Case Study of Sackville

Sackville was the transition from being a manufacturing town to a service-based economy, and in the year 1988 the town in partnership with Ducks Unlimited Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Service, Mount Allison University and the New Brunswick government built the Sackville Waterfowl Park. This park had 55 acres of wet marshland, the main attraction became to observe birds and ducks in natural marshland habitat. And some events were planned to attract more crowd, as the founders wanted to offer artistic, cultural and waterfowl and marshland related outdoor activities.      

Apparently, AWC had issues with finances but when we dig deep, we can see there are many issues related to management.

 In 1989, the organization got government funding worth $45,000, $43,000 from corporate sponsors and earned $99,000 as revenue. The company had to spend $61,000 in marketing and promotion. The organization remained heavily dependant on government grants till 1994, they even lost $13,000 in that year.

While 1993 was the most successful event to date, but the organization lost money due to high expenditure in the marketing campaign. They successfully created a buzz in the entire maritime region but they definitely went overboard.

At the end of 1993 and the beginning of 1994 AWC found itself in debt. It owed the town about $31,000. And funding became an issue for AWC for the year 1994. AWC agreed to pay back the town this amount over 4 years and they had to pay the employees too. In order to service this financial commitment, they required more free cash flow.                         

For 1994, they had a target to raise $30,000 from corporate sponsorship and $10,000 in individual event sponsorship but they managed to raise only $6000 in corporate sponsorship and $7,350 from individual event sponsorships.

In the same year, the marketing and promotion suffered due to a lack of money. The low budget poster sent a wrong signal to the community and they could not afford radio ads in too many stations.

In the same year 1994, when 2 of 5 executives left, they realized that the bylaws were really inefficient to get things are done.

The duck calling event had to be canceled too due to conflict among volunteers in charge to organize the event.

The turnout was low too in 1994, mainly because the management could not quite understand when to have it.

The final blow came in 1995 when the government grant was reduced to $8000 and that too was supposed to be released only after AWC paid their due of $9000.

 

 

I think the management did not do a good job of planning and managing expenses. When it was a known fact that government funds were unreliable, but they remained dependant on government funds for far too long. They were not good at managing funds they had, they spent more than they should have in marketing and went into loss. They did not budget well for marketing or for any other expenses.

Even the Bylaws were not too efficient and did no allow them to function properly. There was not much foresight when the organization was being formed. Actually, they did not have anyone experienced in this kind of organization.

Another instance we see of bad management, the canceled duck calling event which was canceled due to conflict among volunteers. The management could not handle the situation, neither did they resolved the issues and the result was a disaster.

I think there are some possible alternates that are both structural and non-structural in nature.

The first alternate is change in the executive board. They could either find people with experience in a similar job or they can hire consultants to learn from them. And they can find people with experience in finance and marketing too. So that the organization can better manage their finances and do a better job in marketing in a tight budget.

Secondly, they should bring in consultants to determine what events they can organize and what else they can do to monetize the event.

 

Thirdly, they can gather more data from more visitors, data such as how much money they are willing to pay or what kind of activities they enjoy or would like to see etc.

The fourth suggestion would be come up with cheaper marketing avenues. I understand in the 90s internet or mobile advertising was not an option. But, they can advertise in grocery stores, offer coupons, etc.

 

Firstly they should find executives who have experience in this type of industry, with experience in marketing, events, etc.

Hiring consultants who can provide ideas on what kind of events would be fun and more appealing, marketing strategies that would reach potential customers but in cost-effective way and provide a better idea on ticket pricing and timing of the events. 

 

This case appears to be a small/medium-sized project. Keeping in mind that project leader and employees can be part-time, budget and plans are not clear and varies, external factors play significant roles and cause insecurities (Jessen,2010).

If the budget was fixed and they did not have so many uncertainties we could have played around with some more events or ticket prices or ticket prices, but given the situation we cannot. So, the size of the project would have changed my response. 

 

This case study shows us what kind of challenges small/medium projects face and provide us an opportunity to explore many ways to mitigate those challenges.

As we will continue working with small/medium projects, we should learn about them, understand challenges those projects face and learn how we can come over those situations.

 

References –

Jessen, S.A. (2010). Project Leadership -- Step by Step: Part I. Bookboon.com