Management
Communication has been defined as “the transmission of information and meaning from one individual or group to another” (Guffey and Almonte, 2010, p.6). The definition of communication technology has been proposed as “electronic systems used for communication between individuals or groups” (QFinance, 2011, online). The main purpose of communication technology is to facilitate effective communication between individuals or group that are physically distant from each other. The success of a business entity largely depends on the level of communication with the various stakeholders of the business, the choice of tools selected to conduct the communication, the content of the message being communicated, as well as, the manner in which the communication is conducted. It has been stressed that “managers spend about 80 percent of their time – 6 hours and 24 minutes if every eight-hour day – in direct communication with others, whether on the phone, in meetings, via e-mal, or in individual conversations” (Boone and Kurtz, 2010, p.296). Moreover, business managers rely on a wide range of communication technologies in order to perform their duties. The traditional communication means and technologies for businesses has mainly included telephone, television, newspapers and magazines. However, the rapid technological developments during the least several decades has also concerned communications technology, and this has resulted in the evolution of new forms of communication technologies enabled by the advent of internet such as e-mails, video-conferencing, communicating through social networking websites etc. The extent at which businesses successfully integrate new forms of communication technology within their practices directly affects their long-term growth prospects, with businesses that adopt new forms of communication technology with grater level of enthusiasm being better positioned to achieve long-term growth. The uses of communication technology by business Nowadays, communication technology in its various forms is being used by businesses for a…
Red Bull GmbH is a multinational beverage company based in Austria that sells a famous Red Bull energy drink. The company sells its products in 162 countries, and 4,204 billion cans of Red Bull were sold during the year of 2010 alone (Company Figures, 2011, online). The company product range consists of Red Bull drink, Red Bull sugar free, Red Bull Cola and Red Bull energy shots. Its mission statement is: “We are dedicated to upholding Red Bull standards, while maintaining the leadership position in the energy drinks category when delivering superior customer service in a highly efficient and profitable manner” (Mission/Values, 2011, online) This article represents a report that presents analysis of marketing communication strategies of Red Bull in two countries – UK and China. The article comprises the review Red Bull’s current marketing communication strategy in UK and China and formulates recommendations for improvement and change for the company. Red Bull GmbH Report contains the application of the major analytical strategic frameworks in business studies such as SWOT, PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces, Value Chain analysis and McKinsey 7S Model on Red Bull GmbH. Moreover, the report contains analyses of Red Bull’s business strategy, leadership and organizational structure and its marketing strategy. The report also discusses the issues of corporate social responsibility. Review of the Current Practice Red Bull’s Marketing Communication Strategy Usage of Marketing Communication Strategies by Red Bull Marketing has been identified as one of the most crucial aspects of the business by Red Bull along with many other businesses. Red Bull relies in marketing communication in order to conduct its marketing strategy. Marketing communication can be defined as “all communication activities an organisation undertakes to promote its agenda to its audiences” (Gillis, 2006, p.392). Marketing communication mix, on the other hand, has been defined as “a number…
Founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA generated the sales of 23.1 billion Euros in 2010 through its operations in more than 38 different countries with 27 distribution centres. The IKEA Group has 280 stores in 26 countries and the remaining of the stores are run by franchisees (Berger, 2011). The business concept of IKEA involves selling high volume of mostly furniture products in low prices. Moreover, “with an aim of lowering prices across its entire offering by an average of 2% to 3% each year, its signature feature is the flat packed product that customers assemble at home, thus reducing transportation costs” (Profile:IKEA, 2011, online) The vision of the company reflects this strategy in an effective manner. “The IKEA vision is to create a better everyday life for many people. We make this possible by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them” (Inter Ikea Systems B.V, 2011, online). As one of the leading retailers in a global scale IKEA is engaged in systematic environmental monitoring and analysis which serves to be an effective source of information for decision-making. Internal benchmarking is one of the main methods of environmental monitoring and analysis engaged in by IKEA. Benchmarking is “method of improving business performance by learning from other companies how to do things better in order to be the ‘best in the class’”(Janakiraman & Gopal, 2007, p.181). The Internal benchmarking practice engaged in by IKEA involves comparing different divisions and subsidiaries of the company and thus establishing the best practice and aspiring to it for the remaining divisions and subsidiaries of the company. Moreover, IKEA is engaged in extensive market research both in global and local levels that is conducted by marketers…
“Tourism is the world’s largest industry and makes a major contribution to the economies of most developed and developing countries” (Claire and Haven-Tang, 2005, p.1). At the same time, tourism organisations are facing a set of significant challenges they have to deal with in order to ensure their long-term growth. Specifically, quality management can be highlighted as one of the most important challenges for tourism organisations, and the importance of this challenge is increasing with ever-increasing customer expectations. Although the importance of quality in terms of long-term business growth in tourism organisations is widely understood by industry researchers and practitioners, yet no clear and universal recommendations exist regarding how the quality management aspect of the business can be improved in efficient ways. This article critically analyses the significance of quality management within the context of managing a tourism organisation. The article starts with discussions about the importance of managing quality in a tourist organisation, followed by a brief analysis of challenges in ensuring a high quality. Moreover, specific strategies are also described in this paper that tourism organisations can use in order to improve quality management. The Importance of Managing Quality in a Tourism Organisation Managing quality is crucially important for tourism organisations along with other types of businesses. The significance of the quality management issue for tourism organisations has dramatically increased in recent years due to the highly intensified level of competition in the industry caused by the globalisation, low barriers for entering into the industry and a range of other factors. Moreover, “service quality is an intangible, but crucial area of interest to travel service providers” (Morais and Chick, 2005, online) because it is one of the most efficient bases for creating competitive edge in the marketplace. A great level of dedication to such an approach has enabled…
Effective employment relationships within companies have been recognised to be one of the crucial conditions of succeeding in the marketplace in all industries, including events industy. Therefore, all factors affecting the level of employment relationships within organisations in direct and indirect ways need to be analysed in great detail. Moreover, companies need to promote the factors positively affecting the level of employee relationships at the same time when eliminating the factors with negative effects. Personality can be defined as “the overall profile or combination of stable psychological attributes that capture the uniqueness nature of a person” (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2007, p.42). And “the personality of a person has a bearing on his performance and impression” (Bhatti, 2009, p.3). The nature of personality of an individual has specific impacts on people who interact with that person and the impact is even greater in manager-subordinate type of interactions. According to Adair (2007), the personality of people working in management positions plays significant role in employee motivation, and consequently in achieving organisational aims and objectives. The author rightly argues that managers with such personality attributes as leadership, compassion and effective communication skills are able to motivate the workforce with minimum use of tangible resources. Likewise, managers whose personalities lack important attributes such as leadership and interpersonal skills are most likely to face challenges in terms of motivating their employees and such a scenario would adversely affect the overall work environment and productivity of the organisation. The issue of the personality of managers has even greater implications in the context of event organisations in UK. This is because the successful organisation of special events depends on the level of motivation and enthusiasm of events participants in general, and event staff and volunteers in particular (Matthews, 2008). Moreover, such elements as creativity and originality play…
Business researchers and practitioners agree on the idea that “successful entrepreneurship relies heavily on access to social networks, which provide both, information and trust. Membership of a network not only provides useful contacts that can be trusted – it can also enhance an entrepreneur’s own reputation for trustworthiness” (Casson and Buckley, 2010, p.150). There are many global and local networks with a strong entrepreneurship focus such as Chambers of Commerce, Trade Unions, Freemasons, Trade Associations, Quakers, Business Incubators and others. Each of these networks has its own admission rules, structure, customs etc. and offer business, social and economic values in a unique manner. This article represents a brief analysis of Freemasons, one of the most secret organisations in the world, with the focus on the value the organisation offers in terms of entrepreneurial networking. There are more than six million Freemasons with more than quarter of million Freemasons under United Grand Lodge of England alone (FAQ, United Grand Lodge of England, 2011, online). The popularity of topics associated with Freemasons are increasing in the media for the reasons covered further in this paper. A Brief History of Freemasons There are contradictory opinions in various sources about the origins of Freemasons. It has been stated that “one of Freemasonry’s alleged origins dates back to the building of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem from 970 to 931 B.C.” (Karg and Young, 2009, p.13). According to Jacob (2007) Freemasonry has started by labour leaders and stonecutters in the Middle Ages. Men who were the representatives of other professions than workers in stone stated to be admitted into the organisation starting from 1640s in English, later in Scottish Lodges, and they were referred to as admitted or accepted Masons (Hodapp, 2007). Ridley (2011) informs that the first Grand Lodge, the Grand Lodge of England…
It has been established that “special events are widely recognised as being a growth sector of the tourism industry with potential to generate substantial economic benefit for the city, township or region involved” (Tonge, 2010, p.5). Therefore, it is important to explore the quality issues associated with special event management in order to maximise the economic benefits of special events in various levels. According to Tum et al (2006) the management of special events can be distinguished from many other types of businesses with increased level of influence of human factor on the success of special events, as well as, the increased probability of occurrence of unforeseen circumstances. This situation makes ensuring the high quality in special events a challenging task to accomplish and assigns extra responsibilities for special event managers. Both, special event researchers and practitioners agree about the importance of quality in the provision of special events in a successful manner. Allen (2010) links the increasing importance of quality in special events to dramatically intensifying level of competition in the marketplace. According to ‘UK Events Market Trends Survey’ conducted by industry association Eventia, 1.3 million events have been staged during the year of 2010 and the market size for the year is estimated to be 16.3 billion GBP (Quainton, 2011, online). Such intense level of competition leaves special event companies searching for competitive edge in order to survive in the marketplace and providing high level of services has been acknowledged as one of the most effective sources of competitive edge. Some of the challenges faced by service organisations in general, and special events organisers in particular directly relate to the nature of the business and are not shared by the businesses operating in manufacturing industry. Specifically, it has been stated that “the definitions that aimed to describe services…
There are no arguments amongst special events industry researchers and practitioners that the success of special events depends on the level of effectiveness of marketing and overall management. However, the role of crisis management is greater in special events than a range of other businesses because special events are associated with unforeseen circumstances in a greater extend (Matthews, 2008). It has been stated that “crisis management starts with avoiding action, keeping your finger on the pulse so that as soon as the pace hots up – at the first signs of the beginning of a crisis slide – you can take pre-emptive action” (Armstrong, 2008, p.162). This article represents a brief literature review on the topic of crisis management in the management and marketing of special events and addresses the most important aspects of the issue on the basis of secondary data research. The majority of authors who have contributed to the research area in a significant way have offered their own version of definition of its main terms. Crisis management has been defined as “preparation for low-probability or unexpected events that could threaten an organisation’s viability, reputation, or profitability” (Pride and Ferrell, 2008, p.455). An alternative definition of crisis management is offered by Lamb et al (2008) in a way that it is “the coordinated effort to handle the effects of unfavourable publicity, ensuring fast and accurate communication in times of emergency” (Lamb et al, 2008, p.527). On the other hand, some authors (e.g., Bowdin et al, 2006, Glaesser, 2006, and Tong, 2010) have attempted to define the functions of crisis management and offered viewpoints like “crisis management as an institution refers to the group of persons who are responsible for crisis management activities. They are the dominant bearer of the functional crisis management” (Glaesser, 2006, p.21). The…
Rai (2008) states that when companies are analysing customer expectations in service sector, the following issues need to be studied and addressed by company management: Firstly, analysing what customers expect from the services. Following this specific advice can prove extremely helpful due to the fact that sometimes service companies commit to considerable investments aiming to improve customer satisfaction spending money on some aspect of the service that customers do not value, at the same time failing to recognise the issues that are causing customer dissatisfaction. Secondly, analysing factors influencing on the formation of customer expectations. Once these factors are learned it will be much easier for service companies to undertake strategies aimed at improving customer satisfaction. Thirdly, analysing the ways of changing customer expectations. Learning how to manipulate with customer expectations will give service companies tremendous advantages in forming customer expectations in a way that is easier for the company to exceed these expectations. Fourthly, service companies should devise efficient strategies that are aimed at exceeding customer expectations. Once all the above specified measures are implemented exceeding customer expectations would not prove to be extremely challenging. Rai (2008) discusses following five dimensions that form basic ‘skeleton’ of corporate relationship management of a service company: First, tangibles associated with a service. Although the main difference of services from products is that services are intangible, still ‘tangibles’ associated with services such as decoration, design of the premises, the quality of seating, cleanness of place etc. do play an important role on customer satisfaction. Second, offers associated with services. This relates to the level of attractiveness of service offers made from the financial points of view. Third, the delivery of the service. Regardless of type of the service the level of its delivery is going to affect customer satisfaction. Therefore, some service companies…
Belbin’s Team Roles. The need for team oriented approach has developed in the recent few decades due to the fact that well organized teams are usually very high performers. Johnson et al (2008) state that for the team to be successful it can not consist of all leaders or all analytical people, but there should be harmony and right mix in order to have a successful team in place that can carry out and perform all sorts of tasks. Bloise (2007) also supports this statement and mentions that it is the job and responsibility of the senior management in the organization to ensure that they select and recruit right candidates with right levels of competencies and skills in order to fill the gap to make successful team. The idea of bringing together candidates with different backgrounds and core competencies in order to make a successful team was initially proposed by Meredith Belbin who stated that successful teams are consisted of a mix of individuals each of whom can perform a different role in the team (Hall, 2007). The Belbin’s team role also indicates that a right balance within the team where each individual will contribute their share with their specific role is very crucial. The Belbin’s Team Roles consist of nine types of roles that exist within a successful team. Even though all nine types of individuals are different from each in terms of contribution they make towards the objectives of the task, the team is expected to be high-performing. Here are the following types of team roles according to Belbin’s team roles: Coordinator in Belbin’s Team Roles The co-ordinator is a person who is considered to be a chairperson in the team who has special leadership skills. Hall et al (2007) state that co-ordinator in the Belbon’s team roles is…