Automation Consulting Services (ASC) has experienced rapid and tremendous growth, resulting in several issues and problems within the company. Founders are worried the company is out of control due to the increasing business practice conflict, inconsistency in entrepreneur spirit and increase in office expenses. Thus they are considering documenting a long-term company strategy, monitoring office costs and centralizing the control in order to address these problems.
The purposes of this report are to:
· Identify and analyze the issues raised from current operating offices.
· Provide recommendations to address the problems and concerns that have been raised.
To address the issues that have been raised, it is recommended that ASC:
· Establish a long-term strategy to convey company goals, promote a unified entrepreneur spirit, and prevent future business practice conflicts, while maintaining the current level of autonomy assigned to office partners.
· Implement a new pricing policy where the price is determined by the estimated expense plus a 20% markup. This helps eliminate the current practice of cross-subsidizing, provides partners with incentives in cost control, and helps offices shift from operating as revenue centres to profit centres.
· Incorporate client based evaluations into the annual bonus system for partners, encouraging them to expand the client base through acquisition of new clients while maintaining current client relationships.
· Introduce a Pool Staff Allocation Technique (PSAT) system to increase cost utilization, monitor office expenses, and expand office capacities.
Introduction
Automation Consulting Services (ACS) was founded by Clifford Reed, Jack Leland and Angela Goldberg in 1993. ACS targets industrial manufacturing firms and oversees the development, design and implementation of automation