1 What are the main issues facing Oxfam’s operations managers?

Before describing the main issues faces of operation managers I am going to mention some
points that I understood on the case study. Oxfam is one of major international organizations; its
aim is finding lasting solution to poverty and suffering around the world wide. Operations
managers are the committed people who have particular responsibility for managing some, or all,
of the resources which comprise the operations function. Oxfam is not-for-profit organizations
they use their resources to create and deliver services, not to make a profit, but to serve those
suffered society in some way. But it has the same issues as any other operation.
In such big organization, the role of theoperation manager is often involvesoverseeing the company's
strategic approach to its on-site operations. There are multiple challenges that operations
managers face on a daily basis; among those issues I will try to describe some as follow
In fact, managing operations in such large and worldwide organization has its own set of major
issues and challenges that operation manager’s face. One of major issues of Oxfam’s operation
managers challenge is clearly define and execute the organizations’ strategic objectives, design
appropriate processes that deliver appropriate services, assessing and adopting the environment,
plan and control those processes, and continually adapt and improve how they deliver their
services. Furthermore Oxfam’s operation managers have some particularly difficult challenges
because of their status as an emergency and disaster charity organization.
As case study explained Oxfam is Disaster relief charity organization: the organization uses
operations management to network of charity shops that is run by volunteers’ resources to
speedily provide the supplies and services that relieve community suffering. This is one of key
sources of income for the organization. So operation managers should arrange and facilitates the
volunteers to generate more income to support those disadvantaged community. This needs to
coordinate expertise’s globally: Oxfam’s Professionals located everywhereintheworld. The task of
organizing and coordinating this pool of potential help must be a major operations task. It
requires high managers skill and strategically relationship to maintain expertise and on the ability
to organize it.
As case study indicated Operation managers in such like organizations must provide globally
service to those disadvantaged groups; because, Oxfam’s scope of operations is international. In
my point of view this tasks faces the operation managers highly because, providing support service
globally highly requires the organizations ability to provide its support effectively. Therefore ability to

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adapt development methodologies to such circumstances would be a key operations task for the
operation managers.
An operational manager also faces by external as well as internally environmentally issues such
as natural environment, political, cultural, religions, customs and policies, procedures, employees
as well as community attitudes toward the organization. In such situations, Oxfam’s operation
managers should be able to adapt and learn the situations at the area that they are operated and
they must be able to advise their employees to adapt and to efficiently use the resources and help
that are needed and where they are needed. In order to support those disadvantaged community
Oxfam’s operation managers must be develop environmental awareness to get output from the
charity’s operations. They will engage in urging governments and non-governmental agencies to
achieve its aims of greater environmental sustainability.
Other big issue for Oxfam’s operation is being social responsible: this means they should adopt
key social responsibility principles, such as accountability and transparency, can help ensure the
long term viability and success of any organization or system. As indicated on case study
Oxfam’s operation managers challenged to make the decisions and activities on society and the
environment, through transparent and ethical behavior that:
Contributes to sustainable development, including health and the welfare of society for
those disadvantaged groups
They should compliance with applicable laws and consistent with international norms of
behavior.
It should be integrated throughout the organization and practiced in its relationships.
The organizations should being covered for the interest of those affected groups and acting
ethically with regard to the needs of the people in the concerned areas
They should treat people equally interims of opportunity development program,
distributions of justice, socially well-beings,
They should protect their employees across world against harmful practices at work like
harassment and discrimination.
Other issues Oxfam’s operation managers’ faces is managing and administering locally recruited
staff, work oversea b/c its employees located around 70 countries in the world. This requires high
ability to coordinate and direct as well as coach those employees. Therefore Oxfam’s operation
managers as well as its employees should tackle some of the particular issues that are occurred in

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their work areas and they should play their roles effectively to reconcile the organizations’
strategic goals successfully. So its success depends on how each local operation manager’s deal
with the issue at a day-to day level.
Ensuring sustainability is also other major issues for Oxfam’s operation managers: by definition
operational sustainability is a method of evaluating whether an organization can maintain
existing practices without putting future resources at risk. When discussing the concept of
sustainability, it is often referred to as the three pillars of sustainability which are social,
environmental, and economic. Operations managers must concern themselves with
the outcomes of each of the pillars including how their work affects safety, welfare,
communities, the environment and economic sustainability. Oxfam’s Operation managers are
tasked with creating long-term community and employee strategies that acknowledge the
organization's impact on the social, cultural and economic environment.Developing clear and
precise policies that encourage transparency are also part of the sustainability push. This can be a
particular challenge to operation managers in Oxfam international, because these work
environments tend to be more challenged and insular in different areas as well as different social
development situation. Creating a set of sustainable service practices impacts the organization's
relationship with its employees and needed communities.
Ethical issues also major challenges for Oxfam’s international operation managers: in today’s
complex and challenged environment the role ethics is essential in production as well as service
providing organization, weather public or private, business oriented or non-profit organization.
Ethics is meant to ensure that the production function and/or activities are not damaging to either
the consumer or the society. Oxfam should consider the effects new technologies, reliable
services, and service deals have on people, safety, and the environment.Unethical behavior has
significantly contributed to the demise of successful organization. Being ethical across all
Operation functions such as accounting, human resource management, marketing and sales, and
production are clearly within the purview of the operations manager. Unethical behavior,
regardless of its origin, becomes a stain on the company as a whole.

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2.1 From the above case, why is it so important that the Chief Executive
Officer really understands operations management?
Before elaborating major importance of operation managers understanding operation
management I will try to describe some points that are pointed on the case study. As I understood
the case study mentioned about two main CEO status that is successful CEOs and Failed CEOs
by comparing their activities to ward organizations success and their ability in creating and
implementing/executing/ strategic visions within the organization. As all we knew company’s
success is depending on the strategy matter, a good, clear strategy is necessary for success- but
not sufficient for survival. But one critical point for company’s success in competitive
environment is execution, decisiveness, follow-through, delivering on commitments.
In fact it is so important that the CEO really understand operations management b/c Operations
managers are responsible for managing human resources, assets and costs, technology,
competition, to develop and nurture strategic relationship with suppliers, customers and to run up
the business by focusing on a result. Operations managers also ensure that the organization can
compete effectively. Strategy is important because it maps how the organization will compete.
Other reason is that the company’s performance is highly depends on the experiences and the
abilities of CEO largely. In order to improve the company’s performance ability to respond to a
changing economy, digitalization, coping with competition and evolving customer demands
highly required from CEO. It is the CEO’s job to inspire their team with a vision and
simultaneously read the landscape to capitalize on emerging trends. While this is a necessary
condition, it is not sufficient. Therefore the operations manager must tap into their creative skills
as innovation will be a key factor of success as well as knowledge about international business
and the numerous cultures of the businesses around the globe.
One of biggest issues requires CEOs remains the ability to bridge the gap between strategy and
results. Aligning, energizing and enabling the organization to follow through on the strategic
road map are the crucial issues which determine the success or failure.
Operations managers are responsible for the design, and as in the above case, redesign of
processes. Through processes, we operationalize strategies (turn them into reality) and create and
deliver the product/ service offerings required. The operations manager’s role is vitally important
in integrating all the contributors into the design/redesign process.

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In order to successfully execute organizational strategic goal, to sustain companies with today’s
competitive world wide revolution in areas of economy, globalization and e-commerce, and
creating and maintaining satisfied customer through information technology everywhere and
deliver are getting pushed out quicker, achieving high performance, to put the right people in the
right jobs and fix people problems in time.Effective CEOs use process to drive decisions, not
delay them. They start by focusing on initiatives that are clear, specific, and few and they don’t
launch a new one until those in progress are embedded in the companies predetermined goal.
Effective CEOs implement them through a process that seems simple, even obvious, but has
profound effects.
CEOs in the modern era will be judged on their ability to understand, develop and utilize world-
class operations in a manner that creates advantage – in other words, to use strategic operations.
As I saw in this case, some CEOs can do so while others cannot. Therefore day-to-day tasks that
operations managers are responsible for have strategic consequences, because they are necessary
to how operations support the firm in its chosen markets. Some identified strategic imperatives
for each CEO are:
 Process choice – selecting the right approach to producing goods or delivering services
 Innovation – adapting or renewing the organization’s processes or outputs to adapt to
changes in the external environment
 Supply chain management – managing external relationships with suppliers so that inputs
are supplied effectively and efficiently
 Resource control – managing inventories
 Production control – managing processes effectively and efficiently
 Work organization – managing and organizing the operations workforce
 Customer satisfaction – managing quality.
Therefore understanding operation management helps CEOs to become the master executors, put
themselves squarely in charge of meeting their commitments and getting things done, and to
implement the company’s strategic goals and its visions successfully, to developing exactly the
right strategy that will enable a company to rocket past competitors. So having good
understanding of Operation management support CEOs to execute strategic operations in place is
the means by which strategy becomes operationalized.

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2.2 Why is it vital for operations and marketing to understand each other’s roles within the
firm?
Broadly, it is essential to understand operations and marketing roles for company’s success and
to become successful. Linking operations strategy to marketing strategy helps company to
improve its ability to introduce new products, adjust capacity rapidly, and customize products. It
enables organizations to respond effectively to changing circumstances, particularly, when
dealing with the turbulent environment that may be characterized by rapid changes such as short
and uncertain product life cycles, innovative process technologies, and customized products.
As we know the objectives of operations management is categorized in to customer services and
resource utilization. Former objectives operating system is to utilize resources for the satisfaction
of customer wants. Therefore customer service is a key objective of operation management. The
operating system must provide something to specification, which can satisfy the customer
interims of cost and timing. Later one concerned essentially with the utilization of resources, i.e.
obtaining maximum effect from resources or minimizing their loss, underutilization or waste.
Therefore based on this we can understand how marketing and operations connected and how
their roles are important for each other.
Operation and marketing is vital for each role within in the firms because both are interrelated
and consisted for each other to illustrate this:
 Operations delivers on the promises that market makes
 Operations deliver the value that marketing figuring out what customer’s values, telling
them they can have it and how to get it.
 Marketing cannot reap benefits without a “quality” product and efficiency.
 Marketing understands “what customers want” and passes on to operations which in turn
translate those requirements in “product package” and supplies to the market.
 Marketing takes care of functions like pricing, Advertizing, Establishing and maintaining
the distribution network, bringing in customers, sales forecast…while operations take
inputs projected sales and price of the product and then plan their production,
procurement, automation, labor requirement, logistics etc..
Operations and marketing functions are integrated, and then the purpose of addressing the
relationships between marketing and operations functions on the one hand is to achieve firm’s
goals. Marketing and operations enables success because it achieves greater consistency,

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efficiency and effectiveness by automating and integrating marketing processes and workflows.
Marketing evolved as a way to help companies be more transparent, efficient, competitive,
profitable, and accountable.
In addition to this firms can use them as cores for competitive advantages: for firms marketing
influences competitiveness by
 Identifying consumer wants and/or needs
 Price and quality are key factors in consumer buying decisions
 Advertising and promotion
 Volume of production needed to meet anticipated market needs
 Anticipated changes in production of other products
 Packaging needs.
 Size of market
And Operations has a major influence firm’s competitiveness through:
 Product and service design- innovation and the time-to-market for new products and
services.
 Cost of an organization’s output is a key variable that affects pricing decisions and
profits.
 Productivity
 Location can be important in terms of cost and convenience for customers.
 Quality refers to materials, workmanship, design, and service.
There for marketing and operations plays vital roles in firms by working together plays a key
role in brand building, value spreading and firms culture communication, so does it connect a
brand with target customers to make the firm more perceivable and credible. As a result good
marketing and operation strategy gives companies a competitive advantage, if they can make
decisions based on accurate and clear historical data. Thus marketing and operations are
interrelated functions in which planning the capacity is aimed at meeting market requirements.

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2.3 Why is there still conflict between business and operations strategies?
In order to achieve the organizations goal and objectives: there must be a well-planned and
defined action plan for improvement that is being consistently and constantly well-executed. The
symptoms can vary but, in essence, well-defined and agreed-upon business goals, operational
objectives, action plans and performance measures.
As a result, some function in the company are often dramatically opposed to one another and
operate in a way that make meaningful business performance improvement nearly to outright
impossible. In addition to this the result of linking business strategy and operations strategy were
scarce until recently. A consistent line of theories from many writers contends that the business
strategy must be supported by the operations strategy through a concentration on value-added
work flows that target a short list of objectives influenced by customers, competition, and change
in the environment.
However, no strategic plan in and of itself can help a company change and move ahead to
capture market share, improve products, increase customer satisfaction, or whatever is
recommended within the context of strategy.
In fact, Effective strategic business planning requires a dynamic, methodical process that keeps
the organization focused on the right issues and actions. This means management must diligently
define and redefine the four essential components of a successful strategy and tactical actions:
 Strategic goals- which are brief statements of what top management wants to achieve
in terms of growth, products, markets, profits and the like.
 Improvement objectives, which are specific and measurable performance
improvements set within certain timeframes and tied to specific strategic goals.
 Action plans, which translate objectives into a specific set of steps, responsibilities,
schedules and cross-functional teams for implementing the plans to achieve the
objectives.
 Performance measures, which provide quantitative means of reviewing, evaluating
and updating actions, improvement objectives, strategic goals, and process performance.
But, there are some demarcations between business strategy and operation strategy that is
Business strategy defines long-rage plan and vision for the company. An organization develops
its business strategy by doing environmental scanning and considering its mission and its core

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competencies.A business strategy serves as an overall guide for the development of the
organization’s operations strategy. Moreover business strategy consists of;
 Marketing strategy:- define marketing plans to support the business strategy
 Operations strategy: - develops a plan for the operations function to support the business
strategy.
 Finance strategy: - develop financial plans to support the business strategy.
A business strategy is developed after taking in to many factors and following some strategic
decisions such as:
 What business is the company in (Mission)
 Analyzing and understanding the market (environmental scanning)
 Identifying the company’s strengths (core competencies)
Whereas operation strategy is a plan for design and manage of operations functions. Operations
strategy is developed after the business strategy. Operation strategy focuses on specific
capabilities which give it competitive priorities (cost, quality, time and flexibility) in order to
meet the long-range plans. The purpose of operation strategy is to relate the organization’s efforts
to lasting future. Operations strategy continuously supports the long term strategies created by
the company.The role of operations strategy is to provide or to deliver a long-range plan for the
use of the company’s resources in producing the company’s primary goods and services.
Other issues are Operations strategy relates to the day-to-day running of the business and is short
term in nature. The business strategy is the overall business vision looking further ahead, giving
direction as to where the business wants to be say, in the next five years or so.
The operations strategy is controlled by the business strategy. The business strategy is more
holistic and affects the business in long term, while the operation strategy helps company to
serve its customers in a better way. Operation strategy also helps to improve the bottom line of
the company.
In my point of view the synergy of operations and business strategy is the most important piece
of organizational operations, and current business issues needs the advantages a company has
over the competitions when these two strategies are working together. furthermore the role of
operation strategy is provide a plan that makes best of resources which specifies the policies and
plans for using organizational resources that supports business strategy.
3.1 How does Flextronics’ operations strategy help the company to satisfy its

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 customers?
Before describing the methods that Flextronics applied to satisfy it customer I am going to
mention some basic points which is stated on the case study. The first point to case study shows
is that the market for electronic manufacturing services is extremely competitive. Volumes are
high but margins are wafer thin. Therefore, any company that is to compete in this market must
be sufficiently flexible to take on whatever its brand name customers require it to do, as well as
giving fast responsive service and (above all) low costs. If Flextronics’ operations can do all
these things, then it will satisfy its customers and win more business. Unfortunately, product
flexibility, fast response and low costs are often seen as being conflicting objectives. There are
clear trade-offs between all three. Flextronics’ operationsstrategy is essentially about how to (at
least partially) overcome these trade-offs.
Other techniques that Flextronics applied to satisfy its customers is the company used effective
and dramatic transformation of its operation that process may attracting and satisfying its
customers; because, customer is one of prominent and major competitive edge to become
successful and profitable company.
In the current competitive electronics industry, it is necessary that the organizations understand
their market, their operational activities and their strategy. Operations management is a key to
business success, and decisions which drives an organization towards a goal. Flextronics for
example has an operations strategy to provide operational services to technology companies by
flexible, the cheapest cost, fast responses, based on the customers’ need by low cost and high
level services in its strategic location and supply network decisions.
In order to achieve the company’s objectives, successful operations management is crucial, as it:
 It can reduce the cost of producing products and services and being efficient.
 It can increase revenue by increasing customer satisfaction throughgood quality and
high level services
 It can reduce the investment cost by establishing industrial parks that enable the
company to become close to its customers.
 It can reduce production cost by producing required amount of products and services
by increasing the effective capacity of the operation and by being innovative in how it
uses its physical resources.

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  The company can provide the basis for future innovation by building a solid base of
operations skills and knowledge within the business.
 The company own suppliers to provide stability and further reduce response times.
This short case deals particularly with trade-off between fast response and low costs. Flextronics
has chosen to tackle this through its location strategy. Its industrial parks are set up in relatively
low cost locations that are as close as possible to its customers’ sites. Very often though,
theproblem with locating in low cost areas is that, because communications are poor, the
deliveryof products to customers, and the delivery of supplies from suppliers, may not be as
responsiveas they should ideally be. This is where the industrial parks strategy comes in. By
developingthese sites and the associated infrastructure, suppliers can locate alongside Flextronics
plants.
This allows the company to keep its costs down while still being relatively responsive.
These above mentioned operations management strategies have significant impact upon the
Flextronics’s short, and long term achievement. Key to help the Flextronics’ to satisfy its’
customers as I try to informs above is its successful operations strategy that the company has
applied.

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 3.2 What specific operations competences must Flextronics’ have in order to

make a success of its strategy?

As indicated on case study the company’s goal is to empower talented employees to develop
global supply chain solution that transform industries and companies. At their core, they are
world class global design,manufacturing and Service Company. The company’s strategy is to
maintain effective leadership in these core capabilities (talent, customer focus, market-focus,
global operations strategy, extended value propositions) and to build on these throughextended
offerings in high growth sectors.
In order to make a success of its strategy Flextronics should focus on these operations
competencies such as
 Cost:Offering product at a low price relative to competition
 Typically high volume products
 Often limit product range & offer little customization
 May invest in automation to reduce unit costs
 Can use lower skill labor
 Probably use product focused layouts
 Low cost does not mean low quality
To achieve these goals Flextronics applied ‘industrial park strategy’. This involves finding
locations which have relatively low manufacturing costs but are close to its major markets.
 Quality: refers to materials and workersonship as well as design. It relates to buyer’s
perceptions of how well the product or service will serve its intended purpose. In order to
become more prominent and well know company Flextronics must be provide quality
products with reasonable cost.
 Product or service differentiation: refers to any special features that differentiate the
company’s product or service from its competitors. In order to capture today’s turbulent
completion Flextronics should differentiate its products and services such as design, cost,
quality, ease of use, convenient location, warranty.
 Flexibility is the ability to respond to changes. The changes may be related to increases or
decreases in volume demanded, or to changes in the design of goods or services. So
Flextronics must apply the flexibility to serve customers in all the key marketsthroughout the
world.

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 Time: refers to a number of different aspects of an organization’s operations.
 How quickly a product or service is delivered to a customer
 How quickly new products or services are developed and brought to the market.
 The rate at which improvement in products or processes are made
To achieve the above objectives Flextronics should be facilitate fast response and
great service to customers.
 Managers and Workers: are the people at the heart and soul of an organization, and if they
are competent and motivated, they can provide a distinct competitive edge by their skills and
the ideas they create. As stated on the case study empowers talented employees to
developglobal supply chain solution that transform industries and companies is one of core
objectives for Flextronics.
 SUPPLY CHAINS recognizing that other organizations in their supply chains also impact
all or most of the items listed above. To achieve this objective Flextronics’ own suppliers to
locate within the park to provide stability and further reduce response times.
To conclude Flextronics must be able to compute on cost, quality, flexibility and time in order to
success of its strategy. To do these Flextronics is being able to develop industrial parks, expand
its operations. Because of its strategy, these are competencies that must have been developed by
Flextronics. So, to make its strategy more successful, Flextronics must be skilled at most of the
following.
 Identifying suitable sites for industrial parks.
 Quickly and efficiently acquiring the land.
 Quickly building facilities to a high standard.
 Starting up production without too many ‘learning curve’ inefficiencies.
 Persuading suppliers to locate in the park.
 Helping suppliers to ramp-up their own operations efficiently and effectively.
 Integrating the activities of their own and their suppliers’ processes to respondeffectively
to customers’ orders.

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3.3 Compare the operations strategies of Flextronics and a full-service airline
such as Ethiopian Airlines
In this section I will try to mention some of basic Ethiopian airline operations strategies by
comparing Flextronics. I will for each organization, discuss the market in terms of performance
objectives and will focus on key transformation process used in their operations.
As all we know Ethiopian Airline is Ethiopia’s flag carrier, and is wholly owned by the Country’s
government and a member of star alliance the national airline of Ethiopia with its main hub at
Bole International Airport. During the past seventy plus years, the airline has become one of the
continent’s leading carriers, unrivalled in Africa for efficiency and operational success, turning
profits for almost all the years of its existence. Operating at the forefront of Technology, the
Airline has also become one of Ethiopia’s major industries and a veritable institution in Africa.
Ethiopian currently serves 100 international and 21 domestic destinations operating the newest
and youngest fleet (source https://corporate.ethiopianairlines.com/AboutEthiopian/Overview)
Ethiopian Airline was founded on December 30, 1945, by Emperor Haile Selassie. It commenced
operations on April 8, 1946, with a weekly service between Addis Ababa and Cairo with Douglas
Dc-3 propeller-driven aircraft. In 2007 Ethiopian Airline provided basic pilot and aviation
maintenance training to trainees from African countries. Ethiopian airlines have code share
agreement with: South African Airways, Lufthansa, TAAG-Angola Airlines, Gulf Air, Airone,
Brussels Airlines, British Midland (BMI), Rwanda Air, and Saudi Arabian Airways.
Ethiopian Airline is self-sufficient in advanced maintenance base which is fully operational for
Airframe maintenance up to D-checks, Engine, Overhaul, Components repair & overhaul, light
Aircraft maintenance and technical, and management assistance and training systems. Ethiopian
Aviation academy offers training for pilots, Aircraft Technicians, Cabin crew(Service trainee),
Marketing and sales as well as management and finance staff.
When I compare Ethiopian Airline operations strategy with Flextronics electronics: Ethiopian
Airline is Africa’s largest airline in terms of passengers carried, destinations served, fleet size,
and Revenue. Ethiopian is also the world’s 4 th largest airline by the number of countries served:
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines
Interims of service operation Ethiopian provides food and complimentary beverages on board for
its passengers. Ethiopian airlines passengers are offered two lounges at Bole International

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Airport. In addition to this Ethiopian passengers provided with on board amenities and wide
variety of reading materials.
Interims of production process Ethiopian airline is service business organization whereas
Flextronics is manufacturing operations
In respect of marketing perspectives Ethiopian provides effective customer services, using its
provocative advertising, and promotes its products and services on big media companies.
Inspects of Operations strategy and the target market Ethiopian Airline provide full 24 hour and
provide quality services at any time. To achieve these goals Ethiopian provide proper facilities,
qualified and experienced management, motivation and hours upon hours of hard work,
preparation and precision. Ethiopian providing high quality standards, consistency services to its
passengers.
Ethiopian flies to more destinations in Africa than any other carrier. It is one of the fastest
growing companies in the industry. It is one of the most profitable airlines in Africa. Ethiopian
Airlines as the original and still the best of these focused airlines. Ethiopian is the onlyairline that
has been consistently profitable every year for over years. It is also now one ofthe largest airlines
in the Africa by value. The strategy of the company has beenconsistent since it was founded, for
over years it has introduced a series of cost saving innovations. Like opening training and
maintenance stations, this significantly reduces maintenance costs, reduces the number of spare
partsneeded and makes it easier for pilots to fly any aircraft. Source:
http://africafacts.org/top10bestairlinesinAfrica/.

To conclude Ethiopian airlines is high quality and reasonable cost model of airline has been more
successful in recent times and it is fair to say that with the recent and ongoing worldwide
economic uncertainties that it is likely to be the dominant force in air travel. Therefore Ethiopian
Airline is being able to successfully adapt its operational strategy; it has recently developed
shipping cargos and logistic services to several countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic which
hinder its fleets in to major cities around world. This strategy enables Ethiopian to sustain its
revenues and is being able to maintain its employees within the company. The result has been
what some claim to be the most productive work force in the airline industry.

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 Solution for Practical Study Activities
Some of Service sectors that I have consumed last weeks are Abay Bank, Bekas Hotel, Joshi
Burger house, Abbas Super market and Mega Book store.I could understand from this all
services that I consumed share common characteristics. Frist of all, contrary to goods, services
are intangible and invisible. These two its characteristics make me difficult to measure the real
value of services and to assess their contribution to the production. In fact service sector plays
significant role on country’s economy.it makes direct and significant to job creation,and provides
crucial inputs for the rest of the economy. Many services are key inputs to all or most other
business. I have observed some of progressive implications as well as some draw back situations
during my consuming. Let me describe one by one as follows
1. Abay Bank S.C
When I obtained banking service from Abay Bank I satisfied by their empowered staffs and their
customer service Excellency. I observed that they give prominent priority to their customers. One
amazing their motto is “customer is always right.” They strived to give full-fledged banking
services with good ethical manner. Their staff respect customers and asks them what we shall do,
What kind of services do you need, how do you see and rate our services, what do you want
more services from our bank…by these and other theirs’ service excellency I have really
satisfied. In my point of view these makes Abay to be one of successful bank in Ethiopian
banking industry within a few years compared with other banks.
 If you were in charge of managing the delivery of these services, what would you do to
improve the service?
If I were in charge of managing the delivery of these services, I would do my contribution to
sustain and more implement of service excellency within the bank, and I strived for customer
satisfaction, I tried to provide introduce and sell wide range of innovative bank products such as
ATM, Mobile Banking, Internet Banking and other customer focused banking products and
services.
 If they wanted to, how could the service be delivered at a lower cost so that the service could
reduce its prices?
In fact todays a competitive banking environment customer expectation on the quality and
service Excellency is rising, and to remain competitive they are demanding to provide higher
customer services. As I observed to improve their service Excellency it may not require high

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 cost. And they should have to develop strategically cost effective banking services. For instance
they have to adopt E-banking technology to their customers to avoid manually paper work and
other printing related expenses.
 How do you think that the service copes when something goes wrong (such as a piece of
technology breaking down)?
As I think properly implemented customer service quality can cope when something goes wrong.
It is obvious that service quality affected by new trends like modern technology and fast
emerging new ideas and life styles of the society. Everyone’s need is different and each one
wants are unique. To remain its customers need constantly the bank should develop adaptable
banking service strategy and train its employees to enable them to fully implement it.
 How do you think the service copes with fluctuation of demand over the day, week, month or
year?
As all we know variation in customer demand is a perennial problem in every business. More
over the service industries suffer from a more difficult problem. In order to cope with the
demand fluctuations the company should maintain the capacity to handle surges in demand.
Good example for this as Henry Ford once said, “time waste is worse than material waste
because there can be no salvage.”
2. Bekas Hotel
Bekas hotel is located at Assela town in front of Chilalo Shed Hospital. It is recently opened and
offer hotel services or high standardized meal preparation, the hotel’s interiors are designed
wood made tables and chairs. It is comfortable and its foods are delicious, but I observed that
major challenges with regard to the provision of quality services to their customer. Waiters are
young and they need more training and experience to become effective.
 If you were in charge of managing the delivery of these services, what would you do to
improve the service?
If I were in charge of managing the delivery of the hotel services, I do all my best to satisfy my
guests. It is known that customers need fast, flexible and quality service to be served. In hotel
industry fast service, loyalty and flexibility is cores to make firm successful. Since an
improvement in customer loyalty is important for any organization which depends on repeat
business, the hotel management also needs to create a service situation which engenders loyalty.

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 Therefore I will to train my waiters and all hotel employees including security personnel about
social interaction, physical smiles and customer handling techniques and major challenges that
may occur when customer served.
 If they wanted to, how could the service be delivered at a lower cost so that the service could
reduce its prices?
Hotel services can be delivered at a lower cost by expanding customer choices with in the hotel.
For this Bekas hotel is one it provides from tea services up to highly standardized meal. Bekas
provide multi-choice services to its customers. Hotels Service failures occur when the service is
unavailable, too slow, or does not meet organizational or customer standards. So Bekas is
performing good jobs in areas of preparing multi- categorized meal and drinking products to
maintain its customers.
 How do you think that the service copes when something goes wrong (such as a piece of
technology breaking down)?
Hotel industry is most sensitive to be impacted positively or negatively when something
occurred. For instance Covid-19 pandemic affected hotel industries at highly manner. To cope up
the impact of pandemic, Bekas has taken some measures to control pandemic and to maintain its
customers. Among these measures washing materials are located before the hotel entrance,
sanitizers and other cleaning materials are available, waiters using face masks and gloves when
they approach to the customers, social distancing is mandatory with in the hotel. More over the
price of meals has decreased to sustain their customers.
 How do you think the service copes with fluctuation of demand over the day, week, month or
year?
It is obvious, we can’t escape the variation in customer demand, but we can design effective
means to cope up with it. To do so we have to study the nature of the variation in our business,
cross training should be offered to the employees to enable them to move into the position with
excess demand when necessary. Bekas Hotel essentially offers a service function, which is only
experienced by customers during their stay at the hotel, and this makes the assessment of
customer demand fluctuations difficult.
Providing take away services and facilitating online transaction may help to keep demand
fluctuations over the day, week, month or years.

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 3. Joshi Burger house
Joshi burger is well featured delicious and well known burger house in Assela which is located
around bus station over the Etu Shiro. There are marked by fundamental features that need an
improvement in josh that are multi alternative demands, good hospitality, comfortable and
practical homemade building style, and reasonable price. When I consumed I have observed
good customer service specially the waiters’ flexibility and their fast responsiveness to the
customer’s order.It is need to devise plans for how this will be sustained and improved.
 If you were in charge of managing the delivery of these services, what would you do to improve the
service?
Currently the needs of fast food and like pizza, burger and some other kind of meals become
popular for different community groups in our town. To provide this Joshi is well known burger
house, if I were in charge of managing the delivery of the service, I would perform profound
activities to improve the service more efficiently, like employing highly skilled and experienced
workers, motivating and accessing high proportion of women because they are excellent in
customer handling techniques, expanding or opening other branches in Assela town and or
Adama as well as Addis Ababa.
 If they wanted to, how could the service is delivered at a lower cost so that the service could
reduce its prices?
The customer’s service can be delivered at a lowest cost by facilitating great dining options
within the menu. Customers shall be select what they want by concerning their paying abilities.
Currently with the growing of corona virus pandemic Joshi burger is providing its services at low
cost, because many hotels are closing and consumers are self-isolating.
 How do you think that the service copes when something goes wrong (such as a piece of
technology breaking down)?
As I informed Joshi planned to offer modern and online order customer services by applying
updated technology. Therefore the breakdown of new technology enhances its market base and
customers loyalty up on its services.
In contrary, in this troubled situations Joshi burger sustain its services by serving its long lasted
and trusted customers by applying high sanitations materials and by keeping social distancing.

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 4. Mega Book store
Mega is one of prominent and best book publishing and distributing private limited company, its
head quarter is Addis Ababa and I have number of branches over all the country. “Power house
of knowledge” is it’s well known motto. Mega distributed many branded books ranging from
supplementary book, novels, history books, children’s books which are generated by experienced
authors. Mega receives books from authors on consignment basis and distributes the book at a
minimum cost. I have gotten best service when I go to their book store at Assela Branch, which
is located in front of Dashen Bank.
 If you were in charge of managing the delivery of these services, what would you do to
improve the service?
Broadly, if I were in charge of managing the delivery of these services, my role would be great,
that is I will try to sustain customer service excellency which means I strived to meet customer
needs beyond their expectation by applying customer service excellency principles. As all we
knew the nature of companies’ customer service Excellency has a significant effect on its success
or failure. Its success is when it can effectively deliver its services and its failure occurred when
it lags to provide excellent customer services.
 If they wanted to, how could the service is delivered at a lower cost so that the service could
reduce its prices?
As I tried to explain above, Mega provide its local as well as foreign brand books at a minimum
cost. The reason for this is the company’s ability to publish and distributing by itself. Mega’s
book stores are filled by variety books which are sold by a minimum cost.
 How do you think that the service copes when something goes wrong (such as a piece of
technology breaking down)?
Technology has major positive as well as negative impacts on Mega books. Its positive effect are
the books can be ordered online by using email or any means of technology, books can be
delivered through online from its online book storage, they can generate revenue by providing
several activities by using technology like doing homework, facilitating experts for tutor,
preparing flash card and soon…while its negative impacts are technology has create integrated
power full book stores on line such as Amazon, Chegg.com, Google books.com, Coursehero.com
and others. They provide variety of books as customers’ order. Competing with them may be
difficult for mega publishing enterprises.

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 How do you think the service copes with fluctuation of demand over the day, week, month or
year?
Customer demand in nature is fluctuated by different reasons; to cope up with it mega should
develop several alternatives to analyze the size of fluctuation of demand. One of best method to
study the level of fluctuation over the day, weeks or month is establishing plat forms that are
used to gather information regarding to the stage of demand fluctuation.

5. Abbas Supermarket
Abbas supper market is best known and self-service shop offering a wide variety of food,
beverages, and house hold products, organized in to sections. Abbas super market has aisles for
meat, fresh produce, dairy, and backed goods. Its shelf space is also reserved for canned and
packaged goods and for various non-food items such as kitchenware, household cleaner,
pharmacy products, and other. When I go to the super market I have experienced high quality
service and I have gotten services over my expectations.
 If you were in charge of managing the delivery of these services, what would you do to
improve the service?
Fortunately, Abbas has good service management system, and if I were in charge to managing
the delivery of these services, I strive to maintain and sustain high effected service management
systems with in the supper market. As I explained above Abbas super market is self- service
shop. The roles of employees are to arrange and keep its inventories updated and charge bill for
those customer purchased.
 If they wanted to, how could the service be delivered at a lower cost so that the service could
reduce its prices?
Super market is well known by the availability of a broad selection of goods under single roof, at
relatively low price. This is because of they are typically are chain stores, supplied by the
distribution centers of their parent companies, thus increase the opportunities for economies of
scale. Thus Abbas supper market usually offer products at relatively low prices by using their
buying power to buy goods from manufacturers at lower prices than smaller stores can.
 How do you think that the service copes when something goes wrong (such as a piece of
technology breaking down)?

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 Establishing of new trends has the profound effect on super market industry. With growth of new
technologies, the demand of customers to shop in super market has increased. Because of a super
market is a self-service shop. To days art-of-technology enable customers to select whatever
products online and to pay its bill through POS, ATM, or internet banking. This gives high
customer satisfaction and enables them to become loyal customers.
 How do you think the service copes with fluctuation of demand over the day, week, month or
year?
Abbas super market can coping with fluctuation in demand by accepting uncertainty which
means by making stock-pile to absorb fluctuations in demand and by using reservation or
appointment systems, by developing complimentary services, by changing hours worked- over
time and shift patterns, by sharing capacity with other operations when one is busy and other is
quiet.

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