QEM 510 Quality Assurance

The Seven Management and Planning Tools

Case: The Creative Design Group

This case presents background information and various scenarios related to the strategic planning
of an organization. The purpose of the assignment is to utilize various management and planning
tools to determine strategies that will increase competitiveness by leveraging knowledge assets
and core competencies.

Part 1
The Creative Design Group (CDG) designs brochures for companies, trade groups, and
associations. Their emphasis on customer service is based on speed, quality, creativity, and
value. They want each brochure to “wow” the customer in its design, meet or exceed the
preparation deadline, and be of superior quality at a reasonable price. Value is emphasized over
price, because the president, Trendy Art, believes that CDG’s experienced staff should
emphasize high quality and creativity instead of price. They accomplish their primary objectives
97 percent of the time.
To carry out their objectives, the small company has four designers, a customer
service/estimator (CSE), and Trendy, who is the creative director and strategic visionary. The
work environment, in a converted garage behind Trendy’s house, features modern (though not
always state-of-the-art) computer hardware and software, excellent lighting, and modern
communications for sending design documents to clients and printers. Designers generally work
independently of each other, consulting with the CSE about requests for status updates or client-
initiated changes. They also consult with Trendy, who signs off on the creative design, after
consultation with each client. A casual dress code and work policies, and a number of perks for
workers, such as health insurance, flextime, generous vacation and sick leave benefits, a 401(k)
retirement plan, and competitive wages have, in the past, made it easy to attract and retain
talented people. However, with fewer talented people graduating from design schools in the area,
and more competitive firms bidding up salaries, turnover has become an issue.
The CSE, Green Ishied, is the contact point for all projects, which may number 10–20
active at any one time. He must ensure that projects are carefully estimated and prepare
proposals, track progress of each project, and communicate with clients on status and change
requests. He is also responsible for advertising and promotion of the firm.
Trendy’s husband, Hy, is a CPA and part-time accountant for the company. He noticed
recently that costs are increasing, the percentage of their bids accepted is decreasing, and the
ROI is slipping.

Part 1 Assignment:
1. (10 points) Develop an affinity diagram that captures the major organizational features
and issues.
2. (5 points) How could this diagram help Trendy develop a three- to five-year strategic
plan for CDG?

Part 2
Given the situation in Part 1, Trendy determined several long-range objectives, among which are
outdistancing the competition to grow the business by 10 percent per year for each of the next
five years (a 61 percent compound growth rate), and adding a new designer every two years.
These factors should be the key ingredients for her goal of increasing her profitability by 10
percent per year. To accomplish her objectives, she must deal with the two major issues of the
increasing competition and employee recruitment and retention in order to develop effective
action plans to support her long-range plan.

Part 2 Assignment:
1. (10 points) Develop a tree diagram, starting with “Develop action plans” as the main
theme. At the next level, include the two main issues. One, for example is, “Develop a
plan to meet competition.” Then break out each of the issues into two or three feasible
proposals, such as “Make advertising more effective,” under the previous item of
“Develop a plan to meet competition.” Finally, add another level of specificity with two
to four items, such as: “Place ads in business newspaper,” “Redesign Web page,” and so
on, under the “Make advertising more effective” item.
Part 3
Using the results of Parts 1 and 2 of the case, Trendy Art decided that, along with improving her
recruiting processes for new and replacement hiring, it was time to replace the computer system
with state-of-the-art hardware and software. Knowing that no one at CDG had the expertise to
design the type of system that they needed, Trendy looked around, analyzed three competing
firms’ proposals, and finally settled on Creative Computer Group (CCG) to act as consultants
and system integrators. Before signing the contract, Trendy decided to ask Hy and Green Ishied
(the CSE) to meet with her and the CEO of CCG to clarify the system design requirements and
the wording of the contract.
Trendy, Hy, and Green all agreed that the system needed to be completely integrated,
with the capability to gather cost and scheduling data directly from the designers, and to produce
all necessary business reports, as well as having graphics capability. Both cost and design
information would have to be available to everyone in the firm. Therefore, the network should be
capable of interfacing both Macintosh and PC desktops via USB connections, with common
printers. It should also provide for high bandwidth Internet access and capability to send and
receive graphic and text data files. Charlie Nerd, the president of CCG, said that all of those
requirements could be met by the system that he would design. Because it was such an important
project for his company, he would personally be the project manager for the installation and
testing of the new system. After outlining the plans for the system, Charlie asked if they had any
questions. Trendy, Hy, and Green had no immediate questions, but promised to get back to
Charlie with a few within three days.

Part 3 Assignment:
1. (10 points) Given the following information, perform a matrix data analysis to determine
if CCG should get the contract to install the computer system.
2. (5 points) Justify your analysis. What questions would you suggest that Trendy, Hy, and
Green get back to Charlie on?
3. (10 points) Construct a process decision program chart, but closely reflecting CCG’s
training needs.
4. (5 points) What special considerations would need to be included in training graphic
designers with little business knowledge and business-oriented people (such as Hy and
Green) with little artistic design knowledge, about each other’s areas of work to use an
integrated system?