Factors For Successful Role Execution Of Product, Logistics And Sales Managers

1 Develop strategies to ensure team members have input into planning, decision making and operational aspects of work team  2.2 Develop policies and procedures to ensure team members take responsibility for own work and assist others to undertake required roles and responsibilities 2.3 Provide feedback to team members to encourage, value and reward individual and team efforts and contributions

2.4 Develop processes to ensure that issues, concerns and problems identified by team members are recognised and addressed

Allocation of operational roles

The business of companies and organizations attain international standards, when the personnel emerge successful in executing their roles and responsibilities in an efficient and effective manner. As a matter of specification, product manager, logistics manager and sales manager play a crucial role in enhancing the productivity (Doz 2017). This assignment peeks into the factors, which helps these managers in attaining the identified and specified objectives.

Allocation of operational roles 

Product manager

            The roles of the product manager can be described as two-fold: one, setting long-term vision and strategy for the company’s product. One of the other responsibilities of the product manager is intimating the participants and the stakeholders regarding the prepared vision and the strategies. Creation of roadmaps is accounted as one of an important responsibilities of the product managers. This roadmap is crucial for ensuring the development of the products efficiently and effectively. Along with this, the product manager is responsible for managing the concepts of products from designing to delivery to the customers (Penrose 2017).

            Delivery of the operational plan is one of other responsibilities of the product manager. This includes the consideration of market share, profit revenue and investment returns. Strategic planning falls under one of the main responsibilities of product manager.

• Diversity is reflected in the products and services of Indonesia. Shapes and size vary according to the specific needs, demands and requirements of the customers. Typical examples is custom fabric printing, lady long dress budi style. In foods, example can be cited of Japanese style bakeries. Rent expenses range from $300-$1100. Transportation expenses are $60, Food expenses range from $300-$550 and other additional expenses range from $75-$150.
• Bottled water in Indonesia ranges from packaged drinking water, mineral water, soda water and beer among others. The prices of 1.5 litre water costs 5796 Rp. Mid-range bottle of wine costs 285,000 Rp. 0.5 litres of domestic beer costs 28314 Rp. Imported beer of 11.2 oz small bottle ranges from 25,000-60,000.
• Packaging laws in Indonesia states that the packaging needs to be free of contamination. The packed products needs to have “best before and “use by” labels.
• People from the urban areas are mostly the target audience for the Indonesian brands. Most of the customers are inclined towards online retail marketing. The customers prefer to buy goods from the local brands
• In order to maintain the pace with globalization, the brands in Indonesia have adopted the path of social media marketing. This medium has assisted the brands to gain an insight into the specific needs and demands of the customers. Mention can be made of the advertisement campaigns of Oreo and Coca-Cola, which has enabled the personnel to identify the Google + users as the target audience.
• Logistics manager

            The responsibilities of a logistics manager include utilization of IT systems for managing the stock levels, delivery times and transport costs. A logistic manager is entrusted with the responsibility to make effective use of information systems to coordinate and control the product cycle. According to Shenkar, Luo and Chi (2014), this utilization helps in evaluation of the exposed performance, which is further assistance in terms of suggesting recommendations.

Allocation and management of resources according to the needs is one of the other duties of a logistic manager. A logistic manager is ought to possess liaison for seeking effective negotiation with clients, customers and suppliers. Indulging in new contracts helps in seeking effective solutions for the logistic related issues. As a matter of specification, Stark (2015) opines that a logistic manager needs to understand the internal situation and work accordingly to develop e-commerce.

• For shipping bottled water from Australia to Indonesia, the options of cargo, trucks and delivery services can be used.
• Plastic is one of an important components for packaging goods and services. Plastics have huge demand among the people. There is an increased demand of healthcare packaging.
• Negotiation is crucial between the shipping and custom arrangements. This is in terms of aligning with the legal parameters. Therefore, the sales manager needs to be conscious about the terms and conditions before shipping the bottled water to the neighboring countries. Contacting the statutory bodies of law helps in shipping the orders according to the client orders.
• Shipping timings differ according to the client orders. Along with this, the current logistics also prove crucial in preparing the shipping schedules. Custom requirements heavily affect the shipping timings.
• Third party warehousing can be used in terms of expanding the service operations. Introducing campaigns like “same day delivery would be fruitful in terms of achieving the satisfaction of the customers.
• Sales manager

            Sales managers are the persons, who are directly reported in case of defects and issues related with the sales operations. Salespeople are dependent on the sales manager for maintaining records related to the sold out products. Therefore, their role can be identifying the drawbacks within the sales operations and rectify it at the earliest. As a matter of specification, the role of a sales manager is to contribute towards enhancement of the productivity. This is done through the means of the automation tools, which simplifies the sales process. According to the opinions of Papadopoulos and Heslop (2014), their role is measured in terms of the effective utilization of tools like email prospecting, contract management and software, enabling the personnel to deal effectively with the contents related to the sales operations.

            The sales manager are entrusted with the responsibility to conduct documentation for the sales processes. This documents assists the sales manager in gaining awareness about the boarding sales representatives. This awareness, further, helps the sales manager to proceed towards the task of scoring the sales operations. As per the opinions of Sidhu (2016), this scoring is assistance in terms of enhancing the awareness to the sales operation processes, which qualifies according to the identified goals and objectives.

• The manufactured products can be provided to the distributors and suppliers. Along with this, adopting door-to-door marketing would be beneficial in terms of distributing the products to the customers.
• Adopting social media marketing would assist the personnel in identifying the target audience. Advertising campaigns for the products would help the personnel in tracking the areas, where they can get high involvement service from the customers.

Product manager

Sales target for bottled water

	500 ml	1 litres	1.5 litres	2 litres
January	100	200	300	400
February	150	250	350	450
March	200	300	400	500
April	300	450	500	550
May	400	600	800	1000
June	600	850	1000	1150
July	800	1100	1400	1700
August	1000	1300	1600	1900
September	1200	1600	2000	2400
October	1500	2000	2500	3000
November	2000	3000	3500	4000
December	4000	4500	6000	8500

Table 1: Sales target for bottled water

Product manager

Tangible IT systems are crucial for the development of high quality products and services. Typical evidence of this lies in the installation of the mobile applications, where the customers can exercise their decision-making purchases in an advanced level. As per the arguments of Lawson, Krause and Potter (2015) in this process, the product manager plays the role of supervising the process of developing the product from the initial stage to that of the delivery to the customers. One of the responsibilities of the product manager is preparation of strategic planning.

Conscious approach towards the poor product development is one of the critical success factors, which leads them towards promotion. This is in because consciousness towards the drawbacks helps the managers in making estimates regarding acquiring the developmental stages of the products in an appropriate manner.

Grudin, (2017) opins that Product life cycle is a crucial aspect in terms of producing and assessing the quality of the products before launching it for the customers. The product managers not only master the life cycle process of the products, he is the owner of the life cycle. Therefore, upon discovery of defects within the products, the product manager is to be reported.

Delivery of the product at the right time is also the responsibility of the product manager. However, Coenen and Kok (2014) is of that view that creating roadmaps is one of the other factors, which helps in determining success. These roadmaps enhance the awareness of the managers about the journey of product development. Journey mapping for the product development helps the product managers in gaining an insight into the journey of products and services from the initiation stage to its delivery.

Logistic manager

            Logistics is one of the key factors, which enhances the productivity within the supply chain management. Usage of analytical tools like value chain analysis along with the modern technological tools enhances the personality of the logistic managers in terms of maintaining the balance between supply and demand. One of the other factors is that successful logistics generates values for the business operations. Kerzner and Kerzner (2017) argues that this value generation makes the companies and organization stands out from the contemporary brands. Consciousness of the logistic manager towards the execution of VRIO analysis is assistance in terms of generating value for the investments made by the clients and the customers.

            Development of the aims and objectives enhance the field of project management. Herein, lays the role of the logistic manager in terms of conducting analysis of the internal environment. Enhancement of customer loyalties also strengthens the role of the logistic management. Reduction in the expenses through cost accounting also helps the logistic manager in stabilizing the financial parameter. Consciousness towards conducting strategic planning adds positivity to the role of the logistic manager (Henfridsson, Mathiassen and Svahn 2014).

Sales manager

            Focusing on the sales operation is assistance in terms of enhancing the efficiency. Setting realistic and achievable goals and scoring the performance helps the sales manager in detecting its appropriateness, effectiveness and feasibility. Establishing contact with the experts through online acts as an offshore management, expanding the scope and arena of the business. Clarity in the advertising campaigning increases the sales revenue and the profit margin. Kerzner and Kerzner (2017) is of the view that using latest and modern technologies for sharing the analysis of the sales share is assistance in terms of making estimates regarding the future course of action.

Logistics Manager

            Consideration of productive analytics is assistance in terms of making plans regarding the growth and development. Here, one of the wise steps of the sales manager would be to contacting the research and development team for adding innovation into the products and services.

Create a Stakeholder communication strategy

Stakeholder groups	Interest or requirement from the project	What the project needs from the team	Access level	Critical milestones	Communication type and frequency
Logistics	Supply chain management	Balance between supply and demand	High	Software	Emails
Taxation	Financial stability	Negotiations on high exchange rates, inflation and high prices of the raw materials	Medium	Policies	Emails
DFAT	Foreign investments	Competitive policies	Medium	Journey mapping	Emails
JV partners	Joint ventures, cross shareholding	Contracts	Medium	Cross shareholdings	Notifications
Finance	Negotiations on Price related issues	Pricing policies	High-medium	Policies on tax tariffs	Email marketing

Table 1: Communication plan

(Source: Created by the author)

            Employees are the internal stakeholders, who need to be intimated about the important information through the means of notice. The frequency of issuing notices can be three months, which would assist in making important estimations regarding the enhancement of productivity. Distributors and suppliers can be communicated through the means of contracts and negotiation deals. 4-5 months might be sufficient in terms of improving public relations with them. Agency partners can be contacted through negotiations and deals with a frequency of 6 months.

This time is appropriate in terms of arranging the raw materials. Using social media is a perfect option for contacting the customers. This is in terms of increasing the trafficking of the audience towards the brand image. Uploading the specific information of the products on the website and social networking sites addresses the queries of the customers regarding the sales operations. However, 6 months frequency is inappropriate, as the needs of the customers are ever changing. Instead, the operations manager need to keep regular track of the feedbacks shared by the clients and the customers on social networking sites and website. This tracking process would help in detecting the drawbacks and reducing the likeliness of their occurrence in future.

            Policies are effective in terms of systematizing the project related activities. This is applicable in terms of tax tariffs, joint ventures and DFATs. Taking into consideration efficient and modern technologies adds automation into the service operations. Typical example can be the software, which helps in maintaining the safety and security of the organizational data.

Conclusion

            Product managers, sales managers and logistic manager plays an important role in enhancing the efficiency. They have individual roles and responsibilities towards executing the business activities efficiently and effectively. Communication is an important component in terms of improving the stability in the public relations with the clients and the customers. Taking into consideration templates and strategies acts assistance for the personnel in terms of systematizing the project related activities.

References

Coenen, M. and Kok, R.A., 2014. Workplace flexibility and new product development performance: The role of telework and flexible work schedules. European Management Journal, 32(4), pp.564-576.

Doz, Y.L., 2017. Strategic management in multinational companies. In International Business (pp. 229-248). Routledge.

Forsgren, M. and Johanson, J., 2014. Managing networks in international business. Routledge.

Grudin, J., 2017. Obstacles to participatory design in large product development organizations. In Participatory Design(pp. 99-119). CRC Press.

Henfridsson, O., Mathiassen, L. and Svahn, F., 2014. Managing technological change in the digital age: the role of architectural frames. Journal of Information Technology, 29(1), pp.27-43.

Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Lawson, B., Krause, D. and Potter, A., 2015. Improving supplier new product development performance: the role of supplier development. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(5), pp.777-792.

Papadopoulos, N. and Heslop, L.A., 2014. Product-country images: Impact and role in international marketing. Routledge.

Penrose, E.T., 2017. Foreign Investment and the Growth of the Firm 1. In International Business (pp. 33-48). Routledge.

Shenkar, O., Luo, Y. and Chi, T., 2014. International business. Routledge.

Sidhu, J., 2016. Middle managers: their role in management innovation. RSM Discovery-Management Knowledge, 25(1), pp.8-10.

Stark, J., 2015. Product lifecycle management. In Product Lifecycle Management (Volume 1) (pp. 1-29). Springer, Cham.