Contemporary Research on Business and Management

This report discusses contemporary issues and research on business and management, including supply chain problems and data security issues. It also evaluates the ALDI business model and discusses business ethics. Personal reflections on a class discussion are included, and all tasks are collated in a summary.

BUSINESS AND
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH-.................................................................................................3
(1) SUPPLY CHAIN PROBLEM-..............................................................................................3
(2) DATA SECURITY ISSUES-................................................................................................4
ALDI -..............................................................................................................................................4
(1) ALDI BUSINESS MODEL AND OTHER INDUSTRY-.....................................................4
(2) SACRIFICES OF CUSTOMERS TO HAVE SUCH SHOPPING EXPERIENCES- .........5
BUSINESS ETHICS-......................................................................................................................5
INTRODUCTION OF NEW ETHICAL PRACTICE-...............................................................5
INDIVIDUAL REFLECTIONS ON THE CLASS DISCUSSION-...............................................6
COLLATION OF THE PORTFOLIO-...........................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business and management is one of the branch of study where it is learnt that how to run
a business successfully and eradicate the bottlenecks come across (Battisti, Shams, Sakka and
Miglietta, 2019.) In this report the given tasks will be performed. The report will be discussing
the contemporary issues and research on them. How such issues impact the operational
efficiency of the business and how it can be managed by the management. The report will also be
discussing the case study on ALDI Ltd in which their new model of business will be examined
and the possible outcomes of applying the same model on the business of other sector will be
inferred. Furthermore, the report will be presenting personal views on the class presentation and
in the end all the given tasks will be collated to make summery.
CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH-
Key operational issues refer to the problems or any kind of problem that arises in
execution of any operation and can render a business or operation less profitable. It can be due to
any cause be it internal or be it external factor.
(1) SUPPLY CHAIN PROBLEM-
One of the biggest impact of COVID-19 was its adverse impacts on global supply chain
management. In UK, it had shown severe impacts on the supply of retailing goods. In pandemic
UK experienced shortages of materials, staff shortage and transportation as well. Still, the
economy is expecting recovery.
The main causes were shortage of material and labour. Since globally the supply chain
was disrupted which caused this problem. And failure in controlling the variants to be
disseminated was another issue which impacted the supply chain. The role of Brexit is quite
prominent with this regard. They can give foremost priority to this issue and can ask for help
from the countries with reserves in term of material and labour (Sodhi. and Tang, 2021.)
There would be a few suggestions to counter it. Such as government should have opted
other sources of material supply. The reliability on limited suppliers could be shifted. Labour

market crisis was also solvable by outsourcing and hiring more labours from other nations. These
all could have been possible ways to overcome the operational issues.
(2) DATA SECURITY ISSUES-
UK is one of the biggest IT market and over the time data security has been one of the
concern for the better operations of the industry. It had threatened the sector and weaken the
performance.
In December 2021 the government has issues ' National Cyber Strategy' which is self-
explanatory to know the seriousness of the issue. The main causes of this operational issue are
drastic surge in IT services, after COVID-19 adaption of work from home culture, post pandemic
recovery, cashless society in the pandemic. This crisis is somehow hindering the sectoral growth
and ultimately causing low productivity and revenue (Park, 2019.)
This issue must be taken gravely and a few steps can be taken like- can prevent such
players who are not abiding the regimes, the companies may be guided for installation of
stronger data security policy, can hire data security service provider, can manage data mobility in
more efficient way, the management must play active role in the concerns of data security in the
business.
ALDI-
(1) ALDI BUSINESS MODEL AND OTHER INDUSTRY-
The retail product chain services are being provided in different ways by the company.
Which is benefiting them in many forms like reduction of cost, specific attention, brand
promotion, customer satisfaction etc. The same business model can also be installed by other
industries as well. It depends on the nature of their products.
ALDI is working in FMCG sector where the mobility of both customers and products is
very immense yet it has adopted the model and performed well. But for other industries limiting
the selection opportunity would be having different implications.

Let's take the car and vehicle industry, which is one of the prominent sector. Land Rover,
Rolls-Royace, Jaguar, Lotus etc. are such luxury car makers. On their showrooms they are also
providing limited additions of their cars and yet their customers are quite loyal. So the same
business model can also work in this industry as well. But at the same time there are other car
makers as well like- 'Dacia Sandero' who is providing cheap cars in UK (Ahmed, 2019.) If such
company install the ALDI business model then it may harm them. For the reason customers look
more alternatives if they are not brand loyal. In the case of ALDI, it is having strong brand name.
But here with such low price cars customers generally see more alternatives to pick the better.
(2) SACRIFICES OF CUSTOMERS TO HAVE SUCH SHOPPING EXPERIENCES-
As the above case study signified for having such shopping experiences the customers
will be making varieties of sacrifices. Firstly such small stores will be restricting them to have
more alternatives. With the limited choice they would pick the present product which doesn't let
them experience new products. Such stores generally keeps limited version and possibly the
customer may feel discomfort with one type of product so ultimately it can drive him to go
further (Boyer, 2018.)
In the name of strong brand the customer can be charged more for the products. If the
customer is variety-seeker then it won't be a good experience for him. In case customer is not a
frequent buyer and wants to pile up the stock whose possibilities are higher after COVID-19,
then such stores won't attract him. Big stores with more products may make the buyers to buy
unintentionally so the sense of proper availability will be demolished here. It can be concluded
that if the customer in not used to this model then it may cause him ample amount of sacrifices.
BUSINESS ETHICS-
INTRODUCTION OF NEW ETHICAL PRACTICE-
In modern business this is unanimously accepted that the organisations are working in the
society using the social resources, so they are morally responsible toward society. That's why
over the years business ethics became a burning issue. In the personal study and research which
was carried out on TESCO Ltd of UK. The findings are as follows-

The company has timely revived its ethical policy and on regular interval it is reshuffling,
improving, altering. While drafting such policies the management has basically considered all
the key stakeholders including customers and employees.
TESCO Ltd has introduced 'Protector Line” which enables the colleagues and suppliers
to raise their concerns regarding misconduct at work. If the employees are having problem on
work place, and they are not able to speak to the just above manager then they can directly call
Protector Line. Where they can report their concern, such information would be kept
confidential, so they can't be threatened. Even TESCO has outsourced this act to other
independent company to run this practice so can eliminate all possibilities of misconduct
(Shanks, 2020.)
For customers TESCO has also introduced 'Grocery Code' where it secures the rights of
the customers like- clear prices and marketing, food and product standard, protecting data of
customers, health and safety concerns, human rights, equal opportunity, behaviour of salesman
etc. these all things are kept in focus for better ethical practices. It is practising the all above
mentioned notions in attempt to provide better ethical services. The data of customers is the most
vulnerable element and rapidly being misused by various organisation so for betterment the
company started to keep it confidential along with the data of colleagues. This initiative of
management has shown their intention of being ethical institution.
Moreover, the entity is also working on other dimensions which won't impact the
customers directly but besides it, such elements can spoil the image and operational efficiency of
the business. With this regard the management had adopted full proof policy for restricting fraud,
bribery, conflict, insider dealing, abuses etc. to make the ethical position stronger.
INDIVIDUAL REFLECTIONS ON THE CLASS DISCUSSION-
The presentation was made on the area 'Supply Chain Management'. It's been a mind
storming topic since a wide range of sub-issues were discussed. In any business the SCM plays a
vital role. The all other operations of the business are hugely dependent on it. If SCM is not

efficient then all other operations will be mismanaged. The operational efficiency depends on the
business operations and without SCM the operations itself will be malice (Nawi, 2018.) The
presentation broadly discussed these all. After pandemic the supply chain is facing so many
challenges like improper supply of material, labour issues, higher cost, low mobility etc.
Running business without proper SCM can't be imagined. It is the backbone which insure the
efficiency of all other operations of the business be it finance, cost, production, selling, storing,
pricing, promotion etc. all activities are depended on it.
Some positive aspect of the presentation are the exploration of the prominence of SCM in
overall operations of the business and how it can impact the business management as a whole.
What are the significant concern pertain to it and how the challenges can be confronted. The
discussion broadly illustrated the characteristics of the conviction. A few considerable areas of
the topic consists the future of SC, global SCM, changing behaviour of the model etc. which
could have been considered.
COLLATION OF THE PORTFOLIO-
The all activities which are performed above are collated here for the purpose of making
the tasks more receptive in limited time. In the assignment the four tasks were given which all
have been performed above.
In the first task the contemporary issues and their implications on operational
management was discussed. In the research two cases were taken- Supply chain management and
Data Security Issues. The research deeply analysed it and presented the outcomes. The perils
caused by these issues and how it can be resolved on it the contemplation had been.
In the second task where the case study on the ALDI Ltd was given and the questions
were asked about (Rahman, 2021.) In this phase of assignment the case was meticulously studied
and the questions have been dealt. It offered scope of presenting the thoughts on the issue like-
would that given model will be working for the other industries or not. Where with deep analysis
the ideas was shared and also substantiated with illustrations. The idea of coming up with the

new model of super market has worked for the cited entity. Considering this case the evaluation
had to be carried out for other industry.
Then the code of conducts of business ethics has been discussed where personal
experiences were supposed to be notified. How in the chosen entity the code of ethics is
inculcated and how it is improving the situation of customers and employees. The role of ethics
in context of TESCO Ltd was described to the full length (Shafiq, Ahmed and Mahmoodi, 2020.)
The dimensions it added in last couple of years in order to make the entity prone to ethics has
been examined. Various methods, techniques, initiatives taken by the company are disclosed
with proper illustrations.
In the fourth task where firstly a class discussion was held and on the discussion a brief
report was expected to be framed. In the report the dimensions like the impact of the taken
business area, contribution to the overall business management, challenges were articulated.
Along the side, summery of the presentation was made considering all key areas. At the end of it
the possible points of consideration were also incorporated.
CONCLUSION
In the report it can be concluded, business and management plays vital role in the growth
of a business. The report had carried out the all given tasks. In which the current time issues of
the business and their impacts were discussed. Then the new model of ALDI has been evaluated.
The report further discussed the key highlights of the class presentation and in the last task the all
the above tasks have been summarized.

REFERENCES
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business processes: implications for corporate real estate. Business Process
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Boyer, S., 2018. Could Aldi Succeed in Canada?.
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construction supply chain management (SCM). Asian Journal of Civil Engineering.
21(2). pp.229-241.
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Audit Practices. 20(4).
Nawi, M., 2018. Supply chain management (SCM): disintegration team factors in Malaysian
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Supply Chain Management. 7(1). pp.140-143.
Park, S. E., 2019. Technological convergence: Regulatory, digital privacy, and data security
issues. Congressional Research Service, Tech. Rep.
Rahman, Y., 2021. Job Discipline, Competency, Environmental Instability, and Work
Effectiveness in Gorontalo Province on Employee Quality in Tourism Industry. Journal
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Shafiq, A., Ahmed, M. U. and Mahmoodi, F., 2020. Impact of supply chain analytics and
customer pressure for ethical conduct on socially responsible practices and
performance: An exploratory study. International Journal of Production Economics.
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Shanks, R., 2020. Is the IESBA Code of Ethics sufficient to help solve ethical dilemmas facing
the accounting profession?. London: Institute of Business Ethics.
Sodhi, M. S. and Tang, C. S., 2021. Supply chain management for extreme conditions: research
opportunities. Journal of Supply Chain Management. 57(1). pp.7-16.