Dear Amanda,
Re: Can Amanda Turn Her New Business Before It Is Too Late?
Amanda went wrong in a number of factors that border on managerial and professional relations. It is the recommendation of this letter that Amanda immediately embark on changing the approach on the following factors so as to save the business from possible collapse. In addition, it has to be appreciated that business needs the application of competence, professionalism, diligence and hard work.
Foremost, Amanda over-relied on Lisa for the survival and operations of the business. It is noteworthy that Lisa lacked sufficient training and competence to handle all the tasks that had been allocated to her. She was given an oversight role that should have been played by Amanda herself. This is illustrative in the fact that she had no record and memory of the tax status of the clients who kept sending inquiries. In addition, her recommended list of employees that was accepted proved defective by virtue of the poor performance of the recruited accountants. Indeed, a matter of recruitment through interviews was an onerous task that ought to have been handled by Amanda or a competent human resource officer. This is essentially because the employee is the most useful resource in the company or business. For that reason matters of employment must be handled with order and due diligence and there is indeed need for competent personnel to carry out the recruitment. It is therefore grossly wrong to delegate such an onerous task to the secretary.
Amanda needed to have conducted the recruitment and equally conducted an analysis of the performance of the recruits. From the foregoing it is telling that Amanda failed to carry out performance evaluation and feedback analysis. This is an essential function of management. Human resources ought to be evaluated and continuously controlled and guided. Amanda worked on the assumption that the accountants were experts and authorities in their field. She equally assumed that the employee would perform their duties meritoriously and diligently within the stipulated laws and policies. While it is expected that employees toe the line and observe the work ethic, it must never be taken for granted and or assumed. The manager must regularly conduct evaluations and observations and analyze the performance of the employees. It is expected that as the employer one takes her time to ascertain whether the business is headed in the right direction. This is best done through a performance analysis and evaluation. In addition, Amanda failed to regularly guide her employees towards the fulfillment of the objectives. She failed to set clear goals and timelines. She did not have in the business any guidelines as to the procedures to be followed, the manner of records and the timelines to be observed. The long and short of it is that Amanda was a poor manager. As a manager, one is expected to play the cardinal functions of management. These include planning, control, directing, supervising and guidance. Indeed Amanda may not have wanted to micromanage the organization. She might have wanted to give her employees some breathing space and independence necessary for effective performance. However, this does not mean complete desertion of the managerial roles. It would still be expected of the manager to control, guide and plan for the business. She merely set the objectives and mission of the business but failed to seek its full implementation. She equally relied on complete trust on the employees. A manager ought to apply the concept of professional skepticism in the management of her employees. Professional skepticism demands that a manager checks and controls the employees. Even the most focused employees need checks and balances and this was indeed necessary in the case of Amanda.
Amanda’s communication channel was poor and ineffective. The channel in this context is in two interfaces. One interface relates to the communication within the organization otherwise known as internal communication. It is necessary that Amanda has a complete communication path with the employees and she should have been accessible and available for purposes of communication with the employees. From the foregoing, it is illustrative that the internal communication chain was poor. The second interface relates to communication with the external parties, that is, the customers. This communication was managed primarily by Lisa. It is noteworthy that Lisa was ill-equipped and trained for the assignment. This communication should have been more direct and active. Lisa needed to have established links with the clients and ensured a continuous communication system that would have easily led the organization to notice the discrepancies way before the clients were reassessed by the regulators. Indeed, it was a huge oversight on the part of Amanda to fail to carry out feedback collection and analysis for purposes of confirming the accuracy and veracity of the work of her employees. Ordinarily, the mistakes and oversights occasioned during the conduct of the work by the employees would have easily come out during cross audit and reviews by Amanda or anybody qualified for the audits. This failure on her part has impacted poorly on her performance and the overall image of her firm.
Having identified a number of factors that went wrong or were not properly managed, this part of the letter shall be dedicated for the purposes of giving the recommendations as to the way forward. First, it is essential to stress the fact that not all is lost for Amanda. An opportunity for restructuring and reconstructing the firm still exists.
Amanda should completely reengineer the firm. By conducting a business reengineering she would be required to structure the firm and outline a clear hierarchy of management. She must give a structure that shows who would be responsible for what and the qualification required for the jobs. In that strain, she needs to conduct a job profiling. In profiling, she will indicate the tasks and the checks and balances to the position holders.
Secondly, Amanda needs to competitively recruit for personnel. In that context, she must first dismiss all the current employees. If she intends to retain Lisa, she must organize for her training and have her perform defined and definite tasks. This approach often works in cases of semi-skilled laborers where Lisa falls. She needs to perform the recruitment herself or contract the function to a professional human resource organization with the capacities and resources to conduct professional recruitment process.
After the recruitment, she has to perform a damage control. In that context, she has to personally visit the clients who had been affected by the poor services given by her workers. She has to reach an agreement with them after explaining the occurrence of events. Indeed, she may give them additional offers to lure them back such as less costly audits and tax services. After the damage control, she needs to conduct aggressive and active marketing. In that context, she has to roll out her publicity campaign. This could include adverts that inform the public of her services and the benefits in engaging her services. Within the advertisement function, she equally has to resonate with the concerns and interests of her target clients. That demands that she knows her clients and completely understand them.
Amanda must conduct regular performance evaluation and feedback analysis. This would enable her nip the bird in cases of mistakes and professional lapses occasioned in the course of work by the employees. It would equally be structured in a way that motivates the employees to give better service and work for the overall benefit of the firm. Ultimately, it would be up to Amanda to pull the firm out of the deep waters. To achieve that Amanda must be fully involved in the work and never miss sight of the organizational goals. Finally, Amanda must limit her degree of delegation. As long as the employees need a degree of independence and personal space for purposes of performance at the workplace, this independence must be tamed and only given where necessary. To that extent, the principle of delegation should be applied only to the best extent possible. It is the position of this letter that a religious application of the principles outlined would at least improve the situation of the firm and position it strategically for future business fortunes.
References
Blum, B. A. (2010). Contracts: Examples and Explanations. Sydney: Aspen Law & Business.
Dlabay, L. R., & Burrow, J. L. (2007). Business Finance. New York: Cengage Learning.
Shaw, W. H. (2010). Business Ethics: A Textbook With Cases. New York: Cengage Learning.
