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QAMARIA BATIK

Noraini Mohamad (2011)

Census on the establishment of SMEs in Malaysia by Department of Statistics (DOS),

Malaysia shows a record that over 500,000 companies presence in Malaysia are SMEs. Of

that number, a large percentage is in the small size category. However, QAMARIA Sdn Bhd is

falls under the category of Medium size with the number of employees is more than five (5)

and sales turnover is more than RM250,000. Formally, the QAMARIA Sdn Bhd was an

enterprise dealing in Batik production in Kuala Trengganu. The owners, Mr. Umar and Mdm

Qamariah are husband and wife as well as business partners . They have been in Batik

business even before their marriage and continues to be in the same business until today.

At QAMARIA Sdn Bhd, Mr Umar acted as director as well as the Chief Operating Executive

and the companys Marketing Executive. The position held is based on his expertise in

Marketing and Distribution, an experience which he gained from working with a number of

large companies abroad. In addition, he was a graduate of similar field from an IVY League

University in United States.

Mdm Qamariah on the other hand gained most of her business experience in Batik Trading

through her family Batik business. She is also the Director of the company as well as the

Finance Senior Executive . In Finance and accounting matters, she is assisted by Aisha, a

Junior Finance Executive, a graduate from UiTM and a Senior Clerk who has worked for the

company since the establishment of the QAMARIA Enterprise.

In Production side, Mr Umar has employed his own cousin, En Rosli to lead the Department

and being assisted by other senior family members. Several young designers were hired on

a contract basis as the company does not see the need to hire them permanently. Batik

Designs were drawn up mostly by En Rosli himself upon discussion with Mr Umar and Mdm

Qamariah. Ideas from young designers on current trend of Batik design and clothing

preferrance are often denied. Sadly to say, the designs produced by En. Rosli were often

not current and as a result, QAMARIA Sdn Bhd sales in yearsr 2010 to 2011 suffered. Thecompany lost not only their young market talent but also the market segment to their

competitors. To add salt to the wound, Mr Umar is unable to deliver on its marketing plan

effectively due to his tight schedule. Furthermore, his marketing strategy solely focus on the

purchases by government department that buys Batik clothing for functions and to be worn

compulsory on every Thursdays. Mr Umar too had send some of the Batik Clothings to some

stores at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur but the sales outcome were poor due

to the unpopular design, outdated fashion and poor quality of material used. In addition, the

company has to compete with other competitors that offer products at a very low prices.

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Meanwhile, in Human Resource Department, Pn Sally, a long serving staff of the company

has complaint that staff turnover are rather high especially among the skilled workers. This

in turn will further impact on the production department to produce good quality products

for exports market and an increase in cost of training and hiring staff. In addition, the

company is facing problems to hire skilled workers to replace those who had left thecompany. Interestingly, their workers are loyal to Trengganu state but decide to leave

QAMARIA Sdn Bhd due to unconducive working environment as well as less incentives

offered by the company.

Meanwhile, in the Finance section, Pn Aisha resume her duties without proper supervision

from Mdm Qamariah. She has encountered that accounting records were not properly kept,

transactions done manually, cash and payment receipts were not in order of date or number

sequence. Incoming mails were not listed and Pn Qamariah request Pn Aisha to look at all

the daily incoming mails to the company. Also, on banking of cash, no specific person were

assigned to do so. At times, Mdm Qamariah and Mr Umar will do the banking of cash but

most of the time, Pn Aisha did it. The company too could not trace their cash flow

movement due to this practice. Collection of Accounts receivable is often left to the Senior

Accounts Clerk. No proper guidance was given to her on the technique of debts collections

or to prepare the Aging List to identify the hardcore debtors.

Mr Umar was worried with the company performance and seek your advice to assist him to

improve and to bring glory to the company that he and his wife had formed since their

marriage. Furthermore, he is thinking to hand over the business to his children in the future.

Required:

1. Identify issues and challenges faced by QAMARIA Sdn Bhd.

2. Provide solutions to each of the challenges

3. Redesign the companys new organisation chart and preparea simple job description

for each of the executives.

4. What companys marketing strategy should the company adopted in order to sustain

sales at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur.