Darell Lea Change Management Assignment Help
Planning for constant change in organizations has become a necessity for survival, to be able to improve business performance and at the same time retain stability amongst competitors, requires proper planning that has to be done by the senior management (Olsen. E, 2009). Change management is generally considered as a basic skill for which most managers and leaders need to be competent about. The overall process of identifying organizations, immediate and long-term objectives require specific strategies to be monitored regularly.
Darell Lea is a well-known confectionary brand that was built in Sydney in 1927, by the Lea family, and in no time the company grew to become Australia’s largest privately owned chocolate and confectionary manufacturer (Boley. J, 2013). For companies like Darrell Lea, it is very important to constantly update their system, according to Olsen. E, if companies fail to anticipate or fail to prepare for fundamental changes the chances are that they will lose quality time to combat them. Darell Lea had a huge range of confectionary products, but there were many things wrong with the company, one of the key problems as stated by Klark, was that of distribution (Boley. J, 2013). Along with the distribution, the network of independent retailers (petrol pumps, news agencies etc) also Darrell Lea had its own set of shops in large malls throughout Australia, competing against big chain of outlets: Coles and Woolworths, the overall distribution model of Darell Lea was wrong. For organizations like Darell Lea, should have a clear view of their future strategies, key decisions should have been made by senior management in order to be able to design a perfect distribution map. By taking any objective look at Darell Lea one can identify areas of weakness and strength, pinpoint changes that needs to be made, spot opportunities early, and begin planning how you can best achieve business goals. (Stefan. P, 2005). On the manufacturing side it was almost next to impossible for the company to sustain investment in production in Australia, to be able to outsource the manufacturing department, further investments were needed (Boley. J, 2013). Majority of the products needed to be improved in their quality, as Darell Lea was not only competing against the local companies in Australia, rather it was competing against companies in China, US, Europe (Jacob. P, 2012).
According to Ali. A, 1996, to be able to face rapid changes, organizations has to realize that they cannot compete on a global basis without a strategic plan, to meet such challenges, it encourages innovation and creates knowledge internally and that builds customer loyalty to their products and services. Darell Lea, required a lot of changes in it, from the modification of its products to developing a new supply chain was needed (Boley. J, 2013). For companies the market trends are constantly changing, new technology is being introduced, price hikes, various environmental and political changes taking place etc, such changes effects the performance of the company and to be able to meet effectively with such changes it is important for companies like Darell Lea to have updates on regular basis (Abrams. R, 2003).
In today’s world, it is very important for companies to anticipate and respond to change quickly and train its employees to be adaptable. Those companies that are nimble and are able to quickly evaluate and respond to changing conditions are most likely to be successful. (Abrams. R, 2003). Darell Lea, failed to realized the need for such changes that were required, as a result the company who once owned 1200 people was loosing $200000 a week, on regular basis (Daily Telegraph, 2013).
Types of Planning:
To meet change and deal with it there are various factors that needs to eb involved in designing a plan for any change to take place. Types of planning that needs to be done for brining in the change could vary according to the nature of business but commonly it is classified in three major types, i.e., strategy, future actions and maneuver (Cairns. D, 2011). Once the plans are finalized by the management and the layout has been provided of what needs to be done, then the same are diversified into sub plans for each individual department, providing a road map for the concerned workers to follow. Elements in a business, do play a vital role, where appropriate planning is very essential (Cairns. D, 2011). The Quin Family implemented such changes after the company was purchased. Changes were made in company packaging and overall branding of the confectionary product lines, in fact a new logo was also rolled out (Balinski. B, 2012)
To undergo any change successfully, it is very important from management point of view that budget needs to be allocated properly with proper guidelines on how to utilize the available resources and how the amount will be spent during a particular period (Lund. T, 2006). Another key aspect of planning is HR which is generally considered as the backbone of any business (Stefan. P, 2005). Though the number of staff redundant by Darell Lea were in hundreds but on revamping the company, only few additional staff was hired and more money was invested on purchasing machinery and other necessary equipment’s (Balinski. B, 2012). Those organizations that try to keep up with their conventional standards and policies will ultimately show a decline in company’s status graph (Skripsky. J, 2001). Such was the case with Darell Lea, regardless how important it was for the company to make changes, still the family owned company decided not to undergo any change resulted in complete loss.
References:
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- P, 2012, ‘Darell Lea attracts bidders after going into voluntary administration’, The Telegraph viewed on 13th May 2013 < http://www.news.com.au/business/companies/darrell-lea-faces-a-rocky-road-as-chocolate-business-is-placed-into-administration/story-fnda1bsz-1226422451073>
- Daily Telegraph, 2013, ‘Darell Lea: The Rebirth of a Legend’, viewed on 15th May 2013 < http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/darrell-lea-the-rebirth-of-a-legend/story-e6frezz0-1226630697412>
11. Balinski. B, 2012, ‘Changes to the Chocolate Factory’, viewed on 15th May 2013 < http://www.manmonthly.com.au/features/changes-at-the-chocolate-factory>