Effective Management and Leadership at Aldi

The report emphasizes the importance of effective management and leadership in achieving productivity and profitability at Aldi. It discusses the roles and responsibilities of leaders and managers, including planning measures to meet legal changes and adapting to governmental policies and regulations. The report also touches on operational management approaches, such as Lean Six Sigma, to improve business practices.

MANAGEMENT OF
OPERATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
P1 Roles and characteristics of a Manager and a Leader............................................................1
P2 Different forms and functions of a leader and a manger.......................................................3
P3 Theories and Models of Leadership.......................................................................................5
P4 Key approaches to operations management...........................................................................6
P5. Importance and value of the operation's management in the organisation in achieving
business objectives......................................................................................................................8
P6 Access the various factors in the business environment that affect the operational
management and the decision making by the managers and leaders..........................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
The aim of this report is to carry out difference between the function of a manager and the role of
a leader. Operations management is indulged in different activities of the business. The major is
planning of raw materials, organisation of human resources, controlling of product management
etc. Every organisation is engaged in procurement of raw materials for the production of finished
goods by the help of workers. Thus, every business have a set system of infusing inputs in the
machines with the help of skilled employees for the attainment of output for the end consumer.
Karl and Theo Albrecht founded German based discounted retail chains in the year 1913
and named it as ALDI. The business was later split into Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd . The company
today operates in more than 20 countries with approximately 8000 stores globally. The main aim
of the company is to provide quality product and services to their customers along with
discounted prices in a very efficient manner. Since the company is offering low and discounted
prices, the superiority of products is not at all compromised. The core positioning of the
company in the minds of consumers is of availability of things at a lower price.
P1 Roles and characteristics of a Manager and a Leader.
Leadership: It consists of all those activities which aim towards inspiring others in a
particular direction. A leader is a person who motivate others in the organization to achieve its
objectives thereby working together in harmony (Mujtaba, 2013). Leadership is an inherent trait
which cannot be taught and possess followers who follow his directions. It involves setting of
principles and guidelines for their followers.
Management: Unlike leadership management involves managing groups of people,
organisational activities, planning of resources, and control and coordination of processes. A
manager is a person who is responsible for managing the processing of organisational objectives
through guiding workers and employees thereby minimizing wastage and maximising profits.
Managers focus on tactical activities and often times have a more guiding and dominant
approach towards work (Mujtaba, 2013).
At ALDI mangers needs to be output-driven and self-focused with strong management
and leadership skills with the ability to handle stress situations. Managers at ALDI focuses on
pro-active leaders who have strong interpersonal skills and communication abilities to drive their
followers towards achievement of greater sales. Mangers are responsible for achieving high work
standards along with leaders to inspire their team. Managers here brings harmony and stability of
1

job for their employees while leaders seek towards changing the employees working with
environmental changes. At ALDI the management team is continuously evolving and bring in
new methods to attract footfalls as company offers year round discounts and not just on festive
seasons. Thus the store has a mere design which emphasises on zero queues and self billing
machines which offers great shopping experiences. Rewards: The managers are responsible for offering extensive training programs, high
remuneration and excellent development opportunities for their teams. It is also engaged
in providing rewards for higher performances to teams lead by leaders (Bush, 2008).
Working, learning and growing altogether brings a great deal of satisfaction for the
workers thereby bringing success for the organisation as a whole. Customer oriented: At ALDI the customers comprises of both retail, corporates and the
end consumers who buy products at discounted prices. Aldi bases its prices by keeping in
mind the rational nature of consumer who wants to maximise their satisfaction by
spending less amount on the products. For the store manager at ALDI, consumers are the
prime motive to achieve an important goal, execute a crucial project or fulfil a task such
as increase in sales and meeting benchmarks. Goal oriented: As the business is on a continuous evolvement, a close eye on the
workings of competitors is a major role performed by both leaders and mangers. At times
employees develop the vision to see things as guided by the leaders, which brings
flexibility in the working of the store (Bush, 2008). On the other hand managers at ALDI
help resources make that goal a reality by breaking it down in concrete tasks and
providing the needful planning for moving forward in the direction of the vision.
Managers at ALDI stores are multitasking, quick and flexible who determines the need of
employees and work towards in achieving success for both employees and organisation.
 Profit oriented: Retail Manager focuses on providing value to customers by offering
lowest price for their products. It is a very challenging task for the store mangers for
selling at low price and not procuring at high price, thereby making profits for the
company (Clegg, MacBryde, and Dey, 2013). The management team at ALDI is involved
in providing tactical and support operation to the entire retail chain. Some goods are sold
out too quickly while others are slow movers which involves deployment of employees to
do continuous shelf replenishment at ALDI.
2

P2 Different forms and functions of a leader and a manger.
Management and leadership roles and functions are quite related to each other though
have a lot of difference when it comes to solve the workplace problems. The basic difference
between a manager and a leader at ALDI is depicted below :
Basic of Difference Leaders Mangers
Vision They create vision. At ALdi
they are responsible for
thinking beyond individuals
and inspiring their people to
turn the vision into reality.
They know that high-
performing teams can carry
out a lot more operations
together than individuals
working independently.
Managers at ALDI focuses on
planning the day-today
activities, setting roles and
measuring the outcome with
the set standards in order to
achieve company objectives.
They control and coordinate
different activities to achieve
goals (Mujtaba, 2013).
Innovative Leaders are ALDI are
innovative beings. They
execute change and have a
vision of performing even
better. They accept changes
and understands its importance
in the managing of a company.
Leaders are termed as the
changing agents as the change
the thinking of the workers.
Mangers usually work in a
given environment with little
or no changes in the processes.
They are stick with set systems
and definite structures in the
working of the company. They
are confined to working in
stable conditions and are
termed as status quo at the
ALDI stores.
Talent Leaders possess a unique
talent which differentiates
them from others. They are
self-aware and responds
actively at the company stores.
Managers do not have inherent
competencies. They tend to
copy others behavioral styles
and rather than defining their
own. At Aldi they are focused
3

They’re authentic and
transparent
towards guiding their team
based on set rules .
Risk Leaders at ALDI are known as
high-risk takers as they are
continuously evolving
themselves by trying new
things and processes for
upgrading management of
stores (Bush, 2008). They
believe that failure is often a
measure which leads to the
path of success.
Managers are employed at
ALDI to work towards
minimizing risk and
maximizing profit. They work
towards minimizing risk
thereby controlling
environmental factors through
various measures.
Skills Leaders possess personal skills
and strong communication
base at ALDI. They evolve
themselves on a regular basis
with the global changes at
work. They work with people
and environment which
increases their knowledge and
thinking power.
Managers rely on proven
skills. They often uses
characteristics of others while
performing tasks at ALDI.
They manages their people by
setting goals and achieving
them on the basis of set rules
and norms.
Traits The very basic nature of
leaders is that they focuses on
building relationships with
others. At ALDI, they involve
in improving contacts with
suppliers, customers and other
stakeholders on a continuous
basis. They build trust and
loyalty by consistently relying
Managers have a defined
process to achieve goals. They
invest most of their time in
building systems and processes
at the company to assure
timely achievement of
objectives. Their main focus is
on the logical statistics of
working and ensures systems
4

on their promise (Mujtaba,
2013).
are in place to attain desired
outcomes
Authority Leaders have the authority to
motivate their followers who
later become his promoter. The
people who works for the
leader are usually competent
and optimistic towards work at
the company.
Managers have the authority to
give orders and knows his
people will obey. He rarely
delegates work with the
intention to lead a team who
obeys him (Bush, 2008). At
the company store, managers
assign tasks to people and
guide them towards the
direction to accomplish goals.
P3 Theories and Models of Leadership.
ALDI has a ongoing strategic management process which evaluates and analyses its
external and internal environment based on the leadership qualities adopted by the store
managers. For an organization to be successful in the future manager needs to define its
corporate strategies in accordance with the competitive market (Hubner, Holzapfel, and Kuhn,
2015).
Situational Leadership: Situational Leadership also known as the life cycle theory of leadership
is based on the relationship between leaders and followers. The store leaders try to adjust their
style to influence their followers and fits in the development skills and capabilities of their
employees for the attainment of company goals. The theory provides leaders with an
understanding of the relationship between an effective style of leadership and the level of
readiness followers exhibit for a specific (Clegg, MacBryde, and Dey, 2013)task. At ALDI, the
leaders perform basic functions which emphasizes on flexibility and simplicity of execution of
work and implies :
 Diagnose the situation and try to influence workers in that direction.
 Adopt the store situations and behave in a manner to achieve desired results.
 Communicate at each point so that better understanding could be achieved.
5

 The leader possesses strengths and developmental skills which encourages him to achieve
higher performance
 They have the right skill to be used at the right time across the store depending upon the
flexibility.
 Manage and distribute the work among workers that results are achieved in harmony.
This theory is useful to meet growing demand of the marketplace by increasingly evolving the
global workforce. It develops the store leader to face any challenge coming in its way and at the
same time inspire his own team to perform better.
Systems Leadership: The collaborative network of people in different places and at different
levels in the system is another style of leadership. Logic-based approach to problem solving
don’t always work with highly complex systems. The aim behind systematic leadership is to
enable appropriate leadership to work on so that organizational goals are met. At ALDi , leaders
are evolving to adopt the adaptive leadership style as there is no fix way of carrying out set
objectives.
Contingency Leadership: It is based on the fact that every leader performs under specific
conditions which enable them to maximize their output. A contingent leader is one who
effectively utilizes his own style of leadership to get the desired results in the right situation.
Contingency leadership theory is basically an extension of the trait theory of leadership, where
human traits are combined with the work environment. Contingency model of leadership is based
on kinship among the leader and employees, the structure of the task and authority and power of
the leadership (Clegg, MacBryde, and Dey, 2013). This theory concentrates on the modifications
that takes place in the external environment and how the leaders and the manager’s response to
these changes so that the organization achieves its desired objectives and goals.
At the company stores, leaders follow this style as it is likely that all the other workers
following him will accept his way of working. It is a basic and common theory which takes into
account unique circumstance and space and time etc. Leaders generally prefer to stick to this
theory at ALDI as situations changes and it is easy to take different decisions pertaining to
different situations.
P4 Key approaches to operations management. Six Sigma: The six sigma methodology focuses on team efforts and accomplishment of
tasks by minimizing waste of resources of the organization. The role of the manager at
6

Aldi is to plan and implement six sigma strategies by eliminating wastes and making the
most effective use of the available resources (Bush, 2008). Lean Manufacturing: It is systematic method used for reducing wastage of resources in
the manufacturing of goods and services. It takes into account the waste generated from
production activities and reduces them in order to increase value and reduce costs (Zu,
Fredendall, and Douglas, 2008). However, at ALDI is all about using less labour,
resources, space and time and thus passing the saving to its customers by giving bulk
discounts. It focuses on continuous improvement and time based management approach
where employees work towards minimising wastage. Total quality management :It is a method where both management and employees are
engaged in the improvisation of production processes by keeping a close check on quality
while reducing the waste. Aldi's main aim is to provide quality to its customers by
reducing the price of the products. It involves participation of all the employees of a
particular business concern in enhancing the business work environment, product quality,
and the crucial business processes. TQM is a cognitive process of bringing efficiency
through producing quality products and services keeping in mind the market demands
and customer preferences (Hubner, Holzapfel, and Kuhn, 2015).
 Just–in–time Inventory: It implies less management of stock of raw materials or finished
goods. ALDI uses just in time method of managing store by only keeping the immediate
stock which is necessary. Aldi do not believe in holding up cash in stock which will be
held for a long time period before it is sold to generate income. Aldi does not invests in
big warehouses to hold stock or give extra salary to workers
to check on warehouse stock. The store manager at Aldi focuses on lowering the cost of holding
and managing the stock as and when the inventory arises (Snee, 2010).
 Operational functions: Different functions are performed by store managers at Aldi to
meet its operational objectives. The managers are responsible for carrying out different
and vital functions which are as follows:
 Control and Distribution Systems.
 Transformation of raw material into finished goods/services.
 Process design.
 Capacity management.
7

 Logistics and inventory management.
 Scheduling.
P5. Importance and value of the operation's management in the organisation in achieving
business objectives.
The effective business operations have a significant and crucial part in the development
of the different functions of organization. Other than this, it supports effective management of
different operations which will help in the better assessment of the different operations in the
company. The good handling of the various activities will help in the effective handling of the
various business operations in the company. The better management of the various business
operations will help in the better management of the different operations at Aldi. This will help
in the effective rise in the productivity and profitability. Other than this, the better management
of the various organizational operations helps in the development of the high quality products
and services that will help in better achieving of the high customer's satisfaction level and better
sustainability in the market. The leaders and managers will also effectively look after the better
handling of the various innovative approaches to fulfill needs and demands of customers.
Besides this, the rise in the quality of the product and services will lead to better revenue
generation for the stake holders of the cited firm (Hubner, Holzapfel, and Kuhn, 2015).
Different approaches or the measures of the operational management will play a very
significant role in the better handling of various operations that helps in the sustainable rise in the
customer satisfaction level. This helps in the better handling of the various operation's that will
help in better rise of the brand image and trust level of the user or the customers. This will also
help in the better management of the various functions which will lead to in different actions that
will support the better fulfillment of customer's needs and demands. Some major impact of the
various operational management approaches are as follows: Total Quality: The Total quality management approach or TQM will help in the better
handling of the various operations that will lead to the effective rise in the various
operations and management of the quality of the product or services that are been
produced by the Aldi. The cited business firm will look after the better management of
the different operations and functions that are been taken into the effective consideration
by the business firm, that will help in the effective handling of the various operations in
8

production or manufacturing department of the company to produce high quality of
products and services. JIT: The Just in time approach is important for the good control over the various
operation's that will support the better management of functions that will help firm to
fulfill various operations on significant and allotted time. This will help in the better
management of different actions that helps in the effective handling of the various
operation's (Snee, 2010). This will lead to the delivery of the product or services of the
Aldi to the customers on time, leading to the rise in the satisfaction and trust level of the
customer's over the brand or the business organization. Waste management: The operational management approach of lean management will
help in the effective handling of the different operations that will help in effective
management of various resources, without any wastage, giving an operational advantage
to the company. This support better allocation of available resources which helps in
significant rise in overall functional capacity of Aldi. This will help in keeping a check
on the operational efficiency of the company and will reduce the wastage caused during
the production and manufacturing of the various goods and services. This will lead to the
increase in the effective revenue generation. Besides this, the effective rise in the
operational efficiency will lead to effective rise in revenue generation of organization.
 Capacity management: The approach of capacity management will support better
handling of various operations which will help in effective handling of the different
operations that will lead to rise in the different functions leading to an effective
management of the various operations (Lunenburg, 2011). It maintains the production or
manufacturing capacity of the company in a better way that will lead to better execution
of functions. It will help in the effective handling of the different operations and along
with lean management approach, reduces the wastage of the product or the resources
owned by the Aldi.
P6 Access the various factors in the business environment that affect the operational
management and the decision making by the managers and leaders.
While carrying out the effective operational management, various factors are required to
be taken into the effective consideration that will help in the better handling of the various
operations in a business organisation. This helps in the effective rise in the productivity and
9

profitability of the company. This factors will help in better identification of various operations
that will lead to the significant rise in the company's productivity and profitability. This factors
will help in enhancement of productivity and profitability of business. This factors can be
internal or external, depending on the type and functionality of the organization (Kotter, 2013).
Apart from this, the better handling of various operations help in the significant execution of the
decision making process that will help in effective rise in the various operations of leaders and
managers in cited company. The important factors that affect the handling of operrations and the
decision making by leaders and mangers are been taken into effective consideration are as
follows: Organizational culture: The organizational culture will play a very crucial and
significant part in overall functions of the company. The work culture of the company
will look after and decide whether the operation's that are been undertaken into the firm,
will be successful or not. The effective management of the various operations will lead to
the significant rise in the various operations in business organization that help in the
better handling of the different handling of the various operations. The positive culture of
the workplace will help in the effective rise of the productivity while the negative work
culture will decrease in the operational capacity (Kotter, 2013). The managers and the
leaders at Aldi will look after the better handling of the organizational culture. Technology: The technical factors will also lay an important or significant impact on the
various operations of business enterprise. The effective implementation of the proper
technological operations will help in the better management of the operations that will
help in the effective rise in the operations that helps in the innovative measures in the
company to increase its productivity and efficiency. The technological issues that occurs
at the organisations can badly impact the operations and can negatively impact the
productivity of the company (Pyzdek, and Keller, 2014). Besides this, the managers and
leaders will use the various technical tools in the organisation to carry out the effective
decision making process. Market conditions: The market conditions are required to be effectively managed for the
better growth of the various operations at Aldi. The positive market growth will help in
the better handling of the different operations that will increase the efficiency of the
company. This will help in the better adoption of the various operational management
10

approaches that will help in the better handling of the different functions in the company.
The supportive market conditions will help in the rise of the profitability and the revenue
generation of the company. Besides this, it will help the leaders and managers to decide
effective marketing plan that will support better management of various operation's in the
company to get better productivity and profitability for the organization.
 Governmental issues and legislation's: The governmental policies and various rules and
regulations that are been decided to carry out the trade will lay a very crucial impact on
the different functions of the company. The Aldi has to plan significant measures to meet
the legal changes that are been implementation on the business firm to carry out the trade
practices effectively (Pyzdek, and Keller, 2014). The leaders and managers will look after
effective handling of the different operations to cope up with the legislation and the
policies affecting the profitability of the company.
CONCLUSION
Thus, from the report it can be concluded that the better management of the various
operations in the business firm like Aldi will help in the significant rise in the productivity and
profitability. The report focuses on the roles and functions followed by the leaders and managers
of the firm. Besides this, it considers various leadership and management theories and the
importance of the various operational management approaches in the company, that will play an
important role in the achievement of the goals of the company. Apart from this, various factors
affecting the decision making at Aldi is been taken into consideration.
11

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bush, T., 2008. From management to leadership: semantic or meaningful change?. Educational
management administration & leadership. 36(2). pp.271-288.
Clegg, B., MacBryde, J. and Dey, P. 2013. Trends in modern operations management.
International Journal of Operations & Production Management. 33 (2). pp. 1-12.
Hubner, A., Holzapfel, A. and Kuhn, H. 2015. Operations management in multi-channel
retailing: an exploratory study. Operations Management Research. 8 (3). pp. 84-100.
Kotter, J. P., 2013. Management is (still) not leadership. Harvard Business Review 9.
Lunenburg, F. C., 2011. Leadership versus management: A key distinction—at least in theory.
International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration. 14(1). pp.1-4.
Mujtaba, B.G., 2013. Managerial skills and practices for global leadership. ILEAD Academy.
Pyzdek, T. and Keller, P. A., 2014. The six sigma handbook. 4th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill
Education.
Snee, R. D., 2010. Lean Six Sigma–getting better all the time. International Journal of Lean Six
Sigma. 1(1). pp.9-29.
Zu, X., Fredendall, L. D. and Douglas, T. J., 2008. The evolving theory of quality management:
the role of Six Sigma. Journal of operations Management. 26(5). pp.630-650.
Online
Management and Operations. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.unicourse.org/docs/Unit%20Specs/Business/U4%20Management%20and
%20Operations.html>
12