Table of Contents
Project Summary
A new chocolate manufacturing has been established to manufacture and produce Chocolate called Bury. The market already has three competitors who have not managed to attain full market potential in as far as the market share is concerned. There is still a forty percent market share to be filled. It is this opportunity present in the market that the Bury chocolate seeks to fill. Unlike the others chocolates in the market, Bury comes with a new taste with less sugar and a fine creamy taste. These new features that Bury chocolate contain, pose a threat to the competitors and provide the company with a competitive strength to easily penetrate the market (Business Plan Guide, 2017). For this Bury project to be successful, the company has developed an operational plan to be implemented based on the company’s strategic plans.
Strategic Plans
- The market leader in Chocolate business by applying relevant research and development that help improve the product preference among consumers.
- Over a period of ten years establish the Bury brand not only in the country but the entire continent.
- Improve the competence and skills of the workforce as the company aims at reaching regional and international heights.
- Impact positively on the lives of communities and stakeholders that contribute to the company success.
Objectives
- To be the market leader in chocolate business regarding taste and preference.
- To establish a strong brand of chocolate in the market from the Bury chocolate.
- To train and hire highly competent skills in the company.
- To improve the lives of communities and stakeholders that work with the company
An operational plan that enables these strategic plans and objectives of the company is outlined and broken down into functional units that will help in achieving the overall success of the company. The functional units are goods and services, human, physical or production, financial and stock requirements. The operational plan is designed to achieve results over a period of three years. The company uses a bottom-up organizational structure where decisions are captured from the basic managerial unit before the top management makes an overall decision (Australian Pacific College, 2017).Three financially stable and who have a distribution capacity in that covers the whole company have been identified. For a start, the company will have one hundred and fifty staff. A central location has been established for building the manufacturing plant. New state of the art chocolate manufacturing machines has been purchased to ensure smooth production process. An established distribution channel has been identified. A breakdown of the functional units is as follows;
Goods and Services Department
The goods and services department is responsible for the procurement of high quality and standard materials used in the manufacturing of the chocolate. It is also important in providing marketing services for the suppliers and the customers as regards any challenges faced either in the distribution or the product itself.
Human Resource Department
The Human section is responsible for the recruitment of highly knowledgeable and competent staff that has an in-depth knowledge of chocolate production. The Human resource is also responsible for the company personnel hiring, reassignments, position classification and grading, salary determination and performance appraisal review and processing.
Physical/Production
The production department is the heart of the company because it is responsible for the production of the high-quality chocolate. The machines and personnel that are in use should be able to cut cost but as well produce high-quality Bury chocolate. The production operations are to be timely, well-articulated and meet the market demand.
Financial Department
Deals with the functions to forecast the allocation of financial resources to all the departments to help enable the company to attain their ultimate goal of introducing the Bury chocolate in the market. The financial forecast should capture the sales forecast, the operational cost and the expected profit returns over a period of three years (Australian Pacific College, 2017).
Consultation Process
The company has adopted a consultation process that will enable the company to get the necessary feedback as regards new ideas and embrace different ways of thinking. The company has adopted the internet communication, meetings and brainstorming sessions. All these are used to capture and implement new ideas which will help improve the company performance.
Key Performance Indicators
The key performance indicators for the company are to increase sales by 10 % after every four months in all the markets. Also to improve the taste and preference of the Bury chocolate by adding additives and the size of the Bury chocolate. Improve skills and competence in the company by hiring professional in the chocolate sector (Australian Pacific College, 2017).To improve schools in the community by building more classrooms and providing scholarships to best-performing students.
Contingency Plan
The company has prepared a fall back plan for any eventuality that the operational plan fails or faces difficulty in implementation. One of the first contingency plans is to cut down the cost of operation by outsourcing services that are not needed in the day to day management of the company like legal services (Australian Pacific College, 2017).The other contingency plan is to allocate more finance to the sales and marketing to enable market penetration. The other contingency plan is to seek the services of professional consultants to help in a difficult market and managerial situations. Overall the contingency plan will also include measures to diversify production, finding cheaper raw materials, recycling and re-use and organizational restructure to reduce labour cost.
Information Sources and Plan Approval
The operational plan captured relevant information that was obtained from a financial specialist. The specialist helped in the financial forecast and allocation of financial resources to all departments. Information was also obtained from chocolate manufacturing specialist who advised on the best quality and quantity to produce (Australian Pacific College, 2017).The other information was obtained from a sales and marketing specialist who advise on the market forces and sales pattern. The plan obtained approval from a business banking financial officer, chocolate manufacturing consultant and a confectionary marking specialist.
Methods for ensuring Team Work
The three methods the company has adopted in ensuring the work team understands the operational plan share among them the specific tasks and objectives each functional units has to perform. Interdepartmental meetings are also used to pass the plan. The last method is through staff bonding programs.
Financial Allocation and Management
Financial resources allocation are managed through first conducting a financial need assessment. The assessment points out which department needs more financial resources and why. The assessment then categorizes the departmental needs based on which department needs how much financial resource. Resources are then allocated to meet these desired needs and objectives. Professional financial personnel will head and manage the financial resources.
Cost and Wastage Control
To improve resource usage and eliminate resource efficiencies and waste, the company has embraced several methods. The first method is to reuse and recycle goods that can be recycled. This method helps cuts costs and also helps to conserve the environment. The company has also adopted the contracting and outsourcing specifically legal services. This helps to cut cost because legal services are only used when need be. The company also uses the method of the restructuring of the organization to reduce labour costs.
Intellectual Property Rights
The Bury chocolate brand is to be registered under the statutory business laws that protect. The company has invested heavily into research and development (Australian Pacific College, 2017).This is to create room for innovations that add up to improve the bury chocolate or better still create a new product line. The company will make sure that the innovations and ideas are protected by law through patents, copyrights and trademarks. The company will also enable innovators to earn recognition and get financial benefit from what they create or invent.
- Australian Pacific College. (2017). Diploma of Leadership and Management. Sydney: Young Rabbit Pty Ltd.
- Business Plan Guide. (2017, October 25). Business Plan Guide.