Project Proposal
Pyramid Televisions – Research Project Proposal
Introduction
Overview of Organization:
The organization under discussion in this research proposal is Pyramid Televisions (TVs). The firm produces a variety of televisions ranging in many styles and sizes. It undertakes all the processes of TV production, including Research and Development, manufacturing of components and their final assembly as well. All the processes are done by the company itself to ensure excellent product quality. Pyramid Televisions operates in three locations and each one of them specializes in in producing televisions of different styles and sizes. The company abides to a tall structure of hierarchy.
Demand from exports market has shown a great rise recently. But, because of the recent economic slump seen in the home country, India, the organization has had to face many major issues.
Discussion
Apart from Pyramid Televisions doing well locally, the organization is facing a couple of major issues internally related to their productivity and the work force. Being located in a third world country makes production all the more difficult.
More than 70% of India’s population belongs to the lower class and at times, affording even the most basic necessities of life becomes a matter of great efforts. But this region of the world is very influenced by the media. Culture, tradition and most of the education is also attained through the television, therefore, every house has a TV set and Pyramid Televisions is a company that caters to all the segments of the market.
The recession has worsened and thus persuaded the customers to switch from their wants to only their needs such as food and shelter. The sales of the current financial year have shown a massive decline due to which the company is forced to implement some drastic measures. The company’s main aim has become cost saving and the relevant decisions taken by Pyramid Televisions have assisted in being cost effective but have also had an adverse effect on the work force.
Implemented Decisions
Many employees have been laid off and the workforce has now overall shrunk by 50% saving all the extra salaries. This action has created a sense of job insecurity amongst existing employees, lowering their morale. Pyramid Televisions has also had to take away all the benefits offered to the employees. And now, from being a company with the most benefits, it has become a company with hardly any benefits for the employees. This has caused most of the white collar workers to switch to other companies offering relatively higher pay and benefits. The company is also unable to hire new and more qualified employees because they are unable to offer high pay roles.
The existing employees are overburdened with work and are forced to work overtime in exchange of very little pay and no recognition or applause. But, despite this treatment, not all the employees are planning to leave Pyramid Televisions because the prevailing recession has led to a rise in the unemployment rates and there are no better options in the market.
The company has for the time also stopped the up gradation and maintenance of its machinery and the staff continues to use the old ones as new machinery is a huge investment whereas maintenance is also a massive expense.
These are just some of the minor decisions that have been implemented yet. One of the major cut downs that the company has had to make was shutting down two firms resulting in a massive redundancy and a negative image of the company in the industry. (Citrin, S. 2013)
Conclusion
My role within and my belief for Pyramid Televisions:
I, the CEO of Pyramid Televisions have overviewed the issues faced by the organization. I believe that a company can only function smoothly and progress if it is strong and integrated internally and the vision of the company can only be reached if the aims set on the departmental level are fulfilled.
Solutions
Some of the solutions that I have come up with after discussing with my departmental managers are: Ensuring that my managers quit delegating their work further and instead of increasing the hierarchy and making the communication process more complicated, they strictly monitor the performance of the employees themselves and make sure that the targets are understood individually to attain a departmental growth.
First of all, I believe that my position as a leader needs to be more prominent and my managers should not just supervise, but lead their respective departments towards achieving targets. But at the same time, shall also consider the opinions of my employees. (The Gin Systems) The feedback acquired from them will highlight all the negative points of my system. This way, a lot of improvement will be made and my employees will also feel a bit motivated by seeing their voices being included in the decision making process of the business.
Secondly, the workforce needs to recognize the hardworking employees and reward them for their undying efforts for the organization. This shall act as an incentive for other employees too and eventually lead to higher productivity. The overall morale of the workforce needs to be kept high in times of such crisis.
I think giving bonuses to employees who are not adding to the overall output is a waste of money. Instead, that money could be used to buy new land which shall be located in a high unemployment area to avail all the government grants and cheap labor. The other investment that will need to be made will be the temporary maintenance of the old machines and a few new and advanced ones should be purchased that shall minimize the need of manpower. Furthermore; I believe that outsourcing the production of components to a low cost ancillary firm shall add to the cost saving and production efficiency of the company. (Woodings and Capital, 2011)
Preliminary Problem Statement:
Pyramid Televisions has set cost saving and increasing productivity as their priorities. As part of their attempts to adhere to their priorities, they shall switch from being a labor intensive company to a more capital intensive company by laying off workers who do not contribute much to the overall productivity. They shall also offshore operations. Through this research and writing, my plan is to learn from the decisions taken by my competitors and create preliminary steps that shall assist in transforming Pyramid Televisions into a High Performance Organization.
References
Hdkeys, 2013. ‘Keys to Operating a Successful Business’ Data retrieved from: http://www.hdkeys.com/The_Importance_of_Good_Customer_Service on 22nd May 23, 2013
Citrin, S. 2013. Manager,’ Capacity Planning: A Tactical Decision with Strategic Impact’ Business Solutions Insight, 2013 Data retrieved from:http://www.insight-mss.com/_whitepapers/?file=CapacityArticle020703.htm on 22nd May 23, 2013
Woodings, T. and Capital, A. 2011. 'Ten issues Facing Australian Retail in 2011’ (media.net.au) Data retrieved from: http://taylorwoodings.com.au/Assets/files/F2-Turnabout-Retail-V1-(2).pdf on 22nd May 23, 2013
The Gin Systems, ‘Leadership Styles’ Data retrieved from: http://sites2.theginsystem.com/gkfiu/files/201302132304011272__e__emerging_leaders_roundtable_-_leadership_style_quiz.pdf on 22nd May 23, 2013
