Yoshio Tozawa*
3. Actual cases
3.1. Metal plating company 3.1.1. Background
The cooperation company is in small business with special technology of particular metal plating. The number of employees is about 30. The president of the company is very aggressive. He thinks that recent IT has big potential power to contribute even to small business. He asked us that any opportunity of utilizing recent IT. He knew conventional application development which sometimes resulted in the rigid functionality. Once an application is built, it is difficult to adjust it to the changing environment.
He thought that the recent IT could overcome such the rigidity.
The president has a firm faith that every people have a good potential capability. If such capability is well developed, the company becomes strong. IT can help develop the capability.
3.1.2. The first pitfall
Figure 3 shows the business of metal plating company. It was really hard work to complete Figure 3. The company is classified in the category of parts makers. In general a parts maker manufactures parts and provides a customer with parts. P arts can be stocked. However, the metal plating company does not manufacture parts, even in the case of new parts. New parts are manufactured by other company. The new parts are brought in to the company for metal plating. The plated parts are shipped to the customer. There is no stock of parts in the company. Though the company belongs to manufacturing industry, the essence of the business is service of plating.
Service business view is much more important than manufacturer view in understanding the business of the company. The change of thought was required. But it was very difficult because bias in favor of manufacturing was very strong. Figure 3 was an initial key chart of step1. It took a couple of days to complete it until students understand the business as service.
This example shows that it is very difficult for student to grasp the business appropriately. The management told us their business and how they operate thoroughly. But students could not understand them correctly. Preconception of manufacturing industry prevented students from the idea of service business.
It is very important to understand business. Without right understanding of business, it is difficult to find issues.
Teacher as a supervisor let the students discuss the business of the company several hours at first. But their discussion didn’t approach the right direction. He raised several questions so that students could realize the right direction. Some components of Figure 3 came from the answers of the questions. After all components are put up to Figure 3.
3.1.3. Ideal state of business and Points to change
Figure 4 shows the ideal state of business (To-Be) in step 3 and three points to change in step 4. We have discussed a lot with the president. He thinks that the basic of company strength comes from employee. If each employee exhibits his potential well, the company becomes stronger. Every employee has thinking capability. If good input for think is supplied, employees can think for themselves to improve something.
Information should be provided as company asset. Good and faster communication among employees in different divisions is important. Motivation of employees must be kept high. Though each of these sound trivial, it is important for the president to realize and confirm these.
The president accepted and appreciated Figure 4 when presented. The president took some actions after our final presentation to the cooperation company. This was the sign that our activity brought value to the company.
A value to the company varies from company to company. There are many things said what should be done in general. But identification and prioritization to do is important. This comes from understanding of business and discussion with management.
Indeed Figure 4 seems trivial for some, but it has value for the particular company.
This kind of experience is important to learn. We believe that we succeeded PBL education in this sense in this case.
3.2. Home health care massage company
Figure 3 Business of metal plating company
Figure 4 Three points to change with To-Be stage of the company
3.2.1. Background
The company was introduced by the president of metal plating company. In Japan home health care massage became a subject of health insurance about 15 years ago. The president established the company and entered the new service market of home health care massage since then. The company has grown rapidly. There are about 60 stations nationwide now. The number of staffs is about 500.
The president has several concerns about the growth of the company. For example, he has confidence to grow from 1 to 10.
But he does not have good confidence to grow from 10 to 100. Once the company becomes bigger, the operation must be changed from that of small size.
The president told us his vision, business strategy, what he has done, and his concerns. Our team tried to respond the concerns that were expressed at the meeting. We investigated several books, web, and materials. We reported what we investigated with our comments. These activities were well accepted. As activities were many, we divided the work into two smaller groups (two to three students).
3.2.2. Structure of concerns
We used strategic capability network as a tool to figure out capabilities which support business strategy. This activity led the CSFs (critical success factors). CSFs were part of our recommendations. Figure 5 illustrates the relationship among vision, business strategy, business model, and CSFs. CSFs are written in white circles in lower half. There are many similar concepts, such as, vision, business strategy, business model, and company ideology. The president talked us about these. Each of them is important. But it was a little bit difficult for us to understand as a whole. This impression triggered to draw Figure 5 for arrangement of thought. The president has thought about these a lot. In a discussion at the meeting, the president got stimulated from us. He got new insight from our report and discussion. The discussion eventually brought values to the president. Figure 5 is one of the summaries of our activities. Students acquired very good experience. They learned what the management responds when satisfied.
3.3. Sales division of life insurance 3.3.1. Background
The goal is obvious to increase sales of life insurance by life consultants. Their basic business model was established more than 100 years ago. A life consultant asks a new client to introduce prospects. A list of prospect is an essential asset for the life consultant.
A manager of sales division of a life insurance company thought that there could be another business model, since IT has been advanced and IT has impacted society so much. He provided us the case.
3.3.2. Difficulty of logic creation
Figure 5 Structure of president concerns and our recommendations
We have more than dozen of meetings with the manager. Each meeting was about 2 hours. Student team often failed to deliver good values to the manager. Since he was not satisfied the contents of presentation, he gave us many suggestions.
Teacher did not give students clear advice to overcome the situation. Teacher thought that students should realize the cause of difficulty. Eventually the planed final presentation has been postponed, because quality of contents was not good.
Students had already enough elements of contents for presentation. They lack the key logic for persuasion. Figure 6 is the chart which is added after postpone of final presentation. Students had implicitly noticed that same interest or same concern were key. But they have never explicitly expressed it. There is common recognition that attractiveness of life consultant results in the success of sales. Adding Figure 6 with the story for success of sales, students completed the final presentation. Most of charts were the same at the time of postpone. Contents were not changed. Logic was explicitly added and clarified.
At the final presentation the director of sales division gave us very good comments. After all final presentation was successful. Students have experienced that a little difference turned out the success.
3.4. Cosmetic dermatology clinic 3.4.1. Background
The company was introduced by the president of home health care massage company. The employees of clinic are 7 other than the doctor and the president (wife of the doctor). When the clinic opened in 2000, cosmetic dermatology clinic was very new in Japan. There were so many customers that they had to wait 3 to 4 month to get treated. Since then business environment has changed. Many competitors appear. Behavior of customers changes. The president asked us any improvement of their business.
The president expressed issues from her perspective. The clinic does not provide functions to make a reservation through web home page. How can the clinic achieve the best balance between resource capacity and customer needs? In summer some customers have to wait 2 to 3 months, while in winter resources sometimes become idle. These are very natural observations. We tried to approach the root cause of issues.
We analyzed their business and their business processes. During the meeting with the company the president has noticed the problems which can be easily solved. Some actions were quickly taken which were triggered by our activities. Students were glad to get direct response.
3.4.2. Change the way of booking
One of root issues we identified is booking (make a reservation). It is natural that booking time is the time a customer requests. But it does not fit to the case of this clinic. We simulated how the requests conflict if we accept customer request time.
The result was about 50%. This number matches the feeling of receptionist. Since this number is big, there could be potential customers who give up to get treated by this clinic. The smaller conflict occurs, the better. This issue was not well recognized until we pointed out.
Analyzing reservation records, we found that 3 slot reservation holds more than two third. In order to reduce conflicts, reservation should be arranged so that 3 contiguous slots may be left. This led the change of thought that the booking time is not the customer request time but the recommended time by the clinic. The recommendation can be controlled easily by guide boarders.
Figure 6 New business model to get prospects for life consultants
Figure 7 shows this change as one of points to change. As objective of the project is to change the way of work, new way of booking fit to this. If IT support is available, there are additional services become available. Figure 7 shows these potential services, one of which is web reservation.
3.4.3. Crucial influences of PBL activities The president of the clinic said;
“I had never thought that the clinic (operations of the clinic) could change. Now I find even the clinic can change.”
One of the students said;
“I am able to feel happiness when I see that the client becomes happy through our consultation and when the client says
‘thank you.’”
4. Discussion
All the students of these PBL projects have work experience. Even though students have work experiences, it is still hard for them to grasp the business exactly. All the aspect of business is not explained or described. Some business processes must be compensated by hypothesis. The hypothesis must be checked whether it is right or not. Students are not well accustomed to this type of thinking process.
Appropriate understanding of business is essential to bring business values to a company. If a company is in small business, scope of business is limited. I think it is easier for a student to understand the business. But there is variety of viewpoints to approach the business values even in small business.
Real business case projects provide a student with particular experience which could be hard to acquire in current daily jobs.
A little difference turns out the success or the failure of projects. Though it is said that there are many things to learn in failure, I believe that success experience is also very important.
Conversation with the management gives students with insights. Direct response of the management to a proposal or a comment guides students for direction. Discussion with the management brings the different ways of thinking. I believe that it is important to provide opportunities where students meet directly with the management.
References
Tozawa, Y., Kato, Y. and Chubachi, Y. (2009), Efforts to ensure the quality of PBL education in the graduate school of Information Systems, Proceedings of the 2nd International Research Symposium on PBL 2009, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.
Tozawa, Y., (2009), IT strategy education through project based learning, Research on PBL Practice in Engineering Education, Sense Publishers, (Chapter 14) Tozawa, Y. (2011), Case studies of education in business process reengineering through PBL, Proceedings of the 3nd International Research Symposium on PBL
2011, Coventry University, UK.
Hammer, M., and Champy, J. A.(1993), Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, Harper Business Books, New York Schwaber, K. , & Sutherland, J. (2010). The Scrum Guide, Scrum.org.
Takeuchi, H., & Nonaka, I. (1986). The New New Product Development Game. Harvard Business Review.
Figure 7 Booking time is not the customer request time but recommended time by the clinic.