Sunday, January 26, 2020

An Analysis Of Sainsburys Supermarket

An Analysis Of Sainsburys Supermarket Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury along with his wife Mary Ann in London and then gradually grew to become the largest grocery retailer by 1922. Sainsburys is the UKs oldest major food retailer with their first store opened in 1869. It strives to keep up with its trusted heritage of quality with best services. Past: In the early 1990s Sainsburys, market leader so far, lost its position to Tesco and in 2004 it came down to no. three after Tesco and Asda. The downfall involved many reasons including changing managements, lack of innovative strategies, failing to assess the impact of loyalty cards scheme, unhealthy acquisition in Egypt and a misleading marketing strategy which failed to communicate the right message to the consumers. Present: Sainsburys started to fight back and be noticed after Justin King took over the management role in early 2004 and came up with a revival strategy under the name of Making Sainsburys Great Again. The process involved a no. of mergers and acquisitions of small chains in the south east England and the Midlands. The new message of Try Something New Today went really well with the media and the consumer led by the famous celebrity chef Jamie Oliver it encouraged buyers to innovate in their kitchens and make their food interesting. Future: The supermarket industry has reached a saturation point in the UK. How long can Sainsburys go on opening up new stores at locations such that its stores do not start to cannibalize each other? Using the Ansoff Growth Matrix two future strategies are suggested for Sainsburys: Opening up of Sainsburys Travels and Tours Product Development On the basis of the success potential in the travel business, Sainsburys might venture into the Travel and Tours business by way of Product Development as per Ansoff Growth Matrix tool for future strategy selection. Sainsburys has a very high probability of success as measured with the help of SWOT analysis and assessing the keys to success and the critical factors. Sainsburys China Market Development Sainsburys might opt for the Market development strategy by offering the supermarket business to the land of opportunities China. The move will be mad after the necessary PEST analysis has been done and companys SWT has been assessed with Chinese perspective. Sainsburys Strategic Corporate Development History: 1990 to 2004 Corporations are required to add value by mans of their business. The goal is to manage and control the businesses for a long term and sustainable success. The corporate level strategy deals with the choice of the business and the growth and development related to it. Sainsburys enjoyed the position of the leader in the UK supermarket industry up to the early 1990s. It had sustained its image of a name trusted with quality and service. British like old names with some history behind them. The company started to lose its grip in the early nineties due to a number of reasons. There was a change in management after the longtime CEO John David Sainsbury retired. He was replaced by David Sainsbury who bought about a change in the management style. Although the times were changing and some of the people in the management thought strongly about launching loyalty card schemes and also favored introduction of non-food items in the stores, both the options were rejected by the fresh management. The biggest rival Tesco had gradually moved up on the market scales and the internal indecisions help it get hold of better deals from suppliers. We will analyze Sainsburys approach in view of Ansoff Growth Matrix perspective. Ansoffs matrix is a tool that helps businesses decide their product and market growth strategy. Market Penetration: The strategy had been the simple approach of Market Penetration Strategy. As per Ansoff Matrix, this can be easily explained as the company keeps on offering the same product into the existing market. From 1993 onwards Sainsburys was unconsciously moving forward on the basis of wait and see policy. Up till now Sainsburys had enjoyed the position with no real threat. It started with price cuts on almost 30 of its labels, three months after came up with Tesco Value Lime. The move affected Sainsburys profit margins. Product Development: This made the management realize to offer something new to the customers and after Tesco came up with new format stores named Tesco Metro serving the town centers in 1994, Sainsburys responded with announcement of Sainsburys Central format. This approach is interpreted as Product Development strategy where a new product is introduced into existing market. The new project offered shopping facilities to the small towns was initiated leading to Country Town stores. The stores were formatted keeping in mind the distance the buyers have to travel for their weekly grocery shoppings. The new service enabled the customers to do so without going to large, out of town stores. They were mainly planned to be opened I the south east, which has always been Sainsburys strong hold. The 1st store was opened by the end of 1998 in Ongar (Essex). These stores have now been standardized as per the regular stores and they maintain even trading terms Setbacks: The company fell behind yet again in 1995 when the management failed to realize the importance of loyalty cards schemes and refused to go ahead with launch of any such offer. They had to reconsider their decision 18 months later after Tescos club card was introduced. In 1996 the company ventured into opening up of Sainsburys Bank. In addition it acquired Texas Homecare for 290M (GBP) in 1996. These expansions had a major effect on the financials and Sainsburys announced first fall in profits in 22 years. Another reason which affected Sainsburys sales was the perception among the customers that it is more expensive than its rivals. The marketing campaigns failed to convey the message that Sainsburys offers as good quality and value for money as its rivals. The marketing failed to communicate the required message of low cost and high vale and the company endured the consequences. The year 1996 saw Sainsburys losing its position of market leader to Tesco. Acquisition and Divestment: Sainsbury attained 80.1% of share in an Egyptian distribution group SAE. The group provided retailing services in Egypt with 100 stores and almost 2000 employees at the time or acquisition. The decision was criticized by the analyst as it was made during the most testing times of Sainsburys history. The reason behind the decision might have been the success Tesco outside UK. However the meager results shown by the Egyptian business led to the divestment of the share and sale of shares in 2001. The brand re-launch In 1998 the company again went under a management change and George Bull, the new Chairman took over and decided to re-launch the Sainsburys Brand. The new management targeted to revive Sainsburys corporate identity and started with the launch of a new logo, going for a slightly informal font and new slogan of making life taste better. Staff uniforms were redesigned The company underwent a Business Transformation Program (BTP) after the appointment of Peter Davis who showed significant improvement in the companys turnover and exceeded the targets. The BTP involved a 3.00bn (GBP) upgrade of the stores, distribution and IT equipment. The distribution setup included construction of fully automated depots which cost 100m (GBP) each and was later criticized by the new management. Sainsburys moved into the current headquarters at Holborn in 2001. The Nectar loyalty card scheme was launched in 2002 which replaced the Sainsburys Reward Card. Current Strategic Situation: 2004 to date: At the end of March 2004, new CEO Justin King joined the company who came up with a recovery plan for Sainsbury under the banner of Making Sainsburys Great Again. It was a three year recovery plan which was very positively received by the media and the stock market. The strategy involved laying off redundant staff from the head offices and recruiting additional staff for shop floors to increased and improved customer service quality. Sainsburys was having major issues with its stock availability, inventory and supply chain management. The new depot monitoring systems were to be implemented and IBM was given the deal to upgrade the system. Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestments: In 2004 Sainsburys new management under the Making Sainsburys Great Again plan to concentrate on its strong UK customer base, divested the American subsidiary Shaws. It was sold to Albertsons. The no. of convenient stores was increased through an acquisition of 54 Bells Stores chain which was based in the north-east of England. Another Acquisition took place with purchasing o 114 stores of Jackson Stores based in Yorkshire and the North Midlands. The acquisition took place in November 2004. Another small chain of 6 stores was acquired from SL Shaw lt. in April 2005. New Marketing Strategy Try something new today: Sainsburys is at a critical stage at the moment. Sainsburys Supermarkets have gone through a period of dramatic regression, in which they have been surpassed by rivals Tesco and, more recently, in 2004, Wal-Mart-owned Asda. (Global Market Information Database, 2004). It is not easy for an established and old UK brand to vanish off from the market but the competitors have. While it is rare for major brands to disappear completely from the UK high street, these competitors have acquired share from Sainsburys by way of their commitment to low and attractive prices, whereas Sainsburys has been focusing on its Business Transformation Program and has indulged itself in promoting an image of quality, and value rather than being affordable The present day UK customers which have a huge percentage of non British are heavily influenced by the economical changes and are passing through tough times. The message which has been conveyed by the Tesco and Asda was received warmly as it assured them of a combination of quality and assurance along with low price. As a result, Sainsbury is still considered comparatively expensive just because it failed to convey the message through proper marketing. A massive marketing campaign of Try Something New Today was launched in September 2005, which was designed to make people go off the shopping routine encourage them to be more adventurous in food eating. Under the campaign umbrellas, the spokesperson for the campaign Jamie Oliver encouraged the customers to be. The message conveyed was it supplies quality food as well as the only one offering useful ideas to make your food interesting. The aim was to reach and convince all the customers and not only the well off. Sainsburys is attempting to respond forcefully to the challenges it faces, however competition in the UK market is becoming increasingly intense, and Sainsburys faces a difficult struggle to regain the ground it has lost to rivals that continue to expand aggressively The management has a continuous approach towards work with responsibility. They attempt to provide fresh food and innovate with respect to customers needs. It serves over 18.5 million customers every week. The large stores offer over 30000 products along with complementary Non-Food products e.g. the TU clothing range which has over 1 million transactions every week. Along with other services, an Internet based shopping service has also been made available, keeping in trend with the changing requirements o the customers, to almost 90% of UK households. The company has a chain of stores with 537 supermarkets and 335 convenience stores, hence a total of 872 stores in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, including Hypermarkets (super large stores- Sainsburys stores- main plus), Sainsburys Central and Sainsburys local (supermarket and local convenient stores format main mission). The company has been eyeing the opportunity of expanding its business outside the UK. Especially the hyper potential in Asia (especially South East Asia and China). By analyzing Tescos huge success in the market outside UK, Sainsburys venture might not be far away. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainsburys Strategic Direction for the Future: Sainsburys has a history of innovation and it continues to strengthen its relationship with its customers and has gone ahead with the growth of their convenient store operations, the online offers and the Sainsburys Bank. They have a constant approach towards developing new offers in line with the evolving customers demands resulting in operational growth and profitability. http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/ar08/businessreview/corporateobjectives.shtml Choosing a Strategy: A marketing tool for making the market strategy is the Ansoff Matrix, which gives us strategic choices for obtaining our business and market objectives. It offers four choices which deal with marketing and growth of existing or new products in existing or new markets. Ansoff On the basis of current scenarios there are two pathways for Sainsburys to opt from, for a sustainable growth and presence for a long time to come. Product Development Strategy: Sainsburys has a huge loyal customer base. The suggested new service product through Sainsburys Travel and Tours will provide these customers to utilize yet another trustworthy service by their trusted name. Market Development Strategy: Although Sainsburys has not yet ventured into the International market but the step might not be that far away keeping in mind the huge success TESCO has had in the international market. Sainsburys could venture into international expansion keeping in mind the growing and still unsaturated markets of China and Southeast Asia. Product Development Sainsburys Travels and Tours: Sainsburys can opt for launching Sainsburys Travels and Tours is by choosing the Product Development Strategy and is introducing a new product into existing market. The growing Travel and Tours market will definitely have a positive effect on the Sainsburys portfolio by increasing its profits and hence strengthening its business. Why Product Development? The Sainsburys Travels and Tours will provide the company to excel and achieve its strategic goals on the basis The supermarket industry has become fairly saturated in the UK and at present Sainsburys is eyeing to expand itself in the International market but it will be a while before it actually does. The Travel industry is a growing market and has a huge potential of growth. The new product will benefit the company earn huge profitability margins which are becoming hard to achieve I the supermarket industry. The Sainsburys has a huge loyal customer base which will be utilized for promotions and marketing purpose. The project has a high probability of success given a chance of a fresh new product offered by a supermarket chain. Market Demographics: Although year 2009 has seen the worst recession since 1930, there are definite signs that the cycle is now turning. Travel industry has suffered consequences of economic crush but the consumer confidence is indicating escalating progress. UNWTO is expecting a reasonable growth of 5% in 2010. There was an upward trend during the last quarter of 2009 which showed 2% upswing. The development is further strengthen by the Air Transport Data from IATA, which shows passenger traffic strength since September 2009 Asia is expected to show the greatest recovery being less effected by the economic crush (comparatively). Growth is also expected to resume in America and Europe. A large number of countries around the world have shown positive growth in the first two months of 2010. Overall the total of tourists arrivals during the first two months of 2010 was 119 million showing 7% improvement as compared to 2009 SWOT The SWOT analysis summarizes the vital strengths and weaknesses of the company. This SWOT analyses the new product line and reviews the opportunities and threats which Sainsburys may face Strengths Image differentiation with respect to Brand name The customer to employee ratio is low Staff is highly trained and customer focused Loyal customer base An interesting, diverse and new product offered by a trusted service provider Established network of outlets Weaknesses Difficulties related to finding employees with required skills and attitude Presenting the customers with interesting offers on continuous basis Lack of experience in the new industry Business limited to UK only Opportunities rapidly growing market all over the world Growing number of people with increasing need and desire for holidays The existing Utilizing the existing Nectar database for identifying potential customers Threats Lingering effects of the slump in economy Natural disaster such as he recent Icelandic volcanoes eruption Highly competitive industry Key to success Sainsbury has always aimed to be the consumers first choice for food, delivering quality products with great service at a competitive cost. The company is striving to achieve the objective of leading margins with diverse market and delivering strong profits every year. The new product will benefit the company earn huge profitability margins which are becoming hard to achieve in the supermarket industry. Critical Issues: What can go wrong? The Sainsburys already has an established huge no. of loyal customers who would be happy to have an option o a different kind of service offered from their trust worthy service provider. The expectation for a stable turnover is based on the fact that it is an established name offering a new product on the basis of its goodwill. How likely it is to happen? The expected growth can be effected by increasing inflation rates. The Travel Industry faced a huge blow after 9-11 incident. What are the consequences? Any unforeseen incident like this (God forbid) will have long lasting effects on the companys growth, profitability and future expansions and plans. Competitive Advantage Nectar Loyalty Card Database The database can provide an excellent competitive advantage because It will help the management to design the product, offerings, and travel and tour packages as per the preferences. The database can also be utilized to acquire knowledge about customers such as No. of family members Spending habits Income estimates Preferences with respect to food etc. Holiday routines Market Development Strategy: Sainsburys could also opt for the Market Development strategy with offering its existing product of Supermarket and offering it to a new market by venturing into a growing international market such as China. China is the promising power in todays business world and its domestic market allows huge potential for international companies with promising growth. Sainsburys is the third largest supermarket name in UK after Tesco, which already has a huge presence outside the UK and Asda which is owned by the industry giant Wal-Mart. The immediate rivals have other sources /markets to benefit from other then UK. But Sainsburys has so far only focused on the UK market and from last two decades its concentration has almost completely been occupied by gaining back the lost market shares from its competitors. For Sainsburys to venture into a new market, a PEST has to be made to know the market better and plan the strategy accordingly. PEST Analysis China: Political and Legal: Since 2001, china has entered into WTO and its market is open or multinationals to trade in. In china, supermarket industry is not considered as a prestigious as some other industries so the government rules and regularities are not so tough. The government is favoring development in the supermarket industry. Social: The demographics of china show that population growth rate 0.629% (2008) in which the youth from 0-14 years comprises of 20.1%. The Chinese customers have become more concerned about issues related to health and safety after the 2008 melamine contaminated milk issue. As per the current shopping trends in China, people prefer to buy in person (online buying is almost non-existent especially daily grocery). The families are very small units on average maximum of 4-5 per unit in sub urban areas where as mostly population in the larger cities is singly. Chinese prefer to buy on daily basis, fresh produce as per days requirement. Technology and development: China is a vast country with underdeveloped infrastructure so there will be immediate warehouse setup requirements. Chinese households have a very low trend of keeping refrigerators at home so big weekly supplies trips will take time to adjust in the culture. Environmental Factors: The plastic bags have been recently stopped in china. The govt. is still trying to establish regular and long term procedures for recycling. All these factors will be required to be kept during the planning and project development phase for Sainsburys China. Furthermore we will perform a SWOT analysis for Sainsburys with respect to its entry in the Chinese market. Strengths: Over a century of supermarket and retail experience Ambition for growth Experience from failed International acquisitions as Egypt. Weaknesses: Cultural difference Expansion will be slow initially Opportunities: A very large market size Huge potential of industry growth Govt. policies favor the Industry Expansion opportunities in the rural/western parts of China Changing consumer awareness with respect to shopping habits Threats: Immature market Rivalry to increase immensely Weak infrastructure Untrained local staff Increasing prices of raw materials Strategic Recommendations: Based on the above analysis Sainsburys should consider a slow and steady expansion strategy in China for long term results and sustained presence. Initially the stores should be opened in the urban and economically grown regions where customers will more readily adapt to change and new trend. Gradually then, on the basis of acquired knowledge, preferences, culture etc Sainsburys should venture into the suburban and rural areas. Sainsburys should use the critical factors involved in the success of the strategy such as It should strive to obtain consumers trust by offering good quality products at affordable prices. Health and safety measures should be the first priority so that no incident like the contaminated milk will occur. China is a big country and the company should fully utilize this factor for the locations o the stores. The locality factor should be given priority wile employing the Chinese as trust and ownership has a great value in Chinese culture. China is a growing country and its economic conditions will affect the pricing of the products Sainsburys should work on differentiating itself from the rivals from day one for developing long tem and healthy relationship with the consumers. Once Sainsburys makes its entry into China market, there is no looking back from the kind of growth and expansion opportunities it may provide. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainsburys ) Conclusion: During the last decade of 1990s and early 2000s saw Sainsburys going through a very testing time in its history. It lost its no. 1 position to Tesco and then no. 2 to Asda. Time saw Sainsburys make some serious lack of judgments on behalf of management decisions related to adapting to the changing times, acquisitions and divestments. The management made a serious lack of assessment while deciding for bringing out the loyalty card scheme. The profit margins were affected as the companys marketing campaign failed to register with the consumers. The mid 2000 saw Sainsburys coming out again to be a Supermarket force lead by Justin King. The new campaigns Making Sainsburys Great Again and the companys new slogan of Try Something New Today succeeded in reach the customers positively. Given the market saturation of the industry Sainsburys has been suggested two options for business expansion using Ansoff Growth Matrix tool. Product Development Sainsburys Travels and Tours Market Development Sainsburys China The necessary SWOT and PEST analysis tools have been used to assess and measure the factor involved and could affect the growth suggested. The Travels and Tours Industry promises growth based on demographics provided by the WTO and the UK travel forecasts. The loyal customers of Sainsburys would be more the happy to have another product offered by their trustworthy service provider. Sainsburys China will provide an opportunity for immense growth of supermarket industry in a vast and massive population of China. Sainsburys should take a steady approach by starting from the urban areas and slowly expanding in the remaining country while studying and adapting to the new culture and country.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Managerial Competencies Essay

Question 1. List the three managerial competencies that have led to your success so far in your job. List your strength and, for each strength listed, determine how that strength might get you into trouble and why is it so difficult to become and effective middle manager? Answer Managerial competencies is defined as sets of knowledge, skills, behaviours, and attitudes that a manager needs in order to be effective in a wide range of managerial jobs and various organizational setting. There were six core important specific competencies: the communication, planning and administration, teamwork, strategic action, multicultural, and self competencies. Managerial competencies is useful to me, a current manager of business plan and reporting for Retail Product division in Telekom Malaysia Bhd, also would be useful after my promotion to Assistant General Manager of Business Finance for Technology and Innovation division of Telekom Malaysia Bhd. The competencies will help me to excel on designated job, improve self-management and communication within organisation unit, better planning and administration of teamwork and more sensitive about changing of subordinate behaviour and environment surround them. Three managerial competencies that have led to my success in a job are: a)Communication competencies, b)Planning and Administration competencies, and c)Teamwork competencies. 1.Communication Competencies A communication competency is your ability to effectively transfer and exchange information that leads to understanding between yourself and others. It includes: †¢Informal communication, †¢Formal communication, and †¢Negotiation In 2010, I was given responsibility to improvise Telekom Malaysia Group Segmental Reporting through high accuracy identification of cost drivers for Customer Subscriber’s Equipment (CPEs), Revenue Sharing Out payment, Leased Routers and Product Licensing. It requires a new cost transfer process  between Retail Product to respective Line of Business (LOBs) divisions where involves inter-department cooperation and collaboration to achieve this goals. Further, it requires me to build good working relationship with LOBs in order to be successful. I began by initiating informal communication with various divisions such as Information Technology and Network Infrastructure (ITNT), Service Management and Demand Forecast (SPDF), Group Costing, various LOBs and respective product owner within Retail Product to obtain their views and resources capabilities if the implementation takes place. I realized it is not a straightforward process because it requires a lot of effort to identify allocation drivers to each LOBs segments, limited access to the information and data available is not derived from one single place. In order to overcome these issues, together with my team, we have established strong collaboration between all divisions and communicate with them from time to time to understand problems, ways to minimize the difficulties and setting up moving forward plan and process flow. It takes a lot of negotiation with respective division especially in term of cut off time to provide the data and eligible of drivers that will be used for allocation purposes. Some negotiations with information providers do not take long but there few requires continuous negotiation until the processes are fully stable and ready for service. Once a process flow had been completely implemented and applied by all division, I then started to communicate formally with all TM Group and ready to start the process to improvise Group Segmental Reporting. Meantime, I have received a very positive feedback from Group and all divisions that this exercise really helps them to improvise better profitability as well. 2.Planning and Administration competencies Planning and administration competency involves deciding what tasks need to be done, determine how they can be done, allocating resources to enable them to be done, and then monitoring progress to ensure that they are done. This competency includes: †¢Information gathering, analysis and problem solving; †¢Planning and organising projects; †¢Time management; and †¢Budgeting and financial management We were once facing a challenge from top management to execute 100% 2011 Key Performance Indexes (KPI) for asset tagging achievement by taking consideration a full completion of tagging exercise for assets acquired prior 2006, 2007 – 2009 and 2010. The majority of assets were classified as routers which many of them already been deployed at customer’s premises, lost or not at working condition. This is one of the toughest job to be delivered in 2011 due to in complete information for old assets, problem to identify lost assets and require a high support from vendor whom previously perform installation at customers’ premises and from other division such as Customer Service Operation (CSOC) team. By October 2011, we are only managed to achieved 69% out of 1,821 assets that need to be tag and this situation really give us high pressure since we running out of time and got 3 more months only to complete the remaining of the assets. Further, it has potential Net Book Value (NBV) impact of RM4.5 Mil if the activities was not planned and administered properly. This situation also require Retail Product Finance team to gather all necessary information from various unit, analyzing a result, identify ways to solve a problems within a given timeframe. I took immediate action by putting strategic plan with respective assets owner and design the most achievable timeframe for everyone to follow. My team had table out the proposal to Vice President and Head of Department (HOD) during our weekly management meeting and action had been taken immediately soon as everyone agreed. I started to execute a plan together with my team and assets owner by classifying assets group with potentially not found, not working condition, can be found and available at customer’s premises. Each group of the assets was tackled by different kind of approach and we are monitoring a progress from time to time until end of the process. My team will update the status of assets on weekly basis and report was produced to respective HOD for their immediate attention and action. Any unresolved issues were brought up and thorough checking was performing for each of the issues. Meantime, we are also monitoring the financial impact and ensure asset retirement and depreciation was performed timely. Our hard work and tremendous effort was worthwhile for Retail Product where by December 2011 we managed to achieve 100% asset tagging KPI and manage to recognize RM4.5 Mil NBV in a book. 3.Teamwork competencies A teamwork competency is accomplishing tasks through small groups of people who are collectively responsible and whose job requires coordination. Teamwork competency can become more effective by: †¢Designing teams properly; †¢Creating a supportive team environment, and †¢Managing team dynamics appropriately I have realized that in the past 2 years both Retail Product and Global have been using unreliable forecast driver as a mechanism to allocate International Bandwidth cost among each other. By using forecast drivers, I have difficulties to convince LOBs about cost that should be taken up by Retail business and to ascertain the drivers that being used as allocation basis to them are proper or not. I have approached Bandwidth management team and Global Data Management (GDM) team to relook this matter again and find ways to allocate cost at high accuracy and efficiently rather than using forecast as a basis throughout a year. Realized that this implementation requires strong and high commitment team, I have approached my team member and we have started to initiate several discussions with Costing, GDM, and Bandwidth management team including product owners. We also communicated to LOBs and Group Finance to support us on our mission to change the driver process. Initially, we have difficulties to convince Global Finance about the important of using appropriate drivers and cost allocation since they have been performing the same method for several years already. They were afraid the changes may impact a lot in in their Financial book, require additional tasks and resources. In order to overcome this ambiguity, in the past few months, we have been brief about the existence of new system called ABOR resided at network which able to track bandwidth usage up to service offerings and thus, using this opportunity, we managed to convince Global Finance to start making changes. Further, our management have empowered us to take actions based on the best judgement without always seeking approval from them. We were also been promised by management that the successful of this project will add to our KPI. Finally, with a great support and commitment, both RP and Global have come to consensus about methodology and approach to deliver cost allocation with better cost drivers’ analysis and everyone seems able to accept the new way of doing things. Strengths and challenge to achieve affective middle manager Based on the above 3 competencies, I believe that I possess the following strengths that able to help on self development and assist a company towards achieving strategic goal and objectives. a)Relation-oriented and Change-oriented leadership behaviour; b)Value Innovation and Change; and c)Excellence Relationship. 1.Relation-oriented and Change-oriented leadership behaviour I believe that I possess a relation-oriented behaviour especially on providing a support and encourage my team member when perform difficult task, providing coaching and mentoring, finding time to listen to my subordinate and willing to accept suggestion from subordinates and peers. In change-oriented leadership, I have shown to management that I am able to understand the need to adapt the change of environment, implementing a major change in strategies and encourage and facilitate efforts to implement major change. A challenge to practice this strength in current middle manager position is that top managers such as Vice President and Executive Vice President might sometime have difficulties to accept the new strategies and ways of doing things because they are already complacent with current method and not willing to take a risk with the new approach. Thus, even though my subordinates have a very high motivation to perform the new methodologies but without a strong support and encouragement by top managers may sometime lead to frustration. 2.Value Innovation and Change I am always encourages my subordinates and peers to seek opportunities for different and innovative approaches to address problems and opportunities in Telekom Malaysia and facilitates the implementation and acceptance of change within the workplace. I am also able to identify and drives changes needed to adapt strategically to changing of management and internal initiatives, catalyzes new approaches to improve results by changing organizational culture, systems, or products/services. In other occasion, each year we encountered a problem to rationalize our Business Plan number with Information Technology and Network Technology (ITNT) unit because there was  no specific platform being given by TM management that we can discuss and agree among each other during Business Plan exercise period. The outcome is mush worsen when a project start to kick off because somehow part of a project cost neither budgeted at our unit nor ITNT. A lot of staff complaining about this situation and something need to be done to improve the situation. Upon realizing the important of this issues, together with my superior and peers, we started to put up proper plan and drive communication with ITNT during 2011 Business Plan exercise. I have initiated a first discussion with ITNT team where comprehensive rationalization exercises have been carried out several times after that. I have appointed one of my subordinate to compile and execute all information so that both our unit and ITNT can share each other, detail assurance where a cost should be resided was taken into high consideration and the demarcation of project owner was fully identified. No doubt, though we have some problems with a few product owners who resistance to accept this new way of exercise due to time consuming and a lot of pressure was putting back to them, we are constantly persuade them about the important and benefit of the outcome from this newly added exercise. Though Group Finance had provided the platform at a very last minute during BP exercise period, both our unit and ITNT have a very minimal issues and problem to bring up since we have rationalized our number prior to that. At the end of a period, objectives have been fully achieved and ultimately have mutual understanding and co-operate each other with minimum discrepancies. 3.Excellence Relationship I have a capability to initiates and maintains strategic and trusting relationships with stakeholders inside and outside the organization (e.g. TM colleagues, government bodies, regulators, industry players, technology partners, investors, media, customers and alliance partners) to advance business goals. My team members were given responsibility to improvise Group Segmental Reporting through identification of proper cost drivers for Subscriber’s Equipment (CPEs), Revenue Sharing Outpayment, Routers Leasing and Product Licensing. It requires a new cost transfer process and my team felt difficulties to implement due to complication on obtaining the drivers, too manual and limited resources. I have initiated the discussion with various parties like GEMS, IT – Data Warehouse, Service Planning and Demand  Forecast Unit (SPDF) and Retail Product division about possibility to obtain the drivers and identify a method to do it. In order to reduce the difficulties among my team member, I worked with them to identify a methodology to access the information, type of template to extract the data and setting up the deadline to accomplish a job on monthly basis. I always discussed with my team about problems to perform this job and how to overcome such incidents. I told my team members that their effort and contribution towards achieving this goal is very valuable and helps to improvise TM’s reporting. We are started to establish good relationship with data provider parties such as IT, SPDF and product owners so that the analysis can be carried out on monthly basis. My team members successfully implement the new tasks and help to improvise Group Segment Reporting. We have received a positive feedback from various parties in Group Finance and Line of Business (LOBs) since the cost transfer exercise really helps them to establish better profitability Unfortunately, a great challenge that I have to face when putting through this concept in work division is a reluctant from management to accept the changes as every division seems more comfortable to work within their own division rather than to accept changes from outsiders.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

The Importance Of Having An Engaged Workforce Within A...

Introduction BridgeStreet has been in the corporate housing market for over 30 years. Originally formed in the United States of America this organisation came together as a result of a consolidation of 7 serviced apartment companies. The company acquired its UK operations in 1998 and has since expanded over to the rest of Europe and Asia pacific. One of the key issues that BridgeStreet has identified over the past few years is the low engagement from the staff which has resulted in high turnover especially within the Corporate Regional Office. The aim of this study is to identify and explore the importance of having an engaged workforce within BridgeStreet Corporate Regional Office, to identify, the barriers and enablers of engagement, to explore the current mechanisms and methods of employee engagement used within the corporate office and finally to come up with a plan in order to improve engagement within the workforce. From 2011 onwards the Company has been engaged in a major restructuring programme. Firstly by re-branding and also by introducing new concepts to the industry. Then it moved on by changing structure in its senior management team and also restructure within departments. This has resulted in several new concepts being introduced whilst also a few positions were being made redundant. All organisations should explore the engagement within its operations as having a handful of disengaged employees will suddenly multiply and increase tenfold. In order toShow MoreRelatedCorporate Culture Into Talent Management1656 Words   |  7 Pagesexcellent example of GE’s six principles identified as the key to their success. These include: Aligning recruiting efforts with strategy; making sure the company’s talent management practices fit with each other; making deliberate effort to embed corporate culture into talent management processes such as hiring methods and leadership development; getting involvement by managers at all levels, including the CEO; Figuring out the best balance of the company’s global and local needs; and Finding waysRead MoreThe Importance of Ethics in the Workplace2188 Words   |  9 PagesThe Importance of Ethics in the Workplace From birth, most of us are taught what is right and wrong. Ethics is a trait that most human beings acquire, but with differences in values and perspectives, it may be hard to achieve. The problem lies in how ethics are taught to people. It is our duty as Americans and people on this Earth to train ourselves to become ethical in every thing we do. We should be practicing good ethics everywhere, at work, home, and school. Having good ethics should beRead Moretanglewood case10700 Words   |  43 Pagesthan building new stores. Emerson and Wood had been heavily involved in the management of the stores, but found that increasingly the corporate administration was a more pressing concern. The company arrived at a regional structure for its operations. Emerson and Wood took on the positions of CEO and President of the company, respectively, while a team of regional managers more directly oversee day to day operations. The company currently has a total of 243 stores open in the stat es of WashingtonRead MoreMary Watson Was Recently Promoted to the Position of Regional Sales Manager for Today’s Fashion6635 Words   |  27 Pagesshirts. Corporate head-quarters was located in Twin-Cities adjacent to two of the plant operations. The Hillsville, Eastern, and Lakeview plants were 100 to 200 miles distant. Each employed 70 to 100 people. About 250 employees were located in Twin-Cities. Sam had started with Supreme’s Eastern plant after college. He progressed rapidly through several staff positions. He then served two years as a night foreman. He became known for his ability to organize a â€Å"smooth team†, never having a grievanceRead MoreCase Study No2459 Words   |  10 PagesBeing healthy means cutting healthier care spending in the long run. Employees could be more confident and competent in building and interacting with their customers and various stakeholders. His approach is also a motivation for the employees to be engaged in healthy living. Furthermore, they become loyal to the company, as they feel that the company considers them as an important asset to operations, values and cares for them. Mr. Hagedorn’s approach may also attract new competent and potential employeesRead MoreTanglewood Casebook19453 Words   |  78 Pagesthan building new stores. 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They are also recognizing that doing so, however,Read MoreBusiness Analysis: Barclays, a Major Financial Services Provider2473 Words   |  10 Pages1. INTRODUCTION Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail banking. Bar-clays is organised within these business clusters: Corporate and Investment Banking, Wealth and Investment Management; and Retail and Business Banking. The Corporate and Investment Banking, Wealth and Investment Management cluster comprises three business units: Corporate banking; Investment banking; and Wealth and investment management. The Retail and Business Banking cluster comprises four businessRead MoreCommunication, Involvement and Participation3800 Words   |  16 PagesMatheson, Fidelity International, BBC Group and many more. These companies clearly demonstrated how good they engaged with their employees and invest in People Management. 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Wednesday, January 1, 2020

The Marketing Strategy Of Starbucks - 1524 Words

Introduction Starbucks is an international brand in the world, there are more than 21,000 stores in over 65 countries including the franchised outlets. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse chain worldwide. They are holding a top selling coffee market. There have been selling coffees, tea, any type of fresh food and other soft drink. Which is not just selling in Starbucks, they are also selling the product in other place such as franchised outlets even selling on the train. According to Tom and Asha (2015), Starbucks reported the record for net revenue was $16.4 billion in 2014. Which was increasing 11% from last year. It can see Starbucks market still getting developing. The marketing objective on this media plan is for Starbucks expand to the children market. The reason for set up this marketing objective is Starbucks is already has a good market position for adults who like coffee, but there also have the other product is suitable for child market, so the media plan will try to find a good ways to expand the market. Target market for Starbucks The target market for Starbucks are separate two groups, the main focus on male and female who is 25 to 40 years old people with high income. It is the status symbols for customers feeling who are consumed in Starbucks and they are like coffee; these are holding 49 percent on the market share of Starbucks in the world. However, young adults are the second group of target market, which is Starbucks focusing on. Their aged is 18Show MoreRelatedStarbucks Marketing Strategies For Starbucks Essay2159 Words   |  9 Pages1971, Starbucks started as a roaster and dealer of whole bean and ground coffee along with tea and spice in Pike Place Market in Seattle. The company quickly grew and became what it is today. Currently, Starbucks serves millions of customers every day and has more than 24,000 stores in 70 countries (Starbucks Coffee Company, 2016). By now, Starbucks is a well-known company around the world. Beyond having a good core product, their marketing strategies are strong. As comm unication marketing strategiesRead MoreStarbucks Marketing Strategy For Starbucks1429 Words   |  6 Pages MARKETING CA1 Dylan Nolan â€Æ' Contents Starbucks Marketing Strategy 2 Starbucks SWOT Analysis 4 Starbucks Macro-Environment Forces 5 Starbucks Target Market Segmentation 6 Starbucks Social and Digital Media 7 Bibliography 8 References 8 Table of Figures 8 DECLARATION 9 â€Æ' Starbucks Marketing Strategy 1) Please expand on the various marketing strategies that were implemented in Starbucks at this time and comment on whether you think these strategies worked, and why? ‘To inspire and nurture theRead MoreMarketing Strategy Of Starbucks : Starbucks1231 Words   |  5 Pagesand analyze a remarkable American company, Starbucks, and particularly how they produce and market their own brand of coffee worldwide. I have discovered and wish to convey to you some remarkable ways that Starbucks uses specific marketing strategies based upon the countries where Starbucks are located. Specifically, in this critique I want to explore how Starbucks changes their coffee product in terms of level of sweetness in various countries, how Starbucks packages the coffee product to maximizesRead MoreThe Marketing Strategy Of Starbucks866 Words   |  4 Pagesword-of-mouth marketing has been the key and a valuable point for companies to promote their business. â€Å"Word-of-mouth (WOM) has a powerful influence on people decision to use (or avoid using) a service† (Wirtz, Chew, Lovelock, 2012). Word-of-mouth marketing is important for companies to have perso nal connections with consumers and provide outstanding service. Starbucks is one of many successful companies that use this method and have been strongly relying on this marketing strategy. Starbucks have beenRead MoreThe Marketing Strategy Of Starbucks2046 Words   |  9 Pages3.0 Marketing Strategy Starbucks is ensuring that its marketing strategy never goes too far outside it s culture. Composed of two key points. The first key point is Starbucks image. When an individual walks in to Starbucks, there is a friendly face to greet customers, color scheme is very cool and earthy, and same thing goes for smell too. Starbucks is ensuring that customers feel relaxed and comfortable in the coffee house. The second key point is the individual himeself/herself. AccordingRead MoreStarbucks Marketing Strategy980 Words   |  4 Pages1) CHINA: If there is one company that should have failed in China, it would be Starbucks. China has thousands of years of history drinking tea and a strong culture associated with it. No one could have guessed that Chinese would ever drink coffee instead of tea. Yet, Starbucks has successfully opened more than 570 stores in 48 cities since it first entered China twelve years ago. Building on this momentum, it plans to open 1,500 stores by 2015. What did the Seattle-based coffee company do rightRead MoreThe Marketing Strategy Of Starbucks Essay1409 Words   |  6 Pagesmade. This Strategy has significantly drawn people to Starbucks due to its highly anticipated services, products, and marketing strategies that differ from most fast food restaurants. The next service is the Starbucks webpage where the customers can go onto the site and view product and also make purchases. This service is quite excellent for those that want to checkout items online through the site, because it incorporates a similar process as the application on your smartphone. Starbucks also incorporatesRead MoreThe Marketing Strategy Of Starbucks1767 Words   |  8 Pagesaccording to the rules and regulations of each country that they operate in. For instance, American co mpany Starbucks which is coffee house chain, which is producing goods like; coffee, beverages, tea, smoothies, and baking goods. Jerry Baldwin founded Starbucks. Starbucks revenue is$16.447 billion. Starbucks continues its legacy as a global brand, but prior to launching stores of Starbucks in new countries, the purpose of any organization is to increase its profits and sales through satisfying theRead MoreStarbuck Marketing Strategy3058 Words   |  13 PagesIntroduction Marketing mix is one of the most useful strategies for every company to look for to have a good business. Starbucks has analysed the marketing mix to develope their brand in many market mostly in the Western country. However, in Eastern one, specifically in Vietnam market, the marketing mix strategy have to be different. This report will talk about the individual elements of the extended marketing mix and how to use the marketing mix in different contexts of Starbucks Vietnam. Starbucks VietnamRead MoreStarbucks Marketing Strategy2554 Words   |  11 Pages0105.363.01 Marketing Analysis—Starbucks Co. 7 Intended Customer Segment Starbucks is an international company that is recognized and respected. It’s is well known for its coffee as well as the relationships formed with its customers. The typical gourmet coffee fan is that sought-after individual with high levels of education and disposable income (Scarpa). This targets college students and business people in general, as well as individuals from the baby boomer generation to generation