Furniture Bank's stakeholder relationships and organizational objectives

¶ … Furniture Bank

Over the past few years Furniture Bank has differentiated itself from other charity organization through its commitment to industry innovation which has made it one of Canadian most famous organization (Peter & Donnelly, 2006). The marketing abilities of the Organization have enabled it to compensate for its initial otherwise tight financial circumstances to establish an excess cash record over few years of operation whose main sources were; donations from the government and other corporate entities (Slack et al., 2010). The main vision of the Furniture Bank Organization includes constant achievement of operational excellence, conducting business in a safe environmentally sustainable and economically optimum way and manufacturing and supplying furniture and other households as well as services that ensure customer satisfaction in as far as their needs are concerned (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2009). The Organization also has a few objectives that include realization of potential of their staff, maximum delivery of community needs, safeguarding asset integrity and benefiting shareholders (Peter & Donnelly, 2006).

Furniture Bank Organization believes that community needs such furniture and other households will be an integral part of the global economic developments in future and therefore their role includes ensuring that they extract and deliver them beneficially and in environmentally as well as socially responsible manner (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2009). The organization has charged itself with the sole responsibility of working closely with their partners/stakeholders, policymakers and the community as a means of advancing more efficient and sustainable use of natural energy resources (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2009). Perhaps one of the most important relationships that Furniture Bank organization has is that of its stakeholders. A stakeholder can be referred to as a person who has developed interest in what a business does or an influence upon the said business (Peter & Donnelly, 2006).

ESSAY

Diagnosis

It is quite common to observe the fact that majority of large organizations have numerous different stakeholder groups whereby while some are internal to the business such as the employees, others are external to the business for instance the government (Peter & Donnelly, 2006). Furniture Bank key aims include participating in the search for and development of other sources of Households and Furniture's as a way of trying to meet the ever-changing community needs and the ever growing demand for households (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2009). The organization also aims at engaging responsibly, non-profitably and efficiently in fundraising, finance, risk and governance (Peter & Donnelly, 2006). That is why it is of great importance to the organization to identify as well as balance the expectations and needs of their internal and external stakeholders while behaving responsibly in view of all of them as a way of avoiding conflict and ensuring the organization is as successful as possible, keeping its license to operate (Peter & Donnelly, 2006).

Being one of the world's largest and non-profitable national organizations in Canada, Furniture bank serves an approximate 30 to 40 clients in a month; Provides furniture to those living in permanent homes in partnership with the street homes service providers (Slack et al., 2010) Additionally, the organization increase acquisition of furniture through acquisitions business programs that ensure increase in corporate donations and expand in house donors. It is however unfortunate that due to a growing world population and higher living standards household items demand is rapidly on the increase which means that there is more demand not only for gas and oil but also for other sources of energy (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2009). Furniture Bank has found itself faced with the enormous problem of helping meet the needs of the present as well as future generations while developing as little negative impact as possible to the community (Peter & Donnelly, 2006). Just like any major Organization, Furniture Bank its share of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Weaknesses

Furniture Bank Organization is also faced with a number of weaknesses or challenges for instance difficulty in developing Furniture supplies given the fact that overall world demand in terms of Furniture and household items demand has rapidly increased in the recent past (Peter & Donnelly, 2006). Technological advances are another weakness for the Organization as it may take them a long time to update its system with the new technology given that it is a large organization. Changing needs of customers are also putting a lot of pressure on the Organization's management to come up with easier and quicker means of meeting these demands and ensuring community satisfaction (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2009). With new and upcoming businesses aiming towards being the best in terms of charity organizations, organizations such as Furniture Bank Organization are faced with increasing competition in gaining access to potential Donors (Peter & Donnelly, 2006).

Opportunities

Despite it being one of the weaknesses of the Organization, increased demand in Furniture and household items demand is an opportunity for Furniture Bank Organization as it will provide them with an opportunity of making huge service in delivery chains as well as downstream infrastructure (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2009). The Organization also has an opportunity of developing new resources in conditions considered more difficult or from unconventional resources in order to be able to keep up with the ever-changing community demands for furniture and household items (Peter & Donnelly, 2006). The Organization will have to consider training their already existing staff on skills needed to keep up with the pressure from their rapidly transforming business environment to ensure smooth running of the processes at the heart of the project management (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2009). Furniture Bank Organization is now in a position to become more innovative as a way of meeting their operational challenges and Organization weaknesses. Tools such as new products and new ways of working will need to be developed to ensure delivery of products to customers and catering to their needs and preferences (Peter & Donnelly, 2006).

Threats

Perhaps one of the major threats that Furniture Bank Organization faces is that of shareholder conflicts. Considering the fact that the Organization deals with a wide range of shareholders who include employees and the general public, conflicts are bound to come up at one point or another due to concerns about their investment and return competitive with those of other organizations also leading in the this industry (Peter & Donnelly, 2006). Another threat that the Organization faces is that of the local communities that tend to live on the streets and may raise concerns over their safety and health (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2009). Individuals and organizations who are in positions of influence such as government, business leaders, NGOs, financial community and academics make decisions and form opinions that may tend to affect the Organization (Peter & Donnelly, 2006).

Project Planning and Control

Slack, chambers and Johnston (2007) identifies a guideline of any project planning and control by, first defining the project at hand, the process to be involved in the project planning process, project control mechanism and techniques and the resources to be used in the project planning process. Since the main project is to redistribute donated furniture's and households, the organization has proceeded by outlining that the reasons it deems relevant for the pursuit of the Furniture's and households.

Quality planning and control

Quality cannot be ignored at all cost by any business organization. Although quality has always been viewed as a customer's perception, an organization like Furniture Bank cannot ignore such, for reasons such as achieving a good bottom line. For Furniture Bank organization, defining quality is least of their worries since they have already researched their target market. However, the company has used a user-based approach in defining quality. This approach edifies the viability of the furniture's in regard to a market research that established that most of the clients prefers a furniture / household that is cheap to maintain and not expensive at the same time

Proposed changes to Leadership

One of the key proposed changes to leadership in Furniture Bank Organization is inclusion of a pressure group having individuals with specific interests and goals which try to influence major decision makers like businesses and governments while raising public awareness about issues (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2009). With such pressure groups, the Organization is in a better position to talk on a regular basis about how best to dispose of old oil rigs to reduce damage to the environment (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2009). Changes to leadership for a large Organisation as Furniture are considered fragile and is only permanent if it is founded in a cultural transformation (Peter & Donnelly, 2006). Given the fact that Furniture Bank Organization has branches all over the world, leadership changes should be strategized in a manner as to cater for the needs and satisfaction of both the employees and customers who are served by the Organization.

In an era where great advances are taking place in terms of technology and modernization majority of large companies have realized that they need to come up with effective strategies of planning and organization for their companies so as to keep up with the current trends of the ever changing business environment (Peter & Donnelly, 2006). This requires leaders of organizations and large companies such as Furniture to quickly create new leadership proficiencies which may require new leadership styles and attitudes (Ahlstrom & Bruton, 2009). Such Organization leaders do not have time to sit through leadership training courses and it has therefore been proposed that they enroll in leadership coaching where they can be coached individually for their own growth (Peter & Donnelly, 2006). In this way, they can be able to attain maturity level as business leaders who can be in a better position to profoundly impact the transformations required in their organizations.

CONCLUSION

Furniture Bank Organization believes that it is important to protect the investments of its shareholders and if it is able to balance the needs of stakeholder groups then it will be able to continue in existence and growth (Slack et al., 2010). It is also important to maintain constant communication with the Organization's clients, employees, suppliers, shareholders and the society in general in order to not only be informed of their needs but also be in a better position of satisfying them and ensuring their organization's future success.