A Lack Of Communication On Cango Company

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

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Introduction:

In order for any company to grow to be a successful and viable company in the future, there are a number of things that they have to ensure are balanced and running properly. For CanGo they have the vision of where they want to be in the future and the start of a good internal structure to carry out those goals and vision. Where things seem to become off balanced for CanGo is in the areas of communication between departments, ensuring that full financial analysis have been completed before starting on a project, internal organization within the company, lack of professionalism between employees, and lack of concern for legality when it comes to company action. All of these issues if left uncorrected can pose a huge threat to the viability of CanGo’s business in the future. However, on the other hand if the following recommendations are put into play and the current issues are resolved it will only further and grow CanGo in their current state and in the future.

Issues:

There seems to be a serious lack of communication between departments at CanGo. At any given time it is pretty apparent that employees do not seem to know what others are working on.

It does not seem that CanGo has done a proper full financial analysis regarding the new system; once again no project should be jumped into without proper analysis.

CanGo lacks of a strategic plan to train the personnel for new responsibilities. CanGo management is seriously considering entry into the online gaming market, a business of which CanGo management has limited understanding, while simultaneously attempting to persuade investors that the Company is a sound investment for today and for the future. (Xiong, Zhou, & Varshney, 2010)..

Lack of organization within the company. The Company is still operating in the mode of a startup company where everyone does everything in an unorganized manner, without responsibility or accountability.

Lack of professionalism regarding too much talking about personal lives at work.

It is apparent that there are legal concerns with actions performed within CanGo’s organization. Employees should never have to question the legality of anything associated with their organization.

SWOT Analysis:

A full SWOT analysis has been performed regarding CanGo’s internal and external factors which include their strengths and weaknesses, and their opportunities and threats. The following chart shows each favorable internal and external impact including both unfavorable internal and external impacts on the organization.

Location of Factor

Favorable

Unfavorable

Internal

Strengths

CanGo is aware of issues associate with the company

Employees of CanGo are willing to work on new things, and take on new tasks.

CanGo has a strong database system and software that allows them to track customer’s action while on their website.

Weaknesses

CanGo is not using their database and software to its full potential.

The company lacks awareness of the importance of a financial analysis; especially the impact on new projects.

CanGo has multiple signs showing a lack of departmental communication.

External

Opportunities

CanGo has the ability to research consumer behavior on competitor’s websites

The company has a great advantage and ability to capitalize on the expanding Japanese Market

CanGo has the opportunity and ability to expand on their product range in order to meet customer’s demands.

Threats

CanGo is a newer company in comparison with their competitors.

CanGo runs the risks of outside suppliers having technological issues, and they have a very high dependency for these suppliers for their products

The company runs risks associated with legality, and government regulation due to frequent changes and updates occurring.

CanGo has great strengths and opportunities that can allow them to succeed and excel as a company. With knowledge of weaknesses and threats the company can make needed arrangements to analyze and lower threats. Weaknesses can be re-evaluated to eliminate. CanGo’s SWOT allows the ability to make corrections in needed areas, be aware of possible threats, take advantage of opportunities present, and strive off strengths within the organization.

Recommendations:

Lack of departmental communication can be a serious issue for any company. Most companies are separated into different departments this way specialized individuals can work in the areas that they are skilled in keeping operations separate. One thing that any company needs to remember though is that "in order for a business to be successful, it must implement and maintain effective interdepartmental communication" (Papa, 2011). There are many ways for different departments within a corporation to communicate with one another including: oral, written, and online communication. It is best to be very clear when using oral communication and to back up the conversation with memo’s or some other form of written communication that way others do not forget what information you have presented to them. The best form of communication is written directions or information followed up with an oral explanation, this way there is no confusion between departments. It is very important that each department know what is going on in other departments that way work is not be duplicated and important things are not being overlooked.

Before any business can start a project there are some important steps that they must follow to ensure that the project is successful. One of the most important steps that must be taking care of is to complete a financial analysis of the project. This analysis will determine the amount of employees that are needed, the equipment and tools that will be needed for the project, the time it will take to complete the project, and most importantly the overall budget for the project. Without this information the company could be in a position where the project will fail from the start. "Before you pitch a project of your own, or begin implementing someone else’s it is critical that you produce a financial analysis that justifies the time, people and money you will spend on the endeavor. If you can’t show a return that’s higher than the company’s cost of capital, you will find yourself with a less than enthusiastic reception from decision makers." (Kress, 2004) This is what is beginning happen to CanGo. They're currently working on the project for the new system however no financial analysis has been completed on the project. Without knowing the budget for the project has selected any system which is very expensive, it is still unknown whether the company will even be able to utilize this system due to the fact they may learn later that cost the system itself will exceed what the project budget is. The recommendation for CanGo at this point would be to stop where they are and to complete a financial analysis for the project. From this information they will then be able to tell whether this new system will be of benefit to the company or should exceed the budget amount. If the new system tends to be more expensive than the company would like to have at this time they have the option to start with only one ASRS system and then in the future as the business grows they can then at the second. By doing this it would greatly reduce the costs at the start of the project.

They should not promote outside of the Company the proposal to enter online gaming until the internal Company analyses have thoroughly evaluated the proposal, and have a define specific target market expansions before submitting an IPO proposal to investment. Once the proposed venture into online gaming is thoroughly assessed, submit it to the selected investment bank for vetting before publicizing the proposal outside the Company. In addition, they need to conduct the necessary marketing research that will allow the Company to better understand and communicate within the rest of the staff of the company about the strategy of online gaming markets. The CanGo Company needs to make sure that each employee is fully trained for the new online marketing. Also the Managerial staff should have an overview about the effort of the company of launching an IPO as a primary purpose of which would be to generate the additional capital required for expansion. It is important for CanGo to recognize and respond to the customer needs and define a specific product that would improve its operational and strategic approaches. The CanGo Company should always be analyzing every time when trying a new service that it was never done before and this would be one way that the CanGo Company can improve its future productivity and profitability.

Given that the company is scaling up its business and exploring new horizons from a geographic and new business segments perspective, it is very necessary to go about its strategic initiatives’ in a streamlined and organized manner. To ensure this, it is recommended that the company assign ownership and responsibilities to people who are working on key tasks so that they are focused to complete it successfully. In addition to this, the company can also look at running these key strategic initiatives as programs within the company with identified program managers having end to end responsibility of the entire program, and they ensuring that all tasks related to the program are completed in a very organized fashion, with regular reporting and status updates to management (Haughey, D., 2001), which would greatly enhance the chances of the strategic initiatives being success. Also, to make this process efficient and more organized, it is suggested that the company use tools and technologies, such as shared workspaces and SharePoint sites where the entire team can work together, discuss ideas, store all documents centrally, thus essentially having the technology infrastructure necessary for effective collaboration and teamwork (Filev, A., n.d). Another critical support that the company can provide to employees who are doing key activities such as coming up with a business case or marketing plan is by enskilling them in different areas that they would need to know to do their job better. Suggestions for such programs include program management skills, doing an opportunity analysis and creating a business case training program etc.

Professionalism in the work place is more important now than ever before, given the long hours that professionals spend in the work place keeping work and personal lives separate is becoming harder to do. Most individuals are friends with their co-workers the trick is to be co-workers at work and friends outside work hours. The two need to be kept separate to insure that company time and money is not being wasted on personal matters rather than work matters. At CanGo it seems that like in many work places individuals have created personal relationships with one another the problem is that these relationships are very noticeable in the workplace. "How you dress, speak, act, write and work determines whether you are a professional or an amateur. Since our culture has become more relaxed and casual, many believe that amateur work is acceptable and thus many businesses accept mediocre results.  However, those organizations that stress the importance of professionalism in the workplace are usually growing, vibrant entities" (Importance, 2010). Essentially the more professional the workplace is kept the more successful the company is likely to be, also the same is true for individual professionals the more professional you act at work the more successful you are likely to be in your own career.

Legal concerns within an organization can be serious if not directly acknowledged. If an employee questions the legality of an assigned tasks, project, or arising issues or information it should be clarified that the organization has not performed any legal or unlawful actions. If employees do question legal aspects surrounding any issue or assignment they should be given proof and evidence to support any questionable laws and regulations. An organization has to make sure that their entire organization follows rules and regulations. If an employee questions if something is legal they should be shown evidence to support the organizations innocence. Failure to inform employees can lead to distrust within the working environment, and this could spread to customers, consumers, and other affiliates. CanGo should re-evaluate their HR department to assure that they are fully trained and knowledgeable of rules and regulations. Employees within the organization should be informed that if they do have a question of legality to make sure to run it by HR to assure that no legal issues will occur. "HR can help reduce an organization’s potential legal exposure" (SHRM, 2011). An organization that has confident employees will also raise morale and refrain from any future legal concerns. An employee of any organization should always feel confident about their work and assignments. It is the organizations responsibility to assure that all employees feel safe and secure, and this also includes safety from illegal actions. CanGo can eliminate this issue by assuring that all employees are adhering to laws and regulations. All assigned tasks and duties should be lawful, and if further research is needed to determine the legality of an assignment CanGo’s Human Resource Department can assist.

Conclusion: CanGo is a company that is has been growing taking advantage of the multiple opportunities in the online space, and is also well positioned to take advantage new opportunities such as geographic expansion and entering high potential new business segments such as gaming. It has the strengths to do so along with a set of passionate employees, while it would need to address issues such as being unorganized and unaware about bets practices in planning and implementation, there being more focus among the employees, and not having the key elements that are needed to transition from a startup company to a new age global company addressing international markets. It is recommended that CanGo put in processes and best practices in place, train and makes employees more aware and skilled and also ensures that the level of professionalism and organization in the company increases. It is also suggested that the company address legal and financial implications of its business strategies, and ensure that these are considered while making strategic decisions. Implementing the above recommendations in a structured manner with a program management approach to address key strategic initiatives will position the company to successfully take advantage of the multiple opportunities present and create maximum value for all stakeholders involved.