Bardak Management
Services is a "boutique" management
consulting firm specialising in advice to owner/managers
of small to medium sized enterprises. Since
early in 2008, Sue, who is the firm's principal, has embarked
on a three year plus research project as a PhD candidate at RMIT. As of September 2011 her doctoral thesis has been submitted.
The examination process takes 4-5 months from this date.
The research examined the effectiveness of a software supported management control system for Australian small businesses.
As well as developing the software, five cases were studied as part of the research programme. The research has revealed that indeed small businesses can benefit from implementing an intelligent
planning and control system that becomes part of the monthly business activity cycle. By regular attention to setting targets, making predictions and evaluating results each month, business performance
can be improved. It is a matter of guiding the business along the path you want. Control is achieved by incremental actions. A term used in the thesis was "continuous adaption". Evaluate what is happening,
set the course for the next few months and implement the actions required to achieve the desired outcome.
The key to success for business owners is to make use of the software based "personal thinking tool" that has been developed by Susan as part of the research programme.
So what is happening now?
Susan is busy getting the software ready for market. Whilst testing the software with the five case studies, ideas for improvement to the design detail were generated and these need to be implemented.
The overall functionality is already proved through testing with ten data sets over a two year period.
There are the commercial considerations such as registration, software activation, downloading a trial, setting up training videos and the like that need to be effected. In the meantime, a small number of clients
are continuing to use the business process that is embodied in the software system.
A new business name (owned by Bardak Ventures Pty Ltd) has been established to allow promotion of the software and its in-built management process.
The name adopted is "Business in Control". The web site www.businessincontrol.com.au has yet to be developed. Until that time, this Bardak site will host the
updates on the progress being made.
It is not Bardak's policy to hurry the process of getting the product to market. It has to be nearly perfect
in order that you, the owner/manager of a small to medium business, can really benefit from adopting a new approach to management control.
The remainder of the site contains
Sue's profile and some history of past activities. The
previous "services" section
of the web site has been retained for completeness, even
though those services will not be available until the commercialisation phase of the
project is completed.
Welcome to the site and enjoy!
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