Management business operations for continuous improvement for efficient and effective performance of a startup business

The student search hub is a proposed business that is to be commissioned as a startup within ICL education. The job search hub intends to provide assistance and support the current students as well as the graduates of various programs of the school and activities around their job search. The startup business will operate as an in-house placement center supporting the current students and alumni to get employment in their chosen area of study, primarily through a self-help website for learners and also through in-house assistance through a team of staff. The support provided by the ICL Students Job Search Hub could be part-time employment opportunity to the current students, full-time employment for the alumni.

Further activities would include providing internship placements around the practicum requirements of the course that students pursued or are pursuing if any. Besides, the founder of the job search hub realized that people usually have problems in making decisions when it comes to progressing in their current areas of employment. Therefore the proposed startup will provide advice on career-related moves by students who aspire to advance in their current employment.  

This report seeks to analyzed management business operations for continuous and effective business operations. Furthermore, the paper will outline some of the possible challenges that the ICL Students Job Search Hub is likely to experience as a startup business.

Management business operations for continuous improvement for the efficient and effective performance of a startup business

No matter how best you do whatever you do, at some point in time somebody is going to come along and try to do it even better (Burgel, & Murray, 2000). That is the principle of competition in any venture. To beat these potential competitors, you should, first of all, find better ways of doing your business. And this can be done by frequently tackling the inefficiency and challenges lurking in your business. Figuring out how to make the ICL Students Job Search Hub, as well as any venture more productive requires a continuous improvement mindset– looking at your venture each day and pursuing opportunities to do better things, smarter and more efficiently. While the management of the ICL Students Job Search Hub may not have full control over the external factors like the increased number of graduates seeking for job opportunities, you can occasionally fine-tune your operations. Lewis, & Churchill, N (2000) define continuous improvement as a philosophy which entails relating your business every day. Johnson & Whang, (2002) note that constant improvement is not only what leaders and manager of organization thin about, but it is also embedded in all levels of the organization. You have to empower your entire team to uphold efficiency, reduce loopholes and strengthen the bottom line of your venture.

Challenges in customer-facing and back office operations

Customer care

In many business ventures, the back office is where the needs and requests of the customers are solved (Davila & Foster 2007). It is where customers are brought on board, billed and their records updated. However, how well the operation management meets customer expectations is premised on the process beyond the customer contact center. Studies have found that customer care is one of the biggest challenges that operational managers face in their business, and more specifically in the back office operation (Davila & Foster 2007).

Challenges in customer-facing and back office operations

Studies by Price & Chen, (2003) posit that a lack of insight into back-office duties has cost most of the companies millions of money. Approximately 20% of the complaints and inquiries received from the customers in most of the companies are as a result of mishandling y the back office.  

The ICL Students Job Search Hub, is used in their bid to find job opportunities for the current and alumni, does several activities. Therefore, they are likely to get high volumes of work, with inconsistent demands. Often work will come unpredictably. It could be as a result of the lack of proper coordination with other parts of the business, or some other external factors which you may not have control over. Similarly, because of the nature of the venture, the employees will be forced to handle a wide variety of duties, based on customer demands. Indeed, your customers will have a different expectation in the service you offer, and there is variation in employees’ performance because of diverse skills. There is no visibility across different systems. People and tasks. It will result in a problem because when people are not integrated, and they work separately on their own, you may lack visibility in the complete set of customer-oriented work.

• Billing

No matter the kind of business you are in, billing is an essential part of the operation. An efficient billing framework can improve your customers’ satisfaction, improve the cash flow in the venture and most significantly lower the operating expenses. Yes, the students receiving the service from the ICL Students Job Search Hub will pay for the service. Thus they should get the value of their money. All the activities of any organization will effectively run when there is a transparent and responsible accounts manager. However, this has been a challenge to most of the startup businesses.  

• Technology and resources

Despite all the resources and tools at your disposal, operations managers, especially in a startup business will face enormous challenges when it comes to technology and organizational resources. The virtual marketplace is characterized by its dynamic makeup. Technology has radically changed the way operation managers carry out their routine activities. Hence it is one of the priorities among many other challenges that startup ventures experience today. Technology is moving at high speed. Keeping up with speed can be rewarding; however, failing can be dangerous to your venture. The activities of the ICL Students Job Search Hub will be conducted both at the in-house and virtually. The in-house activities will involve the use of front office and back office, while virtual activities will require building links with potential providers. Indeed, the venture will have to ensure that their service reaches the alumni students who cannot visit their offices at school. It follows technological operations, such as developing an online forum and website among other are one of your core activities.   

Managing your website will be a crucial challenge as it has been to most of the marketers. And chances are website performance tops the list of your priorities. It is a great asset that you will use to draw more students to your services, convert them from using other platforms and help you achieve your set goals as a company. The challenges with the website management include several different factors, ranging from designing good web pages through optimization of the content.

Customer care

Your business venture intends to get as many traffics as possible; however, generating enough traffics and leads is another top marketing challenge, according to Davila & Foster, (2007) report. Davila & Foster (2007) has noted that marketers are struggling daily to produce enough traffic for their content. And competition continues to stiffen. There are several options of platforms for business to publish their content and even more opportunities to do promotion. Therefore it is challenging to know which areas to focus.

ICL Students Job Search Hub needs to identify the right technologies to use, but this is a big challenge. Often, the problems come as a result of the scattered nature of feedback in technology. As the management of the startup business, you may decide to turn to friends, colleagues, and analyst advice to assess the best technology to use in your case and you end up finding that the feedback is all over social media, and from companies and people of questionable reputation.

• Sales and marketing

Another marketing challenge that you are likely to experience is measuring the Return on Investment (ROI) of your marketing activities. However, it continues to be a significant way to understand the benefit of every particular of marketing campaigns. As the management of the business, it is essential to realize that ROI goes hand-in-hand with the need to increase the budget. But tracking the return on investment for every marketing activity is always a challenge, especially when you have not enhanced two-way communication between the sales department and the marketing activities.  

Technology is fundamental to the existence of startups. Every day, thousands of technology teams work extremely hard to give the most innovative solutions to the problems on the market. It follows that the ICL Students Job Search Hub is treading in the platform which experiences changes every day. There are platforms outside school which are already providing the services that you are offering. In the course of looking for job opportunities for the students, ICL Students Job Search Hub has to race to keep up with the pace of technology constantly. Most of the companies will be posting jobs on their websites, and perhaps some opportunities not posted. It means that each day you should be updated with what is happening in the various sectors, and capable of updating students and graduates with the opportunities.

One of the responsibilities of the ICL Students Job Search Hub is to offer practicum, p/t, f/t work skills as support works, but there is ever changing needs of various companies. Therefore, it is imperative that the company should be up to date always with the changing demands of the market so that you can impart relevant practicum skills to your clients.

Problem-solving skills: Structuring problem solution

Identification of the problem

The problem in a startup business can show as wastage energy, interruption in business processes and temporary challenges. However, the first step it to be aware of the problems to exits and you should view them as an opportunity for improvement in your activities.

Describing the current situation

The ICL Students Job Search Hub is a startup venture which aims at assisting and supports the current students as well as the graduates of various programs of the school and activities around their job search. The venture is ready to start operation, both in-house and virtually. Strategies and resources are already in place. Some of the activities have already commenced by the teams. Goals and objectives have already been established, and there a are some which have been accomplished. There is a space which has been dedicated for some activities at the room opposite staff washrooms. However, sales and marketing are one of the main challenges, especially for the startup businesses. As the operation managers, you need to market your business to serve as many students as possible. At the beginning stage, you may have few students who are using the service; however, as time continues the company will serve a lot of students. But, this happens when you have done proper sales and marketing.

 To fully understand the challenge, you first of all need to go through the probable sources and the contributing factors. The following are some of the questions that you need ask: who? (Who is concerned or someone in charge who should be informed about the challenge). Basically. Most of the activities of ICL Students Job Search Hub will be conducted online, except a few students will have time to visit your offices opposite the staff washrooms. As such, you require an excellent website marketer. Besides, youngsters love social media. Therefore you can use most social media platforms to market your activities. The second question is what? (what are the processes in question?). The third question is when? (when did the problem happen). The management of the ICL Students Job Search Hub should put measures to track the activities of their organization so that in case any problem occurs they can know its cause. The fourth question is where? (Where did the problem happen?). A business organization is a system which runs through departments. Every department should be aware of the activities of the other departments. Indeed, in ICL Students Job Search Hub, there are departments run by a team of employees. Whenever a problem occurs, the operation manager should be aware of the source and what measures need to be taken to curb the challenge. The last question is why? (What change has occurred?). Whenever organization’s strategies are laid out, probable loopholes have to be identified and measures put in place to block their occurrences. However, in case a problem occurs after strategies have been laid out, there are chances that there is a change that happened in the system, so this change has to be identified and corrected.   

Decision making.

Decision making is an essential aspect of problem-solving. Challenges do exist in any business venture; some are foreseen some are unforeseen. There are those challenges brought about by external factors which a company does not have control over, while there are internal factors which a company can control (Ireland, Hitt & Vaidyanath, 2002). Nonetheless, what is important is how the business gets out of the challenge. ICL Students Job Search Hub management should make decision making in their organization an affair of every stakeholder. Osterwalder & Pigneur, (2010) argue that everybody is important in an organization because in whatever capacity they are contributing towards achieving the goals and objectives of the company. In case there is an operational challenge in your organization, you should not settle it at the management level with few people the pass the judgment to people working under you, instead you should involve all the parties in the decision-making process so that they be part of the judgment.  

Implementation and monitoring

A monitoring system is a way that a business can use to steer and monitor work (Davila & Foster 2007). To conceive, develop and implement a sound marketing strategic plan, there is a strong urge to have critical components; strategies, tools, and tactics. The order of implementation depends on the company’s developing plan. The first implementation step is to develop a successful marketing plan. To start, you may need to do some feasibility study, like do a web search, get thoughts and read the blog on how some successful companies have managed their strategies. It will provide you with exciting ideas about where to begin developing your plan. When you start to develop a high-level strategy, you will realize that several strategy will come your way. You should continue to develop all possible strategy until you exhaust all avenues.

The next step after you have explored all the possible strategies, you need to settle on one strategy and weigh every one for their Return on Investment. Now that every strategy has been identified and ROI for everyone determined, the following step is to prioritize.

The second implementation step is to execute possible media strategies that will help you to accomplish goals. You must realize that creating an opportunity for students and alumni is probably the most ambitious and resourceful intensive strategy. However, it can be beneficial when you reach as many people as possible. Hence, you can build your Twitter following, drive traffic to your blog and websites, create a Facebook group and increase fans.

Monitoring

After implementing the proposed solutions to the challenges that can affect the management of ICL Students Job Search Hub, it is imperative that you monitor the plans.

After you have identified the challenges and put in place implementation plan, you can form a team of employees or stakeholders to monitor the success of the plans.

Again, the manager should set aside finance to cater to the implementation challenges. Occasionally, the management can organize a body of specialist to research how the plans are moving. They can do a report and present to the managers, which can, later on, take actions.  

Resolving one identified challenge using analytical and management techniques

Having identified sales and marketing as one of the key challenges that would rock the management of ICL Students Job Search Hub. It is imperative that you, as operation managers should know ways to solve the challenges. The issue of sales and marketing in the company can be resolved using the capacity management analytical techniques. According to Marston et al., (2011), capacity management is an effective method for developing market change and to sustain some of the competitive advantages in a fast moving market that would help the venture to thrive in the long term. Using this technique, you are required to how to use dynamic capabilities as a business and deploy strategic routines to configure the available resources. Using capability management techniques, you will be able to structure, combine and leverage external and internal resources to create a new value for your clients. Indeed, creating a job search hub for the students and alumni is not an exclusively a new venture; there are companies which are already doing it outside there and probably there are many another potential investor who may be willing to join it in future. Accordingly, you have to put in place strong competitive advantages through exclusive marketing. Operational capabilities technique encourages imitating marketing and service delivery systems from other successful companies ((Ireland, et al., 2002). For example, ICL Students Job Search Hub operation management can copy some of the sales and marketing strategies that successful online business have employed to reach more clients.

Also, a quality management technique has proved to be effective for most of the startup business who would wish to address some of the challenges that they encounter. Ireland et al.,  2002) defines quality management technique as an effective method or consolidating functions of different systems in an organization to achieve set goals and objectives. Quality management is key to sales and marketing in any organization. When applied to the ICL Students Job Search Hub, it will ensure that the marketing department reconsiders their marketing content, the marketing strategies used and the market coverage. As a result, the company will increase the traffic and return on investments. Additionally, through quality techniques, the venture will leave an experience for the students who use their services and those who participate in their practicum activities.

Conclusion

Often startup business experience challenges in the process of their activities, however these challenges to form the backbone of their success. ICL Students Job Search Hub being a startup is likely to experience challenges. This report has sufficiently analyzed management business operations for continuous business operations for efficient and effective business operations. Furthermore, the paper has outlined some of the possible challenges that the ICL Students Job Search Hub is likely to experience as a startup business. Some of the outlines challenge our customer care service, technological, billing and sales, and marketing. The report has continued to demonstrate professional practices and influence that the management of the company can take to address the challenges above.

References

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