Management Issues and Problem in Bakers Delight - Case Study Example

ASSIGNMENT ON MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS OF A COMPANY (BAKERS DELIGHT) TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………...3 Management Issues or Problem in an Organization ………………………………………….…4 Management Issues and Problem in Bakers Delight ……………………………………….…....7 Solution of the Problems/Issues ……………………………………………………………….…9 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………12 References ……………………………………………………………………………………….14 INTRODUCTION In any organization, an important factor is management and its tools. We can judge or monitor the success of any organization through its management process or procedure. Management strategies should be followed accurately for making organization and its environment better and successful. Problem solving and decision-making are important skills for business and for an organization as well. Problem-solving often involves decision-making, and decision-making is especially important for management and also makes good and best decisions for the company. Problem-solving and decision-making are closely linked, because when problem occurs, mangers of an organization consult their people or employees for taking best and useful decision for their company. Managing, organizing and controlling a business in a successful way is a difficult job for nay manager, but if the manager and the management is good and have ability to make strong and useful decisions then their organization can be more efficient. Managers should remain in calm while dealing with the problem, quickly analyze the problem, and find its root cause or main reason of the problem, Rather than getting lost in the indications, they should think up many possible solutions for the company, some proven, some new, and then select the best choice. Decision should be quick; realistuic and effective for bringing the company out of crisis or problems. Here, I am taking a company (bakery) named as Bakers Delight located in Australia. It’s a most successful bakery franchise and a symbol of franchise success as well. Bakers Delight specializes in bread products and offers over 300 products providing scope to cater different local markets. Their bakeries are distinctive in appearance, branding, product quality and customer experience. They provide Delightful Environment, Delightful Service, and Delightful Product to their customers and employees. The Bakers Delight brand has been built on commitment to the quality of their product, the development of their people (customers) and the delight which is the combination of these two elements. They have 700 bakeries worldwide and global sales of $521 million, Bakers Delight earns the title the 'World's Most Successful Bakery Franchise' as well. Over the past 29 years, it has built a strong brand with a distinctive image and has developed a loyal customer base in Australia. MANAGMENT ISSUES OR PROBLEMS IN AN ORGANIZATION There can be several problems that occur in developing and running a successful company or business. Managing and organizing a company effectively, needs a strong consideration on company’s plans and action, also management process in the company. Some issues and problems involved in managing an organization, these are: Attitude problems: Attitude is an important part in any person’s life and its place both positive and negative impact on person’s personality as well as its workplace. (According to Fernandez), the reasons for a person having an attitude problem are so deep-rooted and complex that cannot be resolved easily while managing function or activities in the organization. A person should work on that to minimize this issue because it will affect his/her work and also put negative impression on an organization. Deal with attitude problems quickly and try to avoid them as much as possible for the effectiveness of the company. Communication problems: Communication or interaction among employees and management is really very important step in organizing and managing company’s managerial activities and functions. Communication minimizes or overcome the differences among employees/people and management. Sharing of ideas, opinions, discussion about company problem, issues and taking or making effective decision for improving and increasing the efficiency of an organization are important. Disagreements and Differences: Most managers don't take the time to know the various personalities of the people who report to them. They take a one attitude approach to everyone, and this doesn't always work with everyone and this leads to arguments. Arguments bring mismanagement in the organization and will affect the productivity of the firm. Managers should have the ability to resolve the issues effectively by following more than one attitude approach to make decision or judgment more efficiently. The Achievers/Activists: These are the people who get things done. Managers should identify these people as soon as possible for the effective management in an organization. These people will badly affect the firm in negative way and without doing anything they get each and everything which is really unfair with the rest of people and employees in the organization. Best person deserves the best and it’s a duty of managers and management to monitor these issues. Controlling and organizing problems: It’s another issue in the management process of an organization. Management and mangers should organize and control employees/people and their problems in such way that they become satisfied, more productive and work hard which increases and enhance the productivity and performance of the firm. By effective planning, organizing and controlling procedures, the problems will be minimized and people of the firm work as a team and become a valuable asset of the organization. The list of issues regarding management problems goes on a lot longer, but these are some key issues to keep in mind. If mangers keep these straight, maybe they can manage their people better, become productive, have fewer management problems and having more happy and satisfied employees reporting to them. MANAGEMENT ISSUES AND PROBLEMS IN BAKERS DELIGHT Bakers delight is a very successful bakery located in Australia and performing its functions effectively by satisfying its customers, but in every organization there would be some strengths and weaknesses, issues and problems. In bakers delight issues regarding management can be: Customer satisfaction Satisfying customer is a big issue for any company. In bakers delight this issue may occur and company should follow some rules and regulation to deal with these problems. Managing or dealing with customers and their problem is a difficult task for the company (bakers delight) because there would be several customers coming along to purchase different products from the bakery. Customer choice Customer choice and their demand are also very important for the company. Customers are the king and in bakers delight issues will be coming from the customer’s side as well. If their customer or consumer is not satisfied or happy with the company’s product, how it can be in favor of the organization. Managing issues and resolving customers issue effectively will be a great task to achieve for the company (bakers delight). Cost Sometimes cost will not be in favor of the customer or may be some prices are not suitable or affordable for the customers, It feels awkward when a customer arguing with the dealer regarding the prices. May be in baker’s delight many issues occur related to cost and prices of the confectionery products. It’s a duty of management to resolve these issues as soon as possible which become a factor of discomfort. Employee/workers issues: Employees or workers are also a part of management process. Understanding employee/workers needs and want is very necessary and also try to fulfill their requirements is responsibility of the management in the company. Satisfying organization’s employees and worker is very important for better performance productivity of the firm. Asking for opinion of the workers: Managers may ask about different ideas about their product and services from the employees and workers. Some organizations don’t involve their employees in any opinion or ideas which is very unfair and bad for the company as well as with employees. Company management should take employees opinion for making good and effective decision and to increase their product line. Negotiation is very important for any company, may be good idea can come from their employees which will be beneficial for the company. Content management issues In bakers delight this issue is also revolving named as content management issues, bakery need an amount of time needed to load new or updated documents including company’s information. Sometimes material was not being kept up to date and as a result, the extranet was not used regularly by all franchisees. Old software in bakers delight Other shortcoming is the old software including hidden' restrictions on the size of certain types of document such that staff had to check the entire document was visible on the extranet. This may be a difficulty for the staff and employees of the bakers delight. Today’s technology is moving very fast and new and unique software are available to everyone. Bakers delight is successful in many areas but they should also work on this issue. Security issues: There was also an absence of security features, lack of user friendliness software, and problems of using software was no longer supported and not going to get the information updated regularly. This situation is bad enough and they should work on that to resolve this issue, but due to the popularity of the company, may be this issue will be ignored. SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEMS/ISSUES To resolve any problem and issue, company should work on a suitable and useful solution to make decision making process more effective. Problems should be resolved in such way that it will give some benefit to the organization and its employees. Following are some solutions/points on which bakers delight can work on: Product diversification Product diversification is very important in product line for improving and making the product better and effective. Bring new inventions and innovation in a product is very good for the company and for its customers. When customer is loyal to the comapny, he/she will want to know that what’s coming new and innovative from their favorite bakers delight. Developing a product according to the customer’s choice Developing or making a new product according to the customer’s choice, make them feel that they are valuable for the company. Company thinks about them, reading customers minds, what they need new in bakers delight would be essential for making great image among customers and consumers. New products may involve ice creams, new and different flavors of cake and biscuits. Affordable price Design a product price in such way that it satisfies customers and also retain company’s profit or revenue. Normally bakery item prices are fixed and according to the demand of the economy, but for loyal and long lasting customers, dealing should be soft and malleable to maintain long-lasting relationship with their customers. External Surveys External surveys play a vital role for bringing improvement in management issues of the company. External surveys and interviews may involve customers and consumers of baker’s delight, by taking their opinions, comments and views about company and its products may bring various changes in the company. Company can keep this survey and use it for new development in their company’s product and services. Survey from the people who make purchases or consumes bakery product will clearly tell management about the drawbacks as well as good things about the bakery. Internal surveys Internal survey means survey will be taken within the organization, employees and workers opinions is a necessary thing for bringing change in the company and its management process. Management should develop or make survey form in such a way that all points regarding positive and negative issues of the firm should be included in that. Survey should completely be based on justice and honest opinions of the employees and workers. Bringing new technology: In today’s world technology bring several changes and make work more easy and fast for people. If we have good and advance technology, we should utilize it effectively and make it beneficial for the company as well as its people. Company should bring new and advanced software specially user friendly which will help employees and workers to make their work more effective. By noticing and emphasis on the above information, people are more likely to follow the policies and procedures of management which will lead to better outcomes of an organization or a firm. CONCLUSION As every organization or company put its best efforts to make their company as successful as they want. Success of any company involves efforts and struggle of many people. Bakers Delight's also did so many efforts to make it very successful and make its high reputation among people and customers. Bakers Delight has rapid expansion in Australia; the company was on the verge of expanding into North America with the five bakeries in Vancouver, Canada and so on. Bakers Delight is aiming to open hundreds of North American bakeries within a few years and they are also planning to expand their business in many other countries as well. Many managers believe that their job is to resolve problems that arise but it is only the lesser part of the job. More importantly, a manager's job is to take proactive measures for problems. Mangers will take action which solves problems as they occur. Management plays an important role while developing and managing company in an effective way and also resolves the issues and problem in timely manner and also in such way, that the problem does not occur for the second time. Some issues are also related to Reactive management which deals to problems as they come up and also the quick reaction to solve those problems whether with several resources like machines or employees/people. A good and efficient reactive management can be judged by following points: Decisive and ability to act quickly, Able to find the root cause of the problem or issue occurring in the organization. Creative and able to develop many solutions and ideas for making good decisions. Innovative and able to think in a unique way to find new ways to solve problems. Calm and in control in the time of crisis and problems faced by the company. A good management shows its ability by finding the right solution for the company and makes best and useful decisions as well. While making and taking decision mangers and management should be calm and analyze problems by focusing several related points to the problem to make a best solution and to get a desired goal. Good management is the key to success and good management starts with setting goals and objectives. Set goals for the company for the accomplishment of the many tasks necessary in starting and managing business successfully. Divide or break major goals down into sub-goals, to achieve it in more effective and efficient way. Management can focus its all attention to achieve those goals and management gets a better chance to show its best performance to accomplish company’s goals and objectives. REFRENCES 1. Claris Fernandez (Copyright 2000-2009) Management-Issues, Bizcovering.com (online magazine). 2. Microsoft group of online case studies. Case studies of bakers delight (2009). Retrieved May 23, 2009, from http://www.microsoft.com/australia/business/casestudy/studies/bakers_delight.aspx 3. Michael Regester and Judy Larkin (2005). Risk issues and crisis management: a casebook of best practice. Retrieved from Google Books and Published by Kogan Page Publishers. 4. Bakers delight holdings (copyright 2007).Company’s Profile. Retrieved May 23, 2009, from http://www.bakersdelight.com.au/cms/document.php?objectID=151. Read More