Contemporary Management Issues: Forces, Response, and Strategic Decision Making

This document discusses contemporary management issues, focusing on the forces driving changes in organizations, their impact on strategic decision making, and the response of organizations to key dynamic forces in the contemporary business world. It examines the case of Mother Care, a British retailer, and analyzes the social, technological, and political forces that led to its downfall. The document also explores the relation of these changes with strategic decision making and discusses the organization's response to these forces.

CONTEMPORARY
MANAGEMENT ISSUES

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................................3
Forces which has driven two type of the changes in the organization......................................................3
Relation of different changes with the strategic decision making............................................................5
Organization’s response to key dynamic forces in the contemporary business world..............................7
Decision making tools for addressing contemporary drivers for change.................................................9
Theoretical foundations for supporting effect of contemporary management issues.............................11
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Contemporary management issues generally examines the strategies that the business
would have adopted in order to address the respective issues and these issues generally arise due
to some of the past, current, thinking and different business practices (Nacion, Park and Kim,
2018). There are many issues that arise for future due to some of the present business activities.
It is therefore very important for the businesses to work on its different organisational activities
in order to improve their different business practices. The basis reason for these issues are the
constant changes that business is facing and with poor strategic management.
Present study is based on the company Mother Care that is a British retailer having its
specialization in products for expectant mothers and children up to the age of eight years. The
company was founded in the year 1961 by Selim Zilkha and is having its head quarter at
Watford. After 59 years of its contribution towards the people, the company closed its remaining
79 stores in UK. The company got collapsed and the reason was the years of under-investment in
the online business. The down fall resulted in poor condition of its business and also affected the
reputation of its business in market. Report will include key dynamic forces that are impacting
the business and society in different ways. Report will also include the relationship between
these forces for an effective strategic decision making. Further report will evaluate the
organisational response for the key dynamic forces with respect to the contemporary business.
There are different decision making tools that contemporary drivers for change needs to address
and the report will analyze the same. Finally, report will analyze the theoretical foundations with
respect to the corporate response to contemporary management issues.
MAIN BODY
Forces which has driven two type of the changes in the organization
There are two biggest driver which has brought that sort of the change in the fortune of
Mother care store that they are on the eve of shut down of 79 store all across the UK. Two driver
of change are Non adoption of new market trend which has eventually given opportunity for the
different competitor to rule the market in a go and another one is lack of investment when
decided to expand their business over internet or can be said when decided to go online (Abdalla

and Wolff, 2019). There were many forces who has give rise to these sort of changes in the
organization
Social factor force: It is the biggest force which has given rise to the change of Non
adoption of new market trend in the market, as it has been find out that need and preference of
the different consumer were changing in the organization on continues basis, as it has been
identified that consumer were more toward supermarket and online shopping but Mother care
has not realized the same and were stick to old way of doing the business these has brought the
variety of the impact in relation to the competition, as supermarket were used to buy the product
they used to get good sort of the discount on price. Also, supermarket were finding it easy to
attract the customer as well in the market this has created the variety of the issue related to
competition, this is the biggest reason behind Chief executive of the retail economics has
highlighted that mother care in the industry has seen the down fall due to on price, convince and
overall customer satisfaction in the organization. One of the competitor in the market has
Gordons has supported the above evidence of these force by highlighting that price driven
consumer in the market used to compare the price of the big ticket item online and buys the
smaller item from different supermarket, this force has eventually affected the business in a
negative way(Andrew, 2017).
Technology factor force: This is another force which has driven this sort of the changes in
the market, as it has been identified that all the organization were using different technology in
the organization to take the business to online for the purpose of increasing the market base of
the company in the market but this force was understand by the company very late in the market
and also company has not invested that sort of the resources toward adopting the new technology
to go online, the online experience which was given by the company was not that satisfactory in
the organization that they are able to attract that large number of customer toward the same. The
biggest reason which was found behind the same was that there was lack of the investment
toward the delivery section of online delivery; this has drive variety of the changes in the
organization in the long run. Some of the specialist has also highlighted that another reason why
this force has impacted the company that badly is that the product which are generally offered by
the company is childcare product and it is not that easy for the mother to go into the market and
make different purchasing decision, as a result they generally used to take the help of the online

platform to purchase the different product of the company with the help of the online source and
this is the reason this has resulted in down fall of variety of the demand of Mother care product
in the market (Livsey and et.al., 2017).
Political Force factor: This is another biggest force which has also drove these sort of
the changes in the organization, as it has been find out that decision like Brexit has impacted the
business very adversely as it has created good sort of the uncertainty among the business in
regards of carrying out different activity of the business that easily in the market. This has
created the variety of the issue to be overcome by the business, this has also drive the variety of
the changes in the organization as it has been identified that company are more focused on
overcoming the same as compare to the current uncertain situation which are prevailing this has
created the variety of the issue to be overcome by the company in the long run. (Craven and
et.al., 2017).
Relation of different changes with the strategic decision making
These forces which has drive these sort of the changes in the organization has also
brought the variety of the impact on strategic decision making of the company, as it has been
identified that this sort of the forces in the organization has give rise to variety of the question in
front of the organization and this has impacted the decision making (Erdozain and et.al., 2019).
Looking at the social force the biggest question which was in front of the company was that what
are the different thing which are desire by different consumer in the market and what are the
different way through which organization can satisfy the same in the market, organization has
decided to overlook this question as organization was having the good option to expand there
business in the supermarket form also as there was a good demand on the same in the market but
the organization decided to go with the traditional way of operating the business only this has
eventually impacted the strategic decision making in the organization as organization was not
ready with the different strategy in the market to overcome the variety of the issue which will be
faced by them in the future, these has eventually created the variety of the issue for the business.
As a result in the future organization has to face the good amount of the competition and with no
proper strategy they are not able to survive against the same.

Another factor that is related to strategic decision making of the business for different
technological factors. With the changing technological environment, business was affected badly
as it resulted in different threats for the business. Company didn’t invest for different delivery
section of online delivery because of which different customers were dissatisfied. The tactics
used by the business without to the use of technology were very poor and it was not making the
respected customers satisfied. The strategic technology plan that the company was using didn’t
worked effectively and resulted in poor performance of the business in market. The mother care
products that the company was providing were not able to delivered to home and as a result most
of the customers switched the brand. There was a great depend of mother care products in market
and company was having sufficient fund to invest for new technology, but the company didn’t
worked on strategic technology and that resulted in poor delivery channels of the business. It is
quite difficult for the new mothers to come and select the offerings as their demand is to choose
the products online so that the delivery can be at the home, but the company didn’t understood
the actual demand of its customers and that resulted in poor performance of its business in
market(Ricaurte and et.al., 2017).
Business was required to work on its technology strategic plan and the lack of effective
decision making with respect to technology enhancement resulted in poor performance of the
business. Lack on investment in going online was the serious mistake that organisation have
done and that have resulted in poor strategic decision of the business. Business would have
recovered all that was lost, if they had worked on the technological changes and initiated online
mediums for their business. Another thing that didn’t worked was the non-adoption of new
market trends. With the tough competition in market, the business was not able to match with its
other competitors as it was not using the latest trends in market and was using its old operational
activities. As a result the young people switched their brand and it became a major loss for the
business that they realized later.
The political factors also affected the strategic decision making of the business as the
Brexit was having its direct impact on the investment of the organisation. It affected the
economic relationship of the business with other countries and it became difficult for their
business to trade outside. This factor directly affected the business strategy and its operations.
The business didn’t worked on strategic decisions for the business because of which it resulted in

poor performance of the business in market. It was the crucial time for the business to take
effective decisions with respect the strategies that they were using. The changes in all these
factors that were technology, political and social factors affected the strategic decision making of
the organisation. The young families and expectant parents were the main cause of this downfall
as the business was not able to make the respective changes in its strategy that these customers
were expecting from them. It was all resulting in poor customer experience and the company was
not able to compete other businesses(Huff and et.al., 2016).
Organization’s response to key dynamic forces in the contemporary business world
Mother care response to the key dynamic forces was not up to the mark as the company
was not serious with its investments and adoption of new trends that were seen in the market.
Though the competitors were bringing a digital revolutions in their businesses, Mother dairy was
using its cheapest ways to conduct the business operations. They were in need to improve their
business model so that they can create better products and services for their potential customers
at a reasonable price. As the company saw that there is a need of investment for going online,
they ignored that facts and used their poor and old methods of delivering the goods and services.
On the other hand the demand of the customers was changing on regular bases as they were
having different options in hand that were more advanced and affordable to them. As a result
many of the young people switched their offerings and the Mother care was not able to stop their
potential customers. The digitalization generally leads to new market trend and it is the
responsibility of the business to work effectively for accepting new technologies in their firm.
But the response of Mother Care was inappropriate and they were not able to manage their
manufacturing and distribution channels(Pollanen and et.al., 2017).
Investment generally leads to improvement in productivity and helps the
organisation to bring competitiveness. With the help of new equipments and technologies, the
business is able to produce its products at a faster rate and directly leads to more production of
the business. It was important for the Mother care to adapt the online business medium and
invest for the same. But the business here showed the carelessness and that resulted in poor
performance of the business in market. Mother care lacked in adoption of the modern trends that
were there in the market and used their old methods to do their business. This resulted in
customer dissatisfaction and the market conditions went unwell for the business. The health,

beauty and baby product chain of the business went closed due to poor response of the business
with respect to the trends in market. With the depressed consumer demand, the businesses started
facing struggle to continue its business in market. It is quite important for the business to have an
effective communication with the customers and that is all possible with the use to an effective
technology. With the raising social media platforms for the business, Mother care was not
working effectively and that resulted in poor public image of the business in market. Most the
customers left out as their loyalty towards the offerings went away and they switched to other
products and services in marketing that were providing them good services with the use
digitalization(Pollanen and et.al., 2017).
Response of the organization in the cotemporary business world was quite unacceptable
as it was a leading brand and due to its poor business strategies it has resulted in closer of their
shops and business. Business did not responded for adopting the new trends of market and it was
necessary for the business to take action against it with the use of new technology and adopting
artificial intelligence in their business practices. This would have given new opportunity for the
business and it would have not become that much tough for the business to handle these tough
situations. The Mother care was having its focus only on young customers and expectant parents,
as there was a great demand for the business to shift their preferences to all types of the
customers(Pollanen and et.al., 2017). The poor response of the business resulted in closer of its
70 more shops and the business performance went down. It was quite important for the business
to understand these trends rather than to be against them as identifying the new trends in market
and applying them in the day to business practices is very beneficial for the organisational
growth. Mother care was required to know about these trends and work for the improvement of
different strategic management of the business in order to balance their business. The latest
trends that baby care and mother care are coming with are the use of organic and natural raw
materials so that they do not harm the customers. But the response of Mother Care Company was
not appropriate as they were not working that much effectively as other organizations were
working. It was a great requirement to work on the latest trends that were going in the market
and accordingly designing the offerings. But the company was not able to deal with that and this
resulted in poor performance of the business in market which resulted in failure of their business
and its management(Susu and Birsan, 2019).

Decision making tools for addressing contemporary drivers for change
Decision making tools helps the business to identify its strength and weaknesses so that
they can enhance their strengths and overcome their weaknesses. The different decision making
tools that Mother Care would have used in order to address their contemporary drivers for
change are as following:-
Marginal Analysis:-
Business was required to adopt the marginal analysis tool in order to weigh the benefits
of different activities that they are using. This tool would have helped Mother care to analyze
where the tools and techniques that they are using at present are benefitting their business or not.
This tool helps the business to have an effective decision making with respect to the investments
that they are making for adoption of new technology or new market trends in the business. The
managers at Mother Care were required to use this tool as it leads to more optimal decision
makings by collecting the important information and using it for organisational
benefits(Allanson, P., 2019).
SWOT Analysis:-
The most important tool that helps the business to examine its strengths and weaknesses
is the SWOT analysis. Mother Care was required to adopt this strategic management tool in
order to identify its strengths that can be enhanced and also different weaknesses that needs to be
improved for having an effective business practices in hand.
Strength:-
 Company was having huge fund that they could have invested for adoption of new
technologies.
 It was having an effective image in eyes of the customers due to its reputation in market
and having huge numbers of customers base
Weaknesses:-
 Company was showing lack of investment for going online and that resulted in
unsatisfied customers.

 Non-adoption of new trends in market was also its weaknesses as the company was
losing potential customers as it was not able to compete in market(Gürel and Tat, 2017).
Opportunity:-
 Company was having opportunity to invest in new technology and go online. But they
did not showed their strategic decisions on right time and that resulted in poor reputation
of business in market
 Another opportunity was to accept the latest market trends and attract the potential
customers. But the business didn’t grabbed the new opportunities that were towards them
and that resulted in unacceptable changes in its business productivity.
Threats:-
 The biggest threats were the changing market conditions and expectation of the
customers from the organisation. The competitors were giving tough competition and
business was not able to build an effective strategic plan to compete them.
 Another threat was the political factors like Brexit that were affecting the growth of the
business and leading to some of the unacceptable changes(Phadermrod, Crowder and
Wills, 2019).
Decision Matrix:-
Business was required to adopt decision matrix as it lists the pros and cons that the
business is having. It is used by the businesses to evaluate the capabilities, reputation that it is
having in market, its reliability and also the price strategy. If the Mother care would have used
this strategy, it would have helped the firm to identify its capabilities and making changes
accordingly.
Reviewing the decision and making adjustments:-
The most important part to address the contemporary drivers of change with the use of
different decision making tools is to review the decisions and make the respective adjustments
that business is actually in demand of. Business was required to determine the respective
strategies and the best aid that they have to use in order to make effective decision for the

organizational benefits. This would have helped the business to increase its efficiency and have
an effective financial performance. Another important part is to keep tracking the decision in
order to check whether they have worked accordingly or not. If the decision did not went well, it
is the responsibility of the business make the respective changes so that the business is on the
right track. Mother Care was required to enhance its strength by making an effective investment
plan to adopt new technologies and go with the present market trends. This would have helped
them to overcome their weaknesses and to grab new opportunities for having an effective
positioning in market(Gul and Guneri, 2016).
Theoretical foundations for supporting effect of contemporary management issues.
It is important for the business to support an effective contemporary management issues.
These issues are generally arising in the firm due to past and current practices that business is
using. Mother Care lost its business due to their thinking and different practices that they were
using. The contemporary management issues generally leads to re-evaluation of traditional
management practices and there was a huge demand that the Mother Care have to develop
thinking tools and practices in order to overcome the issues that have arisen in their business
practices.
There are different theories that business could have adopted in order to manage different
contemporary issues and these theories are as following:-
 Contingency theory:- With the use of contingency theory, Business is able to organize
its corporation more effectively with an effective decision making. The different
contingency on which business is required to have its focus is the technology that they
are using. With the changing market trends the business is required to adopt digital
platforms for the business. If Mother daily would have adopted new advance technology,
then the business would not have shown such a down fall in market. Not only this, the
business is also required to give importance to its customers interest and with the
changing marketing trends their taste is also changing. Business is required to compete
with its rivalries by understanding the actual needs and wants of its potential customers.
Mother Care would have managed the business carefully by satisfying the needs of the
customers and also adapting the required environmental circumstances by working to
solve different business issues(Seijo, Villanueva-Poot and Charles, 2016).

 The Decision theory Approach:- This approach is beneficial for the businesses to have
an effective decision making functions within the organisation. This helps the business to
have their central focus management on the decision of the business. With the help of
this approach, The Mother Care would have come up with an effective decisions to
invest for going online and using advanced technology for the business. It would also
helped the business to make effective decision with respect to the adoption of recent
market trends that are there in the market. This would have helped the business to take
the essential decisions so that their business would not have collapsed.
 The Operational approach:- Another approach that the business could have adopted is
the operational approach with the help of which the business is able to plan, organize and
have control on different business practices. The business operations at Mother Care
would have become more effective if the organisation have invested for going online and
using digital technology for their different business operations. It was also important for
the business to work on bases of the current trends in order to provide effective services
to the customers.
 Systems approach to management:- Another approach that business would have
adopted is the systems approach that would have helped the business to become more
effective. The different department of the Mother care were needed to be independent so
that they can adopt their different strategies for making the business efficient. For the
same, business is also required to predetermine its business goals and have to work with
its top management so that they coordinate with them for achieving these goals. If
Mother care would have adopted the respective management approach at right time, such
critical condition would have not been resulted in these crisis(Kerzner, 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above study it is been concluded that the Mother Care showed their carelessness
with respect to the strategic management decisions. Business was lacking to invest for going
online and was not adopting the new trends in its business. As a result the company got collapsed
in market and its reputation also got affected. Further report have concluded that the different
dynamic forces have impacted the business of Mother Care and there is an important relationship
between the different strategic decision making of the business with these dynamic forces.

Report also concluded that business is required to adopt different decision making tools in order
to address the different driver of change in the business environment. Finally report concluded
that business was required to adopt different theoretical foundations so that they were able to
manage different contemporary issues.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Erdozain, M and et.al., 2019. Demand for provisioning ecosystem services as a driver of change
in the Canadian boreal zone1. Environmental Reviews. 27(2). pp.166-184.
Abdalla, N. and Wolff, J., 2019. From driver of change to marginalised actor: organised labour
in post-revolutionary Egypt from a comparative perspective. The Journal of North
African Studies, pp.1-21.
Nacion, A.J.D., Park, Y.Y. and Kim, N.K., 2018. Contemporary management of locally
advanced rectal cancer: Resolving issues, controversies and shifting paradigms. Chinese
Journal of Cancer Research. 30(1). p.131.
Andrew, R., 2017. Socio-economic drivers of change in the Arctic. Arctic Monitoring and
Assessment Programme (AMAP).
Craven, D. and et.al., 2017. The unseen invaders: introduced earthworms as drivers of change in
plant communities in North American forests (a meta‐analysis). Global change
biology. 23(3). pp.1065-1074.
Ricaurte, L.F. and et.al., 2017. Future impacts of drivers of change on wetland ecosystem
services in Colombia. Global Environmental Change. 44. pp.158-169.
Huff, A.S. and et.al., 2016. A Conversation on Uncertainty in Managerial and Organizational
Cognition', Uncertainty and Strategic Decision Making (pp. 1-31). Emerald Group
Publishing Limited.
Pollanen, R. and et.al., 2017. Relationships between strategic performance measures, strategic
decision-making, and organizational performance: empirical evidence from Canadian
public organizations. Public Management Review. 19(5). pp.725-746.
Susu, S. and Birsan, M., 2019. Dynamics Of Profitability In Romanian Pharmaceutical
Companies Under The Impact Of Changes In The Contemporary Business
Environment. The USV Annals of Economics and Public Administration. 19(1 (29)).
pp.122-134.
Allanson, P., 2019. Marginal analysis of income mobility effects by income source with an
application to the agricultural policy mix. Journal of agricultural economics. 70(1).
pp.259-266.
Gürel, E. and Tat, M., 2017. SWOT analysis: a theoretical review. Journal of International
Social Research. 10(51).
Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R.M. and Wills, G.B., 2019. Importance-performance analysis based
SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management. 44. pp.194-203.

Gul, M. and Guneri, A.F., 2016. A fuzzy multi criteria risk assessment based on decision matrix
technique: a case study for aluminum industry. Journal of Loss Prevention in the
Process Industries. 40. pp.89-100.
Seijo, J.C., Villanueva-Poot, R. and Charles, A., 2016. Bioeconomics of ocean acidification
effects on fisheries targeting calcifier species: a decision theory approach. Fisheries
Research. 176. pp.1-14.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Livsey, J and et.al., 2017, April. Detecting the effects of deforestation as a driver of change to
terrestrial water partitioning. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts (Vol. 19,
p. 19365).