Current issues in management

CURRENT ISSUES IN MANAGEMENT

COURSEWORK

Written by: B. O. Mesci

Submitted to: Dr. L. T. SZAMOSI

14.10.2013

[email protected]

- University of Sheffield -

CITY COLLAGE

Current Issues in Management _ EMBA Coursework _ Başar Onur Mesci

Abstract

There have been major changes in Management Techniques from 1960s. Main change has

been the human. Before that organizations were considering human kind, employees as machines

but the updated new approach is more psychological. New system is a kind of dynamic modern

approach. In this study I am trying to find out new models and approaches in management

methods and how human kind has taken the role. In this study we are digging more in health

sector and how current issues in management are considered. Besides system approach, strategy

is another key parameter of management. Strategy is the scope of firms’ that can make difference

and create benefits. Strategy aims to use source as best. And strategy can create cooperation

within organization. Besides strategy, we can define strategic management as the target. Main

objective is to plan, organize, coordination and divert in strategic management. Content includes

decisions, without adding decisions that is not possible to define strategies. Results can provide

better or worse conditions.

In this coursework we are dealing with a company case, Solar Shop. Company is Turkey’s solar

equipment market leader. Company is not producing its own modules, its selling SolarWorld

modules in Turkey. Company can provide engineering solutions to its clients by using software’s.

In this study we are dealing numerical data and trying to understand approaches to improve

management methods in Solar Shop.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. Management Processes and It’s Approaches

3. Application of Literature in Practice – Case Study a. About the Company

b. Current Issues in Management in Solar Shop

c. Main Findings

4. Conclusion

5. References

Current Issues in Management _ EMBA Coursework _ Başar Onur Mesci

1 INTRODUCTION

Management has to consider both links within systematical approaches. System approach

has to understand both objects and links between objects. System approach can be considered in

this coursework as modern system approach because it has been revised within last years. System

approach is quite old. System approach has first written before Sokrates. System approach is one

of the main philosophical sciences. It is a kind of fantastic science which there would be difficult to

get laboratory results. This science can be considered as half metaphysics. System approach is

more close to mathematical discipline but has been used by many other sciences as well.

System approach and strategic management are the top of the list in current issues in

management. Strategic management process is a kind of a challenging process. Main steps in

strategic planning are:

o Developing objectives of the company.

o Developing aims of the firm.

o Developing firm’s competitiveness position.

o Creating strategies.

o Operating strategies.

o Evaluating overall results.

Developing objectives of the company is the first step. Vision is a part of this. Companies such as

Solar Shop which are operating in Renewable Energy Sector have got some constraints. Meredith

and Mantel (2008) state that ‘Like organic entities, projects have life cycles. From a slow beginning

they progress to a building up of size, then peak, begin a decline, and finally must be terminated

by some due date’.

Current Issues in Management _ EMBA Coursework _ Başar Onur Mesci

Successful project management means meeting all three goals (scope, time and cost) – and

satifying the project’s sponsor (quality)!(Schwalbe, 2007). If these three are managed well; you

advantages will appear, if not unsatisfactory result will be appeared and can cause long-term

damage. To reach success management is the key factor. Klein (1999) states that ‘A Project is

complex enough that performing the sub-activities requires careful considerations’. Using the

sources and choosing the right ones are functional. It is helpful to identify key risk at planning

stage. Frame (2003) states that ‘There is a strong consensus among project managers that projects

would be better undertaken outside the usual organizational environments’. Parallel lining

management approach is being chosen by Solar Shop board. Employees are taking parallel risks.

Companies which are operating in engineering and construction sector may have hidden risks.

Providing a report for the company’s own use and sharing some part of it with the customer can

be functional as well. Client can have chance to follow up process and this would lead to customer

satisfaction in some-how, if the execution of the project is considered as positive. That type of

report would be useful when considering the listed below items.

Understanding needs of the client

Priorities of the client

Starting point

Objective of the project and main parameters

Who, when, how does the work

Cost of the work

Final result

Planning of the project

Critical points of the project

Quality

Scope

Cost Time

Current Issues in Management _ EMBA Coursework _ Başar Onur Mesci

Solar Shop Management Team mainly deal with listed items. These can be considered as the main

risks.

Appearing on Web – How consumer would reach Solar Shop Website

Understanding Client Needs

Current Issues in Management _ EMBA Coursework _ Başar Onur Mesci

What to provide

Delivering goods

Instrallation works

Long-term satisfaction, servicing

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View 1. Priorities of Solar Shop Management Team Source: www.SolarShop.com

Solar Shop management team is focusing on many issues when delivering work. Owning

different professional capability is very helpful to provide good work. Managers of Solar Shop have

responsibility of identifying strong and weak points of process. If weak points are identified it has

to improve these as soon as possible. Dealing with weakness is a good management approach. If

problems are not evaluated and improved quickly in any firm, these can damage companies earlier

than expected.

Customer Welcoming

Offer

Marketing

Transportaion

Installation

Service

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2 PROCESSES IN MANAGEMENT

Each division may have separate targets in companies. Mainly because of that planning can

be varied as well. Projects can go parallel or one behind or one front at daily working environment.

Its manager’s responsibility to coordinate project schedule. There are some key issues which

managers can face with:

Separate divisions can work in same process.

Sources can be varied.

Cost of work vs. revenue

Using sources well and systematic is equal good management. Management is a combination

of science and art. Choosing right people within company and calling them for right duty will affect

overall efficiency. Managers have to manage well headcount coordination well within processes.

If we ask ourselves: “What is good management?” answer would be summed up with a few

words. These are budget, well performing, new technology, right sources, schedule, labor and raw

material. When focusing on these criterias that would be good to remember sister divisions

targets. Every section within company has got separate objectives and it is crucial to perform well

as not acting on other division’s performance bad.

Managers are kind of artists, they are performing unique at each process. Lewis (2006) states

that ‘The project produces a unique outcome, something that has not been done before. To say

that building a house is a project, when that same design has been built before, may seem

incorrect, but the conditions are different, the people involved are probably different, and so the

definition can be applied’. Positions that managers are facing with can be parallel but never be the

same. Besides this, because of different working environments challenges and risks would be

varied. Cost of the project can be determined earlier and finance management would be managed

better. It is helpful to identify possible risk earlier as much as managers can, the skills of manager

would provide difference in identifying the risks. In general managers can be varied by their

performance in these steps; start-ups, operation and final result.

As discussed earlier, managers can have different priorities but there are 3 again in general;

quality of work, time constraint in process and cost of project. We can show these three in a

three-angle. Please have a quick look at this.

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View 2. Where managers are focusing.

Within rest of the coursework I would try to tell about management processes. Martin

(1997) believes that these components have to be general guidelines not rigid laws. To have

overall success in a management process, combination of below listed issues have to be known

well. Integration is one of these crucial ones. Coordination of the teams is a sub category of this

integration. Planning is also a part of integration planning. Projects can be successful if we

understand the scope well. Focusing on unclear items can cause time wasting. Scheduling and

especially developing gone-charts would be function for managers to follow up processes.

Managers’ time management skill is an important one. If we define management with words

again; budgeting and cost management are at top of the list. Profit margins have to be studied

detailed to make company sustainable. Projects must be based on specifications and standards;

and to provide, control these standards we have to perform quality checks. Quality control is

Managers Competetiveness

Time

Quality Cost

Quality: Quality is the fitness for the right purpose. Our aim has to complete with zero defect or fault. Our project has to done proper to relevant specifications and standards.

Time: Time is the period of process to complete the project. Right time management is very crucial in project management.

Cost: It is the actual spending of the project.

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another key word in management. Communicating with existing clients and possible clients has to

be managed well. Setting up right people in right position is also important because of this. I

believe creating dynamic teams is useful and to have this ability we have to work with good people

who are flexible and are good at challenging conditions.

3 Application of Literature in Practice – Case Study

a. About the Company

Solar Shop is a start-up company registered in Istanbul, Turkey offering solar power products &

systems lead by Christian Wagner and Tandoğan Aytekin. The market for solar power is improving

in Turkey where they get over in average 2640 hours of sunshine in a year. Solar Shop has

identified two distinct market segments that they will market their products to. The first segment

is the online shopping and the second segment is people that will utilize skilled installers to have

the system implemented at their home and industries. The online segment has an increasing

growth rate and 5 million potential customers. The professional install market would increase

after November 2012 and expected as 750MW total solar power erection.

Solar Shop is being led by two professionals; Christian Wagner & Tandogan Aytekin who have

the education and experience to execute on these renewable energy projects.

Christian has an impressive academic background having been one of a select group of

students selected from 1.5 million (in 0,1%) to complete a Mechanical Engineering graduation at

one of Turkey’s most renowned universities, Bogazici University.

Tandogan is a self-motivated high skilled Electrical and Communications Engineer. He got

European and Turkish engineering and management experience and has been involved in many

testing & development projects European-wide. He has been working in helicopter production

facilities. An impressive academic background having bachelor degree from Turkey’s one of the best

practical university, Kocaeli University and has a master degree from Fachhochschule Giessen

Friedberg, Germany.

Solar Shop Co. has been established as a corporation in Turkey. The main shareholders are Christian Wagner & Tandogan Aytekin as company directors. Company has identified three keys to success that help the company grow into a mature market leader:

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Providing cutting edge, reliable, and simple-to-install and maintain solar power systems.

Broadening the market of solar power into a mainstream energy source in Turkey.

Designing and implementing strict financial controls.

The Team

Some of Solar Shop products are import products. Main products imported from abroad;

Photovoltaic cell, Inverter Steel Framing

The products provided at home;

Screw; nut and bolt; Electric Cable

View 4. Transportation route from Munich to Istanbul. Source: Google Earth

Christian Wagner Business

Develeopment

Executive

Sena Tosun Sales Manager

Tandoğan Aytekin Operation Manager Volkan Aydın

Commissioning

Chief

Murat Cağferoğlu Installation

Executive Yusuf Aytekin Supply Chain

Manager

Yelgin Mesci Legal

Zeynep Pekişen Marketing Manager

View 3. The Team_ Solar Shop

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b. Current Issues in Management in Solar Shop

i. Prof. Zeynep Solakoğlu / Canakkale

Prof. Zeynep Solakoğlu is one of Solar Shop customers. She was working in Istanbul University Faculty of Medical. She decided to live in Korucak Village; which is in Bayramic, Canakkale. Prof. Zeynep Solakoğlu requested Solar Shop to install an on-grid solar power system in her cottage. Project was 2400 wp; in other words 10 number of PV (photovoltaic) modules. Solar Shop team started working on Prof. Zeynep Solakoğlu’s project on 3.4.2012. The process was set up as similar with other projects. Algorithm of the project was like that;

Solar Shop started working on the project. First photos of the house were taken from the

customer. Solar Shop team started modelling and writing of the technical report.

Receiving RFP (Request for Proposal)

Offering

Signing the agreement

Delivering goods

Installation of the system

Commissioning

Service

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View 5. Cover page of Technical Report. View 6. Modelling of axil forces.

Getting request for proposal, offer and agreement stages were completed well. Modells were run and modules and mounting equipments were ready to go and they all sent with an outsources logistics company. No one was expecting a problem but there was. What was the problem?

The problem was truck found the village after some hours; it took parcel truck to find the village after 8 hours from departure from Istanbul. But there was a problem. Problem the road was not big enough for parcel truck to pass and arrive to the customer’s house. And another point was truck left Istanbul warehouse at around 2:00pm and time was around 10:00pm. A small village, dark streets and the nearest hotel is 100km far. What would be the solution; how would these modules and other equipments be carried to the house? Solar Shop team members were receving calls from the logistics company represantitives. After some discussions Solar Shop team decided to call customer, Prof. Zeynep Solakoğlu for some help. Luckily Prof. has had some friends in the village and some of the village people were carrying solar power equipments to their neighbour’s house. As far as Solar Shop team members were informed; it took one and a half hour to carry all equipment from parcel truck. That was a quite bad reputation for Solar Shop in the village. There were some mistakes done. That can be seen from above information there was a project management failure. Planning of the parcel, logistics was planned not good enough. That was a good example for Solar Shop; how important to focus on each work item in detail. Not to have a bad reputation in the village, Solar Shop cut net price 40% off from Prof. Zeynep Solakoglu’s invoice and offered 35% discount for Korucak people.

1. Getting RFP (Request for proposal) 2. Offer 3. Agreement Fault line below 4. Logistics 5. Installation 6. Commissioning 7. Service

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View 7. Transportation route in Korucak Village in where Solar Shop parcel truck was stuck. Source: Google Earth

ii. Cansuyu Company / Antalya

Another Solar Shop project management case is Can Suyu Company which the company is based in Antalya. Mr. Mustafa Erçel is the founder of Can Suyu Co. Project was 7200wp; in other words 30 number of PV (photovoltaic) modules. Agreement was signed on April 14th 2012. Equipment was sent on 1st of June 2012 and erection was taken place on 7th of June 2012. Everything was going very well until commissioning. In this project 7200wp solar system was divided into 3 main groups with 3 inverters. When PV Modules and the system was turned on one of the groups was not working well.

View 8. Can Suyu Co. Project’s SMA Inverter

groups.

View 9. Can Suyu Co. Project PV module

erection.

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After spending some time on the problem Solar Shop team found out that the production was

40% less than the similar units. Solar Shop team was focused on the main reason. Team decided to carry investigation on next day. Next day equipments of the failure system was re-erected one by one. There may be some reasons behind lack of production. Connection failure, faulty inverter, choosing wrong equipment such as cabling and faulty PV module. Re-examining the system team didn’t find any conneciton problem. All of the connections were ok. Next was to check PV module efficiency. After some hours technical team found out that one of the 240 watt poly PV module was not working well and that has to be changed with another one. Another problem was team didn’t have a spare one with them in Antalya. What would be the solution? Solution was sending another 240 w poly PV module from Istanbul warehoues. It took around 3 days. With the globalization customer are expecting rapid deliveries. Customer’s expectaions are worldwide customer service and support with alternative time saving distrubition channels (Walkers, 2002). Solar Shop spent additional 4 days in Antalya just to wait for a PV module. Cost of erection was higher than planned one and team spent 4 days with waiting for a module. There was a lack of planning. And Solar Shop customer Can Suyu Company lost solar energy production for 3 days; that cost was added to Solar Shop cost, reduced from Mr. Mustafa Ercel’s invoice.

c. Main Findings

Kerzner (2009) states that ‘The manager is actually a general manager and get to know the total operation of the company. In fact, project managers get to know more about the total operation of a company than most executives’. Solar Shop has experienced some kind of project management failures in the past because of lack of communication within the company. And these mistakes cost some unplanned money to the company. Weiss and Wysocki (2009) state that ‘State your views, needs, and feelings assertively, not submissively or Aggressively’.

Communication is very important in customer oriented type of businesses. Breakes within the project management stages may cause very crucial results. Solar Shop team had a meeting regarding on

increasing project management quality within the company. Two main decisions were taken. First is to develop some courses for Solar Shop employees to have PMBAK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) Courses. Objective for employees is to have PMBOK certifications and by this Solar Shop team’s project management skills would be developed. Second decision is to have some checklist procedures within company. Brennan (2009) states that ‘There are multiple establised ways to approach business analysis in work’. In Solar Shop we are establishing ways to manage our projects well. Project charter pages are

View 10. Solar Shop webpage customer data checklist. Source: www.SolarShop.com

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one of these functional ways. The project charter defines the reason for the project ans assigns a project manager and his or her authority level for the project (Stackpole, 2009). Each organization will provide its own priorities and will not take next step without completeing these charters, checklists. In practice providing data which has to be filled in these is not that easy. Solar Shop employees can face difficulty reaching to customer and sometime customer knowledge about the data is not sufficient. Because of that Solar Shop decided to develop a web-page to receive data from customer at first.

Solar Shop has improved its employees’ project management skills with the help of courses and

software tools. That helps company to save around EUR2000 per month.

4 Conclusion

In this study how to develop management processes in Solar Shop have been examined in detail.

At the first part of paper; early stages, general assumptions of management have been defined and in

the second part a real-situation, Solar Shop case was examined. Project management approach with its

successes and fails; and by combining these together, Solar Shop’s strengths and weaknesses were

observed, development methodologies were studied. This study highlights Solar Shop’s project

management capability in other terms. For the scope of this purpose, the subject of developing

management processes was discussed academically.

Also the information gained at the end of this monitoring was shared with the reader via

examples. Evaluation and application of the management; that would be monitored by the company in

the short & long term were explained, by the help of existing data. In the scope of this purpose, main

project management mistakes within a company were evaluated and ways of improving business

process studied as requested.

5 References

Frame, J. Davidson, Managing Projects in Organizations: How to Make the Best Use of Time, Techniques, and People , 3rd edition, Jossey-Bass, 2003, ISBN 0-787-96831-5 Kerzner, Harold, Project Management: Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, 10th edition, Wiley, 2009, ISBN 0-470-27870-6

Brennan, Kevin, A guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge, International Instutute of Business Analysis,

2009, ISBN-13: 978-0-9811292-2-8 Klein, Robert, Scheduling of Resurce-Constrained Projects, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999, ISBN 0-7923-8637-X

Lencioni, Patrick M., Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and

Facilitators (J-B Lencioni Series) , Jossey-Bass, 2005, ISBN 0-787-97637-7

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Lewis, James, The Project Manager's Desk Reference, 3rd edition, McGraw-Hill, 2006, ISBN 0-071-46464-6 Martin, Paula, Tate, Karen, The Project Management Memory Jogger: A Pocket Guide for Project Teams , GOAL/QPC, 1997, ISBN 1-576-81001-1 Meredith, R. Jack and Mantel, Jr., Samuel J., Project Management: A Managerial Approach , 7th edition, Wiley, 2008, ISBN 0-470-22621-8 Schwalbe, Kathy, Information Technology Project Management, 6th edition, Course Technology, 2009, ISBN 0-324-78692-1 Stackpole, Cynthia Snyder, A Project Manager's Book of Forms: A Companion to the PMBOK® Guide, Wiley, 2009, ISBN 978-0470389843

Walker, D., Walker, T., Doing Business Internationally, Second Edition: The Guide To Cross-Cultural Success , McGraw-Hill, 2002, ISBN 0-071-37832-4 Weiss, Joseph and Wysocki, Robert, Five-phase Project Management: A Practical Planning And Implementation Guide , Basic Books, 1992, ISBN 0-201-56316-9