Impact of Cultural Change on WMB: A Case Study

This report analyzes the impact of cultural change on WMB, a New Zealand based company, and how it helped them improve their business performance and regain their position in the marketplace.

Globalization

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Organizational change is determined as the effective initiative taken by business
organization for bringing huge alteration in business practices that leads to improvement in
performance of same company. These changes are mainly adopted by business organizations
according to their position at marketplace and core requirement which results in the success
(Koutroumanis, Alexakis and Dastoor, 2015). The present report is based on the case study of
WMB a New Zealand based company which had faced drastic change in after 2000. The main
influence of this change was seen on their business performance which have declined suddenly
and negatively placed impact their sales as well as profitability. In order to deal with this, the
respective company has adopted cultural change which has supported them a lot in getting back
their position at marketplace and attaining competitive edge at the same marketplace.
MAIN BODY
Answer the following questions
1. Did the WMB brand culture exercise led by Ciara represent the beginning of a deep culture
change for WMB in 2013, or was it more of a superficial marketing exercise? Explain your
answer with reference to the text and relevant academic readings.
WMB is a successful restaurant of New Zealand which attainment remarkable success at
its initial days but with the passing time when the company has entered into 2000 it has faced
lots of problems related to increasing competition within the same industry. The main negative
influence can be seen in the form of decline in sales performance as well as profitability of the
company. It has been seen that from the year 2000 lots of new restaurants has entered into food
and beverage sector which have provided huge number of options to the customers in terms of
food items. This has directly influenced these customers to visit these new restaurant rather than
WMB. In order to deal with the same situation, the respective company has acquired an effective
cultural change. The first and most effective change acquired by this company was to change its
name with Burger U. Here, with the new name the menu of the company has also been updated
which so that attract maximum number of customers from the same marketplace (Thompson,
trickland and Gamble, 2015). All of these changes have taken place under the guidance of Ciara.
Leadership skills and experience in the same field has supported Ciara in bringing effective and
supportive cultural change within the company which will not only help them out in improvising

their brand image at marketplace but at the same time they were able to attract more number of
customers towards them with their influential services.
On the basis of overall information provided in the case study, it can be said that brand
culture exercise practiced by Ciara was highly effective for the WMB in the year 2013 as it has
improved the actual functioning of company and helped them out in dealing with their
continuous decline in sales performance as well as its profitability. Here, it has been analysed
that changes brought by the company were in several areas like alteration in ambience, staff,
menu, methods used for promotions, usage of digital media, and development of relations with
the young customer as they feel more attracted towards fast food (Rahimi and Gunlu, 2016). By
evaluating feasibility of all the methods and practices performed by Ciara for bring cultural
change it can be said that they were not at all superficial as they were being practiced by many of
rival companies too. In addition to this, it has been further analysed that the implication of these
changes has supported WMB a lot in developing its own effective image at marketplace. In
addition to this, it has also helped the respective restaurant in developing its own brand image
among its older clientele and also supported them a lot in attracting the new customers as well.
Improvement in the brand image of the company has helped them a lot in the improvement of the
sales performance that later results in the enhancement of the profitability of the same company
in adequate manner (Driskill, 2018). The main reason behind this was the main focus of the
company is to serve its customers in such a manner that will satisfy them a lot (Smiley, Rushing
and Scott, 2016). Also, adoption of digital marketing in order to promote their products and
services at marketplace will effectively help the company in enhancing awareness of proposed
customers like youngsters about the product and services. This will result in increasing
influencing interest of more number of customers towards them which will maximise their
business performance as well as profitability.
2.
A large number of businesses are being operated in the world and this can vary in small,
medium and large enterprises. According to a study it has been evaluate that there were around
2,375,753 actively trading business in Australia and an increase of 2.7% or 62,462 number of
businesses was seen. Operating a business is not an easy task as there are many things that are to
be considered so that business can flourish and maximum benefits can be gained in return.
Therefore, proper planning and execution is essential in order to attract more and more investors

who can invest money in a business. Along with this, planning also helps in uncovering the areas
in which business is lacking behind or needs to be looked after. It can be said that planning helps
in unfolding activities that are to be addressed through soliciting opinions from the people who
are more experienced in the field of business.
According to the case study or references given “Wild Man Burger” by Bill Buckie
established its first store in a blue-collar suburb of Wellington in the year 1978 selling its famous
burger “Big Bro Burgers” along with fried fish and chicken. Bill Buckie’s group which is (BB
Group), in the 1980s and 1990s enjoyed a significant growth but came under pressure when new
millennium was going to start because with the change in course of time expectations of
customers was increasing, social media was putting a great impact in their lives. Besides this
new competition was rising such as McDonalds and other growing companies in the field of food
and beverages. Therefore, it can be said that people’s preferences were changing as they were
moving towards fast food but with more healthier options.
Later, by looking at all the factors WMB brand relaunched its company with new name
“Burger U” by implementing new changes according to new generation customers like lighter
menu but maintaining its old taste, value and quality. In the year 2013, Ciara Conti as a prudent
training manager presented a thought of implementing low-risk piloting approach which mainly
included promotion campaign with the help of advertisements. As a result, company managed to
raise awareness of “Burger U” in other locations as well. Despite this, company should be
borderless in marketing and communication process because of the digital platforms available.
Therefore, for this to happen effectively it becomes essential for companies to improve
marketing and communication department like they should hire people who are more efficient
and capable in handling work pressure and sudden change. For example: “Burger U” in 2013,
recruited new employees who are best fit for this job. Basically, their main focus was to target
students who was seeking for better jobs along with sufficient wages and good working
conditions. Henceforth, as a result in the fiscal year of 2014-15, company’s payroll was
increased by 8 percent.
Repositioning a company after a successful brand name and maintaining the same is not
an easy task because customers somewhat relate to the products delivered to them before. Even
after coming with a new brand name consumer remain in chaos that whether the existing brand
will deliver same kind of products considering its true value or not. Therefore, in context with

“Burger U” according to change scenario company should have focused more on marketing
strategies and they did this well as organization make a change in their taglines and advertising
process for example: they hired 16-19 year old people for their store based work and along with
this, they were assigned with digital marketing process with the help of social media for
spreading messages related to their stores and products they deliver. Furthermore, company with
its new brand name changed its value and design. Beside this, “Burger U App” was their first
step for attracting more and more customers. Thus, this was an innovative and quite different
initiative by the company because young people have more channels or connection as compared
to adults and aged people.
Henceforth, it can be said that “Burger U” has entirely adopted a design of change
process through training like customer service interactions so that better customer services can
be provided. Along with this, company has focused on both internal and external aspects such as
upgraded kitchens, new décor, product packaging and overall appearances. Hence, amalgamation
of these measures come out to be a great commencement by “Burger U”.
“Wild Man Burger” after getting so much popularity in 1980s and 1990s, company fails
to impress its customers in millennium. Reason behind this was new trends and consumer’s
preferences towards their choices. Therefore, considering this there are some factors that are to
be considered by companies in order to sustain in the market for a longer period of time.
Organizational development and change management is one of them, it is a formalized,
systematic way for planning change considering different levels of a company. According to the
case study, “Burger U” focused on both primary embedding mechanism by paying attention on
how to motivate employees, using of allocated resources under speculated time period along with
this, secondary embedding mechanism was also adopted included structure and design of
organisation, system, procedures etc., this was a great initiative by company to have an overall
change in business. Thus, “Burger U” after relaunching made a big organizational change by
changing specialist consultant and hiring Sydney based strategic marketing for further processes.
Furthermore, company also designed and started an online training process “live the brand” for
employees so that they can be told about how to improve customer services. Moreover, “Burger
U” should have recruit people who have some experience in the field of food and beverages like
food experts, executive chefs and experiences mangers for better regulation of tasks and
activities.

Although change doesn’t provide benefits all the time because there might be a
possibility that employees are not ready to accept the same but in context with this company,
their organizational change and other strategic adaptation was fruitful to them and they were
getting benefits as well.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been analyzed that for relaunching even after its brand name
it becomes crucial for companies to consider some of the factors that can provide benefits in long
term. Some aspects such as organizational & management department, communication and
marketing department for operating business in an effective manner, all these departments keep a
close eye on activities so that customer’s needs and requirements can be fulfilled. Therefore, for
repositioning and brand culture process there is a necessity of both internal and external changes
in order to provide better customer services and facilities.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Koutroumanis, D.A., Alexakis, G. and Dastoor, B.R., 2015. The influence organizational culture
has on commitment in the restaurant industry. Small Business Institute Journal, 11(2),
pp.27-40.]
Thompson, A., Strickland, A.J. and Gamble, J., 2015. Crafting and executing strategy: Concepts
and readings. McGraw-Hill Education.
Rahimi, R. and Gunlu, E., 2016. Implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in
hotel industry from organizational culture perspective. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Smiley, K.T., Rushing, W. and Scott, M., 2016. Behind a bicycling boom: Governance, cultural
change and place character in Memphis, Tennessee. Urban Studies, 53(1), pp.193-209.
Driskill, G.W., 2018. Organizational culture in action: A cultural analysis workbook. Routledge.