Business Management Report: Operational Plans, KPIs, and Benchmarking

This report provides a comprehensive overview of business management principles. It begins with an exploration of strategic planning and operational plans, including the importance of aligning resources and setting clear objectives. The report then delves into budgeting, emphasizing the allocation of funds and the budgeting process. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are examined, with a focus on their purpose and different approaches to development. The report also compares balanced scorecards and KPIs, highlighting the advantages of the former. Benchmarking is discussed as a tool for assessing performance against competitors. Additionally, the report addresses the role of the PCBU (Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking) in ensuring workplace health and safety and summarizes the Fair Work Act 2009. The second part of the report presents an operational plan for King Edward VII College, including staffing, marketing, and risk management strategies. This plan is supported by an email to senior management and a role-play scenario illustrating the operational plan's implementation.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................11
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

TASK 1
1. Strategic planning is a process of setting mission and vision of a company so that all business
operations would be design accordingly (Noe and et al., 2017). Main motto if strategic planning
is to attain highest utilisation of resources as it is directly linked with productivity of a company
i.e., optimum utilisation of resources leads to higher performance. Various purpose of strategic
planning is,
 Alignment of resources according to pre-set strategy
 Optimum utilisation of resources which includes financial resources, human resource,
machinery and equipment etc
 Build competitive advantage over others
Operational plan refers to a process of designing role of all the departments present within the
work premises according to the strategy set by the management in the starting (Burns and
Dewhurst, 2016). Purpose of it is given below,
 Employees and machinery skills and capabilities would be used according to strategic
plan
 Utilisation of budget available in the company with the aim of attain market leader
position
Operation plan is directly linked with strategic plan as latter parts provides overall budget which
company needs to invest in the future to attain better performance. On the other hand, OP assist
in using those funds according to employees skills and capabilities (Uhl and Gollenia, 2016).
2. Information needed in operational plan is given below,
 Goals and objectives of every department must be clearly stated in the starting only so
that steps by steps of attaining it would be made accordingly.
 Different actions which needs to be done to attain goals and objectives
 Skills and capabilities in human resources according to their specific work (Adekola and
Sergi, 2016)
 Machinery, building, equipment’s etc required to conduct business operations
 Budget or capital required in the starting and while conducting their business operations
 Timelines for each goal completion so that proper assessing and monitoring of work
would be achieved.
3. Process of developing an operational plan,

Step 1: Clear goals and objectives of specific department and company
Step 2: Different activities which needs to be done for achieving pre-set goals and objectives
Step 3: Quality standards which needs to be maintained while conducting working operations.
Step 4: Key performance indications would be decided by aligning it with strategic plan
Step 5: Risk management plan would be set so that no risk would affect company’s performance
in a negative way.
Step 6: Resources like human, machinery, equipment’s etc is finalised and planned by
considering their skills and capabilities
Step 7: Timeliness are set for each and every actions and monitoring phase of operations started
and so on.
4. Budget is a process of allocation available funds to every department of a company according
to their requirements and needs with the aim of achieving highest utilisation of monetary
resources so that better return on investment would be earn in future (Cokins, 2017). Purpose of
Budget is to forecasting income and expense of a company so that overall profitability would be
identified. Other is to manage and monitor performance of a business by assessing its financial
terminology. Last objective is to make business decisions unbiased and impartially.
5. Budgeting process is an infinite loop as it never stops until and unless management decides to
stop its business operations. Budgeting process is as follows,
 Determination of goals and objectives of a company according to their available
resources
 Aligning past and future expectations with the data accumulated from past records.
 Creating overall budget of company as well as for departments like marketing, sales,
finance, operations etc. All these departments also require to run their operations with the
help of resources like money, human resources, equipment etc.
 Monitoring and analysing of outcomes
 Adjust next financial year budget by analysing performance of past budget and its
elements
6. Key performance indicators is matrix used by company to assess and monitor their
performance which assist them to gain competitive advantage over others. KPI example includes
net profit, market share, staff churn rate, return on investment etc. Purpose of KPI are given
below,

 It assists company to monitor their performance so that future improvement plan would
be made accordingly
 Its purpose is to identify indicators within company so that it would assist them to
enhance their performance to a certain level (Swink and et al., 2017)
7. Four different approaches to develop key performance indicators is explained below,
 By considering overall company’s goals and objective
 Available resources like human, machinery and their skills and capabilities and then
make the KPI accordingly
 By taking consideration of external environment and its negative impact on company’s
performance
 By maintaining past KPI records
8. Main difference between balance score card and KPI is that latter one focuses on achieving
pre-set KPI instead of goals and objectives of a company (Myers, 2019). Besides this, success of
any company is process and monitor on the basis of KPI achieve by a company instead of goals.
Balance scorecard is an alternative and better approach for KPI because,
 Internal requirements of employees are identified and then training and development
sessions are organised accordingly.
 It assists in identifying gaps or wastage within the production process and try to eliminate
it by empowering employees roles and responsibilities.
 Main focus is given to customer perspective and buying process and while production
process is designing and moulded accordingly (Derr and DeLong, 2018).
9. Benchmarking is the process of managing and monitoring company’s performance against
competitors in the same industry and field (Linton and Solomon, 2017). It allows any company
to identify ways through which they could compete in the market and sustain their market
position for longer period of time (Rothaermel, 2017). It assists in identifying,
 Opportunities which company could grab to increase their market share
 Customer needs, demands and expectations from company and its product
 Short term and long terms goals according to external environment
 Understanding competitors strategic planning and make one for compete with them.
10. PCBU or Person conducting a business or undertaking refers to a person or group who hols
the duty of monitoring employee’s health and safety while working (Heizer, Render and

Munson, 2017). Primary objective of this post is to ensure working environment according to set
standards so that any chance of risk or unwanted circumstances would be eliminated. Duties of
PCBU is given below,
 Provide proper training and development sessions to employees for usage of machinery
and equipment
 Monitoring environment and its impact on employees performance and efficiency
 Ensure safe usage of equipment’s within the organisation so that no misshaping would be
conducted which could harm company’s productivity over a period of time.
11. Main aim of Fair Work Act 2009 is to maintain healthy working environment for employees
as well as for management so that overall productivity would be improved by marinating
flexibility of working operations (White, 2017). This act is the base or foundation of all rules and
regulations of employees in Australia. Aim of this act is as follows,
 Provide various terms and conditions for management to implement in their business for
fair employment
 States various rights and responsibilities of employees, employers and management

TASK 2
1. Operational plan for King Edward VII College is given below,
Target Action Strategy Timeline
Renting of
suitable
commercial
properties
Various places
which is nearby
place and has annual
rent of 400,000 and
500,000 dollars in
Brisbane and
Sydney respectively.
Online platforms must be
used by management to
search out places which
they could afford and
ideal for them to start their
operations
60 days or two months
period would be required for
renting the properties.
Staffing
requirements
Total of four
member is needed in
the starting i.e.,
receptionist and
learner service
officers.
Existed colleges or
schools employees would
be poached as they have
set of skills and
responsibilities which they
need to run their business
in the first place
30 months is sufficient
Fitting out of the
campus
Blueprint of college
with future certainty
and uncertainty
would be analysed
and made.
More focus should be
given to short term loss or
profit
15 days
Equipment
requirements
Information of
suppliers of various
equipment’s which
will be required to
run the college will
be identified
More focus would be
given to those suppliers
who has price lesser than
other and quality better
than others.
20 days
Marketing
requirements
Different marketing
strategies would be
set according to
Social media marketing
would be the first way of
increasing brand
90 days

company’s budget awareness in the market as
it is the cheapest and best
way of attracting
customer’s attraction.
2. Risk management plan
Risk Probability Response Impact
Marketing failure High Social media marketing would not be
effective in nature if other strategy like
offline marketing is not implemented by
college. So printing of pamphlet,
hoarding is required to increase
awareness in neighbourhood and for
customers living outside the
neighbourhood, social media will be
used.
High
Suppliers
unavailability
Medium There are chances that supplier is not
able to provide raw material on time
which could affect college performance.
So more than one supplier network must
be manage by college so if any one fails
then other will be contacted for the same
High
Commercial
property
Low If property owner wants to change to
change their lease requirements or did
not make one in the starting and now
wants to increase their price. So to tackle
it, proper legal requirements must be
implement by college management to
eliminate this risk in the future.
Medium
3. Email to senior Management Team

Subject: Discussion and approval of operations plan
Respected Management members,
I hope team have been working very hard to achieved overall mission of the college i.e., to
provide top quality of education to students in low cost investment as compare to other
competitors.
As CEO has assigned me as operation manager of two new campuses which we are planning to
open in January and April respectively. I have accumulated all the data which requires
accomplishing this task with the strategy we could implement to get higher success rate in the
future. So kindly go through the attachments I have added in the mail and confirm your spare
time so that proper planned would be explained to the team.
Hoping to get a response as soon as possible
Warm regards,
PSS,
Operation manager
4. ROLE PLAY
Operation manager: Respected team members, I have come here to discuss about the
operational plan of two colleges which we are opening in Sydney and Brisbane respectively.
Assessor: Okay. Go Ahead
OM: So first of all, both the operations will require high amount of money in the starting as new
equipment’s, place and other material have to purchase by us to start its operations.
Assessor: Will it be short term or long term?
OM: Short term investment will be require as every equipment’s needs to be purchased first
handed. Besides this, as per our calculation, we can make up to 10,000 dollars approximately.
Assessor: Is it really possible to turn profit out of investment in the first year of its operations?
OM: Yes Sir, It is possible. But there are various measures which we need to been taken care of
while operating the college
Assessor: What Measures?
OM: Operational plan which I have made after considering all the factors which might or might
not affect our overall plan. For renting the place, our team needs to search places through online
sites as no cost will incur in that. On the other hand, if we search the properties on physical basis
then it will requires investment or money which will be of no use. So strictly online search will

be require in the starting and all the meetings must be done on calls only and final meeting with
the owner and place will be done on last. Through this way, we would be able to save small
amount of money of our investor. For staffing, we need to poach those candidates who are
already working in this field as by this way, we would be able to grab those individual who
would improve our productivity. For marketing, social media will be use to reach those potential
students who are living far from the college premises and for attracting local students, pamphlets
will be use. These techniques are the cheapest and effective way of connecting with the students
as almost every youth has account on one or more social media management’s site. At last, for
purchasing of equipment’s, bidding process will be effective as it will give suppliers a chance to
provide the material in less cost as compare to other. So through this, most effective and cheap
suppliers would be identified. And last thing, we will have proper supplier’s information web as
I have seen circumstances where suppliers is not able to supply material on time. So in these
times, other suppliers help can be taken.
Assessor: Okay. I think the plan is perfect. But what about risk associated with it? Please throw
some light on it.
OM: There are chances that our marketing plan might fail as there are competitors in the
marketing who are providing the same course though with more fees which we are asking. But
low fees and effective teaching faculty is our USP so we have to focus on it irrespective of
spending thousands of bucks in marketing. So we have to stick with the marketing plan as it is
slow but highly effective in nature. For suppliers, I have already mentioned that we will maintain
relation with more than one suppliers so that if any one misses the timeline or provide poor
quality then we can switch to other one without wasting time or money. Last risk which we could
face is legalities from the owner regarding the payment or payment cycle. So proper legal
documents will be signed and maintained in the starting so that no uncertainty would be face by
us in the future.
Assessor: Okay, we have heard your plan but there is something which I think we are missing
but could not identified at present
OM: It’s okay sir. It’s just the first phase of planning and you guys are the authority in this
college so final decision will always be yours.
Assessor: Really appreciate your words. So do you think there is something left in this plan?

OM: I have considered all the factors while making the plan but still there could be something
which am missing in the first place. You guys could take your tinme and update me the changes
in the next meeting so that we can start our operations as soon as possible
Assessor: This will be perfect. So we will update your regarding the operation and risk
management plan in the next meeting.
OM: Thank you. We will discuss the dates after seeing your guys calendar.
Assessor: Okay. Thank you. You may leave now as we have to discuss regarding this plan
OM: Thank you for your time sir.
5. Revised Operation and risk management plan
Target Action Strategy
Staffing requirements Total of four member is
needed in the starting i.e.,
receptionist and learner service
officers.
Besides existing plan, two candidates
who are fresher will be hired and other
two will be experienced one. As it will
lower down the operation unit, and
moreover, guidance from past
employees will assist them to conduct
their work.
Equipment requirements Information of suppliers of
various equipment’s which
will be required to run the
college will be identified
Just in Time technique would be used
by college management to purchase
equipment and material from the
suppliers as it will reduce their
inventory as well as material handling
cost thus better efficiency in financial
terms.
Marketing requirements Different marketing strategies
would be set according to
company’s budget
Brand ambassador will be created in
different students and colleges for
increasing brand awareness. Various
competitions, social cause events etc
would be organised by college to
attract more potential customers.

Revise risk management plan
Risk Probability Response Impact
Marketing failure High Beside above mentioned response,
continuous monitoring of plan within 2
months would be conducted so that
college could find their key performance
indicators and how to improve it in
future.
High
Suppliers
unavailability
Medium Suppliers contact will be done on
bidding basis so that partiality or
biasness would be eliminated.
High
6. Email to senior Management Team
Subject: Meeting Summarisation and approval
Respected senior management,
Team and I had a meeting with the senior management team and they have suggested various
ways through which college efficiency would be improved by investing less money in the
starting. We were very happy to guide by senior management and requires to implement
strategies which is suggested and curated by management itself.
We have talk about various marketing strategies which college could use to attract more leaners
in the future. Besides this, different risk which we as a college could face and ways to tackle it is
also discussed.
Kindly go through the attached file and provide your approval on the same.
Warm Regards,
PSS.
Operation Manager
TASK 3
1. As mentioned above, four different members are required to get recruited in the future i.e.,
Receptionist and a Learner services officer in each respective colleges that means total
candidates needs to be recruited. Two out of four must be experience candidates with the

minimum work experience of 5 years and must have completed their masters in the respective
field only. Direct Interview will be conducted for them. Other two will be fresher and requires
completing master degree in any field. Written test, Group Discussion and personal interview
will be taken for fresher candidates (Buil, Catalán and Martínez, 2016).
2. Email to CEO
Respected CEO,
I have made all the requirements which must be there in a candidate if they wants to work with
our prestigious college in new Sydney and Brisbane respectively. All the requirements made for
them is according to our existing recruitment and selection policy. I have attached roles,
responsibilities and job descriptions of candidates in the mail so kindly go through the same.
Please do notify me if any changes need to be make or marked approval for it.
Warm Regards,
PSS.
Operation Manager
3. Email to Human Resources Manager
Subject: Details of new positions
Respected Human Resource Manager,
For our new operations unit in Sydney and Brisbane, I have finalised four different roles which
we need to hire in the future for conducting our business smoothly. Two positions is for
receptionist in which one will be fresher and other will be experience. Same goes with the
Leaner Service officer. I have attached all the requirements in details in the mail so kindly go
through it and update me accordingly.
Warm Regards,
PSS.
Operation Manager
4. Strategies for purchasing of equipment is given below,
 Contact with more than one supplier so that more options would be available
 Equipment must be replaced after the expiry of it to remain healthy and safe while using
it (Aithal, 2017)
5. Email to Administration Team
Subject: Purchasing Policy

Respected Administration Team,
I have purchased all the equipment’s which is important for our to run smoothly and all the
information regarding the equipment’s with price of it is attached in the file. Kindly go through it
and approve your concern over there.
Thank You.
TASK 4
1. Operational performance report (Sydney)
Electricity: 5,000
Office Rent: 500,000
Miscellaneous: 5,000
Supplies: 10,000
Salary; 25,000 (10,000 for Receptionist and 15,000 for Learner Service officer)
Equipment’s: 40,000
Marketing: 15,000
Income: 750,000 (Per Student fees would be 12,500 and 60 students have been enrolled in the
first year)
Expense: 600,000
Profit: 150,000
Brisbane
Electricity: 3,000
Office Rent: 400,000
Miscellaneous: 3,000
Supplies: 8,000
Salary; 25,000 (10,000 for Receptionist and 15,000 for Learner Service officer)
Equipment’s: 40,000
Marketing: 15,000
Income: 625,000 (Per Student fees would be 12,500 and 50 students have been enrolled in the
first year)
Expense: 494,000
Profit: 131,000
2. Email to Staff

Subject: Conserve Energy
Respected Team,
There are few ways through which our company can save energy which is given below,
 Less usage of Electricity must be communicated
 No wastage of resources
 Proper complain if anyone found wasting the energy
 Strict usage of product which is authorised by government
3. Email to CEO
Subject: Summary Report
Respected CEO,
All the necessary information which is required to review the operational unit of college has
been attached in the mail. Kindly go through it and suggest some changes if requires..
Warm Regards,

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