Revision ( Week 7 )

Revision !!! 

Management :

Four Main School -- Classical --> Human Relations --> System --> Contigency

 Classical 

Key contribution -- Taylor, Fayol, Ford, Weber

Taylor, Fayol and Ford -- " scientific management "

Weber -- " bureaucracy "

   

Scientific Management :

* People are in it for money

* The delivery of work instead of leaving it to the workman's         initiative to find it

* An analysis of operations into their constituent parts

* The planned, orderly and continuous progression of the commodity

• paying workers according to the quantity they produce
• employ fewer workers to increase the productivity ( workers worried about losing their job )
• clearly defined job roles
• standardised procedures
• a hierarchy of authority

Advantages :

• increase production
• reduce inaccuracy
• fast decision-making
• benefit on management and work

Disadvantages :

• costly ( planning )
• lack of flexibility
• monotonous
• non-democracy
• increase unemployment

Examples :

• Ford company ( car factory )
• Burger King
• McDonalds

Bureaucracy :

1. tasks are allocated as official duties
   
2. clear division of labour and high levels of specialisation
3. use of hierarchical authority
4. a fixed system of rules and regulations and a structure of authority
5. employment is based on technical qualifications

Criticisms :

1. too much emphasis on rules and regulations
2. emphasis on status and position within the organisation
3. lack of ability to be creative and grasp an opportunity
4. initiative taking is discouraged as everything is covered by rules and regulations

Highly production may bring down the quality. In this modern business environment, these management are demotivating people and they are see as exploitation.

Corporate Social Responsibility ( CSR )

* A form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model

CSR initiatives can be approached form multiple perspectives :

1. Environment -- focusing on ecological concerns from recycle to improving the organisation's entire carbon footprint
2. Community Based -- supporting  local community projects to improve lives of the people local to your organisation; finally or through volunteer programmes
3. Internationally -- focusing on issues such as fair trade, sustainability, working conditions, child labour and human rights
4. Workplace Based -- focusing on improving the rights and well-being of the staff; reviewing issues including remuneration, recruitment, induction, health and safety, whistle-blowing, working conditions, diversity and training

Advantages :

• cost reductions
  
• more productive employee
• enhanced reputation at less cost
• content communities
• happier, more loyal customers
• improved access to capital

* CSR helps to engage with the customers in new ways. Since the message is about something " good ", it can often be an easier way to talk to the customers. This is an underused tool for business-to-business company communication

Ansoff's Matrix

  


Ansoff's Matrix is one of the very good strategies for businesses and industries to use. Retraining and diversification are the highest risk strategies because both of them are new stuff for new markets. Oppositely, expert development and market penetration are the lowest risk as they are the existing things in the same market. However, they may not be so effective for innovation because businesses should try new things to attract customers.

Research

     Starbucks 

PESTLE :

1. Political

• Issues -- stability of political environment, law, taxes, policies on economy, trading agreements, government's view on culture and religion, terrorism
• e.g. Hong Kong, Thailand

2. Economical

• Issues -- stabilisation, unemployment rate ( people tend to spend less money )

3. Social

• Mission -- to inspire and nurture the human spirit, " one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time "
• Goals -- continuous improvement of quality, ethical sourcing, promotion of Diversity & Respect, integrating into the community ( environment-orientated goals ) and success in business ( organisation-orientated goals ) 

4. Technology

• Phone apps ( buying and paying by phones )

5. Legal

• Issues -- employment law ( working time, age, minimum wage rate ), health and safety regulations ( e.g. Starbucks spend more on health insurance - $ 250 million surmount its coffee bill ) and consumer protection ( e.g. Starbucks pay $225,000 to settle Consumer Protection care for gift card violations )

6. Environment

• Issues -- recycling ( in stores, reusable cups, greener cups ), energy ( reducing energy consumption by 25 % by 2010 ) and water ( continue to include water-saving technology in the equipment specifications and going to reduce water consumption by 25% by 2015 )

SWOT :

Strengths --

1. sound financial records 
2. No. 1 brand in coffeehouse segment valued at $ 4 billion
3. Starbucks experiences 
4. largest coffeehouse chain in the world 
5. employee management

Weaknesses --

1. the price of coffee beans ( influence profit )
2. product pricing ( expensive )
3. negative publicity ( greener company, tax evasions, treatment of some suppliers )

Opportunities --

1. extend supplier range
2. expansion to emerging economies
3. increase product offerings
4. expansion of retail operations

Threats --

1. rising prices of coffee beans and dairy products 
2. trademark infringements 
3. increased competition from local cafes and specialisation of other coffeehouse chain ( Nero and Costa ) 
4. saturated markets in the developed economies
5. supply disruptions

Porter's 5 Forces :


1. Barriers to Entry -- Medium ~ High

• low capital requirement
• little product differentiation
• major companies including McDonalds have already entered the " coffee war " and other major companies are considering to join this war

2. Threat of Substitutes -- High

• soda, fresh fruit juice, healthy juice for drink
• alcohol drink ( beer, whine, cocktail )

3. Buyer Power -- High

• even thought the price goes up, the buyers who like only Starbucks would still come
• buyers can buy over the nation, so as other major companies do

4. Supplier Power -- Medium

• Starbucks is a global coffee chain and I can imagine that many suppliers are eager to work with them

5. Industry Rivalry -- High

• many companies ( Coffee Bean, McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts )
• little product differentiation
• excess capacity
• people tend to look for more healthy and fresh juice

Porter's Generic Strageies :

To conclude, this is the last blog for this term, which calls " Revision ". Is the summary of all the topics that we had learnt in this term before the exam. In addition, I have also done the research about the case study of the exam. At last, I found that actually doing this  blog for business and management is very useful for me to reflect what I had learn.

Globalisation ( Week 6 )

Today's Topic Is GLOBALISATION !!!

Globalisation is when businesses operate in lots of counties all over the world. It means that companies can be based anywhere in the world and can buy from and sell to any countries in the world.


Firms can increase their market size by selling existing products to new countries. They can reduce costs by getting their raw materials form countries with the cheapest prices. Also, manufacture components in overseas countries where labour is cheaper, before putting the final product together.


International trade offers businesses lots of opportunities to make money by selling their products abroad in order to increase their turnover by increasing the size of their market and buying raw materials abroad or relocation production abroad can cut costs.



For Example :


McDonalds

The McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries. A McDonald's restaurant is operated by either a franchisee, an affiliate or the corporation itself.

McDonald's has become emblematic of globalization, sometimes referred to as the "McDonaldization" of society. We can find McDonalds very easily in all over the world.

Communication will be one of the biggest challenges for international businesses because the managers may have to share ideas to different store in different countries.

McDonald's has an  internal  communications team that deals with communications to all of our staff, and stakeholders. A number of different communication channels are used such as the intra net and weekly newsletters for staff to stay connected.

Externally  we run a number of different advertising campaigns throughout the year to ensure our customers are aware of the great products on offer as well as informing them about other areas of the business such as our training and education opportunities. We also have a media team who deal with all press enquirers.

Advantages :

• cheaper prices
• improvement in economic
• higher rates of growth
• increase customer choices
• greater employment opportunities

Disadvantages :

• culture in different countries ( e.g. China and Hong Kong )
• health problems ( e.g. SARS, flu )
• conflicts ( e.g. China and Japan )
• disparity

In conclusion, international businesses are the companies that operate anywhere in the world such as McDonalds. Communication is important for the international business as the stores will be in different countries and they must communicate with each other in order to get the ideas and the profitability that the store has got.