Essay on Creative Problem Solving for Managers

The vet clinic owned by David and Ben Walker attempts to develop its business successfully but owners face a bunch of problems. However, the resolution of problems the owners of the vet clinic face can contribute to the fast and successful business development. In actuality, the resolution of each specific problem can help the company to solve other problems. for instance, the resolution of the poor company-customer relationships management can help to improve the overall quality of the vet clinic management. Therefore, the owners of the company should identify clearly the problems and tackle them.

The following figure shows the current problems of the clinic:

Problems David and Ben Walker are facing are complex and needs effective solutions. The major problems include the following: the effective management of the vet clinic; the maintenance of the facility; the promotion of the clinic’s services; the development of the supply chain; the improvement of the company-customer relationship management; the employment of well-qualified professionals and their regular training; the employment of advanced methods of pet treatment; the introduction of new technologies and equipment; the expansion of the facility to provide customers with the possibility of leaving their pets in the clinic; outpacing rivals of the company. These problems need solutions. Otherwise the vet clinic run by David and Ben Walker may deteriorate its performance consistently and lose its competitive position and market share.

The effective management of the vet clinic is one of the major challenges David and Ben are currently facing. The problem of the low effectiveness of the clinic management provokes the poor performance of the clinic and a bunch of problems related to the company-customer relationships. At the same time, the poor clinic management is the result of other problems, such as the poor promotion or the qualification of employees’ that does not meet customers’ expectations.

In this regard, the company should improve the management of the clinic through the introduction of new, effective approaches to the management. Ben and David should motivate their employees to work better and to obtain training through financial motivation and positive feedback. In addition, they should develop the transformational leadership style to support their employees and to help them perform their functions successfully.

Another problem the company is facing is the maintenance of the facility since the vet clinic needs substantial costs and efforts to maintain facilities. The maintenance of the facility is very important to provide customers of the company with services of the high quality. However, the maintenance of the facility needs additional costs being spent on the regular cleaning and disinfection of the facility to keep pets healthy and protected from infections. In this regard, the company can outsource cleaning services and focus on the maintenance of the facility’s water supply. The company may introduce alternative sources of energy to supply the facility with electricity. In spite of high costs of the development of alternative sources of energy, the company can benefit in a long-run.

The promotion of the clinic’s services is another problem because the company suffers from the low effectiveness of the promotion. In this regard, the company should focus on the target audience specifically. To put it more precisely, the company focuses on local customers. Therefore, the company should use local mass media to promote its services. In this regard, leaflets may be quite efficient since they do not need substantial costs but are effective enough since customers can call in the company any time they need, if they have the leaflet with contact information and the list of services of the company.

The development of the supply chain is another challenge that affects the effectiveness of the company’s management. The irregular supply is a serious problem for the company. To tackle this problem successfully, the company should find alternative suppliers, who can supply products the company needs, if the main supplier fails to deliver those products in time or in the required quantity.

The improvement of the company-customer relationship management is also an important problem that affects the overall effectiveness of the management of the company. Positive company-customer relationships are crucial for the successful business development of the company. The company can improve its relationships with customers through the development of the customer loyalty program. For instance, loyal customers will receive discounts for services provided by the company. Also the company may provide free consultations for its customers. In such a way, customers can just call to the company and ask for information they need, but if their pets need treatment, they can attend the clinic any time they like.

Furthermore, the employment of well-qualified professionals and their regular training is crucial for the successful business development of the company but, at the moment, the company fails to provide the regular training for its employees, while their qualification is lower than customers expect. Hence, the company should invest in training to raise the professional level of its employees and develop the knowledge sharing management strategy, which helps the company to save costs on training since employees share their knowledge and skills, while working together.

The employment of advanced methods of pet treatment is a problem for the company at the moment because employees need additional training to implement advanced methods of pet treatment. Hence, the training course will help to solve this problem too. In addition, the company should encourage employees to keep developing their professional skills and knowledge.

Another problem the company is facing is the introduction of new technologies and equipment. The company needs substantial financial resources to introduce new technologies and equipment. Owners of the company prefer saving costs on such innovations but they should stop this practice because, in a long run, this strategy will put the company into a disadvantageous competitive position. Instead, the company should raise funds to invest into new technologies and equipment and after that the company will be able to attract more customers.

The expansion of the facility to provide customers with the possibility of leaving their pets in the clinic is a challenge for the company because of the high costs of such expansion. However, the company can conduct the expansion steadily. The company just needs to create the accurate plan of expansion and implement it in the course of several years.

Finally, outpacing rivals of the company is a difficult but solvable problem because the company needs to invest into the training of employees, introduction of new technologies, implement new methods of treatment and improve company-customer relationships. In such a way, the company will improve its competitive position. More important, the resolution of the aforementioned problems will improve the effectiveness of the company’s management.