Contracts Creative Studios is a large, established corporation that has been in business for over 50 years manufacturing consumer goods, such as arts and crafts and all things electronics. It sells its products globally and has an international reputation for quality and innovation.
Recently, Contracts Creative Studios Headquarters expanded significantly through various mergers and acquisitions . It now comprises of eight (8) business divisions across 3 continents. This rapid growth has made it challenging for management to maintain strong oversight and control of staff and operations.
While financially successful, Contracts Creative Studios has developed some inefficiencies in its internal processes and compliance over the years. The entities have become global leaders in technology, yet The staff complain of poor communication from ‘higher ups’, who blames the outdated machineries assigned to employees. Its secretarial and administrative functions still follow outdated, cumbersome procedures in some areas.
For example, credit requests are handled manually through paper forms and records. This makes processing, transfers, approval and replies to customers lengthier than it should be. There have been a few minor compliance issues recently that have raised concerns with the board, such as creditors given longer payment periods than agreed. The senior management team at Contracts Creative Studios is traditional and risk averse. Decision-making tends to be top- down with divisional managers rarely consulted. This has impacted the company's agility and product development cycle.
However, the Managing Director realizes that processes need to be updated to effectively compete in today's disruptive, technology-driven business environment that demands top of the line skills. The company was so busy making money, that without realizing, its brand, business processes and corporate responsibility were suffering. The Board seeks guidance from a corporate consulting firm on improving the company's business environment. In this exercise you are asked to address one internal and one external business strategy that you believe would help in correcting the problem being experienced. For each strategy selected, please support with example.
