Case Study – WORLDUCATION

Worlducation is a social startup that manufactures tablet computers for primary school students. They
not only focus on the hardware, but they also have a competitive team creating software, content and
activities to better engage and educate the students.
Worlducation aims to change the way children learn at school by implementing artificial intelligence
technology that can follow up on each child’s progress and adjust to their needs as they learn,
creating the optimal path learning experience.
So far, Worlducation only sells their tablet computers business to business (B2B) as they realised that
their content and hardware proved most effective when a whole classroom was using it, and a teacher
was coordinating the activities. Also, this helped the sales team focus on larger sales, and minimised
the potential number of problems that could arise from individual customers. However, the long-term
plan is to also tackle a business to consumer strategy (B2C).
What makes Worlducation completely different from their competition is that they envision a world in
which every child learns how to read and write – a world without illiteracy. Given this vision, for every
classroom that buys their products, they donate and train a classroom somewhere around the world
that can’t afford the same technology. Furthermore, they connect the two classrooms (those who
bought the products and services and those who received the donation) so that they can grow
together and collaborate throughout their learning cycle.
Worlducation was founded in 2016, and by the end of 2019 they had sold over 35,000 tablets to over
550 schools in 23 countries, generating revenue in hardware sales and software subscriptions.
Worlducation headquarters are in Sydney’s CBD but they have a development team in Bulgaria, a
manufacturing team in Hong Kong, and operation and sales and marketing staff in Colombia, Egypt,
Iceland, Russia and the Philippines. The management structure is shown below.

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 Worlducation’s organisational structure is shown in the figure below.

Worldcation has a complex supply chain that begins when a sale is made usually via a sales
representative or through and online enquiry that is handled by the sales team. Sales are recorded in
an internal Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP System) which notifies the operations team
that an order needs to be delivered. The operations team verify the sales order and authorise the
delivery of a manufacturing request to the factory in Hong Kong. Manufacturing team in Hong Kong
notes the order specifications and delivery details and incorporates this within its production schedule.
The order is manufactured and the operations team arrange freight and shipping directly to the
customer.
Worlducation started 2020 with a huge sale to a school in Portugal. Although it was a great start, the
context for the rest of the quarter was highly uncertain due to COVID-19. Surprisingly the pandemic
brought hundreds of new leads and that led to an unprecedented growth that brought alongside
dozens of operation and production problems.
The factory in Hong Kong closed down for 1 month due to government restrictions limiting supply, the
sales team was overwhelmed with sale meetings over ZOOM, the tech-support team had to re-adapt
the software to remote learning for many of the schools, and the founders had to start thinking on how
education was going to change after this worldwide event.
Since COVID-19 and the closure of the factory due to government restrictions, of the 2000 tablets due
to be shipped by April, only 500 were completed on schedule. This resulted in numerous customer
complaints that had to be dealt with by the sales and marketing team.
Internal communication within Worlducation customer service proved challenging due to the different
languages spoken by the different across the world (as well as the time zones they operate in). This

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 was especially noticeable because of the many COVID-19 related decisions that had to be made and
communicated to internal employees as well as customers in a very short period of time.

Specific information that may be used as for Section 1 of the Project Portfolio
The CEO has made it a priority to address the critical thinking skills in the organisation to:

 equip employees to constructively deal with the COVID-19 pandemic challenges

 incorporate formal critical thinking processes in the organisation.

In the past, critical thinking has been valued but not formally recognised. Teams have often met to
brainstorm, problem solve and innovate – but this has been done ad hoc and unplanned.
Each manager must address critical thinking in their team. You are the Sales and Marketing Manager.
As a start, the Sales and Marketing team completed professional development plans to assist the
manager in establishing his team’s critical thinking development requirements. Three of the plans are
shown below:

Role description Role: Sales representative in Russia

Key competencies:
 Able to maintain positive customer relationships (e.g. show empathy)

 Able to use ERP system

 Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

 Organisational skills to fulfill duties (e.g. team meeting)

 Interpret user requirements

 Navigate diverse opinions

Development Personal: Organisational skills to manage multiple zoom calls, interacting

requirements with difference cultures within the team (advertising staff in Australia)

Professional: Maintain positive online customer relationships

Role description Role: Call centre staff in Philippines

Key competencies:
 Use technology to solve and represent customer queries

 Communication skills to manage emotional customers

 Organisational skills to manage workload.

 Establish facts from fiction (i.e. what is a real issue and what is a
perceived issue) when dealing with a customer complaint.

 Resolve problems

Development Personal: Manage anxiety due to increased workload.

requirements

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 Professional: Deal with emotional clients, graphical representation of call
centre data

Role description Role: Advertising staff in Sydney CBD

Key competencies:
 Design and develop adverts for multiple mediums

 Attention to detail

 Organisational skills to manage work load

Development Personal: Improved attention to detail.

requirements
Professional: Improve digital advertising skills – creativity with technology

Specific information that may be used as for Section 2 of the Project Portfolio
After meeting with the Sales and marketing team to identify critical thinking knowledge gaps and
agree on an issue to focus on as a team, the Sales and marketing manager summarised the
outcomes as follows:

Issue Meeting outcome Action to be taken

Team knowledge Experience difficultly Develop an internal online discussion forum or

gaps establishing fact from fiction chat group for the sales and marketing team
when dealing with customer to discuss and assist each other establish
issues whether the customer complaint is factual or
perceived (i.e. is it fact or fiction).
Cannot represent information
graphically Develop a procedure and template to guide
the graphical representation of data

Sales Online relationships Formal or informal learning opportunity e.g.

representative Critical thinking workshop or links to relevant
Valuing differing
knowledge gap cultural sensitivity YouTube clips
perspectives and cultures

Advertising staff Digital creativity Formal or informal learning opportunity e.g.

knowledge gap Critical thinking workshop or on-the-job
Evaluation skills to review
training
work for accuracy

Call centre staff Negotiation skills Formal or informal learning opportunity e.g.
knowledge gap Critical thinking workshop or worked example
Graphical data
to distribute via email
representation

Team’s Comments made: N/A

experience of the
“We have done
organisation’s
brainstorming in the past”

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 approach to “I suppose it’s part of what
critical thinking we do, we just don’t know
we’re doing it”
“We should do it more
formally and more
frequently”
“Our business is good at
trying new solutions”

Problems Manufacturing and shipment N/A

identified by the delays due to COVID-19
team are
direct online ordering not
available
demand greater than supply
ability
user requirement changes as
a result of COVID-19
pandemic

Problem to The problem chosen through Brainstorming event to analyse the solutions
prioritise negotiation was already generated by management
manufacturing and shipment
(In the past, senior executives met to
delays – all team members
brainstorm and provide cost estimates for
agreed that the most
future business models. Options included
customer complaints being
establishing a second manufacturing facility
received were related to
(estimated cost $5 million), outsourcing
shipment issues.
manufacturing to a third party (lost margin of
$200 per unit sold or $2 million per year
assuming 10 000 units are sold), developing a
cloud based solution where customers can
access the software remotely on their own
devices (estimated cost of $2 million),
purchasing off the shelf tablets (lost margin of
$300 per unit sold or $3 million per year) or
repurposing used tablets ($100 per unit sold
or $1 million).

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 Strategic Plan 2020 – 2022

Welcome
Welcome to the Strategic Plan for Worlducation.
This document sets out our vision for the next two years and how we hope to achieve it.
We hope you enjoy reading this document.

Lucas Lopez
CEO
Worlducation

Executive Summary
Founded in 2016, Worlducation is a social startup that manufactures tablet computers for primary
school students. Our focus is not only on the hardware, but also creating software, content and
activities to better engage and educate primary school students.
Worlducation aims to change the way children learn at school by implementing artificial intelligence
technology that can follow up on each child’s progress and adjust to their needs as they learn,
creating the optimal path learning experience. Worlducation envisions a world in which every child
learns how to read and write – a world without illiteracy. This is why, for each classroom that buys our
product, we donate and train a classroom somewhere around the world that can’t afford the same
technology. We then connect the classrooms together so that they can grow and collaborate
throughout their learning cycle.

Vision Statement
To see a world without illiteracy.

Mission Statement
To be the change and facilitate a world without illiteracy by changing the way children learn at school
and the number of schools that have access to technology.

Our values are:

Core values underpinning our activities are:

 Ethical principles

 Innovation

 Collaboration.

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 Strategic Priorities
To be well led, high performing, profitable and accountable.

 Ensure that all financial operations, performance indicators and results support the strategic
policies

 Identify new and expand existing sources of revenue and ways to help more classrooms in need.

 Achieve profits of at least 10% per annum.

Increase our reach

 Increase range of products and services offered to reach a larger target market

 Increase sales to increase donations to needy classrooms.

Continue building deeper customer relationships

 Customer-centred practice, with a focus on meeting their total needs for high-quality technology

 Strengthen the skills of our people, to better support customers

 Drive innovation to better meet customer demands

Attract, engage and develop the best staff

 Continuing the drive to a customer centred, high performance workforce and culture

 Strengthening the skills of our people, to better support customer needs

 Empowering innovation and responsiveness to change

 Continuing to enhance the diversity of our workforce

 Exploring the use of technology in human resources.

The Market
The technology market is a growing and ever-changing industry due to the rapid rate that technology
is being updated. Emerging technologies include artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IOT).
There is an increasing focus on cyber security.
Due to the global pandemic, the issues with the manufacturing industry have impacted on the supply
of hardware components.
The trend for consumer spending during the pandemic has taken a downturn but this has not affected
the ICT industry as due to more people working form home, consumer appetite for tablets has
increased.

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 Situation Analysis

Strengths Weaknesses

 Value and quality  Brand name not developed as well it could

be
 Strong management
 Growing organisation
 Customer loyalty

 Friendly organisational culture

 Level of available finance for investment

Opportunities Threats

 Schools needing to upgrade technology  High level of competition

 Opportunities to offer a range of services  Economic downturn meaning less spent

generally
 Opportunities for synergies across all
services and products  Failing to satisfy clients demands

Marketing Strategies
Our marketing strategies aim to:

 Build our brand

 Generate leads now

 Convert those leads quickly

 Have every part of the business supporting each other

We plan to develop our market share by:

 Improving our marketing and advertising

 Continually improving the quality of service given to clients

 Maintaining effective communication channels with all stakeholders to ascertain industry

requirements and then develop products and manage services accordingly

 Continually improving communication channels with all our stakeholders, ensuring a flow of
timely and accurate information to facilitate effective planning and decision making

 Targeting identified growth markets with planned, market appropriate campaigns employing a
variety of promotional strategies and advertising mediums

 Offering attractive fee structures to our clients

 Continually improving the skills, knowledge and effectiveness of our team through our
commitment to training and development

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  Regularly reviewing the effectiveness of all our operations and making improvements when and
where necessary

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 Privacy Policy and Procedures

Scope
This privacy policy outlines how Worlducation protects and handles personal information in
accordance with its obligations under the National Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy
Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).

1. Collection of information
1.1 Worlducation collects personal information relating to individual creators, publishers,
licensees and IT professionals as part of the normal course of its business.
1.2 Where possible, Worlducation collects personal information directly from the individuals
themselves.
1.3 Third party collection: Worlducation may also collect personal information from third parties
in accordance with the requirements of the APPs, including:

 From other rightsholders of a work, including the publisher. This is restricted to

information which will assist in member recruitment or payment to rightsholders, such
as contact and entitlement information. If Worlducation cannot collect that personal
information from other rightsholders, its ability to efficiently recruit and pay rightsholders
will be restricted;
 Worlducation has agreements with similar organisations in other countries that enable
the use of foreign text and images in Australia, and the collection of fees and royalties
for the use of Australian works overseas and may collect information in this process;
 From the public domain from third party sources such as social networking services,
industry directories, industry guides, and the Internet; and
 Through purchased mailing lists and business database lists which are used for
sending Worlducation marketing material, where recipients have consented to receiving
such communications or it would be reasonably expected of us to use or disclose the
information for that purpose.
1.4 Websites and online services: a variety of information is collected by users of our Websites
and online services.
1.5 Emails and electronic forms: our servers may record an email address if a message is sent
online. An email address will only be used for the purpose for which it has been provided
and it will not be added to a mailing list or used for any other purpose without consent.
1.6 Google Analytics: Worlducation uses Google Analytics to collect data about users’ usage
and behaviour on Websites. This information is used to improve the Websites and is not
used by Worlducation to personally identify users of the site. All tracked data is
anonymously collected in accordance with Google Analytics’ privacy policy. Refer to
Google’s privacy policy for further information: http://www.google.com.au/policies/privacy/
1.7 Cookies: Worlducation uses session ‘cookies’ to help analyse how users use their Websites.
The cookie-generated information generated about the use of the website (including IP
address) will be transmitted to and stored by our service providers on servers hosted in

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 Australia. By using our website, users consent to the processing of data about them in the
manner and for the purposes set out above.

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 2. Anonymity
2.1 We provide the option for individuals to not identify themselves, or of using a pseudonym
when dealing with us. In some circumstances, if a choice is made not to provide the
information requested we may not be able to provide certain services.
2.2 We do not provide this option in circumstances where it is impracticable to do so or where
Worlducation is legally required to deal with identified individuals only.

3. Use and disclosure of personal information

3.1 Worlducation uses and discloses personal information for the primary business purposes for
which it is collected (set out above) and related management purposes.
3.2 Worlducation uses and discloses personal information for any other purposes to which
consent has been given.
3.3 Worlducation will not otherwise use or disclose personal information without consent being
given unless otherwise required or authorised by law.
3.4 Subject to the requirements of the APPs, Worlducation may also use and disclose personal
information for any other related purpose that one would reasonably expect the information to
be used or disclosed.

4. Marketing material
4.1 Worlducation may use personal information, from time to time, to send to marketing material
that we consider will be useful, or other material about our activities.
4.2 Worlducation will only do this if we collected the information and one would reasonably
expect us to use or disclose the information for that purpose, or if consent has been given to
receiving such communications.

5. Personal information storage and security

5.1 Worlducation takes reasonable steps to protect personal information from loss, unauthorised
access, modification, disclosure, interference or other misuse. These steps include electronic
access restrictions for electronic files that contain personal information, securing paper files
containing personal information in locked cabinets and physical access restrictions.
5.2 Once collected, Worlducation holds personal information in a number of different formats,
including on servers (located both onsite and offsite, including in the cloud), databases, filing
systems and in offsite backup storage.
5.3 Worlducation only retains personal information for as long as it is required for its business
purposes or for as long as required by law. Any information that we no longer require is
destroyed securely. An exception to this may be retention of the information for data analysis.
However, if this occurs, the information will be retained in a form that does not allow you to
be identified from that information.
5.4 Worlducation undertakes not to disclose your personal information in any manner that would
be considered direct marketing.

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 6. Digital security
6.1 Input devices such as thumb drives or other external memory devices should only be used if
they come from a trustworthy source.
6.2 Before opening a thumb drive folder, ensure that a malware scan is run on it.
6.3 Files that are to be modified should first be saved to the computer’s desktop and the thumb
drive ejected before beginning work on the files.
6.4 All files should be saved to the relevant folder, and not left on the desktop.
6.5 Back up of data should be performed at the end of every week. The data should be backed
up onto an external memory device, which will be stored in the security cupboard in the
Administration office.

7. Internet security
7.1 A mailbox should be created for each email sender so they can be accessed efficiently.
7.2 Before logging off from your inbox, ensure that it is empty. All emails should be placed in their
sender’s mailbox.
7.3 Suspicious or potentially dangerous emails should be deleted immediately. Attachments
should not be opened.
7.4 Personal emails should not be opened at work, or on King Edward VII College’s computers. If
an email of a personal nature is received on a King Edward VII College’s email address,
forward it immediately to a private email address, and open it outside work. Delete the
original email from the inbox once it has been forwarded.
7.5 Returned email should be examined to ensure that the address in correct. If in doubt as to
the correct address, contact the source of the address and ask for verification.
7.6 Email attachments should only be opened if they come from a trusted source. Attachments
are to be stored and sent only as pdf, Word, PowerPoint or Excel files. If trustworthy emails
are received in other formats, they should be converted before filing.
7.7 New staff must be assessed on their email competence by their manager before they are
given access to their company email address and access to company files. This assessment
is to be carried out on an external email account.

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 Employee Training and Development Policy and
Procedures

Policy brief & purpose

This policy refers to Worlducation’s learning and development programs and activities for all staff
members. Worlducation aims to help employees extend their knowledge and acquire new skills to do
their jobs better. We want our employees to feel confident to find new ways towards personal
development and success.

Scope
This policy applies to all permanent, full-time or part-time, employees of the company. Employees
with temporary/short-term contracts might attend trainings at their manager’s discretion.
Employees, managers and executives should collaborate to build a continuous professional
development (CPD) culture:

 The employee is responsible to seek new learning opportunities

 The manager is responsible to coach their teams and identify employee development needs
Training and development includes:

 Formal training sessions (individual or corporate)

 Employee Coaching and Mentoring

 Participating in conferences

 On-the-job training

 Job shadowing

 Job rotation

 Subscriptions or educational material

Individual training programs

All employees that have worked for the company more than four months are eligible to participate in
external training programs individually or in teams.
Employees can choose to attend as many training programs as they want, provided they don’t exceed
the budget and day limit.
All trainings should consider what employees need and how they can learn best. This is why, we
encourage employees and managers to consider multiple training methods like workshops, e-
learning, lectures and more.

Corporate training programs

Expert training
Experts (internal or external) may be required at certain times, for example:

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  Equal employment opportunity training

 Diversity training

 Leadership training for managers

 Conflict resolution training for employees

 Training new employees

 Training teams in company-related issues (e.g. new systems or policy changes)

 Training employees to prepare them for promotions, transfers or new responsibilities

Other types of training

Both employees and their managers are responsible for continuous learning. Employees should show
willingness to improve by asking their managers for direction and advice. Managers should do the
same with their own superiors, while encouraging and mentoring their subordinates.
Employees and managers are responsible for finding the best ways to approach learning. They can
experiment with job rotation, job shadowing and other types of on-the-job training (without disrupting
daily operations). We also encourage employees to use their rights for self-paced learning by asking
for educational material and access to other resources within allocated budget.
General guidelines:
Managers should evaluate the success of training efforts. They should keep records for reference and
better improvement opportunities.
All employee development efforts should respect cost and time limitations, as well as individual and
business needs.
Employees should try to make the most out of their trainings by studying and finding ways to apply
knowledge to their work.

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 Internal Communication Policy and Procedures

Worlducation aims to enhance and streamline communications (internal and external) to reinforce the
vision and strategic priorities. As such, we will continue to develop and trial new communication
platforms, channels, and tools to improve information sharing and collaboration between all staff
members.
This policy is to be implemented in a way that ensures compliance with relevant legislative
requirements and standards of best practice.
Worlducation expects that staff will use the channels and for business purposes only and comply with
all relevant policies and procedures, the Code of Conduct.

Communication channels
Worlducation has a number of internal communication channels available, including:

Channel Purpose

Staff bulletin This contains Information from the executive to staff which is important and
relevant to their interests, including training, employment vacancies and
important announcements.
Contributions for the Staff Bulletin must be approved in advance by the
contributor’s relevant manager before being sent to the communications
officer for review and inclusion.

Staff surveys These are used to gather information and feedback from all staff members.
Surveys should be sent to staff via email link.

Worlducation intranet The intranet provides important information for staff in an easily accessible
location.
The intranet is to be used for conveying information which is important and
relevant from the executive team to staff. It is the responsibility of the
person contributing the content to ensure the content is factually correct.
All contributions must be approved in advance by the contributor’s relevant
manager.

Enterprise social These may be used by groups of staff to collaborate and communicate on
networks (e.g. projects online (e.g. to share and comment on work-related ideas, news
Yammer, Facebook) and activities). Personal use of these platforms may not be used during
work hours. Use of these networks must comply with the Social Media
Policy.

All Staff emails Emails are used for messages to and between staff. Staff are required to
read all their work-related emails.

Email distribution Email distribution lists may only be used by the executive team and should
lists adhere to the Privacy policy.

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 Social networking policy

Worlducation employees must use these forums appropriately and responsibly, especially when
discussing or disclosing any information related to Worlducation or to their employment at
Worlducation.
While social networking opens up new opportunities to have a positive impact on our brand reputation
and business growth, it also carries significant business risk when used inappropriately. Failure to
follow Worlducation's social media and networking policy or other abuse of social media and
networking tools may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.
In the event anything in the policy may conflict with local law concerning internet use and data
privacy, local law will control the interpretation and application of the policy.

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