A CASE STUDY FOR FLASHMOBZ
Introduction
This paper captures a case study on the FlashMoz Company. The company deals with mobile phones and accessories and it operates in England. Recently, the company made steps into acquiring PhonesRUs Company and integrating eCommerce. The ultimate goal is to capture key business to add technological challenges affecting the company. Additionally, the paper addresses the barrier to implementation and how the company might overcome them. An inclusive and persuasive argument is also presented to Asif to motivate him on the change process. In the last section, a reflexive statement prevails for the Online Discussion for the Self Assessment.
PART A
Key Business and Technical Challenges
The SBS Consultant Team works with due diligence on projects delegated by FlashMobz Company. It reacts promptly to changes position by the organization to ensure all the processes are legally conducted. Most probably, the case for the integration of PhonesRUs into the company’s base needs swift and stringent attention for the success of FlashMobz. Ideally, the challenges of the transition into eCommerce will always be there as most of the change mechanisms are still on discoveries. The significant concerns lie in the ability of the company to purchase the relevant assets needed for the transition (Khoo, Ahmi, and Saad, 2018). It is a gradual process that when articulated properly, will see the company command a large base of intended consumers. Accordingly, this section addresses the key business and technical challenges associate with the transition process.
First, the communication challenge poses a threat to the successful orientation of the merger. According to research conducted by Almeida, Grant, and Phene (2017), the communication challenge developed as one of the top factors that saw the failure of business synergies. They state that during the mergers, the employees always feel left out, yet they are the driving forces for change implementation (Almeida et al., 2017). The FlashMobz wants the success of the business, and that is the reason behind its expansion. Therefore, in case it fails to include the employees in the process of change, it may likely to face resistance from some of the employees. The eCommerce ideology touches on most lives of employees, as some may not embrace the new technologies being developed. Technologies come with dire influence, especially when employees learn of the influence of the radioactive rays on human bodies (Khoo et al., 2018). Some employees may simply neglect to serve the company when too much exposure to these effects prevails. Therefore, it requires the company to negotiate the company with the employees through proper communication channels. Additionally, the communication extends to other business stakeholders who may support or demoralize the expansion strategy. The amalgamation would always need informed consent, which should not be done in secret for the success of the mission.
Employee retention challenge is likely to prevail in the introduction of eCommerce into the business (Khoo et al., 2018). The eCommerce sector allows customers to get their services online. Customers order for the goods and services using the FlashMobz Company. After that, the payments prevail online without the physical interactions between the customers and the employees. Unlike in the usual trade, the employees only conversant with manual operations may face layoff challenges. The world is transforming into a technological world, and every business is integrating the new systems. Therefore, FlashMobz Company will have to review the competency of its former employees concerning the new merger. This is because the eCommerce has to excel but only with the skilled-based selection of employees (Khoo et al., 2018). The process of retaining or recruiting new employees is likely to be costly due to the training requirement.
The acquisition is may also suffer from cultural challenges that the business fraternity follows. A research conducted by Shettlewood (2016), 30% of the companies in acquisitions fail within three years and cites organizational cultural disparities. Culture is the extended implicitly shared values, beliefs, and assumptions that dictate the proceedings. During the shifts, the management may decide to alter its ways of operations to accommodate the new company. When there is a sudden shift, the two companies bring unease in the operations as they try to accommodate the best and lenient practices (Shettlewood, 2016). FlashMobz Company and PhonesRUs have different IT systems, and the cultures of both organizations are likely to pose a challenge.
The technological departments serve as separate entities, each providing support for the success of the organizations while implementing the eCommerce change. A meeting of the organizational needs may be a challenge in accounting, billing, invoicing, and financial tracking (Khoo et al., 2018). For instance, most companies rely on big data analytics to enable educated guesses. It means the FlashMobz Company has to spend extra income in adopting this advanced technology as it increases its customer base. Attracting and retaining the top talents means extra cost for the company. Therefore, as FlashMobz Company integrates PhoneRUs into its working field, cultural diversity exists and it should keenly check on the probable outcomes.
Barriers to Implementation and Solutions
The technical issues are likely to alter the complete implementation of the acquisition and transition. It means that the projects of FlashMobz will not start from scratch but rather consider the already existing projects. Ideally, the initial projects saw the success of the business and hence they would be preferable despite the merger. Such stands will cause technical collisions since both companies operate with different IT systems. The interoperability of the existing software and the new hardware platforms are already a threat. Another technical issue is the privacy of FlashMobz data. In reality, it is acquiring a smaller company due to an increase in its market base. The need for growth may entail sharing the data available to enhance the operations of the new systems (Almeida et al., 2017). The process calls for a review of the systems setting to alert on the introduction of a new member. Security is also a barrier to eCommerce implementation (Almeida et al., 2017). The technical problem requires experts from both companies to restrict that accessing customer information. An electric failure in the systems may lead to the leakage of information or even interruption of secured payment gateways.
On the other hand, the FlashMobz and PhonesRUs merger indicates that they are already serving a larger customer base. Therefore, it may require experienced experts to deploy eCommerce activities. The synchronization of demand and supply takes a new form with most customers now going for the online trade (Ross, 2016). It calls for much effort directed towards bettering customer experience in the online platforms. Most probably, the implementation may attract extra charges from the customers that stage a new competitive era. For instance, buying a phone online attracts the costs of transportation, unlike when the customers purchase over the counter. It requires proper guidance for the company to convince the customers who normally purchase over the counter to shift to the online deals. Therefore, the marketing strategies needed to convince the customers may attract extra costs. The company can utilize social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to attract more clients to the new way of conducting its trades.
Additionally, the implementation of eCommerce in England takes the challenge of trust from the consumers (Almeida et al., 2017). FlashMobz Company would utilize the website created for trading with the customers. In the process, the customers have to share their information for shipping purposes, and at times, private information may leak. In the world of technology, the challenge of illegal hackers and systems failures poses a threat to the ability of companies to accommodate the high rates at which the cybercrimes occur (Almeida et al., 2017). Illegal hackers are always conversant with cybercrimes and will always learn about new technology tactics. Therefore, to win the trust of stakeholders requires the company to set strong and modern network systems. The system administrators should always ensure the systems are effective and free form malicious attacks. In the United States, 45% of customers see mobile phones as an essential shopping tool (Faulds et al., 2018). The mobile phones account for 19% of eCommerce sales (Faulds et al., 2018). It is an opportunity to embrace the eCommerce aspect in England that is likely to trend. When the company works on its security systems, then it will have less to worry about in the final trading with PhonesRus.
These increases in online payment fraud in the eCommerce industry. The company may fall as a victim when it deals with a non-loyal customer who has ill motives. A study conducted in 2018 confirms that losses from online fraud will amount to $48 billion by 2023 (Elvy, 2018). It may prevail as one of the unfair competitive means of opponents in the tech industry. With frequents losses, companies have no option but to close their business, according to Elvy (2018). The rise of mobile transactions and systems for instant payments attracts frauds that FlashMobz Company should check stringently. Therefore, for a successful implementation of eCommerce into the market base, the company will have to check on its payment processes. It has to choose a trustworthy payment processor, which can detect fraudulent activities. Additionally, the company will need to use HTTPS encryption in all website entries (Faulds et al., 2018). Additionally, it can opt to install the latest updates and security features for systems to effectively, and securely operate. The acquisition of PhoneRus means it is expanding its market ground, and the systems for online payments may be overwhelmed.
The implementation barrier also rises with the reviews from the customers on the eCommerce experience with the company. In the online market, it is referred to as social proof (Almeida et al., 2017). It is a case whereby the media approves the quality of goods and services served by the mobile company. Ideally, the FlashMobz Company is popular with its customers and the availability of the previous customers to confirm its credibility through online forums is an added advantage. For FlashMobz Company to win the hearts of its customers, it should allow ensuring that its staff is competent and articulates the business operation’s professional. Notably, the expansion of the company denotes a well-managed employee fraternity that forms part of the company’s success. Through the promotions and employee management forums, the employees will always need to comply with the regulations set by the company (Nazir and Islam, 2017). For instance, when customers demand the after-sales services, it is the role of FlashMobz to negotiate with the customers to ensure the employees articulate the services with much ease. Therefore, when the employees operate professionally in service delivery, then the company will always get positive reviews from the customers hence articulating the acquisition and eCommerce arm into the business will always bear fruits.
On the acquisition part, the loss of team mentality pauses a challenge to the normal operations of the business (Khoo et al., 2018). The employees are always a great deal about the company’s culture. The company started a single shop and has currently emerged with other branches. However, the same culture is spread throughout the branches with the sense of being a team. The mentality keeps the employees going, and it is what results in the expansion of the business. With the acquisition, the team mentality is a barrier towards the implementation. This is because phones will come with its operating principles and staff already in place. The owners of the business are prone to become rich, leaving out the employees with the task of embracing the changes. Once the team mentality is down, integration of the acquisition becomes a challenge, as employees from both sides have to learn about the different cultures endorsed by the merging companies (Almeida et al., 2017). Additionally, the integration of various departments may be catastrophic, as it would mean layoffs of some workers. For instance, the sales department handles the sales, and when the two companies merge, there are only specific positions needed. It means either employee from FlashMobz or PhoneRUs will have to quit for proper coordination of the sales. Therefore, FlashMobz Company needs to ensure the acquisition does not affect the team mentality of the company. More so, the workers who have driven it the successful level is currently dominated.
The methodology for the general implementation of the project will first involve general planning. At this stage, it lists the significant reasons for the acquisition and after that plan on the financial needs. Additionally, the implementation should involve all the stakeholders at every stage of implementation. Since the management represents the business at every development stage, their representatives should contribute in the discussions (Nazir et al., 2017). The major aim is to capture every category under the contract to ensure the stakeholders are not adversely affected. In the newly created merger, the company aims to enforce the business to client eCommerce; hence, it should put the right people to spearhead the implementation. The functionality of the acquired company will be in line with the major company and hence the need to deploy competent employees to build the reputation of the new phase. Through training and proper guidance from experienced tech experts, the implementation is likely to be a success.
Persuasive Argument
On the acquisition of PhonesRus Company, it is a better step for FlashMobz Company’s expansion in the European mobile market. Since 2014, the mother company has grown and accumulated many customers, thus leading to the acquisition interest. Ideally, Asif is an entrepreneur, and to successfully, scale-up, the owner should ensure the FlashMobz s financially stable. The company has to be in a healthy state, generating revenue with a strong product-market to consume its goods and services (Ross, 2016). After that, Asif should check on the time basis, that is, if it is the right time to acquire. Beyond the financial capabilities, FlashMobz needs to check on the competency of its employees to validate the acquisition. Additionally, the PhonesRUs Company should be the right company to fit FlashMobz Company even though they use different IT systems. With all this in consideration, Asif should treat the acquisition as a marriage. The ideology works well amidst the complex transactions and countless facets to consider. Acquisitions are important for it enhances FlashMobz entry into new markets. It will be able to supply the required mobile phones to the market as consumers also recognize its reputation. Large companies normally enjoy large-scale economies, such as low overhead costs. The company will also gain new competencies and resources it currently lacks. Additionally, FlashMoz will attract more experts as it proves to be expanding its labor force to suit customer needs. Therefore, Asif should consider the acquisition as it largely benefits the company.
For eCommerce integration, the company is well-positioned to enjoy the benefits of the new technologies. Communication with the customers is now easy through the social media handles and websites belonging to FlashMobz.
References
Almeida, P., Grant, R. and Phene, A., 2017. Knowledge acquisition through alliances: Opportunities and challenges. The Blackwell Handbook of Cross‐Cultural Management, pp.67-77.
Elvy, S.A., 2018. Commodifying consumer data in the era of the Internet of things. BCL Rev., 59, p.423.
Faulds, D.J., Mangold, W.G., Raju, P.S. and Valsalan, S., 2018. The mobile shopping revolution: Redefining the consumer decision process. Business Horizons, 61(2), pp.323-338.
Khoo, V., Ahmi, A. and Saad, R.A.J., 2018. E-commerce adoption research: a review of literature. The Journal of Social Sciences Research, (6), pp.90-99.
Nazir, O. and Islam, J.U., 2017. Enhancing organizational commitment and employee performance through employee engagement. South Asian Journal of Business Studies.
Ross, D.F., 2016. Introduction to e-supply chain management: engaging technology to build market-winning business partnerships. CRC Press.
Shettlewood, H., 2016. Effects of Management Cultural Integration on Merger and Acquisition Failures.