Operational Management and Cadbury's Success Factors

The report explores the role of operational management in Cadbury's success, highlighting the significance of ethics, sustainability, culture, values, and social responsibility. It also performs a PEST analysis to identify external factors affecting the confectionery industry, including political, economic, social, and technological factors.

Management and
Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
A Roles and characteristics of managers and leaders...........................................................1
B Different situations which can affect performance of a leader and a manger....................3
C Application of different theories and concepts of leadership to explain how leaders and
manager deals with the raised situations................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
A Role of operations Managers with regard in improving efficiency and decision they make..6
B Key elements and approaches of different operations management system......................7
C Factors that affect business operations...............................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Management and operations plays a crucial part in development of an organisation. This
study will cover a part of management and operation. Management refers to the art of getting
work done through others. It can be defined as the process of administering and controlling the
activities of business. Operation management refers to an activity of managing and controlling
the resources within the organisation. All organisation be it political, business, social or cultural
are involved in management, as it helps in directing efforts of individuals towards a definite
purpose. Managers and leaders play a important role in functioning of an organisation.
Cadbury, a multinational confectionery company has been taken. It stands at second
position in the confectionery brand which was founded by John Cadbury in 1824.
This study has been conducted in order to have a detailed study of management and
operation and will help in analysing various roles and functions performed by a manager and
leader. The main objective behind the conduct of this study is to research, plan and create all
aspects of managing operations in an organization (Ansoff and et.al, 2018). By understanding the
role and responsibilities of leader various theories and approaches are formed in an organisation
which will help in improving the overall efficiency.
TASK 1
A Roles and characteristics of managers and leaders.
Every organisation have managers and leaders who are responsible for the overall
functioning of an organisation and to establish a good position in the market and strong
relationships with employees. In success of on organisation both leadership and management
plays a crucial role. In the modern world, to conduct business is not an easy task in any field.
Cadbury is a multinational confectionery company which was founded by John Cadbuery in
1824. Its headquarter is in Uxbridge, London and is present in more than 50 countries
worldwide. The company is majorly known for Dairy milk chocolate, Creme eggs and many
other products. It includes company includes various roles and responsibilities of leaders and
managers.
Management is the total of all the functions performed in an organisation i.e., planning,
staffing, organising, directing an controlling. It refers to managing all the activities of the
organisation that enhance the strategy by impressive coordination for achieving the objective
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through the resources available. A manager is an individual who is made by the virtue of his
position and do things right, as got formal rights in an organisation because of the status. They
are the previous high performer employees who are responsible to ensure work gets done on
time (Bendoly, van Wezel and Bachrach, 2015).
Leadership refers as the potential to influence and motivate the individuals and drive the
group efforts towards achievement of goals so as to attain smooth success of business. It is a
practical approach for encompassing the organisation, for the ability of the entire business
organisation. A leader is an individual who is made by an individuals personal qualities and do
right things, as no rights are available to him.
There are four functions of management which are performed by both leaders and managers in
Cadbury. They are : Planning: It refers to the process of thinking in advance what is to be done, how it is to
be done,m and who will do it. This function in the organisation is responsible for
predicting future regarding mission and what all resources can be used. Cadbury is
planning to maximize its sales by attracting wide number of customers. The major
responsibility here is to make effective decisions for the sake of organisation. Organizing: It refers to develop and maintain relationship with people, work and
resources in order to achieve common goals. This function allows synchronisation of
human activities in organisation processes. There is effective coordination between
authority and responsibility. Cadbury is offering products to varied number of customers
and is trying to maintain coordination among customers and products. Leading: It refers to the process of influencing, motivating and encouraging employees
to perform best of their capability which will help in achieving organisational goals.
Cadbury is leading its employees by superiors spending time with subordinates by giving
them proper motivation and guidance, will help in improving the productivity of
organisation.
 Controlling: It refers to the make comparison between actual performance and planned
performance of employees. This function focuses on reviewing and monitoring the
performance of employees and accordingly actions are taken in order to improve
performance of an organisation. In Cadbury, performance is the foremost mechanism for
controlling the operations of business.
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B Different situations which can affect performance of a leader and a manger.
A leader is a person who is responsible for influencing and motivating employees whereas a
manager is an individual who manages all the activities of the decision making in an
organisation. Both are very important for better functioning of any organisation. Both leaders
and managers constitutes an important part for the betterment and changes in the operations of
Cadbury for varied traits and characteristics of leadership.
Various situations which focuses on the effectiveness of organisation are mentioned below: Stable Situation: It refers to those situations refers which are not prone to any further
changes in an organisation and to maintain stability of the results. For example: If there is
not much demand of Cadbury products in the market, then the price will remain stable. In
a stable situation, as cadbury is not in a stable situation the manger over there gets
affected as there is no happening in the market scenario (Choi, Cheng and Zhao, 2016) .
In stable situation, it will affect leader as the leaders will not have opportunity to motivate
his employees in this case. Slow to moderate situation: It refers to those situations which are prone to the changes of
the market demand. In these situations, changes takes place according to the changes
taking place in the needs and taste preferences of customers. For example: If in the
market the rate of inflation increases, then the changing situation will be moderate which
will emphasise on results. In a slow to moderate situation, a manager will be affected as
they are not able to analyse the needs of the market and the leaders are affected as they
don't know what they should lead the employees.
 Fast Dynamic situation: It refers to those situation which rapidly changes according to
the market environment. It is currently the most rapid situation prevailing in the
organisation purpose. Such situation occurs when the external environment changes
because of different competitors present in the market. For example: If customers in the
market have huge demand of Cadbury products, as the brand is producing products by
giving preference to customers needs, then the brand can set high prices of its products.
Due to the Fast dynamic environment it becomes difficult for a manager to work
according to the changing environment and for a leader it becomes difficult to satisfy the
demands of employees. a manager of Cadbury will be responsible to perform all the task
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of management in the organisation i.e., planning, directing, controlling all will be done by
the manager.
Cadbury adopts the slow to moderate situation for the organisational context. Because by
adoption of such situation it will help the organisation to analyse the need of the market and the
company can focus on analysing improvements (Grant, Trautrims and Wong, 2017). Slow to
moderate situation involves various changes according to the changes in need and demands of
customers and provides various situation handling methods and precautions to safe guard the
purpose of organisation benefits. As Cadbury is a popular organisation of UK, so these strategies
will allow some functions for organisational benefit. It involves various changes
C Application of different theories and concepts of leadership to explain how leaders and
manager deals with the raised situations.
Leadership is the process of influencing and motivating the behaviour of employees to perform
better. In business it is the capacity of an organisation to set and achieve challenging goals, Take
fast and decisive actions when needed and inspire the employees to perform at the highest level
they can. Basically it provides direction for a company and its workers by showing them how to
effectively perform their responsibilities and regularly supervising completion of their task.
Effective leadership includes exhibiting a strong character. A leader is a person who is
responsible for shaping an organisation as they help in making essential and large scale
decisions. To become a leader an individual must have a desire and willpower which are
developed by a never ending process of education, training, self-study and experience. Various
theories were developed in order to know who exactly leaders and managers are: Situational leadership : This theory is based on a current situation prevailing in an
organisation and it says that no leadership style is best suited. Everything depends on the
situation and which type of leadership and strategies are best for the conduct of any task.
This theory was given be Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard to initiate the organisational
behaviour and working of employees . According to this theory most effective leaders are
the ones who are able to adapt their leadership style according to the situation prevailing
in the present time (Yabuki, Corp, 2014). Cadbury was enabe to adapt this theory, as the
leaders over there are not resistant to the environment,
 Contingency Theory: This theory states that leaders effectiveness is contingent upon
with matching the leadership style with situation. The theory was developed by Fred
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Fielder in 1958, as fielder believed that effectiveness of an individual depends on the
situation and environment environment around them (Heizer, 2016). In order to work
effectively, it is important for the leaders to analyse the situation so that they could work
upon accordingly and get favourable results. It also helps in increasing the morale of
employees as the application of this theory will help employees in coming across
different experiences which will increase their skills and efficiency.
 System theory : This theory refers to the phenomenon in the organisation that prevails
various actions to be followed. The emphasis of this theory is on the concepts and
conventions and includes active and passive system. In cadbury, group of employees
were motivated according to the growth of the success rate of the organisation.
Role of a leader and manager in dealing with different situation. Stable Situation: a manager can deal with this type of situation by effectively by
generating proper record of dealings occurred. Record keeping will help in taking after
actions. A leader can overcome from this problem by analysing the performance of
employees and by providing them knowledge regarding how to perform when the
situation occurs in future. Slow to moderate : This situation can be overcome by a manager by effectively utilising
resources so that productivity of employees could be improved. A leader can overcome
by this problem by motivating employees regarding how to perform when such situations
occurs so that efficiency of employees could be measured.
 Fast growing: A manager can overcome this situation by doing a detailed study of the
competitive environment through which he can know what all tasks are required to be
managed and a leader can deal with this problem by motivating, inspiring and
influencing employees because in these situations an organisation can earn maximum
which will help in reflecting the overall performance of an organisation.
TASK 2
A Role of operations Managers with regard in improving efficiency and decision they make
Operation management refers to the area which is concerned with designing and
controlling the process of production and redesigning business operations in production of goods
and services. It is concerned with managing of entire production system in which the input is
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converted into output (Swink and et. al., 2017). It basically covers the sectors like hospitals,
banking and companies. Operation manager helps the company to perform best at its potential
level. They manage other leaders and department to complete task so that company's goal can be
achieved. Operational manager by having good listening, motivation and communication skills
helps the business organisation by making proper decision (Karlsson, 2016). Operation manager
has to know about certain policies, material planning, manufacturing and production system and
their analysis. There are certain roles which manager plays in improving efficiency :
 Inventory control: It is one of the most difficult task in any business. Operation manager
sees through the inventory system and also look after how the inventory is managed. By
looking at the inventory of Cadbury, manager got to know how whether the product
should be produced or one should wait for the next order. By controlling the inventory
company is able to lower down the flow of inventory which in turn will improve the
efficiency of decision making.
 Workflow and Staffing : Operation manager is responsible to handle the staff
requirement of an organisation. They work directly with human resource department and
decide how many employees need to be hire and also focus on training the employees
properly on a regular basis. By knowing the need of each department, manager of
Cadbury know where they can adjust the workforce and where they can assign the task
by this they improve the efficiency in the organisation.
 Managing the financial budget: Operational manager seek through the budget of an
organisation. To monitor the expenses of a department it is very necessary to make
budget. This will help the manager of Cadbury to obtain the best price of the material and
also undergone to the production method used so that efficiency level can be achieved
and proper decision regarding the same can be taken.
 Quality control: Here the operational manager will look after whether the brand meets
the expectations of people or not. Quality can change the overall policies of the company.
As in today's scenario people run after the quality and can pay the valuable amount for
the same. Manager by looking into the quality of Cadbury will help company to satisfy
the needs of their customers (Slack and Brandon-Jones, 2018). If manager found that
there is some issue in machinery which led to poor quality he can take decision regarding
the same and can change the type of machine used. If manager found that the supplier of
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raw material is not providing the goods of desired quality, he has a power to change
supplier for the same. This factors will enables the smooth work flow within an
organisation.
 A big picture perspective: As manager is responsible for each and every company's
operation it means that they have a big picture perspective. They determine the need
within the company and helps to connect group among each other so that problem can be
solved (Kato and et.al, 2015). They always make the decision which is in the best interest
for the company. Manager itself is responsible for solving the conflict that arise between
the employees. They set guidelines and policies so that the task can be completed on
time. Manager is responsible to purchase software and other tools that can improve the
efficiency of a department.
B Key elements and approaches of different operations management system
Operations management is an important area in managing a firm. For smooth functioning
of an organisation operation management system uses following approach. This are discussed
below:
 Total Quality Management(TQM) : It refers to a approach that desire to improve and
performance in order to meet the customer expectations. Here in this all the members
participate in order to improve the process, services and culture in which they are
working. The manager of Cadbury should also use the approach of TQM in order to
improve the efficiency. By taking the help of stakeholders and customers, company can
easily know whether company need any improvement in the quality. The technique of
TQM can be applied to every department within an organisation. As this ensures that
employees are working toward the goal which are set for the company which help in
improving efficiency in each area.
 Six Sigma : It is a method which help in improving the overall quality by eliminating
errors and defect,reducing the cost and saving time. It is mostly adopted by
manufacturing company though it can also be adopted by other products and service
industry. Six sigma will only work properly when quality engineers and other managers
are supported by senior executives. For its effective working a training is very essential.
Managers of Cadbury can use Six Sigma and can approach customers by the means of
surveys so that company got to know about the quality of products. The whole
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organisation must also communicate about errors and defect and also find the ways to
eliminate them. Manager should also have a focus on people by providing them training
on regular basis and motivating other team members so to produce high quality products
and profits.
 Lean Production: It is an approach of management that focus on minimizing the waste
and maximising the profit. The benefit of using this approach is that it reduces the
operating cost and also focus on improving the quality. The managers of Cadbury can use
Lean production to identify the value of customers position. By this the company will got
to know how much a customer can pay for the product (Langabeer and Helton, 2015).
This method uses a pull system which means everything is made according to the
demand. This will help the company to pursue the perfection by knowing the cause of
quality issues. It will also help in cutting out the waste by making business more efficient
and responsive to the needs of the market.
 Just in time: It is a system in operation management under which product is product is
developed as per the demand at a particular time. Cadbury must also use the approach of
Just in Time as it is the most flexible approach and also eliminate the cost of carrying and
maintaining the inventory. The benefit of this approach is that it save the cost of
warehouse which means minimum storage space is only needed. It also minimise the
expiry of inventory as products are developed according to the needs of customers. If
product are developed in advanced there is a chance of wastage but if at the last time the
product is manufactured it minimise such cost.
From the above approaches discussed, the best suit for Cadbury is Total quality
management(TQM) as it is very simple process to follow and aims in maintaining the existing
quality standards. Cadbury for maintaining the productivity and ensuring stability in organisation
structure uses TQM. Here the function of leader is to focus on the the quality of products and is
also responsible for supply chain and other transactions in Cadbury. Some of the responsibilities
of manager also includes allotment of resources, goals setting and effective communication.
C Factors that affect business operations
If organisation main purpose is to attain profit and expand its areas then the company
need to focus on some of the factors that can enhance the growth (Prashar, 2015). Factors can
have both positive as well as negative impact on the organisation. In accordance to with there are
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many factors that affect the business operation and from which some of them are discussed
below. They have a significant influence on the company.
 Corporate social responsibility: It refers to how business enterprise manage their
business process to produce an overall impact that benefits the society. Now consumers
are focused toward the product which are both socially and environmentally responsible.
CSR affect the employees job satisfaction level and retention rates. Cadbury practice
CSR in its regular activities and that's why company is having most satisfied employees.
Social media also has a impact on CSR (Mahadevan, 2015). Companies who have done
unethical business are exposed on social media. On the other hand social media also have
details of companies practising CSR which lead to increased the sales and will have large
reach.
 Culture: The cultural environment of any business includes society beliefs and customs.
If employers has a right to take their own decision it means culture of company is good
and is not imposing. On the other if employers have to seek the help of managers and
leader again and again shows that culture is not proper to work. Cadbury focus on
providing the best culture to its workers so that everyone work as team. This too will help
the company in taking the decision efficiently.
 Values: It should be at the centre of every business. Values include respect, openness,
independence, privacy , creativity and security. Company should always value its
customers. Cadbury always motivates its employees to work in better direction. They
always support and stimulate the work of their employees. By giving proper respect and
openness at workplace will help in easy completion of task as if employees are satisfied
they will work hard to attain success for the company. Values will always influence the
leadership style. If leader has desired value, definitely will lead in an authentic way.
Where the leader has a lack of values, leadership may be inconsistent.
 Ethics: They are very important for the foundation of success. Ethics is very important
concept as it enhances the image of a company. Government has certain norms fix for the
confectionery products (McCrie, 2015). Cadbury should also work accordingly. Any
unethical measures should not be followed while working in an organisation. Each
individuals actions within the company affect both the individual as well as entire
organisation.
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 Sustainability: If business is sustainable it has lot many benefits. As Cadbury is
sustainable it means it has a great brand image which proves to have competitive
advantage over other companies. A sustainable business will always have a positive
impact on operations of business as this lead to increase the productivity and also reduce
the cost for the same (Mahadevan, 2015). Cadbury being one of the top most company is
able to attract more of its employees and investor which will help the business to expand
in the near future.
PEST analysis of Cadbury will tell about the external factors that affect the confectionery
industry:
 Political factors: Cadbury affect a lot due to the impact of Brexit, as UK ended all its
relation from Europe which put a restriction on entry of skilled employee from Europe
which effect the decision of Cadbury. Moreover imposition of tax led to the increased
price of the product of Cadbury.
 Economic factors: This factors include economic growth, exchange rate, inflation rate. If
country is facing a inflation then buying power of customers is reduced. This will affect
the sales of Cadbury and overall will impact on the operation and sales of the
organisation.
 Social factors: This factors include the shared belief of the population. For instance, now
a days people are very much concern about their health which will result in less
consumption of cadbury chocolates. These factor will decrease the overall sales of
Cadbury products.
 Technology factors: Advancement in technology can proved to be very beneficial for
Cadbury. As this factor will help in decreasing of cost of the labour. Moreover the
products are also manufactured timely with new technology and this will help in reducing
the cost production of the company.
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CONCLUSION
As discussed from the above mentioned report it has been concluded that operation
management plays a crucial role in any organisation. Both managers and leader performs
together in order to perform functions. By using the help of certain theories as discussed above
will help the leaders and managers of Cadbury to perform effectively in organisation context.
Further in this report we have also discussed about the role played by operational manager in
regards to effective decision making. Approaches like TQM, six sigma and Lean production is
also implemented by Cadbury in relation to the quality of product which is manufactured. These
approach desire to improve the performance of an organisation. CSR activities plays a important
for every organisation to follow as it has a direct link with the society. Culture, value , ethics and
sustainability also has a impact on a business operation. If company has set ethics and good
culture for its employees it has a positive impact on the overall process.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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