Question:
Analyze the Issues that have risen in a Manufacturing Company.
Conducting a business is not just about handling the financial aspects anymore, rather, there is more attached. For a business to grow, several factors must be taken care of in the modern times. Satisfying the consumer’s needs is just the basic necessity. The speed of technological and economic changes in the society is creating troubles for tons of business organizations around the world. Frequent changes suggest that a step that could have been right the previous day might seem to be a wrong way on the next day. Solving these dynamic issues is the prime factor that separates the glorious business heads from the ones who are shutting down their shutters(Mediate.com, 2017).
This report aims at solving few such issues in a manufacturing based organization, namely The Bromic Group. The company wants to reach out globally to its customer. They want to grab the Social Media opportunity to promote business across the oceans. Their issues circle around the building of guidelines for the global and business units for the best of the company. The report discusses all these issues with a broader view. The issues are further broken down into sub issues for better analysis. Different theories and case studies shall be introduced in the process. Finally, recommendations or solutions shall be prescribed that the company may follow and gain from the same.
The company that is being discussed here is The Bromic Group. They are a Sydney based manufacturing organization. The company was founded back in 1978 as a mere family business. However, with time they grew in size. Initially the business started as a supplier of gas components.Since then, Bromic has grown to become an eminent contender in the manufacturing market. Theydesign, manufacture and distribute a diverse range of the best quality of engineered products and services on a global scale. They excel in the manufacturing of plumbing and gas equipment, refrigeration equipment and heater parts. The company has worked eminently for some major names from all around the world in the recent past. The Queen’s Park, Caesar’s Palace and the Disney World are some of their most famously compiled projects. They tend to provide service in the hospitality department apart from hotels, residential or trade sectors. They focus on manufacturing quality products with compliance and room for innovation in the scope of engineering(The Bromic Group, 2017).
Companies in this industry, generally manufacture commercial HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) equipments. These include space or outdoor heater parts and refrigeration equipments and products. Firms that manufacture plumbing materials like pumps and gas pipes have been badly affected in the recent past due to the increase in the import penetration (Boswell, 2014).The revenue of the Pump and Compressor Manufacturing industry is expected to decline over the next five years as it has been in the last five. The declining commodity prices have curbed off demands coming from the mining or gas companies as investment in such fields have slowed down (Beer, 2012). Claiming to drier conditions all over Australia, the respective State Governments have started to invest in the water supply infrastructure. This has left a negative effect on the local manufacturing bodies due to the massive decrease in demands.
The Bromic Group, having captured the local market has the aim of reaching out to the global customers with more vigor. Their aim to become a global brand is however hindered due to the lack of a proper promotional model. They wish to adapt to the modern social media marketing system to manage their business globally. The company asks for guidance in developing a global social media structure and guidelines for the Bromic Group considering both the business units and the global corporate sector. They need assistance in building the social media structure keeping in mind the best practices to influence the global business market. One of the major questions that they seek to know is the identification of the appropriate channels through which the social media structure can be strengthened. They also claim their need to localize the social media content. However, it is necessary to keep their centralized control intact.
According to Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi (2012), the way of conducting business has changed radically over the past 40 years. The advent of the internet technology and a boom in the private computer and smartphone industry have left great impact on how business are to be performed or promoted. Without a strong social media network community, it becomes impossible for any organization to uplift their business community in the modern society. The urge to maintain a healthy customer relationship is hampered to a greater extent due to the lack of a well maintained social media structure. The world’s largest Fortune-500 companies like the Dell or IBM have all strengthened their social media existence.
Forbes.com (2017), portrays the bigger picture of the lack of social media in business, in one of their articles. They state that several business organizations nowadays are killing their brand due to poor online marketing materials and the lack of a well-maintained marketing strategy. Refusing or failing to engage with the consumer community is a massive backlog in any organizational structure. Organizational online portals with none or poor graphical content is looked down upon by people nowadays as they feel that the company negates the concept of customer interaction.The article also highlights how the lack of a concrete social media structure pulls down the growth of a business by now allowing the business to spread for more recognition.
The McKinsey Consultancy farm provides the best business consultancy services all around the globe. They have their own modular approach towards solving business problems. The approach became famous as consultancies from all over started to adapt to the same system and applied in the process. It is known as the McKinsey Way (Rasiel, 1999).
This approach has three major attributes that any problem consultant should clinch to in order to provide the right solution. They are:
The gathering of facts is one of the major steps that must be adapted while problem solving. In this case, of the Bromic Group, details about their problem are to be documented. The company’s annual revenue generated must be taken into consideration at the earliest. This helps the consultant to gain knowledge about the company’s strength, financially. This would help the consultant team or individual to formulate solutions based on the company’s economical abilities. Further, into the fact gathering process, it is necessary to dive into the core facts of the issue. Questions must be raised as to why Bromic Group wants to build and strengthen their social media structure.The company’s thoughts must be well recorded. The company may be willing to expand their social media existence just because of their financial benefits. They also might be aiming at improving their consumer-service through this. Both will have a different approach. Facts should not be kept hidden from the consultant as facts help to identify the root cause (Barsh and Yee, 2012).
From the team’s perspective, they have their factual duties too. The company must be made aware of every facts and real-life details of their issues.
As a consultant, the case studies of similar business organizations based on their social media management approach must be done.The case study discussed below is based upon how General Electric, an electrical parts manufacturing company uses social media to expand their business.
They have positioned themselves as more than just a bulb or refrigerator manufacturing company. The 130-year-old organization has lived up the ages and caught up with the modern generation. They have made use of the social media to its fullest. The company has shadowed its fellow competitors who are young in the business with immense social media presence. They know how to attract the modern mass. They are quite active on Twitter and Snapchat. From the manufacturing of jet engines to interesting DIY contents, the social media team shares it all with the customers, to keep they attached to the brand. Their support team is 24-hour online on Facebook and do not fail to revert on any complains or issues (Crane, Matten and Spence, 2013).
Being a business in the manufacturing field itself, this case can provide enough insight in recognizing the facts that Bromic Group needs, in order to solve their Social Media controlling issue.Corporate and organizational communication alongside public relations can be uplifted through this (Macnamara, and Zerfass, 2012).
Following the McKinsey way, this is the most important phase of the process. This level emphasizes on braking up the larger issue in to smaller ones, which follow MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive). In this case, Bromic Group’s social media existence issue is needed to be broken down accordingly. The following sub-issues can be generated that are mutually exclusive but domains back to the common issue:
The initial hypothesis stage provides a problem-solving map. At this stage a vague planning must be done with the aim to solve each sub-issue to collective overcome the main issue. The separate factors of the issues are drawn and listed. Possible outcomes are then branched out and discussed upon to figure out those that are actually feasible (Rasiel, 1999). The Sub-issues mentioned in the above section are to be presented with initial hypothesis and represented below:
Channels
Test Technical Feasibility.
Positive hypothesis: It would be clever to test if the business units have the basic technical requirements.
Negative hypothesis: Waste of time and resources.
Focus on choosing the right platforms.
Positive hypothesis: Business strategy can be built around the right choise of social media platforms.
Negative hypothesis: Nothing noticable.
Maintaining the global business guidelines
Focus on professional Social Media handling.
Positive hypothesis: Appointing SEO specialists will help.
Negative hypothesis: Separate financial investment.
Introduce a team with knowledge about the global implications of their online posting, and let them handle.
Positive hypothesis: Separate time allocation is not required for employee training and strategy management.
Negative hypothesis: No strategic architecture would prove to be fatal.
Focus only on consumer relationship management.
Positive hypothesis: This is the strongest point that helps any company or business to grow.
Negative hypothesis: Factors must also be taken care of from the business’ point of view.
Improvise mediums to maintain business privacy.
Positive hypothesis: Privacy of businness’ data must be preserved at any cost.
Negative hypothesis: Should be included but amalgamated with other necessary guidelines as well.
Localization and centralized control of content
Emphasize upon involving every local business units into social media but keep centralized control.
Positive hypothesis: Advantageous in every respect.
Negative hypothesis: High resource requirements.
Keep a central account and post collectively only.
Positive hypothesis: Save the cost of multiple social media handles and reduce privacy risks.
Negative hypothesis: The end goal of the client will not be solved.
A work plan has been generated with regards to the findings of the issues and sub-issues of the organization. The work plan has been presented in the Business Project Management format, and attached herewith.
The importance of social media upgradation has been noted down specifically in the previous sections of the report. Now, with regards to the main issue and all its sub issues, detailed solutions are being tried to be derived.
Channels: For in-house management of social media, employees with sound technical knowledge must be appointed. However, the best approach would be to employ Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists for the task (Odden, 2012). The best social media platform or channel must also be identified for the promotion of business in the manufacturing field(Ashley and Tuten, 2015). Researchers claim that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the best platforms to spread business. Facebook must be flooded with neat graphical content and daily news sharing about updates in the company or the industry. Facebook ads can now bring in a huge hike in the promotional process. Twitter is considered a formal platform. The use of hash tags allows posts to go viral. This helps in expanding the reach and range of the business’ name. LinkedIn would however help the company’s employees and heads to communicate with others from the similar industry. It is the first stop for all business personals to share thoughts and look for talent (Van Der Aalst, 2013).
Time or resources should not be wasted in figuring out the technical requirements. Nowadays, every system or mobile devices supports social media platform.
Maintaining the global business guideline: It is necessary to build a proper strategy to maintain the social media structure to assist in the global business gala. Each of the hypothetical solutions must be considered here irrespective of the negatives behind them. SEO specialists, appointed for this task must be flexible enough in adapting to technical changes. The investment behind it must be ignored at the cost of benefits that it would provide. They must be aware of the industry in which they are working. The focus should be laid on consumer priority. The company must make sure that their business updates and offers are being well portrayed and promoted. Individuals handling the portals must be credible for their post. Their contents reflect on the organization’s reputation. Customer relationship is another aspect of the whole. Replying to every customer’s need is necessary (Gensler et al, 2013). Patience is the key. Any successful moment of the business must be presented gloriously, without fail. This helps in drawing consumer attraction. Finally, it must be kept in mind that the privacy of the company is withheld. No private or confidential business data should be updated online (Aral, Dellarocasand Godes2013).
Since all points are crucial, an amalgamation of these hypothesis must be constructed to frame the guidelines.
Localization and Centralized control of content: Individual countries where the business units of Bromic Group work must have separate social media handles. They shall try to interact with the local mass using the respective local language and social thought process. For the Bromic Group Corporation that work globally, a centralized control of content is necessary. The respective business units working from North America, Australia, New Zealand and Europe should work collectively and uniquely at the same time to promote their own business. However, for the centralized control of content, the corporate or global unit should make sure direct traffic is diverted to the central website or corporate social media profile. The company should bind all its business units under a common set of policies and rules. The new Facebook Global Pages Structure would be the perfect choice for the Bromics. The feature helps to keep a single URL address for the parent page, but make user’s access the pages that are based on their country locations (Facebook.com, 2017).
Starbucks, being one of the world’s largest fast beverage and snackchains, has their business unit social media accounts for respective countries. This helps them to stay connected with the local mass, both socially and emotionally (Chua and Banerjee, 2013).This should certainly disrupt any discrepancies that may have arisen regarding the corporate and business units of the company.
However, due to the changing and upgrading nature of technologies, no particular solution is certain enough (Baldwin and Scott, 2013). New social media websites may come up and the in-charge employees may need to welcome updates in their way of handling the media. Small business units that cannot afford SEO specialists may promote technically sound employees to the post of managing the social media. They might just do a better task. Having worked in the company, they are enlightened with core knowledge about the type of business and customer support.
Conclusion
The Bromic Group has gradually built its way into the global manufacturing business framework. Apart from providing the best quality plumbing, refrigeration and heating equipments, their grasp over client satisfaction is immensely praised all over the world. However, pertaining to the growing technological scope of business promotion, the company wishes to abide by it. They already have their business units spread globally, however they wish to strengthen the same with the help of social media. They wish to build a social media structure that enhances the global trade structure. Following the McKinsey’s Way, the issue could be broken down into smaller parts. On identifying the large issue in the form of exclusive sub issues, it gets easier to be tackled. They should try to invest into SEO management in order to get the best of social media marketing guidance. Furthermore, proper guidelines of things should be handled in social media are suggested. The centralized controlling of content that is locally hosted is necessary. Being proactive in the social media is a major requirement as well. The case studies of the General Electric Company and the McDonalds helps to conclude that active social media dominance and localized content serving help any organization to achieve greater heights.
References
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Ashley, C. and Tuten, T., 2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1), pp.15-27.
Baldwin, W. and Scott, J., 2013. Market structure and technological change (Vol. 18). Taylor & Francis.
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Beer, A., 2012. The Economic Geography of Australia and Its Analysis: From Industrial to Post?Industrial Regions. Geographical Research, 50(3), pp.269-281.
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Gensler, S., Völckner, F., Liu-Thompkins, Y. and Wiertz, C., 2013. Managing brands in the social media environment. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), pp.242-256.
Macnamara, J. and Zerfass, A., 2012. Social media communication in organizations: The challenges of balancing openness, strategy, and management. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 6(4), pp.287-308.
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