assignment

Measuring Success

Author Note

I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.

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MEASURING SUCCESS 2

Costs of Proposal/Service

Introduction

The budget of any proposal, including the costs of materials, resources, and the time frame of the project must be prepared in an accurate, appealing, and justifiable way to help the organization realize profitability. The preparation of a proposal budget requires one to consider five key factors including research and development, salaries, travel costs, the profit margin, and operational costs.

Factors to Consider in the Preparation of Proposal Budgets

The effective estimation of costs on a proposal budget requires the consideration of commitment and efforts among the stakeholders including employers and employees, estimating methods, cost sharing, and allowability. For example, in relation to a principal investigator proposing budgets for Stanford University, it is the responsibility for the PI to assure Stanford University, and the potential sponsors that the finances of the projects are represented in an accurate way. Moreover, the federal government must define certain prerequisites, such as the cost principles under §200 of the Uniform Guidance. Furthermore, the PI must ensure that the budget proposal is consistent to the requirements imposed by the CAS (federal Cost Accounting Standards) board; must be observed and at the proposal phase, in addition to where the funds will be used.

Salary Costs

The process of preparation of proposal budgets involves the need for an individual to calculate the salary costs for the proposals. Determining costs also requires one to determine the participants of the projects and how these people will be compensated for their efforts. For instance, an advertising agency could support their clients with media buyers, copy writers, account executives, art directors, and creative directors (Shim et al., 2011). In contrast, a software firm could depend on an implementation specialist, a support representative, and a customer success representative. Upon identifying the people who will support the project’s prospect if they decide to work with the organization, it will be necessary to determine the amount of money they will make in an hour (Shim et al., 2011). On the other hand, calculating the salary costs will require one to multiply the amount of money they make per hour with the number of hours needed to complete the project.

Research and Development Costs

Alongside estimating salary costs, it is crucial to consider the costs of research and development when preparing budget. When preparing budgets, it is important for the budget planners to determine whether the firm had a viable market and offering (Shim et al., 2011). For instance, Apple Inc. invest heavily in research and development to help its marketing to understand, market trends, the changing preferences of customers in relation to changing technologies, as well as what their competitors are offering in the tech industry. In determining Apple’s research and development costs, the marketers had to determine the amount of capital the firm spent creating the products and other offerings in its portfolio. As such, Apple Inc. recognizes that, although the firm would not put the burden to recoup the R&D costs on a single market segment/ customer base, it is important to consider these costs as they help the company realize profitability.

Travel Costs

Travel costs are also an important factor to consider, especially if the employees must travel. For example, when a company wants to have its products reach emerging markets, it would require that the firm sends some employees-marketers, to assess the potential for profits in that market (Mauskopf et al., 2015). In other words, if personnel must travel to satisfy the needs and outcomes of the proposal, it would require budget planners to calculate and estimate travel costs. For instance, when Samsung wanted to expand its customer base in emerging markets across Africa, the executives had the responsibility of not only identifying the trainers, salespeople, account managers, and implementation specialists, but also estimate and allocate travel costs for these delegates’ on-site visits to target clients (Mauskopf et al., 2015). Therefore, to estimate travel costs, an individual must multiply the number of travelers, with the costs of return tickets to their destinations.

Operational Costs

Another cost to consider in preparing budget proposal is operational expenses. Operational costs include expenses like utilities, general staff, rent, marketing, maintenance, and sales expenses. which organizations must incur to continue its business operations (Buckley, 2017). The process of estimating operating costs of a proposal or service also requires the budget planners to outline the aspect of cost sharing. For instance, in a university setting, when a principal investigator proposes a specific project, the University usually agrees to cost share University resources. According to Buckley (2017), to ensure effective utilization of resources and reducing operational costs, the University is obligated to provide the stated resources in the performance of the project. Furthermore, based on the administrative responsibilities and requirements that are integral within the cost sharing efforts, the PI must weigh the cost effectiveness versus the expected benefit of each cost.

Conclusion

The preparation of a proposal budget requires planners to consider various factors, including travel costs, salary costs, operational costs, and research and development costs. Effective implementation of projects requires the optimal utilization of resources, materials, and time, aimed at reducing operational costs.

The process of preparation of proposal budgets involves the need for an individual to calculate the salary costs for the proposals. In relation to personnel, the human resource management team must determine the costs of the employees, especially salespeople who will market the company’s products and services. Nike’s marketing objectives aims at expanding its customer outreach to emerging markets. It will be essential for the company to outsource an advertising agency that will support their clients with media buyers, copy writers, account executives, art directors, and creative directors (Shim et al., 2011). Upon identifying the personnel who will support the project’s prospect if they decide to work with the organization, it will be necessary to determine the amount of money they will make in an hour (Shim et al., 2011). On the other hand, calculating the salary costs for the personnel in which it will require the managers to multiply the amount of money they make per hour with the number of hours needed to complete the project.

According to Nike’s marketing strategy, the Research and Development, coupled with its marketing team, it is evident that the firm’s ad campaigns usually play a vital role in signaling shifts in the desires and values of customers. The customers’ desires and values about their tastes and preferences are crucial in creating a consumer’s to either buy or not t buy a company’s brand (Chen et al., 2017). As such, the primary objective of Nike’s Just do it slogan is to bring innovation and inspiration to every athlete worldwide. Nike’s branding and advertisement strategy have played a crucial role in helping the company create and define its brand identity.

The company’s Research and Development team at Nike has enabled the firm to generate product designs that offer consumers an aspect that makes them identify themselves with the company or utilize their lifestyle. The company must also establish a strong and well-recognized brand that is enhanced through its swoosh slogan, which improves its advertisement strategy and functions as cultural diffusion (Chen et al., 2017). For instance, the swoosh and Just do it slogan exemplify athleticism, playful self-awareness, fitness, and power as an element of cultural diffusion. Therefore, the attributes embodied in Nike’s slogan help users of the sportswear to understand that the firm believes in the power of human potential.

The company’s demographic served action will include the need for the company to segment is market and focus on the young generation. Nike’s advertising is also renowned for celebrity endorsement. The company’s marketing team will use celebrity endorsement as a significant strategy to help the company create a superior brand over its rivals (Chen et al., 2017). At its core, celebrity endorsement refers to a form of marketing whereby a company chooses to employ the social status of famous individuals (celebrities) to enhance the promotion of products and services. The central element of celebrity advertisement is infusing the celebrity image into the consumer’s mind, potentially influencing their perception of the product and service. Additionally, celebrity endorsement plays a vital role in linking the customer to the endorser through the advertised products (Chen et al., 2017). For Nike, Michael Jordan, a renowned basketball player in the NBA, create a brand identity and image for customers. Conversely, when consumers link themselves to Jordan’s values, personalities, and iconic position in the swoosh logo, they begin to interpret the values that Nike upholds, including innovation and playful awareness.

The dynamic nature of the modern business environment has necessitated organizations to develop and implement interventions that focus on improving performance. Am the most effective interventions, include information-focused, which aims at defining activities and operations that clarify or specify purpose, mission, vision, services, market positions, and responsibilities (Pulakos, 2014). Additionally, information-focused interventions are crucial in outlining operations that communicate organizational objectives, expectations, outcomes, goals and discrepancies. For instance, having information-focused interventions at the organization will be crucial in defining and communicating goals and objectives of the marketing department in the first office. As such, the marketing managers will improve marketing activities which will in turn help the company to increase revenues through an effective improvement plan.

The management team at the corporation tends to be reluctant in providing employees with positive and candid feedback. An information-focused intervention approach will play a vital role in ensuring that managers convey honest feedback and discussions with their subordinates, thereby nurturing robust relationships with the entire workforce. According to Pulakos (2014), a family intervention will be beneficial for the company as it will enable every member of the organization to treat the concept of performance management as a necessary tool of their work life. With an information-based intervention approach, the managers will clarify job expectations and responsibilities, enhance group and individual productivity, in addition to developing employee abilities to their fullest degree, through effective coaching, mentoring, and feedback. Therefore, since the primary objective of the first office is to increase sales and revenues, the marketing managers should drive employee behavior that aligns with the company’s core values, strategy, and goals.

The second office on the other hand, is tasked with the responsibility of overhead reduction role in which the performance management tool focuses on improving pro0ductivity. Implementing an information-focused intervention in this office is fundamental in helping the managers to stimulate the office’s result expectations (Pulakos, 2014). The information-focused intervention will be beneficial in helping the managers to align the goals of the workers with the organization’s goals, objectives, and strategy. With the information-focused approach, it will be essential for the managers to consider the workers’ development needs throughout the goal setting process (Pulakos, 2014). For example, the workers’ developmental goals should be targeted to the improvement of their current job performance, in addition to their preparation for career advancement. Some of the goals for a worker in the second office could be; the completion of project “A”, by time “B”, increase sales by 20 percent, or the successful mentoring of worker “X” to develop skill “Y”. Nonetheless, it could be challenging for managers to perceive the direct relationship between high-level and sometimes lofty organizational objectives, and what a specific worker can realize in their job.

During the implementation of an information-focused intervention will ensure that managers from both offices embrace an ongoing feedback process that will enhance both result and behavioral expectations. The managers will have the challenge of discussing and providing the employees with a constant feedback process, aimed at improving performance (Pulakos, 2014). However, for the feedback process to effective, it will be necessary for the managers to embrace open communication that will create a culture of collaboration, teamwork, and synergy among employees. As such, an information-based intervention will be essential in helping managers improve performance management among their subordinates, thereby improving the firm’s productivity.

References

Buckley, S. (2017). Preparing the budget. Making an Effective Bid: A Practical Guide for Research, Teaching and Consultancy, 73.

Chen, K., Newell, S. J., Kou, G., Zhang, L., & Li, C. H. (2017). Effective strategies for developing meaningful names and associations for co-branded products in new and emerging markets. Journal of brand management, 24(4), 362-374.

Mauskopf, J. A., Earnshaw, S., & Mullins, C. D. (2015). Budget impact analysis: review of the state of the art. Expert review of pharmacoeconomics & outcomes research, 5(1), 65-79.

Pulakos., E. D (2014). Performance Management: A roadmap for developing, implementing, and evaluating performance management systems. Society for Human Resource Management. (Online)Retrieved from: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/documents/performance-management.pdf

Shim, J. K., Siegel, J. G., & Shim, A. I. (2011). Budgeting basics and beyond (Vol. 574). John Wiley & Sons.