BSBPEF501 Worlducation Case Study

Worlducation is a social startup that manufactures tablet computers for primary school students. They not only focus on the hardware, but they also have a competitive team creating software, content and activities to better engage and educate the students.

Worlducation aims to change the way children learn at school by implementing artificial intelligence technology that can follow up on each child’s progress and adjust to their needs as they learn, creating the optimal path learning experience.

So far, Worlducation only sells their tablet computers business to business (B2B) as they realised that their content and hardware proved most effective when a whole classroom was using it, and a teacher was coordinating the activities. Also, this helped the sales team focus on larger sales, and minimised the potential number of problems that could arise from individual customers. However, the long-term plan is to also tackle a business to consumer strategy (B2C).

What makes Worlducation completely different from their competition is that they envision a world in which every child learns how to read and write – a world without illiteracy. Given this vision, for every classroom that buys their products, they donate and train a classroom somewhere around the world that can’t afford the same technology. Furthermore, they connect the two classrooms (those who bought the products and services and those who received the donation) so that they can grow together and collaborate throughout their learning cycle.

Worlducation was founded in 2016, and by the end of 2019 they had sold over 35,000 tablets to over 550 schools in 23 countries, generating revenue in hardware sales and software subscriptions.

Worlducation headquarters are in Sydney’s CBD but they have a development team in Bulgaria, a manufacturing team in Hong Kong, and operation and sales/marketing staff in Colombia, Egypt, Iceland, Russia and the Philippines.

Its management structure is shown below:

Worlducation’s organisational structure is shown in the figure below.

Each team (e.g. sales team, finance team, operations team) are required to attend a weekly team meeting. The executive team (managers, CFO and CEO) also meet weekly.

Additional information specific to the developing the sales team’s personal and professional work goals:

Worlducation has a complex supply chain that begins when a sale is made usually via a sales representative or through and online enquiry that is handled by the sales team. Sales are recorded in an internal Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP System) which notifies the operations team that an order needs to be delivered. The operations team verify the sales order and authorise the delivery of a manufacturing request to the factory in Hong Kong. Manufacturing team in Hong Kong notes the order specifications and delivery details and incorporates this within its production schedule.

The order is manufactured and the operations team arrange freight and shipping directly to the customer. The sales team contacts the customer to make sure they are satisfied with the delivery and final product.

Call centre staff receive calls from customers to answer basic questions related to an order status and to address complaints.

Advertising staff create adverts (for multiple mediums) and manage the social media pages of Worlducation.

In line with the strategic plan, sales representatives are required to make sales that contribute to the 10% profit p.a. target. They are also required to establish 5 new leads per month and for every 5 leads, make one sale. Call centre staff should resolve 90% of all customer inquiries on the first call and receive a 95% customer satisfaction rating for the calls they take. Advertising staff should have no social media posts that require external intervention (e.g. Twitter removing a tweet) and information in adverts should be 100?curate.

Worlducation started 2020 with a huge sale to a school in Portugal. Although it was a great start, the context for the rest of the quarter was highly uncertain due to COVID-19. Surprisingly the pandemic brought hundreds of new leads and that led to an unprecedented growth that brought alongside dozens of operation and production problems.

The factory in Hong Kong closed down for 1 month due to government restrictions limiting supply, the sales team was overwhelmed with sale meetings over ZOOM, the tech-support team had to re-adapt the software to remote learning for many of the schools, and the founders had to start thinking on how education was going to change after this worldwide event. Sales representatives felt confused about how their job roles had evolved and were unsure of what was expected of them.

Many sales representatives felt uneasy about maintaining client relationships and support without face-to-face in person interaction and client feedback showed a mismatch between their requirements and those offered by the software adaptations. The advertising staff had incorrectly advertised the functionality available on the adapted software. Further investigation by the sales manager revealed that sales representatives needed development in asking the correct questions to fully understand the quickly evolving needs of individual clients.

Since COVID-19 and the closure of the factory due to government restrictions, of the 2000 tablets due to be shipped by April, only 500 were completed on schedule. This resulted in numerous customer complaints. Call centre staff felt ill equipped to handle the number of complaints and deal with emotional clients.

The CEO has asked the sales manager to manage the personal and performance development of the sales team to address the new challenges they face. The performance development must address the gaps in the skills and knowledge of the sales team to achieve 100% customer satisfaction, but not incur any additional costs. The CEO would review progress in 8 weeks time.

Additional information specific to the assessing the sales team’s personal and professional work goals:

After a period of time, all sales team members had submitted their personal and professional development plans (as per policy and procedure requirements).

Three of the plans are shown below:

Additional information specific to your own role and responsibilities:

All managers should be competent in planning and organising, have good inter-personal skills, are able to coach and train and guide staff member to achieve personal and organisational goals. Performance is measured by:

• the peer reviews rating received from team members
• CEO’s review of your work.
• contribution to organizational profit
• staff retention.

After a period of time, the sales team was given the opportunity to provide feedback on the sale’s manager’s performance. Many team members mentioned the manager’s abrupt manner which left them unsure of their standing with him. The CEO was delighted that most activities scheduled by the sales manager were completed within budget and on time. No additional costs were incurred in the personal and professional development of staff. However, there were still too many customer complaints and the CEO was concerned that the sales manager’s organizational skills needed improvement to successfully prioritize tasks and decrease customer complaints by another 20%. The CEO requested that the sales manager address his own personal and professional development and then follow up in 4 weeks to discuss progress.

When prioritizing work, the customer is always put first.

Additional information specific to health and wellbeing of the sales team:

In addition to improving their own persona performance, the CEO has mentioned the following complaints from HR from sales team members:

• The sales representative has complained about headaches and stiff shoulders from increased computer work.
• The call centre rep has taken an unusually high number of sick days due to anxiety.
• The advertising staff is struggling to manage home and work commitments.

Strategic Plan 2020 – 2022

Welcome

Welcome to the Strategic Plan for Worlducation.

This document sets out our vision for the next two years and how we hope to achieve it.

We hope you enjoy reading this document.

Lucas Lopez

CEO Worlducation

Executive Summary

Founded in 2016, Worlducation is a social startup that manufactures tablet computers for primary school students. Our focus is not only on the hardware, but also creating software, content and activities to better engage and educate primary school students.

Worlducation aims to change the way children learn at school by implementing artificial intelligence technology that can follow up on each child’s progress and adjust to their needs as they learn, creating the optimal path learning experience. Worlducation envisions a world in which every child learns how to read and write – a world without illiteracy. This is why, for each classroom that buys our product, we donate and train a classroom somewhere around the world that can’t afford the same technology. We then connect the classrooms together so that they can grow and collaborate throughout their learning cycle.

Vision Statement

To see a world without illiteracy.

Mission Statement

To be the change and facilitate a world without illiteracy by changing the way children learn at school and the number of schools that have access to technology.

Our values are:

Core values underpinning our activities are:

• Ethical principles
• Innovation
• Collaboration

Strategic Priorities

To be well led, high performing, profitable and accountable.

• Ensure that all financial operations, performance indicators and results support the strategic policies
• Identify new and expand existing sources of revenue and ways to help more classrooms in need.
• Achieve profits of at least 10% per annum

Increase our reach

• Increase range of products and services offered to reach a larger target market
• Increase sales to increase donations to needy classrooms.

Continue building deeper customer relationships

• Customer-centred practice, with a focus on meeting their total needs for high-quality technology
• Strengthen the skills of our people, to better support customers
• Drive innovation to better meet customer demands

Attract, engage and develop the best staff

• Continuing the drive to a customer centred, high performance workforce and culture
• Strengthening the skills of our people, to better support customer needs
• Empowering innovation and responsiveness to change
• Continuing to enhance the diversity of our workforce
• Exploring the use of technology in human resources.

The Market

The technology market is a growing and ever-changing industry due to the rapid rate that technology is being updated. Emerging technologies include artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IOT).

There is an increasing focus on cyber security.

Due to the global pandemic, the issues with the manufacturing industry have impacted on the supply of hardware components.

The trend for consumer spending during the pandemic has taken a downturn but this has not affected the ICT industry as due to more people working form home, consumer appetite for tablets has increased

Situation Analysis

Employee Training and Development Policy and Procedures

Policy brief & purpose

This policy refers to Worlducation’s learning and development programs and activities for all staff members. Worlducation aims to help employees extend their knowledge and acquire new skills to do their jobs better. We want our employees to feel confident to find new ways towards personal development and success.

Scope

This policy applies to all permanent, full-time or part-time, employees of the company. Employees with temporary/short-term contracts might attend trainings at their manager’s discretion. Employees, managers and executives should collaborate to build a continuous professional development (CPD) culture:

• The employee is responsible to seek new learning opportunities
• The manager is responsible to coach their teams and identify employee development needs

Training and development includes:

• Formal training sessions (individual or corporate)
• Employee Coaching and Mentoring
• Participating in conferences
• On-the-job training (e.g. simulations)
• Employee discussion forums
• Job shadowing
• Job rotation
• Subscriptions or educational material

Individual training programs

All employees that have worked for the company more than four months are eligible to participate in external training programs individually or in teams.

Employees can choose to attend as many training programs as they want, provided they don’t exceed the budget and day limit.

All trainings should consider what employees need and how they can learn best. This is why, we encourage employees and managers to consider multiple training methods like workshops, e learning, lectures and more.

Individuals are to complete individual personal and professional development plans using the Worlducation Development Plan template.

Expert training

Experts (internal or external) may be required at certain times, for example:

• Equal employment opportunity training
• Diversity training
• Leadership training for managers
• onflict resolution training for employees
• raining new employees
• raining teams in company-related issues (e.g. new systems or policy changes)
• raining employees to prepare them for promotions, transfers or new responsibilities

other types of training

Both employees and their managers are responsible for continuous learning. Employees should show illingness to improve by asking their managers for direction and advice. Managers should do the ame with their own superiors, while encouraging and mentoring their subordinates. Employees and managers are responsible for finding the best ways to approach learning. They can Experiment with job rotation, job shadowing and other types of on-the-job training (without disrupting aily operations). We also encourage employees to use their rights for self-paced learning by asking or educational material and access to other resources within allocated budget.

General guidelines:

Managers should evaluate the success of training efforts. They should keep records for reference and etter improvement opportunities.

All employee development efforts should respect cost and time limitations, as well as individual and Business needs.

Employees should try to make the most out of their trainings by studying and finding ways to apply Knowledge to their work.

Internal Communication Policy and Procedures

Worlducation aims to enhance and streamline communications (internal and external) to reinforce the Vision and strategic priorities. As such, we will continue to develop and trial new communication Platforms, channels, and tools to improve information sharing and collaboration between all staff embers.

This policy is to be implemented in a way that ensures compliance with relevant legislative requirements and standards of best practice.

Worlducation expects that staff will use the channels and for business purposes only and comply with ll relevant policies and procedures, the Code of Conduct.

Communication channels

Worlducation has a number of internal communication channels available, including :

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