DOR REVE Interior Decoration LLC — SME Case Study (UAE)

The aim of this report is to get an understanding of the selected business, DOR REVE Interior Decoration LLC, by keeping in view the vision and mission of this company.

The knowledge of the structure of this organization, products being offered by it, and its leadership style assists in understanding that there is a need of making changes by means of restructuring processes. Moreover, the majority of businesses are experiencing hard times because of lack of work orders and capital/investments.

A SME business may fail if no adjustment, in the sense of business operations, will be made according to the demand of time. Strategies can be of different types including operation strategy, business strategy, and marketing strategy and these will indicate clearly what approaches are being used to conduct business activities.

DOR REVE Interior Decoration Present and past challenges can help in understanding the future/upcoming challenges as well help in avoiding

. The other discussed topics of this report are recommendations and lessons learned.

Company Introduction The owner of the said company Dor Reve is Ismail Hassan Alnuami. This decoration company believes in creativity with simplicity in its ideas and designs. It is dealing with interior design services for both commercial and residential buildings and properties and turnkey projects. Its services range from contemporary, custom, large corporates, and branded settings.

Dor Reve’s mission is to offer solutions to its clients with the traits of conciseness, simplicity, eye-catching and up-to-date designs and schemes. The purpose behind its effort is to achieve uppermost space efficiency of a location to be decorated and adept. Investing of values by DOR REVE has covered a period of more than 10 years.

Vision Dor Reve comes with a clear vision of providing the most creative design, dragged out from artistic ideas/concepts and putting them in place according to individual taste and requirements of clients. It offers unique solutions to its clients by listening to them and understanding and converting their requirements into reality with the help of western ideas and mixed oriental.

Organizational Structure

A traditional type of organizational structure can be divided into four categories such as: matrix, functional, flat, and divisional type. The explanation of these structures will help in understanding the organization of Dor Reve.

Functional Type Under this kind of organizational structure, a team of individuals with similar expertise will be grouped together so the bookkeepers, accountants, internal auditors, and credit controllers will come under the finance department. The construction of other departments like marketing, HR, operations will be done in the same way.

A key benefit of a functional organization structure is the quick decision-making as the communication within a department becomes fast and easy. Another benefit of this kind of organizational structure is learning from one another to achieve more awareness, though they all hold almost of same kinds of knowledge and interests.

Vice President Functional Organizational Chart Manager Human Resources Manager Accounting Manager Marketing Manager Purchasing Manager Engineering Figure 66: Dor Reve’s Organizational Structure Flat Type This type of organizational structure is used to intersect the traditional top/down organization system as adopted by the majority of businesses. In the flat structure, management will not be of a centralized type, so there will be no autonomous type leader as in almost all other organizational structures. In a flat organizational structure, every employee can be the boss of herself/himself by avoiding bureaucracy for teamwork and making direct communication, such as a person with innovative idea wouldn’t need to walk through different levels of higher managements, so to let the design concept to reach to the key individual at last for final decision-making. But simply, employees can communicate in a direct way to achieve the target.

This method encourages collaboration and connectivity.

A business can assume this form of structure for the everyday drives/activities by having a specially designed system of top/down management intended for short- term developments and events (Janie Sullivan, 2019).

NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/SURNAME Position TEAM A NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/SURNAME Position TEAM A NAME/SURNAME Position TEAM A Figure 67 An explainer chart of a flat type structure Divisional This type of structure is based on the products and services being offered. Some companies group their workers in teams on the basis of products or project types in order to satisfy requirements of a particular type of consumer. For instance, a catering business with a number of operations can do grouping of the workforce by keeping in view its main clients e.g. cooking department, purchase department, wedding and parties department, finance department, and retail department.

The head of the labor division will make sure that workers get better efficiency for higher output.

Matrix It is a combination of the divisional and functional organization structure models, but more complex. It assembles the individuals first into functional sections of expertise, then separates them further into divisional products and projects.

Manager Album A Manager Album B Engineer Studio A Engineer Studio B Recording Engineer Producion Engineer Assistant Production A Assistant Production B Designer A Designer B Design Manager Music Publisher Matrix Organizational Chart Figure 68: An explanation of a matrix style organizational chart But with the growth of the digital market, teamwork and decentralized organizational assemblies are disrupting these old models.

Dor Reve Decorations Organizational Structure This business owned a flat type organization because top management isn’t looking in direct interactions with the front-line employees for every functionality. The employees have their own tasks to fulfill and also no mid- level management’s responsibility and role is observed.

There is a very little hierarchy observed as in case of flat organization structure, the owners will do supervision of overall business. Every person becomes practiced and an expert in holding and managing the work that moves their way. Dor Reve’s services can be divided into individual teams under flat / simple organizational structure such as: office interior design (team 1), villa interior design (team 2), hotel interior design (team 3), retail interior design (team 4), and landscape design (team 5).

NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/ SURNAME Position NAME/ SURNAME Position NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/ SURNAME Position NAME/ SURNAME Position NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/ SURNAME Position NAME/ SURNAME Position Team Team Team NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/ SURNAME Position NAME/ SURNAME Position NAME/SURNAME Position NAME/ SURNAME Position NAME/ SURNAME Position Team Team Figure 69: A look at Dor Reve’s organizational structure Dor Reve is a LLC company that has spent more than 10 years in the field of interior decoration. It means its team of designers is responding to consumer’s expectations according to their needs as well as interiors of buildings by meeting the particular conditions including making them environmentally friendly and in an eye-catching environment. Its flat organizational structure allows the workforce to make independent design-related decisions in order to meet the desires of clients.

Actually, this structure is best suited to small organizations because it is planned to decrease the undue influence of the bureaucracy. So its organizational structure is letting it: focus on the clients more, focus fully on team collaboration and teamwork, offer time saving in finalizing decisions because of just one level of administrative body, flexible behavior of entities with employees, and a decentralized approach so jobs are broadly defined. It can take benefits from a flat organizational structure including cost effectiveness – as it involves few managerial levels so the business has to give a small amount of cash in the form of salaries or bonuses to executive bodies, improved employee retaining – in case of flat organizational configuration, the creativeness of highly experienced and skilled people is encouraged but in vertical hierarchy, this is limited. This will also improve the morale of employees because there will be no mid-level administration.

The responsibility level of the front-line workforce will be automatically high, improved collaboration – teamwork is fortified in this organizational structure because majority of staffs belong to the same work field, and possibility of faster decisions making – involvement of fewer people is required for the consultation before reaching final decisions. Actually, under this system, a manager is given the power of making self-governing decisions that results in a quicker decision-making practice.

Leadership Leadership style matters a lot in the success of a business. A leader is a person who offers direction in his/her own unique style and manners, implements plans, and motivates those who come under his/her leadership. It is observed that the configuration pattern of the explicit and implicit actions can help in defining the style of leaders. Actually, Kurt Lewin’s first major study on the topic of leadership styles became public in 1939. It was on the identification of leadership’s different styles.

Anyhow, this influential research introduced three key styles of leadership such as: autocratic/authoritarian style - a leader with such a style will tell to the workforce that come under his control and how to do something and in what manner, without making any consultation.

On the other hand, a democratic/participative type leader may get advice from limited employees of his team but the final decision will be done by the leader.

Delegative is where a leader with this style can let the employees do decision making but the leader will still be in charge of the final decisions.

Leader Employees Leader Employees Leader Employees POWER STYLE Participative Automatic Free-rein Employees Whole Group EMPHASIS Leader Figure 70: The different types of leadership styles Some other types of leadership styles include democratic leadership- as the name shows under this type of leadership, the decisions by a leader are based on the contribution and feedback of all team members as all employees can give directions on an equal basis on any undertaking. Strategic leadership- such leaders made decisions by keeping in view the key operations and the potential growth opportunities for the company. This anticipated leadership style is preferred in the majority of organizations as strategic thinking cares different sorts of employees straight away. Transformational leadership is a kind of leadership that is always kept on making changes to improve the conditions and settlements of business. Supporters or team members might be responsible for the completion of basic sets of tasks, but the leader will continuously thrust them outside of their comfort-zones (Braden Becker, 2020).

Dor Reve Leadership Style The owner (leader) of Dor Reve is Ismail Hassan Alnuami. The leadership style of Dor Reve is a mixture of democratic and delegative types of leadership.

Democratic in a sense that higher management may consult the concerned employees, but the final words will be theirs. The company involves a delegative leadership style in a sense that it can allow the workforce and team of designers to make the decisions relating to a project, but final approval from the head will still be required.

Restructuring What business restructuring means- the merging of different businesses, or increasing of shares in a particular business, or forming group of companies; otherwise looking for a third-party investment or closing some companies that come under a group or moving from limited company to a partnership or vice versa (AMD Solicitors, 2019).

Together with these possibilities, any legal change may take place with the process of restructuring and the owner of a business can consider possible operational changes to improve business activities and performances. Why do business restructuring? The key reasons to restructure a business can be: downsizing in accordance with the economic activities and environment, falling demands of products, changes in market, changes in organization e.g. director exit, changes in ownership, expansion, or need of raising funds.

Restructuring at DOR REVE- The current situation of ongoing pandemic has disturbed almost all fields of life including big to small businesses in different ways.

For example, COVID-19 can spread through breathing droplets and also through interaction with polluted surfaces. Contact can happen at the place of work, while roaming in the course of work-related activities and travel to other branches. The transmission of the virus can occur by means of the local community or on the way from or to the workplace. So by keeping in front all such issues, the said company can make alterations in its ways to conduct business-related operations for this crucial time period.

COVID-19 Changes COVID-19 Changes Company Resources Changes in working behavior by staying at home Request to limited business activities Allowed Change in working style (remote work) Figure 71: Structural changes because of COVID-19.

Though this business has made its existence online already, still there is a need of making updates on a regular basis about its ongoing projects, etc. But from employees’ point of view, this company can show its concerns and preferences (e.g. employees and customers come first) to win the team’s trust. This company can make a plan to work from home, but the nature of this business demands frequent visits to clients’ locations in order to better understand the requirements of the customer’s business. Moreover, labor work and supervision of all such sorts of activities need to be done by following the safety measures in compliance with local laws. In this regard, risk assessment can help a lot e.g. considering environment, operations, resources, and threats can be the part of risk assessment. Downscaling work activities instead of closing all business-related operations will help in taking employees into confidence about their jobs surety as well as necessary to hold existing clients.

Otherwise in case of the need, their clients can contact some other companies for work accomplishment.

This pandemic’s effects can be of long lasting nature if they remain there without handling it properly by understanding the severity of the current situation.

Prolonged lockdowns may place bad impacts on the businesses, especially on SMEs. For the survival of such businesses and employees and their families, certain actions have to be taken by the companies with the support of the government, such as allowing employees to stay home on paid leave, otherwise letting them stay home on unpaid leave instead of reducing staff. Another option is to have employees with a minimum of 50% salary. All know the serious financial impacts on the SMEs businesses because of COVID-19.

s Dor Reve’s services range include: villa interior designing, office interior designing, hotel interior designing, retail interior designing, and landscape designing. The variety of its designs covers contemporary designs, as well as traditional designs.

Business strategies indicate to the business to deal with certain situations in order to gain particular goals. The growth strategy of the said company is included the plan to earn name in the market by offering creative designs with quality according to the desires of the customers as they stand first on their list of priorities.

On the other hand, its differentiation strategy is supporting the quality trait over the cost element e.g.

its designer solutions and reliable services to customers and clients are available at affordable rates. This would even takes in free consultation over a designing matter, as it incorporates cost leadership, as this business projects itself as the cheapest provider of a service or product. This strategy is in use as it deals with a narrower marketplace, where only some investors are involved in buying and selling of shares as people prefer to purchase quality services and products at affordable rates instead of buying the export quality products at higher prices.

Operation Strategy The collaboration strategy is in practice because it refers to the coordination trait that lets the business provide the solution according to the requirements of the clients.

Being operative in the market for many years is the result of teamwork and collaboration to achieve a particular goal.

Disruption Coordinate for action Quickly mobilize and initiate mitigation actiors to confirm business continuity Recovery Get out the gate smartly and swiftly Rebalance the business, recover with agility and rebound faster than competitors Resilience Embrace and manage capabilities you wish you had today Establish resilience capabilities to better sence and respond to the new normal and extreme disruption Competitive advantage Capitalize on the new normal Leapfrog weaker competition, strengthen financials, and help capitalize on new market opportunities and competitive respositioning Figure 72: A look at Dor Reve’s Operational Strategy Moreover, it is the coordination that helps in getting recovery from a challenging position to capture a competitive advantage such as Dor Reve with grace without compromising quality in current tough situations.

A cross channel strategy is preferable for the smooth experience of a business across a number of channels (e.g. online platforms and networks). The said business is using different mediums including Facebook, a website (still inactive) and different supporting sites to make its appearance online. But lack of attention is not letting the business get full benefits from such mediums.

Three Stages of effective Cross-Channel Marketing Strategy Find out which channel works best for your product.

Keep your audience need mind.

Consider Your Audience Identitfy the Proper Channel Evaluate and Adapt 03 Use Strategic Profit Model, to examine key metrics of channel’s financial performance and take action for improvement.

Figure 73: The stages of cross-channel marketing In this regard, the company needs to evaluate the output by considering the potential audience in order to adapt the exact marketing policy. Online existence is the best way in the current situation of COVID-19.

and How To Overcome Them Past challenges – As this company has been running its business operations at a local level for more than 10 years, possible past challenges may include low investment because it remained unable to expand its business activities. Present challenges – The key challenge of the present time is adapting the most suitable business conducting ways including promoting business via the Internet because these days, people like to visit businesses online first in order to select the best option for buying products. Future challenges- The current condition of the economy can have a serious impact on businesses. Though the governmental entities are facilitating to the private and public businesses, companies still need to take special measures to keep the employees by giving them opportunities to work without compromising their safety.

Plotting your Positioning Strategy....

What Customers want What you have offer What Competition has to give Risky Competitior Positioning Ideal Positioning Dont even think about this Figure 74: The types of positioning outcomes a company can experience The competition is already high in the market, so Dor Reve needs to adopt appropriate technological solutions for making its existence prominent, in order to capture the market in the future. Challenges need the full attention of the management to be resolved such as by means of latest technology and live chat facility. Online handling of the business related activities can be affordable for the company because of free of cost social media sites.

Moreover, free of cost promotion of the services and products can happen besides staying in contact with the customers. Rather than closing business in case of lockdown for a particular time period, the company can stay in touch with customers via websites, social media, email, and so on. In this way, legal challenges could be met e.g. by offering work from home facilities to employees.

Successful Best Practices

Successful practices include: customers come first policy, on time customer service, product delivery, skilled staff and expert management, HR competency, teamwork and collaboration and most of all, meeting of the implemented laws requirements.

Failed Practices

Some failures include: incompetent leadership, not paying any attention to online resources and leaving them without updating for a long time, not enough investment, insufficient marketing of products and services, not letting employees contribute in decision making, lacking in strategic planning, and so on.

The selected company, Dor Reve Interior Designs LLC, though working well within its limited scope, needs to expand its exposure. In the current situation, just the land-based existence of a business is not enough to get access to more customers, to make improvements and success with the passage of time. This Dubai based company is still offering its quality services within the boundaries of the UAE after spending more than 10 years in the industry of interior design. The policies of the UAE government is of great importance to be discussed here as the governmental bodies are contributing at its level best in giving comfort zones to the business community including small to medium businesses. For example, the Dubai government has announced the financial support to minimize the pandemic impact on the businesses e.g. stimulus economic package of 1.5 billion dirhams to support the business sector in Dubai. The company’s growth can be influenced by the economic growth of the country and also by the potential of business as it might be affected by the financial position of the general public.

Dor Reve Interior Decoration Company can cash its online existence with the use of tactics like live-chat feature to deal with customers as well as online order placement by clients. Moreover, the feedback option will let the management understand the demands of customers.

Dor Reve needs to manage its site named as: www.

dorreve.com properly in order to make it available for visitors. Company can promote its business by adding attractive features in websites like: easy to browse, and work portfolio availability online to give an idea about the work quality to the intended customers.

The lessons I learned from this case study are listed

below

¡ Always keep a sufficient amount of profit saved for any uncertain conditions or for the survival of business in hard times.

¡ Hard work is the key to success.

¡ A small business can serve as a role model for big businesses with the help of competent leadership.

¡ Bad circumstances can’t stop a determined person from working hard.

¡ Positivity of mind can give you a lead.

¡ Face difficulties because challenges come to meet defeat and to unlock the door of success.

The above discussion has revealed that use of goal setting by a business can push the barriers and boundaries. Moreover, no pandemic can divert you from focusing on the best customer service, which is the foundation of getting more business. Face challenges instead of quitting as well as strong determination and commitment to continuous learning. All of these will let you delegate power without compromising quality in the current situation.