Milky Cow Interview Questions PDF

**QUESTIONS PROPOSED FOR THE INTERVIEW** 1. **Briefly share information about your business?** [Answer] Milky Cow is a company that is focused on the packaging and distribution of milk products (Yoghurt, chocolates, milk, ice cream and maas etc.). It was established in December 2015. It has been...

**QUESTIONS PROPOSED FOR THE INTERVIEW** 1. **Briefly share information about your business?** [Answer] Milky Cow is a company that is focused on the packaging and distribution of milk products (Yoghurt, chocolates, milk, ice cream and maas etc.). It was established in December 2015. It has been growing every year, as things stand we are packaging and distributing milk products to two provinces, Gauteng (Pretoria) and North West (Rustenburg). We have currently employed over 200 employees and have factories within the mentioned provinces. We have a fleet of over 50 trucks running daily to distribute to most towns of the two provinces. It includes towns such as; Potchefstroom, Klerksdorp, Mafikeng, Rustenburg, Brits and Zeerust, just to name a few. While in Gauteng we are distributing to towns like Pretoria, Centurion, Midrand, Sandton and Fourways. 2. **As we all know that the pandemic impacted our lives positively and negatively, how did you** **Come about strategizing for all the rules and regulations that were put in place?** [Answer] When government introduced hard lockdown level 5 on the 23^rd^ of March 2020, we stopped both factories for two days to integrate covid-19 precautionary measures such as; screening facilities for our employees daily, installation of sanitation points in our factories and the procurement of required PPE for our employees. After that was in place we re-started the two plants, as milk products are part of essential items found in grocery stores. We had strict measures put in place where employees were encouraged to declare any contact with any person who might have tested positive for Covid-19. Employees who tested positive were withdrawn and contact tracing applied with his/her colleagues. Although at times we ran the factories with skeleton crew, however we managed as there was overtime payment introduced as an incentive to employees who worked covering the shift of their fellow colleagues who are in isolation at their own homes. 3. **How are you looking at strategizing your supply chain management, human resource management and capacity taking into consideration Covid-19?** 4. **How true is it, that the wisest business owners make use of financial data at their disposal for everything from planning for upcoming expenses to allocating funds?** 5. **I hear you mention FORECASTING. If you were to explain what FORECASTING is in layman's terms, what would you say?** 6. **Often you hear business analysts mention that Forecasting has 7 basic steps, please share with the listeners what those steps are?** [Answer] 1. Determine the use of forecast. In our case it is the sales of milk products although our core business is in the packaging and distribution of milk product. The fundamental factor impacting on the core of our business of packaging and distributing is sales. 2. Select the items to be forecast? In our case it milk products 3. Determine the time horizon of the forecast? Is it short (\< 3 months), medium (between 3 months and 3 years) or long term (more than 3 years) 4. Select the forecasting model. Milky Cow uses Quantitative as opposed to qualitative model. I will unpack the difference between the two later let me complete of the steps 5. Gather the data needed to make the forecast 6. Make the forecast 7. Validate and implement the result 7. **Distinguish between Qualitative and Quantitative forecasting approaches?** [Answer] Qualitative models it is a forecast that incorporates factors such as the decision makers' intuition, emotions, personal experiences and value system: - Jury of executive opinion- - Delphi method- - Sales force composite- - Market survey- Quantitative models it is forecasting that employs mathematical modeling to forecast demand - Naïve approach - Moving averages - Exponential smoothing - Trend projection - Linear regression 8. **How did you conduct an accurate FORECASTING in your business?** [Answer] Despite using the data that is at our disposal, which is a quantitative method (time bound model). We also conducted a market survey online with all our clients to verify the results of the quantitative method. Market survey is a type under the qualitative method. This indicated that we have used more 9. **According to your own understanding what is inventory and how significant is it in your business?** [Answer] My understanding of inventory are the materials and goods which the business acquires, manufactures or produces for the purpose of continuous supply of goods, so that production should not suffer. It is significant to our business in a sense that there is always enough to produce in case of customer demands, and that we do not over nor under produce. This also assists us in being savvy with our finances. 10. **How does forecasting have an impact on inventory?** [Answer] The impact of forecasting is that it would help to predict inventory required for future trends and events. Forecasting also assists to determine that enough is produced to fulfill customer demands. As well as ensuring that not a lot or a little is spent on inventory. For example, a dynamic and agile Inventory Forecasting process can pick up the early warning signals of internal and external factors which can likely have a major impact on the projected inventory levels. Regular monitoring and fine-tuning of the Inventory Forecasting process is crucial for moderating risks of lost customer orders or product obsolescence. 11. **How is the staffing in your business?** [Answer] Staffing in business terms is an operation of recruiting employees by evaluating their skills, knowledge, experience and offering them specific roles according to the nature of the business. Milky Cow has 201 employees hired to perform different roles. We have four cycle shift for the production department, which team of production operator are supervised by Shift supervisor who reports to the plant manager. The company took a strategic decision during the recruitment of general workers by ensuring that all our entry level jobs have a minimum requirement of a matric certificate, and as a result all employees are literate. This is due to the ever changing technological space which our factory's equipment is being updated and upgraded to catch--up with the industry leading organizations. We have plant operations monitoring and operating the packing production of our milk products as per Milky Cow requirements. These employees are taken through the in-house training which familiarizes them with the operations of the factory equipment. Our structure is very simple Two directors (myself and Moiza) Then we have two Factory managers (who are looking after production) for both factories. Each have four shift supervisors managing the production employees. Then we have general managers managing the HR, Finance and marketing departments for both factories. The HR, Finance and marketing are run centrally and they serve both factories. 12. **Why did you decide on such a structure for your business?** [Answer] Those are all the critical line management structure required. The bigger the structure the more inefficient, as well as the more the labour costs we incur. As we all know labour cost is the biggest nightmare of most businesses, especially those which are labour intense and which do not make use of machinery to facilitate the production. I must say that this the simplest structure which we have trimmed it to during covid-19 and thus far it is manageable for us as directors. 13. **What is the Importance/Advantages of forecasting in the business environment?** [Answer] - It assists in being able to handle uncertainty - It helps with better usage of production facilities (conducting major maintenance work at Milky Cow during low sales months) - It assists with better utilization of capital and resources - Better insight into future staffing requirements 14. **Would you kindly explain to us the effect of poor forecasting in an economy?** [Answer] Forecasting is one of the most critical elements of a business plan. Accurate forecasting can help you validate the business case for your new product or service and help you build trust among future investors and partners. Poor forecasting, on the other hand, can sabotage your business before it even gets off the ground. If there is poor forecasting, it means that prediction of events and trends would be off. When predictions are off, wrong decisions are made which could impact the business negatively and outcomes won't be met. Businesses therefore run the risk of making incorrect economic investments...