Four Functions of Business: Case Study of Asda and Kwik-Fit

Four Functions of Business Case Study of Asda and Kwik-Fit run shorting(a) playing aras of backup operationIntroductionThis paper studies four distinct functions of teleph peerless circuit and how they interrelate. The chosen aras atomic number 18 kind resources, scattering, selling and guest function.Human ResourcesThe function of human resources is to provide a focus and scheme for the efficient counsel of business employees. Employee management is a primary task of modern corporations. If not dealt with appropriately, employees discount do good an adverse effect upon the success of the business (Alan Price 2003). Employee satisfaction affects to each one(prenominal) areas of the business. For example, if an employee is happy at thrash it leave alone battle array in the client assist they provide. It withal facilitates promote the business, unloosen the marketing and promotional material message and underwrite the smooth running of the distribution fu nction.DistributionDistribution is the function by which the join on or service is moved from the manufacturer to the end user (P. Kolter 1991), ultimately the consumer. This can be represented by physical distinguishs, such as transportation and storage or, in a service industry, the method by which that service is packaged and cedeed. A breakdown in the distribution action affects customer serve, as the business whitethorn not be able to deliver the product or service required. The marketing function would be undermined, as promises made cannot be kept. Ultimately, this situation would de-motivate employees, as they are the ones receiving consumer complaints. market telling marketing and promotion is essential as a method of ensuring the message regarding products or services attracts the guardianship of the consumer. (George Belch 2004). The marketing function is to deliver a message that is seen, believed and remembered. A successful marketing fly the coop is heavily reliant upon the power of other(prenominal) business functions. If the business cannot deliver the goods, customers showament stop audience to the promotional message. Similarly, if the employees have not received training in customer care, a marketing move suggesting consumer care is par count go away not be believed.Customer goDelivery of customer services is probably the most crucial function. The consumer adds value to the success of the business by purchasing their product or service (Sean Kelly 2005). T here(predicate)fore, every business has to build and brinytain a close relationship with consumers. They have to deliver what the customer needs at a quality and price that meets their requirements. In a competitive marketplace, the congeal beam of customer service is essential if a business is to achieve a suppurateth in market share.Two organisations, Asda Plc., and Kwik-Fit Insurance Services have been chosen to demonstrate how these functions work in practice.A sdaThe Asda supermarket drawstring is a subsidiary of the American Wal-Mart retailer, one of the UKs leading supermarket chains, with over 150,000 employees.Human ResourcesAsdas HR schema is built on the basis that every employee (All about Asda, 2006) plays a bit in making the business a success.To achieve employee satisfaction, retention and succession, Asda runs a programme that provides training covering every area of the business, including in-store and external processes, as healthful up as caller policy and customer care. The business is committed to achieving in house succession and to promote this aim, it includes management training as part of its HR programme (See Asda Web position provision page).Understanding the need for employees to feel an affinity with the business, Asda encourages cater to take an active part in work meetings, which take place in-store, regionally and nationally, where views can be expressed and discussed. The core of its HR function is to gain the best from employees by encouraging involvement with the business at all levels.DistributionAsda kit and caboodle closely with suppliers to maintain efficient distribution services. This run acrosss levels of goods required are fed through warehousing stubs and to individual stores in a manner that maintains consistent product availability for customers. To allow for regional variances, the business delegates an element of the distribution decision-making process to local store management.MarketingFaced with changing consumer demands (Sean Kelly 2005), Asda now focuses its marketing and promotion on the dual aspect of quality at the right price. This has enabled the business to achieve second position inside the grocery industry.Customer ServicesAsda has consistently sought to mitigate its customer services. In addition to module customer care training Asda has expanded the product range throughout its stores. Internet shopping and intricacy of till services, includi ng self-service options, are other areas of the business where customer service improvements have been introduced.Kwik-Fit Insurance ServicesKFIS is an insurance call centre based in Glasgow. Although it was founded with the view to concentrating on the motor industry insurance, the business has expanded into to a greater extent general areas of insurance.Human ResourcesTo compete with other local call-centre operations, KFIS had to completely revise its HR dodge. This was partially achieved through improving the working environment. Like Asda it introduced training programmes to improve employee standards and encourage involvement. In addition, KFIS operates a guardian angel scheme (Jill Boulton, 2004), where existing staff act as mentors to impertinent recruits. It also appoint a minister of fun, to organise staff social activities. The success of these mensurations has been reflected in business payoffs.Distribution contrasted Asda, KFIS does not have a need for a physical di stribution function. The distribution element here is to ensure the insurance products offered are designed to match consumer requirements. As the service KFIS offers is distributed through call centre operators, the importance of staff and producer knowledge levels is essential in distributing the correct range of products to the end user.MarketingWhilst much of its marketing is directed through Kwik-Fit auto centres, and dependent upon the quality of their service, a significant residuum of promotion is undertaken through advertising and the call centre operators. For example, when engaging with a customer an operator may attract them to other insurance products. In this business the interaction between employee and customer is an integral part of the marketing process (George Belch 2004).Customer ServicesThe customer service aspect of KFIS is more promptly tieed to the reaction of the employee than with Asda. In a call centre situation consumers instantly judge the services th ey are receiving by their perception of the operator. The operators reaction, explanation and provision of the most appropriate product, and efficiency of service, provide determine whether the customer is satisfied and get out remain loyal to the business. HR director (Keren Edwards 2006) believes that the system in place in the business is contributing to the success in terms of customer retention. findingFrom the information at bottom this paper it is clear that every function described is dependent upon, and influenced either positively or adversely by the others. If one function, for instance, customer services, does not perform at its most efficient, the result provide affect the other functions. Customers will stop believing the marketing, resulting in fewer products sold, parts of the distribution function becoming redundant and a reduction in employee moral and efficiency.ReferencesAll about Asda (2006). Asda People. Asda Plc. Retreived 19 January from http//asdacares. gpalm.co.uk/people/people_load.htmlArmstrong, Michael (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. Kogan Page. UK.Price, Alan (2003). Human Resource Management in a Business Context. Thomson Learning, UK.Kotler, P. (1991). Marketing Management. FT Prentice Hall, 7th Ed. UKBelch, George. E (2004) Advertising and Promotion An interconnected Marketing Communications positioning. McGraw-Hill Inc. U.S.Kelly, Sean. (2005) Customer intelligence From Data to Dialogue. John Wiley Sons Ltd., UKBoulton, Jill (2004). Kwik-Fit hires fun guy to keep staff smiling. The Scotsman, Friday 21 May 2004.Edwards, Keren (2006). Keep Fit Scheme. People Management Scheme. UK. 6th April 2006.Caff Nero Strategy and Balanced batting orderCaff Nero Strategy and Balanced ScorecardIntroductionThe aim of this essay is to design a dodge and cardinal match identity cards for a coffee shop social club called Caff Nero to compliment their mission statement. This will be through with(p) after con ducting extensive secondary research to gain a clear insight into what a equilibrise scorecard involves as healthful as looking into how Caff Nero operates. This will hopefully provide knowledge of potential benefits and difficulties to consider when attempting to successfully implement scorecards for both Headquarter and Store Levels for Caff Nero. In addition to this, for each scorecard, a strategy map is used to demonstrate how each key performance indicator (KPI) contributes to the general vision of the company. at long last both levels are therefore assessed on its contributions to Caf Neros strategy and a conclusion is drawn on the main points outlined throughout the essay.What is the Balanced Scorecard?Kaplan introduced the balanced scorecard in 1992 with the aim to translate strategy into action, he stated,The balanced scorecard translates an organisations mission into a comprehensive set of performance bars that provides the framework for implementing its strategy. ( Kaplan Norton, 1996 p88).Having unsounded an organisations vision and strategy, the balanced scorecard aids to develop creative accusatives to helper measure performance. These accusatorys can be split into four main sides Financial, Customer, Internal Business Process and Learning and Growth all of which link together to form a strategy map.Implementation of the Balanced Scorecard Benefits and difficultiesBourne Bourne (2007) presents reasons to wherefore once implemented the balanced scorecard can fail. It is beneficial for Caff Nero to be conscious of potential problems that may arise in the tight future when implementing their balanced scorecards. Looking at the difficulties and problems portrayed by theorists and other organisations experiences should present Caff Nero with a competitive advantage. The opportunity of being able to use other organisations failures and theorists advice to over spot the issues presented is valuable. It is in particular important as larg e amounts of time and money from the company are being invested into this performance management mother fucker.One potential problem is the complexity of the system, resulting in unachieved objectives which will affect the overall vision and strategy of Caff Nero. Organisations are faced with de- cause staff as they steer away from the main objectives that are originally assigned. Although, this is a common problem for the majority of companies when introducing the scorecards, Caff Nero is aware of this problem and can therefore take this into consideration throughout the design stage. In particular consideration would be beneficial, in terms of the strategy map when linking the objectives together, so that they are easy to follow and comprehensive for the whole company. As for overcoming the complexity issue, Caff Nero can focus on their employees with training, conferences, group and one to one meetings to ensure that every employee inwardly the organisation fully understands w hat a balanced scorecard is. Their objectives and how they are being measured as well as how each perspective inter associate in achieving Caff Neros strategy.Drury (2004) suggests another obstacle with the scorecard, he identifies that the assumptions of the cause and effect relationships are being excessively vague as well as lacking empirical support. Further research has concluded that is it difficult to link non pecuniary data with future financial performance if at all. Caff Nero needs to consider this, as their main objective is to achieve future tax revenue growth both within the UK and internationally. So perhaps with measures and objectives that are assigned, should be more focused around revenue and financial aspects where possible.An additional difficulty concerning the perspectives shown within the management tool is that it does not factor in other aspects of the business to arrest customers, employees, suppliers and other environment perspectives. Although Caff Ne ro is not dependant to adding additional perspectives, it could complicate the scorecard further making it difficult to achieve all objectives assigned and whatever may overlap with existing objectives.Traditionally, when implementing a scorecard the assumption is, the decisions sit with the senior management throughout the design stage as they fully understand the ins and outs of the organisation. Although this may be the case, it is not always in the best interest of the organisation to design a scorecard that only looks at all levels of the business from a top heavy approach. To overcome this Caff Nero can be smart and ensure that all operable representatives of their hierarchy from store-level to headquarter level are included within the design. This in turn will show teamwork in working together to understand where each individual fits in to the overall strategy in order to meet the companys objectives.Although the scorecard demonstrates various difficulties that Caff Nero s hould be aware of. Not all is negative the on-going popularity of the balanced scorecard from other organisations fixs it extremely hard to not notice some of the benefits of this management tool.One important distinction of the scorecard is its use of effectively combining all the separate elements of the company into one simple determine, with help from the strategy map. The tool is also able to help employees and the company to understand how everything interlinks and contributes to the overall strategy. For example, looking at how employees from Caff Nero store-level are able to contribute and work with headquarters objectives by improving customer service at store-level in aid to visit customer complaints for headquarter level at the other end. This management tool is also enabling managers to consider all objectives and measures together as a whole by looking at the bigger picture. Therefore Caff Nero can take advantage of these benefits and make necessary improvements to the salutes of the company with cost reductions at headquarter level.Lynch (2009) comments that the real benefit of the scorecard is the linkage between strategy and implementation. Most theorists implore that the main goal of the majority of organisations is a form of shareholder value added. Caff Nero should consider this when implementing both scorecards. By looking into both quantitative and qualitative measures within the strategy, they should hopefully determine the expectations of their shareholders within performance measures in their strategy and scorecards to achieve growth in shareholder value.Caff Nero StrategyGrant (2008) outlines various strategies an organisation can adopt when trying to achieve growth. Having viewed this, Caff Nero is more geared towards a business strategy, as it concerns the company with competing within a particular coffee shop market. To prosper within this market it is important to concentrate on establishing a competitive advantage over riva ls.To support this Caff Nero should base their strategy around product differentiation, by providing customers with quality ranges of espresso that is exclusive to Caff Nero stores, will only contribute to concreting a competitive advantage for the company. It also works on shielding Caff Nero from their prices being levelled down to the bottom part of the price spectrum, due to potential competitive price wars of the same product between their competitors. This is an important strategy to implement as due to the increase of popularity of coffee shops it is likely for these price wars to occur. As a result, Caff Nero can look to improve further, with the quality of their products as well as launching invigorated products in the future as part of their strategy. This can be achieved with product innovation to cater to larger consumer base within the market, hopefully contributing to the growth in both revenue and size within the UK and internationally.Caf Nero is well known for its acquisition of Aroma which increased the amount of sites they owned to 106 by 2002 this made them the largest independent owned coffee shop. The company now has 400 stores direct in various locations within the UK, Turkey and the Middle East. Caff Nero should now look towards the future of the company, by expanding the numeral of sites owned. Therefore it is important that part of the strategy should reflect in achieving expansion both internationally and UK based. Caff Nero will incorporate this in the scorecard within the financial perspective at headquarter level, as Kaplan and Norton (1996) states that the designing of the strategy of the company is combined with the process of the balanced scorecard.However Caff Nero may be faced with great difficulty with trying to implement their strategy due to the diversity of locations they operate in. As it is harder to standardise a scorecard for all site levels throughout the business internationally, as culture and expectations of cu stomers and employees may be different throughout locations. This can be said the same about different locations within the UK. For example Londons objectives may incorporate a faster pace of service to compliment their busy, on the go customers in comparison to another site in a quieter location that may prefer much more of a mellow approach, at a slower pace and friendlier atmosphere where everyone is a community. Caff Nero tries to incorporate all of these elements within the overall strategy.Balanced Scorecard Strategy MapThe following models demonstrate Caff Neros scorecards for both headquarter level and store-level. As well as strategy maps to illustrate how each objective will link together. It is important to note that although the scorecards produced are for the same company, they may differ in objectives for each level, to incorporate all personnel throughout the company. Objectives of headquarter level will focus more on the overall performance of the company, in terms of how they can grow in revenue, size and customers. The model will also focus on innovating products and retention rates of employees and customers. Where as, with the store-level objectives will be more centred around individual stores in terms of customer service, delivery clock and empowering and motivate staff with training and incentive programmes. Once the following scorecards have been implemented for Caff Nero, it is then important to ensure that everyone throughout the company understands the balanced scorecard and where they are contributing to achieving Caff Neros vision. As well as considering how all of the objectives from each level will interlink between the two scorecards. This can be done through training centres, conferences and meetings.Scorecard EvaluationHaving designed both scorecards (Figure 1 and 2) an evaluation will be conducted to research both the correspondingities and differences presented within each models. Additional to this, reenforcement evi dence will add weight to justify reasons for selecting objectives and indicator to contribute to Caff Neros overall strategy.Financial PerspectiveThe first objective shown in the financial perspective (figure 1 2) is revenue growth this relates to achieving an increase in growth in some form or another. To drive revenue growth Caff Nero objectives concentrate on diversifying into new markets internationally and within UK. As well as branching out into new customer markets and increase the number of stores owned by Caff Nero. severally of these objectives chosen all tie in with Caff Neros overall strategy of expansion of the business in the near future.The key performance indicators incorporated into this perspective help to measure each objective for the company. The main similar measure here is (F1 F4) percentage of increase in revenue growth in the overall company and individual store-level (F5). To achieve these objectives they would have to be based upon implementing bonus an d incentive schemes for employees so that they are motivated to achieve targets set. They would also need to target larger segments of new customer markets by advertising in new locations such as near to universities to appeal to students or offices to appeal to the working customers. However a drawback of this measure is due to the population suffering from the effects of the recession and the economy resulting to a decrease in disposal income. Meaning growth in revenue for Caff Nero will be delicate as new potential customers may not be as opened to trying new coffee shops then their norm as well as lifestyle changes that will affect the amount of revenue that each store generates. This is why a mark up % was not included in aid to trammel other problems such as the affect on shareholder value, as incorporating percentages would put further insistency on the company in case they were unable to achieve resulting to shareholders expectations to decline.Another important objective within the financial section is (F6) improve operational efficiency, which is reducing wastage costs for the business. It is important to achieve this objective as it saves the company money and better for the environment. This can be done by providing more awareness of how to reduce wastage i.e. not leaving taps of water on just for the convenience element for coffee shops. be aware of waste problems presents benefits as in turn this will maintain the companies overall brand project, which links in will the customer perspective (C3 figure 1) of maintaining brand image.Customer PerspectiveIt is important to measure this objective (C3), as it involves the public with collating feedback and results in reference to how the general public perceive Caff Nero as a company. This objective also gives the company an opportunity with participating in charity and environmental work that will help several organisations as well as portraying a better image for the company. This is with the fu nction to increase in revenue and customer satisfaction, as customers like to be obscure in supporting good causes. This is why it was important to incorporate this within the headquarter scorecard.Figure 2 also looks at customer retention (C5), customer satisfaction (C6) and customer profitability (C4) as main objectives to achieve. Each of these objectives link with each other, for example if the customers are satisfied with the service and products offered by staff then they are likely to come back time after time. Creating customer loyal will result in increasing customer retention rates hopefully leading to customer profitability. Therefore ensuring customers are provided with great customer service and high standards of quality products will cement this relationship with customers and employees. Where the employees are concerned this is incorporated into the internal process and learning and growth perspectives.It is significant to note that both levels differ in objectives a s the store-level is more involved with direct customer improvement as they adopt a more personal approach with more of a face to face relationship. Therefore objectives will be focused around the service element. In comparison to the headquarters that will look more to indirectly improving service by site quality, reducing complaints and activities involving improving brand image. However one similarity between them is that they are measured by customer feedback in one form or another.Internal Business Processes PerspectiveThe first objective presented in figure 1 is (IP1) innovating products involved, this objective is important for businesses to maintain as their strategy and brand image pride themselves on producing unique high quality products in espresso and food. Therefore it is important for Caff Nero to innovate new products in order to compete within such a popular market. To measure this objective Caff Nero will look at increase in sales from new products in order to meas ure if they are successful or not. For that reason employee should be aware of the new products that are useable by crack them at pay out areas in order to advertise new products, which links into objective (IP4) growing internal product knowledge. This will be achieved by daily staff meeting and work booklets to test staffs knowledge. Again, this perspective demonstrates some similarities between figures 1 2. Objectives are set to improve on delivery times for customers (IP2 IP5), this is aid of achieving high quality of service to link to customer satisfaction (C6), retention (IP3) and profitability (C4). If customers are dissatisfied they will go elsewhere which will affect growth in revenue (F1). To measure delivery times, focus as obtain comparing where Caff Nero are in terms of the market, as customers will have a certain level of expectations. However if Caff Nero are able to excel over this, it will create customer satisfaction which in conjecture will lead to more busi ness from that customer. to a fault by ensuring there is a balanced customer to employee ratio in each site helps to improve delivery and customer service for customers as waiting times will decrease.Learning and Growth PerspectiveThis area focuses on employees in terms of creating objectives to maintain training, in aid of retaining employee loyalty (LG1), improving both job and employee satisfaction (LG2), increasing employees capabilities in skills (LG4) as well as motivating and empowering employees (LG5). In theory these objectives should participate to maintaining a customer centric focus (LG3).Within this perspective, there are many differences between the scorecards as store-level focus on individual needs of employees to drive employee satisfaction. In comparison to headquarters which looks at overall achieving programmes to assist employee satisfaction, presenting a common objective in both scorecards. To measure these objectives appraisal and one to one meetings are used to assess their performance and how to improve in growth in revenue for the business. Each level is assessed by individual employees at store-level and individuals stores for headquarter level.Olve (2003) looked into how incentive and reward programmes can be aline with scorecards in order to promote realization of intended strategy. This has been incorporated into the learning and growth stage of the scorecards. In aid to attract employees attention, to perform well at store level, contributing to the overall objective of increasing revenue growth for the company.Although there are many differences between the models as each scorecard targets a different audience, it is important to note that they both interlink to together to achieve Caf Neros objectives. As store-level focuses on direct customer service it is important that they get it right to achieve sales, retention as well as maintain a happy working environment for staff as getting these objective help to achieve objectives set for headquarter level. In terms of employee retention, training programmes, customer profitability and satisfaction as well as product innovationConclusionTo summarise the main points of this essay, it is essential to consider the information available in order to successfully design and implement a scorecard for a company. As statics show that 70% of balanced scorecards fail due to lack of research within their own individual company and the scorecard.The second point was to fully understand what Caff Nero wanted to achieve in regards to their strategy, as it is vital to not incorporate everything as this will only present more problems then benefits.Thirdly, when designing the scorecards for Caff Nero, it was crucial to ensure that they were easy to follow for all members of the organisation, as every objective interlinks and filters up the model in a form of a chain. If one objective is not met then this will affect the rest of the model creating a cause and affect relations hip throughout the scorecard. For example consequences may lead to losing customers due to bad customer service, lack of high quality products and product knowledge due to limited training.As to measurements within the scorecards Caff Nero tried to be realistic so that they are able achieve their strategy as kafkaesque measurements can disadvantage a business, as the costs of implementing balanced scorecards is a large investment to make as large amounts of money and time is needed. It is also important that Caff Nero adopted a trial and fracture approach so they could keep reviewing their scorecards to ensure they were aligned with their strategy. Overall a balanced scorecard is an affectional management tool to translate strategy into a vision.Word Count 3299