Business Context And Management Assignment Sample

Introduction To Business Context And Management Assignment

Business management refers to managing the activities of the organisation. The report states about Sainsbury. It deals in grocery items and merchandise located in the United Kingdom. The report will state the external environment that affects the activities of the company. It will cover the changes in the organisation as well as the reasons for resistance by the employees. It will outline the operation management and a model to improve company performance. The report will state the stakeholders of the company and recommend a business strategy.

PART 1

A. Industry Trend Report

External Environment Analysis

The external environment means the factors or forces that remain outside the business but impact the activities of the business. The factors of the external environment of Sainsbury include competition, political, economic, social, legal factors and so more. The owner of the business has little control over these factors, but they impact the profitability of the company.

• Social Factors- The social factors includes taste, preference, values, beliefs and culture. After the pandemic times, the customer taste and preference is changes as the consumer start to prefer healthy life style by consuming healthy food items, vegetables, fruits, juices and so more (Desai, Studente and Garivaldis, 2022). The Sainsbury Company makes changes according to this to attract the customers so that profits increase.
• Technological Factors- The technology is changing rapidly. The Sainsbury Company to increase efficiency adopt new technology like it increase use of automation to manage inventory, make use of artificial Intelligence for enhancing customer experience by using data. As the company makes its presence online it uses technology to connect with customers, placing orders and to make deliveries. The company also uses technology to enhance the experience of its customers with the help of customer feedbacks (Balki, Holland and Hayes, 2023). According to this, the company makes changes in the product and services, this leads to retain customers of the company.
• Economic Factors- These factors include demand, cost, prices of the products. In the times of pandemic the economy slowdown this leads to increase demand of the products that significantly affects productivity and profitability. Thus, the Sainsbury has to identify the market condition.
• Political Factors- Any conflicts and political uncertainty can significantly impact the Sainsbury Company supply chain, this leads to cause delays, shortage of raw material. As a result cost of operation increase.

Managing Changes

To grow and become succeed in the business, changes are necessary for the each company. The change management aids in successfully and effective adoption of the change within the business. The changes in business bring innovation and helpful in achieving the objectives. The Sainsbury Company also makes changes in the working style by expanding its business to the online platforms (George, Lakhani and Puranam, 2020). The change help the company in remain competitive in the market. If any company failed to adopt change they loss success.

The staff or employees of the company often resist to change. Resist to change means unwillingness to adopt changes in the company. The employees reluctant to changes because they fears that the change will become the reason for losing job. The change of Sainsbury to online platform means use of new technology (Hubbart, 2023). The employees think that there lack of knowledge regarding technology leads to fired them from job. Also, the employee reluctant because lack of desire to gain and learn new technology and system,

The Sainsbury effectively implements the change in the company by using Kurt Lewin`s Change Model. This model help in bringing change in the desired state. There are three steps to execute changes (Lewin's 3-Stage Model of Change Theory,2024). The three steps are-

Unfreeze- In this stage the company demonstrates the requirement for the change. The company clearly communicates with the employees regarding change and make aware the employees that change will benefits to them as the profits increase and this leads to increase remuneration. By clearly informed the employees regarding the change, it help in understanding the employees that the change is needed by the organization to remain competitive. It the company understands the need of change, then there is no barrier in bringing change.

Change- At this step, the company conveys benefits of changes to the employees and implements change. After implementing the changes, the company conducts workshops and training session to the employees (Burnes, 2020). The training helps in better adopting changes and also aids in provided a intended result.

Refreeze- This stage involves strengthening the new behavior. In this company rewarding those employees who adopt changes earlier. In this stage, the employees of the company will stick to the changes and the change becomes the indispensible part of the regular work routine.

Operational Management

The operation management refers to managing the day-to-day practices and process that increase efficiency and maximize profits of the business. The operation manger performs several activities such as management of supply chain, designing of product, forecasting and quality control.

Get Extra 10% OFF on your WhatsApp order!

use my discount

The TQM Model refers to total quality management, in this all members of the company contributes to enhancing the process, product, services as well as culture. This management approach aids in succession of the company through customer satisfaction. This is used to manage supply chain and to identify and reduce errors (Lepistö, Saunila and Ukko, 2022). It emphasis on improving internal process over long term leads to improve quality of product or service. The TQM model also focuses on quality aids the company in recognizing the deficiency of skill in employees and by effective training and education able to address this issue.

The Sainsbury Company by using the TQM Model improves its daily operations. This model emphasis on the quality of products or service thus the Sainsbury Company is able to provide good quality products according to the needs of the customers at the reasonable price improves company performance. It leads to increase customer satisfaction too (Choi et al, 2022). This aids in maintaining the quality of foods at both platform physical and online. Through this the company able to maintains right amount of inventory so that there is no delay in production or any wastage. Therefore, the TQM Model assists in improving performance of the Sainsbury Company.

Stakeholder Analysis

The stakeholders are the person who has interest in the decisions as well as the activities of the business. The main stakeholders of the company are investors, customers, employees, suppliers, communities as well as government. The investor is a stakeholder as its returns on profits linked with the company profits, customer as it receives quality services and product, the employees as it get wages and growth as its growth is dependent on the company success. The supplier is regarded as stakeholder as its business run according to the decision of concern company and government is considered as stakeholder as it collect tax from company and its employees.

The power and interest relationship grid is a technique that is used to classify the stakeholders according to their power and interest in the company. In this there are four quadrants depend on the level of power and level of interest (Bahadorestani, Naderpajouh and Sadiq, 2020). The each quadrant needs distinct level of engagement.

• High power/High Interest- this includes stakeholders who mange closely and engage regularly. Example, Shareholders of the company.
• High Power/Low Interest- It includes shareholder who actively consult, meet their needs and remain satisfied. The government authorities are example of this.
• Low power/Low Interest- In this the stakeholders includes who do not have direct participation in the business, so there is no need to spend more time to mange this. The competitors are the example of this.
• Low Power/High Interest- Stakeholder who remains informed and maintains interest i.e. employees, co-workers.

B. Client Report

Conclusion

To sum up all, it is concluded that the business management is a procedure of controlling and coordinating the activities, task and resources so that able to achieve goals of company. The report is stated the financial position of the Sainsbury Company at the time of Covid times. In the year 2020, the profits before tax are £ 586 million but due to pandemic the profits decline in £ 356 million. This decline occurs because the government imposed the lockdown means there is zero activity in the economy. Due to this there is no production, supply or demand of customers. In the next year 2022, the profits of the Sainsbury Company increase with amounting £ 730million. There is increment in profits because after Covid, the consumer start doing shopping from online platform and this leads to increase the sales of the company. Also, the company starts offering products at lower price, introduced new products and services. This aids the company in gaining market share, this leads to increase profits of the company.

The report stated about the external environment of Sainsbury that impact company including social, political and economic and so more. It highlighted the importance of managing change and the reason for reluctance of change by the employees like fear of job security, lack of knowledge of change. It outlined operation management using TQL model. The report stated the analysis of stakeholder using power-interest grid.

Recommendations

The Sainsbury Company can use number of business strategy to improve its operation, to bring innovation and changes so that able to attain the pre-determined objectives of the company. For the successful operation of the business, the company has to do innovation in the process, methods as well as ways of doing business. It should use the business strategy of Plan, Do, Check, Act (Isniah, Purba and Debora, 2020). The PDCA is the continuous process of planning, doing, checking and the last acting. This strategy furnishes an effective way for solving problems and managing the changes in the company. The Sainsbury Company should use this to improve the quality of its products and services as it work for providing quality, healthy, safe and fresh food to its customers.

This should be used by the company to make changes in the company related to the technology, methods of production, ways to offer services to customers and so more. As the company seen several changes in the purchasing pattern of the customers after the pandemic. To offer goods according to the customer preference, the business should use PDCA. In this, the company makes a plan like bringing healthy and quality products to their supermarket. After planning, the company actually tests the products in the market. Then, the company checks the impact of new healthy products on the consumer demand and profits. According to this, the company acts this process and this will aid the company in improving product quality and bringing changes in the Sainsbury Company. Therefore, effective business strategy assists the company in enhancing the performance and bringing innovation and increasing productivity and profitability.

References

Books and Journals

• Bahadorestani, A., Naderpajouh, N. and Sadiq, R., 2020. Planning for sustainable stakeholder engagement based on the assessment of conflicting interests in projects. Journal of Cleaner Production, 242, p.118402.
• Balki, E., Holland, C. and Hayes, N., 2023. Use and acceptance of digital communication technology by older adults for social connectedness during the COVID-19 pandemic: mixed methods study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 25, p.e41535.
• Burnes, B., 2020. The origins of Lewin's three-step model of change. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 56(1), pp.32-59.
• Choi, T.M., Kumar, S., Yue, X. and Chan, H.L., 2022. Disruptive technologies and operations management in the Industry 4.0 era and beyond. Production and Operations Management, 31(1), pp.9-31.
• Desai, B., Studente, S. and Garivaldis, F., 2022. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Consumer Purchasing Behaviour: Implications for the Retail Sector. In Global Strategic Management in the Service Industry: A Perspective of the New Era (pp. 1-15). Emerald Publishing Limited.
• George, G., Lakhani, K. and Puranam, P., 2020. What has changed? The impact of Covid pandemic on the technology and innovation management research agenda. Journal of Management Studies.
• Hubbart, J.A., 2023. Organizational change: The challenge of change aversion. Administrative Sciences, 13(7), p.162.
• Isniah, S., Purba, H.H. and Debora, F., 2020. Plan do check action (PDCA) method: literature review and research issues. Jurnal Sistem dan Manajemen Industri, 4(1), pp.72-81.
• Lepistö, K., Saunila, M. and Ukko, J., 2022. The impact of certification on the elements of TQM exploring the influence of company size and industry. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 39(1), pp.30-52.

Online

• Lewin's 3-Stage Model of Change Theory. 2024. Online. Available through: < https://whatfix.com/blog/lewins-change-model/>