Business Culture and Strategy

Sainsbury’s aim is to be the most trusted retailer where people love to work and shop. Their goal is to make customers’ lives easier, offering great

Blackshop is a popular casual restaurant in the area of Cambridge. It is a well run business in quite a competitive market. However, in a competitive market, proprietors of a business must do what is necessary in order to remain competitive and “maximise the number of guests” (Cerny). Blackshop must decide whether or not the Open Table system will allow them to gain a competitive advantage, and if so, what sort of operational strategy needs to be implemented for it to be successful. Issues that need to be addressed are whether Open Table systems such as the new reservation system and the table management system will, in fact, leave Blackshop with a competitive advantage.

Greaves Brewery is a growing beer operation based out of Trinidad. The purchasing manager for the brewery finds himself struggling in finding a balance between ordering enough bottles to support sales; yet minimizing over ordering to avoid issues associated with growth decelerating trend from an off year, continued impact from government excise tax, tourism, and growth of exports particularly the USA.

BBC should re-enter the light beer market by first abolishing the Boston Lightship brand. Not only is it an economical burden (fewer than 3,000 cases in sales does not meet the 5,000 cases cut off point), but also its brand image is virtually non-existent, and its product design contrasts with the values of light beer drinkers. While the weak image can be bolstered with increased marketing efforts, a flaw in the product design would be too much to fix. Therefore, a new light brand is proposed.

The cultural background at Dogfish Head would be considered an involvement style of culture according to our textbook. This style of culture is the center and core focus of the involvement and participation of employees. (Daft R.L., 2011) This helps Dogfish Head to meet the fluctuating expectations from the external part of the business environment. This type of culture places significance on meeting the needs of the company. The culture of Dogfish Head Brewery also shares its vision with the strategic business priorities, for example; efficiency, quality, innovation, customer service, reputation, and brand. Culture is the building blocks of this organization. Employee involvement and the culture at Dogfish Head reflects the behaviors’ on how the business functions. This also decides how the company’s culture supports its business strategies.

One factor that must be considered in Dry Bar’s consumer profile, is the demographic of its target market, in this case Dry Bar will be aimed at people aged around 18-35 from any walk of life, who are looking for a means of socializing while enjoying delicious non-alcoholic drinks. In terms of geographic segmentation, there is none, however, to begin with the bar will be limited to only one location in Edinburgh. Nevertheless, this can always be expanded into new towns and cities as the business develops. In terms of socio-economics segmentation, there is no real segmentation on education or social class but arguably some segmentation on income and ability to

The United States, a nation founded on a fundamental belief in equality, is today a multicultural mosaic of over 315 million people of varying race and cultural heritage.

Sainsbury’s is aUKbased company whose core operation is retail business in food and non-food products and services. The company’s portfolio of investments include property

Whitbread is label as one of largest restaurant and hotel groups in Britain, providing job to approximately 50,000 individuals alone in United Kingdom. Whitbread focus on increasing customer loyalty and being innovative on services provided in order to build a strong brand reputation. Besides being profitable, Whitbread leads the way of being good to the communities, practicing responsible act towards environmentally sustainable. During the past five years, Whitbread had been reducing the use of carbon emission, diverted waste from business chains, invested in energy saving technologies, reducing water consumption and also providing job particularly on apprenticeships which lead to lower unemployment rate.

* Internal context of Sainsbury’s: It is the third biggest supermarket chain in Britain. Sainsbury’s family still owns part of the share. Sainsbury’s currently makes a profit of £23billion.

Morrisons is a chain of supermarkets, currently being the 4th largest in the UK with a market share of 11% (Butler, 2014). It is a Public Limited Company whose legal name is Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc. The company’s headquarters are located in Bradford, England (Morrisons, 2014a). Morrisons had 127,403 employees as at 02/02/2014 (Keynote, 2014), more than 500 stores (Morrisons, 2014d) and over 100 convenience stores (Morrisons, 2014b). Τhe company’s main strategy is to capture growth and market share, increase its efficiency and finally remain and maybe improve its position in the top 4 supermarkets’ list (along with Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda) (Businessweek, 2014). In addition, Morrisons tries to buy local products when possible and in many cases manufactures products at its own sites (Morrisons, 2014c).

If a company wants to expand their business to a different country, is the business practices and culture the same? According to the Encyclopedia of management, “The standards, expectations, and benchmarks of business behavior vary across countries” (Hill. p. 491). There are numerous countries in the world with their own culture, which correlates with their business methods. With that said, it is vital for companies to understand that not every country is the same, in terms of business and culture. The culture and business structure, for example in The United States (U.S), is different in Spain. Spain’s business practices and culture has differences in these three categories: contextual, social, non-verbal.

Organisational cultures are created by people. An organisation’s culture is also created and maintained by the organisations leadership. Organisational culture is important to alphabet games because the culture of the workplace shapes the way the employees act and relate to others both internally and externally. This can have a significant effect on the way the organisation operates. The culture is the feel we get when we walk into an organisation, made up of assumptions, values and norms. The attitude, behaviour and traits that dominate the organisation can affect the way we act with other individuals. Every organisations culture varies.

The structure of an organization determines the allocation of roles, regulations, and responsibilities, and therefore builds a basis for the culture in an organization. There is a constant relationship between organizational structure and organizational culture that provides a theme within an organization. Both can be difficult to clearly define and distinguish when analyzing an organization. Organization culture is a perspective into the company’s personality; it provides descriptive values, principals, traditions, and a way of doing things that effect how members view the organization (Robbins, DeCenzo, & Coulter, 2013). The organizational structure builds the

2011 proved to be a good year for beer, with a 7% total growth volume, amounting to 108 million litres. The demand for beer products continue to grow steadily with the escalating trend of social drinking in Singapore. Previously restricted to venues such as clubs and bars, beer products are increasingly being consumed at local coffee shops or hawker centres or being purchased off the shelf. (EuroMonitor International 2011, Beer in Singapore)