Assessment 1 – Research & Questioning

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Assessment 1 – Research & Questioning
Instructions:
This assessment consists of two parts. For this assessment students are allowed to work in small teams
(Maximum number of 3 students) to gather information. However, the all reports and documents must be
prepared independently. For this reason, it is expected that each of these documents will be written in their
own words.
Duration:
Trainer will set the duration of the assessment.
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Questions:
Part A
Using the scenario 1 information supplied, the student will identify strategic change needs, review existing
policy, monitor trends in the external environment that impact on organisation’s objectives, identify
operational change objectives, prioritise change requirements and consult experts or specialists to assist in
identification of change requirements and opportunities. The student will then write a report to management
outlining the change requirements.
Part B
Based on the scenario 2 provided, you will write another report in which you outline a performance and
sustainability review strategy, evaluate the strategy, analyse performance reports and trends, and describe
how you would seek advice from specialists to identify technological solutions.
Procedure:
Part A
1. Review the scenario 1 information provided (in the Appendix 1) for Fast Track Couriers.
2. Prepare to write a report on change requirements for Fast Track by following steps 3–10 below.
3. Analyse the organisational objectives provided in the scenario to identify the change requirements for
Fast Track Couriers:
a. Identify requirements for change
b. prepare an explanation of how your identified change needs link to the organisation’s strategic
plan goal/s.
4. Review the organisation’s current state to understand how the current policies, practices and
operations deliver against the organisation’s strategic goals.
5. Review the organisation’s performance against objectives with regards to its:
a. people
b. processes
c. technology
d. structure.
6. Monitor external trends to identify events or trends which may impact on the achievement of the
organisation’s strategic plan goals:
a. identify two external trends
b. develop an explanation of how the trends currently impact or will impact organisational
objectives.
7. Identify major operational change requirements:
a. identify changes due to performance gaps
b. identify changes due to business opportunities
c. identify changes due to threats
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d. identify changes due to management decisions.
8. Identify specialists to be consulted to assist with identifying change needs:
a. identify specialists you will engage to help identify change requirements and be prepared to
explain your reasons for engaging these specialists
b. identify what consulting model you would adopt to engage the specialists and be prepared to
explain why you would use this model.
9. Assume your trainer is a specialist/expert of the kind you have identified in step 7. Consult with your
trainer to assist with identification of change management requirements and opportunities.
10. Identify the managers that need to be informed. Prepare a plan that identifies who, when and how
stakeholder managers will be engaged to review and prioritise change requirements.
11. Assume your trainer is a manager you have identified. Consult with your trainer to review the changes
you propose and to help you prioritise changes. Suggest and justify the priority you have assigned to
each change you recommend.
12. Prepare a 3–4 page report detailing change requirements for the organisation. Include all of the
information you identified and explanations that you prepared in steps 3–10.
13. Submit all documents to your trainer as per the specifications below. Ensure you keep a copy of all work
submitted for your records.
Part B
1. Read the case study ‘AC Gilbert’ in Appendix 1.
2. Analyse the information provided and prepare a report addressing the following six (6) points.

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3. Submit your report to your trainer as per the specifications below.
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Your Tasks (Specifications)
Part A
You must provide:

PartB
You must provide:

Appendix 1
Scenario 1- Fast Track Couriers Pty Ltd
You are an external change management consultant employed by Fast Track Couriers. You have been asked by
the General Manager to prepare a report to identify opportunities and requirements for change for the
organisation in the coming year.
You have been given some information about the organisation and the organisation’s strategic goals. Specific
operational and human resources goals were developed to support the strategic goals.
The strategic goals were developed as a result of external market research indicating an opportunity for Fast
Track Couriers to build market share in Sydney. The business has the opportunity to increase Sydney market
share by 7.5% on the back increased efficiency and shorter delivery times from larger truck fleet and improved
distribution systems.
You have also been given some information about employees and some background information regarding the
organisation’s workforce relations.
Before submitting the final report, you will need to review your proposed changes with all relevant manager
stakeholders. The General Manager is very concerned about identifying change requirements in close
consultation with key management stakeholders within the organisation in order to ensure the least resistance
to implementation.
Track Couriers
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Fast Track About Fast Couriers is a courier company that has been operating in New South Wales for the last
15 years. Its primary business function is delivering medium to large size packages across metropolitan Sydney.
Strategic plan goals
The organisation’s strategic goals are:

 to develop and maintain a cohesive and well-motivated workforce.
Strategic goals are supported by the following operational and human resources goals.
Operational plan goals

Human resources goals:

Employee profile
Fast Track Couriers employee the following people:

Head office employees

Drivers
 Covered by an award.
 Salary $45,000 per annum.
 Heavily unionised.
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Background to workforce management and relations
The company communicates with employees via email for head office employees and a printed monthly
newsletter for drivers. The company provides information regarding policies procedures through documented
manuals that are held in each truck as an employee manual. Office-based staff can access copies of these
manuals at the office.
All trucks are fitted with a GPS system to assist drivers with navigating to each pick up and drop off location.
Trucks are also assigned a PDA that provides drivers with the details of each pick up and drop off and records
when a job starts and finishes. The data from this device is sent back to head office to monitor job progress but
is not used to complete productivity reporting. When this device was introduced, drivers were not happy as
they felt the organisation was saying that it did not trust the drivers to manually record the time spent on each
job. Many of the drivers also resented having to learn how to use the device and thought it was a waste of
time.
Head office employees work very closely together and are a very cohesive and motivated team. They are
positive about the organisation’s direction and respond well to change.
Drivers have historically reacted negatively to change. Change implemented in the past has met with
resistance and was therefore difficult to implement. Drivers have in the past done their best to block any
changes from being implemented, even going to the lengths of threatening strike action and having the union
involved to assist with resolving the issue.
Fast Track Couriers currently allocates two drivers per truck to ensure that drivers are able to load and unload
heavy packages. The strategy going forward is to remove the need for having two drivers per truck by installing
an automatic lift gate on the back of each gate at a cost of $10,000 per truck. This will mean that only one
driver is needed per truck as no heavy lifting will be required.
It is Fast Track Couriers intention to use these surplus drivers to drive the new trucks that will be purchased to
enable the company to extend its services to regional NSW.
Drivers are currently happy with the work environment as they enjoy working as part of a two-man team. The
organisation typically leaves the drivers alone and lets them do their job as this is what seems to make them
happy. Management has tried in the past to have drivers participate in organisational activities. These
activities were not received positively and the drivers complained and asked not to be involved. The drivers’
view is that their preferred team is their two-man driver team and they only see the benefits of that specific
working arrangement. There is a high value placed on communication with trucking team members.
Scenario 2 – A. C. Gilbert
History 1909–1961
Alfred Carlton Gilbert was an inventor and a toy manufacturer who invented the Erector engineering set. His
original company, The Mysto Manufacturing Company, was founded in 1909 to manufacture the Erector set. In
1916, Mysto became the A. C. Gilbert Company and gained a reputation for producing quality toys.
By the 1950s, A. C. Gilbert was one of the leading toymakers in the United States with annual sales regularly
topping $17 million. This was an outstanding achievement for a relatively small company.
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In 1961, A. C. Gilbert senior died, leaving the company in the hands of his son, A. C. Junior. At the time A. C.
Junior took over the firm, the company was established as a traditional, reliable and profitable manufacturer
of educational toys.
Product lines and rationale
A. C. Gilbert produced train sets but their most popular lines were chemistry sets, microscopes and their best
seller, the Meccano-like Erector engineering sets that had been popular with children for more than 50 years.
A. C. Gilbert toys were not cheap. They were high quality, solidly crafted and made to endure. Parts and
packaging were designed to last for many years, with the Erector set packaged in long-lasting metal boxes. The
focus was on educational toys, primarily aimed at boys rather than girls. The company had a limited range but
what they did manufacture was top quality and highly regarded.
Systems and processes
A. C. Gilbert was a small company. The following model demonstrates the systems and processes in place.
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Design
Toys are designed by a small group of
designers who develop the concepts for
the products.
Planning
The planning department translates the
concepts into designs and determines
resource requirements, including raw
materials. Planning also projects sales and
develops production plans for each product,
timeframes for production runs and
scheduling of production runs.
Purchasing
Information gained from planning stage used
to purchase raw materials for products and
packaging from suppliers.
Manufacturing
Produces and packages toys for distribution.
Distribution
Delivers packaged toys to the warehouse for
storage.
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Note: These flowcharts have been included for assessment purposes only, and may not accurately reflect the
actual processes in place at A. C. Gilbert.
History 1961–1967
As the 1950s moved into the 1960s, there were huge cultural changes across the world. The fifties were a very
traditional era of family values and morals, conservative and staid. Then came the ‘swinging sixties’. The sixties
were a time of rapid change both technologically and culturally. Old fashioned values gave way to new moral
freedoms.
Where the fifties represented solidarity and familiarity, the sixties embraced change. Everything was bolder,
brighter and more daring. A new young president and rising social activism by youth saw changes in clothing,
music and interests. Young people rebelled against the values of their parents and embraced a more fast
paced, exciting and riskier lifestyle.
Changes to the toy industry
Cultural changes had a huge impact in western toy markets. Barbie and Action Man became ‘must have’ toys.
Girls moved away from baby dolls and cots and wanted dolls that were more grown up, modern and trendy.
They wanted dolls they could dress in the latest fashions and who had exciting ‘careers’, boyfriends and cars of
their own. Boys were moving away from the traditional train sets towards exciting new slot-car racing sets and
action figures from popular movies and television shows.
Traditionally, toy advertising had been done via magazine promotions but the sixties brought in a new
phenomenon: television advertising. A hugely powerful medium, TV advertising became increasingly ‘hard
sell’, with toys heavily promoted, especially in the lead up to Christmas. Children wanted the latest and
greatest toys that they saw in these advertisements and put pressure on their parents to buy, which they did.
Retailing of toys during this period reflected a shift in retailing in general. Small, specialty retailers with
experienced and knowledgeable staff were going out of business, replaced by large discount stores catering
for the mass market. The goal of this type of retailer was to turnover stock. Heavily advertised lines were in
demand and that is what they would stock. Cheap was in and giant retailers were after a quick profit from
easily saleable, inexpensive products. They weren’t interested in catering to a niche market by stocking more
expensive, harder to shift lines.
Packaging was bright and colourful in order to attract children growing up in a world of colour TV, hypercolor
clothing and visual stimulation provided by the swinging sixties.
Affects on A. C. Gilbert
As a small, traditional company, A. C. Gilbert was slow to react to these changes. It may have been that they
were not aware of the changes or were overly confident that their good name and reputation was sufficient to
continue trading as before. The consequences of this short sightedness soon became apparent.
Sales Team
• Take orders
from
customers
Distribution
• Arrange for
delivery of
goods to
purchaser
using contract
transport
Retailers
• Sell the toys
directly to end
user
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1961 (figures approximate)

This drop in sales was also reflected in a fall in the share price of the company.
Outcomes
As a result of the falling profits and share price, the company became attractive to an opportunistic
businessman, Jack Wrather. Jack Wrather was an independent television producer who had made his money
producing the popular programs ‘Lassie’ and ‘The Lone Ranger’. Jack Wrather wanted to purchase a successful
business and felt that in A. C. Gilbert, he had the opportunity to use his knowledge of popular entertainment
and apply it to the production of toys. He purchased 52% of A. C. Gilbert for $4 million and immediately set
about making his mark on the company. A. C. Junior stayed on as Chairman but his influence was minimal.
Actions taken by Jack Wrather

Performance report

Key milestones
1962:

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 Company recorded a loss of $281,000.00.
 Introduced 50 new lines in less than 12 months, using existing engineers and production
departments who lacked training and experience in the new product range.
 Repackaged existing lines at a cost of $1 million.
1963:
 Sales and profits down on previous year.
 Anticipated drop in profits due to expansion and cost of establishing new lines.
 Sales fell short of expectations.
 Decline in quality of toys – feedback indicated products poorly made and designed (dolls did not
even come with a change of clothing).
 New range perceived by customers as poor quality and over-priced – not value for money nor
attractive to the target market.
1964:
 Jack Wrather fired most of the top management team he hired two years previously.
 Crisis management lead to multiple changes and dramatic measures being taken and then changed
– often one measure contradicting the previous.
 Jack Wrather hires new CEO – Isaacson.
 Isaacson fires the entire sales team.
 Isaacson makes huge cutbacks in spending.
 Sales are channelled through independent manufacturer’s reps, which was cheaper than
maintaining an in-house sales force.
 Long-standing relationships soured as the independent reps worked on commission and pushed
sales, with no interest in maintaining or building relationships with customers.
 A. C. Gilbert had built its success on personal service and building relationships – that was
destroyed within 12 months.
 A. C. Gilbert Junior dies and is replaced as Chairman by Jack Wrather. Isaacson assumes the role of
President.
 Prior to Christmas, many of the previous year’s failed products were deleted and 20 new items
introduced.
 Reduced the price of core lines such as the Erector set from $75 to $20 but quality also impacted –
cardboard box instead of metal boxes, and brittle parts instead of sturdy long-lasting parts.
 Sales increased and there was some degree of optimism.
1965:
 Sought to capitalise on popular crazes such as James Bond and The Man from Uncle by introducing
action figures for Christmas.
 Due to internal strife and staff cutbacks, the new lines were not delivered to the stores until after
Christmas.
 Operating on a skeleton workforce.
 Due to lack of staff, A. C. Gilbert is unable to implement changes or introduce new lines quickly
enough to capitalise on trends.
1966
 Increased advertising spending to $3 million.
 Introduced point of purchase display products supplied to dealers free of charge.
 Borrowed $6.25 million, granted on the event that the company made a profit in 1996.
 Company made a loss of $12,872,000.00.
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1967
 February – A. C. Gilbert closed its doors after 58 years.
Source:
 Tibballs, G., 1999, Business blunders, ‘A. C. Gilbert: Toy Story’, Robinson Publishing Ltd, pp. 43.

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