BSBMGT617 Develop and Implement a Business Plan of New Trucks

You will monitor the performance of a business plan, through testing and refining of the performance measurement system, and report on progress of the business plan in a timely and effective manner. 

 

1. Review the completed business plan from Assessment Task.

 

2. Identify the key performance objectives.

 

3. For each key performance objective: a. Produce a report to capture and test the performance measure.

 

4. Write a brief report on how you would test the performance measurement systems, including:

a. Acceptable levels of variance to planned objectives (where applicable).

b. The timeframe for each report - how frequently reports will be completed.

c. What benchmarking will be used.

d. Who the key stakeholder will be for each report. 

Answer     

Introduction:

The company Fast Track Courier is one of the leading courier companies in Sydney but it has no coverage beyond the city. The management of the company considers business plans to increase the profit margin which is its central objective. The company has taken to increase its marketing initiatives beyond the boundaries of Sydney to create new markets. The courier company would expands its existing fleet of trucks and each of the trucks is driven by two drivers. The company, along with acquiring new trucks, also plans to restructure the allocation of drivers. The company can either employ new drivers or allocate one driver for each truck. The business plan also has proposals for adopting new technology to drive the trucks and improving the working conditions of the drivers. The current assignment starts with the review of these business plans before delving into the crux of those plans. The crux of the plan has identification of these key business objectives follows by a test of performance measure. This section has each objective measured individually which forms the basis of the determination of time frame, benchmarks and reporting person for each item.

Review of Business Plan of Fast Track Courier:

The business plan of Fast Track Courier reveals that the services of the courier company are restricted within the boundaries of Sydney.  The need of the hour is to expand the services boundaries of Australia. The business expansion will require the courier company to buy new trucks which will demand employment of new drivers. The trucks at present have two drivers each which can be reduced at one driver per truck through use of technology. The situation also requires the company to expand its marketing activities outside Sydney in order to expand its market. The expansion is expected to multiply the revenue of the courier company and improve its market positions. The expansion of the business, extending the marketing activities, acquiring of more trucks and better allocation of human labour are the key business plans centred on the profit maximisation motive. The business objectives of the company involve considerable risks but considering the proposed gains, it is worth taking.

Key Performance Areas:

The key performance areas consist of the following:

• Increasing the profit of the company
• Expansion beyond the boundaries of Sydney
• Expand the marketing activities beyond Sydney to acquire new markets
• Acquire new fleet of trucks
• Acquire new drivers or allocate the present crew of drivers
• Diversifying the risk

Measures of performance objectives:

The main objective of Fast Track Courier is to increase its profits and sales margin. This central objective is acting as the driver for the next objective of expansion beyond the borders of Sydney. The expansion has necessitated acquisition of trucks and human resources. This expansion has attracted new risks and new ways of financing to absorb it.

Expansion of marketing:

The first step of expansion beyond the boundaries of Sydney is marketing the services of the firm in new regions. The company can conduct a survey before the onset of marketing expansion to find out the number of people who are acquainted with the services. Fast Track Courier can also make its prospective customer base by advertising its products in the new markets. The company can again conduct a survey after marketing its products and compare the results with the previous survey. The difference in the figures will show the outcome of the survey.

Acquisition of new trucks:

The company should then do a budget to calculate how many trucks it should buy to cater to the new areas. Considering the business objectives, it can be assumed that the trucks are the only assets of the company to make the accounting simpler.  The company must calculate the cost of new trucks and existing trucks. Then the liability associated with those existing assets and accumulated depreciation should be calculated. The difference of the two figures reveals the net assets of the company. The company must create card for each asset to measure their values (Msdn.microsoft.com 2017). A low amount of net assets reveals that the company has not invested in acquisition of new assets. The company should acquire new trucks by measuring the area each truck would serve.

Acquisition of human resources:

Lockwood in his work has stated the importance of retention of human resources and appropriate talent acquisition. The global companies have to restructure their human resource policies to ensure that they are able to acquire the right talent in the face of the economic doldrums (Oladapo, V., 2014).

The present macroeconomic scenario demands a more comprehensive study and human resources in Fast Track Courier. The drivers of the trucks should be linked to the profit of the company since the courier services is the only service as per assumption. The company must calculate the cost of its human resources under historical cost method. This method is simple and the value is directly charged on the finished product. The salaries of the employees are shown in the profit and loss account (Stanko, , Zeller and Melena 2014).

This will allow the company to link the human resource to the profit of the company and can be raised on this basis. It the amount of human resources is very low then the company must increase its human resources.

Expansion of Fast Track beyond Sydney will require the company to markets itself outside in the new proposed markets. The company need to calculate the cost of expansion in this regard. There can be three approaches in this regards:

Asset based approach: This approach calculates total of all assets and investments.

Market value approach: The courier company must compare the market values of the companies of similar types to estimate the probable value of the business.

Earning Approach: The company must compare its past financial profits and future earnings (Cf-sn.ca 2017).

The new needs for funds will require the company to review its financing techniques. The company can enter into the joint venture with Australia Post and expand its business in new areas. This will help it to exploit the markets by the virtue of the goodwill the Australia Post enjoys in Australia (Auspost.com.au 2017). This will help it to diversify its risk over a huge area and earn huge profits which will be reflected in its financial statements.

Test of Performance Measure System:

Acceptable levels of variance to planned objectives:

Measurement of each of the human resources allocation and purchase of the truck should carry out to measure the effectiveness of the accuracy of allocation. The company in addition to measuring the contribution of human resources on financial documents should ask the people on the organization to rate the human resources. A variance of 5% can be tolerated below which the company will need to acquire new drivers. The existing drivers should be motivated and they should be trained to use the modern technology so that the company can allot one driver per truck. The company must arrange for medical facilities to treat the drivers immediately after accidents. However, if more than 10% of the drivers are found incapable of adopting the new technology, the company should replace them with new drivers.

The new trucks should be able to produce more than the old trucks. Fast Courier should be able to increase its profits using the new trucks by at least five percent.

Fast Track Courier should calculate the gross profit margin which is the difference between revenue and cost of goods sold as a percentage of revenue. A profit margin of forty percent will be considered healthy which shows that the company has money to allocate in new trucks, new promotions and so on (Steiner 2016).

Time frame:

The company must measure the above business objectives and their effectiveness within specific time frame. For example, the company should measure the profit half yearly to measure the increase in profitability. Increase in profitability will prove the appropriateness of the allocation of resources, mainly trucks and drivers. The productivity of the drivers should be measured against the set benchmark. The drivers who over achieve their targets should be rewarded which will motivate the drivers (Lepper and Greene 2015). The performance of the trucks should be measured on the basis of increase in the gross profit. The trucks should be measured in the historic method which shows the cost of operations to be added to the cost of goods. The company must calculate the risk and distribute them over the profits.

Benchmarking:

The company should set a target performance to be achieved with the decided periods. The company must first prepare a budget to calculate the target profit and the proposed allocation of resources. Then the company must set target expenses and should try to reduce it. The company must measure the turnover of human resources and machinery based on the bench marks to measure their performance. The company must consider the budgets of the companies in similar business to set its benchmark. The company can follow the technology advancement of similar companies like Star Track which has a very strong presence in Sydney (Startrack.com.au 2017). The human resource bench mark should be aligned to the target profit margin, say forty percent. The achieved performances should be measured against the benchmarks and steps should be taken to deal with gaps. For example, if the contribution of human resources appears to be below five percent of the accounting period, the company should consider taking steps to increase the labour productivity. Again, the company should keep a record on the maintenance of the trucks and should use reduce pollution control taxes by using less pollution fuels.

Key Stakeholders:

The stakeholders affect the business organizations and are in turn affected by them, forming the universal theory of the stakeholders (Harrison and Wicks 2013). They consist of shareholders, employees, consumers, governments and even competitors. The company must frame its sustainable business policies by considering the stakeholders (Hörisch, Freeman and Schaltegger 2014)

Conclusion:

It can be concluded from the study that expansion beyond the existing areas of business has become the necessity of all the organizations. The organization in question, Fast Track Courier has no operations beyond Sydney which limits its profit earning capacity. The management of the company has taken a set of new business plans revolved around the central plan of profit maximisation. This has necessitated the company to expand outside Sydney, purchase new trucks and reallocate the human resources or acquire new ones. The company must measure these resources and make strategies according to that.

References:

Auspost.com.au. (2017). Home. [online] Available at: https://auspost.com.au/ [Accessed 14 Mar. 2017].

Cf-sn.ca. (2017). Business Expansion: Finance Growth. [online] Available at: https://www.cf-sn.ca/business/business_expansion/finance_gro

wth.php [Accessed 14 Mar. 2017].

Harrison, J.S. and Wicks, A.C., 2013. Stakeholder theory, value, and firm performance. Business ethics quarterly, 23(01), pp.97-124.

Hörisch, J., Freeman, R.E. and Schaltegger, S., 2014. Applying stakeholder theory in sustainability management: Links, similarities, dissimilarities, and a conceptual framework. Organization & Environment, 27(4), pp.328-346.

Lepper, M.R. and Greene, D. eds., 2015. The hidden costs of reward: New perspectives on the psychology of human motivation. Psychology Press.

Msdn.microsoft.com. (2017). Acquire Fixed Assets. [online] Available at: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh165414(v=nav.90).aspx [Accessed 14 Mar. 2017].

Oladapo, V., 2014. The impact of talent management on retention. Journal of business studies quarterly, 5(3), p.19.

Stanko, B.B., Zeller, T.L. and Melena, M.F., 2014. Human asset accounting and measurement: Moving Forward. Journal of Business & Economics Research (Online), 12(2), p.93.

Startrack.com.au. (2017). StarTrack - Trusted Partner for eCommerce and Parcel Delivery. [online] Available at: https://startrack.com.au/ [Accessed 14 Mar. 2017].

Steiner, S., 2016. The gross profit margin formula and how to use it.