Small Business Strategies: Cost-Benefit Analysis, Brainstorming Techniques, Quality Management And Organizational Learning Processes
Discover the Benefits of Cost-Benefit Analysis for Small Business
The cost-benefit methods attached to the inventory management can be the most crucial aspect of the business. In the current business scenario, our company can go for a “Just in Time” scenario for hiring various resources to accomplish various orders. The raw materials connected to the final deliveries are expensive, there is a danger that they may go out of the vogue with a passage of time. Sometimes they may also get devalued. An inventory model based on the “Just in Time” scenario, mitigates the risk factors, keeps the cash flow ringing and minimizes the investment of the business to the lowest levels.
Our team adopted a brainstorming session based on the “What If” scenario. Here all the teammates came up with different scenarios and collected the views related to each scenario based upon the opinion of the others. The other two theories that can support a business decision making can be mind-mapping theory and the theory of visual associations.
Mind mapping theory
Under this type of brainstorming exercise, the players try to step into the shoes of the customers and other stakeholders. Mind mapping allows us to understand the needs and desires of the customers well. Apart from the human beings we can also keep a check on the flow of the various steps of a process and examine them very closely while keeping an eye on the other factors (Buzan, 2016).
The biggest advantage of the mind mapping theory is connected with the objectivity of the exercise; it allows checking all the aspects of a problem with the help of a single flowchart, it is an effective method to figure out the key result areas in a single exercise.
Visual Association
Every exercise related to the creativity and decision making demands a complete understanding of the issues among all the stakeholders. The technique of visual association allows us to attach certain graphs and visuals in a given presentation to increase its acceptance in the mind of the other person. The practices related to the association of the visuals with the messages allow a person to understand the message well and respond to the exercise of the brainstorming fast.
The association of the visuals decreases the gestation time quite considerably. Advertisements designed by big companies are the best example of it. They take the support of the visual association with their products they communicate their messages in the shortest possible manner for maximum impact
Risk and Management Strategies
The biggest risk in the retail sector is associated with the fact that it is a volatile market where trends may change overnight. After the arrival of the big players in the market, the pricing can also become a crucial factor. Certain price wars can topple the equations of small businesses. The strategy to add an exclusive offering with the main course can be the strategy of a small business to survive.
For example, the price of the fabric and stitching may go down in the market of the designer wears; however the exclusive and personalized touch of a designer can become the USP of the business and help it in surviving against the thick and thin weather of the business. Handling the seasonality of a business can become a difficult strategy for any business.
Brainstorming Techniques: Mind-Mapping and Visual Association
Most of the small businesses can also survive with the help of collaborative strategies as well. In this case, they can bring together their expertise and support each other’s brand. It will help them in keeping the price of the services low and allow them to compete with the big players of the market. After the arrival of the internet, the barriers connected to the big launch of the products have become a thing of the past. Marketing with the help of the help of the internet allows the regime of perfect competition market. Taking the support of the tools like SEO and SMO can act as a prudent and cost-effective strategy for any given business.
Quality Management
There are two concepts of quality management that can be propagated for the small business operations. The first is Total Quality Management (TQM) and the second is Consistent Quality Management. The concept of Total quality management presents a framework in front of us. This framework preaches the importance of a quality management department, keeping an eye on all the operations. The concept of the TQM implies that inside an assembly line setup, quality should be maintained at every department. It saves time, in case they will check the quality of the product at the last level of the production unit then, in this case, the resolution of a fault can take its own time and the efficiency of the others departments can also suffer a great deal.
The process of Consistent quality management has become popular in recent years. This process allows a company to stay in touch with its existing customer base and collect regular feedbacks from them (D.R.Kiran, 2016). It adds a touch of service in every tangible good and creates a reason for the seller to stay in touch with an existing customer. Most of the companies are establishing feedback channels and constantly improving their products for the next generation. The concept of rolling back of the products is also a part of consistent quality management. The process of consistent quality control also allows a business to stay in touch with the customer throughout the span when they are seeking for a service. This consistent touch also allows the companies to retain their customers for the future upgrades of the product.
The learning processes of an organization
Organizational knowledge, organizational psychology, and tacit knowledge are the keywords to understand the learning process of an organization. In general most of the organizations create a culture of the learning by documenting its achievements in separate folders. They create a knowledge pool and retain their experienced employees to train new employees. In most of the cases, the planning divisions of the organizations collect the regular notes and develop a culture where they can transfer this knowledge to the next generation of the employees.
- B) Since our organization is in the state of its inception, we don’t have a past record of accomplishments that can be treated as an organizational knowledge. However, in the present pretext, this organization will collect digital records of all the transactions to develop a digital knowledge pool for future generations.
On the scale of environment protection, we are running a business which is clean in nature. However, with an intention to fulfill our social responsibility we will discourage the culture of fur and other materials coming from endangered species. Apart from it, we can also come up with some themes to promote the environmental concerns of our customers while dressing them up for certain events etc.
Buzan, T. Mind Map Handbook: The ultimate thinking tool ( Harper Collins 2016)
D.R.Kiran. Total Quality Management: Key Concepts and Case Studies( Elsevier,2016)