Operational Change Essay

Kroger Supermarkets were started in 1883 by Barney Kroger in downtown Cincinnati. Mr. Kroger started his business with the motto: “Be particular. Never sell anything you would not want yourself.” Through the years Kroger has strived to uphold this motto to its customers and to provide great service, the freshest products and expansion to meet the needs of their customer base making it one of the world’s largest retailers. Kroger now has over 2,600 stores in 34 states with $108.5 billion in annual sales. Kroger operates 37 food processing facilities and Kroger was the first grocery retailer to use the electronic scanner.

Kroger’s corporate strategy consists of continuously innovating and creating new ways of bring value to the customer. They were pioneers for many of the things that we now consider norms in grocery stores. In the past, Kroger had rapidly expanded to many store locations to gain market share. This expansion strategy caused them to lose profits in

Operations management is essential for the survival and success of any organization. According to Heizer & Render (2011), operations management (OM) is the set of activities that creates value in the form of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs. Operations managers today contend with competition, globalization, inflation, consumer demand, and consistent change in technology. Managers must focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of processes such as cost, dependability, distribution, flexibility, and speed. The intent of this paper is to discuss the processes and operations management of the Kroger Company.

Second, greater expansion could lead to increased standardization and bureaucracy across the company. Trader Joe’s thrives off the creativity of their employees, even to the extent that each store is free to organize products however they see fit and each store has unique signs created by employees. Trader Joe’s trusts their employees and gives them much freedom in how they interact with customers and conduct themselves during work, but this creativity and freedom could be crippled because of expansion. Also, bureaucracy could increase as the company increases because it becomes harder from the executives to control the direction of the business with such a loose grip on each store.

Kroger’s mission is to be a leader in the distribution and merchandising of food, health, personal care, and related consumable products and services. They envision the company will operate in a way that reflects their belief that the organization levels closest to the customer are best positioned to serve changing consumer needs. The mission and vision of Kroger is socialized and dependent on their employees (Retail Industry, 2012).

Because of the hasty decision to implement the change there is a very high risk of employee resistance to change. The upper management had no investment in the decision and will feel a resentment and lack of control that could trickle down through the organization. The dangers her are that original companies will become infected with a negative attitude toward the new parent company causing

The Kroger Company owns and operates most of its banner companies. They have convenience stores, fuel centers, pharmacies, fine jewelry, apparel, grocery stores, manufacturing sites, clinics, and financial services. According to Bethel University, (2017) this is called the broad differentiation strategy. They have several services to offer the public, and are always trying to stay ahead of the competition.

In what ways does Trader Joe’s demonstrate the importance of each responsibility in the management process- planning, organizing, leading and controlling? They have created their own University for future leaders. By controlling who they promote, only within the company, and planning room for advancement from the day you become an employee shows the value they take in their staff. For example, imagine you start as a cashier and it’s your first day on the job. It can bring great comfort knowing that your manager started in exactly the same role. Not only provides management with the ability to relate to their employees but also the employees to look to the manager’s leadership and mentoring for success.

In 1883 Bernard (Barney) Kroger invested 372 dollars that consisted of his life savings to open the first ‘Kroger’ grocery. That first store, located at 66 Pearl Street in downtown Cincinnati, would soon turn into the giant retail chain that consists of nearly 2,500 stores all over the country and most recently produced sales of over 76 billion dollars. Barney Kroger was revolutionary in the formation of the modern grocery, in that he was the first grocer to have his own bakery, as well as selling meat and other groceries all under one roof. Kroger was also the first to manufacture the products that he in turn sold in his own store. This was the beginning of what is today one of the largest food manufacturing companies in America.

The Kroger Company is an American retailer established by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Ohio USA. It’s the country 's biggest supermarket chain and second biggest general retailer (after Wal-Mart). Kroger is also the fifth biggest retailer in the world as of 2013. Kroger operates 2,625 stores across the USA with its headquarters in downtown Cincinnati Kroger. It operates 40 plants for manufacturing, mostly bakeries and dairies. Additionally they are operating 777 convenience stores and 374 jewelry stores through various subsidiaries. Kroger also oversees 87 convenience stores, which were operates through franchise agreements. It operates in the markets of 31 states.

The Kroger Company grew in 128 years from one store to over 3,500 stores of various banners and products. The Kroger Company is the largest food and drug retailer in the United States and is growing constantly with diversity in the retail market, dealing in food, pharmacies, apparel, jewelry and fuel. Kroger is governed by a 14 member Board of Directors including a Chief Executive Officer. Kroger is a leader in Corporate Social responsibility by maintaining environmental consciousness, social awareness and energy conservation awareness. Kroger is committed to customers, builds diversity and focuses on growth. The company operates a large part of it’s own manufacturing and distribution to increase profit

to sustain their level of growth. There are several problem areas that Kroger will need to stay

Then concrete stage a big changing point in a child's cognitive development. It is the starting poin of logical/operational thought. The child is now to the point that they are mature enough to use logical thought/operations whre they can only apply it to physical objects and do some problem solving.

At present time, I believe the two most pertinent factors for the Kroger company are sociocultural forces and environmental factors. According to Orlando,2017, Kroger has formed a partnership with Lucky’s supermarket located throughout central Florida and will open eight more stores in the state adding to their numerous banners. Kroger will have to conduct research on the forces that include lifestyles. cultural differences and attitude that could have an impact on their stores.

1. It has been said that forecasting using exponential smoothing is like driving a car by looking in the rear-view mirror. What are the conditions that would have to exist for driving a car that are analogous to the assumptions made when using exponential smoothing?