Report on RIP CURL - Assignment Example

?Report on RIP CURL By [Presented to] of [August 09, Table of Content EXECUTIVE SUMMARY……………………………………………………………………...03 Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………... 1.1 Role of Business Communication……………………………………………………………04 1.2 Different Types of Communication………………………………………………………….05 1.3 Effective Forms of Communication………………………………………………………….05 1.4 Problems of Business Communication………………………………………………………05 1.5 Purpose of the Report………………………………………………………………..............06 1.6 Audience of the Report………………………………………………………………………06 1.7 Analysis Process……………………………………………………………………..............06 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………… ……... 07 2.2 Overview of Business Communication……………………………………………………...07 2.3 Billabong’s Business Communication……………………………………………….............08 2.4 Rip Curl’s Business Communication……………………………………………………...09 2.5 Comparison between Billabong and Rip Curl…………………………………….............10 2.6 Effective Communication Channels in Business Environment……………………………...10 2.7 Success through Business Communication………………………………………………….10 Chapter 3: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION…………………………….. 3.1 Recommendations for Billabong…………………………………………………………….11 3.2 Recommendations for Rip Curl…………………………………………………………..12 3.3 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………...13 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………............14 Executive Summary Business communication plays an important role in the success and development of an organization. This business report aims at highlighting the importance and relevance of business communication in the success of Billabong, a clothing company that is known for selling surfwear and accessories all across the world. The report also aims at comparing the business communication process of Billabong with Rip Curl, one of the leading organizations selling gifts items in different parts of the world. The business communication process of both organizations is on the similar line because of the impact of globalization and wide arrays of consumers across the world (Agar,(1994). Over the years, online communication has changed the communication by making it fast and affordable for the masses. It has also helped in reaching consumers of different parts of the world in an effective manner. It needs to be understood that both organizations have been operating in same economies. The Australian economy has been doing well and is considered as one of the highly sustainable economies. Australia has been considered as a hot tourist spot helping Billabong and Rip Curl to be successful in the past as well as in the present (Joseph1993). Rip Curl can be considered as a primitive organization with strong focus on direct communication. It has a great mixture of conventional and modern approach towards communication. The information was garnered from wide arrays of sources and resources like journals, website and newspapers that confirmed the communication approach raising problems. Overall, it can be assumed that the organization can only be successful through effective business strategies embedded with an honest and transparent mode of communication. (Roger. (1997) Chapter 1: Introduction This particular report has been designed with a view of sharing ideas and submitting the same in the written format to the tutor of the University as an academic project report. The emphasis is on effective use of business communication with stakeholders of organizations. In order to make the study more comparative, Billabong and Rip Curl has been chosen as preferred organizations. It needs to be understood that both these organizations operates in the same business line in different economies and thus make the whole idea of comparing the role of business communication in their success and development all the more fascinating. 1.1: Role of Business Communication Business communication plays an important role in the success and growth of an organization. It highlights the way an organization communicates with its stakeholders that forms the basic platform of exchanging and appreciating the flow of information and ideas. Billabong has great presence in different parts of the world that includes North America, Europe, South Africa, South America and Brazil. The organization has been active in these parts of the world through physical stores and online stores that communicates the mission, vision and business objectives of the organization. Rip Curl is also based in same countries that are considered as one of the highly admired holiday spots in the world. It also communicates with its customers through physical stores and online stores but in a limited manner with more presence in Australia and little in different parts of the world. Business communication has helped in reaching to customers in an effective manner along with sharing of ideas and thoughts. It can be said that the rise in social networking has further allowed these organization to enhance their communication process with consumers from different parts of the world along with pushing their operations to the nest level of growth and development (Harriet. 2009) 1.2: Different Types of Communication There are wide arrays of communication channels through which these organizations communicate with different stakeholders. The use of electronic media, print advertisements and social networking websites are considered as an effective tool to communicate with stakeholders in an effective manner. Billabong and Rip Curl uses all these communication channels to create an impact over stakeholders along with enhancing their communication approach and reach in different parts of the world. 1.3: Effective Form of Communication It would be an inappropriate move to highlight the most effective form of communication as different frameworks work for different stakeholders in the business environment. Over the years, organizations have been communicating with stakeholders through physical set ups like annual meetings, face to face meeting and through selling of goods and services at stores. However, with technological advances, there has been a change in the communication process with social media controlling the communication channels and are often admired and desired by different stakeholders apart from shareholders, who need physical meetings in order to be sure about the recent happenings in the organization (Eric. (2001) 1.4: Problem with Business Communication As stated above, Rip Curl has been doing well as an organization and Billabong is faced by few problems of adapting a different culture different from the existing one. This created ineffective business communication with wide arrays of stakeholders as the organization failed to recognize the importance of smooth and instant communication. There is a need of direct communication with different stakeholders in order to know their opinions and feedbacks. However, the organization has more focus on modern communication tools. 1.5: Purpose of the Report The primary purpose of this report is to highlight the importance and relevance of business communication in the business environment especially with wide arrays of stakeholders. It does not matter, whether the organization is operating in the strongest economy of emerging economy, what matters is effective and honest flow of communication that keeps the business alive and functioning. The purpose will be achieved through thorough comparison of Billabong and Rip Curl’s business communication strategies along with identifying some valid reasons behind the overall success and failure of these organizations. 1.6: Audience of the Report This particular report is an academic project that needs to be submitted to the tutor in an analytical and comprehensive manner. The audience for this report is the tutor, supervisor and students, who can share their ideas and knowledge to strengthen the purpose of the report along with making it all the more effective and conclusive. The author aims at focusing on garnering wide arrays of information on business communication through journals, websites, newspapers and academic books. The role and impact of business communication would further be analyzed through effective analysis of some of the highly admired and desired organizations across the world. 1.7: Analysis Process In the literature review section, the importance of business communication from stakeholder’s perspective would be analyzed in context to Billabong and Rip Curl along with including few other organizations from other industry to make the study more informative and conclusive. However, the focus would be on Billabong and Rip Curl as the principle organizations with entire focus on analyzing their business communication. Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1: Introduction This chapter would help in analyzing the importance, relevance and scope of business communication in wide arrays of business and social environments. The understanding would be presented using theoretical and practical approach along with highlighting the business communication approach of Billabong and Rip Curl in two different kinds of business environment under the same business domain. 2.2 Overview of Business Communication Business communication can be defined as an interaction between an organization and its stakeholders through selling of goods and services, sharing of ideas, customer service and wide arrays of promotional tools. Over the years, business communication has gained great popularity especially with the rise in globalization and emergence of wide arrays of technological tools and advances. Some of the business communication forms include web based communication, emails, reports, presentations, telephony meetings and face to face meetings. In the recent run, most organizations have been focusing hard to create a balance between the conventional for of business communication (face to face meetings) and advance form of communication (telephony meetings, social media and emails). It can be assumed that all these forms of communication have been quite effective in the competitive business environment offering great benefits and advantages. Billabong and Rip Curl has been focusing hard on modern forms of communication in reaching out to wide arrays of stakeholders in an effective and efficient manner helping their business to grow and develop in the past as well as in the present. A detailed analysis of both organizations would further help in analyzing their business communication processes and approaches in different business environments (Barry. (2008) 2.3 Billabong’s Business Communication Billabong is Australia’s largest surfwear manufacture offering wide arrays of products and services to consumers of different parts of the world. The business communication approach of the organization is based on conventional as well as modern tools of communication. The organization has a number of stores in North America, South America, Brazil, Europe and South Africa that allows the organization to communicate with wide arrays of stakeholders like suppliers, customers and employees face to face. At the same time, it has its own website that offers wide arrays of information about the organization. Analyzing the website of the organization gives an overview about the communication channels in an informative manner. One can view the product list and catalogue along with locating wide arrays of stores in different locations and parts of the world. The blog and video section is pretty helpful in getting a feel of recent happenings in the organization. Moreover, the option of checking events and teams of the organization offer great information especially to customers, one of the key stakeholders of the organization (Shannon (1968) Apart from this, annual reports and other financial information along with key initiatives of the organization are communicated in the annual meeting to wide arrays of stakeholders. Overall, it can be assumed that the business communication of the organization is quite effective and efficient helping in managing customers, suppliers, employees and shareholders in a stupendous manner. This has helped the organization to grow and develop at a rapid pace in the business environment that is quite complex in nature. Billabong needs to maintain the same business communication process but at the same time pay equal emphasis on direct communication in the future also in order to compete with other rivals like Rip Curl, Quick Silver and Ronjon Surf Shop. This would help in satisfying the basic needs of stakeholders. 2.4 Rip Curl’s Business Communication Rip Curl is Australian retailer and manufacturer of surfing sportswear. The organization also has great presence in different parts of the world through its website where one can buy goods and services in a hassle free manner. Like any other marketer, Rip Curl also communicates with its stakeholders through physical stores, face to face meetings, annual meetings and telephony chats. It also uses social media to promote its goods and services in different parts of the world. It needs to be understood that Rip Curl operates in the conventional business environment that prefers direct communication with customers but it has also left some vacuum as direst communication is limited. Being in touch with the local surfers has offered great ideas to the organization in order to enhance the product line. The surfing Sportswear of Rip Curl is different from that of Billabong because of the direct feedback of customers. At one stage, the number of tourists was dipping at an alarming rate raising serious questions over the presence and operations of the organization. The organization’s communication process was refined enough to face stakeholders and it helped in surviving at the local and national level. Most of the credit goes to the direct communication that helped the organization in cementing its place as a successful organization in the competitive business environment. It can be assumed that the organizations reacted in time to communicate with stakeholders directly avoiding any confusion. This shows the importance of business communication in the business environment that is quite volatile and can change the image and position of the organization within no time. The organization pushed its case by being honest, transparent and vocal in every sense that helped in winning the trust and loyalty of millions across the world. 2.5 Comparison between Billabong and Rip Curl It is very much obvious that Rip Curl has maintained an effective flow of communication till now primarily because of the communication approach it adopted while Billabong has been reasonably successful to do so by blending conventional and modern tools of communication. Rip Curl has a direct communication approach that has helped in promoting the business along with introducing products and services as per the demand of surfers. Overall, Rip Curl has an edge in terms of being in regular touch with customers directly. 2.6: Effective Communication Channels in any Business Environment It needs to be understood that every stakeholder wants the organization to be honest and transparent in exchanging and sharing information with them. If the organization fails to do so, the trust and loyalty vanishes in a matter of days. The most effective communication channel can be considered as written and oral one that can be highlighted on the website and national newspapers. This would help in winning the trust and loyalty of stakeholders along with updating them on recent development and initiatives of the organization. A minor gap in the business communication process can hamper the image of the organization along with costing a fortune that is hard to earn in the complex business environment (Bovee (1999) 2.7 Success through Business Communication The success of organizations like Wal-Mart, Tesco, Apple and HSBC is largely because of the effective business communication adopted by them. It helped them in creating an honest image that was maintained even in the tough times. The recommendations and conclusion section would further help in understanding the reason behind the success of Rip Curl and Billabong based on the information garnered from wide arrays of sources and resources and analysis of the same (David (2000) Chapter 3: Recommendations and Conclusion 3.1 Recommendations for Billabong After analyzing the business communication approach of Billabong in an analytical and critical manner, some recommendations include: The organization has strong presence in Australia, North America, South America, Brazil and South Africa. This means that managing diversified set of stakeholders along with maintaining the same flow of information is a demanding task. However, the organization has been successful in doing so with great ease and needs to do the same in the present as well as in the future (Brian. (1998) There has been strong focus on online sales and marketing that has attracted customers from different parts of the world and the flow of communication has been great. However, it has been seen that people prefer their own national language when it comes to accepting and exchanging certain information. The organization should issue and maintain the flow of communication using different languages for different stakeholders in different parts of the world (Janis. (1993) Being a global organization, the flow of information cannot be restricted to newspapers and magazines and the organization should take a further step by reaching in different parts of the world with effective media tools like print advertisement, online marketing, blogs and social media tools (Bernoff, (2008) Billabong has been using few of these tools but should use more of direct communication in the future to make an impact. Overall, its communication channels and approaches are quite refined and useful enough to earn stakeholder’s loyalty and trust in the short as well as in the long run (Robert, (1979) 3.2 Recommendations for Rip Curl Rip Curl’s business communication is based on the traditional and modern modes of communication that can be considered as quite effective. The organization needs to focus on certain recommended points including: It is important for the organization to maintain an honest and transparent approach towards communicating organization’s objectives and initiatives in the short as well as in the long run. The organization has done so in the past and should continue to do the same in the future The website of the organization should be more clear speaking value and highlighting the image of the organization. There is adequate amount of information being shared on the website but the presentation is somewhat not appealing. This should be enhanced and taken care of to make the communication process more vibrant and appealing (George, (1964) The organization has presence over Facebook and Twitter and can be considered as a nice initiative but considering the popularity of other social medias like Flicker, MySpace and You Tube, the organization needs to add few more in its kitty to reach to different stakeholders, who might turn into the potential stakeholders in the future (Aaker (2010). Overall, the organization has maintained a nice balance between conventional and modern modes of communication. It has worked well in the past and with changes in the communication process discussed above, the organization can be considered as quite effective in terms of communicating business objectives, strategies and initiatives with wide arrays stakeholders (Anne. (1989) 3.3 Conclusion The importance of business communication cannot be snubbed in any business environment especially in the service and manufacturing industries. This particular report can be considered as an insight on the importance and relevance of business communication in the complex business environment. The report has been presented in an analytical and comparative manner highlighting the business communication approaches of Rip Curl and Billabong, two of the highly admired and successful marketers belonging to the same domain and economies. However, the communication process and its impact are similar in every organization and economy that has been highlighted in a critical manner (David (1975) .Overall, the report fulfills the mentioned guidelines in an effective manner and can be considered as quite impactful and resourceful in the context of business communication. There is future scope for improvement as the communication patterns and approaches change with time and impact of internal and external factors (Annette (1984) BIBLIOGRAPHY Agar, M. (1994). Language shock: Understanding the culture of conversation. New York: William Morrow. Grimes, Joseph E. 1993. "Widening circles of communication." Hill, Harriet. 2009. "From one mind to another." Fidler, Roger. (1997). Mediamorphosis: Understanding New Media. Pine Forge Press. rimshaw, Jeff and Mike, Barry. (2008). How Mature is Your Internal Communication Function? Strategic Communication Management, 12:3, 28-31. Retrieved February 6, 2009 from AllBusiness: http://www.allbusiness.com/management/risk-management/10205820-1.html Hay, Robert D. (1979). A Brief History of Internal Organization Communication Through the 1940s. The Journal of Business Communication, 11:4, 5-11. 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