Working as a group in our company has really taught us a lot. Naturally, managing a company with a team of managers is not an easy task and it has been a very challenging period especially when it comes to decision making. It is very hard for a group of people to think the same way and as a result, settling on the same answer remains somehow a mirage. As a group, we have been able to apply the principle of respecting one another’s views and that has been a core element that has seen us through our success. As a group, we have been able to gather pieces of information which has helped us a lot in evaluating new concepts. In our business world as a group, we have used our focus to test our new products by creating panels of end-users and letting them to “kick the tires” before making our products available to the masses. As a group, we have been able to face an array of advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of working as a group
According to mindtools.com, Working as a group has been our biggest advantage as far as collaborative and workload is concerned. Our project was much easier to manage since all the tasks were shared amongst the players. Our project has been more successful than it could be when run by a single member. As a group, we have been able to achieve something which an individual who was to work alone could not manage to get. We have been able to tackle greater difficulties and wider spectrum. As they say, many hands make work easier, we have been able to bring our minds together and as a result, we have been able to avoid expensive mistakes. As many heads are better than one, we have learnt to advice each other before making any decision which might see our company fall apart. Our running of the company as a group has enabled us to. Determine the improvements that are needed to be applied to our product before hitting the market or sometimes even before the viability of our products. This has helped our company to avoid wasting big amounts of money on marketing or producing the products that are not ready to meet the market demands or the products which the clients are not looking for (mindtools.com)
Our focus group has managed to turn into a brainstorming session where end-users have generated couple of new ideas. This means that as a new idea is generated by one of our group members, the other panel members’ builds upon the idea, and therefore making it much better. Through this method, our company has been able to determine if the recommendations are a reality and whether they qualify for effective implementation. As a company run by a group of managers, we have been able to uncover problems with our products that would not have occurred to our production staff. This applied when one of our products had been rejected by a panelist not because it lacks effectiveness, but because the packaging is unappealing or has an awkward handler (Narayan, 2011)
Disadvantages of working as a group
As a group, we have as well faced a lot of challenges in terms of disadvantages. For instance, some of the moderators have been inadvertently interjecting their own biases into our panel deliberations, something which has resulted in inaccurate results or findings in that matter. Sometimes, the panelists have been led by one of us to reach certain conclusions concerning one of our products and he or she does not want to go against other members viewpoints, in that case, the true feelings about our products have not been fully disclosed. There have been intensive cases of lack of participation by our members. As usual, a member with a strong opinion or personality about the product could sway the views of other members, or some other members of the board could be intimidated to an extent that they could not want to speak up their minds. As a group, we also realized that the management that is steered by a group of people is relatively expensive compared to others. For instance, in terms of seating sessions, they appeared to be very costly since each member has to be catered for. Due to the fact that our participants had it in mind that they were being monitored, since they had to participate in our group sessions, quieter members were sometimes inhibited. At some occasions, some of our group members felt uneasy and they did not fully disclose their entire feeling towards the running of the company. We also faced stiff opposition from our rival competitors. This affected us so much given the fact that our company was at its infancy.
All sports limited has been facing repeated price following the competition pressure or weakening market which led to the reduction of margins. In response to this, we managed to partner with the Barclays Bank who gave us a loan that helped us to conquer the situation. We also faced abrupt dramatic design changes in some of our products appearance. For instance, in colours styles and fabrics and that presented us with a lot of challenges, something that kept us paced with the desired as we expected to be leading in customer base. We also faced abrupt expansion of services and products that were offered by other sources including Manchester stores and Superior Sports Services. In response, we launched likewise strategies and expanded them to counter our competitors. One crucial thing we realized was that we were climbing the retail experience to acquire curve which could make us fully established in our specialization markets where there was a variety of sporting institutions. As proprietors of AllSports limited we were affected by regular seasonality of poor business more so, during climaxes of winter and summer. As a result, we focused on the manufacturing of whether friendly products to fit the season unlike our competitors who waited for the better seasons. That marketing strategy helped us a lot (articlebase.com, 2010)
We established personalized and excellent client care services. As far as business management is concerned, AllSports Limited had a good relationship with its suppliers and we provided flexible and positive responses towards special services and product that were required. We also maintained good relationship with business partners including schools, football clubs and other stakeholders in the United Kingdom. We developed client loyalty through solid reputation and as a result, there is regular placing of orders from a wide range of products.
AllSports Limited realized slow sells which resulted to less projected cash flow. As a company, we expected excessive cost increases compared to the scheduled expenses. We also meet debilitating and overly aggressive actions by our rivals. We also anticipated for a multiple entries by new rivals. AllSports Company is a vibrant young business which has a vision of expanding to other parts of the world. Any upcoming company is faced with lots of challenges and ours’ is not an exception. Since all participants do not behave the same, we encountered difficulties during the recruiting activities. A recruiting manager was quite bias when recruiting people for positions.
As a company, we received lots of fake compensation cases from some of our employees. Initially, we underwent losses but realized it and employed a physician to examine any relate cases in future.
Conclusion:
AllSports Ltd has put forward various strategies of ensuring that the company expands to the rest of the world. Learning from our past experience, we must confess that the company has acquired a lot of experience and some of the mistakes cannot be repeated in future. Our company has laid some strategies which will see it through. Managing a company with many bosses is not an easy task since each and every member has got his or her own opinions and others may be fearful of speaking out their minds. AllSports Ltd is an upcoming company with optimistic members.
As members, we have learnt to share ideas, express our feelings and be excellent Chief Executive Officers with visions. We have also learnt how to put forward strategies that prevents us from disasters. We have acquired skills of management in sensitive areas like Finance, Human Resource Management, Marketing and production. From our acquired experiences, each one of us has managed to master how all those departments work and each member can single handedly run his or her own Sports Company and see it through success.
List of references
Narayan, (2011): The Benefits of Running a Business Networking Group
articlebase.com, (2010): Superior Equity Group - Running a Business Doesn't Have to be Expensive
mindtools.com, (2011): Decision Making Skills
