Professional Documents
Culture Documents
COURSE: MGT4050 A
PRESENTED BY:
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Table of Content
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Table of Contents.................................................................................................................3
(i) Breakdown of tasks.........................................................................................................4
(ii) Time frame.....................................................................................................................4
(iii) Issues encountered and Resolutions.............................................................................5
1.0 Introduction..............................................................................................................6
1.1 Background of the company....................................................................................6
1.2 Board of Directors (Management Team).................................................................6
1.3 Nature of Business...................................................................................................6
1.4 Primary Objective and Vision..................................................................................7
1.4.1 Mission................................................................................................................7
1.4.2 Departments.........................................................................................................7
2.0 Analysis of the twelve Principles of Total Quality..................................................8
2.1 Leadership................................................................................................................8
2.2 Quality First.............................................................................................................8
2.3 Customer Focus and Satisfaction.............................................................................9
2.4 Measurement Quality Function Deployment...........................................................9
2.5 Benchmarking........................................................................................................10
2.6 Stakeholder Symmetry...........................................................................................10
2.7 Empowerment........................................................................................................12
2.8 Teamwork Synergy................................................................................................12
2.9 Supplier Partnership...............................................................................................13
2.10 Measurement......................................................................................................14
2.11 Continuous Improvement..................................................................................15
2.12 Corporate Culture Power...................................................................................15
3.0 Conclusions............................................................................................................16
4.0 References..............................................................................................................17
5.0 Appendix 1 Questionnaire.....................................................................................18
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(i) Breakdown of tasks
Each member of the group was assigned a topic to go and research on and
formulate questions on as shown below:
Leadership – John
Quality First – Johnathan
Customer Focus and Satisfaction – Sheila
Quality Function Deployment – Matafu
Benchmarking – Victor
Stakeholder Symmetry – Caroline Ang’anya
Empowerment – David
Teamwork Synergy – Herbert
Supplier Partnership – Asha
Measurement – Lee
Continuos Improvement – Caroline Nduku
Corporate Culture Power – Joan (was to make contact with the
representative for Subaru Kenya, organize a convinient time to meet them
and carry out the interview).
1st week
Gathered general information about Subaru- where it’s located, management
structure, when it came to Kenya etc
2nd week
Formulated questions that were relevant to the 12 Principles, came up with
26 questions but had to reduce them, as most of them were co-related, so a
not to take up too much time of the interviewee considering we were a team
of 12 members and he too had other businesses to attend to.
3rd week
The questions were discussed and then forwarded to Joan who was to meet
with the Sales & Marketing Manager of Subaru and put forward the
questions the team had formulated.
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- Compiling the whole project to include the Q&A session, tasks undertaken
individually and collectively, and the time frame of each step.
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1.0 Introduction
Currently the company has the following models in its stable available
locally; Impreza, Legacy, Outback, Forester and Tribeca in different engine
capacity, specifications and derivatives (station wagons and saloons). The
customer also has a choice of automatic or manual models.
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All Subaru vehicles are petrol powered (there are no diesel versions) as
Subaru believes in an environment friendly car with minimal emissions of
pollutants such as soot, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide amongst
others. The company has a large Show room and Sales office along
Mombasa Road and an up to date maintenance, service and motor inspection
center at the Main workshop and Offices along Athi River Road in the
industrial area both in Nairobi.
1.4.1 Mission
Subaru Kenya's mission can be defined as follows:
1.4.2 Departments
Subaru Kenya is divided into five sections, namely, New Cars Section,
Quality Used Cars Section, Parts and Service Section, Workshop Section and
the Administration.
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Subaru Kenya subscribes to and believes in the Total Quality Paradigm of
not waiting to work round the clock but to work in the clock of quality and
this demonstrated below in each practice.
2.1 Leadership
In Subaru Kenya the company’s cooperate structure is well defined and
reflects a pyramid structure with top management at the top encompassing
the director, general manager, heads of department , sales managers, parts
managers and the chief accountant.
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taken seriously. In fact in the employee handbook page 14 a section training
is included showing how much importance the company places on staff
development and improvement. This is so that the company at all times, all
levels maintain a certain standard in quality and hence provides the
framework and support for the same.
Also the company has not only introduced new products in the market e.g.
the Subaru Forester in early 2000’s and the Subaru Tribeca B9 in 2006 to
cater for a growing market segment demand, but also ensured to always keep
abreast with the rest of the world by availing new models of existing brands
such as the Legacy, Outback and Impreza as soon as humanly possible. This
is all fuelled by the companies need to keep on meeting customer requests
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and ensure customer satisfaction. This is especially true for the Tribeca.
Subaru Kenya also is rapidly expanding by investing in new markets in the
region such us Southern Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi etc to bring services
closer to the customer.
2.5 Benchmarking
Subaru Kenya uses all the six kinds of Benchmarking types as a tool to
improve its quality. A key tool used in this is KPI's developed by and for the
various departments and used to come up with measurable performance
numbers. By virtue of being local representatives of an international brand
Subaru Kenya develops its policies and products by getting info and product
support from the parent company. As such they do not use any company in
its industry for Best-In-Class or any other industry locally as they standards
set by Fuji Heavy Industries and by extension Subaru Japan are world class
and way beyond most local standards if not all. Fuji Heavy Industries have
ensured uniformity in standards and quality the world over and is the same
by which Subaru Kenya strives to achieve, attain and live by. The Company
functions such as marketing and new products development is based on what
has worked out in Japan and is simply adapted to suit the uniqueness of our
local market. Hence the company does not focus so much on creating its
own new products from scratch but improving or localizing what has already
worked elsewhere for the parent company. This allows the company to
perform better and always improve hence keeping the edge in the market.
The main benefits of benchmarking for Subaru Kenya include
Quality improvement in service, parts, customer relations etc
A strong foundation for customer service and satisfaction has been
laid and developed
Customer retention levels are high (currently above 70% from
about 40% a few years ago)
Every sale generates 3 to 4 other sales just from referrals due to
customer satisfaction
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Management Staff who are about 30 and Unionisable Employees who
account for the rest; Dealers Network who also function as Service Centers
such as Lotta in Mombasa, Rally Tech in Kisumu, Rift Valley Garage in
Nakuru, Esso Motors and Service Center in Nyanyuki, Kampala Motors who
are a subsidiary in Uganda and Oriel a subsidiary in Tanzania;
The main supplier is Fuji Heavy industries Japan (the owners of Subaru
Japan) while the subsidiary suppliers such us Corrington Ltd, Copy Cat Ltd,
Plastics and Rubber Ltd and Azad Auto Spares to mention a few; Customers
who are key partners in the Subaru family and all their satisfaction
paramount; Competitors, against whom the company can be judged in
venues such as motor shows and workshops so as to be able to be judged
against the rest; finally the Owners club who even if they did not purchase
from Subaru Kenya or its extensive network hence not directly a customer
still form a crucial part of the Subaru Family.
For Sexual Harassments complaints, that too is extensively dealt with in the
Employee handbook Section 6 titled Sexual Harassment Policy and
Procedures that define what is considered sexual harassment, what it is not
to avoid frivolous complaints and the steps to be taken on such complaints.
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Subaru Kenya does its best to ensure that the working conditions of all its
employees are adequate and allows employee complaints. This is through
suggestion boxes, open forums with HOD's where they listen to employee
concerns and allow for Ideas. The company also has a mandatory
requirement for all its HOD's to operate an open door policy to encourage
employee participation in setting the work environment.
To ensure equity, that is that all the stakeholder get their rewards according
to their contribution the company has rewards schemes such as employee of
the month to motivate the workers, bonuses for management staff, ESP, the
employee suggestion program which motivates employees to come up with
new ideas which they are rewarded in both monetary terms and/or
substantive terms e.g. issuance of phones, laptops, executive furniture or
some other tangible way. The company also uses feedback from its website
to reward its employees. As for the owners and directors, the greatest reward
they get is when the company's performance continues to improve hence
increased profitability and respectability, which translates to a greater
regional presence. For the customers and owners, the company improves on
service delivery and quality ensuring that they get the best possible deal at
all times.
2.7 Empowerment
In Subaru Kenya the company values the views and opinions of all
stakeholders and in particular the staff and employees. As such it has
developed a culture of participatory solution development where every
employee is considered a key part of the companies overall performance.
Since it is accepted that employee input is important the company operates
on a bottom to top format when it comes to solving organizational problems
and improving on general administration and relations. The management
tries as to put itself in the workers shoes and listen using tools such us
getting feedback at all levels including negative ones buy having forums for
discussions, the ESP program that motivates employees to come up with
local solutions and the open door policy that allows employees access to
management at all times.
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seen that the performance of each has a direct effect on the other e.g. if the
workshop is not meeting its key performance indicators on quality
measureable by no of repeat jobs and dissatisfied customers, the amount of
sales will go down due to the negative sentiments (the business is structured
and relies on customer based marketing where one sale to a new client
normally results in three to four other new sales with time hence losing a
customer will have the opposite effect).
Subsequently this translates to fewer parts being sold due to fewer vehicle
sales. Also feedback on the various teams performance does not necessarily
get back directly to the right team e.g. customers will give feedback on sales
to the parts team, parts to the workshop team and maintenance to the sales
team hence the need of the three teams to really communicate. To mitigate
this Subaru Kenya has a policy that requires the management and the
membership of the three teams to have sit-downs monthly to deal with any
arising maters and enable them to become more cohesive.
These support suppliers are all local and are selected after an extensive
process that includes requesting them to submit quotations and price lists of
what they are able to supply at times based on a tender and tendering
process, then the bidding companies profiles are examined to assets their
liquidity to give an indication of their financial capability, reliability in
meeting orders and their core clients to give an indication of the kind of
quality and level of work they undertake for comparison purposes. After
successfully passing all the stages is when a supply tender is awarded.
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followed by opening of accounts with the suppliers and terms of transactions
which would include things like terms of payment, Local Purchase Orders
(LPO's), credit lines and terms of credit such us credit limit, max no of days
before payment is due, interest payable, signatories etc are worked out and
agreed upon. This is because due to the principle of operating as a Family
Unit, Subaru Kenya endeavors to have long term relationships with its
suppliers and as such builds trust and solid links with them.
2.10 Measurement
Subaru Kenya understands that there can’t be any appraisals of any kind
without measurable aspects such as Key Performance Indicators (KPI's). As
such with the input of the various teams and departments, the company
develops these and from them come up with tangible and obtainable targets.
These are also periodically reviewed to ensure that they are relevant a
cognizant of the prevailing market and environmental conditions. For
example the KPI's for the Sales team after discussion at the end of last year
for the year 2009 were listed as
Target sales set by management 110 units=3.3 units per person by 3
staff.
Departmental internal sales target of 180 units=5 units per staff
New car preparation must be perfect - determined by no of returns and
warranty claims
Cash collection/credit control-minimized to a maximum of 45 days
and with reduced discount deals
No loss of category "A" prospects
Trade-in documentation and process completed before new vehicle
delivery
Finance documentation and cheque collection must be within 21 days
Feedback from customers must be all positive
These have been used to produce the following key actions for 2009
Aged Stock - Move to retail
Government business for volumes
Traditional business to achieve 110 units
Definition and understanding roles and responsibilities in departments
(setting of KPI's)
Sensible business practice (credit control/profitability/dept collection)
Monitor departments expenditure
Synergy of work with parts/service departments
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Constant review of market trends
Engagement of commission only salesmen
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improve on and maintain the quality of service the company offers.
Also the Corporate culture in Subaru Kenya has moved from being Profit
and Business focused to being customer focused. This is translated in
practical ways by having a business paradigm that requires the staff to get
into the customers shoes and understand the client’s needs not wants to be
able to meet those needs. It’s a vital and key thing for the company that they
understand and meet their client’s needs which they do by asking probing
questions and listening rather than the chatter box type of marketing and
interaction. Quality being important to the company, the company insists on
lean, sharp, focus and efficient staffing rather than wide, large inefficient
staffing. It is not the numbers that count but the quality of service that
matters.
3.0 Conclusions
Quality being a vital and important part of Subaru Kenya, a lot has been
done and continues to be done to enhance this. The company appreciates that
they have various systems and processes and quality has to be monitored in
all stages. These stages include Post PDI inspection for all imports, Quality
assessment inspection before delivery to Showroom and Parts/Workshop,
Pre delivery inspection after a sale or service. Also since the customer is
King in Subaru Kenya a lot of after sale products have been developed for
support. Also the employees and management go an extra mile to support
the clientele e.g. late hour rescues, offering to collect and return vehicles for
service, scheduled and unscheduled etc. The company also operates a 1 year
later review and contact of all customers to ensure they are still happy and
satisfied with the product they acquired. Also all customers are informed of
newer models as soon as they are available and a trade in facility is
available.
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4.0 References
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5.0 Appendix 1 Questionnaire
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15. What systems are in place to collect the short and long term needs
of the customer (Customer Voice)?
16.How do they counter competition to ensure a sustainable
competitive advantage?
17.How do they ensure that the needs of their Kenyan customers are
met since the company is an international company and has a
global customer base?
18.What customer care processes are in place to ensure that the final
product more than pleases the consumer (after sale services,
warranty etc)?
19.In what aspects do you as a company strive to improve?
20.How do you strive as an organization to ensure continuous
improvement?
21.What are the benefits of continuous improvements in Subaru
Kenya?
22.What is your leadership style?
23.What do you perceive to be quality in your organization?
24.What do you do to empower your employees to perform better at
their jobs?
25.How do your measure the quality of your products?
26.Does your organizational culture encourage team work among the
staff?
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