, along with new section of graphic designing must be put into focus.	The company officials have agreed to the new form of acquiring the source.
Store colour printers *5	Operating lease	The company must purchase the printers, in order to expand their resources for flourishing business.	One of the basic objectives of the company is to buy printers and photocopiers in order to enhance their service.	The company officials have agreed to the new form of acquiring the source.
Staff room fridge	Rent	No recommendations needed.	Staff  room fridge does not need any other kind of acquisition.	The company officials have agreed to the old method of acquiring the source.
Staff room table and ten chairs	Rent	Purchase of office furniture could be done rather than rent.	Purchasing office furniture is a better option as that would raise the office assets rather than keeping it on rent.	The company officials have agreed to the new form of acquiring the source.
Store stock	Rent	The store stock must be taken on financial lease, as that would help in acquiring the space.	Gaining a larger surface area must be considered by the stores, thereby facilitating greater scope of retail shopping for more customers. Thence, the store stock must be acquired on financial lease.	The company officials have agreed to the new form of acquiring the source.

(Table : organizational physical resource analysis)

Brief description of operational plan

Overview of plan – The operational strategy in order to achieve the aims and objectives of the company should be as follows :

Conduct a survey on the products, services add prices of the leading office equipments retail stores in the country.

Introduce the concept of graphic design services as one of the newest features as the service being offered by the company.

Employ efficient professionals who are good at graphic designing, good salesperson,

Acquire important instruments such as delivery van, printer, photocopier, which would help the company to take up more orders.

With new inclusion of service, implementations must be done to increase the area of the stores in some of the most important business areas of the country, thereby creating special sections for each and every products being sold.

An efficient management system must be organizes that should look after the cost effective methods, employ competitive pricing strategies on the goods and services sold in order to raise market share and manage the functioning of the company.

Description of the type of plan – The office assistant is one of the most efficient retail store in Australia , with around 25 stores across the country under its brand name. The company deals with office supplies, ink ad toner needs, electrical equipment and office furniture, and all the other equipments for office needs. Along with the products, the retail store provides various services such as photocopying, printing, equipment hire, packaging and posting services. The company operates in a competitive environment, which leads it to form a prime goal of growing the product sales and grow the services aligned with the business, within a year.

Objectives – The office assistant deals in a competitive environment, where one of its basic objectives is to set their brand name on the top of the list among the other retailers in their field. In order to fulfil its desire to do so, the basic objective of the company is to raise the sales of their products and services, thereby increasing revenue. The company should acquire mergers and alliances with various stationery and printing brands, that would help the company to acquire customers and employ cost efficient methods of product the goods. This would reduce the cost and raise the revenue thereby creating a greater profit margin and an effective market share. By implementing an effective operational strategy framework, the company would be quite efficient in achieving its objectives.

Key Performance Indicators

KPI- the key performance indicators for the office assistant company is the sales growth and the rate at which the sales increase. Both the performance indicator directly analyses the growth of the company towards achieving its objectives. Sales growth analyses the at which the company generates and the increment in the sales analyses how much successful the company is in attracting customers thereby raising revenue and market share.

According to Fernie and Sparks (2014), the consultation strategy is analysed by every company, in order to get the responses regarding their products and services from the important stakeholders. The most important consultant of the office assistant, are their customers. The company must approach the customer of the office assistant regarding the feedback on the products and services . They would provide the company with the best recommendations and would also help them in knowing the basic needs of the customers. Analysing their consult, would help the company to grow in the correct direction. There must be an expert panel inside the team with a board off directors, that would help in portraying a clear view bout the scenario of the company. Based on the reactions, perceptions, survey and expert panels, the company must evaluate the consultations and propose the further steps for the growth of the company.

Report template

Report	Yes/no
Is the plan on track ?	Yes
Is the plan spending to date within budget  ?	Yes
Are the milestone activities being completed as per the plan detail ?	Yes
Are the KPI on track to being  achieved ?	Yes
Are the resources being utilize effectively economically and  safely ?	Yes

( Report to analyse the operational strategies)

Strategic and operational planning toolkit

After formulating the operational plans, it is quite necessary for the company to monitor the steps taken by the company to implement such strategies. There would be various hurdles where a company would not find it feasible to undertake the strategies. Hence, it is quite necessary for the monitor team, or the management team to keep a check on the performance report of the company. This would help in understanding those indicators which help in enhancing the growth of the company and also some negative externalities and internals of the company that raise the friction in the implementations of the plans.

Below, is a table, in a report format, that would help in analysing the performance report for the company. It would help in identifying the non performance areas, thereby providing a scope to overcome the problems within the company.

Statement	Yes (0)	Somewhat (1)	No (2)	Score
We are incorporated.
We have a constitution guiding our organisation.
Our board/committee meets regularly and follows a set agenda.
We have current position descriptions for all board/committee positions, paid positions and key volunteer roles.
We have qualified administrators, qualified coaches and qualified volunteers.
We produce an annual report and audited financial statements.
We have effective financial controls and reporting structures
We have policies that guide our decision making, such as inclusion, communications, member protection and grievance.
We hold appropriate insurance cover for our activities and facilities
We have, and adhere to, occupational health and safety procedures in regards to facilities and equipment to meet legal requirements.
We adhere to all laws and regulations that apply to:  • employment of personnel • operation of stores • fundraising • selling of merchandise, products or services • operation and maintenance of facilities.
We have an organisational structure that all members and stakeholders are aware of.
We maintain accurate membership records.
We are affiliated with the relevant regional  organisation.
Our board/committee and the membership body is committed to the planning process.
Does your organisation have the capacity to implement a strategic and operational plan, including delivering on actions, monitoring progress and reviewing the plan on a regular basis?

(Report template for performance and non performance indicators)

With the help of this report template, a company can use this report to analyse the indicators and performance of the company. The scores can be summed together, that would provide the company with an idea of how the plans are being implemented. The operational strategy must be carried out effectively, so that the laid aims and objectives of the organizations are met. With the help of this report, it would be easier for the official in charge of the company to analyse the current structure and position of the company.

Reference

Fernie, J. and Sparks, L., 2014. Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and new challenges in the retail supply chain. Kogan Page Publishers.

Lusch, R.F., Serpkenci, R.R. and Orvis, B.T., 2015. Determinants of retail store performance: a partial examination of selected elements of retailer conduct. In Proceedings of the 1995 World Marketing Congress (pp. 495-504). Springer International Publishing.