“EU Design’s Rise in the Apparel and Fashion Industry Essay

authorized Management StyleEU Designs management style was founded in a genuinely small business environment. There was little standardization of individual tasks. In a small business, e true(a)lyone on staff is expected to be involved in all day-to-day business activities. This creates a genuinely in clod relationship between workers and management. In addition to the small business aspect, EU Design is in a creative industry. Many of the people in this industry are not trained or educated in formal business practices. A creative mindset takes precedence over the social system of the business.For EU Design, theatrical role of product is not an issue at the present time. The gild is ISO 9000 certified with SA8000 accreditation. However, maturement into a larger company requires a more formal management style to ensure this quality is kept up to standard. EU Design needs to develop a mission statement and merged vision for the employees to substantiate a common goal as a m ove toward a more formal management style. Without a defined mission statement, employees result have their own ideas of the companys goals. Once a mission statement and business strategy is established, EU Design needs to come in which performance metric is most essential to the continued growth of the company.Balanced ScorecardWhile financials such as return on capital and cash flow are imperative to the sustainability of a company, customer-related prosody such as quality and timeliness of delivery are of upmost importance to keep the clients who will provide the profit. Customer feedback and surveys will provide the measurement of the value being created for clients. This will help EU Designs management focus more on what the clients actual needs are instead of focusing on what they perceive customer needs to be. An example of the balanced calling card would resemble the exhibit belowObjectivesMeasuresFinancial perspective Increasing profitability and revenue Return on asset s-Increased sales revenue Profit ratioCustomer perspective Customer loyalty Attaining brisk customers Orders from latest customers Orders from new customersInternal perspective Adherence to schedule Customer driven products Productivity Ratio of actual delivery times to planned schedule Ratio of on time deliveries Number of new collections and designs added learnedness and Growth perspective Increased chat within the company Increased education of employees Number of periodic meetings held Total budget for education courses Number of employees attending coursesInternal inadequacies need to be pinpointed for optimal efficiency. orb procedures and work practices should be established and documented. This will highlight aspects such as time management, efficiencies, and employee competency. This will let in management to keep abreast of the working environment and augment employee stability. Fashion trends come and go very quickly, and being able to recognize what is trending an d the ability to supply quickly is imperative to success. Management must remains trends and concentrate on key suppliers that are providing the product for current trends, and all employee efforts must be tell toward this goal. Establishment of clear-cut goals and procedures is necessary to achievethis.Formalization of management needs to begin from the top down. Berardi is in any case involved in day-to-day activities and cannot see the big picture of the company. He is functioning as an bankers bill manager and sales representative rather than performing duties of a CEO. He may not be able to make difficult decisions to cut or grow a particular segment beca lend oneself of his final stage involvement. Berardi needs to bring an employee up to take over his accounts so he can concentrate on his role of CEO. A new organizational structure would resemble the Exhibit 1. There needs to be standardization of communication between the two purposes to ensure that all client informa tion and requirements are dual-lane and understood. Regular videoconference meetings with the staff of both partings can be implemented.Given the time difference one office would have to come in very early or the early(a) office would stay late. This may be difficult but should be adhered to so all employees are receiving the same information. This could be tried and true on a monthly basis. These meetings would help to create a more cohesive environment between New York and Hong Kong. This would also give the Hong Kong office a chance to provide requested feedback to New York. As a supplement, an online open forum for questions from one office can be posted and answered by the other office when it opens.Incentive SystemsCurrently there is no formal incentive system. Many of the rewards are ground on Berardis perception of employee performance. If he does not have the opportunity to have direct communication with all employees, it is a possibility that he is not able to appropr iately assess individual performances. The employees themselves snarl that above-standard performance was not always noted. This sometimes resulted in sub-optimal achievements being recognized while the employee going the spare mile was getting passed over. A new incentive system must include a formal evaluation method of employee performance. In order to evaluate, official job descriptions must be written to use as a benchmark. These descriptions give the employees the framework within which to cost-efficiently perform their duties. The employees immediate executive program must complete this evaluation. This is the person who has direct observance of day-to-day activities.Having the formal evaluation takes out the individualized bias of the supervisors. Semiannual reviews will keep employees apprised of their performance and managementexpectations. This will benefit both the company and the employees by keeping them both focused on a common goal. To encourage the employees to be sales oriented, a commission system could be introduced. Since company money is already directed toward training courses and classes, religious offering employees sales training courses will give them the opportunity to take advantage of the new commission system. If cash in hand are limited and an official sales manager cannot be hired, then the classes would be the most efficient way to educate employees. These classes would be directed toward the Junior Merchandisers. The current duties for this position would fit best with the new sales system.Although hiring office managers would be beneficial, in the present financial climate this may not be feasible. However, one employee in each location needs to be responsible for office operations. Both offices have an accountant on staff that report directly to Berardi. This person could take on the role of office manager. Since the accountant would be the most business-minded person, he or she would be most qualified to monitor the be and inefficiencies within the office. Overall EU Designs growth has been slow and steady, as evidenced by a five-year gross margin increase of almost 300 percent. This growth has necessitated a change in management style. If Berardi acknowledges that changes need to happen, the implementation should happen rather smoothly.