BUSINESS MANAGMENT UNIT 3
Emails from the world of LSOs
Richard Armitage
Education consultant
Richard Armitage’s popular email activities for Units 3 and 4 have been updated to
include the following set for Unit 3. These activities are designed as short sets of
tasks to be completed following coverage of the relevant key knowledge. Students
are required to complete the tasks in each email activity using the resources
listed. The activities can be provided progressively and emailed to students or
posted on the school intranet.
Email 1: CEOs—just who are they in an LSO? (Area of Study 1)
Large-scale organisations are important components of the Australian economy and make a
significant contribution to it, both in terms of the number of people they employ and the contribution
they make to Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP). Situated between the board of directors that
represents the shareholders and the employees of the organisation is the CEO.
Tasks
1
What do the letters ‘CEO’ stand for?
2
What type of company is Telstra Ltd and what industry sector is it from?
3
‘With the chief executive selection process complete, Mr McGauchie resigned as Telstra
Chairman and said he would leave the board immediately.’
What was Donald McGauchie the chairman of and what is the board?
4
Who is the CEO responsible to and what is the CEO responsible for?
5
Give three reasons for paying some CEOs multi-million dollar salary packages each year.
Your reasons should be based on the work and responsibilities of CEOs.
Resources

Cartoon: http://www.cartoonwork.com/archive/ceocartoons/ceoexercise.htm

‘ANZ banks $9m on new CEO Michael Smith’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 June 2007:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/anz-banks-9m-on-new-ceo-michaelsmith/2007/06/12/1181414254847.html.

‘McGauchie follows Sol out’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 May 2008:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/mcgauchie-follows-sol-out-20090508-ax5t.html.

‘Debunking the myth of the superhero CEO’, The Age, 4 October 2009:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/03/1064988406058.html.
VCTA © Richard Armitage
Published January 2010
page 1
BUSINESS MANAGMENT UNIT 3
Email 2: Large-scale organisations (Area of Study 1)
Large-scale organisations (LSOs) not only exist in different legal structures, as private and public
companies, but also in the private sector and public sector.
Tasks
1
What are LSOs? Use evidence from every business identified in the resource list below.
2
Explain the difference between private sector LSOs and public sector LSOs.
3
Explain the difference between private companies and public companies.
4
What is a multinational or transnational company?
Resources

VISY: http://ww2.visy.com.au > About Visy.

‘Tattersalls shares priced at $2.90’, The Age, 2 June 2005:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/tattersalls-shares-priced-at290/2005/06/02/1117568295599.html.

Tattersalls is now part of the Tatts group: http://www.tattsgroup.com

Australia Post: http://www.auspost.com.au/education > Secondary Students > Fact File >
Facts and Figures.

Melbourne Water:
http://www.melbournewater.com.au/content/about_us/who_we_are/who_we_are.asp?bhcp=1

Mission Australia: http://www.missionaustralia.com.au/about-mission-australia/46-people-andvalues.
Email 3: Airline KPIs (Area of Study 1)
All LSOs, including airlines, use KPIs to measure business performance.
Qantas aims to provide high levels of customer service and provides its employees with customer
service targets, that is, performance indicators (KPIs). With knowledge of targets, employees know
what to aim for.
In a BRW article, ‘Quantum leap in service for the flying kangaroo’ (1999), several Qantas KPIs were
highlighted. ‘Qantas will not disclose how quickly baggage is being delivered but the standards show
that for domestic flights the KPI target is to get priority luggage on to the belt within 5–9 minutes of
“chox time” (when the chocks are placed under the aircraft wheels). The KPI target is 9–15 minutes
for non-priority baggage.’
According to the Qantas 2009 annual report, ‘in June 2009, monthly customer satisfaction reached its
highest level since 2003’.
Tasks
1
Define the following terms: ‘standards’, ‘performance benchmarks’ and ‘KPIs’.
2
How could Qantas measure financial performance?
3
How could Qantas measure operational performance?
4
How could QANTAS measure service performance in baggage handling?
5
What are the benefits to Qantas and their stakeholders of setting standards and measuring
performance?
VCTA © Richard Armitage
Published January 2010
page 2
BUSINESS MANAGMENT UNIT 3
Resources

‘Australia’s best on-time arrivals for November’, Qantas website, November 2009,
http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/on-time-performance/global/en.

Qantas Annual Report 2009, http://www.annualreport.qantas.com.au.
Email 4: KPIs for an e-commerce website (Area of Study 1)
Performance indicators (or KPIs) are used to measure organisational performance. They can
measure organisational effectiveness and also efficiency. They may be internal standards, industry
standards or even ‘world’s best practice’.
In a BRW article, ‘E-marketing: back to basics’ (2001), the place of key performance indicators for an
e-commerce website was discussed. ‘After a company has defined the marketing strategy and
budget, it can set realistic communications objectives:

awareness of the site

the number of visitors to it

the rate at which visitors are converted into customers

infrequent customers are converted into loyal ones.
The site's performance in achieving these objectives should be tracked.’
The article also stated that ‘companies that fail to collect the right information, analyse it, and adjust
their operations accordingly (and quickly), will be slow to learn what their customers want, to rectify
their mistakes, and to make money’.
Tasks
1
What are the four KPIs that you could develop from these four communications objectives?
2
Why do you need to track the site’s performance?
3
How can KPIs be used to adjust what a business is doing?
Resource

Key Performance Indicators (KPI): How and Organisation Defines and Measures Progress
Towards its Goals, About.com: Management,
http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/keyperfindic.htm.
Email 5: Strategic planning (Area of Study 2)
Planning in the long-, medium- and short-term is a key management role. Strategic planning involves
defining an organisation’s strategy or direction, and making decisions or allocating resources to
implement the strategy.
In a BRW article (2000), ‘E-commerce: the new rules of engagement’, Bob Hayward states that ‘the
five-year planning period that is typical of traditional strategic plans is no longer feasible. Within two
years, the business environment will be so different that a new strategy will be required. The speed of
strategic execution must also increase. Any idea that requires more than 12 months to execute will
probably fail.’
VCTA © Richard Armitage
Published January 2010
page 3
BUSINESS MANAGMENT UNIT 3
Tasks
1
Describe the approach to strategic planning that a business involved in e-commerce needs to
adopt. Explain how this is different from strategic planning undertaken for a traditional
business.
2
Make a list of stakeholders you think would be in the internal environment and the external
environment of an e-commerce business.
Resources

Business Plan of the Month Club, 24 March 2000, http://www.clickz.com/822391.

Identifying the Strategic Opportunities of E-business, August 2006, http://earticles.info/e/a/title/Identifying-the-Strategic-Opportunities-of-E-Business-Innovation.
VCTA © Richard Armitage
Published January 2010
page 4