- Strategic administration of operations, information and finance
- Performance
- Role of operation within the company
- The operations department play important role in promoting the performance of an organization.
- Implementing
- First the operation department is involved in implementing the company strategies. This therefore implies that this department is the one of the most critical department in an organization since it helps to ensure that the strategies developed by the management are fully implemented.
- Support
- The department is also involved in supporting the organization in ensuring that it achieves its objectives. In relation to this the department is involved in ensuring that the resources allocated in the projects are maximally utilized. This in turn helps to improve the performance of an organization.
- Maintaining quality
- In relation to this operation department is involved in ensuring that the quality is maintained in the services delivery. In this case it is the responsibility of the operation department in the Castle Nursing Home of ensuring that the deliver quality services. Moreover, the operational department is also involved in indentifying the various ways of improving the performance of an organization.
- The importance of the business meeting relevant performance targets
- Meeting the relevant performance target can help an organization in several ways. First it helps in increasing the motivation of the workforce. This is because when the employee meets their initial goal they are motivated to work hard in order to meet other future objectives. Second, meeting the target help to ensure that the entire workforce have a certain direction which they can follow in order to ensure that they even achieve other future objective (Amos, 2008, p.280). Another importance of meeting the target is the fact that it helps to ensure that the organization is able to prioritize its various goals. In relation to this meeting the target helps to ensure that the business is able to prioritize its goals. Most importantly meeting the target can help the managed of an organization to measure the progress of the various activities with an organization. This in turn helps to ensure that the management is able to establish whether the short-term goals have been accomplished. In addition meeting the target can help the management of an organization to know the areas that need improvement in order to achieve the set future objectives. Meeting of relevant performance targets also helps to ensure encourage the stakeholders to continue working investing in the business
- The importance of the business using performance evaluation
- The performance evaluation plays various important roles in the management Castle Nursing Home these include
- Facilitate promotion
- The performance evaluations provide information on how the employees are doing compared with the earlier reviews. This in turn helps to ensure that the management is able to identify the employees who have improved on their performance. The management uses this data to establish the numbers of the employee who need to be promoted. This is because the record helps in determining the number of employees who are capable of assuming a greater responsibility.
- Training needs
- The performance evaluation helps to assess the training needs of employee in an organization. In relation to this the performance evaluation helps the management to establish the number of employee who are ragging behind in the performance. In addition, the performance evaluation helps in establishing the need for the management to introduce new production method. This in turn helps to ensure that the business is able to improve on its performance and therefore achieve its growth objectives (Gitman, & McDaniel, 2009, p.187)
- Human resource planning
- The information from the performance evaluation helps the human resource manager in the planning various goals of the organization. In relation to this the human resource manager can use the data from the evaluation to plan for various changes that need to be effected in the management of to ensure that the organization achieves its long-term goals.
- The impact of a range of quality improvement techniques to increase competitive advantage
- Quality improvement plays an important role in ensuring that a business is able to effectively competitive with other in the industry. Quality improvement in a business entails comparing of the quality of the good currently produced and with the quality of the goods produced in the past. The various quality improvement techniques that can help the management of Castle Nursing Home improve on their competitive advantage include:
- Making commitment
- Commitment is one of the techniques that the management of Castle Nursing Home can use in order to improve on the performance of the company. Improvement of commitment can help to ensure that the employees improve on their service delivery. This in turn can help to ensure that the company improves on its reputation.
- Tracking of mistakes
- Tracking of any possible mistake in the operation in the organization can help to ensure that the organization improves on the quality of the service it offers. Moreover tacking any possible mistakes committed in the production can help to ensure the management makes the necessary plans to improve on the production. This can in turn help to ensure that the organization continue to be the leading player in the industry.
- Embarking on training
- Training is also another possible technique that can be used to improve on the quality of the services produced by the organization. Training can help to ensure that the employees are equipped with the necessary skills required in the order to improve on the services. Through effective training the management of the company can be able to ensure that they are able to equip their employee with new technological skill. This can therefore help to ensure that the organization improves on its overall performance
- Information
- The role of information in strategic decision-making
- The performance of various businesses is largely based in the type of the decision made by the management of the organization. This implies that the success and the failure of business like Castle Nursing Home largely depend on the type of decision made by the management. Failure of the management to make the right decision may result in the loss of the competitive advantage or the decline in the profitability of an organization. This therefore implies that it is critical for the management of the organization to gather the necessary information required in order to make the necessary decisions (Costanzo & MacKay, 2009, p.81). The management of Castle Nursing Home needs therefore to acquire first the information related to the market where they operate. This can help the management improve on the market share. In addition the management needs to ensure that they gather information from their customers concerning the products and services they offer. Most importantly gathering information from the competitor can help the management to device ways of ensuring that they continue to enjoy competitive advantage.
- What type of information systems can be used by management and what support they offer?
- The management of Castle Nursing Home can use the following information systems to support the various services they offer
- Transaction processing system
- The management can use the transaction processing system to improve on the data collection, storage and processing. This type of system usually generates data depending on the input data. This therefore implies that management of Castle Nursing Home can use the system to plan for service delivery on each individual.
- Business intelligent system
- The management of the Castle Nursing Home needs also to put in place the business intelligent system. The system can help to analyze the various operation needs mostly for the data required in the decision making process. The system can be able to collect data from the various sources and therefore provide the management with the necessary information required to make any decision.
- Knowledge management systems
- These types of information system organize and distribute the information within the organization. In addition this type of information system also summarizes the current cost of good and predicts any future sales pattern. The management of Castle Nursing Home can therefore use the system to plan for future of the organization
- The reason for quantitative techniques in decision-making
- The management of the can use the decision making technique since it has several important attributes that allow easy application in order to reach a certain conclusion. First, the quantitative techniques mostly employ the measurable data in their operation (Curwin & Slater, 2008, p.7). Second these techniques also try to incorporate alternative plans during their development. In addition, these techniques mostly rely on the observational data that has been collected. These methods also check the data reliability before the data is used in the decision-making. This therefore helps to ensure that the data applied in the decision-making is only the reliable one. Most importantly the quantitative data analyses apply the various scientific method of data analysis. It is also evident that these techniques can also help the management of the Castle Nursing Home to determine an optimum strategy needed to ensure that company is able to make profit. Another important point to note about the quantitative techniques is the fact that they allow the management to choose the most applicable type of sampling method.
- The use of systems approach to solve problems and make decisions
- The management of Castle Nursing Home can use the decision support systems in decision in the decision making process. These system are only used to support the decision making process rather than make the decisions (Stair & Reynolds, 2010, p.92). The decision making process using the system involves four basic steps the first one being the intelligence. This step involves identification of an opportunity. Second, step involves designing of the alternative solution to the problem. The third, step involves finding the system-giving alternative solution to the problem. The fourth and the final step involve implementation of the solution generated by the system. In addition the system can also be used in the problem solving where the system is used to resolve the gap between the present situation and the various desired goal. Moreover, the system is also used to provide solution to some problems whose experience is not known. However, the steps used in the problem solving are similar to the step used in the decision making process.
- Finance
- Reasons for and against cash flow analysis
- There are reasons as to why Castle nursing home requires keeping a cash flow analysis. First, cash flow analysis helps in determining imbalances on cash allocation and since it the work of the cash flow to help the management of the organization in maintaining balance in the cash allocation. The other significance for performing cash flow analysis is that it helps in determining whether the resources available in the business can sustain the business in terms of operational costs (Moyer & Moyer, 2012, p.341). Cash flow analysis will also help the organization in tracking payment of employees. Incase the organization has any loan the financial institution will require a cash flow analysis from the business organization.
- Reasons against cash flow analysis
- Although performing a cash flow analysis might be important there also reasons which might be against the forecasting (Moyer & Moyer, 2012, p.341). First, cash flow forecasting is prone to inaccuracies whereby most of the data might be incorrect. In addition, cash flow forecasting is costly and that it consumes a lot of time therefore increasing more expenses to the business.
- Importance of marginal costing and break-even analysis as part of decision making process
- Marginal costing will help the management of Castle healthcare to make future decisions which are effective (Finkler, Ward & Baker, 2007). Marginal costing helps the management of the organization to determine the optimum selling for services or products. Marginal costing will also help the decision making panel in determining the effect or price reduction on services or products and the anticipated profit as well as in establishing an appropriate product mix. Break even analysis facilitates the management in making decisions which will support sales to a level whereby the organization will not suffer from financial loss. Break even analysis is also important since it facilitates the management with the requirements of making decisions upon the price to sell products and services.
- The possible implication of capital investment decisions
- Capital investments decisions entail long term decisions for corporate finance which base on capital structure and fixed assets whereby the decisions follow a certain criteria (Jackson, Sawyers & Jenkins, 2009, p.228). The implication of capital investments decisions is that they help the business in maximizing the firms value through investing in different projects which produce a positive net present vale (NPV)once this is valued using a discounted risk rate. However, the projects require appropriate financing as required by capital investment decisions. The third implication is that the management is required to return the dividends to shareholders if there are no opportunities to invest. Generally, capital investment decision implicates dividend decision, financial decision and investment decision.
- The use of relevant investment appraisal techniques
- Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
- Internal Rate of Return is a widely used measure for facilitating evaluation of investments (Bidgoli, 2003, p.216). Internal Rate of Return is also referred to as the discounted cash flow or rate of Return (ROR). Castle Healthcare needs to use the discounted cash flow of Internal Rate of Return (IRR) to evaluate the strength of the business in terms of financial strength and facilitate in making effective decisions in the business to improve its performance. The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) determines quality, efficiency and investment returns of the business. The Internal Rate of Return works together with another tool which is the Net Present Value (NPV).
- Net Present Value (NPV)
- The Net Present Value (NPR) entails sum of the present values for individual cash flows of a similar entity and it is calculated for both the incoming and the outgoing financial value in a business (Hansen, Mowen & Guan, 2009, p.719). Moreover, the NPV can be expressed as the difference amount between discounted sum of outflows and inflows of cash in a business. Halfords garage can use the NPV in determining the financial stability of the business as well as in making decisions of improving the revenues of the garage. The Net Present Value (NPV) is an important tool which is used in planning for the budget of cost.
- Analyze the following financial information supplied by the director for 2010 and 2011and discuss the trend/findings
- The above information can be analyzed with the help of trend line representation using trend line graphs.
- Trading profit and loss figures trend graph
- The trading profit and loss trend curves indicate that there was no much diffference in the cost aand profits for the two years. Howver, it is easily to conclude that the sales, expenses, gross profit and net profit for year 2010 were higher than in 2011. The year 2011 saw the business record higher cost of sales which might have been contibuted by increase of production costs. Overall, the performance of the business in terms of profits in 2010 was better compared to the year 2011.
- Balance sheet figures trend graph
- The trend lines for balance sheet figures for both years indicate great difference. The business had more fixed assets in 2011 than in 2010. However, the current assets of the business recorded a decrease with a higher difference in 2011 than in 2010. This implies that the business invested more on current assets in 2011 than in fixed assets as recorded in 2010. The stock value was reduced with nearly half in 2011 than in 2010. The business however increased current liabilities and decreased working capital together with net current assets on 2011 than in 2010. This implies that the business has recorded poor performance in the year 2011 as compared to the year 2010 since it should reduce liabilities instead of increasing. Generally, the trend lines indicate that the business is performed poorly in 2011 compared to the performance of 2010.
- References
- Amos, T. 2008. Human resource management. Wetton, Cape Town: Juta.
- Bidgoli, H. 2003. The Internet Encyclopedia. Volume 3, P-Z. Hoboken, NJ, John Wiley & Sons.
- Costanzo, L. A., & MacKay, R. B. 2009. Handbook of research on strategy and foresight. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
- Curwin, J., & Slater, R. 2008. Quantitative methods for business decisions. London: South- Western Cengage Learning.
- Finkler, S. A., Ward, D. M., & Baker, J. J. 2007. Essentials of cost accounting for health care organizations. Sudbury, Mass, Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
- Gitman, L. J., & McDaniel, C. D. 2009. The future of business: The essentials. Mason, OH: South-Western Cenage Learning.
- Hansen, D. R., Mowen, M. M., & Guan, L. 2009. Cost management: accounting and control. Mason, Ohio, South-Western.
- Jackson, S., Sawyers, R., & Jenkins, G. J. 2009. Managerial accounting: a focus on ethical decision making. Mason, OH, South-Western.
- Moyer, R. C., & Moyer, R. C. 2012. Contemporary financial management. Mason, OH, South- Western, Cengage Learning.
- Stair, R. M., & Reynolds, G. W. 2010. Fundamentals of information systems. Boston: Course Technology.
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