ELTU2012BQ Man Heather(1155109399)_Proposal

To: Ms. Anne Chan, Chief Finance Officer

Proposal to Cut Annual Expense for Jones & Jones
Prepared by Manager Trainee Team of Finance Department
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Purpose & Situation

The recent need to cut annual expenses for our company has been a heated topic among our
colleagues. The Manager Trainee team is well-aware of the problem and were in desperate
hope to look for the root of the financing problems of Jones & Jones. We have discovered
that our company have been recklessly spending money on advertising, yet the profit
generated in the past fiscal years failed to balance out our financial statements. Especially in
the previous year, the budget issued to the Sales & Marketing Department was $50,000,
unfortunately the final sum was a shocking $80,000. My team and I understand the need for
us to invest heavily in advertising, since our competitors are executing all kinds of
advertising projects with flying colours. Hence, we would humbly suggest reviewing and
trim the human resources expenses, as well as reducing the number of organizational layers
in our company. Below will be providing you with the in-depth information about how and
why we think it would be Jones & Jones’ way out and impress our stakeholders with a
remarkable P&L statement next year.

Objectives

With these two issues in mind, we are in good hope to reach the following targets by
implementing a six-month plan:

1) Cutting human resources expenses by 20%.

2) Reducing the number of organizational layers to 6, lowering our total operational
expense by 20%.
3) Generate a 10% growth in net income in the next fiscal year.

Operation Details

There is no doubt that the HR department have been allocating resources tactically to recruit
ideal candidates, at the same time organizing a wide spectrum of internal activities to build-
up colleagues’ sense of belonging to our firm. However, it is prevalent to us that there are a
number of unnecessary expenses used for these projects. For example, there were 10 career
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seminars and networking sessions held throughout the previous year, with a total attendance
of under 300 potential candidates. Our team were astonished to see the sum of venue
booking fee spent, proving the ineffectiveness of organizing that much events with low
participation rate.

On the other hand, the number of organizational layers in our company is the most complex
structure among in our industry. The average number is 6-7, while ours reach 8. As a
management consulting firm with clear objectives and relatively simpler product streamline,
there is no obvious need for us to have so much complexity in our work division.

Phase I
In the upcoming three months, our team would be conducting thorough analysis of each
proposal the HR department plans to submit and request them to provide us a year-round plan
of what activities they wish to organize, with the projected expense of the respective events.
We would then investigate the necessity of each event, whether they have acquired the best
price of venues and other related fees, and the expected outcome of the events. In that way,
we can enhance the overall performance of the HR team by reasonably cutting their cost, at
the same time increasing effectiveness of each event held. Our core values hint us that bigger
is not always the better, quality matters. To be in sync with our vision and mission, our
solutions are to be executed.

Phase II
After dealing with the HR expenses, the next three months would be time to collaborate with
all department in our company to find out which organizational layers turn out to be
redundant. One apparent suggestion would be to crop out the intern level, which used to be a
must-have in our tradition. Our corporate terms state that there must be an annual intake of 10
interns to bring in energy for our firm, at the same time injecting innovation and creativeness.
The problem is, in order to meet this quota, the HR team have been lowering their recruiting
standards and sometimes took in candidates that are not suitable for us. We have collected
opinions from various departments and they mostly agree on eradicating this rule, hoping to
bring our company back on the right track with people who are truly ready to commit. We
believe this is just one of the many findings, and we will relentlessly look out for more of
them.
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If our proposal got approved, our team would obtain full support from the managerial level
and can further dig into the existing problems in our firm that has just started to emerge on
the surface. The major reason we come up with this plan is because the aforementioned is not
mere imagination, but concrete problems that call for immediate action.

Financial Projection

We are proud to inform you that except for time, there will be no extra monetary cost for us
to carry out the plan, since all we need is careful investigation and accurate analyzations.
When we can help improve our company’s operation with zero cost, we are surely a good
example for other departments to rethink about their budget to meet the needs of our BODs.

Qualifications

As Manager Trainees in the Finance Department of Jones & Jones, we have received proper
training for three months and have started taking on projects individually. As far as we are
concerned, we have been successful in creating a better working environment by addressing
to problems previously undiscovered, and suggesting feasible, down-to-earth solutions.
Examples are the Procurement and I.T Standardization project, as well as the introduction of
new payroll systems to increase efficiency. As most of us are from an accounting
background, we are good with digits and are detail-minded enough to work with complicated
numerals. This project requires on-going statement analysis and budget reviewing, and we
are confident to take up the role.

We are truly thankful for your time and attention reading our proposal. Our team have gained
irreplaceable experiences working here at Jones & Jones. This is the perfect opportunity for
us to contribute once again, knowing that we are backed up by a perfect team of colleagues.
Birds of a feather flock together. We are here to propose our most sincere solutions.

(1012 Words)
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