Solution identification approaches and methods

Solution Identification

To identify a solution, one must understand the nature of the problems. In addition to what has already been identified, it is worth noting that failure to reach the original objectives is not just an execution problem, but a problem with the objectives themselves. A 20% increase in sales would in most mature businesses be considered phenomenal in nature. So the failure to reach an unrealistic goal is hardly a failure at all; it was inevitable. So a starting point is to set realistic objectives before worrying about why they were not reached.

That said, there is more that the company can do. Never turning over bosses is another solution. One of the identified issues is that there was a new boss who took months to figure out how to do their job. That's not exactly professional caliber. In that case, if there are no professional caliber employees available it might have served the company well to ensure that the old boss never left.

Continuous Process Improvement

Rummler (2010) notes that "quality is a never ending quest and continuous process improvement is a never ending effort to discover and eliminate the main causes of problems." There are several objectives to a continuous process improvement program. These are to "reduce variation, remove activities that have no value to the organization and to improve customer satisfaction." So in sales, variation is no good. The sales people need to use the same techniques, the same scripts and definitely should never attempt to tailor the sales pitch to the individual customer. Customers hate having their individual needs recognized by sales people. It will totally increase customer satisfaction to read a script to them rather than engage them in a two-way dialogue. As for activities that have no value to the organization, those definitely need to be removed. Sales people should not be wasting time eliminating waste from their bodies while on company time -- new cameras will ensure that they are only performing functions that directly add profit to the shareholders. The old cameras didn't work because there clearly were not enough of them, and the employees have bad attitudes. Those attitudes can be remedied with tighter centralized control. Then the company can have continuous process improvement.

Do More with Less

The current staff is probably bloated. That is why they do not have good attitudes. Therefore, a culling is required. Capellon Pharmaceuticals needs to do more with less (Clark, 2010). There is no reason why cutting the sales force by 20% shouldn't allow the company to increase sales by 20%. Some of those cut are probably just dead weight -- not everybody is going to be a top performer. Basically what the company needs is to respond to customer demands for more service by cutting junk performers and only keeping the employees who have a driving desire to be number one. With dwindling staff and resources, there is little reason why the remaining staff members cannot simply increase sales by giving better service. There are probably a few hours in every day that these people have not dedicated to the company. We will install cameras in their cars to ensure that they are making sales calls while commuting to and from work. They will want this, because it will drive them to be number one. This is a sure-fire way to do more with less.

Rouda and Kusy (1995) note that organizational development is "an effort, planned, organization-wide, and managed from the top to increase organization effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the organization's processes using behavioral science knowledge." Planning is the key here. You cannot have too many plans. In this case, we are planning to straighten out the negativity in this organization by focusing on effectiveness and health. Clearly, human resources needs to raise its game and stop hiring people who suck. People make the difference between organizational success and failure, after all. Workers want feedback on their performance, and this required cameras so we know what they are doing. We can only empower workers by telling them what they did wrong every time they do something wrong. That is because our markets are global. Cullings, as recommended above, should be humane.