Global Management of Cineworld Group Plc - Essay Example

Cineworld- Introduction to Global Management Executive Summary Among the leading cinema group, Cineworld Group plc has made its mark in the United Kingdom. The report deals with the learning and development schemes implemented by the company for employee managerial and leadership skills enhancement and increased employee engagement. The study further highlights the CSR activities the organisation performs. Cineworld is into philanthropic activities and promotes local cinema. The company implement strategies to benefit its stakeholders and enhance its value proposition. The recommendation leads to the organisation’s expansion in the online market ensuring product development and satisfaction of customer needs. Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Cineworld’s Employee Learning and Development Programmes 3 3.0 Cineworld’s CSR Activities 4 4.0 Recommendation 6 5.0 Conclusion 7 Reference List 8 1.0 Introduction Cineworld Group plc is among the leading cinema group originated in the United Kingdom. The founder Stephen Wiener established the company in the year 1995 and now it operates in 83 locations in the UK under the Cineworld Cinemas Brand. The report deals with the Global management system of the Cineworld Group plc. It focuses on the learning and development programmes held by Cineworld for its employees as well as recognize the CSR activities of the company. The report would evaluate the performance of Cineworld Group in both the field and suggest viable recommendations based on it. 2.0 Cineworld’s Employee Learning and Development Programmes The training and development strategies for the employees is the process of educating and guiding subordinates and management to enhance their knowledge, skills and behaviour to achieve the common organisational goal as well as utilise these learning in individual development for the long run so that they prove to be a valuable asset for the company and its growth (Bhatia, 2009). Learning and development process is a characteristic of the employee engagement as it bridges the gap between the employees and the organisation and increases their long term relationship. The term “engagement” is used in terms of motivation, passion and assurance. The organisation should ensure that the employee engagement programs which help in training and developing the employee to upgrade the quality of their performance must inspire the people, care about the staff as well as instil a sense of challenge and competition among them to perform better. These initiatives enable the organisation to perform better as it correlates with the firm’s retention, turnover, loyalty, productivity and services in terms of employees as well as customers (Barrett and O’connell, 2008). Stuart Holdsworth, the national learning and development manager of the Cineworld Group plc has launched a training and development program for its managers to enhance their skills. It is a People Management program which targets certain specific areas in the managerial roles performed such as staffing, training, motivation, retention, operational and retail skills. It would not only initiate in up-skilling of its team but also would enable interaction between employees and enhance the interpersonal relationships among the manager from Cineworld across the country (Cineworld Cinema, 2015). The organization’s initiative towards the two-year ILM Level 7 programme for its employees to motivate and educate them for the next stage of their career had turned out to be a huge success. It led to creativity and innovation among employees to help ascend the company to greater height. It has come up with the ILM Level 5 programme for the operational managers as well as those who are associated with the L&D programmes which were already established by Cineworld for their employees (Holbeche, 2011). These programs helped them to retain their talent as well as grow further in the company. It helped to pool in greater skills of employees through these trainings which assisted Cineworld sail through the economic crisis and emerge as successful market leaders during the massive market environmental change (Buckley and Caple, 2007). The learning and development scheme of the company further established leadership skills among its management and employees as well as encouraged them to implement their expansion plan of launching more 25 cinemas over the next five years (Bontis and Serenko, 2009). 3.0 Cineworld’s CSR Activities Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can also be called as the corporate citizenship or corporate conscience. It is a self initiative of the company to implement policies and regulations in its business structure for the betterment of the society at large. The company assures that its activities are abided by the law, norms and ethical standards where it operates in compliance with the society by benefitting the environment, its customers, employees, shareholders, community etc. (De Cremer and Trenbrunsel, 2011). Cineworld has approached to CSR activities in all sectors of its business like the community, its customers, environment, retail, diversity and human rights as well as safety. Its contribution towards the community by enabling customers to make informed choices about cinema, whether it is about the content of the movie or the age appropriation to view the content. It initiates in future talent development and helps reaching local small scale short film to potential audiences around the world by sponsoring film festivals, thereby, encouraging local film producers and students to showcase their talents (Dillard and Dujon, 2008). Cineworld is into philanthropic activities like sponsoring charity show for disadvantaged children and providing venues to the local authorities for educational activities for the children. The company promotes the “Movies for All” policy where it uplifts the cultural diversity of the country it operates it. They showcase children films as well as regional language films which are dubbed in local languages of the audiences for their entertainment. They provide membership and implement loyal programs by giving discounts to senior citizens, students and physically disabled viewers. Staffs are trained to communicate with the disabled viewers for their comfort and ease as well as audio descriptive and autism-friendly screening is offered (Kotler and Lee, 2006). Cineworld collaborates with organisation to avoid film piracy and protect the intellectual property rights of movies and Event Cinema featured in their movie theatre. It develops training programs for its employees to ensure that no piracy is taking place with the help of all the latest technology gadgets. The management ensure to protect big banner releases from being pirated by surveillance through night vision camera. The company abides by all the environmental policies and norms like energy consumption management and waste material recycling. They implemented wireless energy management systems as well as building management system to conserve energy usage. They resorted to paper conservation by digitizing ticket booking and movie promotions with the help of e-tickets and digital advertisement boards. It encourages recycling 3D glasses and carbon footprint reduction. The management introduced digital projection technology to protect adverse environmental impact from hazardous chemicals used in the screens where movies are projected. Cineworld encourages gender equality as well as gives priority to customer and employee safety (O’Toole and Mayer, 2010). 4.0 Recommendation Cineworld should initiate in expanding and resorting to product development in the online market. It should develop new distribution strategy for online movie sharing giving competition and gaining market share from competitors like LoveFilm and Netflix. This strategic decision would help the company to expand in the market and increase it reach in terms of service provided. The organization would be able to avail viewer data through enhanced customer relation and loyalty. These data would assist them to customise their offering, gaining competitive advantage and enhancing the core competencies. Cineworld will therefore help in protecting illegal downloading thereby differentiating themselves from its competitors as well as reaching out to more global customers boosting customer knowledge, awareness and loyalty (Kotler and Lee, 2006). It is recommended that Cineworld should penetrate into the online streaming market by purchasing the internet television network facilitating greater global audience reach. These strategy developments might lead the company to face various performance issues due to structural and cultural changes of the company which may initiate into further training programs for management and leadership skill development (Cineworld Cinema, 2015). To enhance the customer experience, Cineworld may engage in eradicating online booking fees and reducing online purchasing cost by 10% for its movie tickets which would be a break through strategy that no competitor has implemented yet (Cineworld Cinema, 2015). This would help the company penetrate the cinema market by positioning itself as the market leader. This would help the organisation gain greater market share as well as acquire customer loyalty and base. The consumer membership rate for Cineworld would be increased thereby helping the company gain more knowledge on the customer preferences and needs. This information would facilitate the company to frame their pricing and product offering by strengthening their value proposition. Brand worth, image and identity would be accredited leading to overcoming resistance from competitors and benefitting its stakeholders from the new strategy implementation. A market research should be executed by analysing the effect of reduction in ticket cost by 10% and elimination of booking fees to compare the market reaction and the customer perception on the decision (Cineworld Cinema, 2015). The main purpose of the market study would be to judge the speed and frequency of the success of the strategy implementation and the economic impact on Cineworld’s profit. Therefore, recommendation on the company would not only make them the market leaders but also would enhance the overall customer experience, satisfaction and perception on the brand thereby escalating its brand equity. 5.0 Conclusion The study discussed on the policies implemented by Cineworld Group plc on training and development of its employees. These learning programs helped the employees and management to build long term association with the organisation. These knowledge based learning outcomes helped them to improve their leadership and management skills proving a valuable asset to the company and its growth. Further analysis was made on the Corporate Social Responsibility activities performed by Cineworld for the benefit of its stakeholders. The report finally recommended the company to penetrate into the online market by developing channel strategies and product development to gain a competitive edge in the cinema industry. Reference List Barrett, A. and O’connell, J. P., 2008. Does Training generally works? The returns to in company training. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 54(3), pp 647-662. Bhatia, S.K., 2009. Training and Development. New York: Leadership Press. Bontis, N. and Serenko, A., 2009. The moderating role of human capital management practices on employee capabilities. Journal of Knowledge Management, 11(3), pp. 31-51. Buckley, R. and Caple, J., 2007. The Theory & Practice of Training. London: Kogan Page. Cineworld Cinema, 2015. CSR. [Online] Available at: [Acsessed 25 June 2015]. De Cremer, D. and Trenbrunsel, D., 2011. Behavioural Business Ethics: Ideas on an Emerging Field. New York: Routledge. Dillard, J. and Dujon, V., 2008. Understanding the Social Dimension of Sustainability. London: Routledge. Holbeche, L., 2011. Organization Development: A Practitioner's Guide for OD and HR. London: Kogan Page Limited. Kotler, P. and Lee, N., 2006. Doing the most Good for Your Company. Canada: Wiley. O’Toole, J. and Mayer, D., 2010. Good Business. Exercising Effective Ethical Leadership. London: Routledge. Read More