South East London Human Resource Management - Case Study Example

Reflective Report “Track 2" s Submitted by s: 28th February 28th February Table of Contents Table of Contents 2Executive Summary 3 Company Summary 3 Statement of the Problem 4 Problem Solution 7 Marketing 7 Operations 8 Human Resource Management 9 Finance 9 Reflective Exercise 10 References 12 Appendix 13 Executive Summary In a normal business setting, many issues determine the success or failure of any organization. The issues may be originating from the poor policies. Other problems originate from the poor approaches that the customers apply when deciding to buy a product. This paper looks at the instances where an entrepreneur can make the best out of the situations that are otherwise unsolvable to make profits. The paper looks at the setup and operation of a company that will be selling ugly fruit to poor people in the Southeastern part of London. The problems that the paper investigates include the wastage of food in the affluent areas of London and the poor nutrition of the poor residents of South East London. The paper proposes a change in the approaches used in the management of ugly fruit so that the people can afford it. The paper identifies the potential business competitors. The competitors are the supermarkets that enjoy wide trust from most of the consumers. The other competitors identified on the project are the other businesses that use the same approach when dealing with the ugly fruit. The company will have the main competitive advantage of being able to use of lean management in the recurrent operations. This approach to management will enable it to eliminate waste. It will also be able to price its ugly fruit below the prevailing market price. Company Summary The company works towards the attainment of the goal of providing adequate and nutritious food to all the poor people in south eastern London. The company is principally a food distribution enterprise that specializes in the provision of cheap yet healthy food to poorer parts of London. The company also wishes to expand to the other parts of the United Kingdom and the neighbouring countries. The company operates by the effective manipulation of the supply chain for the fruits and vegetable. It seeks to operate in an efficient manner by engaging better management approaches. The other goal of the company is the sustenance of favourable operations that will enable it to attain the goal of providing the cheap fruit to the people while maintaining the prices at the lowest levels possible. This approach will make it possible for the target market to afford it. The main competitors for the products are the supermarkets, which sell their foods at high prices. The supermarkets have the goodwill of the people due to their sustained operations in the food industry. The other sources of competition are the alternative sellers of ugly fruit. These are the existing members in the market that have the same or a similar approach to the one adopted by the company. The other sellers of ugly fruit offer competition due to the similarity of the businesses with the one that will be run by the company. The weakness of the current sellers of the ugly fruit includes the inability to buy in bulk, low coverage of the market area and general poor business approaches. The issue of high pricing is the main weakness for the supermarkets. The main segment of the market that the business will focus on is the people that live in South Eastern London. However, the business anticipates moving to the other areas where there are poor people that cannot afford the fruit sold in the supermarkets. Statement of the Problem The worrying trend in the United Kingdom is that too much food is wasted. The reason for the development of this trend arises from the fact that consumers have many reservations on the foods that they serve at home. The food that is wasted in the supermarkets also adds to the family waste. The supermarkets may avoid stocking their shelves with the unaesthetic foods in order for them to retain the aesthetic appeal. The characteristics of the ugliest food vary all over Europe. This means that there is no appointed definition of the ugly food. Instead, the food is ugly when a person in a position of power at home or in the supermarket says so. This approach on the determination of the food that is suitable for the human consumption and the one that is not is misguided. The misguided approach leads to a situation whereby in most of the dumpsites, there is a lot of waste food that is, otherwise, consumable. The waste in terms of the excesses also adds to the food wastage equation in Britain. This trend has seen the country being ranked high among the largest food wasters. This approach to the issue is a real worry to the stakeholders. They have attempted to persuade the supermarkets to stock the ugly food. There is a lot of explicit and implicit reluctance on the adoption of the suggestion since the shoppers are unwilling to see the unsightly food placed on the shelves. The result of the above approach to the food in the United Kingdom is high levels of annual wastes of food that average at millions of tones. The families that can afford to waste the foods also end up losing an average of 680 sterling pounds per annum. As some of the families are wasting the large amounts of food, other people in poorer parts of the city are in need of the food. The wasted food is not harmful to the body. The families that waste the foods make the choice almost purely on the aesthetic background. This problem means that as the food goes to the dumpsite, there are many people in the poor sections of the urban areas such as South East London that seek the food. The problem is that they cannot have any form of access to the ugly fruits and vegetables since most of the businesses in the United Kingdom focus on the supply of foods that have an aesthetic appeal. The foods are usually stuck up in the value chain where they are sold to the farmers as animal feed or are simply dumped. This approach to the handling of the ugly fruit ends up creating a situation whereby the some people are not able to access quality food while others have enough to waste. It also culminates in a worrying approach to the search for quality food in the poor areas. The people flock public places such as schools in order for them to access healthier food options offered there. The problem of the food unavailability can and will be solved by the company since it will supply the poor people with the food at prices that are largely affordable. This is in concordance with the principles of waste management and strategic management where the main goal in the operations is to provide value to the ultimate consumer while reducing all wastes. Proper management of the company and strategic design of the supply chain will be instrumental in the reduction of the waste. It will also solve the issue of recurrent nutrition issues while making a profit from the above operations. The marketing of the products is currently not carried out in the right manner. The food products that are produced all over the world rarely reach the market. This means that the approaches used by the current marketers are not working. The foods that never reach the supermarket shelves are opportunities that are lost by the majority of the businesses. The farmers lose potential income. The other players in the value chain also end up losing the potential income too that they would have made if the food reached their value chains. The marketing approaches used in the current market are poised on the delivery of the product to the supermarkets. The approach is not exhaustive since it tends to avoid the other markets. It also avoids the possibility of reducing the length of the supply chain. The branding of the foods also lacks. The main approach used in the branding is generic branding. In this approach, the individual product competes against other brands. There is no distinguishing element in the branding of the product. Therefore, the products sell because of their look and not the unique attributes such as the production of the fruit. The fruits that do not meet the choosy criteria of selection applied by the customers in the supermarket end up stuck in the value chain. The foods are branded as “ugly”. However, if the products were branded in a different manner such as being termed as affordable instead of the subjective terming as “ugly or unappealing”, they would have a chance of moving in the market (Christensen and Poulfelt, 2006). The costs that are incurred in the availing the food in the supermarkets are higher. This is because; there are more players in the value chain than when the products are sourced directly from the distribution point. The elimination of the intermediaries in the business may help cut the costs of the foods such that the poor people will be able to afford the food. The cost reduction can also assume the approach where the product is availed to the people in prices that they can afford. Problem Solution Marketing The company will use the simple approaches of marketings such as the word of mouth and the internet in order to sell its ideas to the people (Drucker and Maciariello, 2008). The creation of awareness on the availability of alternative modes of providing foods apart from the supermarket will lead to competition in the supermarket. The people will be drawn to the business and will like to test the products. The other approach in the marketing of the product is by the creation of a delivery system where the people will have the foods whenever they want or at fixed times. The delivery can take the form of door-to-door delivery system. On the other hand, the company may deliver the goods to a central place in the neighbourhood whereby the people will come and purchase the products (Fitzgerald, 2002). The marketing of the products will be centred on the affordability of the products to the market segment. The marketing will also stress on the safety of the food and the unchanged nutritional value. The marketing approach will also seek to brand the product in a unique manner. The food will be branded as safe and unique. The brand will be appealing and will spark the interest of the poor consumers. It will also ensure that the people receive the nutritional foods. The core competitiveness areas for the company will be a safety, convenience in the delivery mode and the affordability (Pathi, 2008). The business will also seek to collaborate with other grocers in the area that have attracted the trust of the people. This will be significant in the unfreezing of the market. Operations In the operations management, the company will use the key markers of the competitive management. The company will organize the supply chains in such a manner that the people will be able to find the food in the places that they want in the time that they want. The supply chain will apply the proven key heuristics in the marketing of the food products. The company will apply the management approaches of just-in-time and optimal inventory management in order for it to operate in an efficient manner. The company will reduce the supply chain such that it is as short as possible (Robbins and Coulter, 2005). The products used in the company will be obtained from the main wholesalers at prices that are lower than the ones that the normal operators get. The ability of the company to obtain the foods at cheaper prices will determine the prices that the company will use once the food is in the market. The management will run the operations of the company in such a manner that there are minimal lead times. The company will also reduce the wastages of time and space and capacity that will enable it to operate at the most efficient levels (Sadler, 2003). Human Resource Management All the successful entrepreneurs build their companies on the premise that the people that are working in the market are keen on the creation of the best environment for the profit making. The company seeks to employee people that are motivated and reliable (Carsrud and Bra¨nnback, 2007). The selection criteria of the employees will be on the ability to work in a team, ability to work on reliable schedules and the willingness of the employees to grow with the company (Schermerhorn, 2005). The approach to the human resource management will be instrumental in the creation of the best environment for the success of the company. The employees of the company will be expected to deliver as per the demand of the clientele. The employees will also be selected based on their ability to identify with the people that will form the market for the company (Sen, 2008). The human resource will also be made in such a way that will enable them to have the freedom to air their views on the approaches of doing business that will help the company attain its overall goal of providing the people with the best food possible at the lowest costs. The human resource management will be the core of the company. This means that the ability of to keep the right number of employees that are well motivated to work for the attainment of the overall goals will be a major variable in measuring the success of the company. Finance The company seeks to work with the credit advanced to it by the bank. The amount of credit will be spread in the years until the time when the company will break even. The company will use the financing while spending prudently to ensure that it keeps the operating costs at the lowest levels possible (Certo and Certo, 2006). The company will work with a credit of two million pounds for the first two years. The company anticipates breaking even after two years of operation. The losses made in the first and second year of the companys operation will be recovered from the third year onwards (Sen, 2008). The company will be in an amicable position to repay the loan for the time that it is in operation regardless whether it will be able to break even. This means that the company will be able to meet the obligation to the bank regardless of the fact that it is not making any profit. However, the above projection is subject to change after the company is in the business. Reflective Exercise The fact that the job was conducted in a group setting presented a unique learning environment for the group dynamics and the relations (Carsrud and Bra¨nnback, 2007). We were able to work together towards the attainment of the same goal. In the course of the group work, we learnt how to relate to each other better. We also learnt the value of working together in a bid to attain synergy. The members of the research group that worked on this project brought in their competencies and we were able to employ their diverse gifting or inclinations towards the attainment on a single thorough project. The project enabled us to learn how to work with diverse people. The experience also enabled us to identify the importance of group politics in any setting (Carsrud and Bra¨nnback, 2007). The working of the group was not automatic. Even in the small setting, there were alliances whereby all the members tended to work in a predictable manner depending on their alliance. The politics were instrumental in the attainment of a thorough paper. The lessons learnt on the role of politics taught us the role of the politics and the informal setting in any organization. The paper enabled us to learn more about the marketing theories. In the creation of the approach that the paper would apply, the group enabled us to work towards the attainment of the general goals that the group had set for the company. The marketing theory that was prominent in the paper was the game theory. In the company covered by the paper, there was the bid to attain the best outcome possible given the activities of the rival. The company sought to attain the optimal result, while considering the actions of the supermarkets and other business operators that operate in the sale of fruits and vegetables (Carsrud and Bra¨nnback, 2007). In the identification of the problem that the society faced, the project enabled us to learn that there are real issues that affect the society when it comes to business. Most of the problems have solutions that come from the change of policy. Other problems are not changeable despite the policies that the government may make. These problems are sources of business opportunity for the vigilant investors (Carsrud and Bra¨nnback 2007). The problem of dumping is a menace to the society. It is a source of wastage of important materials that the people can use. The identification of the main aspects that are affecting the supply chain for the dealers in the foods enables us to apply the knowledge of critical reasoning (Carsrud and Bra¨nnback, 2007). The exercise also proved to be a major source of insight on the problem solving techniques. References Carsrud, A. L. and Bra¨nnback, M. 2007. Entrepreneurship. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. Certo, S. C. and Certo, S. T. 2006. Modern management. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Christensen, P. R. and Poulfelt, F. 2006. Managing complexity and change in SMEs. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. Drucker, P. F. and Maciariello, J. A. 2008. Management. New York, NY: Collins. Fitzgerald, J. 2002. Business administration. Genoa: Black cat Pub. Pathi, S. 2008. Modern business communication. Mumbai [India]: Himalaya Pub. House. Robbins, S. P. and Coulter, M. K. 2005. Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Sadler, P. 2003. Strategic management. Sterling, VA: Kogan Page. Schermerhorn, J. R. 2005. Management. New York: J. Wiley. Sen, M. 2008. Business management. Jaipur, India: Oxford Book Co. Appendix Student name Lessons learnt Harry Doherty Need of group work Managing group dynamics Managing diversity Synergistic working Managing an organization Identification of business opportunities Marylin Downes Working in a group Group dynamics Group politics Running an organization efficiently Valentin Cholashki Need of teamwork in an organization Consultative management Optimal financial management Sourcing for funds for an organization Financial management Forecasting Abdul Rahman Alansari Planning the operations of the company Lean operations management Reduction of wastes in the supply chain Reduction of length of the supply chain Strategic supply chain management to reduce wastes Enayet Hussain Need of teamwork in the organization Proper marketing strategies Identification of business opportunities Managing workforce diversity Optimal operations of the organisation Read More