Swinburne BUS30009: Industry Consulting Project - Cocky Valve Report

This report presents an industry consulting project undertaken for Cocky Valve, a micro-sized family business specializing in stainless steel stock trough valves. The project aims to assist Cocky Valve in its business expansion by analyzing its current standing, identifying client requirements, and assessing the competitive landscape. The report details the information needed to address client requirements, including primary and secondary quantitative data collection methods, and outlines potential information sources such as the Glen Eira Council and the Kondinin Group. It also provides an overview of key stakeholders, competitors, and specific questions to be asked of clients to understand their expectations. Furthermore, the report includes an audit of personal skills developed during the project and concludes with recommendations for Cocky Valve's future growth, emphasizing the importance of strategic planning, market analysis, and financial considerations.

Running head: INDUSTRY CONSULTING PROJECT
Industry Consulting Project
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1INDUSTRY CONSULTING PROJECT
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Summary of the Project Requirements..................................................................................2
Information needed to address the client requirements..........................................................3
Sources where the information would be obtained from.......................................................4
Information about key stakeholders and competitors............................................................4
Specific questions to follow up with the clients.....................................................................5
Client Requirements...............................................................................................................5
Audit of Personal Skills.........................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7
Appendix....................................................................................................................................9

2INDUSTRY CONSULTING PROJECT
Introduction
The following proposal would introduce the various means by which the organization
of Cocky Valve can improve the productivity levels in Australia. The organization is mostly
identified as a family business. The project proposal would thus follow the process of briefly
summarising the background of the organization of Cocky Valve and the initiation phase of
the organization as per the decisions taken by the owner for increasing the sales and the
productivity of the company for serving the clients. Furthermore, it would also describe the
information that is required for addressing the client requirements and the description of the
sources from where the information is obtained (Abbott 2019). Along with that, the proposal
would also hold the information about the key stakeholders and the competitors of the
business organization and the specific questions that would be asked to the clients to
understand their requirements. The paper would lastly hold the representation about the
acquired information about the requirements from the clients and audit of the personal skills
that are required by each of the project team members to implement the functions of the
project successfully.
Summary of the Project Requirements
The organization of Cocky Valve is a micro sized family business that is run by the
owner where he has appointed himself as the managing director, his wife as the shareholder
and CFO as well as his sister as the manager of administration for the company. The
company was developed after the owner had patented his design for stainless steel stock
through valves in 2003 and dealt the business utilizing this product. There had been hardships
for which the business incurred a huge loss and a lawsuit for non-payment from the
contractors of the raw materials for the business and manufacturing of the products. On the
other hands, the company was also the first ISO2000 certified organization in Australia.
Eventually, the owner found that there has been subsequent improvement in the business in
the year 2015 and there has been an annual increment from 205,000 AUD in 2012-13 to
648,000 AUD in 2015-16 (Niazi et al. 2016). Since, the owner felt the need of a continuous
improvement in the business, he started consulted for a mentoring project from Glen Eira
Council from which the owner wanted to re-launch their product and understand the
shortcomings that the organization has resulting to its failure. The owner has some ideas in

3INDUSTRY CONSULTING PROJECT
mind about borrowing from banks for capital funds for expanding further being aware of the
constraints of the project while expanding and the risks undertaken.
Information needed to address the client requirements
For this particular case where the owner wanted to have a thorough expansion of their
business with understanding the risks underlying the expansion with the project constraints,
there are several ways through which the owner could gather information about both the ways
of expansion and the business organization (Taleb et al. 2017). These are required so that the
owner can have a thorough idea about what methods to implement for the business expansion
and what not to given the requirements of the clients and the business specifications. These
can be formulated through the consulted mentoring project from Glen Eira Council and other
methods of information collection about the expansion process and the business process. The
ways by which the owner can conclude this can be identified as follows:
Primary Quantitative Data Collection Process: This can be formulated by
collecting direct data as found through research processes or surveys. This way of data
collection would bring out the raw data directly from the sources as the data would be
collected through a survey and depends upon the information that a person provides (Rui,
Ismail and Hussaini 2015). This process can be utilized to find out the information about own
business and what does the business lack to successfully implement the expansion program as
well as what the competing organizations in the same domain have been implementing in
their business as the part of business expansion. Both these information set would be required
to find out the appropriate expansion framework for the business and also implement the
expansion techniques to stay ahead of the competitors.
Secondary Quantitative Data Collection Process: This is the way by which the
owner can gather information about the appropriate methods for expansion and it could be
gathered from the literatures or research works presented by other authors and researchers.
This will help the owner in collecting information about the expansion procedures that he can
list down as the appropriate ones for the business as per the requirements of the clients and
the organization. In addition to that, the owner had followed a consultancy for getting help or
mentoring regarding the expansion of the business, which can also provide information
regarding the expansion procedure.

4INDUSTRY CONSULTING PROJECT
Sources where the information would be obtained from
There are various sources from where the owner would be able to find out the
information about the business through the processes by which have been mentioned as
above. The sources can be listed as follows:
Glen Eira Council: This was the consultancy from where the owner had his
mentoring regarding the expansion procedures as per the business. This is how he could
gather information about how to proceed with the expansion procedure understanding the risk
associated with it as well as the business constraints.
Testing of the organization by Kondinin Group: The owner of the organization had
their independent overall organizational testing done by the Kondinin Group through which
they could understand where they stand in the market in comparison to their competitors
(Renton, Daellenbach and Davenport 2016). This information was required to find out the
company standing and the ways by which the competing organization had been expanding.
Analysis of the test results: After the analysis of the test result, the information about
the risks and shortcomings of the organization was formulated through which it could be
understood what are the places where the company needs to improve and what should be the
appropriate methods to proceed with the expansion keeping in mind about the shortcomings
of the business (Mello et al. 2017). In addition to that, the organization was micro in nature
and it needed to expand into the small scale market.
Survey through questionnaires from the clients: This source would formulate what
would be the clients asking for or expecting from the organization when it comes to their
expansion from a micro to a small scale organization.
Information about key stakeholders and competitors
After the organization was tested accordingly by the owner with the help of Kondinin
Group, there had been information extracted regarding the key competitors according to the
business for which the company could see where it stands in comparison to them (Bushuyev
et al. 2015). The result can be represented as follows:
List of Competitors with estimated % market Share:

5INDUSTRY CONSULTING PROJECT
 Philmac 40% https://www.philmac.com.au
 Hansen 20% http://www.hansenproducts.co.nz/products/valves.htm
 Alderdice 15% http://www.alderdice.com.au/products
 Raindrop 10% https://www.rgdcorp.com.au/products/float-valves/
 Apex 10% https://apexvalves.co.nz/rural/
 Cocky Valve 3% https://cockyvalve.com.au
 Others 2% Imported valves, Mt Barker
The key stakeholders included the number of people included within the business, the
owner, his wife and sister as well as the small number of clients of the organization.
Specific questions to follow up with the clients
The specific questions that would be followed up with the clients to understand their
requirements can be listed as follows:
 What are clients expecting from the expansion?
 Do the clients want a corporate compliance perspective by the organization?
 How should the clients need the services to be provided from the
organization?
 What changes do the clients expect from the organization regarding their
products and services?
Client Requirements
The company should employ more workers who will help to run the company
smoothly. The owner should understand the difference between the potential liability of
individuals and legal obligations while employing workers (Bengtsson and Carlson 2015). In
order to increase the market, share to fifty percent in Australia, the company should look to
find partnerships in the same field. Formation of a business to attract outside investment is a
critical step in expansion. The company can have different stock classes which have their
rights and preferences, such as conversion and redemption rights, voting rights, payments in
dividends and transferability of shares (Moll 2017). Since Cocky Valve is mostly a family
business, therefore it requires a comprehensive succession plan. The plan must include assets
transfer and transfer of authority to the future owners while reducing the tax liability at the
same time. In order to accomplish a succession plan, the company must establish a business

6INDUSTRY CONSULTING PROJECT
entity structure such as ‘Family Limited Partnerships (FLPs)' and ‘Limited Liability
Companies (LLCs)’.
Audit of Personal Skills
During the course of the project, the ability to work within a team provided an
extraordinary experience. It was required to brainstorm ideas and help each other in the tasks
which stimulated the overall success in developing the project (Barlow et al. 2017).
Establishing common metrics was one of the keys to increasing teamwork such as failure of
one is failing of the team. The team members are required to be able to produce quantifiable
and accurate research data. This ensures that the risks presented during the development
process are reduced and benefits are increased. Risk management is another discipline which
is required in before implementing the project.
Conclusion
The paper concludes that Cocky Valve although being a small business aims to
capitalise in the domestic and the global market. The owner presents a comprehensive view
of the structure of the company in terms of sales and product management. The company
along with its prized product stainless steel trough valves aims to introduce more variety in
the inventory once the business starts expanding. The paper also concludes that the ethos of
the owner is positive and is determined to take the company to the highest possible level.

7INDUSTRY CONSULTING PROJECT
References
Abbott, M., 2019. The United Kingdom’s Economic Relations with New Zealand and
Australia after Brexit. The Round Table, pp.1-15.
Barlow, P., McKee, M., Basu, S. and Stuckler, D., 2017. Impact of the North American Free
Trade Agreement on high-fructose corn syrup supply in Canada: a natural experiment using
synthetic control methods. CMAJ, 189(26), pp.E881-E887.
Bengtsson, M. and Carlson, E., 2015. Knowledge and skills needed to improve as preceptor:
development of a continuous professional development course–a qualitative study part I.
BMC nursing, 14(1), p.51.
Bushuyev, S.D., Bushuyev, D.A., Rogozina, V.B. and Mikhieieva, O.V., 2015, September.
Convergence of knowledge in project management. In 2015 IEEE 8th International
Conference on Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology
and Applications (IDAACS) (Vol. 2, pp. 496-500). IEEE.
Mello, M.H., Gosling, J., Naim, M.M., Strandhagen, J.O. and Brett, P.O., 2017. Improving
coordination in an engineer-to-order supply chain using a soft systems approach. Production
Planning & Control, 28(2), pp.89-107.
Moll, D.K., 2017. Judicial Dissolution of the Limited Liability Company: A Statutory
Analysis. Transactions: Tenn. J. Bus. L., 19, p.81.
Niazi, M., Mahmood, S., Alshayeb, M., Riaz, M.R., Faisal, K., Cerpa, N., Khan, S.U. and
Richardson, I., 2016. Challenges of project management in global software development: A
client-vendor analysis. Information and Software Technology, 80, pp.1-19.
Renton, M., Daellenbach, U. and Davenport, S., 2016. Finding fit: An exploratory look at
SME brand orientation and brand management in the New Zealand food and beverage sector.
Journal of Brand Management, 23(3), pp.289-305.
Rui, L.M., Ismail, S. and Hussaini, M., 2015. Professional development of project
management for contractor in the construction project: a review. Procedia-Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 174, pp.2940-2945.

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Taleb, H., Ismail, S., Wahab, M.H., Mohd, W.N.M.W. and Rani, R.C.A., 2017. SD 10-
ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICES OF PROJECT COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT
IN IRAQ. Sustainable and Resilient Cities: The Way Forward, p.142.

9INDUSTRY CONSULTING PROJECT
Appendix
A personal learning development plan
Learning goals Processes Challenges Measures
Communication is a
pivotal goal to
develop a project.
Failing to meet the
expectations mainly
implies weak
communication
between the project
team.
Creating clarity in
communicating a
strategy for the
project and relaying
incorrect
information among
the peers are few
contributions that
can be made.
Lack in
communication can
impact the
performance of the
employees,
productivity and
customer relations.
To improve or to
develop the skill
various measures
can be taken which
includes
communication
through newsletters,
Intranet, Emails, and
collaborations.
Teamwork is
essential to manage
tasks associated with
a project and
complete the work in
a short time ensuring
quality in the job.
It is required to
brainstorm ideas and
help each other in
the tasks which
stimulate the overall
success in
developing the
project.
Failing to establish
common metrics
which drive the team
to complete the work
in the time frame
provided by the
management. Lack
of teamwork results
in poor work quality.
Establishing
common metrics is
one of the keys to
increasing teamwork
such as failure of
one is failing of the
team. These metrics
help to drive the
behaviours of the
team members.
In terms of project
management, the
term discipline refers
specifically to a field
of work or an area of
Having the
knowledge of the job
beforehand by doing
research and
qualitative analysis
The inability of the
team members to
produce quantifiable
and accurate
research data. This
Accounting,
financial functions,
manning and
resourcing,
managing inventory

10INDUSTRY CONSULTING PROJECT
focus in which a
specific bank of
knowledge is
required, and in
addition, a specific
field of work that
will require unique
and unalterable sets
of rules and
regulations regarding
the required conduct
that must be adhered
to in the process of
completing that
work activity.
related to the project
helps to provide
intricate details
about the process
required to finish the
job ensuring quality.
Risk management is
another discipline
which is required in
before implementing
the project.
inaccuracy presents
risks during the
development
process. Risks are
increased, and
benefits are reduced.
and developing
marketing strategies
are some of the
disciplines that the
members of the team
are required to have
knowledge of.
Training the
employees in these
fields helps to
achieve the long-
term goals.