As a Business Consultant I have been asked to provide a report to the CEO of “Londis”. All Pass, Merit and Distinction criteria tobe covered. All the LOs in the assignment brief to be main points in the report.
The report has been conducted on Londis, which is a convenience franchise store in the UK. The report has been conducted in a methodical manner which will be provided to the CEO of londis. This report will include the profile of the selected business by making identification of the strength and the weakness and also the opportunities and the potential threats that can act as hindrances in the path of the progress of the business organisation. The next part of the report includes the analysis for the business by taking into consideration the comparative measures for the evaluation of the prevalent market conditions.
The report will also contain the analysis of the existing performance of the organisation and will also look for the ways for the betterment of the conduction of business of the organisation. The existing business plans and the objectives are assessed and recommendation is also provided regarding the new areas for the expansion of business. The next part of the report contains the preparation of the action plans for the change of the business also provides the methods in which the marketing managers will implement the changes.
This report will be dealing with the company that is operating in the UK, Londis that is in fact a part of the Musgrave Group (Londis.co.uk, 2015). In the year of 1959, The Company has been established. This company is based in Ireland and is related to the retail business in that area. The main goal of the company is to provide high quality store development, marketing and purchasing in that business area. I, being the business consultant has been asked to develop a report that will be discussing the performance of the small business enterprises and at the same time will be shedding light on the change management and the business performance of the company. Revision of plans related to business is essential just to implement the changes that have been worked on (Appelbaum, 2011).
This report will be dealing with the Ireland based company, Londis that is related to the retail business in the United Kingdom. This company allows the customers of the UK to avail a wide variety of products related to the grocery. The company also deals with products like milk, bread loafs, eggs, different variety of fruits and vegetables. The levels of the competition in the market are very high as far as the small business enterprises are concerned. The company has certain weaknesses as well as strengths that are discussed below.
Strengths – These kinds of enterprises are flexible in relation to the employees and the managers, which cause betterment to the working style and manner. The labour cost is relatively cheap and is readily available in the business area. The flat management structure is followed in these types of companies. This helps in better communication processes among the top levels and the workers or employees of the company. This often leads to high levels of co-operation factors from the employees’ point of view towards the top management and lastly, the companies who are related to the small business enterprises are often found very close to market and they therefore attain important info regarding the same (Berman and Barry, 2011).
Weaknesses – Not all but most of these small business enterprises do not focus on the quality of the marketing, branding, customer satisfaction etc and these are really vital areas where a company should be working on in order to produce better result. Extensive utilization of the employees do not take place in these companies. Major weakness is the strong financial condition, which these companies do not possess that leads to issues which are complex in nature. The employees who are working directly with the customers are not properly trained and they do not come from a strong work culture that effects the communication between the employees and the customers. Planning and decisions are very important for companies to implement but at the same time, small business enterprises do not give much of an importance to this. Change is something that is happening all the time, and therefore research and development should be the point of focus in order to make appropriate changes for the betterment of the company (Hertz, 2011).
Figure 1.1: The Swot Analysis
(Source: Business.qld.gov.au, 2011)
The company should focus on the Benchmarking Approach. There are many competitor companies that are operating in the same business market. The comparative measures of performance are a process through which the collection of data and their analysis is done in relation to the performance of the business companies and the organizations. The business analysis should be done in a structured format explaining the different factors that are involved which is different from one company to the other. The factors may include the quality of the products, the effectiveness of the packaging, marketing styles and strategies, levels of customer satisfaction, brand image of the company and at the same time the brand reputation in the area of operating. There are many competitors as mentioned above for this company in the market area and therefore the factors that are mentioned above should be researched and findings should be done on those factors. This will be indicating different competitor companies at different levels of services and can be ranked in an effective way that will be helping the company in creating the benchmark. Creating a benchmark is very essential in order to streamline the working manners of the companies. There has to be companies that has high brand image and reputation and at the same time high levels of satisfied customers. The policies and the strategies that has been adopted as well as implemented should be followed by the less effective companies in the market in order to develop competitive advantages over the competitors. Benchmarking, a concept in management is very useful for the companies who are not performing well in the market (Couture et al. 2011).
The process of benchmarking is discussed in this paragraph. Among the factors that are explained above, one by one should be chosen and the factor should be understood. Then the potential companies should be examined through data and info collection and once this is done the assessment of the gap takes place through comparing both the companies on the selected factor. Here different strategies should be adopted to work on that gap and objectives and goals are set and the company and therefore work accordingly to achieve the same.
Figure 1.2: The Approach in Benchmarking
(Source: Haas and Michael, 2011, pp 258)
The weaknesses that the companies have have been discussed previously and therefore it is necessary to pay attention on the actions that needs to be taken in order to overcome the weaknesses. Quality of the products and the packaging is very important in today’s’ business and therefore actions should be taken in order to improve the levels of quality that will enhance the betterment of the company. Work culture plays a very important role too in the operations of the business and the culture should be ethical and positive in order to make the workers work in the most effective way possible. The company should take necessary steps in standardising the work culture. Trainings should be given to the workers of the company on a regular interval of time to keep them updated on the products and the behaviours that they should follow in terms with the customers. In the recent decade, it has been seen that the technological advancements have taken place at an alarming rate and many companies are not coping up in utilizing them and therefore the companies should adopt the new technologies that will make their work easier and more efficient. In the recent times, planning is not given importance by many small business enterprises that lead to many complications related to the business. Strategies should be adopted by the companies that are small in order to develop future betterment in relation to the business market. Focus on the research and development should be of high importance as this leads the companies to understand current positions in the market (Harris and Elaine, 2011).
There are many ways through which the performance of the organization and its workers can be maintained and at the same time strengthened. The companies should be working on different strategies that will be help to measure the performance of the workers and the organizations. The ways in measuring the performance may be balance scorecard, key point indicators, assessment of peers and self-assessment. The performance of the organization can be done through comparing the factors mentioned earlier in this report. Many training and seminars should take place that will be related to the work culture, technological up gradation, updates on new products etc. This will help the workers be up to date in comparison to the other competitor companies. Motivation and Rewards are very effective in not only maintaining the performance but also enhancing it or strengthening it. Motivations can be tangible or intangible in nature. Rewards should be given to the workers so that this can result is enhanced performance and productivity which will directly cause betterment to the company. In most of the companies throughout the globe, motivation is used as a tool in order to increase the levels of performance and productivity from the employee’s point of view. At the same time, rewards give the respective employee a moral boost that directly motivates the employee or the worker in order to provide effective deliverables. As a company the top management should be aware of the well being of the employees as well as the company itself and both should synchronise in order to produce betterment for the bot involving high profits and revenues (Heath et al. 2010).
The company can move forward and think in strategic alliances as well as expansions at the same time. The company can make decision plans on companies that are relevant in relation to the strategic alliances that will be providing proper framework of business for both the companies. Other than this, the company can expand in the garments sector, electronics sector and fitness sector. In has been studied in the past that there were many small business enterprises have developed from small to big companies and organizations. Garments sector is booming at the present therefore expanding into garments will not be a loss if some related factors are met and worked on. Proper ads and promotions should be done as these are vital aspects in marketing. Fitness is something that is of high importance in the recent decade and again if done in an organised and effective manner, this expansion will be a success. Lastly, the electronics sector, due to high levels of technological advancements the electronics sector are at its peak and at the same time if the promotions and the awareness of the same is done in an effective manner the expansion will not fetch loss in the near future of the business scenario. All of the above will only be a success if the marketing strategies are effective. The promotions and the awareness of the same should be done in a very effective manner through which the customers can have the feel of making the purchase decisions. The customer relationship is also very vital and therefore the workers should be very convincing that will lead to high sales for the company (Hitt, 2011).
The current business plan and objectives of the company is to provide products at the most affordable prices that will suit the customers’ pocket. Money is one of the most important deciding factor in one’s life as far as purchase is concerned. Why will the customers buy goods with higher prices when the same thing is available at a much lower cost, therefore the company feels that working on the pricing factor will lead to betterment of the company in terms of huge sales and profits. Another objective is to work on the working hours of the stores so that the customers can buy products later in the evening after office or early in the morning before going to work. Flexible timing is focused by this company that will lead to more sales (Kim and Rubianty, 2011). The main objective of the company is giving importance to the partners and innovativeness which produces values to the respective customers with high quality. Quality is a very important factor as the customers are ready to pay more if the quality provided is of high class. The other objectives are to develop high competitive advantage among the competitors in the business. The company is working hard on the brand association factors that play roles in the mind of the customers and make them repeat ones followed by brand loyalty. The motive of the business is to make sure that certain qualities are associated with this company and they are high quality, trust , innovativeness that will lead to high sales in the future and also brand reputation enhancement.
Due to high technical advancements in the recent times as well as high competitive market conditions it is very essential to constantly work on different changes that should be implemented in the strategies to attain better results. In the recent times, consumer behaviour and thinking are given the most priority from the companies’ point of view, as this is a changing factor with time. The customer’s likings and the expectations do not stay fixed , in turn it changes on a daily basis (Okoro, 2011). Therefore companies should work on short term strategies rather than long term and the frequency of customer liking and behaviour has increased from earlier market conditions. New technologies are coming up each day and through this the quality of the work can be enhanced highly. Therefore, the companies should work on trainings given to the respective people in order to train them of the technologies and make them work in the most efficient manner so that the companies develop the competitive advantage along with betterment to both the organizations and the employees. In the present times, it is the best to come out of long term objectives and work on short term objectives which are SMART in nature. Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time bound is the five factors of SMART. The management should constantly work on the changes in technologies, customer likings, expectations and reputations and make strategies that will meet the factors mentioned (Newcomer, 2011).
Figure 3.3: Action Plan to Implement Changes
(Source: O’Driscoll, 2010, pp-231)
There are some of the workers who take these changes in business operations as a challenge and try hard in working on them so that the performance and productivity levels rise. At the same time it has been seen that the changes are not comfortably accepted by the rest of the workers. Resistance to change is the factor and therefore the company should work on this critical issue and make them understand the positive effect of the change will lead to betterment of the company and the worker itself. The worker should be convinced on this and should restart working with a positive mind (Ross and David, 2010). This mainly happens in the case or technological change and management change. This is from the personnel’s point of view.
From the business point of view, the companies that have adopted the changes and has worked hard on it develops or tends to create a competitive advantage that helps the companies to fight out the tough competitions that has been faced in the recent or present business market (Schwartz and Robert, 2011). Customer’s satisfaction, liking as well as expectations changes in a rapid way and there lies the space to beat the competition by the companies who adopts the change. Most of the companies working in the UK are following this type of approach.
The changes are managed in the companies for running the operations of the business. Changes are very important in today’s business market and at the same time if not managed well will lead to failure of business even for companies that are highly established in the market. The changes will take some time to be fully implemented and this period of time there should be full co-operation from the companies’ point of view in relation to the workers. It has to be accepted that the customers are of the highest priority as far as doing businesses in this globe and therefore the company should do whatever possible to possess a huge list of customers which will again result in high profits, brand loyalty and brand reputations. Once the changes are implemented, the areas where it has been implemented should be marked as Key Point Indicators and after certain intervals of time it should be measured (Ewa, 2011). If found effective, good or else the worker should be trained again and if he cannot adopt this, the worker should be shifted or terminated as the company wishes.
The monitoring of the performance can be done through balance scorecards, KPI Monitoring, self-assessment, peer assessment etc. Through these, the performance of the workers will be monitored on a weekly or a monthly basis. The self-assessment is very helpful where the worker himself judges the competencies of his own and can work on areas where needed. Peer assessment is done through peers and are effective ways through which monitoring is done. KPIs are also useful in monitoring the performance of the employees. Monitoring the business can be found out through calculating the profits and revenues (Dooren and Wouter, 2011).
Conclusion
It may be concluded that the small business enterprises are facing high competitions levels in the market in UK. The customers liking, expectation and the satisfaction are very important factors in relation to run the business. Change management has been very important in today’s business world and at the same time adopting the change is very crucial to sustain in the market with a competitive advantage (Wee and Bum, 2011). The performance should be monitored to have a better understanding on the workers who are working for the company.
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