ASSESMENT ITEM

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Reeshap Sharma n10227814
Reeshap Sharma BSB115 n10227814

Executive Summary
The technology orientated company Microsystems, designs and manufactures items for the
market of telecommunications. In the last 10-20 years there has been a rapid change in the
world of business, this change has been seen most prominently in the fields of automation,
information technology, and the changing to new more updated management theories such
as that of decentralisation. The company has been able to maintain an unremarkably high
CAGR since its humble beginnings in the 1990’s with little to no organisational changes in
response to the recent shifts in the world of business.
There are two explicit changes which may be recommended to the company to thrive in this
new business climate. First being the adoption of a bottom up organisational structure, which
would prompt new organisational culture and also increase communication within the
company. Secondly the company may opt for automation in factories to further increase
productivity and efficiency while eliminating the need to pay wages to factory workers.

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1 Introduction
In this modern-day, businesses must constantly adapt to change in order to stay relevant and reach
their full potential. To an extent the technology company and their Microsystems have not been able
to effectively change their organisation structures to cope with the ever-changing standards since the
1990’s. As seen in the organisational profile the number of employees have increased over time since
the 1990’s and they have managed to maintain the same centralised structure for multiple years with
no need to opt for automation within the company.

Microsystems are currently considering if they should make any organisational changes in the
company to improve productivity. Even though they have maintained an annual growth rate of more
than 15% in the last decade. However, they are yet to realise that their potential for growth may be
much higher but also that their failure to make changes in certain time frames may eventually lead to
their own financial failure.

It has been stated before that of the four managerial functions which are
planning, organizing, leading, and controlling ((Study.com, 2018) ). It has been said that
organisation and planning have the most impact and they are the most vital when actively trying to
change the organisational structure of a business. This is because planning is used when trying to
evaluate and make decisions/ goal setting, on the other hand the organising part is vital for the
allocation of resources and to help keep everyone on track to ensure all goals/tasks are completed.

2 Framing the Issue

2.1 Microsystems has been stable for a very long time
Even since the 1990’s the business has been able to maintain at minimum a 15% corporate
annual growth rate to current times with no change to the company’s organisational
structure. The issue of Microsystems consistent lack of drive and action to change is most
probably since they are not able to identify any reason to change due to the consistent
growth. Their unchanged practices from the 1990’s have not seen any financial failure
therefore they are reluctant to change any aspect of the business as they are in a “safe”
position thus depriving them of being able to utilise their advantageous position to further the
company.

2.2 The economics of Microsystem’s success

With consideration to the economic factors Microsystems utilisation of labourers in factories
is impressive while under the constant pressure of change due to automation. By doing so
the company has not seen a need to restructure their organisation to make way for

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automation. While being a designer and manufacturer of cellular communications

technology, microsystems have without a doubt been able to capitalise on the increasing
need and adoption of cellular technology in the emerging market for countries such as India.
[ CITATION Int15 \l 3081 ]. [ CITATION Pra10 \l 3081 ] Even with their lack of action towards
change, Microsystem has still maintained an unremarkably impressive CAGR over the
years.

2.3 Why planning and organising is vital for Microsystems

Planning and organisation are the most vital function of the four managerial functions when
considering change to an organisation structure. An organisational structure is defined
around the basis of planning and an organised concept, the nature of planning is to be
utilised in decision making and goal settings which go hand in hand when trying to consider
which organisational structure will meet the demands of the business. While organising will
aid in the reallocation and allocation of the businesses resources thus ensuring that the
restructure runs smoothly and achieves all set out goals/tasks. However, it is not without
saying that planning and organising Microsystems which were performed within the business
in the 1990’s still produces the maximised results in compliance with terms of meeting their
pre-determined organisational goals. Any altering to these goals may spark the need of
change within the organisational structure which would call up for a well-coordinated and
deeply thought out planning and organising process.

Microsystem’s failure to address the issue has not negatively affected them, but with ever
changing markets they may be setting themselves up for failure. For example, Borders was
a profitable business showcasing the highest annual gross profit of any book store however
they chose not to tap into digital books (eBooks) markets. This was their demise as by the
time they had realised their mistake it was too late as the market was controlled by their
competitors such as kindle. After not using their advantageous position towards an
investment such as eBooks the company filed for bankruptcy in late 2011. Microsystems has
yet to suffer from the same mistake however is currently in an advantageous position where
if they do no choose to change it may also lead to their financial failure.

3. Addressing the Issue

The company has experience unremarkably great stability within their last decade with a
CAGR of at least 15%. Their utilisation of a traditional structure with a hierarchy and chain of
command frequently referred to as top down driver shows striking resemblance to a
bureaucratic structure. As seen in the previous example the business should not continue

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with the false assumption that they will proceed in the future with the same growth and profit
with little to no change to the business. It is suggested that Microsystem do indeed take
some risks and make certain organisational changes to be better prepared for any
unexpected challenges.

3.1 Strategic Planning for a Flat Structure

Through proper strategic planning a business will be able to analyse and understand the
direction they would like to proceed and how they can structure the organisation accordingly
[ CITATION Car13 \l 3081 ]. In the modern day many businesses strive to “flatten” their
organisation structures, the flat structure has become increasingly popular as it prompts
organisational culture (tends to increase motivation within workers) and increasing
communication therefore tasks become employee driven rather than being assigned to.
Currently Microsystems uses a very standard “top down driven” structure with slight
adjustment. As stated they have made alterations so that “all voices are heard”. By this it can
be seen that Microsystems intend to strive towards increased communication within the
organisation. This is a straight path towards the replacing of their current top, down structure
with a newer bottom to up structure which would give employees power in decision due to
the increased communication between everyone. As Microsystems is a technology based
company there is a lot they may achieve/ gain by adoption of a flatter structure, by adopting
a flatter structure they would increase the amount of communication between the companies
engineers and everyone else. With increased communication would come increasing
freedom when completing tasks and undertaking of their own solo projects which could
result in innovation which the company may capitalise off.

3.2 Organising Automation

An organisational change would occur within Microsystem if they were to lose a certain
branch of the company. There are a multitude of benefits if Microsystem were to opt into
replacing their manufacturing workers with robots, management would need to oversee a
smaller number of labourers and therefore managing the organisation would become a less

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complicated task. At the same point productivity would massively increase as machine are
far more effective and efficient than humans and therefore the business would save money
and would have the option to reallocate financial resources into other sectors such as R&D,
advertising, factories and many more this is directly correlated to the recent saving in wages
they would incur due to the smaller number of workers. For example, a company named
Changying Precision Technology decide to replace their 650 factory workers with 60
machines, after which they saw production rise by 250% and production defects decrease by
80%. [ CITATION Mih17 \l 3081 ]

4.0 Conclusion
Microsystems best route to is to implement automation into the manufacturing process
resulting in a massive increase in productivity and a massive decrease in expenses with
both in turn bring in higher profit margins. Microsystems would have the opportunity to make
more investments due to the recently free cash which may and most likely will lead to a even
larger increase in profits. Implementation of a bottom up structure will show potential to yield
an array of benefits. As discussed prior Borders refusal and lack of understanding which led
to them never changing their model to deal with the ever changing market led to their
bankruptcy and closure so with that taken into consideration Microsystems has shown much
higher growth without the need automation. So, it is only just to think that with automation
the possibilities for microsystems may become limitless and their potential for growth
endless.

5.0 Recommendations
Recommendation 1: The company should look towards implementing a bottom up structure
which would lead to an increase in both motivation and communication of all employees with
an emphasis on innovation.

Recommendation 2: Microsystem should also look to implement automation into the core of
the company’s manufacturing division to increase its productivity and allow the reallocation
of financial resources to other ideas.

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6.0 References:

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Available at: http://authorearnings.com/report/print-vs-digital-report/
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hierarchy/&refURL=https://www.google.com.au/&referrer=https://www.googl
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Helpsystems.com. (2018). Automated Operations: 5 Benefits of Automation |
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benefits-your-organization [Accessed 22 May 2018].
Hillsberg, A. (2018). 8 Best Practices In Business Process Automation: How To
Bridge The Gap - Financesonline.com. [online] Financesonline.com. Available
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bridge-gap/ [Accessed 1 Jun. 2018].
Smallbusiness.chron.com. (2018). Flat Vs. Hierarchical Organizational Structure.
[online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/flat-vs-hierarchical-
organizational-structure-724.html [Accessed 1 Jun. 2018].
Study.com. (2018). Four Functions of Management: Planning, Organizing,
Leading & Controlling - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com. [online]
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management-planning-organizing-leading-controlling.html [Accessed 28 May
2018].