Planning and organization

Create a 4–5-page departmental plan to address the corporate initiative of doubling sales outlined in a scenario.

Choose one of the following functional areas on which to base your assessment work.

Atha Corporation Questionnaire
Directions: Please provide responses to the prompts below. The expectation is that each
section is from 750 to 1,000 words in length. Submit this completed questionnaire to
Assessment 1.
Management of an Event or a Project
Describe an instance where you were required to manage a specific event or project. This does
not necessarily need to have been in a business setting or required you to have a manager title.
For example, you might have managed a social event, a church event, et cetera. What is
required is that other people were involved and your management skills were used. If you do not
have an example, share your experience with a manager who led an event or a project you
were involved in as a team member.
[Enter your response here. 750 –1,000 words.]
Analyze Your Approach to Managing
Analyze your approach (or the approach you witnessed as a team member) to the situation that
you shared in the section above. Reference specific examples of your actions or your
manager’s actions to illustrate and support your analysis. Consider actions in each of the
following functions of management:
•
Planning.
•
Organizing.
•
Leading.
•
Controlling.
[Enter your response here. 750–1,000 words]
Characteristics of an Effective Manager
At times, we experience a discontent due to a long-term erosion of trust with management.
Describe numerous characteristics you used when you managed the event or project you
shared in the first section. Again, if you are speaking of an event or a project in which you were
a team member, share the characteristics that you witnessed in the manager who led the event
or project. Justify why these characteristics are important.
[Enter your response here. 750–1,000 words]
***End of Document***
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Atha Corporation
Sales and Marketing Organizational Chart
Sales and Marketing
Vice President
Director of Sales and
Marketing
Sales Manager
Field Sales
Representative
Field Sales
Representative
Customer Service
Manager
Inside Sales
Representative
Customer
Service Rep
Customer
Service Rep
Market Research
Manager
Customer
Service Rep
Market
Research
Associate
As the senior leader of this functional area, you are authorized to add seven additional positions.
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Atha Corporation
To:
CC:
From:
All Employees
Executive Management
Mary Atha, CEO
Re:
Doubling Sales
A goal of doubling our sales has been established by my executive management team. This is a newly
created, bold, and audacious goal made possible by a win-win relationship with a white knight in the
form of a venture capital firm. Retaining and hiring high quality human capital will be made possible by
this new investment. Adoption of new leading edge technology and increased capacity will also be made
possible by this infusion of new investment. Our company’s executive management team sees an
exciting future for the organization.
Our goal can only be met with your help and that of the other middle managers of the company. We
want you to empower your people, create synergy by re-organizing your department, and establish
operational goals that can be obtained, measured, reported, and continuously improved.
The latent talents of our employees, we believe, are a source of untapped sustainable competitive
advantage for the company. Reaching our goal of doubling sales is reliant on successfully engaging
employees; our management team feels strongly about that. These efforts stand to be derailed by
employee dissatisfaction if we do not do something about it right away. The sources of dissatisfaction
must be found and fixed with the help of our human resources department. Accomplishing this objective
is believed to be one of your highest priorities.
My executive management team and I believe that to efficiently manage your departments’ limited
resources you must effectively plan, organize, lead, and control your department. Mistakes were made
in the past. Taking the goals given to you by your vice president, and breaking them down to supporting
activities, communicating them to your staff and measuring the results is the way for you to be a
successful manager.
Good luck with your plans, we are counting on you.
Sincerely,
Mary Atha, CEO
Atha Corporation
Atha Corporation
Hi Managers!
As you know, we have declared a goal of doubling the company’s current $5 million in sales in the next
year. We believe this is realistic and attainable, but we need your help to start ramping up.
Leadership is asking all department managers to share how their department plans to respond to our new
goals. Your initial plan should focus on articulating new strategic objectives and the reorganization of
your department to meet them. Increased production and anticipated sales growth should be the drivers.
Assume that you can request and will be granted reasonable resources to carry out your plan, so envision
the department that you want and need.
I want you to do the following:
•
•
•
•
•
State your top three strategic departmental objectives or goals for the next three months, and
explain how they align to and support the stated corporate goal.
Describe two critical support activities needed to achieve each goal in detail. Why are they the
most important?
Specify a timeline with realistic milestones that support each goal.
Describe and justify your department’s reorganization that is designed to respond to the business
challenge.
Analyze your most critical or difficult decision and the top consideration associated with it. This
could be organization structure, a new hire, timing, objective-setting, et cetera.
Also, state any assumptions that you need to make to support your decisions. We are all moving pretty
fast and information is imperfect.
I look forward to seeing your ideas by the end of the week.
Sincerely,
Mary