Wal-Mart Strategy Implementation

Wal-Mart’s achievement in Human Resource Management is retaining their manpower of 1. 3 million from recruiting into a union, increasing to it and following other HR strategies to more Wal-Mart’s achievements. Wal-Mart would never have been capable to extend and attain these achievements without hiring and taking care of quality workers around the world. Major Wal-Mart’s human resource practices involve; worker selection, training, evaluation, compensation, and advancement; worker recruitment on school/college/universities; and worker training and development.

Moreover, when many companies have decelerated their hiring of new workers, Wal-Mart has searched more methods to appeal workers to compensate for their more growth during the upcoming five years (Armour, 2002). 2. Traditional HRM functions in the Wal-Mart Company When we look at Wal-Mart’s Human Resource Management, one of the significant perspectives is Wal-Mart’s worker advancement plan. Presently, 65% of the Wal-Mart’s managers started working hourly jobs, like cashiers (Armour, 2002). Wal-Mart has followed many strategies to guarantee that there are options for their workers to progress through the levels so to speak.

This provision of options to move past low-paying hourly wage employments certainly is one of the factors that Wal-Mart was surveyed as Fortune magazine’s most preferred firm and was attributed as the top firms to serve for in the U. S (Useem, 2003). 2. 1. Policies for employee selection, training and evaluation In the system of worker selection/recruitment and worker training and development, Wal-Mart has focused on school/college/university students to enhance their manpower in UK and other European countries.

Wal-Mart attains this recruitment by fanning out more than 80 college campuses (Armour, 2002). When they are at these institutions, they are capable to extend their demographics by considering minority sodalities that takes every kind of people from various backgrounds, races, and genders in the Wal-Mart group. With a broad variety demographic for manpower, just works to draw more professionals to search job with Wal-Mart as they are capable to present that they practice a sophisticated hiring procedure.

In addition to this recruitment, Wal-Mart has implemented an advance measure with school/college students by giving management training for students when they are studying so they are more educated after completing their graduation (Armour, 2002). This plan gives the aim of making students think about careers with Wal-Mart, and during the last couple of years, the plan has made great achievements. The outcomes of these Human Resource practices speak for themselves.

Wal-Mart has attained a high retention ratio for their workers, and the evidence of this is their concentration on increasing their manpower during the upcoming five years by employing 800,000 more workers getting the total more than two million (Armour, 2002). Regardless of the statistics that Wal-Mart’s workers are underpaid and not leveraging advantages, Wal-Mart has not wavered. Workers, about 60%, have gone on record stating they work with Wal-Mart as the advantages enable them to look after their families (Armour, 2002).

If workers were not happy and resigning at a considerable ratio, then the concentration would be on getting these vacant positions filled despite extending their manpower. 2. 2. Policies for employee’s compensation This was to encourage them to have a dynamic interest in the working of the firm. A mechanism of performance connected compensation and bonus guaranteed that workers gave best contribution to the company in many countries. Major characteristic of Wal-Mart’s human resource strategy was that the firm never allowed overtime duty.

It did not permit senior officials to overload workers with work (The good and bad of Wal-Mart). 2. 3. HRM policies and practices to retain employees The management strived to develop a positive and delightful environment in the Wal-Mart. in USA, Wal-Mart was among the first firms to put in profit sharing and stock plans for its workers. When it went public Wal-Mart started its “Profit Sharing Plan”. The plan gave a chance to its workers to enhance their income affected by the profits of the store.

Workers were also given stock plans and store discounts (The good and bad of Wal-Mart). 3. Conclusion Wal-Mart was aware that workers had a critical role in the achievement of a retail business and bestowed much significance to them. To impart a spirit of equality and oneness among workers, the firm followed the plan of terming workers ‘associates’, and developing in them a feel of belonging and participation in Wal-Mart’s practices and achievements. Walton knew that if he regards their workers, they would look after the consumers in the similar way (The good and bad of Wal-Mart).

References

1. Armour, S. (2002, 25 August). While hiring at most firms chills, Wal-Mart’s heats up. USA Today. Retrieved from: http://www. usatoday. com/money/industries/retail/2002-08-25-walmart-employment_x. htm 2. Useem, J. (2003, February). One Nation Under Wal-Mart. Fortune Magazine. 3. The good and bad of Wal-Mart’s culture. (2003). Retrieved from: http://www. icmrindia. org/casestudies/catalogue/Human%20Resource%20and%20Organization%20Behavior/HROB037. htm

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Ihg’s Corporate Strategy: The Winning Ways

IHG’s corporate strategy: ‘The winning ways’ IHG’s mission statement is: ‘to become the greatest company in the world through creating great hotels guests love’. IHG’s road map for growth is dependent on engagement and high performance from the entire workforce. In order to achieve this, IHG designed a set of values, known as ‘the winning ways’. The winning ways serve as ‘a road map’, which enables IHG to reach their long-term vision. IHG’s winning ways will act as the foundation for how they go about their business. More specifically, the winning ways are fundamental to enhancing relationships with guests, colleagues and business owners.

This new way of working will also support and drive the organization’s growth. But what are the winning ways and how exactly will one measure the strategy’s success? The winning ways are as follows: Do The Right Thing – “We aim to do what we believe is right and have the courage and conviction to put it into practice. We are honest and straightforward and see our decisions through. ” Show We Care – “We want to be a company that understands people’s needs better than anyone else in our industry. This means being sensitive to others, noticing the things that matter and taking responsibility for getting things right. Aim Higher – “We aim to be acknowledged industry leaders, and have built a team of talented people who have a will to be the best. We strive for success and we value individuals who are always looking for better ways to do things. ” Celebrate Difference – “We believe it is the knowledge of our people that brings our brands to life. We do not impose a rigid, uniform view of the world. Our global strength comes from celebrating local differences, while knowing that some things should be the same. ” Work Better Together – “We are at our best when we collaborate to form a powerful team.

We listen to each other and combine our expertise to create a strong, focused, supportive and trusted team of people. ” The winning ways outline IHG’s culture as being a world leading hotel group. This unique strategy has been rolled out across the entire group and in order to measure the success of the winning ways, employee satisfaction surveys are used. Basically, IHG acknowledges that their people are the most important element for success, because they are responsible for bringing IHG’s brands (within IHG, there are seven hotel brands) to life for guests.

IHG uses its’ winning ways strategy to put personnel ‘in the spotlight’ and therefore making employees satisfied, in which they will portray their gratification towards guests. In conclusion, IHG’s winning ways strategy is a smart, yet simple approach to reach their mission statement. The winning ways can also be referred to as their guideline or bible to guide the hotel group towards their long-term vision. IHG’s winning ways are how personnel should behave on a daily basis; a set of behaviors based on their values which is ultimately absorbed by the entire workforce and transferred to the guests.

By creating a consistent and reliable workforce, IHG can be sure that their winning ways strategy is the perfect route to success, because after all, guest satisfaction is everything in the hotel industry. References Robert Dransfield (2001), Corporate Strategy – 1st edition, Guildford, England, Heinemann Laura Pratt (2011), Hotelier Magazine – People Pleasers: IHG Aims to Please as Pinnacles 2011 Company of the Year Allison Shirreffs (2011), Atlanta Business Chronicle – InterContinental Hotels Group: Best places to work InterContinental Hotels Group corporate website: http://www. ihgplc. com/index. asp [pic]

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Sourcing strategy of Zara

The study is thoroughly checked for internal validity with a proper balance in the structure of design and adoption of appropriate research instruments. The adoption of case study evaluation is highly suitable to find out to identify the implications of supply chain implications in global sourcing strategy of Zara. “Findings can be said to be internally invalid because they may have been affected by factors other than those thought to have caused them, or because the interpretation of the data by the researcher is not clearly supportable” (Seliger & Shohamy 1989, 95).

The internal validity of the data is checked, with the following factors:

Subject variability: The study has taken care to avoid subject variability, by keeping concentration on the hypothesis through out the structure of the paper Historical evidence: While considering the Case study selection the study observed the historical background of the company chosen. Maturation: the study also observed the maturity of the case taken and Industry before commenting and summarizing the issue

Instrument/task sensitivity:

the study is purely valid in terms of instrumentation, as it intends to observe sourcing strategy The study is also checked for the external validity by generalizing the findings to a larger group of companies that are not involved in the study and to the other sectors of Industry other than apparel, to observe the general implications of global sourcing. The study has checked for the external validity with the following factors:

Population characteristics (subjects)

Interaction of subject selection and research Descriptive explicitness of the independent variable The effect of the research environment Researcher or experimenter effects Data collection methodology The effect of time Quantitative methods allow for a broader study, involving a greater number of subjects, and enhancing the generalization of the results. Quantitative research is generally defined as the collection of numerical and statistical data. Read also about Zara corporate social responsibility issues

It is perceived as the scientific approach of research employing ‘experimental’ and ‘quasi-experimental’ strategies. Harvey (2002) as cited in Roboneill describes quantitative data as data which can be sorted, classified, measured in a strictly “objective” way – they are capable of being accurately described by a set of rules or formulae or strict procedures which then make their definition (if not always their interpretation) unambiguous and independent of individual judgments.

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Corporate Strategy of Tesco

Table of contents

Introduction

The company that our group has chosen to analyse is Tesco.

Tesco was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen who began his new venture by selling surplus groceries from a stall in the east end of London. Tesco has come a long way since then and is now one of the largest food retailers in the world, operating around 2,318 stores and employing over 326,000 people. Not only has Tesco managed to monopolise the food sector, they have also diversified into a number of other sectors, some of which being insurance, mobile networks, clothing, and electronics.

However, this report shall have a focus of the food sector in the United Kingdom. Albeit that Tesco has 2,200 stores locally, it is categorised as operating in a globalised environment. Currently Tesco has stores in seven European countries; the United Kingdom, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and the Republic of Ireland. Furthermore also operates in Asia, stores can be found in China, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan.

The long term business strategy of Tesco is currently fivefold; to be a successful international retailer; to grow the core UK business; to be as strong in the non-food arena as the food arena; to develop retailing services- such as tesco. com, Telecoms, and Tesco personal finance; and to put community at the heart of what they do. How Tesco chose to implement the corporate strategy is via a steering wheel model; that all of the key elements of the business, customers, operations, people, finance, and community, are dealt with an equal and balanced scorecard. It has been stated by Tesco that the steering wheel has been implemented to place emphasis on the fact that corporate responsibility is not a specialist function in Tesco, it is a part of everybody’s job every day (Tescoplc. com. Tesco works off the business value that their “core purpose is to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty”. Great emphasis is placed within “people”, without their customers and employees Tesco’s success would not have been possible.

For the remainder of this report the variables that can affect Tesco’s competitive advantage shall be considered and evaluated. Value chain When considering the value chain of Tesco there are a number of primary variables that can either add value (+), lose value (-), or have the potential to add value (P+). For the primary activities; Inbound logistics These have an integral importance in the creation of the value chain as they provide the earliest opportunity to create value, therefore because of the elements related to the logistics Tesco try to achieve and maintain the level of consumer choice in store (+).

The efficiency of distribution system of Tesco does need to be improved (+), and the quality control system should be managed by the company efficiently so that the cost of losses are not imposed upon the customers (P+). Operations Tesco’s core operations are service orientated and these services involve opening and closing the store, shelf maintenance, and replenishing the stock (+). Outbound logistics The main emphasis for this stage in the chain is delivering the product to the customer (+), the customer service that is provided (+) and the implementation of the trolley service which is convenient for the customer (+).

Marketing and sales

The Tesco Clubcard gives discounts and provides loyalty to customers (+), selling healthy and environmentally friendly products (+), and Tesco’s advertisements and new policies on using recycled products to help Tesco come “carbon free by 2050” (+). Joint Ventures and mergers and acquisitions In 2008, Tesco made an agreement with the Royal Bank of Scotland to buy 50% of their shareholding. This allowed Tesco to build up Tesco Personal Finance. Tesco currently offer financial products such as home insurance and a credit card. However, Tesco wishes to offer a full service retail bank.

The reason for wanting to embark on this new venture is because owning its own bank would not just increase Tesco’s revenue, it would also attract new customers and provide a further service for its existing loyal customers, which other competitors do not offer. In 1999 a French hypermarket chain named “Carrefour” tried to enter the Korean market but it failed. This was due to the fact that the Korean population had a preference for domestic supermarket chains, which this was not as the owners failed to localise the store.

Interestingly Tesco attempted to enter the South Korean market in 1999 as a joint venture with Samsung. It was named “Samsung Homeplus Tesco” and was extremely successful due to the recognition by the Koreans that it was a domestic retailer. By joining forces with a Korean business Tesco was given an instant competitive advantage and the opportunity to thrive: “it has now become one of Koreas leading retailers and there are currently 30 hypermarkets and two super express stores” (Kollewe, 2004). Finally, in 2008 Tesco acquired a Korean supermarket chain named Homever which was owned by the E-land group in Korea.

Tesco paid ? 958 million to take over the 36 stores that the group owned (Walker, 2008). The takeover will not only increase Tesco’s revenue, in a country that they have already been successful in, but will also enable Tesco to gain knowledge of the Far East and Asian markets through merging the two companies, this hopefully should enable them to be just as successful within these new markets.

PESTEL analysis for Tesco

Political

Due to operating in a global environment, Tesco is largely influenced by the political and legislative conditions of these countries, as well as the European Union enforcing governing rules.

The government legislation for employment encourages retailers to provide work for a variant of people, ranging from flexible, lowered paid, and locally based jobs to highly skilled, highly paid, and centrally-located jobs (Balchin, 1994). This piece of legislation also allows for the various demographics to be given work opportunities, such as students, senior citizens, disabled people, people from various ethnic backgrounds, and working parents. This gives Tesco a competitive advantage as it produces loyal employees.

Economical

The recession has caused the unemployment level in the United Kingdom to soar over 28. 93 million (Office for national statistics). As economical factors are likely to influence demand, cost, price, and profits, these figures should make Tesco’s management feel particularly apprehensive. Although Tescos international business does bring in a high amount of profit, they are still largely dependent on the UK market. If the unemployment rates continue to soar, the slowdown of the UK food market could have a severely detrimental effect on Tesco’s.

Social

British customers have become “one stop” shoppers. Due to this movement, Tesco has been able to successfully diversify their company into a range of different markets. One can now not only buy their weekly shop but can purchase personal insurance, electronic goods, clothing, and a range of other products from Tesco. com. Technological This particular variable of the macro-environment has helped to develop many of Tesco’s products and has not only been indicative of the company’s satisfaction but also that of the customer’s. Due to services such as Tesco. om, the self checkout service and the Tesco Clubcard, the customer satisfaction levels have increased due to more personalised shopping, goods that are readily available, and convenience. However, due to the modern use of technology, it does allow for job cuts as face to face services have been replaced.

Environmental

Tesco has put in place measures to ensure that their company helps in the fight to lower carbon emissions. Their challenge is to achieve a 30% reduction of the carbon impact of the Tesco’s supply chain by 2020 and to become a zero carbon business by 2050. Implementations in the forms of using green clubcard points in order to encourage environmentally friendly, carbon conscious purchasing; the “buy one get one free later” scheme, that allows customers to acquire their free product at a later date to reduce waste; and are striving to reduce packaging, reduced carrier bag use, and increase recycling, this year alone they have reduced carrier bag usage by 53%.

Legal

There are certain government legislatives and policies that Tescos have to abide by and have a direct impact on their performance.

Bodies such as the Food Retailing Commission (FRC), who prevent companies from demanding payments from suppliers and changing agreed prices without notice. Government policies for monopoly and the reduction of the buyer’s power can limit entry into the sector (Mintel report, 2004).

Competitors

The market leader of food retailers in UK is Tesco. It has 26. 2% (including non-retail is 31. 5%) market share, 2,115 stores and ? 34,874 million sales (Mintel, Food Retailing, 2008, details in Appendix 1). J Sainsbury which has 823 stores and 13. 5 (16. 5) % market share is in the second position. The third one is Asda group, and it gains 13. (15. 1) % market share with less than half of the Sainsbury stores number. The forth player in food retailing market is Wm Morrison Group which holds 9. 5(11. 7) % market share.

“The top four account for 63% of all food retailers’ sales (after adjusting for fuel sales) and dominate the market for main food shopping. (Mintel, Food Retailing, 2008)” “British supermarkets are typically evaluated by potential customers by two sets of criteria: the perceived price levels charged and the quality of service offered interns of range of goods, quality of merchandise, opening hours, and store environment (Bradley, 2003).

Tesco started in the UK food retailing market and the business is maturing. “Sales density and market share growth are both slowing, and UK space is becoming a smaller part of the whole (Leahy, 2008). ” AlthoughTesco will still plan to open more stroes in UK, “80% will open outside of the UK in 2009 (Mintel, Food Retailing, 2008)”. The opportunities for Tesco are: 1. Taking advantages of the food retailing value chain to continue to grow internationall by market development, and 2. Providing non-food products/services to the loyal customers in food retailing area by product development.

When considering the competitive advantages, our group uses Poter’s “Five Forces” (1980) to analyze Tesco competition in the UK and international markets. In the UK, Tesco bulits the barriers for new entrants (high fixed cost and difficult to get suppliers), cooperates with local suppliers (strong relationship with farmers), uses Clubcard for retaining customers (Customer loyalty), and in the food retailing there is no specific substitutes. {draw:g} Figure 4: Tesco’s competition in the United Kingdom. draw:g} In the international markets, the situation will be different. Tesco should build relationship with the international suppliers, promote its brand to the international customers, provide products differentiation to avoid the threat from substitutes and potential entrants and compete with the international competitors which may already have strong supplier chains.

At that period of time (1980s), some of the main supermarkets had been replaced which was related to a low customer loyalty. People had a wide range of choice with a cheaper price. Until the Clubcard was established, customers have become more relevant to the supermarket. Although a Clubcard itself does not create loyalty, it can be a medium to produce the Tesco points (which can be accumulated and exchange the goods/money within Tesco, source from: Assen, Van den Berg, and Pietersma, 2009).

Tesco notice that the total customer satisfaction experience can create the generate loyalty towards ‘a pull strategy’ which is better than a direct promotion that is based on a low-cost products (a push strategy). According to Tesco’s annual report, “In the first 6 months of the club card introduction, without any advertising case, Tesco have achieved about 17% of the “customer spontaneous usage. ” Based on this research, it is obviously to see that a Tesco Clubcard can not only enhance the customers’ loyalties, but also can create a customer relationship management (CRM) for Tesco.

Tesco can get the information from CRM and analyze it to find those most valuable customers. On one hand it can reduce the cost and make Tesco to target more efficiently and effectively. On the other hand this may improve the company’s service quality and customer satisfaction. Club card activity is successful and remarkable. Customers like these activities, as well as the store managers. It gives the opportunity to create a communication channel for the managers and the customers sharing knowledge. Tesco is trying to treat its customers as “shareholders”.

In addition, Tesco must learn and adjust their marketing strategy to meet their customers’ needs. That means if Tesco can notice the changing of the customers’ needs more quick than its competitors. Their competitors will lose their customers’ satisfaction and this is one of the most important competencies of Tesco, especially the critical successful factor in UK. Human Resource Tescos distinctive strategic resources and assets can be found in its employees. The HR department in Tescos has been strategically integrated in the overall plans; management utilizes HR whenever they are making decisions (Beardwell J. 004). HR department helps in the building of the company through the following: – creating new plans and techniques to measure and reduce labour turnover. It has played a crucial role in aiding diversification into new business sectors. Their slogan ‘Every Little Helps’ is part of their ethos and is also inculcated in the training programs offered to their employees (Armstrong, M 2005) Tescos focuses on high commitment through the HR department by incorporating all employees; by discussing its strategic directions.

The major challenge to Tescos is ensuring that all employees are aware of the roles assigned and how these various roles and actions can affect the ‘big Tescos picture’ (Whitelock, N. 2003). As a result, training has increased within the organization with high value placed on employees through the offer of basic and extended training. (Beardwell J. 2004). The increment in employee training within the organization is as a result of HR adopting a proactive strategic role and not an administrative one.

The stance taken by HR is that by equipping the employees with the skills that they need to work will in the long run lead to increased growth. Career development is also looked at. This is in light of the changing employment market and employees feeling less secure in their jobs. A disadvantage of this is that since these skills are transferrable, they could in the long run be of benefit to their competitors. Though the merits of training the employees outweigh the demerits, employee shift or movement should not be overlooked. In terms of sustainability, developing employees through T&D and education are imperative because these are the most important factors in determining long-term business profitability. This can also be achieved by fully exploiting the wealth of knowledge within the organization; its employees. (Armstrong, M 2005) It aims to integrate learning as part of it business culture because learning is seen as an integral way of being flexible which has a long term organizational value thus maintaining its huge step ahead of its competition.

In conclusion, Tescos integrating HR as part of its strategy and focusing on the training of its employees has made them feel a part of the overall strategy which in turn has lead to higher employee commitment. This long run effect gives Tescos the added value it needs in the competitive retail market. Recommendations There are a number of recommendations that can be specified which could enable Tesco to grow into more dominant brand and have even more success both locally and internationally.

Tesco’s growth largely depends on its non-food products, these account for over 25% of its sales (not including petrol), and it is these areas that are the key to Tesco’s future success. The main emphasis should now be on developing new and innovative strategies so that these areas can blossom. Already it has been noted that Tesco beauty section is only second to boots, and their skin care range is the fastest growing range in all supermarkets. However, they do face stiff competition from Asda’s and Sainsbury’s clothing range.

If Tesco wishes to be viewed as the number one “one stop shop” then more efforts need to be placed into the non-food areas otherwise customers shall use a different supermarket that do satisfy all their consumer needs. Currently there is a serious cause for concern that our carbon foot print needs to be decreased drastically. All supermarkets have a high level of waste; cardboard, plastics, paper. This problem needs to be address, although Tesco has stated that they wish to be carbon free by 2050, they need to ensure that this dream becomes a realisation.

They can reduce these variables by having less packaging on products, promoting recycling, and disposing with plastic bags all together and instead implement long life bags that the customer brings to the store when they visit. Tesco have been extremely successful in many foreign markets through joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions. They have acquired a lot of useful knowledge about the Korean market and now hopefully will flourish in the Asian and Far East market. This shall only happen though if they bring not only their own values but adopt the ones of the country that they are entering.

Finally, further steps need to be taken into promoting Tesco’s banking service. If this venture does go ahead they will be an unstoppable force. Conclusion Tesco is a remarkable chain. Although it is leading in its market and is attempting to conquer the international world, it is the values that they uphold that are second to none. It is the emphasis on “its people” that have allowed them to be so successful; by continuously trying to provide better and faster services of a high quality, and investing time and money in its employees is why they have so many loyal customers.

Tescos are known for innovation, they have now become a one stop store, not only can one acquire the weekly shop but now can obtain insurance, home furnishing, clothing, and electrical goods. It is for reasons such as these that they have always been able to stay one step ahead of their competitors.

References

  1. Armstrong, M (2005) (9th Edition) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice Kogan Page, London
  2. Assen, M., V., Van den Berg, G., and Pietersma. , P. (2009) Key Management Models: The 60+ models every manager needs to know, 2nd edition, Balchin A. (1994) Part-time workers in the multiple retail sector: small change from employment protection legislation? , Employee Relations, Vol. 16 Issue 7, pp. 43-57.
  3. Beardwell, J and Claydon, T. (2004) (4th Edition) Human Resource Management A Contemporary Approach Prentice Hall, Harlow.
  4. Bradley, F. (2003) “Building competitive brands”, Strategic Marketing in the customer driven organization, 1st Edition, London: John Wiley & Sons Ltd Press
  5. Kotler, P and Keller, K. L. (2009) Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, and Control, Prentice-Hall.
  6. Kollewe, J. (2004) cited at http://www. independent. co. uk/news/business/news/tesco-raises-stake-in-korean-venture-544724. html. Assessed by 28 Nov, 2009
  7. Marchington, M. & Wilkinson, A. (1996) Core Personnel and Development IPD Publishing, London.
  8. Mintel report. (2004) Food retailing- UK, Retail intelligence, November.
  9. Mintel International Group Ltd (2008) Food Retailing, UK, November 2008 (Nov 2008). http://0-academic. mintel. com. unicat. bangor. ac. k/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=395621/display/id=280627. Assessed 16th Nov, 2009.
  10. Mintel International Group Ltd (2009) Food Retailing, UK, _November 2009 _(Nov 2009) http://0-academic. mintel. com. unicat. bangor. ac. uk/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=395621/display/id=280627/display/id=395621. Assessed 4th Dec, 2009.
  11. Mullins, L (2005) (7th Edition) Management and Organisational Behaviour Prentice Hall, Pearson Education, Edinburgh Office of national statistics cited in http://www. tatistics. gov. uk/cci/nugget. asp? ID=12. Found on the 27/22/09.
  12. Palmer, A. & Worthington, I. (1992) “Marketing: an overview”, The Business and Marketing Environment, 1st Edition, London: McGraw Hill Press.
  13. Porter, M., E (1980) cited in Johnson, G. & Scholes, K. (1997) Exploring Corporate Strategy, 4th Edition, London: Prentice Hall Press. Tesco community plan cited in http://www. tescoplc. com/plc/corporate_responsibility_09/approach/cr_strategy/community_plan/.

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Case Study Ebay Strategy in China

Introduction Basics of Occupational Safety, in my opinion could be explained as most important steps of identifying, recognizing, avoiding, controling and methods of protection from risks and other possible factors that can affect our  physical and emotional health. Occupational safety consists from our personal safety and of those who surround us. To be away of accidents and other harmful factors we should be first an informed person over potential risks, ways of avoiding it and of course methods of helping each other or our self in case we are in a risky situation.

Information is available everywhere is just important to know which one is a correct information helping you to have correct steps of protection yourself and which one is a incorrect one. A correct information is the that one approved by law and proved in practice. Accidents and prevention Accidents and risks are everywhere and no one can protect you form a potential accident that yourself. Nature is unpredictable and everybody has their one destiny. But by being an informed person you get power on controlling situations and avoiding risk from your life.

An accident if a factor which can provoke harm to you health or take your life for good. There is always ways of avoiding accidents and those who care about their life will do all possible to survive it and get form it at least alive if is not possible to avoid wounds and broken bones. In my opinion to avoid an accident is: 1. Knowing the rules of working place or transportation rules and respect them 2. being informed on potential risks places and better to avoid them 3. have an idea of according first aid in case of possible accidents 4. e protected with special suits, glows etc. , if working area is in possible risk all time 5. know where is urgent exit doors form buildings in case of risks 6. know where are urgent buttons 7. where is the specialized room for accident cases which have all necessary tools for protection 8. know where is health box for accident cases 9. know where are the closes points of hospitals and health points 10. being informed of scheme of building 11. at least 2-3 times have done the training for special cases and accidents and know how to behave in this situations 12. now the specialized person who have done trainings for first aid 13. being patient and non stressed and with focused attention is extreme situations and support weak persons 14. location of first aid equipment 15. to protect the casualty against further injury without creating a risk for oneself 16. the plan for access to additional care 17. to observe and interpret the victim’s general condition 18. to assess the situation, the magnitude and severity of the injuries and the need for additional medical help. Occupational diseases and prevention What are occupational diseases?

A disease is a virus who harm your heath and provoke illness and potential death. Occupational diseases are a long list of diseases who can migrate form one person to another if is transmissible or can be  gained form you unhealthy work place always posed at risks for being infected with chemical harmful products or can bring physical harms. Being protected means in first place to be a informed person, to respect working place rules and where special glows and protection suits, always have a planed day when you can go and do a general investigation on your physical situation and also psychological one.

Always have a planed day, have planed breaks and eat healthy food, have at least 1h per day for physical trainings, have a sleeping regime. If you fell you are tired or fell strange modifications on your general health don’t hesitate to visit a doctor for a small investigation. Nobody can save you from those diseases who are genetically transmitted but only you can make your health situation better by taking care of yourself and avoid risks. Riscks and their management A person can be applied for an first aid in different situation and depends of few key factors: – size and layout of the enterprise type of work and associated level of risk – other enterprise characteristics – availability of other health services. The risks of injury vary greatly from one enterprise and from one occupation to another. Even within a single enterprise, such as a metalworking firm, different risks exist depending on whether the worker is engaged in the handling and cutting of metal sheets, risk of burns and electrocution, the assembly of parts, or metal plating the potential of poisoning and skin injury.

The risks associated with one type of work vary according to many other factors, such as the design and age of the machinery used, the maintenance of the equipment, the safety measures applied and their regular control. A distinction is sometimes made between the type of work and the specific potential risks: · low risk-for example, in offices or shops · higher risk-for example farms and in some factories and yards · specific or unusual risks- like underground work, diving operations, transportation and shipping. Example of potential hazards will be: 1. rushing injuries 2. falls 3. lack of oxygen 4. risks of spreading fire and explosions 5. intoxication by chemicals at work 6. serious cuts, severed limbs 7. exposure to infectious agents, animal bites and stings. How to manage with potential risks and how to manage accidental situations? Every company in our days meet many challenges in changing their safety programs  as they understood that they are responsible for workers life and safety at working place and because of hight penalties that have to pay to high priced medicaments in case of accidents at working place.

To manage a risk situation you should have knowledges in many safety areas: chemistry and biology- hazardous substances, ergonomics- limitations of human power, designing machines and facilitations, knowledges about pollution, environmental alteration, psychology helps to understand human behavior, medicine helps to understand mechanisms of injuries and how to prevent them, business and economics helps to improve safety and contribute to profitability and productivity.

Most of the companies have different hazards unique safety expertise and most of them do next several thinks: * we must recognize hazard situations, conditions and situations can cause illness injuries; * we should consider fire protection: reducing fire hazard by making regular inspections and instal fire detectors and suppression systems * health control hazards: as noise hazards, chemical, biological, radiation hazards which can affect our life * always have ready equipments, materials, facilities and  professional abilities * make sure that mandatory safety and health standards are satisfied * improve management for hazardous products by keeping them away of humans, fire, other substances or stored in special places; * explain people about their limitations and abilities, characteristics of products * protect environment by not releasing poisoning substances in air or water * make planed trainings on explaining workers on way of recognizing potential hazards and make their work safe and  effective. Conclusion From all we explained till now, we can evaluate the main point of safety science: gives people to identify, evaluate, control and prevent risks in their working place or day by day. Ricks cant be prevented, their are everywhere but there is always professionals dedicated to prevent human suffering and potentials losses. Author: Irina Soltoianu

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Bsnl Change Management Strategy

BSNL competitive portfolio & Change Management M Ramesh, marimuthuramesh@rediffmail. com Synopsis: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. formed on 1st October „2000, is one of the largest & leading public sector units providing comprehensive range of telecom services in India. They operate under 13 different brands. Their customer base as on July 31, 2011 was at 95. 14 Million. BSNL has an installed Network in the country comprising about 43. 74 million line basic telephone capacity, 8. 83 million WLL capacity, 72. 60 million GSM capacity, 37,885 fixed exchanges, 68,162 GSM BTSs, 12,071 CDMA Towers, 197 Satellite Stations, 6,86,644 RKm. f OFC, 50,430 RKm. of microwave network connecting 623 districts, 7330 cities/towns & 5. 8 lakhs villages. However, with such a large base, excellent brand recall, political backing and huge workforce, the company has not been doing well and in fact has reported a loss in the previous financial year. BSNL had reported the highest net profit of over Rs10,000 crore in 2005-06 but since then its profits have been falling. The losses have more than tripled to about Rs. 6,000 crores during 2010-11 mainly due to hefty outgo for employees’ salary and expenses borne by the PSU for procuring 3G and BWA spectrum.

The company had registered a net loss of Rs. 1,823 crores during 2009-10. The total revenues of the company also declined to Rs 28,876 crore during the current year, down nearly 10% from Rs 32,072 crore in the previous financial year. Recipient of the Golden Eagle award in 2004 & 2005 for the most trusted brand in telecom sector, BSNL is today struggling to retain its identity. This article aims are preparing a competitive strategy for BSNL and select suitable competitive portfolio so that the company can emerge out of the crisis it is in.

Further, the change management strategy that has to be adopted in order to implement the changes in the organisation is given in this section. 1. Competitive Strategy and suitable corporate portfolio: Before we embark upon suggesting a suitable corporate portfolio, it is important to analyse the current the functioning and management of BSNL. a) No doubt that its presence and reach across the country is its biggest strength. Established offices in all the metros, A, B & C class cities, and installations and offices in the remotest parts of the nation, especially J, North East is a strength they can easily exploit on their road to recovery. ) Long serving employees and excellent knowledge of the market, customers, tacit knowledge base of BSNL is unique. They are different from the competition since customers view BSNL as a 2|Page state run firm and profit not being the only motive, would be willing to trust them more than other competitors. c) Even today, they rule the land line connections and command a market share of over 65% of the customer base and any of the revival and restructuring plans for BSNL has to pass through this channel. ) BSNL, being a completely government owned organisation, they can use their political affiliations to change the rules of the market, create entry barriers for competition, and lobby for influencing the market to leverage their strengths, policies that give them an edge, and those which do not violate TRAI and other fair trade practices, can be adopted. While we discuss the selection of suitable portfolio from the competitive strategies, apart from the strengths of BSNL highlighted above, it is important that the crucial questions of what can be done that is not being done at BSNL is pondered.

Some of the questions that we have to ask and find answers that hold key to developing a competitive strategy and designing a suitable portfolio are: 1. BSNL has a vision ‘To become the largest Telecom Service provider in South East Asia’. For this it is important to understand the parameter for being the largest. Is it revenue, Av. Revenue per User, profit, subscribers, Network (no of exchanges, BTS etc)? Clarity in purpose and vision is essential to developing a suitable competitive strategy. 2. Is the mission aligned with its current position?

Has it redefined its mission from a state run entity, interested in nation development to a corporate that has to deliver to its owners and stake holders? 3. What are the investments that have been made or planned to be made, in order to provide world class State-of-art technology telecom services on demand at affordable price and to provide world class telecom infrastructure to develop country’s economy. 4. What has been done towards continuous innovation in product and delivery of services with the appropriate pricing is the key strategy for developing the trust in customer so that he keeps his loyalty with BSNL. . BSNL can target to acquire more than 50% of new acquisitions while maintaining existing clientele. How will this be done? 6. Today landline base is reducing across the globe, BSNL, to be a Significant Market Power (SMP), must increase it base to over 80%. 7. Ultimately it is the quality, customer care, and timely availability apart from price, which will matter. What are the actions being taken towards these critical success factors? 8. Can’t there be just one brand i. e. BSNL? Has there ever been an examination of their revenue break-up? Currently there are 13 brands that have to be developed and positioned. |Page 9. There are certain distinctions that BSNL has, like being awarded the most trusted telecom brand in year 2003 & 2004. They received the Golden Peacock award for Best Corporate Social responsibility. How can these be leveraged? 10. There are over one-lakh retailers, 1000 franchisees, 3300 CSCs, 36000 exchanges and still BSNL is not visible like others? Why can’t the space and people be utilized? 11. How to leverage the franchisee and STD-PCO strengths? Can these outlets be their core strength? 12. Why are the recharge coupons, India Telephone Cards are in shortage when there is no capacity constraint?

Is it bad inventory & supply chain management, or bad franchisee management? 13. Are there targets for the recharge coupons just like DELs & CellOne? Why can? t the huge network of franchises be leveraged for better customer care and improve collection efficiency? 14. With competition heating up, gone are the days when customers deposited money with BSNL in advance for connections and security money for value added services. There are no fixed deposits; and the working capital and other funds requirements have to be met from operating revenues.

What is the plan to improve collections, realize bills early, not on the last day of payment and reduce bad debts? 15. In line with the market needs, does BSNL have a 24X7 culture in their organization, though operation and maintenance are provided on 24X7 basis? What about provisioning customer care and marketing on 24X7 basis? Competitive strategy: Pricing: On the pricing front, BSNL does not have a choice but to follow the market trend. They can only bundle the packages in such a manner that the premium services bring more revenue.

Focus must not be on reducing charges, but upgrading each customer by RS 20 – RS 50 by offering them more add on relevant services. It is usually much easier to sell additional things to existing customers than to add new customer, and the customer base of BSNL is quite huge and substantive for this model. Differentiation: In order to differentiate itself from competition, BSNL Business development units have to be given the task to develop and nurture long-term relations with corporate houses. MoUs have to be signed for bulk bills, One-point payments for multiple service locations.

Setting up Key Account Manager servicing different corporate and key accounts and offering single window approach to resolve all issues and prevent any unwanted issues. Focus: BSNL has a strong hold on land line telephones, an important requirement for ADSL connections. There are huge benefits of ADSL over Wi-Fi & is very cost effective way to access Internet. BSNL is in a 4|Page unique position to leverage this advantage and its revenues, customer base and profitability can improve multi-fold if it can capitalise on this one aspect alone. Merging government telecom companies ITI and MTNL with state-run BSNL is one of the options.

This will give them a great advantage in terms of increased customer base, implementing change management and brining in changes and most importantly economy of scale, power of bargaining. Hybrid: In order to be more competitive in the present market BSNL must not only differentiate itself from competition, give a good and attractive price and have a focussed approach. The competitive strategy recommended is: Focus on improving ADSL services at attractive rates to households and offices, bundle it with land line connections and mobile connections.

Offer central point billing PAN India. For e. g. If a corporate company has branch and regional network, they must have the option of consolidated billing when they want and where they want to the level of Head office control they want to implement. BSNL can also offer special rates and Closed User Group (CUG) for government sector and earn huge revenues, since this segment is very price sensitive and is a very high volume user segment. More aggressive media campaign focussed on the strategically selected segments will help BSNL increase its customer base.

A change in its staff attitude making them focussed on customers rather than systems and procedures, fast and efficient decision making with empowered employees. Continuity in supply chains, procuring of quality equipment and products must be focussed on. After defence and railways, BSNL is the country’s largest landholder. Its properties p 3,500 towns across India worth thousands of crores, making it the largest state-owned companies in terms of land assets. A turn around policy of BSNL should have this huge source of revenue at its core. 2.

Change management strategy to enable it turnaround. No change in BSNL can happen and can be implemented without change of mindset in addition to the skills of marketing & sales. In this regards it is important to note that a research paper submitted by Vishwakarma Institute of Management, Pune in July 2010 after conducting a survey in BSNL concluded 5|Page that “the introduction of change seems to be managed effectively in the organisation with proper care and commitment and was agreed by the respondent BSNL employees with a mean 1. 022. The change is introduced by the consent of top management.

To keep up the pace with the dynamic environment the management encourages change by explaining and ensuring the minimization of adverse effects, and put efforts to convert employee resistance into the acceptance. Employees were found to be change oriented, as they have continuous learning attitude to keep match with the future organizational requirements. Respondents? shows resistance change in some issues due to some security and personal reasons, which can be taken care by proper change management initiatives”. BSNL must focus on improving its quality of employees and skilled manpower?

They must focus the organizational setup more suitable for better results? The staff expense to revenue ratio could be a good indicator. Today, more than 47% of the revenue goes to paying salaries to employees and this is the first aspect of change that must be introduced. The decision making process must be based on scientific analysis of the precious customer data they already have such as calling pattern, payment habits, usage profile etc. Increased number of surveys, customer research and systematic and periodical analysis of Net growth in mobile and churn is to be conducted?

Steps must be implemented to reduce the churn? Acquisition cost is usually said to be 5-8 times the retention cost, and hence BSNL must focus on retention of customers. Management must not threaten the employees, they have been long serving and loyal and at the same time demanding. The management should involve the employees in strategy and decision making and should help them to open their minds and apply it to improve the quality of service, network, and expansion of network in time; utilising and selling the products before the technology becomes obsolete (like WIMAX).

Considering the current scenario a Revolutionary change is required in BSNL and they should modify their competitive strategy quickly in order to survive in the hyper competitive telecom market in India. If one has to apply the McKinsey 7S framework for the change management process in BSNL, it would be as under: 1. Strategic: BSNL has to revisit its mission and evolve competitive strategies that are in line with the market dominant position that they want to be, exploiting their current strength of market leadership in land line connections. All their activities must be reoriented towards this change of positioning. |Page 2. Substance: BSNL needs to revamp its board and its top management, to be more customer and market oriented, dynamic and profit driven. Culturally, it is established that BSNL is employees are open to adopting change and hence management should provide necessary training to ensure that the process of cultural change is deployed quickly across all levels. 3. Scale: Considering the strengths of BSNL presence and reach of BSNL, scale is never an issue. What the organisation needs today is not infusion of new technology or resources; it is reorientation of the employees and a cultural change.

Retrenching employees is not the first and only option available. 4. Scope: Undoubtedly the scope of the change must involve all levels of the organisation and across all regions. BSNL is a homogeneous entity and changes at one level or within certain geography is not possible to implement. Certainly, depending upon the local customer bases, working conditions and cultural differences, adaptations can be allowed, but the change itself, must be pan organisation. 5. Speed: Communications, ICT, and internet industry relies on speed and there is no room for laggards in this. BSNL must implement change management as swiftly as possible. . Sequence: Since BSNL s confronted with many an issues to handle, the best place to start would be internal employee attitude and cultural change and external – customer satisfaction focus. If carefully and rapidly implemented, these two will have a cascading effect on other areas such as revenues, cash flows, asset management and so on that will turn around the organisation. 7. Style: BSNL has the baggage of being a government owned company and attitude of staff cannot be changed overnight. Unions are strong and public opinion can be made and tarnished by the correct or wrong handling of union issues.

Change management in BSNL has to carefully crafted and cannot be dictated or thrust upon. The style has to be one of collaborative effort and everyone involved must be clear with what is expected of them and how it impacts others, his / her results and overall company. Conclusion: BSNL is at cross roads of its existence. The need to refine its competitive strategy and implement change management has never been more urgent than it is today. If BSNL has to survive the tough market conditions, the change management process must be initiated immediately and aligned with the competitive strategies that must be reworked. |Page BIBLIOGRAPHY: ? ? ? ? ? Marketing strategies of BSNL by GS Grover, NK Srivastava, & Sunil Kumar http://www. bsnl. in http://www. business-standard. com/india/index2. php http://www. moneycontrol. com/company-article/bharatsancharnigam/news/BSN http://www. moneycontrol. com/news/business/bsnls-loss-triples-to-rs-6000-cr3g-bwaoutgo_588976. html ? ? http://www. cellular-news. com/tags/bsnl/ Organisation Culture- A Case Study of BSNL LIMITED, Mrs. G. Nagamani, Prof. G. Krishna Mohan, http://www. vim. ac. in/UploadImages/Attachments/G. %20Nagamani%20&% 20G. % 20Krishna%20Mohan. pdf 8|Page

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Current Strategy Definition

Dell Computer is, currently, the world’s largest manufacturer of personal computers, over companies such as IBM, Toshiba, Compaq or HP with a market share of 14% which continues to grow as a fact in 2008, where despite the recession and the drop in sales of PCs, Dell has overtaken its main competitors on a sales increase of 8%. The objective of this report will be to analyze and evaluate Dell and its procurement, manufacturing, transporting and distribution areas, as well as suggesting a new strategy offering a methodology for process improvement to improve the company results.

In order to carry out the objective of this report, the firm should realize continuing improvements in the planning and estimation of sales to reduce the problems from a sudden increase of demand, setting up “Lean Six Sigma Method” and fulfill the different steps of its implementation. Managing the supply chain, Dell integrates into the company its customers and suppliers, which allows a speedy and flexible management of their supply chain, thus Dell delivers its products in a reliable and very rapid manner, obtaining a competitive edge.

The major difference between Dell and its competitors is that Dell is not dependent on retail outlets to distribute its product. It sells online or by phone, and obtains the competitive edge through its electronic commerce. The chart below shows Dell’s production chain process. Internet order Dell’s factories are able to produce one computer in less than 4 minutes. After receiving the order from the customer, through an integrated platform that takes the request made by internet or by telephone directly to the factory that night it starts production.

The assembly line for its plant is capable of producing a computer in less than 4 minutes. About the distribution chain process, the device is delivered from the factory through outsourcing companies, the same day of production to distribution points and then straight away to the final customers. I have tried to show the process in the chart below. Taking the order just before the assembly, Dell gets the components which are an average of 60 days newer than those of machines sold by IBM and Hewlett-Packard at the same time.

That may translate into an advantage of a 6% gain in only the components. The strategy of procurement, manufacturing, logistics and distribution has enabled Dell to produce computers that are manufactured according to specifications that gives every customer, either through internet or telephone, a price lower than Dell’s competitors. However, the company has still some faults, for instance it has over 10% of delayed deliveries, especially in South America and also some problems with the suppliers. New Strategy for Supply Chain Improvement.

Due to the high level of Dell’s efficiency and lack of any method to improvement the process, I propose a new strategy which will try to improve the supply chain based on perfecting the current strategy, plus providing the keys to resolve its main troubles such as supply problems and delivery delay, improving the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects, in order to reduce as much as possible the orders that are not processed in an early manner due to not being detected on time.

The purpose of this strategy is to improve the distribution and transportation process and eliminate the overall process fault. Dell should implement an improvement method, there are many such as Lean Manufacturing or lean Production (LM), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) or Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM). However, from my point of view the Six Sigma Method is the most appropriate for Dell’s needs because Six Sigma seeks to minimize errors and satisfy the customer. Six Sigma is a highly disciplined approach to decision making that helps company focus on improving processes to make them as near perfect as possible.

According to I suggest the Six Sigma DMAIC method to improve an existing business process, the steps to implement the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology are shown in the chart below. In order to reinforce its accomplishments it is most appropriate to combine management with Lean Six Sigma, a methodology that includes tools such as work cell environments, polyvalence, the Kanban or scheduling systems with finite scheduling, flexibility in production and self – quality.

See the chart below. According to Objectives. The main objective is to introduce Lean Six Sigma DMAIC method in a successful manner and apply it to the procurement, manufacturing, transportation and distribution areas in order to achieve the objectives below. Six Sigma is about “solving a problem with an unknown solution. ” To unearth the solution, the problem needs to first be defined in concrete measurable terms. 2. Measure

Critical measures that are necessary to evaluate the success of the project are identified and determined. The initial capability and stability of the project is determined in order to establish a measurement baseline. Once the project has a clear definition with a clear measurable set of indicators, the process is studied to determine the Key Process Steps and an operational plan defined to measure the indicators. Once the reasons for input failure are determined, preventative action plans are put into place. 3. Analyze

The team should determine the causes of the problem that needs improvement and how to eliminate the gap between existing performance and the desired level of performance. This involves discovering why defects are generated by identifying the key variables that are most likely to create process variation. 4. Improve This phase is where the process transitions into solutions. Critical inputs have been verified and optimized toward nailing down the problem causes. Once problem causes are determined in the Analyze phase, the team finds, evaluates through testing, and selects creative new improvement solutions.

The team identifies and quantifies what will happen if needed improvements are not made and what will happen if the improvements take too long. 5. Control Success in the Control phase depends upon how well the team did in the previous four phases. The keys are a solid monitoring plan with proper change management methods that identify key stakeholders. The team develops a project hand off process, reaction plans, and training materials to guarantee performance and long-term project savings.

Documenting the project is very important so that the new procedures and lessons learned are maintained and provide concrete examples for the organization. At the close of the Control phase, ownership and knowledge is transferred to the process owner and process team tasked with the responsibilities. Finally, the team identifies what the next steps are for future Six Sigma process improvement opportunities by identifying replication and standardizations opportunities and plans.

The schedule plan advised to Dell new strategy implementation will last 11 months starting on January 2010 and finishing on November of the same year. A provisional Gant Chart is provided to aid in the schedule planning of the project.

Reference List

Walters, D. (2003), Global Logistics and Distribution Planning, strategies for management. UK: Kogan Page Limited. Janice Burn, Peter Marshall and Martin Barnett (2002) E-Business strategies for virtual organizations, UK: Butterworth Heinemann.

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