Overview
The Highline financial services’ case has perplexed even the managing partner Freddie mack who is in the process of trying to prepare for action in order to ensure that the business does not go down. He is prepared to take actions such as hiring new workers or laying off some workers as a strategy to shine in the coming year of business. He wants to prepare himself adequately in order to ensure that he makes profits and not losses. The print that he had of the past 2 years of business showed him the amount of demand that his services had. The years have been divided into four quarters and each quarter has been examined to show the amount of demand for the services.
The main reason for the printout was to show him how his services to clients were fairing in the market. As a good businessman, it is important to check on the progress of the business from time to time to ensure that it is moving smoothly and identify the problems, which may be facing it. This eventually helps since the manager is able to sought out any issues at their early stage prior to their becoming big issues that may force the firm to run out of business. Freddie Mack, therefore, was only doing what a good manager is supposed to do, which entails the evaluation of the business’ progress.
From the printout it is evident that the firm offers three types of services to its clients. The three services have been properly listed and have been named in terms of letters A, B, and C. In each quarter of the year, the three services have been examined in terms of their demand by the clients and the results listed. The printouts show the results for two consecutive years and this is in order to confirm whether the business has made improvement from the previous year, whether it has remained the same as it was, or it has declined in terms of the demand. The results as expressed can be attributed to many factors, however, the factor that best stands out and ensures that the services have a high demand in the market is the quality of the service, which in other terms can be described as whether or not the service has met the customer’s needs.
Analysis
As a consultant to the president of Highline financial services, I would first of all consider how I can find an idea that will ensure that the demand of the services shoots high and never remains the same or declines. In the first idea, reducing the cost of production may have an effect on the quality of the services, therefore, this may end up causing more harm than good for the company. The process of laying off employees would also pose some difficulties as the progression of production may take longer than usual hence leading to failure in meeting deadlines, which would be bad for business. In a nutshell, this idea is not very effective in this case, and it should not be given priority.
An idea that can boost the demand for the services of Highline financial services would be to accept trade-ins for malfunctioned products and replace them with new working products. However, this would also pose difficulties in executing since the company will experience losses as it would have to meet the cost of repairing the malfunctioned products on its own. Nevertheless, this idea would also go a long way in ensuring that the image of the company is reinstated to its previous status and is protected as the customers will feel that the company cares for them. Nonetheless, if some changes can be made to this plan, it can have a very positive effect on the firm and eventually end up paying off. As an advisor to the firm’s president, I would ask him to consider accepting this idea only if he would deem the method of cost sharing the repair of the malfunctioned products with the customers beneficial. When a customer brings a malfunctioned product, he would pay a small fee and the product would be replaced with a new one.
Moreover, a good idea that I came up with as the advisor was recommending that the president take proper action in ensuring inspection of every process of offering services as it would ensure that the company does not encounter any losses in future and that the products being taken to the market have a high quality and, therefore, the image of the company would be moulded positively since customers will associate the company with high quality goods. To add on the ideas that I have proposed, I would advise the president to try and ensure that the employees know how to relate with the clients as they offer them services in an attempt to attract the new ones. This may go a long way in boosting the company’s sales and ensuring that it is able to capture a wider market.
I would also urge the president of the firm to try and ensure that he has a way of knowing what the customers are saying about the products in order to know their tastes and preferences to stay ahead in the market. This would play a vital role in ensuring that the clients are always happy by getting access to services that the require, which would lead to high customer loyalty to the company’s brand.
Summary
From the results of the Highline financial services’ case, it is clear that the overall demand for the services it offers in the two years has increased considerably in the second year as compared to the first year. In the first year the first quarter experienced a lesser demand as compared to the first quarter in the second year. This shows that in the second year demand increased in the first quarter. It seems as if service C has a lot of demand than the other services when it is compared to them since it has the highest demand in both years. The second quarter in the first year has a lower demand than the second quarter of the second year.This shows that the trend that was experienced in the first quarter in both years is also taking place in the second quarter, which shows that in the second year the company has experienced an increase in demand.
The demand for the servises is expected to continue increasing although it is evident that in some quarters the demand falls reasonably. Therefore, the company should try to establish the reason for this behaviour in demand. Freddy should indeed look out for the proper way to increase the demands and ensure that the increase is permanent and that it does not increase then decrease again. He should have concerns on how to ensure that the demand stays constant. Proper quality management in the firm ensures that the clients are satisfied which eventually enhances the loyalty that the customers have on the brand that the firm produces. Quality management is also important as it is a way that the organization can use to increase its revenue and raise its productivity in the long run. This is because when the organization is successful, the workers are also triumphant hence satisfied and have the morale to work hard.
The main reason why Freddie should have some concerns on the results of the demand is because it is not good for demand to increase in one quarter then in the following quarter it decreases. This shows that there may be something wrong with the products. It would appear that the quality of the products in some of the quarters is good and so clients go for them but sometimes the quality of the products does not satisfy the clients and hence they do not go for them.
As an advisor to the president it is evident that what Highline financial services lacks most is quality management, which would also help the firm reduce the amount of waste and inventory since the workers are able to have a close working relationship with the suppliers. This in turn brings about coordination among the employees, which leads to a very timely production of products and meeting of deadlines. Therefore, it is crucial for organizations to cultivate good quality management processes.