Student ID – 1813088

BBS003-1 Foundations of Business

Communication

Assignment 001

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 Executive Summary

At Luton Town Residence the problems that all the employees are facing are at the
communication Level and time management.
Also, another hard situation is to understand the Pandemic COVID-19 and all that brings
within: working from home and organize the work according to this change.

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 Table of Contents

Introduction 4
Reason of Business Case 5
Business Options and Weighed Score-Card 6
Expected Benefits 8
Expected Dis-Benefits 9
Estimated Time Scale 10
Estimated Costs 11
Conclusion 12
Reference List 13
Reflective Report 15

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 Introduction

The following paper will be about the business case applicable for Luton Town
Residence regarding the problems encountered before and after the pandemic COVID-19.

It will be structures into five parts: reason of the business case, business options and
weighted score, expected benefits, expected disbenefits, estimated time scale and estimated cost.

Luton Town Residence is a Housing Association that has as a mission to provide

appropriate housing for the local community concentrated on providing both assistance and
support for the vulnerable individuals. The Association is split into the General Purpose Housing
and Supported Housing (emergency hostel, transitional flats and two hostels for young mothers).
Therefore, the main idea is to help the community by giving the them a roof under their heads.

It is shown that the main problem of the Luton Town Residence before the pandemic
was the lack of time given for solving all the request entered in the email post. When the
pandemic arrived, this was still a big problem along with the meetings, which are now captured
in Zoom, the platform that sustained, maybe, all the corporate meetings. The employees of Luton
Town Residence have come with a lot of requests in this pandemic, which was very normal,
since no corporate of even small firms, have not meet such a big problem. All the office has
moved in every employee home and the from here all the problems, like communication,
security, privacy and so on.

Therefore, in this paper it will be shown all the solutions in order to make Luton Town
Residence a free problem Association. All the solutions given are reported to the entire image of
this company.

In the Conclusion, the future of this company will be solved by the entire Business Case.

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 Reasons of Business Case

Luton Town Residence is an association which has as a main mission to help the
vulnerable individuals. When helping is the main reason, most of the time, somebody has to
compromise. Here, at Luton Town Residence the employees have a lot of hard time by
completing all the requests that come by email. Even if the association is very well divided into
three responsible teams (finance, facilities maintenance and customer service), all of them have
this principal issue with the lack of time to complete the requests.

At the organizational level, the main problem seems to be the fact that when receiving the
Newsletter, not all the employees read it. This is ignored or often missed because the email post
is already full of requests and the employees are concentrated of solving the association’s
requests than rather make time to read a Newsletter. Most of the time, the managers have to send
reminders to all the employees in order to make a priority by reading it.(1)

Regarding the communication, most of the employees from the customer service team
have complained that they are getting responses to emailed requests for information to other
teams too late and the residents have to wait several days so their requests are completing solved.

Another issue, that has been installed since the pandemic COVID-19 came, is the remote
work (because of the Lockdown) and everything that covers it, form meetings, security, privacy,
lack of communication or technical problems.

No other company was prepared for the pandemic, therefore these issues are normal, but
the management has to give solutions, so no one has to suffer. The manager has to be calm and
to have confidence in the employees and projects. The communication is the key to success, but
due to COVID-19, the manager has to give a strategy, a sense of order, where rapid decisions
and priorities are given firstly. Also, all the company has to collaborate and to understand the
real problems and if needed, to prioritize the financial sector. Last, but not the least, the
management has to give compassion to their employees, if their health is fragile. (1)

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 Business options and Weighed Score – Card

The main problems at Luton Town Residence are:

1. Not all the employees work remotely

2. Communication and collaboration tools not suitable
3. Difficulty in managing large volume of work

For every above situation there are solutions. Starting with the first one, the management
should initiate additional contracts, where every employee should sign it. This contract should
contain policy information regarding the security and risk management. The same maybe that is
signed according to the office work, now to be initiated according to the remote one. Not only
every employee will get in touch with the risks, but will also have a backup if something gets
wrong with the system. Every employee should get a company laptop and mobile phone and not
personal ones. In this way, the IT team will install all the additional programs so that the security
stays safe. (2)

For the second one, the solution could be the implementation of an internal program of
communication, where all the employees could enter it whenever they have to discuss issues.
Zoom meetings could be replaced by this internal program. This one should be placed on the
company server, so that no bugs could enter when meetings are placed, or lags of speed too. This
could have a calendar also, with reminders before the meetings, like 30, 15 and 1 minute before
it starts, so no one will be forgot to enter it. Due to this calendar, every employee could organize
the work according to the meetings, even if it’s one placed on last minute. (3)

For the third problem is also an implementation of a program as a solution. But this time
is regarding the email post. This program should categorize the emails according to the issues,
like financial ones, individual requests (both home request or issues) and last but not the least,
internal stuff. Every category should have a deadline, like 24/48 hours to answer it. In this way,
the turnaround time is perfectly completed and the employee will organize their work according

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to it. Also, every category should be split in General Purpose Housing and Supported
Housing (emergency hostel single people, transitional flats and hostels for young mothers).

The customer service team should be divided according to the category to which they
have to answer.

For both implemented programs, the management along with the IT Team should make a
standard operational procedure, where all the steps are easily described, so that every employee
gets no more than 1-3 days of training. (4)

Requirements Weighting Work from home Work from home

without a contract with a contract
and laptop/phone and laptop/phone
Laptop 9 56 81
Phone 8 54 64
Contract 10 50 100
Privacy 6 54 42
Security 7 63 42
Internet 5 50 25
Weighed total 327 354

Expected Benefits

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 According to the solutions of every situation written above the expected benefits could
lead to a profitable way of work.

First, by giving an additional contract to every employee, along with the working laptop
and phone, the company shows a lot of confidence. The employees are safe and understand more
precisely what working from home means. Working from personal laptop could lead to security
problems, therefore an office laptop gives stability and security to the employee. This is a benefit
for both the company and employees. (5)

For the second situation, the benefit could be a long-term one, because this program will
be used from now on in situations like when an employee has to get home earlier, or if someone
from the management is in a delegation, or every situation where one of the employees is not at
the office. This program will also help in organizing the work, in prioritize it. No one knows for
how long will take place the pandemic, therefore the program could help even if it’s used just for
this period, when working remotely. (5)

The third situation has also a lot of benefits and this time this could be for sure, for long-
term in the matter of fact. This will help every employee to not extra work, because this was a
problem before the pandemic COVID-19 take place, therefore this implementation will have a
lot of benefits. The clients will no longer have to wait a lot of time for their answers, just 24/48
hours, or the time that will be fixed in the program. Moreover, the communication between the
company’s departments will be improved, and the tension will degrease. So, this is an extra
benefit, that will increase the relationship between employees and between them and the
management. (5)

Yes, this could be very challenging, yes, this could lead to get out from every employee’s
comfort zone, but if it’s in their beneficial, why not trying to improve?

Expected Dis-Benefits

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 According to the above situations the dis-benefits could bring the company to an
imbalance, will not increase its confidence and in time of COVID-19, it could get some damage.

For the first situation, a not great scenario could lead to some more other problems. If the
employees would not sign the additional contract, they would not receive the office laptop and
phone, therefore they would have to get at the office to work. The dis-benefit would get every
employee in the risk zone due to pandemic COVID-19 and maybe the company would be in the
situation in which would take this risk. It sounds like a risk, but it’s actually a dis-benefit of not
sign the contract. (6)

For the second and third situations, the dis-benefit could be that the employees would not
accept to work in the new implemented programs, so the IT-Team would waste time and the
company would waste money. The employees could not understand the efficacy of the new
programs or the procedure that has been given by the office. (6)

The dis-benefits could also get the employees at the starting point where they work extra,
where they don’t have a good communication within the others, where they are very unhappy
with the Zoom meetings. The quality and the speed of this meeting could be a slower one,
because it’s a program used by many other users and this could make the employees lose their
quality of work too, so the results will degrease. (6)

However, by having dis-benefits, the management along with the employees could
understand the real benefits of the possible solutions of the present problems. Maybe at the
bigging it’s hard for the company members to accept the new implementation, which is a dis-
benefit, but within time, it can be produced a really benefit. (6)

Estimated time-scale

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Task March 2020 April 2020 May 2020 June 2020 July 2020
Planning
Research
Design
Implementatio
n
Follow up
(7)

Estimated Costs

Direct costs:

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  Design and Implement the programs – 120K pounds

Indirect costs:

 License fees – 7K pounds/per user/per year, so 464K pounds

 Utilities: 150 pounds

Conclusion

The Luton Town Residence need help in the organizational and management area.
Because, as no other company, was prepared for the pandemic COVID-19, it faced a lot of

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problems such as communication between the departments or with the outside party, meetings or
of course working from home.

The business case thought for this kind of problems was to implement an internal
program for the communication problem and one which will help the employees to not extra
work. Another thing that was given in this business case is that the management should give to
every employee the chance to work from home perfectly and safe. They would give an extra
contract that will contain everything that has to be known about remote work along with the
office laptop and phone.

This could be very challenging and outside the comfort zone, like the pandemic COVID-
19 made it, but could also help the company find a long-term solution with many benefits.

The estimated time for the contracts and laptops/phones should be immediately, since the
resources could make this possible, but for the implementation of the programs, the employees of
Luton Town Residence have to wait no more than three months, which is maybe a fast time,
given the terms and conditions. Regarding the costs, the management should understand that
even if it’s a higher price, it’s necessary. It can be thought like this: higher the price, higher the
productivity, increased the confidence, so the probability to have only benefits is higher too.

If the mission of the Luton Town Residence is to help the vulnerable individuals, why not
to help the employees too by giving them the best way to do their job in these hard times?

Reference List

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1. Abraham, R., 1997. The relationship of vertical and horizontal individualism and
collectivism to intrapreneurship and organizational commitment. Leadership &
Organization Development Journal: Bingle
2. Aldrich, H.E., 2008. Organizations and Environments. Stanford University Press:
Stanford.
3. Birkinshaw, J., 2000. Entrepreneurship in the Global Firm. Sage Publications: London.
4. Burns, T. and Stalker, G.M., 2001. The Management of Innovation. Oxford University,
Press: Oxford.
5. Pearce, J.A., Kramer, T.R. and Robbins, D.K., 1997. Effects of managers’ entrepreneurial
behavior on subordinates. Journal of Business Venturing: New York.
6. Porter, M.E., 2004b. Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior
Performance. Free Press: New York.
7. https://hbswk.hbs.edu/

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Reflective Report

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 In week six and seven I understand more and more about the business management and
what effect have been given the pandemic Covid-19 to all the companies, at all the levels.

It was very challenging for my emotional level, because the pandemic has changed a lot
my point of view regarding all the possible points. If “yesterday” I was very confident in
building a company, a business, after the pandemic I think twice. This week developed more and
more my gut. I think that I not ready, emotionally thinking, to build a company. I think that I
need to learn more about the risks and how to be prepared to in case it does not work.

It was simple and straightforward to find solutions in this type of problems, like Luton
Town Residence faced it. The solutions that I have given it was to implement two internal
programs with the help of the actual IT-Team, in order to minimize the costs. For the work from
home, I also give some solutions, which could give privacy and security to all the employees.

It was very challenging to understand and compare all the other solutions that my
colleagues gave, because I have to admit, that my ego was very confident.

All the new information fit perfectly in my existing knowledge and I have to say that
now, I understand all the fact more. I know that I have a lot to achieve until I have the complete
scenario in my head, but I learnt how to be patient, so I guess this is the good time to practice it.

A new thing learnt that I found it hard to practice in the business case is the Weighted
Scorecard. I understand that is prioritization that uses a score (numerological type) in order to
rank the strategical initiatives against benefits and costs.

I stayed a lot and think about how to use the information learnt in week six and week
seven and I got as a conclusion that from now on all of the info will help me both in my
academical and professional career.

What Luton Town Residence have to face in front of the pandemic COVID-19 is just an
example with what every small company has faced between this hard year. No other company,
even if it was big or small, was prepared with all the utilities, procedure, structure or
understanding to work from home. It has been also hard to convince all the employees to accept
the change and to give their best, to maintain the same productivity (more or less) and to
understand that this is the normality from now on, until the pandemic disappears.

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 Regarding what challenged me between the pandemic COVID-19 was not working from
home, because this was something that I understood very fast and I accepted it without worries,
but studying from home. This was very challenging, like having the teacher in from of a
computer and not in a classroom, having to work with the colleagues in team groups also in front
of the computer, which I did not really agree, because the communication was, firstly, not so
good. But between the pandemic I increased and still do that, my ITC skills. At the beginning I
was asking how to make a table or chart in Word, but now I am at the level where I can give this
answer to a beginner person. This ITC skills have helped me also in my professional career and I
have to admit that I am not so shy when I have to make a report or to make statistics for my
office. Improving my ITC skills helped me becoming more confident in my professional career.
At the beginning, when I initiate a training, I was asking the other colleagues to help me making
charts, or statistics, or even making the table of contents for a procedure, now I win a lot of time
by making myself and also understand it more. This new understanding helped me express
myself in the training module more easily.

I am very thankful to both my teachers and colleagues for all the information learnt and
for all the challenges that I experience between this hard year. In the last two weeks I have
understand more and more about what is a project Business Case, its purpose and the key
elements of a Business Case. It helped me a lot to develop one for Luton Town Residence and to
help some friends which are entrepreneurs, but also in need of some advice of the theoretical
information that they forgot it within the years. It has grown my ego when I remembered them
this info. Not only they could not believe that I can help them but the feedback was a positive
one too. Therefore, I am very thankful for all the opportunities that this program has given me to
learn all this information.

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