DBAX 9104C Week 5 Recommendation Cut Record Example

Eight Recommendations Down to Four, Including the One I Liked Best: A Cut Record for a Consulting Study of a Family-Owned Furniture Maker's First Export Sales to Canada

Student Name

Walden University

DBAX 9104C: Business Consulting Research Project Stage 4

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Eight Recommendations Down to Four, Including the One I Liked Best: A Cut Record for a Consulting Study of a Family-Owned Furniture Maker's First Export Sales to Canada

Before the Cut

My consulting study examined the first two years of export sales at a family-owned furniture maker in northern Indiana that builds solid hardwood dining and bedroom furniture and began selling to Canadian retailers. Export orders reached 11 percent of revenue in year one and fell to 7 percent in year two. The study drew on interviews with the owners, the sales director, two production managers and four Canadian retail buyers, along with order records, freight invoices and returns data. My draft closing had eight recommendations:

1. Quote landed prices in Canadian dollars, including duty and freight.

2. Consolidate Canadian orders into full truckloads on a fixed monthly schedule.

3. Revise packaging for long-haul freight to cut damage claims.

4. Give Canadian buyers a dedicated order contact.

5. Exhibit at an international furniture trade fair.

6. Translate catalogs into French for Quebec retailers.

7. Hire a dedicated export manager.

8. Offer extended payment terms to new Canadian accounts.

Four survived. This record explains the four that did not.

The Four Cut

Table 1

Recommendations Removed and Where They Went

Each removal agreed with the chair before the client report was drafted.

Cuts That Were Easy

The trade fair and French catalog recommendations came from my own reading on export development rather than from the study. Leonidou et al. (2002), in a meta-analysis of export performance, found trade fair participation and product adaptation among the marketing factors linked to export success in many studies. That made both ideas feel supported. But nothing in my data addressed either: no buyer mentioned trade fairs, and all four buyers interviewed were in Ontario and British Columbia. A recommendation in a consulting study must rest on a finding from that study; the literature can strengthen it, not replace it.

The extended payment terms idea had one source, the sales director, who believed that Canadian buyers wanted 60-day terms. None of the four buyers raised payment terms. One interview is not enough to recommend a change that would tie up the company's cash, so the idea appears in the client report's appendix as something the sales director suggested and the study could not check.

The Hard Cut

The export manager is the recommendation I believe in most. Every problem the study found, slow quotes in the wrong currency, damaged shipments, buyers unsure whom to call, looks like the work of nobody in particular. A dedicated person might fix all of them. Leonidou (2004), studying barriers to small business exporting, describes limited managerial time and knowledge as a common internal barrier, which fits what I saw.

But the study did not test it. No finding shows that firms with export managers did better, because the study examined one firm. The four surviving recommendations each address a specific finding: landed pricing addresses buyers' complaints about currency and duty surprises, truckload consolidation addresses freight costs that ran 14 percent of export order value, packaging addresses damage claims on 9 percent of export shipments, and a dedicated contact addresses buyers' reports of unanswered emails. The export manager would address all of these together, but that is an inference, and a hire is the most expensive recommendation on the list. It moves to future research as a question: would a dedicated export role improve results for small manufacturers in their first years of exporting?

How the Client Received the Cut

The owners asked about the export manager directly, since I had mentioned it in an early meeting. I explained that the four recommendations could be done by current staff and tested within a year, and that a hire could be considered if they did not work. Block (2011) describes the consultant's obligation to separate what the evidence shows from what the consultant personally believes, and to make both visible to the client. The owners now have both: the four tested-against-evidence recommendations in the report, and my opinion, labeled as opinion, in our conversation.

Confirming the Four

Each surviving recommendation was traced back to its finding and its sources before the cut was final. Rousseau (2006) calls for decisions to be based on the best available evidence with its quality made clear; four recommendations with clear evidence serve the owners better than eight of mixed quality.

References

Block, P. (2011). Flawless consulting: A guide to getting your expertise used (3rd ed.). Pfeiffer.

Leonidou, L. C. (2004). An analysis of the barriers hindering small business export development. Journal of Small Business Management, 42(3), 279-302. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-627X.2004.00112.x

Leonidou, L. C., Katsikeas, C. S., & Samiee, S. (2002). Marketing strategy determinants of export performance: A meta-analysis. Journal of Business Research, 55(1), 51-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0148-2963(00)00133-8

Rousseau, D. M. (2006). Is there such a thing as "evidence-based management"? Academy of Management Review, 31(2), 256-269. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2006.20208679