International Sustainable Business: Brewing Sector in the United Kingdom - Term Paper Example

?Introduction There is need to understand that the British brewing sector is becoming strong in the world amidst competition. There is a need to increase its ability to determine and fight its rivals. However, the said sector is still home to diverse members with specific corporate objectives. Thus, an innovative business model is needed to show how to homogenise these different members as one entity working together for the benefit of the entire sector. The proponent of this paper tries to expound the business process under the human resource and marketing aspect of the business. This paper particularly introduces the innovative business model for the brewing sector in the UK. The Human Resource British brewery sector is highly associated with employment having people directly employed in it. It is estimated that in 2010 there were over 983,000 jobs sustained due to the brewing activity in the UK through direct, indirect, and induced effects of the brewing as an international and highly acclaimed business (BBPA, 2010). The brewing sector in the UK has the potential to sustain its growth amidst anti-alcoholism activities (SIBA, 2010). It has the capacity to employ manpower and there is a great level of dependence on it by choosing potential people for brewing activity. Manpower are employed with great consideration on their skills. This has potential impact on the economic condition in the UK. Thus, this needs special attention primarily because it provides significant economic benefits to the national economy. The human resources have significant function or role to play in an organisation (Ferris et al., 2007). The human resource is considered one of the most important assets in most organisations because it is imperative to its effectiveness, survival of the business and its competitive advantage (Bryant and Allen, 2009; Ferris et al., 1998; Boxall, 1998). People are to implement the tasks that every organisation needs to perform to achieve its corporate goals. There is a need to invest in human capital because it is found that it particularly generates and enhances innovative capability (Huang et al., 2011). Thus, it is always a major consideration to include socio-economic concerns in dealing with the human resource (Cardon and Stevens, 2004; Gunderson, 2001). Considering that the brewing sector in the UK is composed of different independent companies, it is necessary to integrate the human resource into one entity to the same level of standard. One of the innovative moves that the British brewing sector to achieve the peak of its advantage in the world is to unify the entire business process of the brewing sector particularly its manpower. One way of doing so is to set specific standard for the entire sector that the human resource should adhere. The external human resource Customer value is tantamount to providing quality service. There is a need to focus on how service should be offered to the customers. There should be great emphasis on the external environment of an organisation. An organisation’s external environment proves to be influential in the world of work (Burke and Ng, 2006). The human resource is such a broad area of concern in an organisation. One of the best moves to do is to have external human resource for the entire British brewing sector in order that the one unified standard will be achieved. This primarily will guide the entire British brewing sector in order to help individual companies and even the new entrants to have something to follow in order to come up with the best human resource to implement the entire goal of the whole sector. Brewing sector’s benefits In the event that there will be unified training and skills enhancement achieved by the human resource in the entire brewing sector, suppliers and the brewing sector will basically achieve substantial benefits. One of the benefits is the ability to strengthen skills and training enhancement because the entire activity will be not so costly due to coordination of all members in the sector. Members will substantially contribute to costing. However, members will demand for high and standard skills and training enhancement activities. Thus, this further leads to a high standard research and training enhancement programs for achievement of quality product and service offerings. Customer’s benefits The costing related to human resource enhancement will be substantially not included or minimised in the final prize of brewed products. This is due to the fact that there are many members in the sector that could definitely contribute to the costing of the said program. In detail this will eventually contribute to the achievement of good delivery of product or service offerings in the supply chain at reliably reduced price and customer satisfaction. The result will be an improved customer value at a considerable price for product and service offerings. Strategic threats In general, it cannot be denied that channel conflict will be always involved especially in situations that include disagreements among channel members (Boone and Kurtz, 2006). This is usually the case in marketing intermediaries that carry similar line of products. In the case of members with the same products, it could not be denied that there are some of them who probably will even aspire for more competitive advantage in the delivery of products and services through their human resource. Sustainability issue Sustainability wise, it is eventually good to invest in the human resource particularly in an organisation that tries to become a cut above the other. Organisations that want to obtain competitive advantage usually equipped their manpower. The result usually is the achievement of the goal because the entire vision is successfully passed from the top level down to the bottom level of management. It is necessary to provide the vision and have it worked for the entire organisation through a properly enhanced human resource. The goal is to make the British brewing sector be on the top when it comes to standardisation of its human resource. The opportunity that needs to be obtained by the entire sector should reflect a homogenous high standard of quality for products and service offerings. This will try to create a long-term impact for the organisation knowing that the human resource is one of the most significant assets that an organisation should posses. Vertical Marketing Systems In the entire value chain for the creation and delivery of brewed products in the British brewing sector there is a need to come up with quality and standard products that will guarantee higher demand in the market. In line with this, there is tough competition within the players in the said sector. This created specific strategic response which has become varied or diverse. This is usually the case in which every organisation tries to obtain competitive advantage (Porter, 1998; Fahy, 2002; Weerawardena and McKoll-Kennedy, 2002; Reed et al., 2000). There is no equal opportunity for each member because others aim to achieve even more. The opportunity for each member within the sector is not guaranteed. It is in line with this that there is a need to come up with an aggressive action in the case of the British brewing sector and that is to control downstream distribution. In this case, there is a need to set up a general retail chain to sell the products of each member in the British brewing sector. This eventually will highlight products and services that are offered by each member. Furthermore, the sector could also maximise its control in its input in the production process. In this case, there is a need to standardise the entire production process in order for each member to have equal opportunity to perform equally in the competition. Furthermore, the inputs should include support for the new entrants in order to have equal opportunity for each member to succeed in the long run. The entire activity in this process should include not just forward but backward integration so that there is an actual output to control both the production and distribution process (Boone and Kurtz, 2006; Kotler et al., 1996). Brewing sector’s benefits Local brewing companies in other countries try to compete with each other. The result is normally to come up with innovative products with diversity of quality because each tries to go for competitive advantage. Diversity of everything within the business usually results to high level of corporate performance (Slater et al., 2008; Talke et al., 2010). The result is normally to come up with a higher demand for raw materials with substantial quality and standard because suppliers tend to maximise the opportunity in the value chain. This is particularly the case of having raw materials with corresponding high demand. As the law of supply and demand suggests, the higher demand for raw materials with remarkable limited supply usually results to higher price for the said commodity. Thus, suppliers of the raw materials will have opportunity to increase their price but the problem is that the brewing sector will struggle in the process due to other economic concerns of this issue. One of the benefits in integrating production and distribution of product and service offering within the sector is the ability to strengthen research because the entire activity will be not so costly due to coordination of all members in the sector. There will be many members who can substantially contribute to costing and find for better alternatives of raw materials which can help solve the issue of production and distribution. Research will substantially increase knowledge and discovery of information that will eventually lead to coming with better ideas (Ellson, 2009). This will result to achievement of products or service offerings at a high level of quality. This further will result to higher output and will give equal chance to all members. The British brewing sector should not just be a mere division but as an entire entity which strongly emphasises one corporate business control for all members. In the same way, the entire marketing system will become sufficient for the entire sector and within its members. This is not going to be tough for new entrants for instance because there will be equal opportunity for each member. Customer’s benefits Customers will have the opportunity to be served with products at a reasonable cost. This is due to the fact that the actual value chain will create relatively reduced cost as a result to an integrated process for production and distribution. However, other intrinsic factors need to be considered such as quality of the products in the decision for its actual price (Teng and Thompson, 1996). The good thing about integrating the production and distribution within the entire sector is a low-cost product with significantly high quality. This is due to high value given for research and maximisation of available resources such as the raw materials. Strategic threats The production output is still not going to be equal for all considering that within the sector; there are members who have huge capacity to produce. This eventually will minimise the opportunity of those members with relatively low capacity to produce. The low level of production is an indicator of low financial gain. Considering that the entire system for production and distribution is equal, those members with potential to produce will tend to achieve more. The result will still overpower those members with under capacity for distribution and production. There is still conflict of interest in this case even though the entire system within the sector tries to give equal opportunity for all. There is a great chance that since there is conflict of interest, additional distribution and production strategies will be implemented outside the bound of sector’s strategic move especially by those members who could spend more. Sustainability issue Within vertical marketing systems, there is a great consideration of concern to sustainability issue. However, the integration of production and distribution among its members paves way to sustainable operation of the British brewing sector. The entire activity ensures greater production output with high level of quality due to the effort of standardisation. This will eventually help maintain the sector’s competitive advantage in the international market. Conclusion The British brewing sector is one of a kind in the world. In order to enhance more its sustainability, strategic moves are necessary in its entire operation. In line with this, there is a need to formulate an innovative business model which the bottom line is to ensure sustainability of its human resource, production and distribution of quality and standard product and service offerings. References BBPA (2010) Local impact of the beer and pub sector [online] Available from: http://www.beerandpub.com/documents/publications/industry/BBPA%20Regional%20impacts%202011%20final%20report.pdf (Accessed 19th June 2011). Boone, L. E., and Kurtz, D. L. (2006) Contemporary Marketing. 12th ed. Ohio: Thomson/Southwestern. Boxall, P. (1998) ‘Achieving competitive advantage through human resource strategy: Towards a theory of industry dynamics.’ Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 8 (3): 265-288. Bryant, P. C., and Allen, D. G. (2009) ‘Emerging organizations’ characteristics as predictors of human capital employment mode: A theoretical perspective.’ Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 19 (4): 347-355. Burke, R. J., and Ng, E. (2006) ‘The changing nature of work and organizations: Implications for human resource management.’ Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 16 (2): 86-94. Cardon, M. S., and Stevens, C. E. (2004) ‘Managing human resources in small organizations: What do we know?’ Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 14 (3): 295-323. Ellson, T. (2009) ‘Assessing contribution of research in business to practice.’ Journal of Business Research, Vol. 62 (11): 1160-1164. Ferris, G. R., Arthur, M. M., Berkson, H. M., Kaplan, D. M., Cook, G. H., and Frink, D. D. (1998) ‘Toward a social context theory of the human resource management organisation effectiveness relationship.’ Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 8 (3): 235-264. Ferris, G. R., Perrewe, P. L., Ranft, A. L., Zinko, R., Stoner, J. S., Brouer, R. L., and Laird, M. D. (2007) ‘Human resources reputation and effectiveness.’ Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 17 (2): 117-130. Fahy, J. (2002) ‘A resource-based analysis of sustainable competitive advantage in a global environment.’ International Business Review, Vol. 11 (1): 57-77. Gunderson, M. (2001) ‘Economics of personnel and human resource management.’ Human Resource Management, Vol. 11 (4): 431-452. Huang, H. C., Lai, M. C., and Lin, T. H. (2011) ‘Aligning intangible assets to innovation in biopharmaceutical industry.’ Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 38 (4): 3827-3834. Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J., and Wong, V. (1996) Principles of Marketing. 2nd European Edition. England: Prentice Hall. Porter, M. E. (1998) Competitive Strategy. New York: Free Press. Reed, R., Lemak, D. J., and Mero, N. P. (2000) ‘Total quality management and sustainable competitive advantage.’ Journal of Quality Management, Vol. 5 (1): 5-26. SIBA (2010) Local brewing industry report 2010 [online] Available from http://www.siba.co.uk/forms/SIBALocalBrewingIndustReport2010a.pdf (Accessed 19th June 2011). Slater, S. F., Weigand, R. A., Zwirlein, T. J. (2008) ‘The business case for commitment to diversity.’ Business Horizons, Vol. 51 (3): 201-209. Talke, K., Salomo, S., and Rost, K. (2010) ‘How top management team diversity affects innovativeness and performance via the strategic choice to focus on innovation fields.’ Research Policy, Vol. 39 (7): 907-918. Teng, J. T., and Thompson, G. L. (1996) ‘Optimal strategies for general price-quality decision models of new products with learning production costs.’ European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 93 (3): 476-489. Weerawardena, J., and McColl-Kennedy, J. R. (2002) ‘New Service Development and Competitive Advantage: A Conceptual Model.’ Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), Vol. 10 (1): 13-23. Read More