PROJ 6006_Module_1_Case_Study.Docx 1 PROJ 6006 Organisational Behaviour and People Management Case Study J&J Furnishings, Ltd. Case Study Background: J&J Furnishings, Ltd. started building and selling home furniture in 1965, in Sydney, Australia. Started by siblings, Jack and Jessica, J&J added a line of office furniture in the mid-1980s. Over the past 25 years, J&J has opened furniture showrooms in New York, London, and Tokyo. In the early 1990s, J&J increased its sales by shipping furniture to general furniture and home decorating distributors throughout Europe and the United States. With annual revenues of nearly $50,000,000 USD, Jack and Jessica are pleased with how much their original neighbourhood furniture shop has grown. The current ordering system at J&J Furnishings typically juggles an average of 130,000 units per year, but J&J is adding a line of patio and pool-side furniture, so their unit sales average is expected to increase. At this time, J&J Furnishings has approximately 200 employees over various functional areas, or departments, including Research & Development, Manufacturing, Marketing, Sales, Human Resources, IT, Accounting, Finance, and Legal. The leadership team is made up of J&J's founders, Jack and Jessica, and directors/managers from each of the organisation's functional areas. Project Goals: Goal 1: In the past few years, the leadership team of J&J Furnishings has become concerned about the environmental impact that its manufacturing and shipping processes are having on consumer perspectives and on the communities surrounding J&J's manufacturing plants. The company's goal is to persuade stakeholders, partners, and critics that its growth strategy includes plans for long-term sustainability. The J&J leadership team believes that focusing on corporate social responsibility will boost public relations and provide a higher return on investments. The team knows that delivering social responsibility and focusing on sustainability will deliver shareholder and strategic benefits. With regard to manufacturing, the J&J team is looking closely at environmental factors, such as pollutants, manufacturing materials, and safety, as well as energy. The team would like to grow J&J's furniture line made from recycled wood products and develop a tree replanting initiative to restore wood products used in the company's existing wood furniture inventory. In addition, wood furniture is often treated with stains and oils. The J&J leadership team is interested in learning about alternative products, with an eye on both the environment and the safety of employees using those products in the manufacturing process.PROJ 6006_Module_1_Case_Study.Docx 2 Shipping furniture orders around the world uses gas and oil. It also can produce pollutants, so the J&J Furnishings leadership team is working with environmental consultants on alternative fuels and procedures for transportation and shipping processes. Goal 2: In the past few years, it has become apparent that J&J Furnishings needs to upgrade its nearly 20- year-old ordering, shipping, and billing software and processes. In addition, the CEO has also decided that, as part of this estimated 18-month project, J&J's marketing and sales should include social networking. In order to remain successful during the transition of its technology, J&J knows it must identify, mitigate, and manage any potential risks throughout this large project. Upper management of J&J Furnishings realize that an IT upgrade should produce enormous benefits for the organisation, so they want a more sophisticated system that will help the company minimize lost sales, create efficiencies in the supply chain, and keep costs down as the company moves forward. In preparation, the leadership team began by collecting information from every functional area of the company in order to identify the best sales, ordering, billing, and shipping processes to target their current and future customers, as well as retailers. The leadership team also examined what other organisations had done in similar projects to avoid loss of revenue during their projects. From the research, the team identified three potential risks that could occur during this project of upgrading the IT systems and processes: • Loss of business due to inability to process orders in a timely fashion • Loss of credibility because of a lack of quality in the shipping process • Loss of sales as competitors took advantage of any down time It was also determined that employee disruptions needed to be minimized, perhaps by temporarily reallocating employees and providing immediate training on the new systems and processes. In addition, the leadership team determined that disruptions might be less impactful if employee feedback is included and incorporated into the project. Goal 3: J&J Furnishings has several ongoing projects due to its strategic plans to keep up with customer needs and improve its efficiency. These projects include a new line of furniture, which created the need for expanded manufacturing capabilities. Starting as a small family-owned furniture store, the legacy this organisation leaves to future generations is just as important to the leadership team as is the impact J&J leaves on its customers and employees, as well as the various local and global environments in which it does business. Having this many projects at one time will impact J&J's policies as assets, and the global of the leadership team is to have a strategy for growth and development that keeps J&J functioning well into the future. PROJ 6006_Module_1_Case_Study.Docx 3 It is important to J&J Furnishings' portfolio management to focus on a continued level of the efficient delivery of quality products and services. This means you must consider each of the following elements: • Any constant and continued improvement to processes of order, billing, and shipping efficiencies; • Any changes that may occur due to the current multiple projects; and • New initiatives that may be created by the current multiple projects. Project Human Resource Plan: The J&J Furnishings leadership team recognizes the need to establish a number of project teams in order to achieve the above goals. You and your group are responsible for developing a Project Human Resource Plan that will develop a formal plan for developing, staffing, managing and assessing the teams that will in turn manage the projects aimed at addressing the goals. The plan will be developed in two parts: Part I will include the following: • A draft organisational chart for the project teams: Which of the functional roles will be represented on each of these project teams? • A staffing/recruitment plan: What strategies and approaches will you use to bring the appropriate individuals onto these project teams? • A team building plan: What strategies and approaches will you use to effectively build a team that will work together in a project management approach to achieve each of the goals? Part II will include the following: • A staff management plan: What strategies and approaches will you use to manage the project teams? • A communications plan: What strategies and approaches will you use to effectively manage communications among (and, if necessary between) each project team? Assume some stakeholders are remote. • An assessment plan: What strategies and approaches will be used to assess the effectiveness of each project team? • An improvement plan: Describe the improvement plan proposed to address any shortcomings in the performance of the project teams. The Project Teams: The projects that address the above goals require management of the complexity various project teams distributed among multiple backgrounds, experiences, and even time zones. These individuals are located in Australia, Europe, Japan, and the United States and include representatives from J&J's Information Technology, Human Resources, Manufacturing, Sales, Marketing, Accounting, Finance, and Legal departments. PROJ 6006_Module_1_Case_Study.Docx 4 J&J Furnishings' external stakeholders include their existing and potential customers, suppliers, and investors.