Subway fast food - Essay Example

Write about a company (Subway fast food) Introduction Subway is one of the most recognizable food chain brands all acrossthe world. It is ranked as the second largest food chain across the globe after McDonalds. The company operates in more than 100 countries all across the world with more than 41,000 restaurants in its international market. The business opens up more than 500 outlets to its business every year. The company is the most prominent example of a successful franchising business that has grown hugely over the last 50 years of its operation all across the world. The mission of the company is maximizing the profitability of the business while delivering sustainable growth and improving shareholders value through the years of its operation. The vision of the company is to be the leading integrated group of food chains on the basis of consistently providing high quality food and delivering excellent customer service. The food chain business environment is evolving continuously as a most dynamic segment of the world business market. In this situation, Subway has also grown through its various innovative management processes and is driven majorly by the increasing demand of the consumers for healthy and fresh food as well as for premium exotic ingredients in the food preparations. The market for restaurants and food chains have gained considerable momentum through a balanced combination of far sighted marketing strategies and innovative product ranges successfully integrated with an aggressive and strong franchisee business system. Subway appeals to the consumers of all demographic areas mainly due to the healthy, fresh and green factors associated with its food range. Discussion Management is the process of using available people and material resources in businesses and organizations to achieve the desired results and objectives in the organization. The whole process of management starts with planning and is followed by organizing, staffing, leading and controlling in the organization with the aim of achieving a set of pre-defined goals for the organization. An effective management process embedded in the organizational structure is very critical for making the business successful. The process involves the proper deployment of different types of assets and resources available to the organization like people resources, technological resources, financial and natural resources. According to Henri Fayol, There are five main management functions at all levels of an organization which are planning, directing, staffing, controlling and organizing. (Fayol 251) Planning Planning is an important part of the management process in any business. The process of planning in an organization starts by the identification of appropriate goals and objectives by the managers and then formulating a course of action to achieve the set objectives. The planning aspect of a business is critical in determining the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. The process of planning also plays a critical role in the formulation of strategies in an organization. Subway, as a company follows an extensive procedure of planning management. The business uses different activities as a part of their planning process which includes setting up objectives, designing and introducing new schemes, launching new product ranges and implementing an extensive process of market survey (Bloomberg BusinessWeek 2). The company conducts market survey on a regular basis to study the demand patterns of the consumers in the specific market and then designs and introduces new products and services to meet these demand variations. Organizing The process of organizing involves the managers designing effective work relationship structures between the different levels of the organization to facilitate an effective communication between them and thus increase the performance of the organization as a whole. The process of organizing is implemented to design the organizational structure of the business. The organizational structure should be designed in such a way that the employees are motivated and supported to achieve perform better and achieve their goals. Subway follows a comprehensive and strong organizational structure in which the organization divides their workforce into different task groups dedicated to look after specific areas like food, packaging, decoration, ordering etc. This structure is followed in every food outlet of Subway and all these activities are supervised by the officer in charge in every outlet. Subway operates as a restaurant franchise business and is currently the fastest growing franchise in the world. The franchisee business system follows an organizational structure in which the employees can communicate easily with the higher level managers in case of any product concerns. A dual reporting system is followed in the organization in which the employees can report to the functional managers or the product managers as the situation demands. This system is followed in the organizational structure in recognition of the necessity of expertise of the workers in the operational level (Wu 97). The management system is comprised of three levels- the managers, the responsibility areas of the manager and the information systems available to support these areas. The effective organizational structure of Subway produces high outputs in the form of data and measurement, decisions taken and processed data i.e. information that is used by the higher management levels for deciding the management actions. The organizational performance of Subway is highly driven by the management strategies followed by the organization and the rewards and incentive policies of the business. Leading Leading and directing the employees form a key part of the management strategies followed by a company. The managers are expected to determine the direction for the organization and provide the employees with a clear understanding of the vision, mission and objectives of the business. This supports the employees to understand their individual roles in the organization towards achieving the objectives of the business. The process of leading is aimed to improve the motivation and commitment level of the employees towards the organization (Fayol 49). A major driver for the success of Subway as an organization is the maintenance of healthy work relationships among all the levels of the organization. The workers of Subway are provided with hygienic working conditions and systems, transparent communication systems, effective incentive programs and support and motivation through effective training and development programs. The leading part of management in Subway is much more effective as compared to other players like McDonalds and Firehouse Sub. The company motivates the employees by implementing different schemes. One of the most popular schemes followed by the company is the sharing of a part of the profit with the employees on the achievement of sales targets. Also, a recognition scheme is implemented by rewarding the employee of the month for each month base4d on the performance of the employee and the customer feedbacks. Staffing Staffing is another critical management strategy as established by Henry Fayol. This is the managerial function involving recruitment, selection, appraisal and promotions to manage good talent as well as training and development to support and improve the skills of the employees. Staffing is aimed at appropriately filling the positions in the different levels of the organizational structure. The recruitment system of Subway is driven by certain external and internal factors. The major external factors influencing the recruitment system are: political and legal considerations, unemployment rate, image of the brand, preference for local employees and prohibition of discrimination and biasedness in employment opportunities (Carson 29). The major internal factors influencing the recruitment system are size and cost of the operations, part-time and full time employees’ ratio and preference of diversity in keeping with the advent of globalization. In Subway, the managers give specific attention to provide extensive training to all the employees through different learning techniques like on the job training, e-learning, interactive formal classrooms and process based training. The training processes in Subway are focused on the main areas of preparation of food, safety and hygiene, customer service, stock management, and handling of orders and cash. Other areas of focus for training are leadership development, culture, fire safety, first aid safety, information systems, workplace health and safety, interaction management, financial and operational activities and culture and diversity management. The company has a program called the Subway Global training Curriculum which is designed by professionals in the domain and is aimed at increasing the skills and knowledge of the supervisors and managers to operate the outlets successfully. The company provides training and development to support each employee through its career movement process in the organization. Controlling Controlling is the process involving the evaluation of the performance of the employees as well as the organization as a whole. The process of evaluation is followed by designing corrective measures to rectify any shortcomings in the processes. The controlling functions of management are aimed at measuring the performance levels accurately and regulate the effectiveness of the organization. The increasing demand and sales of Subway suggests that the activities and resources of the organization are working according to the management plans formulated for the business. The business commits to provide a varying range of healthy and tasty food while benefitting the communities across the world in which the business operates in and reducing the environmental hazards in our ecosystem. The strong brand name, innovative marketing strategies, quality control and the “fresh” image associated with the products clearly indicates that the company employs an effective management and control policy to establish the business as a sustainable one. Quality control and an effective evaluation of the business and operational processes are given prior importance in running the food outlets of Subway (The Wall Street Journal 3). Subway gives major importance in its management strategies to maintain high quality in the products, customer services as well as the business processes. The company effectively integrates its various franchise operators from different backgrounds to achieve a high quality in its overall business performances. The company also follows an effective controlling mechanism to continuously evaluate and promote the brand. Conclusion The success of Subway has been driven by numerous factors which include the management of the company, a strong positioning, adaptability to the taste and culture of different regions involved in its global expansion process and a strong brand image in the minds of the consumers. The company is successful in every market that they serve in with it being ranked as number one restaurant by the customers in many operational markets. The brand of Sub way is marketed through emphasizing on the tag of being fresh made and the features of taste, low calorie and health. The positioning of Subway is strong based on the platform of freshness and green ingredients. The combination of strategic marketing management in Subway involves the effective positioning of the brand, maintaining an efficient organizational structure, motivating and managing the employees and constantly evaluating and improving the business and management processes. These management functions have established the brand as a prime choice for consumers with high disposable income and who are oriented towards healthy and tasty food. Works Cited Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Subway at 40,000: Fast Food's Global King Keeps Growing. 2013. Web. 11 December. < http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-26/subway-at-40-000-fast-foods-global-king-keeps-growing>. Carson, Peter. Theoretically grounding management history as a relevant and valuable form of knowledge. The Journal of Management History. Vol. 4 (1), pp. 29-42. 1998. Print. Fayol, Henry. Critical Evaluations in Business and Management. London: Routledge. 2002. Print. Fayol, Henry. General and Industrial Management. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons. 1949. Print. The Wall Street Journal. Subway runs past McDonald’s chain. 2011. Web. 11 December. < http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703386704576186432177464052>. Wu, Desheng. Modeling Risk Management in Sustainable Construction. New York: Springer. 2011. Print. Read More