The BETA group started the ALPHA company in 2007 to act as a commercial unit for all its overseas markets. Since then, the company has sought to expand globally by acquiring shares in local and foreign companies (Kushairi, Singh & Ong-Abdullah, 2017). This paper will summarize ALPHA operations in Malaysia, its integration of the accounting information system -commonly called AIS-, how AIS has helped the Malaysian agricultural sector, and analyze how small agricultural organizations can adopt ALPHA's method of operation.
Summary of ALPHA Operations and its AIS Integration
The primary role of the ALPHA company is oil palm production. It serves other various roles such as acting as a holding company for rubber processing, agribusiness activities, sugar refining, and acts as a marketing company for all the goods produced. The company's various divisions have been integrated to form a single unit by falling under centralized management and operation.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The company's major investments between 2009 and 2012 were fatty acid refinery, oilseed crushing, and food-grade oil refinery. As the years went by, both its investments and product portfolio continued to rise. The company was at one time listed for an IPO in Malaysia, and since then, it has been trusted to finalize all operations that were begun by BETA and operated by the FAB (Kushairi, Singh & Ong-Abdullah, 2017). The FAB was tasked with helping settlers provide management services such as replanting, fertilizing crops, crop establishment, farm management, and transport to the oil palm mills.
ALPHA company’s main objective is to be the global leader in the various agribusiness operations it is involved in. Thus, it integrated its operations through an accounting information system to ensures all its accounting processes and procedures are managed by a centralized unit. The AIS system utilized shares some interplays with ALPHA's general activities, and these interplays can be explained using a framework called the institutional theory (Kushairi, Singh & Ong-Abdullah, 2017). The integration and interplay enabled the company to perform better due to a harmonized and streamlined operations across the organization.
In 2012 when ALPHA wanted to get listed in Malaysia, it sought the help of many listing consultants. It then embarked on changing its business model and corporate structure to facilitate its business responsibilities and ethos. This restructuring is a crucial component of a comprehensive and changed AIS structure that incorporates both old institution economics, and new institutionalism sociology referred to as OIE and NIS, respectively (Tajul et al., 2020). NIS focuses particularly on systems and practices within an organization while assuming that external factors also affect these factors (Kushairi, Singh & Ong-Abdullah, 2017). This improved AIS is credited with the success of the company.
How the Application of AIS helped Malaysia
The adoption of AIS has improved not just ALPHA but the whole Malaysian agricultural industry. AIS led to organizational change, which helped many firms achieve their objects ensuring sector-wide success. It also helped make sure the changes were applied appropriately, which is the only way organizational change works. The transformation of many companies ultimately led to changes in the corporate structure and business models in the agribusiness industry, which in conjunction with the government's intervention, improved the business environment (Kushairi, Singh & Ong-Abdullah, 2017). The AIS used at ALPHA, one of the major palm oil producers in Malaysia, directly contributed to its success, thus leading to the growth of the whole sector (Muhammad et al., 2019). Lastly, the system has eased cooperation between different firms and caused them to record transactions more orderly.
How ALPHA’s Methods Can Be Applied to Small Agricultural Organization
If smaller agricultural organizations follow similar procedures and processes as those sued by ALPHA, they may replicate its success. These smaller companies need to adopt their own AIS to harmonize their activities and ensure a seamless process that saves management costs and delays. This could especially be important when scaling up their activities or for occasions when they are managing large-scale operations. The best way would for smaller local agribusinesses to consult with ALPHA or analyze the various strategies used in agribusiness relevant to them, just like ALPHA did. The internal and external factors that affect ALPHA may be similar to those affecting the smaller organizations. ALPHA aims to grow into a global player, and the improvement in the agricultural sector gives it enough strength and capital to invest in smaller growing companies. Seeking ALPHA's investment or partnership would lead to a company harmonizing its operations with those of ALPHA.
References
Kushairi, A., Singh, R., & Ong-Abdullah, M. (2017). The oil palm industry in Malaysia: thriving with transformative technologies. J Oil Palm Res, 29(4), 431-439. https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2017.00017
Muhammad, K., Mastuki, N. A., Darus, F., & Ghani, E. K. (2019). Forces of accounting information system: Organizational change and governance of a Malaysian agricultural company. International Journal of Business & Management Science, 9(2).
Tajul Urus, S., Hasim, K., Syed Mustapha Nazri, S. N. F., & Tuan Mat, T. Z. (2020). Critical success factors of Accounting Information Systems (AIS): Empirical evidence from Malaysian organizations. Management & Accounting Review (MAR), 19(1), 233-266. http://dx.doi.org/10.24191/mar.v19i1.1115
