...motivation did Archie Norman discover at ASDA? ASDA was one of the most successful retail businesses in the United Kingdom. It had a competitive advantage due to its unique superstore structure and its low price leadership in the market. Everything changed all of a sudden as ASDA found itself with demoralized employees, slow growth in sales, and declining profits in 1991 due to many years of lack of interest from previous managers. It had been a 1 billion pounds cash surplus supermarket chain in 1987, and by 1991 it had a debt of over 1 billion pounds. This was the situation that Archie Norman encountered at ASDA when appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The main reasons of the problems that ASDA and Archie Norman had to face were due to complex organizational inefficiencies. The employees had lost the ability to act independently and got used to be told what to do after many years of controlling management. ASDA had become a bureaucratic and hierarchical institution and as a direct result of this rigid functioning structure in the company any kind of innovation was stopped from being encouraged or implemented. Without any innovation ASDA was unable to keep its competitive advantages in the retail market in the United Kingdom. So ASDA and Archie Norman had to face the challenge of transforming the superstore in relation to its management style of doing things as well as implementing a sense of culture based on the core values of ASDA. Management and leadership had to change...
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...trailers, depot store re-alignment and fleet reductions have helped eliminate over 18m miles from the supply chain since 2005– the same as going to the moon and back 75 times. The savings, which represent an £7m increase on last year, mean Asda remains on course to deliver efficiencies of up to £800m by 2020, it said. Julian Walker-Palin, head of corporate sustainability at Asda, said: “At Asda, our approach to sustainability is based on the belief that protecting the environment and saving people money go hand in hand. After all, wasting resources means wasting money – and we hate waste of any kind. “Since 2005, our work to minimise the environmental impact of our operations has delivered over £80m in savings – which we have invested in delivering lower prices for our customers. Now, through our exchange programme, we can go even further, helping over 300 suppliers find efficiencies in energy, waste and water that can also help keep prices down”. Barry Williams, Asda’s food trading director, said: “The Sustain & Save Exchange is an important Asda programme. We want to work together with our supplier partners so we can learn from each other to increase our efficiencies and resilience to the growing challenges of resource scarcity. “At Asda, we want to build a world class supply base for the future, so we’ll be working with the most proactive suppliers on this agenda to explore how we will continue to support each other for the future. For us, sustainability isn’t about reinventing...
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...ASDA Case Stephany Mejia 1. What problems of motivation did Archie Norman discover at ASDA? Archie discovered that beyond the immediate financial crisis ASDA had organizational and cultural issues. These issues created a problem of motivation. ASDA’s top executives had offices in a separate part of the headquarters and were isolated from the rest of the company, one manager explained that executives seemed more interested in “hunting and partying” than in addressing serious issues faced by the company. ASDA had become more bureaucratic and hierarchical. The bureaucracy had reached a point that made it difficult to get anything done. With the financial crisis people feared losing their jobs, so they didn’t want any attention to themselves and this stopped any innovation. There was little integration or interaction between the classes. Executives came mostly from the upper class while lower level employees came from working class. There was clearly a communication issue and subordinates were intimidated by their superiors and thus afraid to tell them anything other than what they wanted to hear. There was also an issue of communication between different departments such as buying, marketing and finance and this made coordinating activities particularly difficult. Since employees were not allowed to do anything and were so afraid this caused them to lack motivation for ASDA. 2. What do you think Archie Norman should have done on his first day on the job? ...
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...ASDA Market share: 2014: 17.2% (second highest behind Tesco) http://www.statista.com/statistics/279900/grocery-market-share-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/ 2013: 17.2% 2012: 17.6% http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/19/britain-supermarkets-market-share-fall-tesco-sainsburys-lidl 2011: 17.1% 2010: 17.6% http://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/aug/16/supermarkets-market-share-kantar 2009: 17% http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/6288/economics/uk-grocery-market-share/ The table on the right shows ASDA’s market share from 2009 to 2014, as you can see they have had a mixture of growths, at times the growth declined. Currently their market share is at 17.2%, which means they have the second highest percentage, they are only behind Tesco. ASDA’s newest news on what’s going on within the company would be the false advertising, this has been a big problem for them. The problem was that they stated in their advertisement that they had many products cheaper than Argos, although that may be true the way the stated it was wrong. They had said to have around 139 products that were cheaper than the ones sold In Argos and they also said that an independence price checker found out this information. However this figure that ASDA had generated and advertised was completely wrong. In fact Argos had much more cheaper products, Argos had claimed to have around 336 products which were cheaper in their stores compared to ASDA. Due to this problem, it caused many ASDA...
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...Walking the Talk: an Article for Critical Eye Archie Norman, the former CEO and Chair of the supermarket chain ASDA, left a haunting image when he spoke at a conference last week. He compared the store visits he engineered with those of ASDA's previous CEO. In the latter, a fleet of large cars would arrive at the Supermarket door and out would step 5, 6 or more senior executives. The store manager would be waiting patiently at the door. Hands would be shaken and the entourage would sweep down the aisles of the store. 'Hi, what do you do? You enjoy working here?' and then off to the next visit with a passing: 'tidy up that main display' to the manager on the way out. By contrast, Archie would go alone, park in the far corner of the car park, leaving the near spaces to shoppers who were spending money. He left his jacket in the car and walked unannounced into the store. He'd chat to customers: 'what do you like?', 'what could we do better?', 'thanks for shopping here' and to the staff: 'What's the best thing about working here? And the worst?' and finally he would talk to the manager, maybe over a coffee in the canteen. 'What can I do to make your life easier?' 'How's business?' A final walk round the store, maybe with the manger, then off to the car park to write any action notes to himself before setting off for the next visit. The point was not about the need to 'press the flesh' or be visible: it was how you got a realistic picture of what was going on and actually do...
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... This defines how colleagues behave at Asda. It ranges from how colleagues treat customers and other external stakeholders to how they treat each other. Asda’s culture of trust pervades all that happens within all elements of Asda’s operations. Asda is a company with a conscience, dedicated to doing the right thing for its customers, colleagues and communities. Andy Clarke, President and CEO states: ‘Building trust with each other is the most important step to winning the absolute trust of our customers.’ Asda’s beliefs are behind every decision that every colleague within the company makes and help influence the organisation’s culture. These are: to provide excellent service to our customers to show respect for the individual to strive for excellence to act with integrity. In 2009 Asda ran a survey to discover what its customers thought about the company. From the results of this survey Asda created its ‘customer pledges’ outlining what customers should expect to experience from Asda. The success of these pledges led Asda to replicate this with ‘colleague pledges’. These were covered in the annual colleague survey in 2013, ‘Your Voice’, which surveyed every colleague across the business in stores, Home Offices and Distribution. The four colleague pledges demonstrate what Asda is committed to providing for its workforce. These are: Fairness at work. Opportunity for all. Respect for each other. Pride in Asda. Leadership Asda 18 Image 5Asda leaders are committed to...
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...Asda, the grocery store chain that Archie Norman had just been hired to lead, teetered on the edge on bankruptcy and ruin. While Asda had enjoyed a long run of success in the United Kingdom, upscale competitors and down-market deep dis-counters had sharply eroded its customer base. Norman, an outsider to Asda who had never run any retailing operation, believed that Asda could not afford the luxury of piecemeal or incremental improvement. Everything about the organization - from the way they purchased and displayed products to the way store managers interact-ed with shop-floor employees - would have to change. Everything. Company Background With 65,000 employees in 205 Asda stores and another 2,000 at corporate headquarters, Asda was the fourth largest grocery store chain in its home country. Asda enjoyed annual sales of $6 billion,1 and claimed 8 percent of the supermarket business, ranking fourth in market share. Starting in the late 1960s, Asda pioneered within the country the concept of large supermarkets located outside of downtown areas with expansive parking lots and low prices. Flourishing particularly in working class areas, Asda became known as a blue-collar store, specializing in low prices in a warehouse-like atmosphere (“Pile it high and sell it cheap” was a phrase commonly associated with this type of opera-tion). The demographics of their customer base was decidedly “down market.” In that niche, Asda was quite successful, operating without any real competition...
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...TESCO implement a clear cost leadership strategy, as market leaders they benefit heavily from economies of scale. The introduction of their own brand allowed the company to cut their costs and increase their profit margins. Tosco's current strategy is very much one of growth. Depend on the feature aimed at the high street consumer TESCO offering different categories shop and services- In ‘'Tesco's Extra'' stores here are over 15,000 of their own brand products. Customer can buy any product in cheaper price. "Tesco Extra" stores, selling not just food, like other supermarkets but material products such as kitchen accessories, entertainment items such as televisions and VCR players and CDs, magazines and cleaning products. "Tesco Metro" was introduced. This was a feature aimed at the high street consumer while offering the benefits of a large supermarket. "Tesco Express" in essence a petrol station with a small Tesco store onsite. This offered customers convince products i.e. bread, milk and essential grocery items. Tesco Direct - The recent interim results show how Tesco's non-food products have made good progress. Tesco's Direct will offer the vast range to anyone with computer access. Telecommunications - Tesco launched an ISP service back in 1998, but have invested more heavily in this field since 2003. Tesco's mobile is in an association with O2 and their ADSL package with NTL. Their most recent example of differentiation is the “Tesco Internet Phone”, which is an innovative...
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...P2 Introduction In this assignment I will be talking about key stakeholders who influence the purposes of two businesses, the business I have chosen are Tesco and Asda. Also I will be talking about the interest of owners, customers, suppliers, employees, trade unions and shareholders have in the businesses. Another point I will be talking about is why business have to consider local communities and pressure groups when operating their business. Tesco and Asda key Stakeholders are; Customers: Customers want good quality products and services for affordable prices, customer want to shop at Tesco and Asda and receive well experience whenever they shop there. Also Tesco must always understand that meeting customers needs and expectations are very important, otherwise they will lose customers are profits. Suppliers Tesco would buy resources that they have needed of to produce goods and services from suppliers, so Tesco and Asda needs to have an effective relationships with their suppliers in order to get quality resources at reasonable prices which intern will help Tesco and Asda to sell products cheaper if they get it cheaper this means Tesco and Asda will then make their customers more happy because they are getting good quality products and services for affordable prices, but this is a two way process as suppliers depend on the business they supply to earn money. Owners Owners would want the business to run smoothly and earn from it so the interest they would have in the...
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...FOUNDATION TO BUSINESS STRATEGY ALDI ALDI is one of the world’s leading grocery retailers with more than 7,000 stores across 70 countries. The company originates from Germany, where it was founded in 1913 as one of the first retailers to offer self-service. Since opening its first store in 1913, ALDI has established itself as a reputable retailer operating in international markets including Germany, Australia, UK, and the U.S. What distinguishes ALDI from its competitors is its pricing strategy without reducing the quality of its products. In fact, in some cases ALDI’s products are 30% cheaper than those offered by its competitors. ALDI can do this because the business operates so efficiently. ALDI has operated in the UK since 1990, and now has over 500 stores in the UK and Ireland employing in excess of 20,000 people. ALDI’S POLICIES: ALDI does not have a clear defined Vision and mission statements, however it has clearly defined policies based on which it could create its competitive position in the market. ALDI’S Policies are based on ‘What if a grocery store challenged the typical retail business model?’ALDI’s business model enables to provide the customers the highest quality products at the lowest possible prices. This value stems from the numerous efficiencies and innovations instituted at every level of ALDI’S operation. The following are the cost saving strategies that ALDI adopts: * Customers bring their own bags or buy our reusable bags to save money ...
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...and expanding into local areas with superstores and convenience stores as well as on the High Street. Supermarkets expansion has resulted in the suffering and closure of many small local businesses. Dennis Wrong, Socioligist states that in a situation where the gain of one is equivalent to the loss of another so the net gain is zero, it is a ‘zero-sum’ game. This essay examines the relationship between supermarket power and a ‘zero- sum’ game. It shows how the supermarkets gain is balanced by the loss to others and outlines the ‘positive sum’ games of power. The concept of power is viewed in variety of ways by different groups, I feel this depends on the angle you are viewing things from. Contemporary UK has four huge supermarket chains, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco often referred to as ‘giants’ by the economy which indicates the level of power and dominance they have in the market. Every consumer has personal preferences and rights of choice when it comes to making purchases of goods and services. These preferences some would argue, are influenced or controlled by the varieties made available to us along with other contributory factors. With the four supermarket chains dominating the food market, the power they have over what they offer to consumers limits the choices of the consumer. Some would...
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...‘a relaxed atmosphere that makes shopping more pleasant,’ or for some, even ‘a joy’. Click on each supermarket's name in the table to discover more about what its shoppers thought of it, and find out which own-label products from that supermarket have achieved our Which? Best Buy recommendation. Top supermarkets for shopping in store In-store supermarkets | Supermarket | Range of products | Quality of own-label products | Quality of fresh products | Value | Staff helpfulness | Customer score (%) | Waitrose (640) | | | | | | 75 | Aldi (638) | | | | | | 69 | Marks & Spencer (641) | | | | | | 69 | Lidl (638) | | | | | | 67 | Iceland (640) | | | | | | 66 | Sainsbury's (637) | | | | | | 63 | Asda (642) | | | | | | 61 | Morrisons (639) | | | | | | 60 | Tesco (641) | | | | | | 59 | Co-op (641) | | | | | | 57 | Overall sample size 6,590 | | Using the table Star ratings: These range from one to five – the more stars the better. Customer score: This is based on a...
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...Kingston university | Three Firms: Changes in Their Business Environment. | Business Economics | | Bienia, Patrycja | 3/12/2015 | Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2 2. European Telecoms: Going mobile Again- The Economist Dec 20th 2014 2 2.1. Ryanair Warns Plunging Oil Price Will Hurt Profits–The Guardian Feb 02nd 2015 3 2.2 Aldi and Lidl set to win holiday season again as shoppers shy away from Asda, Tesco, Morrison and Sainsburys- The Guardian Dec 16th 2014. 5 3. Conclusion 6 4. References 8 1. Introduction This report aims to recognize key economic factors that are affecting three different firms and provides a clear link between the discipline of economy and real life examples. The first story focuses on the merge between BT Group plc and EE that could result in economies of scale and scope as finalisation of the purchase would create the UK's biggest fixed and mobile operator that offers a multiply services. Further benefits of merge give the company a possibility to eliminate rivals therefore the firm is becoming close to achieve a monopoly. The second story concentrates on the drop of oil price caused by increased supply against demand. The organisation involved is RyanAir which is budget airlines. Budget airlines are able to offer cheap fares by reducing their operation costs mainly by hedging fuel; however economic and political factors affected the forecasts of future fuel rate in disadvantage for the company. This company has hedged...
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...What problems of motivation did Archie Norman discover at ASDA? I believe all the problems stemmed from upper management’s lack of focus on the purpose of ASDS’s existence. Had they remembered that ASDA was a people servicing company who’s main objective was to serve customers, to meet their basic need of grocery shopping then they might have never failed. Unfortunately directors were isolated from each other and other managers creating lack of communication between everyone. By the time Archie arrived at ASDA, the company had become highly centralized and bureaucratic. Morale was very low and the culture was risk averse. Directors and upper management did not seem to care about the company as opposed to store employees who did care but felt intimidated to make suggestions or voice their opinions. Store managers felt ignored and had no input on decisions. As a result this lack of communication, appreciation and respect for employees reflected in the their attitudes and service to customers. What do you think Archie Norman should have done on his first day on the job? What is the financial status of ASDA? How should the company be re-structured? What changes would you make? Please review some of the video clips about how ASDA promotes itself ( now being part of Walmart), how common people seem to love to hate ASDA, and how the chain has evolved since the ASDA case was written, then answer the following: (a) What do you think are the most important concerns...
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