Collaborative Activity and Individual Report on Original Creations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Original Creations, a company facing challenges in product development and market assessment. The report begins with an executive summary and introduction, outlining the company's issues, including reliance on external manufacturers, communication barriers, quality control problems, and inefficient staff. The main body delves into the reasons behind these issues, such as the failure of recent product launches, the lack of in-house manufacturing, and the absence of market research. Key issues are identified, including manufacturing practices, quality checks, and decision-making processes. The report then offers recommendations for improvement, emphasizing the importance of market research, in-house manufacturing, and marketing strategies. It also suggests implementing quality control measures and fostering teamwork. The report concludes with a reflection on the learning process and a list of references, providing a detailed assessment of the company's challenges and potential solutions.

Collaborative Activity and
Individual Report

Table of Contents
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
PART – 1.........................................................................................................................................3
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................3
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
Reasons .......................................................................................................................................3
Key Issues present at ORIGINAL CREATIONS........................................................................4
Recommendations........................................................................................................................6
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................8
PART – 2.........................................................................................................................................9
Reflection ....................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

MAIN BODY
PART – 1
Executive Summary
The following report will be discussing various issues in the management and operations
of Original Creations like getting the manufacturing by other companies instead of doing it self,
facing of barriers in case of foreign manufacturers, absence of appropriate measures of quality
assurance, low quality and damaged products being delivered to the customers, inefficient and
inexperienced staff of the company, decision making rights held by a single individual in the
company and absence of the process of market research in the company.
Introduction
Appropriate and relevant strategies suitable for a particular type of operation in the
organisation are very essential to be implemented and even evaluated and monitored otherwise
the organisation may face serious issues which will ultimately in the long run will result in
disruption of the sales and there will be need to shut down the business. To avoid such
unfavourable situations to happen in the organisation it needs to have effective workforce,
appropriate hierarchy of decision – making, appropriate market research policies, etc. Therefore,
the following consultancy report will be discussing and exploring the particular specified reasons
due to which any entity will require such consultancy report. Then, key issues will be discussed
present in the organisation named Original Creations which are hindering its objectives of
development of better products and revealing its need to forecast the demand effectively of its
products in the market. Thereafter, justified recommendations will be given related to any
adjustments that the organisation will be requiring to make or change that it will be needing to
incorporate for better development of new products and effective assessment of the market
potential.
Reasons
The following consultancy report has been very elaborately formed and presented to
address the issues of Original Creations in development of the better new products and improved
assessment and forecasting of their potential in the market (Giles, 2018). There are various
reasons for preparing this report. One of the reasons is failure of its latest project on which the
company was working for the past 3 months to convert it into a new product and market it. The
company does not manufacture the products that it develops on its own by itself but gives order

to the other companies who are already in the business of manufacturing of similar products or
are capable to manufacture such products. It also has its manufacturers in China where there are
certain issues like barriers due to language, issues of communication and the differences based
on cultural basis.
The major concern of Original Creations for which it requires such a report is because of
the failure of the consecutively 10th new product and the founder, Mary Shelley is concerned that
the company may be on the verge of losing its direction (Sarthou and et.al., 2021). Its most
recent failure i.e., extended toenail clipper failed due to variety of reasons i.e., the actual sales
and revenue from such product were lower when compared to what was expected, the quality
and utility of the product did not meet the expectations of the consumers, many products arrived
at the customer’s place in a damaged condition. All of these reasons led to the decrease in the
sales of this product and its boxes kept on stacking up in the warehouse of the company taking
up the unnecessarily large space and requiring maintenance cost to be incurred on them. All the
reasons also led to high volume of return of the product back to the company (Nevile, 2019).
Therefore, such low sales did not justify its manufacturing cost and high rate of product return
did not support the strategy to continue selling the product in the market.
Although the founder, Mary and her 2 directors who handle the operations and
management of the projects comes from a technical background but other members like, HR
team are relatively inexperienced, logistics and warehouse teams contains staff which is recruited
temporarily via agencies of employment, etc.
Key Issues present at ORIGINAL CREATIONS
There are various issues that Original Creations is facing which are enlisted as follows:
 The company only does the work of selling its products and does not manufactures or
produces its products on its own (Casañ, Alier and Llorens, 2021). Such manufacturing and
production is done by other companies which is already engaged in manufacturing of the
similar line of products or is fully capable of producing such products based on the
requirements of the company.
 The company utilizes services of manufacturers both in the UK and the foreign
manufacturers like in China (Mansouri and et.al, 2020). The issues with such foreign
manufacturer is complexity in the communications with such manufacturers due the barriers

based on the languages, issues related to the communication and differences based on the
cultures.
 Also, the products manufactured are sent to the warehouses where only spot checks are
carried out to ensure that the quality is optimum but instead, regular and systematic checks
shall be devised and implemented on such products to avoid manufacturing of defective and
low quality products.
 Its recent product failed in the market due to which was tenth in the row to fail. Such product
failed due to issues like low volume of sales in the market along with complaints of the
consumers regarding low quality of the product and its utility not up to the mark as was
expected by the consumers (Liu, Yang and Chao, 2019). Also, there were complaints
regarding delivery of damaged goods resulting in increased rate of returns of the products.
Therefore, this led to non – justification of the manufacturing costs incurred and continuation
of the product.
 Also, the HR team consist of members who are relatively inexperienced and the logistics and
warehousing team consists of members who are recruited temporarily mainly through the
employment agencies.
 The process of idea generation includes monthly meeting on every last Friday. In such a
meeting, Mary Shelly is the only one who approves the idea to develop a product in which
she resorts only on her judgement and her feel for the market.
 The company does not conduct any market research before launching of any product as the
founder is of the view that product is best tested on its ability to sell in the market (Noer,
Hasnunidah and Abdurrahman, 2019). Also, feedback by only a small portion of customers is
taken through questionnaire.
Thus, analysing the above issues it can be said that the company faces issues regarding
the manufacturing of the products which comes under production department, regarding the
quality checks implemented by the company on the products received in the warehouse,
increased manufacturing costs, inefficient and inexperienced staff, process of generation of an
idea along with requirement of team work in such process and absence of any market research
prior to the product launching which is the major issue.

Recommendations
Based on the understanding and assessment of the above reasons and issues, there are
certain recommendations which Original Creations has to consider and make respective changes
in the organisation for improved development of new products and enhanced assessment of the
market potential.
First of all, the most serious issue in the organisation is absence of the process of market
research prior to launching of the new product and relying on the actual sales figures to depict
the success or failure of the product (Wahlen, 2018). Following steps can be recommended to
address the above issue:
 Seeking information from various sources of intelligence like sales partners i.e., distributors
who are already surviving and performing in this line to know the actual conditions in the
market and what to do to tackle them.
 Primary research which involves interviewing the consumers, conducting surveys and
forming focus groups. Although it is a time – taking and costly measure but the results will
be more accurate and insightful.
 Start the sales with a small group of individuals instead of going all in and then making the
required changes based on the information and feedbacks obtained from such small group.
Next is opting to manufacture the products by the company on its own which will
drastically reduce the cost of manufacturing and also, the barriers like language, communication
and culture can be avoided. Such in – house manufacturing will also have other benefits like easy
and effective communication due to elimination of the language barriers and differences due to
different time – zones (Drummond, O'Toole and McGrath, 2022). Therefore, the chances of
misunderstanding reduce to a great extent if the communication is real – time and crystal clear
brief can be communicated regarding the specifications of the product. The entity will also be
able to react quickly to the sudden market changes through faster decision – making quick
implementation of the of the newer strategies. Also, in – house manufacturing is more effective
method of production by the entities who are mainly engaged in manufacturing of the products
that are highly customized and that are manufactured in relatively lower volumes.
Now to address the issue of marketing and appealing to larger number of customers
following efficient strategies of marketing can be followed which will solve the issue of low
level of sales:

 Framing Marketing– According to this strategy what is said is not important but how it is
said is more important i.e.:
o Loss Framing – This involves telling customer what they will lost if they don’t opt for
the company’s product.
o Gain Framing – This involves telling customers what they will gain if they opt for the
company’s product.
o Statistical Framing – This involves facts which supports a point to sell the product.
 Sensory Marketing – An unforgettable pleasant experience that the customer experiences
online or at the physical store.
Also, it is recommended for the company to install and implement various measure of
quality checks at various stages to avoid delivery of defective products to the customers and also
avoid production of quality products instead of only random spot checks (Albó, Hernández-Leo
and Moreno Oliver, 2019). Now, to keep the quality of the products under check, various tools
that can be used here are as follows:
 Implementing the system of using check sheets to tick off the day to day tasks which includes
counting of the inventory, damage caused to the inventory, accounting for the missing
inventory if any, etc.
 Elaborated and detailed flowcharts can be followed for monitoring of each and every
movement of the inventory i.e., receipt, shelving, pick – up, packaging and shipping and any
further inspection if required.
 Identifying and prioritizing the most crucial problems by the warehouse managers on the
basis of Pareto chart so that these problems can be resolved in priority wastage of time can be
avoided on resolution of petty issues.
Another effective measure that can be recommended is inclusion of the whole
management team when making the important decisions like approval of a product to be
included in the product portfolio i.e., in this case, the other 2 directors as well. Such team work is
very essential for the entity as it allows better and more effective problem solving. This is
because of the fact that opinions and ideas of a group of people will always be more innovative
and creative than of a single person (Ribal And et.al., 2020). Also, when the people work in a
team they are bound to be more motivated and inspired to get the tasks done effectively and
efficiently so that the targets can be achieved by the team regularly and timely and therefore,

success can be achieved. Daily issues and problems can also be addressed effectively as team
work teaches the members the skill of conflict resolution which may arise as the individuals are
of the different skills and opinions and when such opinions clashes, the conflicts are bound to
arise.
Lastly and one of the most important aspect is the workforce of the organisation.
Workforce needs to be properly trained and even before that, individuals shall be appropriately
skilled, knowledgeable, experienced and shall have expertise in their concerned department. This
is because of the simple reason that when an individual is not educationally and mentally
equipped to handle a task he shall be either removed from such a position or he shall be given a
proper training so that he can carry out such task with efficiency and expertise (Vijayalakshmi
and Kanchana, 2020). Also, complicated tasks like HR, logistics and warehousing needs to be
done by the individuals who knows what has to be done and can handle the situation of
complications if need be.
Conclusion
Conclusively, the above report studies the case of Original Creations which is currently
facing certain issues in its operations and administration which includes manufacturing of the
products in the company by third party instead self – manufacturing which may effectively
reduce the cost of manufacturing and resultantly, the final costing of finished goods and thus,
will help in decreasing the sales price of the products to make them more appealing. Also, such
self – manufacturing of its own products will allow the entity to have an opportunity of
monitoring the process of such production and maintaining the quality of such process and also
of the final product being manufactured.
Additionally, the products manufactured which are transported to the warehouses are
only subjected to random spot checks instead of structured and systematic quality testing of the
finished goods. This is an issue as if these transported goods were checked for their quality
beforehand, then the customers would not have been sent the low quality and damaged goods.
This step would’ve protected the image of the company from getting degraded and otherwise
failing products would’ve have flourished and succeeded in the market. Thus, addressing the
concern of the founder, Mary that the company is losing its direction and may get off – track and
fail in the coming time. Another issue which Original Creations is facing is that its consecutively

10th product failed in the market. Primary reasons for such failure includes inability of the entity
to not being able to achieve the desired amount and volume of sales.
Also, the quality of such products was very low and did not meet the expectations of the
customers. Such expectations of the customers were not met considering the quality of the
products as well as their utility. Complaints were also received regarding receipt of damaged
goods which consequently increased the return rate of these products. All these issues made the
cost of manufacturing and the decision to continue selling these products unjustified. Most
importantly, there is no dedicated department or team who is responsible for conducting the
market research on a product before it is launched in the market and the founder, Mary believes
that true test of the product is only be actually selling it in the market without any prior research.
This ideology is not at all correct as such launching of products in the market without any proper
research will lead to failing of the product and facing of the losses in the market which could’ve
been avoided if such research was already conducted.
PART – 2
Reflection
From the associated session of Week 6, I can very confidently say that the experience and
knowledge that I gained from this week’s session is very positive and I feel that it will be really
helpful for me in the further studies and career opportunities. Before the starting of this session I
was very excited and curious to learn and know the concepts in hand and after the successful
completion of this session, I was very satisfied with the knowledge that I obtained and I’m sure
that it will be helping me in furthering my career after my studies are completed. Remembering
all that was taught to me in the session, I learnt the meaning, importance and role of Human
Resource Management along with the importance of being motivated throughout the whole
process. I also learnt and received guidance on how to prepare a good CV. Now, I feel that I am
more confident in the current semester than I was in the previous one and the instructor also gave
very helpful information which will easily help me in completing my assignments. This also
helped me to develop my problem solving skills in any given situation.
In the session of technology and e – commerce, my experience related to the learnings
was very positive and I can assure that I have a very positive feeling towards the studies in
general. Relating to the content and module of this week relating to technology and e –
commerce, I was excited as through this session, I will be able to have a good grip on the

concepts of computer and information technology (ICT) and specially regarding the usage of
Microsoft Office. After completing such a elaborated and insightful session, I am both confident
about my skill relating to such information technology and satisfied with the knowledge, skills
and training that I received. During this session I learnt about the different types of e –
businesses namely, B2B, B2C, C2C, etc. also, I learnt about the concept of information system
and its significance in the computers. Also, the concept of Enterprise Resources Planning
systems was taught which was very interesting. After attending this session I am fully prepared
to attend the coming assignments. Also, my skills of time – management have improved a great
deal when compared to the starting of the year and most importantly, my skill relating to the
academic communication are also improving.
The associated and very interesting session of innovation and international business
taught me the very important and complicated concepts of entrepreneurship and innovation
which may seem to be very common and easy topics but has a lot of depth and technical
concepts to get understanding of. Along with the concept I also learnt how to manage such
innovation in the organisation when there are multiple individuals involved in the process and all
of them have their own specific and peculiar opinions and ideas. I was also told that next
different forms of legal ownership will be taught which is again a very interesting, realistic and
relevant concept to learn about. Although I came across various mistakes which I did in my first
assignment in which I did not focussed enough on the given case study and wrote in general. The
main reason according to me for such mistake was my hesitation that the reflection that I will be
writing will not be academic enough. Here I understood the importance of application of SWOT
analysis in preparing my paperwork and also the importance of application of SMART goals in
the content which makes the paperwork more relevant, specific and attainable. This topic also
explained me the importance of communication with other and also working collaboratively with
others.
Then in the final session I had to admit that although I was eager to attend the classes and
learn about the topic but was a little anxious. But this had no effect on the experience that I
gained from this learning and I had absolutely positive outlook towards it and because of this, I
felt perfectly positive and confident towards my studies. The lessons that I studied and learnt
from this session included the concepts of logical fallacies. And after that I studied different
types of fallacies. I agree that the session was hard and complicated to follow as the topic was

very hard. Also, as I attended the session online while at work it became more complicated and
tough to follow. Therefore, I need to dedicate and allocate extra hours for reading the slides
given using which I was taught and therefore, go deeper into more detailed and in – depth
research. Conclusively, all the above sessions and learning processes were very fruitful and
enhanced my academic knowledge to a great extent which can also be applied in the future to
enhance my career growth.
Action Plan:
Skills Activities Resources Time taken Success criteria
In depth analysis
of the case study
Reading
activities,
Linking the things
with attributes
Proper and
relevant material
like books and
articles, etc.
2 weeks Was able to know
about the case
after reading and
analysing the
different
attributes
Academic writing Clarifying all the
questions in the
case
Maintained
record of the
appropriate
evidence
3 weeks Developed the
knowledge to
think and write
about the case by
knowing out the
proper incidents
Working with in
the team
Forming a group,
volunteering with
the colleagues
Proper funding
and ability to
develop the
strength of team
work and team
members with the
proper knowledge
of the task to be
performed
1 week Got familiar with
the team mates
after having in the
ability to
cooperate and
maintain the work
force with the
colleagues of
different nature
and knowledge in

the team
Problem solving
skills
Making an idea
journal, using
mind maps
Web resources,
books, articles,
blogs, statistics of
the proper data
available
2 weeks Developed the
problem solving
skills by working
according to the
proper
management of
the activities and
by cooperating
with in the team

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